The things we pursue in this life seem so important and take so much of our time, but most things we fight hardest to get are simply not worth comparing to what we already have in Christ. When you have lost hope and things seem out of control the one thing that will keep you steady is
Jesus didn’t come to save the righteous but to lead sinners to repentance. Don’t ever try to straighten your life out first before coming to Jesus…. Come to Jesus and he will straighten your life out. It will take time and you will never be sinless because as long as we still have the flesh we will at times yield to it. Don’t be discouraged or overcome with guilt but take your sins to your father and ask him for help. God loves it when his children cry out for his aid and admit they can’t do it on their own. He never gets tired of hearing “I need you please help me”.
What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!.”
I don’t know exactly know what you are going through, nor the variety of pain you have had to overcome, but I do know that all of us have asked the question “why has God allowed me to endure this”. In my own life, I have had very challenging past seven years, dealing with a rare form of
Becoming powerful is not inherently wrong, all of us should seek to use our influence to make this world a better place, but we must realize that seeking power for its own end is as frivolous as chasing after the wind, because we can never obtain enough power to bring us peace, nor receive enough praise to find joy. The message of Easter is that
Sometimes in times of darkness we begin to believe that there truly is no light on the horizon and we feel like God has abandoned us. Yet it is in those times that we need to trust in God the most because he is the only hope we have. I once heard a pastor say that “you never will understand that God is all you need until God is all you have”.
One of the hardest lessons I have learned in life is that sometimes when you get the thing you want it doesn’t fulfill you in the way you hoped it would. I am a very ambitious person, and I work hard to achieve the goals I set for myself, but sometimes I have gotten so lost in the achieving of goals that I didn’t stop myself to ask whether the goal I was seeking was worth the cost I was paying to achieve it.
Recently, Madie Tidwell and I interviewed Pastor Harry Reeder on the radio show I co-host which is heard throughout the state of Alabama. We talked about God's faithfulness even in the trials we face. Pastor Reeder opened up on the loss of his sister along and the challenges he faced during his recent health crisis. If you are discouraged about the direction of the country or your own personal crisis, I know this message will inspire you and give you hope. Remember that pain is temporal but glory is forever so whatever you are struggling with know that God will give you rest. Enjoy the message
Jesus didn’t come to save the righteous but to lead sinners to repentance. Don’t ever try to straighten your life out first before coming to Jesus…. Come to Jesus and he will straighten your life out. It will take time and you will never be sinless because as long as we still have the flesh we will at times yield to it. Don’t be discouraged or overcome with guilt but take your sins to your father and ask him for help. God loves it when his children cry out for his aid and admit they can’t do it on their own. He never gets tired of hearing “I need you please help me”.
I wrote this daily spiritual task to try to encourage myself and others to really be intentional about pursuing and enjoying God. One of the things that stuck with me at church was how pursuing a relationship with God should bring us joy and peace but it never comes easy. Like any relationship you have to invest in it and be willing to push through when things are difficult. Anyway, I hope it encourages you and blesses you!
In the heart of all of us is the desire to find a purpose in the things we do. Yet, we waste so much time on the things we deem to be insignificant. I think somewhere in our heart, there is a constant feeling that that life would be so much better if we only had achieved more of the things we had dreamed about when we were younger. The constant search for significance is something that all of us struggle with on some level, and even when we achieve the thing we worked so hard to obtain, we are met by the feeling that we need something else to satisfy our hearts. If you look at the lives of many of the rich and powerful, you will see that often they are deeply unsatisfied and find little joy in the things that they have obtained. As Christians, we understand that joy and peace can only be found in the Lord, and as much as we understand this in our minds, it is so hard to live in reliance on the Lord rather than ourselves. In church they teach us that it is the purpose of man to glorify God and enjoy him forever, yet we still tend to look for satisfaction in the things apart from God and we wonder why it is so hard to find contentment. The song “Wake me up” by Avicii illustrates this point:
Feeling my way through the darkness, guided by a beating heart. I can't tell where the journey will end, but I know where to start. They tell me I'm too young to understand,
They say I'm caught up in a dream. Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes,
Well that's fine by me. So wake me up when it's all over, when I'm wiser and I'm older.
All this time I was finding myself, and I didn't know I was lost.
The song talks about how life will pass us by if we don’t open up our eyes and that is ok with us. I think the way we find our peace in the Lord is realizing that he is enough to satisfy us, and that there is no rest until we find it in him. Of all the truths in the scripture, the one I desire the most to live by is to understand that God is enough. The gospel is more than the way in which we may find our salvation; it is also the way we may find our rest. I am a restless person by nature, and yet I find no matter how much I accomplish it is never enough to satisfy. As an attorney, my clients put their trust in me and although I find this to be a great honor, I also see that sometimes I measure my value by how successful I am in my profession. I try and find my rest my ability, and no matter how well I perform… there is no rest in it. I don’t know what it is you do that you seek satisfaction in, but I do know that if you know the Lord there can be no peace in. I would encourage all of you to remember that this life is short, and that God gives us the resource of time so we can fulfill the purposes he has set for us. So if you seek to find contentment…remember that in Christ you will have peace, but in this world you will have trials. I write these devotionals not only to encourage you, but to remind myself of these truths and so that I would not waste my life on things that don’t matter, nor give my time to the things that are frivolous. Of all of the regrets I have the one that is the hardest to bear… is realizing how much time I have wasted on things that do not matter. I challenge you to not waste the life God has given you, and to seek your satisfaction in the Lord. We all do the things we think will make us happy, yet so many of us lack contentment and joy, and the reason is those things really aren’t what fulfills. Only in the power of the gospel can we find rest. All we have is today, so even if you feel so far from the lord…. remember he never will leave nor forsake. God doesn’t love us based on who we are but on who he is, and he that started a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. He is not finished with any of us yet, and he will find a way to bring you back to the path he has set for you. I encourage you to let him rule and reign in you, so that you will find your rest. May God bless you and may you find your deepest rest in him.
About the Author: I am a Birmingham attorney who has been in private practice for over six years. I have a general practice, so I get the opportunity to help serve people who find themselves in some very difficult circumstances. My e-mail is reidfirm@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope it encourages you. I always love getting thoughtful comments so please email those to me. My website is www.reidlawalabama.com.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
The most difficult yet comforting thing to accept is that God is in control. Though our lives can seem disorganized and off path, we know that our detours are God’s straight lines. The life of Joseph is a perfect example of how a seemingly random string of unfortunate events brought Joseph to exactly the place God wanted him to be. He was sold into slavery by his brothers at a young age, and though this was difficult, God gave him favor in the eyes of his captor and he rose to prominence. In this position he was falsely accused of rape by an evil woman…. Though he did no wrong he was put in prison… again this was a horrible situation to be in, but God provided him favor in the eyes of the guards and he was given responsibility in handling all the affairs of the prison. Till one day, two men came into the prison and he correctly interpreted their dreams and asked them to remember him before the king so he could be released…. It was two years later before it was brought to the king’s attention, but soon after that Joseph was promoted to become the second most powerful man on the earth and was able to prevent a great famine from destroying Egypt and also save his family from starvation. Yet, I have no doubt that in those moments of darkness in jail Joseph must have wondered what the purpose was in all of this. He was a righteous man who was faithful and yet he kept getting the raw end of every deal for most of his adolescence. His plan for his own life probably was to live a quiet life as a shepherd and worship God with his family… God’s plan was different and though the path to glory was through pain I know that Joseph doesn’t regret any of it now.
Faith is tested in the prison of trial and character is what comes out of it if we surrender to God. Many of us give into bitterness and anger, but the ones who yield to spirit are made new and able to be used to do great things through the Lord. Most of us won’t ever rise to a position where we will be remembered in any history book… But there is a greatness to be attained through daily consistency that comes by depending on the spirit of God. Ultimately we must know that God doesn’t need us though he does love us… and his love is greater and more meaningful because of the fact that he has no need for us. He loves us not for who we are but because of whom he is and if we understand that we can break free of the need to be “significant”. Joseph lived a faithful life and he humbled himself and was exalted… It doesn’t matter what position you are in, whether you are a business leader, a student or a mom trying to keep her sanity raising kids… God has you were you are for a reason and that reason is to depend on him and yield your heart to his. Once you realize the God we serve is significant and he loves us you don’t have to try to be great. Now you still have to faithful with the time God gives you and make the most out of the opportunities he puts in front of you… But I have found that God has given me plenty of opportunities and maybe instead being angry because I don’t have more I need to be faithful with what he has given me.
Having a thankful heart, even in pain, is a great blessing and though circumstances often don’t change quickly… a surrendered heart to God can give you great perspective which will make the pain less relevant. Trial, difficulty, sorrow and pain will always be with us in this life, but if we are Christians we will also have joy, peace, patience and hope… I have found that the last four of these traits mean very little unless you have experienced the first four. So in our trials we can trust God will bring us a greater joy than we could imagine had we not suffered. I don’t know what many of you are going through and I don’t imagine that this simple explanation of God’s providence is going to radically change your life. It isn’t a good lesson or a sermon that makes a difference… it is only a surrendered heart. I cannot teach you how to do this as it is something I don’t fully understand this. all I can say is keep praying for it and in time he will answer. And who knows, maybe the very point of your trials is so God can accomplish the saving of many lives both here and in eternity… So please don’t lose heart or give up… just yield and surrender yourself to God
About the Author: I am a Birmingham attorney who has been in private practice for over six years. I have a general practice, so I get the opportunity to help serve people who find themselves in some very difficult circumstances. My e-mail is reidfirm@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope it encourages you. I always love getting thoughtful comments, so please email those to me. My website is www.reidlawalabama.com. If you know anyone who is going through a difficult situation whether it be legal or personal and they are in Birmingham area you can e-mail me at chris.reid@reidlawalabama.com. Our firm works with some excellent faith based counselors, many of whom are free or low cost. A lot of the times the legal issues people face are due to deeper underlying issues like substance abuse and other things. I have found the most effective form of treatment is getting a personally qualified counselor who helps get to the root of the issues someone is dealing with, and we will help people get connected for free (we never take a payment for referral fee for this). Again my website is www.reidlawalabama.com, which contains my contact information. God Bless.
No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of the legal services performed by other lawyers.
