Tag: obedience

Don’t Skip It

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

I’ll admit.

Lamentations is one of the books of the Bible I used to skip. Before I started reading the entire Daily Chronological Bible every year, I tried several different ‘Read the Bible in a Year’ plans. They usually include a chapter or two of the Old Testament, a chapter or two of the New Testament and then some Psalms. I’m more of a big-picture person, so these plans never worked for me. I skipped anything that I found ‘not interesting’ and one of the things I skipped was the entire book of Lamentations.

This world has enough issues, right? Why would I want to read about some old prophet’s issues?

Now that I read the entire Bible in the right order, the gems in Lamentations are evident. I have just finished reading the book of Jeremiah which detailed Jeremiah’s faithfulness as he experienced the pain and hardships of being a prophet of God.

Now its time for Lamentations. I am in the fall season of my life just like Jeremiah was when it is thought that he wrote Lamentations. I can relate to his review of his life and his feeling of dismay as he looks at the mess his culture is in and thinks about all the rebellion and sin that brought them to this place. Israel was in exile. Jerusalem was destroyed and deserted. “Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction” Lamentations 1:7.

“My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.” Lamentations 2:11.

I know what you are thinking and that’s the reason I used to skip the entire book.

But wait!

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I can wait on him.” Lamentations 3:22-24.

No matter how bad it gets, and it can get pretty bad, God’s love and compassions never fail. Never! When you and I are in a deserted and destroyed place, God is there. When we are exiled from people and things that used to be very important to us, God is there. When we are dealing with the consequences of our bad choices or consequences of other people’s bad choices, God is there.

Great is His Faithfulness!

And, just like Jeremiah, we must wait on God when we are lamenting about our lives. Trust in his faithfulness. Know he is responding to our pleas and prayers. We are not consumed because we turn toward him every day and move closer. We wait on his perfect timing knowing he loves us with a perfect love and he is working all things out for our good.

I regret that I missed this wisdom and direction when I was younger but I’m really glad I have this figured out now. Our culture is a mess from all the rebellion and sin that have brought us to this place but I know…

Great is your faithfulness, Father.

He is Looking for You

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

Our country is going crazy, right? It’s frustrating.  It makes us angry,

bitter,

and disillusioned.

So – what am I doing about it?  What are you doing about it?

Are we busy just talking about it and shaking our heads?  Are we spouting off negativity to everyone around us and filling Facebook with our rants?

Or are we doing something positive to help turn the trend one small step at a time?

When Israel was going down the tubes thousands of years ago, God told Ezekiel, “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.” Ezekiel 22:30.

God was looking for someone – anyone – who would build a wall against the injustice that was happening.  A wall that would help keep out the lies and violence. God was looking for someone to stand in the gap before him on behalf of the Israelite people.  “But I found no one.”

Is this same thing happening today?  Is it all just talk and emotion? 

Or are you and I figuring out how to do our part in standing in the gap for our country before God?

We can stand in the gap by daily praying to God for our country.

We can stand in the gap by putting our feet and hearts into action while working together with God to help turn our country back into the land which was founded with “In God We Trust”. One step at a time. Each of us can create a small ripple that can grow into a wave when we all get involved.

My family and friends have created the David Glasser Foundation in honor of my son, a Phoenix Police Officer, who was killed in the line of duty May 18, 2016. It has been evident right from the beginning that God’s hand is on this foundation. The mission of the foundation is to create and sponsor opportunities for kids and their families to have positive interactions with police officers. We believe if the young man who killed my son had had positive interactions with a police officer, he may have made a different decision on that day. We are passionate about creating a ripple as we continue the legacy of love that my son started.

Not everyone can start a foundation but each one of us can be part of a ripple. God has a purpose for all of us – if we’ll stand in the gap.

I’m here, standing in the gap, Abba Father.

After, Not Before

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

How often do I decide to make a positive change in my life and then I don’t follow-through?  I change my mind.  It gets too hard.

How often does this happen? More often than I like. 

What about you?

How often are we convicted by the Holy Spirit to make an adjustment in order to better line our lives up with God’s will?  And, after we try, we give up.  When it gets tough, we go back to our old habits.

We are very fickle.  When it gets hard, we opt out of the difficult changes that are needed and decide to go back to being comfortable.

In Jeremiah 34, we read about the Israelites doing this same thing.  The Law of Moses had restricted how long Hebrews could be slaves.  When Jeremiah pointed out that fact that the Israelites had not been following this law, they realized what they were doing was wrong so they let their slaves go free…

for a short time.

“But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.” (vs 11)

God doesn’t tell us the details of why the Israelites changed their minds – but we can read between the lines, can’t we?

Life got hard.  The Israelites had to get their own water and cook their own food.  They had to clean and do all of the dirty work the slaves had been doing.

Obeying the law was just too difficult so they decided to disobey and go back to the comfortable life they had before they were convicted of their sin.

And they missed the blessings that come after we obey.

God blesses obedience.  He has blessings lined up, waiting for us……if we’ll do the tough part of obeying.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is under-gods-umbrella.jpg

When I do the things that the Holy Spirit is prompting me to do, I feel the satisfaction that comes with partnering with God in his plan.  I feel the contentment and satisfaction of living my life in line with God.  I also experience the wonder of God’s supernatural love and strength and peace.  These are blessings from God.

The blessings that only come after I obey.

Rooted Deeply Into His Truth

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

“They will be called Oaks of Righteousness,

a planting of the Lord,

a display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61: 3.

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?

What are you doing about the part God has given you?

How often am I talking to God about it, asking him to point out my 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 as some of his warriors 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).

Amen, let it be so, Abba Father.

Not Like Me

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

I am created in the image of God,  I am like him.

But he is not like me.

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.

I trust you, Abba Father.

Lay It Down

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

I’ve been there – a place where there’s no way out. When there is nothing I 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.

God has 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 know that he was God.

I visualize Hezekiah on his knees spreading out this scroll full of scarey and deadly threats.  Then he lays himself down on the floor in front of the scroll as he asks God to save his people.

How 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.

I’ll never forget the times I have laid facedown on the floor, asking God to move, begging for an answer, telling him I wanted his will to be done in my life. One time I had to make a significant decision TODAY so I asked God to give me a direction. As I finished praying and was getting up off the floor, my phone rang and I knew it was God. Well, it wasn’t actually God, it was a person that God was using to give me an answer. At the end of the conversation, the decision I needed to make was clear.

It works 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 because I have a huge God.

God’s Math

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

God has a supernatural math when it comes to our generosity with our money and time in supporting the work of his kingdom.

His math is not like our math where 1+1=2.

God’s math makes 1+1=100.  Or 1000.  Or 1,000,000 if he wants it to be.

God’s blessing + our giving = everybody wins.

When we give to God, we don’t have less.  We have more.  Don’t ask me to explain it – it’s just the truth.  I’ve experienced it many times.  We truly cannot out give God.

God’s math has been true for thousands of years.   In 2 Chronicles, after the Israelites started  to bring their contributions to the Temple of the Lord, they found that they had more than enough to eat with plenty to spare.  God multiplied their generosity by giving them back more – a lot more.  “When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw the heaps (of contributions), they praised the LORD and blessed his people Israel.” 2 Chronicles 31:8.   The king built large storerooms for all of the leftover contributions and put the Levites in charge of distributing the food as gifts to other towns.

See how God’s math works?  Their generosity just kept multiplying and spreading.  Now even their neighbors were being blessed.

God does the same thing today.  If you haven’t personally experienced this, test him and see.

Unity

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

“The hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind….” 2 Chronicles 30:12.

Unity comes from God.

When we are all well-connected to God, we can hear his directions for us.  He gives us insight and understanding. He tells all of us the same thing so that we can move together, as his united people.

If I am not well-connected to God, following my own desires can cause disunity.  When I put what I want in front of what God wants, I can create dissension. 

Do you ever find yourself being stubborn? Determined to get your way? God calls this being “hard-hearted.   When we are focused on making ourselves happy rather than making God happy, we become part of the problem, not the solution.

Over 43 years of being married to a Christian man who is the polar opposite of me has taught me a lot about how God provides unity.  My husband and I have significantly different perspectives on the world and extremely different ideas about how to make decisions and determine next steps.  So I have learned to let God provide the unity.  When I am listening to God and my husband is listening to God, God directs both of us onto the same path, the path he wants us to take.

When we have big decisions to make, I’m usually the instigator of the conversation between my husband and I but, when we run into a wall because we process things so differently, we take some time to pray about it individually and eventually God tells us both the same thing.  Done.  It’s much easier to move forward together when God confirms the direction to each of us.

God does this in relationships and in businesses and in churches if people will turn to him and listen. I’ve seen it happen.

God desires that we have unity so he will make it happen –

if we let him.

The Main Things

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

Have you heard anyone say something like, ” I just can’t figure  out what God wants from me?” or “I really don’t know what God wants me to do?”

Statements like these confuse me because I think God is amazingly clear and to the point about the ‘main things’ that need to be the focus in my life.

The only two commandments Jesus gave us are to love God with our whole hearts and love others.  Jesus tells me that obeying these 2 commandments fulfills ‘all the law and the prophets’ which includes the original 10 commandments from the Old Testament.

There used to be 10 commandments – now it’s 2.  God knows we need simple and clear directions.

As I read the 6th chapter of Micah, I am again amazed at how direct God is as he tells me what he expects from me. ” And what does the LORD require from you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8.

Which part of that is unclear?

Act justly – do the right things. God tells us what is right in his Word.

Love mercy – forgive others.  Give people a break especially when they don’t deserve it.  Help others.

Walk humbly with God – develop a close relationship with God understanding that he is a supernatural combination of Creator of the Universe, the Holy and Perfect One and my Abba Father.

Micah told us this thousands of years ago.  I have discovered that, if I am serious about doing the things God has already told me to do, he fills in the other details at the right time.

Do you think its time to stop asking God what he wants us to do and focus on the directions he has already given us?

Wasted Time

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

I only have so much time here on this planet – I shouldn’t waste it.  If there is one lesson that has been engraved on my mind these last few years, it’s ‘Life is short”.

I truly never knew how extremely short life can be until my son was killed.  One moment he was here and the next he was gone.

My life flipped upside down in an instant.

Life is short – I have no time to waste.

Just like Jonah – he had no time to waste.  So it’s a little frustrating to read about Jonah going through his big drama of disobeying God’s direction to go to Ninevah.  Jonah decided to go the other direction, got caught on a ship in a big storm, was thrown overboard by sailors and spent 3 days in a huge fish at the bottom of the ocean.  It was there that he repented and reached out to God. (bottom of the ocean, end of our rope – sound familiar?)

Jonah used a bunch of time running from God before finally deciding to obey him by going to Ninevah.   “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.  From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” Jonah 2:2.  When Jonah turned back to him, God ordered the fish to spit Jonah out on the beach so Jonah could go ahead and do what God asked him to do in the first place.

That whole first whale trip was just a big waste of time and energy!

Wait a minute – do I do this?

Do you do this?

I have to admit that I’ve wasted a lot of time in the past disobeying God.  I ignored what I knew was right.  I did what I wanted to do and gained nothing from it.  It was useless – a waste of time.

One of my life goals now is to obey God the first time.  I want to stop wasting time and energy while disobeying.

I want to avoid getting hit by the 2×4 that eventually comes our way when we ignore the lessons God is trying to teach us. The issue or problem doesn’t go away when we disobey – it grows.  And it continues to grow until it’s too big and bad to ignore any longer.

Have you ever been hit by God’s 2×4 as a consequence for avoiding his directions? Have you found yourself at the end of your rope? Or stuck at the bottom of the sea like Jonah?

I have.  It’s a wake up call.  An enormous red flag pops up and starts whipping through my life.  It seems like everything starts going wrong at the same time but, in reality, this issue has been gradually building steam while I prioritized other things.  Because he is a good Father, God doesn’t ignore me when I’m trying to ignore him.  He lets the consequences of my own actions grow until it’s just like getting hit by a 2×4.  By then, the issue has become too enormous and too awful – I cannot continue to look the other way.  Newsflash from God – attitudes and behaviors and priorities need to change – and they need to change NOW!

I got it, God!  I have learned my lesson and I intend to obey right away from now on.  No more 2×4’s in my life if I can help it!

I have also learned that obedience up front, the first time, brings additional blessings of peace and strength that come from being in line with God and in step with the Spirit.

Obeying right away is never a waste of time.

Thank you for teaching me this important lesson, Abba Father.