God Speaks I Listen

Mathew 13:58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

In this scripture above Jesus was in His own hometown preaching and doing miracles. His own townsmen and family really didn’t believe in what He was doing and saying. Jesus could have told them off…..But he was really cool about it. I think He might have thought this….”well I’m not going to perform any miracles here except for a few people who I know really wanted to be healed and  believed that I could heal them…..I’m not pleased with the other folks lack of faith…it doesn’t pleases me or my Father…..too bad I wanted to do so much for them…..but I cannot deal with their LACK OF FAITH!” Yes this is my interpretation….but knowing Jesus the way I do….I know He doesn’t like it when we don’t believe in Him and His Father’s ability to take care of us and we will be hard pressed to get any of our prayers answered that way.
I have so many personal stories of faith and my two best examples involve my two sons. I will tell my son Joshua’s story today.

I had 3 daughters who were 4, 7 and 10. I never wanted any boys and was very happy with my 3 daughters until….I became a committed Christian. I don’t know what happened to me….I think this happened to me because I was reading about the people in the bible…. it seemed important to have sons….so I tried to get pregnant again but after 3 ½ years nothing was happening. So I started praying and praying. I got to the point of literally begging God everyday in prayer. I told Him that He had a Son and I wanted one too. The doctor told me I needed a hysterectomy so He scheduled it…but before I could go ahead with it…. one of my daughters needed to get her tonsils out. About two months later I wasn’t feeling well so I went back to this doctor to reschedule the hysterectomy and after the exam the doctor informed me I was pregnant. I asked him what happened and He said….you tell me! I knew it was a miracle and that it was my son that I asked God for.

God told me to name Him Joshua and for the next 7 months I told everybody I was having a boy named Joshua. My mom and mother in law thought I had lost my mind. I was admitted in the Hospital for the last weeks of the pregnancy and all the doctors, nurses, lab techs…everybody knew about Joshua. They even sent a social worker to talk to me because I was so adamant about having a boy. When I was in the delivery room and he was born… the staff was all yelling “Joshua is here” and they were cheering…even though he was only 3 lbs.  You see… there were no sonograms back then! I had faith!!!….I believed what God spoke to me!!….I had faith that God could and would do it!! I never doubted… not for one minute!!

This is the kind of faith that God wants us to have every day. Do I?……No….I’m just being honest here…there are times that my faith gets low…tiny…weak….but that’s my fault.

My faith gets weak when:

1. I stress about a situation.
2. I think the problem is really big and seems impossible…this is called…DOUBT.
3. I’m sick or very tired and drained.
4. I haven’t been in the word enough I haven’t been keeping my eyes on the Lord.
5. I think I have figured out the answer myself…this is lack of TRUST.
6. I pray out of God’s will.
7. I take my eyes off the Lord and focus on the situation.
8. I let people convince me what to do.
9. I pray and pray….God answers me but I keep praying thinking it’s not exactly what I asked for.
10. I may have unforgiveness in my heart.
11. I may have an unconfessed sin.
12. I’m too busy doing a million things and preoccupied with life’s daily challenges.
13. Neglect my prayer life

Faith knowing your father will be there to catch you!

In our Christian walk with God we need faith like we need air to breathe. God is not moved to answer our prayers because we hope He can do it…but if we know and trust He can do it.
When my kids were little…they didn’t run up to me and say they hoped I could buy the ice cream off that truck….they were ALWAYS CONFIDENT that I could and would buy them that ice cream. They Knew I had money…they knew I could do it if I wanted to and their confidence in me got them that ice cream most of the time.
Are you confident today in God’s ability to answer you when you call to Him? If not… I have the perfect answer for you today….you can take this answer to the bank and cash it:

Romans 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Faith grows as you read and know Gods word

When you know what God says through His word…when you hear Gods word, when His word gets into your mind, heart and spirit…it is ALIVE in you because of the power of the Holy Spirit…this builds faith in you!

The bible is not a book with black and white pages of writings that you read and that’s it….It is alive….living…active…life changing….faith increasing!! There is one catch….if you don’t know what it says….your faith will be lower and life will be more challenging for you.

When Jesus was tempted by the devil…He used scripture to deal with him. Why did God put this true story in the bible…yup…you guessed it…so we can follow what Jesus did when faced with the devils taunts.

Message for today: Know scripture… know help…No scripture…satan’s gonna kick your butt! ( Hate to put it that way….but….somebody needs to hear this today.
Please…get a good bible and a highlighter….mark that bible up with scriptures that have helped you out of situations, share these with others….become a scripture master and see how your faith will soar. The devil will be scared of you!!!