Author: admin

The days in which we live are filled with evil. Countless numbers of people are blinded to their spiritual condition. Many have never heard the Gospel clearly presented even one time. Crime, drugs, addictions, domestic violence, broken families, corruption are at epidemic proportions. The world is filled with people suffering from crippling needs. The church desperately requires help in addressing the plethora of challenges it faces today.

In light of so much to be done, how ought spiritual leaders spend their time? Do they have time to waste? If Satan cannot thwart our desire to serve our Lord and to invest in His kingdom work, then he will strive to have us invest in secondary issues that bring the least return on our investment. It is possible to serve the Lord diligently and yet misguidedly. As has oft been said, “The ‘good’ is the enemy of the ‘best’.”

And what about the time we squander so it produces nothing of consequence? How many of our activities are nothing more than an abject waste of time? Over the course of our lifetime, the amount of our precious life that was casually misspent could be appalling.

To “redeem” means to purchase back something that was previously lost. Have you lost control of your time? Do you need to reclaim it? Reclaiming time is like regaining lost ground in battle. You do it step by step. The enemy does not want you to redeem your time. He knows how valuable it is. He understands how much God could do with your time if it was under His control. But you must reclaim your time. It is simply too valuable to treat carelessly.

God delights in strongly supporting those whose hearts are loyal to Him. God wants to demonstrate His strength to a watching world through the lives of His servants. God intends to receive glory from the way His people live their lives. He is constantly alert to the person who is in need of His strength.

However, we tend to want God’s strength without producing the requisite loyal heart. God does not promise to strongly support anyone in need. He does not even promise He will assist those who profess to be Christians. What God does guarantee is His strong support for those whose hearts are loyal to Him.

God is no person’s debtor. He will not allow you to trust fully in Him while He lets you down. That has never happened and it never will. If your heart truly is steadfast, wait patiently for Him and He will prove Himself strong on your behalf. However, if God is not demonstrating His strength toward your cause, take time to evaluate your circumstances and your heart. Perhaps God wants you to wait upon Him. It could be that His perfect timing requires a delay. It may be God wants to develop your character through the trials He allows you to endure. He may have a greater purpose than merely alleviating your distress. Or, it may be that when He views your heart, He does not consider it to be loyal toward Him. Despite our protests to the contrary, if God sees our heart as disloyal, it is. Is God strongly supporting you today? If so, what is the evidence?

Our primary problem is not so much that we sin, as that we do not prepare our hearts to serve the Lord. Sin cannot force us to succumb to it. It cannot compel us to do anything our heart refuses to do. But when we neglect our heart, we become susceptible to any temptation that comes along.

Leaders are often strong-willed people. We are accustomed to facing adversity. We are called upon to be decisive. We make hard decisions. Because of that we can assume that when the time comes, we will make the right decision. But that is not true if our heart is not set toward the Lord. Our hearts do not naturally seek after God (Jeremiah 17:9). If left to its own devices, our heart will deceive us every time.

No one can tend our heart for us. That is a responsibility that cannot be delegated. If we allow thorns and weeds to take root, it will soon be too cluttered to properly respond to God. Attending to our heart is not something that can be postponed. There are no priorities more urgent than keeping our heart healthy, pure, and loyal to God.

When busy leaders make excuses about not having time to properly focus on spiritual matters, they are in danger. Circumstances and temptations will inevitably come that press directly against the spot where we have become vulnerable. We might never have dreamed we would fall in that area, but we will. What have you done today to prepare your heart?

Everyone serves someone. The only question is which master you choose to subjugate yourself to. God’s people have the opportunity to have Christ as their Lord. He is the one who laid His life down for His friends. He washed His disciples’ dirty feet. He promised to never leave them or forsake them. He offers to give each one an abundant life. He is prepared to accomplish in our lives exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever imagine. No wonder the Apostles described themselves as “bondervants” of Christ!

Don’t fool yourself. If you are not actively submitting yourself to Christ’s rule in your life, then you are indentured to someone or some thing else. You may be in bondage to fear, or pride, or insecurity, or doubt. Perhaps love of money has enticed you to forsake those things in life that truly matter. Perhaps you are addicted to something. But no person is truly free.

At times God allows us to choose our master. You would think that when we compared our enslavement to the things of this world with the loving lordship of Christ, we would eagerly run back to Christ. But, as the English poet John Milton wrote, some believe it is “better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.” What appears to be freedom is merely the sinister bondage of darkness, concealed. People delude themselves in thinking that because they have chosen their particular form of bondage, they are free. But when they begin to compare the servitude imposed on them by their own master with that of the reward of serving the Lord of the universe, the contrast is profound.

People can accomplish an enormous amount if they stay focused. Steady progress in one direction can enable us to achieve great advances. Our problems begin when we become distracted. Rather than keeping our eye on God and the goal He has set before us, we become intrigued by the world and the hollow enticements it brazenly offers. Critics assault us and we begin to heed their voices more than our Lord’s. The world offers cheap pleasures and we begin to be drawn by them rather than the “well done” of our Master. Those around us are constantly talking about the things of this world and soon our own conversation begins to be consumed with the trivial as well.

The problem is that our life will move in the direction we are focusing on. If we keep our Lord constantly before us, then we will be continually moving closer to Him and His purposes. But when we begin to gaze at the distractions about us, we find ourselves moving away from our intimate walk with God and His will.

That is why time with Christ in the morning is crucial. It helps us fix our gaze on Him before we enter the frenetic world in which we live and work. It allows us to make a fresh commitment to stay true to God’s purpose throughout our day. It opens our spiritual eyes so we don’t miss the divine activity around us. It enables us to measure our current state to detect if we have already allowed a drift to creep into our walk with God.

Have you moved, even slightly, to the left or right in your walk with God? Do you need to quickly realign your life so you are dead center where God wants you to be today?

Exactly how much do you want God to do in and through you? For some people, we expect little from God and so that is what we get. Conversely, some people are keenly aware that God has an infinite ability to bless and empower them. They refuse to settle for trinkets from God when He has the capacity to offer treasures.

Why is it that two people can serve the same almighty God and yet one receives much while the other receives little? The difference lies not with God, for He does not play favorites. The variance stems from people. Some are unwilling to leave anything on heaven’s storehouse shelves that are intended for them. Others blithely coast through their lives meekly accepting whatever appears to be their lot. Others do not want to squander even one day of their precious lives living beneath the level of what God intends for them.

We need God to give us an extra dose of holy ambition! We need to be filled with zeal to rise up early so we don’t miss anything God has for us in His word. We need to pray deeply and thoroughly so we have claimed every promise God has for us. We must cry out for God’s full measure of power so our lives exert their maximum impact. We must ask Christ to increase our faith so we are prepared to believe Him for everything He wants to do in and through us. We must dread living our Christian life half-heartedly, at half speed, with minimal impact. Life is too brief and too valuable to live it in any other way but in maximum trust and expectation in God and His provision.

Satan is not the only one who will oppose you and what you are doing. In fact, Satan is a lightweight compared to when God chooses to become your opponent. There is no record in Scripture of Satan ever destroying God’s people. However, there are several instances where God brought devastating judgment on His people. God will not allow us to ignore or dishonor Him with impunity. He has a multitude of ways to discipline us and to get our attention. The raising up of enemies and opposition is one of God’s most effective tools for such a purpose.

God is not obligated to protect His people at all costs. If we reject Him and choose to act independently of His guidance and standards, then He allows us the freedom to also use our own strength and resources to bring our plans to fruition and to defend ourselves from our enemies.

If we will not heed God’s still, small voice, calling us back to Himself, God will raise His voice! He can do that by allowing enemies to assault us. It would be foolish to assume that every time someone opposed us, it was the work of Satan and his evil forces. Enemies have a way of driving us back to God in ways that God’s blessings do not! If God’s favor has caused us to become proud or materialistic, or feeling as if we don’t need God for our success, then God may well allow an enemy to humble us and prove to us how much we need God. Are there presently enemies or opponents in your life and leadership? Do you need to return to a more intimate, dependent, trusting relationship with God? If so, don’t waste time! Return to Him humbly, and quickly.

Wise leaders heed godly counsel (Proverbs 19:20). It is folly to assume our thinking is always best. As long as Jehoash listened to the high priest Jehoiada, he acted wisely and received God’s protection and blessing. But after Jehoiada died, Jehoash wrongly assumed he no longer needed godly counselors. His decision ultimately led to his downfall. Pride has a way of blinding us to the truth. It makes us believe our success stems from our own skill and hard work and not from God’s hand or the contribution of others. Pride robs us of the wise counsel that is available to us.

At times people will seek counsel on their way up the corporate ladder. They will do anything to succeed! But, once they reach the top, they wrongly assume they no longer need counsel. They have nothing more to learn because they have reached the top! Pride causes some leaders to be unwilling to admit their need for others. We want to appear to be independent and to think for ourselves. In fact pride quarantines us from the wisdom that could preserve and bless us. There is too much at stake for leaders today to abstain from the godly assistance God readily provides to them. It is an abrogation of duty to reject the counsel God provides.

Who in your life has the freedom to speak truth to you? When was the last time you honestly sought feedback from a godly advisor? How did you treat the last counsel you received that you did not appreciate or agree with? Are there people you avoid because you do not like what they have to say? Perhaps you need to schedule a meeting with a godly counselor soon. Don’t allow pride to isolate you from the help God is trying to provide you.

There is a profound difference between being a peacemaker and compromising with evil. While we should love every person, we must never be unclear about our stance toward sin and evil. At times Christians are more concerned with “fitting in” or not “making waves” than they are about upholding righteousness. In our efforts to be peaceable, we inadvertently make compromises. God did not call us to make friends with darkness. He called us to be salt and light. If we are not careful we will dim our light so it does not offend our dark friends.

Jehoshaphat was a good man who chose to see the best in people. He may have disdained conflict. Or, he may have mistakenly assumed that unity is always the highest good. The result was an alliance with one of the wickedest leaders of the ages. He even entered an alliance of marriage with the wicked king Ahab. Just as Jesus declared that people were either for Him or against Him, so when it comes to evil there is no neutral ground. We either hate what God hates, or we love it.

While Jehoshaphat was able to guard his heart from the evil of Ahab, his children could not. His son Jehoram was married to Ahab’s daughter (2 Chronicles 21:6). Jehoram ruled not as his righteous father had, but in the evil ways of his father-in-law Ahab. He butchered his own brothers and acted wickedly. Jehoram’s wife Athaliah would later massacre Jehoshaphat’s grandchildren in order to gain power for herself (2 Chronicles 22:10). Could Jehoshaphat have dreamed that his partnership with an ungodly leader would lead to the massacre of his children and grandchildren? The seeds of his spiritual carelessness led to a devastating harvest among his descendants. Do you truly hate what God hates?

Do you know anyone who is too far gone to return to God? Some people have hardened themselves to God’s word. Others have passionately embraced sin. Some people seem so profane that only a miracle could make them confess their need for God. Ahab was such a man. Few people in biblical history rank as high as he does on the “hardened sinner” scale as he does. Married to Jezebel, he reached new depths in sinfulness and abominations. One would think there was nothing that could turn his calloused heart back to God.

But only God knows peoples’ hearts. In fact, there was a moment in Ahab’s debauched life when he realized he had gone too far. God’s judgment was imminent and it terrified the wicked ruler. Ahab, the opponent of Elijah, actually humbled himself and asked for God’s mercy. How did God respond when the wickedest king to rule Israel pled for mercy? God showed him grace. If there was ever a person who did not deserve mercy it was him. But God loved Ahab. God desired for him to him to repent of his sins and to return to the true God. Right to the end of Ahab’s life, God was reaching out to him and warning him of where his rebellion would lead. Ultimately Ahab chose to reject God’s grace and to embark on his own destructive path. But God gave him a chance. In Ahab’s case, he chose rebellion. In the case of murderers such as Moses, David, and Saul of Tarsus, God’s grace brought transformation.

Is there someone you work with or deal with that you would rank in the category of Ahab? Has God given up on him or her? Have you? When we give up on anyone, we are saying we believe there are people so difficult even God’s grace is insufficient to set them free.