Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “The fear of not having enough”
Our Bible verse for today: “For I know the plans I have for you” – this is the Lord’s declaration – “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “God unlocks doors that are invisible to human eyes.”
In recent days we’ve been considering the great truth about how it is that God has created all things (including you and me) with natural capacity to produce and accomplish things. But when He adds His unlimited divine capacity to our natural but limited capacity, the results can be exponential and explosive.
In his book “The God Guarantee: Finding Freedom from the Fear of Not Having Enough”, author Jack Alexander has been helping us to understand that finding freedom from the fear of not having enough begins with trusting in God rather than in ourselves. This is thinking that is rooted in faith in God and in all that He makes possible as He works in and through us. Jack writes,
“And when we take everything we have and all we are and look to God, with faith in His provision and a commitment to His plan, He will provide for us. He will show us something new – or something familiar in a new, redemptive way – over and beyond what we can see with our human eyes. Our faith unlocks and unleashes this capacity.”
This is what Jeremiah wrote about to in Jeremiah 29:11. God’s plan is good, we just need to trust Him and follow His plan rather than our own. And that thought right there leads us to what we will focus on for most of the rest of the month – God’s plan rather than our own plan. We will also think a lot about the individual responsibility each of us has to be a part of our own solution.
We are to have faith in God, but we must also work in conjunction with God.
In order to accomplish His plan in our lives God will unlock doors of opportunity that we can’t see and don’t even know exist. But God’s plan and provisions don’t excuse us from personal responsibility. We have to be good stewards. We have to engage in reality-based thinking rather than in starry-eyed wishful thinking. And we have to do our part. God is not a genie in a bottle and there are no magic incantations you can recite to instantly solve your problems. We will talk more about this in the days to come.
Yesterday we thought about the importance of consecration. The lesson was that the starting place for getting into synch with what God wants to do in you, through you, and for you, is to offer to God all that you are and all that you have, to be used for His purposes. That would be an excellent commitment to make in church this Sunday.
Perhaps a trip to the altar at the end of the worship service would be a good next step for each of us.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 