Trouble

By: Monique Smith

Peachy peach. All goodie over here. That is exactly what I expected and continually expect about my walk with Christ. I fully expect that IF I walk in the Word and stay faithful that I will NOT experience any trials or tribulations. Even though the WORD clearly….I mean CLEARLY, tells me that I WILL. James 1:2- Consider it all joy,” James said, “when you encounter various trials…” Notice James said when and not if. Regardless of the absoluteness of this scripture, it STILL catches me off guard when an issue comes up in my life! I immediately begin asking God, “What did I do wrong?” “Did I not read the Bible enough?” “Are you mad at me for not praying every day?” “HELP!” Just like a devotional I read today stated, “When we encounter difficulties, it is easy to jump to conclusions. We may think God is mad at us or He is punishing us. We wonder if God is not blessing us because we’ve disappointed Him in some way. But all through the Bible we see that some of God’s closest friends experienced the darkest nights.” Think about it, JESUS suffered!!!!!! He did NO wrong!!! Nothing!!! The Bible also tells us in John 16:33- “….In this world you will have trouble, But take heart! I have overcome the world!” Don’t get me wrong, just because the Bible tells us that we will have trials, doesn’t mean we have to like the trial. Jesus didn’t even like it! “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will,” (Matthew 26:39). BUT we can take joy and heart in the fact that God is right there with us, feeling pain as well. I recently learned that just as easily as God can love, He can hurt. We can hurt God’s feelings and he feels pain, just like us. Thankfully, His Holy Spirit is right there to comfort us all! We just have to trust that God’s will is perfect. Simple as that.

So don’t worry, be happy. God is with you and will never leave or forsake you! He’s loving and He’s your best friend!

Prayer: God, thank you for the reality check your Word constantly brings me! You are so perfect and so great and I thank you for holding my hand every step of the way through my life. God, help me understand and remember that your will is perfect and will always lead me to an expected and great end. I love love love love love you! You are amazing! You are great! You are perfect! I trust you! You love me! Thank you so much for everything. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

THAT ULTIMATE KINGDOM SERIOUS FOCUS!

     Another glorious testament to the great life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; but this is one of characteristics that people hardly point out and honestly it’s tough to swallow. In this devotional I will point out how Jesus was so focused on the Kingdom of God and His purpose from God that He didn’t let anyone or anything stop Him!

The first scripture Luke 9:60

“Jesus said unto him, ‘Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God’”

     A little context/background. At this point of His life, Jesus was teaching the disciples and then a man said he wanted to join in to the movement. At any point of Christianity a new follower is always good. Jesus wanted to educate the people on what they’d really be signing up for, Jesus had no set comfortable area to lay His head and there was a lot of hard times ahead of Him, but then another man still persisted that he’d follow…until he almost blew it all in his next phrase(lol). The man told Jesus that he wanted to go bury his father first. Seemingly a reasonable request, he wanted to properly send off the man who had nurtured him through life and had a part in making him into the man he was at that moment. Yet Jesus told him basically to forget all that because it was over and instead pursue spreading the kingdom.

     Now my intention is not quite to get into the revelation of what exactly Jesus meant to let the dead bury the dead because surely there is a lot there to be dealt with and understood; but instead I want to draw our attention to that fact that Jesus would not let an emotionally driven situation stop Him (or the people that intend to be around Him) from proclaiming the gospel. Yet another example, Matthew 16:23

“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men”

     Background/context. A few versus before Peter declared Jesus to be the son of God the very messiah and Jesus says He will build His church upon this revelation and said that Peter was hearing straight from God what other people weren’t hearing. Peter had to be feeling good…emotional actually…so shortly thereafter when Jesus begins to talk about the death and resurrection that He MUST endure. Peter told Him essentially “Nah bro I love you too much you can’t go through something like that” and thus we arrive at the verse we I pointed out. It seems harsh for Jesus to call Peter satan, ESPECIALLY since He gave Him so much praise a few verses earlier. However if Jesus fed into the emotional appeal that Peter offered Him, it would be a tougher assignment for Him to complete.

     In conclusion, I assert unto you to be focused on God! There will be all kind of distractions and reasons not to do what God has called you to do RIGHT NOW! Be careful of the emotional appeals that people offer you, whether it be that you’re assignment is hard, or they offer you a sad story these are also distractions. Don’t get me wrong, sad things happen, and the people around you that love you will tell you what they think is best for you and will keep you safe and doing well. But you must trust God above all others. You must focus on His will more than ANYTHING ELSE…over everything!

Over and Out J