Christian Walk

Have you ever noticed that the easiest place to remain self-centered is at home? There's an incentive to be lovely with others, but with your family you are tempted to allow yourself more selfish privileges, as if it didn't count there.

Before I was a Christian, I was more courteous and nicer to friends than to my own family. I was more demanding and less forgiving with those dearest to me than with anyone else.

But after I made Jesus Lord of my life, I realized all that had to change.

Love. It is the first and foremost command Jesus gave us, yet all too many believers neglect to follow it.

I'm talking about believers who can quote tremendous amounts of scripture and who may speak the Name of Jesus 35 or 40 times a day, yet they're rough and insensitive to the needs of their friends and family. They're so busy "serving God," they don't have time to serve people. Strife is their hallmark.

Do you know what Jesus was really talking about when He said those words? He was talking about the mourning of the intercessor. He was teaching about the comfort that comes to the intercessor when he is assured by the Holy Spirit that he has prayed through.

To pray through means "to break through the barriers that have stopped the work of God in the lives of others." It means using your spiritual armor to push back the forces of darkness that surround them.

Have you ever been in a room full of babies? Infants crying. Crawlers hollering for certain toys. Toddlers pushing and whining to get their way. It can be quite a handful, can't it?

The truth of this verse hasn't really dawned on most people. They mistakenly think that Jesus was able to work wonders, to perform miracles and to live above sin because He had divine powers that we don't have. Thus, they have never really aspired to live like He lived.

"Oh my," they say with great humility, "I could never live like Jesus did. After all, He had an advantage. He was God!"

If, in spite of all the Bible's promises about prosperity...in spite of all the prayers you've prayed...you are still struggling financially, consider this question: Where do you think God is going to get the resources to meet your needs?

We have what we say. As believers, we know that's a vital biblical truth. We can see it in Mark 11:23, Matthew 21:21, James 3:2 and many other verses. Yet we often let it slip.

We allow ourselves to begin talking like the world instead of talking the Word. And eventually we get what we've been asking for—a big mess.

So often we miss out on what God wants to do for us because He doesn't do it the way we think He should. We work up an idea in our minds about how He's going to heal us, for instance. We think He's going to send some famous preacher to lay hands on us or that He's going to knock us off our feet with a blast of His power. When He doesn't, we let our faith drop and foul up what He had actually planned to do.

That's what Naaman did. He went to Elisha expecting to be healed in a particular way. When it didn't happen that way, the Bible says, he went away in a rage.

God is called by many names. He is the Lord our Healer, our Provider, our Banner and our Righteousness. He also promises to be our Deliverer. In this troubled world that may very well be what we need Him to be most often.

If there's any way the devil can get your eyes away from the Word, he'll do it. He'll cause trouble. He'll make the circumstances around you pitch and roll like a rowboat in a hurricane. He'll do anything he can to get you to concentrate on the realm of the physical senses and the situation around you instead of on the promise of God—because he knows that if he doesn't, you'll take that promise and beat his brains out with it.

Are you destined for greatness in the kingdom of God?

Ask most believers that question and they'll humbly assure you they're not. "You know we can't all be golden vessels" they'll say. "Like the Bible says, some of us are just called to be little clay pots."

Praise God, the Bible doesn't say any such thing!

In the years I've spent living by faith, there's something I've learned to do that helps me receive from God in the toughest of situations. It's something I call stepping over the faith line.

A faith line is what you need when you want God to do the "impossible" in your life. It's what you need when you want to be firm in your faith and yet you keep wavering back and forth between your circumstances and God's promises—believing first one, then the other.

Don't ever be so afraid of making a mistake you miss out on the joy of acting on the voice of the Lord. Instead, trust the leadership of the Holy Spirit and let Him show you how. He'll begin by speaking to you about the little things in your life, and as you grow accustomed to hearing and obeying, He'll speak to you about weightier things.