‘Following’ has a different definition today because of social media. But it still refers to our choice of people that we are letting have an influence on our lives.
These are the people we are giving permission to enter our minds and thoughts because we’re reading and listening to what they are sharing. We are ‘following’ their lives.
Who are these people in my life? Are they leading me to places I should go?
Are they helping me grow my integrity? Are they helping me become more wise? More caring?
The Israelites were not careful about who they followed. “They rejected his (God’s) decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statues he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. ” 2 Kings 17: 15 – 16.
Wow – worthless.
They picked the wrong things to follow. They imitated the wrong things and ended up on a very bad path.
That is not a path I want to be on.
Please give me wisdom in deciding who to follow, Abba Father
When we read about these things in the Old Testament, we can easily think “What does any of this have to do with me? How can God speak to me through these parts of the Bible?”
The fact is that God speaks to us through all parts of the Bible. The Holy Spirit can make it all relevant to our lives today ….. if we open our minds and listen.
I am reading 2 Chronicles about all the religious reforms King Hezekiah made when he became king. He purified the temple. He consecrated the articles of the temple and he led the people in all types of sacrifices and offerings. When they were done, he told them, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the LORD.” 2 Chronicles 29:31.
As I read, God talks to me about consecrating my life since Jesus’ death and resurrection has made me a temple of God’s Spirit. This means cleansing my life – taking anything out that is not helping me grow my relationship with God. This is one of my favorite phrases – ‘what we feed, grows.” This might mean changing channels on the TV or changing sites that we check out on our computers. It could mean stopping magazine subscriptions or avoiding the types of the books we used to read. Maybe we need to change the kind of music we listen to? There might be people in our lives that we should give less time and less influence.
Consecrating and dedicating my life to God also means to stop focusing on my own desires and and keep my eyes open to what God is doing and what he wants me to do.
I want to live my life your way from now on, Abba Father.
We are all on the path to ‘somewhere’. I decide what I am becoming and where I’m going by my choices each day. I am going one way or another – I’m not standing still. If I’m not doing anything new – not growing – then I am moving backward as the world moves forward around me.
When I put my life in my Father God’s hands, he is able to mold me into the person he created me to be.
When you put your life in our Father’s hands, he is able to mold you, too, into the person he created you to be.
Isaiah is very clear about this, ” Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are the work of your hand.” 64: 8.
When I let God change me and transform me, my life becomes a beautiful work of his hands.
I have watched God work in my life for many years – gradually changing my thinking and perspective so it more closely lines up with his. I have been reading the entire Bible each year for the last 13 years and I continue to reap the rewards of committing this time and effort to my relationship with God. The better I know his Word, the easier it is to hear God and let him mold me. I look forward to many more years of God continuing to refine me – I am confident that his goal is to create a unique masterpiece of my life that brings glory to him.
My life – created by God.
Your life – created by God.
Will we be molded and shaped by the Master’s hands?
I want to be an Oak of Righteousness. A planting of the Lord.
May my life display even a tiny portion of his splendor!
God points out to us in Isaiah 61 what it means to be an Oak of Righteousness. As I read the beginning of this chapter, it relates directly to our culture today.
Today, God’s Oaks of Righteousness are leading the way in their own spheres of influence in helping to reverse the tide of moral decay of our culture. They are working to strengthen our families and are sharing the love and truth of God to the people around them. They are so dedicated to God’s work that they refuse to get distracted by the mess and confusion of the world around us.
God is calling each one of us who are serious about our faith to rise up and be an Oak of Righteousness where he has planted us.
Yes – I can point fingers at politicians and lawmakers. That’s the easy way out – the blame game.
Sure – I can get upset. I can say all kinds of things about how bad our culture has become – complain, complain.
But what part of this do I own? And what am I doing about it? One of the things I own is the story God has been writing in my life these last 7 years since my son, David Glasser, who was a Phoenix Police Officer was killed in the line of duty. When God told me to write a book last year, I did. And I published it on Amazon at the beginning of this year – “Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love. This is the story of my son’s life, his death and my journey to find hope and a purpose after losing a child.
What are you doing about the part God has given you?
How often are you talking to God about it, asking him to point out your next step in making a difference?
As we obey, we become a solid planting of the Lord with our roots sunk deep into His truth. God hates wrong-doing and injustice. He righteously fights these battles using us when we are in line with him.
God promises that our obedience will bring us double portions of his blessing and everlasting joy. He extends these blessings to our children (awesome) and tells us that we will be acknowledged as ‘the people the Lord has blessed’. (vs 9).
Sometimes I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time today – or last week – or last year.
How much time did I waste watching TV? How much time did I waste worrying about tomorrow? Worrying about things that never happened? How much time have I wasted looking at my phone or IPad?
What about you? How much time have you wasted lately?
I am glad to know that there is one place in my life where no time is wasted. I know this for fact. When I sit with my Bible open on my lap reading God’s word, studying God’s Word, and listening to God as he helps me figure out how to apply his word to my life, not one second is wasted.
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater; so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55: 10-11.
This is great news for all of us and especially ‘achievers’ like me. It is so awesome to know when God’s word goes into my mind, it achieves the purpose God has for it. Of course, I have freedom of choice so I have to choose to listen and I have to choose to obey.
It’s a huge confidence-builder for me to know that when I choose to open my eyes and heart to the word of God, he promises that he will accomplish his desires through me.
I love knowing that I’m not wasting a second of my time when I spend it with God.
I have found this to be a crucial truth to get straight in my brain so that I have the correct expectations of God. I have to apply this every day to my relationship with God so I can avoid frustrations and confusion.
God tells me through Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” Isaiah 55:8.
God is perfectly holy, perfectly just, perfectly loving and always right.
I am farrrrrrrr from perfect. I cannot judge God’s actions – whether they are right or wrong – based on what I think. My thinking is very flawed. It is self-centered, self-seeking and severely limited. I don’t think like God. I will never think like God.
So I submit to his will, his plan, his purpose.
I am totally confident in God’s goodness and his perfect love for me. I know to the depths of my spirit that God wants the best for me. Even though I will never understand how he thinks and why he has permitted a painful tragedy to happen in my life when my son was killed, I will trust God. His ways are not my ways – his ways are perfect.
In response to this truth, I have decided that my way is to walk in trust and faithfulness to God for the rest of my days on this planet. I have decided to live in gratitude for his free gift of redemption through Jesus. I don’t question what God does or doesn’t do. I don’t try to determine if he is right or wrong – I know he is right. He is always walking beside me, loving me and caring for me, even when he is not doing what I think is best. He knows better.
God has spoken very clearly to me through Isaiah 43:2 these last 7 years since my son, David Glasser, a Phoenix Police Officer, was killed in the line of duty. Here is my response –
When I am passing through the waters of grief...
*of disappointment…
*of disillusionment…
*of pain….
God is with me.
When I am passing through a river of tears…
*pierced by the shattered pieces of my broken heart.
*trying to figure out how to live with a huge hole in my life…
the river does not sweep over me. God is with me.
When I am walking through the fire of anger…
* not happy with my reality…..
* trying to understand….
I am not burned. God is with me.
I am passing through. I’m not getting stuck in these places. Everything that happens in my life has first gone through the hands of my Father God. He has a purpose.
So I will trust him as I pass through the water, the river and the fire.
Thank you for walking closely beside me, Abba Father.
I don’t understand people who tell me they don’t like change. Change has been constant in my life. How about you? Anything change lately?
I realized that change was going to be one of the continuous things in life pretty early on in this journey so I decided I was going to learn to like it. I adopted a perspective that change is good. Maybe not all good, but there would be parts of it that I was going to like.
When things changed, I also realized that I usually got rid of some of my least favorite things in my past situation. Nice!
I remember reading Isaiah 42:10 about 12 years ago when I was facing a big change. ” Sing to the LORD a new song,” God spoke to me, telling me he was giving me a new song to sing through this upcoming transition. My daughter had just announced her engagement so my family was changing – again. After their wedding, she and her new husband were moving to Sydney, Australia for a job opportunity.
So my new song was filled with gratefulness to God for her happiness, asking for blessings on their marriage and requesting help in growing my trust in His care for her as she moved so far way.
Then, before the wedding, my daughter was diagnosed with cancer and my new song to God was full of concern and questions along with words of confidence that He is always in control and nothing is impossible for him.
Since then, God has given me many ‘new songs’ as the seasons of my life have changed.
Seven years ago, my son, David Glasser, who was a Phoenix Police Officer, was killed in the line of duty. My new song was full of grief and pain. But God helped me find hope in the journey and he has given the pain a purpose. A new song filled with a deeper understanding of God and his love and his truth has come out of the worst nightmare a parent can experience.
Just over 3 years ago, my husband and I moved out of Arizona to Denver. God gave me a new song filled with gratitude for being able to live close to my daughter and her family, praises to God for the beauty of the mountains and thankfulness for new friends.
Last year my husband was rushed to the hospital in the ambulance and the staff in the emergency room saved his life. My new song was filled with praise for God’s faithfulness and requests for strength as the next 6 months were a whirlwind of doctor’s visits and more procedures.
Most recently, God told me to write a book and he guided me through this new experience, stretching me and giving me the opportunity to tell the story He had given me. “Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love” was published on Amazon this last February and has been a blessing to my life. So glad I did it.
As my life continues to change, I can count on my Father God to be there, giving me new songs.
My life is a tiny flicker of light that can be extinguished in an instant.
Your life can, too.
This fact was emphasized once again to me one year ago when I was told my husband could have died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He could have died in the emergency room.
It was very possible that I could have been coming home alone.
God tells us through Isaiah that ‘Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fade but the Word of our God endures forever.” Isaiah 40: 7 & 8.
Forever.
When I sit here with my Bible open on my lap, I am letting the only truth of all the ages soak into my mind. God’s Word has been the one thing that is right and good since time began. How amazing that this is so readily available to me every hour of every day!
How amazing that the Eternal Creator of the Universe speaks to me personally through these words!
How amazing that this entire book is a love story written to me by God. It’s God’s revelation of how much he loves me and you.
My life is short and fragile and just a small flicker of light in the big picture. I’m so glad that I know that my Father God sees me as his precious daughter who is so important to him that he made a way that I could live with him in my forever home in heaven.
My life is but a nanosecond in time on this earth, but God sees me and loves me….
I’vebeen there – a place where there’s no way out. Have you experienced this?
When there is nothing we can do to even try to fix it. A total dead end.
This is when the only way out is up.
King Hezekiah knew all about this place thousands of years ago when a huge Assyrian army came to Jerusalem and camped right outside the city walls.
The Assyrian King told Hezekiah that the LORD had told him to destroy Jerusalem.
What?
King Hezekiah was wise enough to recognize a big lie when he heard it so he went to the prophet Isaiah to get the truth. The Lord told Isaiah that King Hezekiah should not be disturbed by what the Assyrians were saying – God was going to move against them himself.
Next, the Assyrians send a letter warning King Hezekiah that he should not be deceived by God’s promises to protect him. (There were serious mind games going on here.) The Assyrians had been completely destroying everyone in their path and that’s what the Assyrian king was planning to do to Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah knew that was exactly what the Assyrians had been doing – destroying everyone and everything and no one had been able stop them.
So Hezekiah took the Assyrian’s letter to the temple and spread it out before the Lord. He laid out his concerns to God and asked him to rescue them so that all the nations of the world would see he was the Real God.
I visualize Hezekiah on his knees spreading out this scroll full of scarey and deadly threats. Then he totally lays himself down on the floor in front of the scroll as he asks God to save his people.
Isn’t it interesting – he doesn’t summon the commander of his army. He doesn’t consult with anyone. He and his people are facing annihilation and he prostrates himself before God.
I’ve been there several times in my life – when there is no way out but up. Faced with massive issues that were extremely beyond my control, I have laid it all out before God and asked him to take care of it. I didn’t know how he would do it and I told him I didn’t care what he did – I was just placing it all in his hands and trusting in his promise that he is working all things out for my good.
It worked for me just like it worked for Hezekiah thousands of years ago. God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and took care of the situation. God always hears my prayers and he answers by orchestrating situations in his way with his power to benefit me.
I have discovered I don’t have big issues for long when I remember I have a huge God.
Come with me on a Journey through the Bible 