Good enough?

I'm Not Good Enough For You

Judges 10:13-14

"Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation."

One of the common characteristics of Israel in the Book of Judges was that after a judge died they would go back to serving the gods of the land. This action wearied God. In fact, it brought God to the point that He told them He would no longer deliver them from their enemies. God continued by saying to them, "Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen;..." God was telling Israel that if He was not good enough for them, then they needed to rely on the gods that did nothing for them.

I believe God is teaching an important principle in this verse that every leader and follower needs to learn. God was teaching that you should not waste your time on people who won't heed your advice. This does not mean that you don't love them, but constantly telling people what to do when you know they are not going to follow it is a waste of your time and theirs. If your advice is not good enough to follow, then let them go follow the advice of whomever they will follow.

There are many preachers who waste their time counseling people who never follow their advice. Preacher, why waste your time with those who never follow your advice? When you constantly spend time giving advice to someone who never follows it, you are taking time away from those who will heed your advice. I don't mind helping people. In fact, I love to help people; however, I am not going to try to help people who don't think my advice is good enough for them. I don't need to pat my ego by saying I counsel all these people. To be honest with you, I would rather spend less time counseling people who want my advice than wasting hours of my time counseling people who will never follow it. God did this with Israel, so why would you not follow His example? I am not saying that you should not help these people, but there must come a time when you tell them to get whoever's advice they are following and stop wasting everyone's time.

Moreover, let me personally encourage you to stop shopping for advice. There are many people who look for advice, not to know what to do, but to find someone who will tell them what they want to do. Christian, you can always find someone who will counsel you to do what you want to do, but that does not always mean that it is right. You need godly advice that will guide you down the pathway God wants you to walk. It may not always be what you want to hear, but if your life is happier because you followed godly advice then you should be satisfied.

Let's be careful about wasting time in the counseling arena. Yes, everyone should get godly counsel, but let's be careful about wasting someone's advice because it is not good enough. If you find someone who doesn't think your advice is good enough for them, then let them go to whoever it is that they think is good enough. It may not be the right thing, but sometimes you have to let people experience ungodly advice so that they will follow godly advice for the rest of their lives. Don't ever give up on people, but don't waste your time with people who never follow what you tell them to do.

Courage

Building Courage

Judges 6:27

"Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night."

When you think of the great men in the Scriptures, it is hard not to put Gideon on that list. Gideon is one of the great stories you will read about; however, you can see from the verse above that he did not always exhibit great courage. When God initially called Gideon, he was hiding his wheat in the winepress. In the verse above, he was not taking a bold stand in the middle of the day, but he was taking a stand in the middle of the night hoping that nobody would know who destroyed the altar of Baal. Something happened between the time that he was victorious over the great Midianite army and the time that he was making a stand at night. There were some steps that he took to build his courage so that he could make the great stand against the Midianite army.

First, he built a personal altar. You will never have the courage to do what God wants you to do without having a personal time with Him daily in the Scriptures and prayer. A personal time with God always helps build your courage, for the Word of God is full of promises that build your courage. How can you know God's promises if you don't spend time with Him in the Scriptures? You may think you are too busy to read the Scriptures, but you must find time to have a personal altar with God, for it is in this time that your courage is boosted.

Second, you must be available when others aren't. Gideon was busy, but he was available for God. One of the reasons people don't have courage to do great things for God is because they have time to serve the world, but they have no time to serve God. God uses people who are available to do His will. If the things of the world take precedence over God, then you will never find the courage to do God's will.

Third, you must believe God. Though Gideon did not understand how God could use Him, he trusted that God could if He said He would. Belief in what God tells you to do is what will give you the courage you need to do great things for God. Fear will always be present whenever God tells you to do something, but you must believe that God will do what He says He will do.

Last, it takes answered prayer to gain courage to do God's work. When Gideon had his fleece experiences, they were nothing more than answers to prayer. The greatest way to build your courage to do something for God is to get answers to prayer. Christian, God can't answer your prayer if you don't pray. God promises to answer prayers, and He will answer prayer, but you must be willing to ask Him to do something before He can answer your prayers. When God does answer your prayers, you should record those answers so that it can help build your confidence for future challenges you face.

It takes courage to serve the LORD. You may be like Gideon who seemed to be lacking in the courage category, but if you will follow the steps that he took, you will find the courage you need to do the tasks that God asks you to do. God can and will build your courage if you will simply give Him a chance by following the steps above. You can always take courage in the fact that people whom God used in the past started out with a lack of courage, but He gave them the courage they needed to face their challenges which eventually gave them the great courage for which they are now known. Don't let your lack of courage stop you from serving God, but remember that if God asks you to do something that He will provide the courage you need to do it.

Guarded

Guarded Love

Joshua 23:11

"Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God."

One of the great things to see is watching people fall in love with God. I love to watch someone get saved and see their love for God grow in a great way. On the other hand, one of the saddest things to see is someone's love for God begin to wane. Something or someone affected their love for God, and a love that used to be fervent is now cold. This is tragic!

In the verse above, God told Israel to "Take good heed...that ye love the LORD..." This is interesting because God was warning them to guard their love for Him. God didn't want anything affecting their love for Him. God knows there are many things that can steal someone's love. You must realize that just because your love for God is fervent today does not always mean that it will be fervent tomorrow. If you don't guard your love for God, then something will steal that love away.

There are two things that can steal a person's love. First, people can steal a person's love. Galatians 5:7 says, "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" Notice it is a "who" that hinders people and not a "what."You can get caught up with the wrong people and they will steal your love for God. This is why it is important that you run with the right crowd. I have watched it happen so many times that I get sick of it. I have watched people associate themselves with someone only to see that person steal their love for God. You must guard your associations closely and not allow them to steal your love for God. Don't let work associates steal your love. Don't let close friends steal your love. Don't let relatives steal your love. Closely guard your love so that no person can steal it.

The second thing that can steal someone's love is possessions. Jesus asked Peter in John 21:15, "...Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?..." Jesus asked Peter if possessions had stolen his love for Him. You must be careful that you don't allow possessions to become more important than your love for God. Money should never become more important than your love for God. Cars and homes should never become more important than your love for God. When any possession becomes more important that your love for God, then that possession has stolen your love. Guard your love for God so that nothing can steal it.

Let me take this thought in one other direction. Married couples need to be careful that they don't let anything or anyone steal their love from their spouse. When you got married you promised to love your spouse till death. You will never do this if you don't guard your love for them. Believe it or not there are people who will try to steal your love from your spouse for one night of pleasure. Don't let this happen! Guard your love for your spouse and NEVER let anyone become more important to you than your spouse. Likewise, don't let things become more important than your spouse. You can have all the things in the world and lose your spouse, and you will find out that those things don't mean that much. Don't ever let a possession become more important than your spouse. It is better to lose the possession than it is to lose your spouse.

When you love someone, whether it is God, your spouse, parents, children or a friend, there will be people and things that will try to steal your love. Guard your love so that these things don't steal it. When you choose to love someone, then you must guard that love that nothing would hinder or take it away. If you find someone or something has already stolen your love, then remove it so that your love can stay fervent for God and the one whom you chose to love.

Giving up...

Giving Up on Your Dream

Joshua 17:13

"Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute; but did not utterly drive them out."

A troubling statement is made in the verse above when it says, "...but did not utterly drive them out." This is sad for the fact that they gave up on what was rightfully theirs. They gave up on something they worked so hard to obtain. They gave up on doing their best and settled for the second-best. They gave up on something that was given to them because something became too hard. These people had no business giving up. It doesn't matter what their excuse was, they were commanded by God to go and utterly drive out the people. When God gave them this task, He didn't say it would be easy. He simply expected them to follow through on His Word, and if they would have done so, their children would not have suffered the heartache from the Canaanites whom they did not drive out.

When God lays something on your heart to do, then you need to decide that no matter how hard it may be that you are going to conquer it. God did not give you a dream for you to let it fall by the wayside. God did not give you a dream to let it defeat you. When God gives you a dream, He also gives you the wherewithal to conquer that dream.

Don't let the difficulty of conquering your dream cause you to give up. Yes, these people saw that there were giants to conquer and decided to give up. If your dream wasn't difficult to obtain, then it wasn't much of a dream at all. There should be some difficulty in conquering a dream. That is part of what makes it a dream. Don't let the difficulty of obtaining your dream cause you to give up its realization.

Don't let your weariness be the thing that causes you to give up on conquering your dream. I know there are times when you simply get tired of fighting to see your dream come to pass; however, you cannot let your weariness stop you from realizing your dream. You must claim God's promise that He will give you the strength you need to see the dream come to reality. When you get weary in trying to conquer your dream, keep on going for the realization of that dream is near.

Furthermore, don't let the lure of settling for the second-best become your plight. Christian, if God gave you a dream, then don't stop until you get what He wants you to have. Certainly, God's second-best is always better than the best of the world, but God does not want you to settle for the second-best, He wants you to have the best. When the lure of settling for the second-best comes your way, you must decide that you will keep on going until you see the whole dream come to reality.

So, what is the impact of giving up on your dream? When you read about the history of Israel, you will find that many of these cities that they did not conquer became a snare of sin to their children and grandchildren. When you give up on your dream, you are affecting future generations. You must realize that your dream is not just for you, but it is for generations to come. The decision to give up on your dream will affect you, your children and your grandchildren.

I challenge you not to give up on your dream. I don't know what dream God placed in your heart, but whatever it is there is nothing that should stop you from seeing the realization of your dream. If you gave up on your dream, then right now you need pick it back up and start striving to see your dream come to pass. If you are considering giving up on your dream, don't do it! Keep going, for when your dream is realized you will thank God a thousand times over that you didn't give up. Your dream is worthy of not quitting, so keep going until you see your dream come to reality.

What to do...

What to Do After the Victory

Joshua 8:30

"Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal,"

Everybody loves the experience of victory and success.
Society is filled with books on what to do to have victory and success in different areas of your life, but there are very few people who deal with what to do after the victory. What you do after your victory may determine if you have more victories in the future. One of the most vulnerable times in anyone's life is right after a victory. One of the reasons for this is because we let our guard down because of the feeling of elation, we become overconfident in our invincibility which causes us to get out of our routine which results in an immediate defeat. It is important that you do the right things once you experience a victory.

In the verse above, Joshua and Israel experienced a great victory over the city of Ai. To some, this may not seem like a great victory, but to Israel it was huge because this battle was a rematch of a previous battle that they lost. What Israel did after this battle allowed them to go on through Canaan and conquer the Promised Land. Their actions after the battle allowed them to continue experiencing victory. What they did after the battle is what every Christian should do when they experience victory in their life.

First, take time to thank God for the victory. The verse above shows us that they immediately set up an altar to thank God for His help over the people of Ai. You would be wise after a victory to thank God for His help. Why should God continue to help you if you won't thank Him after you've had a victory? If you thank God for the victories He gives you, then you will find that He will be more likely to help you with the next battle. Be careful that you don't become so elated with a victory in your life that you forget to take time to thank God.

Second, get back to work. In verse 32, Joshua wrote a copy of the words of Moses on a stone. Joshua understood the importance of getting back to the routines that brought him the victory. One of the dangers of victory is that many get out of the routines that led them to victory, which results in them seeing an immediate defeat. Don't let victory be the steppingstone to backsliding. Once you have a victory you would be wise to continue doing what led you to have a victory.

Third, continue to obey all of God's Word. Verse 35 shows us that they didn't just read some of God's Word, but they read all of God's Word. Their purpose of reading God's Word was so that they could obey. Christian, just because you had a great victory in your life does not give you a license to do wrong. You are to continue doing right after the great victories. Obedience to God's Word is just as important after the victory as it was before the victory. If you continue doing right, then you will continue to see victory in your life.

Finally, watch out for the next battle. Right after the battle of Ai came another battle for Israel. You will never stop fighting battles in your Christian life. Enjoy your victories, and praise God for the victories, but always remember that there is another battle right around the corner. Don't become complacent, but prepare for the next battle and you will continue to experience God's victories in your life.#exit