SESSION NOTES:

The workout was humid! We did some great new exercises picked up from the camp gladiator folks. This weekend was also the birthday weekend for the disadvantaged child we sponsor. We bought her presents and delivered them to her. It was an awesome experience.

WORD OF THE DAY (WOD):

Note: This is based off of a sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley. I quote him directly throughout since his words fit so perfect.

Satan’s Strategy

“If I were the devil I would assemble all my minions and my demons in my strategy room, and I’d give them your phone number, your picture, your email address, and I would review with them your weaknesses one by one.

I would tell my staff about your bouts with doubt. How I all but had you convinced that the bible was a joke. So, if I were the devil, I think I would try to take your joy. I’d try to load you with so much anxiety and fear and dread and trepidation that you couldn’t sleep at night.

The devil knows he can’t touch your Salvation because you’re a child of God bought with the blood of Christ, and no one can snatch you from your Father’s hands. He can’t take your Salvation, but boy can he take the spring from your step and the sleep from your night, and the love from your relationships.

So if I were the devil I might download a dump truck of guilt on you, and I would every time you stepped forward in faith. I would remind you of the times you fell, the times you stumbled, just last week, just two decades ago. I just keep that scrapbook of sin circulating through your mind, and I would whisper “You really think there’s enough grace in the world to cover you?”

I would leave you just in the shadow of a doubt and if that didn’t work, I would try what seems to be his most popular tool of the day, and that’s distraction.

I would post my minions on every corner every stairwell, every office and they would load on you things to do, people to see, tasks to complete, sales to make, assignments to complete, one thing after another, do this, do that, do this, do that until if at all if you even came home, you’d come home exhausted & distracted.

Busyness, clutter, hurry, catch another flight, write another report, hurry, hurry, hurry. Or distraction in the form of what you read and see, staring at a phone or a computer for hours and hours, leading life through a screen, counting likes, counting friends, how many hearts did I get? Measuring self-worth according to the number of people who looked at your Instagram.

I would keep you so busy you’d never have time to read God’s word.

I can tell you that Satan’s plan today is to keep people so busy with the things of this world that they have no time to devote to their spiritual lives. I love this acronym for BUSY – Sometimes being busy b-u-s-y just means:

Being Under Satan’s Yoke.

You see, if Satan can encourage us to get our lives so full of other things that we have no time for God, then he’s begun his work in us and the ultimate end of it will not be something pretty. You have to see the devil for who he is… The devil is a liar, the father of lies. And you can be sure he has carefully studied each one of us for a very long time.

I wonder, how long have you studied him?

The devil begins early in our life by bombarding our minds with cleverly devised patterns of little nagging thoughts of doubt & fear. The thing is, he moves slowly and cautiously. Below the radar. After all, well laid plans take time. You can be sure, we’re in a war and our enemy is Satan, not people.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (EPH 6:12 KJV)

He’ll do everything he can to distract you, and he takes his time to work out his plan. If we don’t know our enemy, we don’t have much of a chance to win over our enemy. We should remember that our enemies are not people. We must see beyond people, Satan may use people to persecute us, he may use people to lie to us or cheat us or hurt us or even kill us, but our real enemy lurks unseen in the shadows, moving people like pawns on the chessboard.

The devil is a divider – he likes to split marriages, he likes to split friendships, he likes to split any sense of community, any place there’s gossip or tension or separation or hostility or unforgiveness the devil’s marks are all over it. Think about this, what he did in the garden of Eden was separate Adam and Eve from God. And that is what he wants to do with every person – separate us from God and separate us from each other.

Satan is the opposite of Christ.

He wants us to hate God or doubt God and hate our neighbor. He dwells in the world of isolation & loneliness. Wherever you see Satan at work there’s always division, and he loves to divide people. Especially God’s people. If we could only understand that we would step back from our petty differences and realize that we’re just playing into the hand of our enemy, whose purpose is to divide. He does not know the meaning of unity; he has no concept of unity. His whole strategy is the strategy of division.

He’s the great deceiver, the great divider, and he’s the great destroyer. Think of the book of Job. When God allowed Satan access to the life of Job, what did he do? He destroyed everything – he destroyed his servants, his cattle, his children, and his family.

Satan is the destroyer.

Satan only has one plan for your life. He wants to destroy us. We should pray every day against him. We should pray that Satan would have no place in our lives. Because he comes to deceive, he comes to divide, and he comes to destroy.

There are so many people in the world are deceived by him, and their deception is very evident when they say, “I don’t believe in the devil”

One of the first things he does is to point out something in your life that you don’t have. He doesn’t remind you of how much you do have, how blessed you are, or how healthy you are.

He points out the one thing you don’t have.

He uses the same tactics he used in the garden of Eden. You’d think people would have caught on by now. He points out to Eve the one thing she doesn’t have, so that if you want to be complete you need to have it. And did it satisfy her? No. And it doesn’t satisfy people today. He creates this desire in order to get people off base, off track, if you only had that.

You can never have enough of anything that is not the will of God for your life to ever make you happy, ever make you feel complete or ever make you feel content.

Satan is perfectly happy convincing you to worship anything or anyone short of God. If he can convince you to worship a girlfriend or a boyfriend, to worship sex, if he can convince you to worship a career, or if he can convince you to give everything you have to get that new house or car, or whatever.

When we worship something, we depend upon that thing or person for our identity. We align ourselves with that thing or person so the devil knows if he can get me to worship a bass boat, then someday that bass boat is going to rot and I’m going to be disappointed and he’ll just chalk that up to another victory.

We’ll worship that person only to be rejected and heartbroken. We’ll worship that career only to be dejected and be heartbroken. We’ll go lurching through life – up and down, up and down, and finally when we get to the final days of our life, we’ll be cynical and disappointed. We’ll say life wasn’t all it was cut out to be.

For our own good God says, worship God. Worship the endless, strong, powerful, loving, radiant king of kings. Let your mind be consumed with heavenly thoughts.

Satan chooses his timing; he knows when we’re the most vulnerable, and that’s when Satan will attack. He knows exactly when to attack us, how to attack us. He knows our weakest points. Everybody has a weakness. You need to give your weaknesses to Christ before the devil uses them against you. The devil he’s an opportunist, when you’re the weakest, he’s the most evil.

The devil doesn’t control your thoughts, but he influences them. He wants to whisper thoughts of fear to us so we’ll accept them and he can control our lives.

God will never use fear to control your lives. God will never bring fear into your life to cause you to do anything. The devil wants you to believe that God’s always kind of mad at you, and he really doesn’t like you. That’s the concept of God the devil wants you to have. Go to Jesus when you’re feeling fearful. He will tell you He knows exactly what you’re feeling and let Me help you overcome it.

Fear is expecting the devil to move. Faith is expecting God to move.

Fear is the main thing that Satan uses to try to control people. Fear keeps you from doing so many things in life. Don’t let fear steal your life. Don’t let fear steal your relationships. Don’t let fear steal your joy. God wants you to have a good life but one thing’s for sure – you have an enemy and his name is Satan, and he does not want you to enjoy your life. He wants you to be afraid all the time. The devil would love for you to live by fear, because when you’re afraid you run away.

What you need to run to is the Bible. The Bible gives you two tools: number one pray – pray when the devil knocks at your door, you don’t need to deal with the devil on your own. All you need to do is turn to God.

Glance at the devil but gaze at Christ.

The second tool is God’s Word. Arm yourself with God’s Word. Arm yourself with God’s Word – load your pistol with scriptures and keep a finger on the trigger. Jesus reacted and responded to temptation by quoting scripture. Jesus responded to temptation from the devil by doing the same thing you can do, and that is he quoted scripture.

God’s book is enough.

Jesus overcame temptation not with special voices or supernatural signs, but by remembering and quoting scripture – that’s it.

You just need to read the Bible, and to read it and receive it. God’s word is an indispensable weapon in the same way prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.

Pray long and hard. Pray for your brothers and sisters and use the two tools – God’s word and prayer. And the conviction that God’s spirit in you is greater than the devil of this the world.

God doesn’t call you to do great things, God calls you to do impossible things.

We serve the God of the impossible! I know this firsthand in my life.

Favorite Quotes

God is looking for those with whom he can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things that we can do by ourselves.

-A.W Tozer

Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.

-George Mueller

When you’re facing the impossible you can count on the God of the impossible.

-Amy Carmichael

Our faith is not really tested until God asks us to bear what seems unbearable, to do what seems unreasonable, and to expect what seems impossible.

-Warren Weirsby

If God is your partner, make your plans big and impossible.

-D.L Moody

Favorite Verses

“For nothing will be impossible with God.” (LUKE 1:37 ESV)

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”” (MARK 10:27 ESV)

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (JOB 42:2 ESV)

“And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” (MARK 9:23 ESV)

“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (MATTHEW 19:26 KJV)

“Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” (JER 32:17 ESV)

“A parent’s job is to fill their child’s bucket of self-esteem so full that the world can’t poke enough holes in it to drain it dry.”

-unknown

I love this quote. This is so important. Self-esteem is a huge part of a child’s emotional well-being and will affect them in so many ways as adults.

I’ve debated for a while whether or not I wanted to post these. I’m posting them publicly because I am proud of these vows & the person that I am becoming because of them. I hope it can inspire others to do something similar.

They are personal and they are my Vows to God. It’s my way to set spiritual goals. To be accountable. For me, defining a set of vows gives me a target to aim for in life, to become the person I want to be. I know God was speaking to me when I wrote them out. It took less than 10 minutes to write them. And they’ve not been edited since I wrote them.

I print them out every morning and I initial the sheet. It’s a reminder every day that these are the actions I need to take to become the man of God I want to be in life. These vows are real, they are between me & God. These vows make me accountable in life. I may not always be able to hold myself to this standard 100% of the time but I work on it every day.

I push through the failures, look at why it happened and figure out what actions I need to take to not let it happen again. I may fail on some of them, but over time I get better & closer to that target. This is the standard I want to hold my life to.

This is my new life and I am so thankful for the person I have become because of God’s grace & mercy.

I vow to wake up at 5:30AM during the week so that I may serve God as much as possible while I continue to work
I vow to take cold showers for the rest of my life
I vow to remain celibate outside of relationships
I vow to love myself because God loves me more than I will ever know
I vow to abstain from drugs & drunkenness
I vow to never view porn
I vow to honor all fasting done in God’s name and follow through
I vow to seek the strength to bring as many as I can to God for the rest of my life
I vow to forgive others and pray for their forgiveness and mine
I vow to pray every day for what is important and on my mind
I vow to love my family
I vow to love myself
I vow to love others
I vow to be a leader and to lead with love, justice, humility, godliness, & integrity
I vow to take care of myself and stop bad eating habits
I vow to get healthy
I vow to put God first above relationships
I vow to let God put the right person in my life at the right time
I vow to have faith & believe everything God has said will come to pass
I vow to work hard everyday for God
I vow to sell all my worldly possessions for God
I vow to live a life dedicated to helping others

Date________

Initials_______

SESSION NOTES:

We had a late afternoon workout due to community service in the AM. It was hot! Workouts will be back on track at the usual time starting next weekend.

Word of the Day (WOD):

Paul’s Faith

How do you respond when you find yourself dealing with a painful situation?

It could be anything, a relationship that’s not going well, a betrayal of trust, or a problem at work.

What we most often do is simply give up & walk away. We decide that we don’t have to put up with this anymore and we leave.

Who wants to stay in pain, anyway?

Well, that’s not who we are. As a follower of Jesus, quitting or giving up simply doesn’t fit who we are. We have to have the courage to keep on keeping on.

We can look to the lives of the disciples as examples of courage and endurance. In fact, no one better fits the definition of someone who never quits than the apostle Paul.

Paul is by far my favorite of Jesus’ disciples. He wrote around half the books of the New Testament. His transformation from Saul, a persecutor of Christianity to Paul, one of the greatest of Jesus’ apostles makes his story all the more incredible. If you ever want an example of God’s glory demonstrated, you need to look no further than the life of Paul.

His faith & courage in the face of suffering should be an inspiration to all of us.

In 2 Corinthians 12:24-26 Paul says, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers…”

How many of us could have survived what Paul went through and still remain faithful?

When we are tested, we give up. We walk away from our relationship, our job, our children. When life gets too difficult, we quit. And there are plenty of quitters out there. Yet quitters don’t get anywhere in life.

What happens is we walk away right before the breakthrough, right before we are rewarded by God for our perseverance. I’ve seen this in my own life.

Let’s look at what reasons Paul had to keep going. If anyone should have quit it was Paul, yet he didn’t. He never gave up no matter what he experienced. I think we can all learn something from the faith of Paul.

You see, Paul was aware of the presence of the almighty God with him.

“The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”” (ACTS 23:11 NIV)

We may not all have God speak directly to us, but He is with us. In fact, throughout all of Paul’s writings we are continually reminded by him that God is with us.

Now, I’d bet that if I asked you if you believe that God is with you, you’d probably say YES. However, would you claim that when times are tough? No matter what is going on, no matter how bad things are – that God is with me? Either you believe that God will do what He says, or you don’t. If you begin to question Him, you’ll begin to consider giving up.

There’s no maybe with God.

You see oftentimes we give up right before victory is around the corner, right before the chance for reconciliation, right before things take a change. As believers and this is important – as believers when we give up on a situation, we are giving up on God…

What we have to realize is that no matter how tough it gets, if we don’t give up, we will be rewarded. Think about the life of Paul, he was shipwrecked all those times, he had people trying to kill him, they did everything imaginable to try and get rid of him. Yet we find Paul in jail rejoicing in the Lord, praising God for what He’s doing in his life.

Do you know why?

Because Paul never felt that Jesus Christ was absent in any situation he was in.

This is the important point – The awareness of His presence will take you through things like nothing else can. Believe me, I’ve been through some rough times lately, and I would not have survived without God’s grace & His presence in my life.

Paul experienced God’s strength within him whenever he felt weak. And he often wrote about the strength that was in him.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV)

It was the strength of our almighty God. He was aware of God’s presence, and being aware of God’s presence he was aware of the strength that God released in Him. That’s what got him through without giving up.

No matter what you’re going through, what you’re facing, you have the strength of God within you. Because you have the Holy spirit living inside you. And He will empower you and strengthen you to do whatever He has called you to do.

God will never put you in a situation that is more than you can handle if you call on Him for the strength and not rely on your own.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he talks about putting on the full armor of God, and he says, “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (EPH 6:16 NIV)

That’s what we should start our day with. The awareness & faith that God is with us today and we have the strength of God to face anything, everything, and anybody and everybody no matter what the situation is.

It doesn’t matter what season you are in, what you are going through, or the pain you’re experiencing, you have to know that God works everything for His good.

Paul knew this, as he wrote in his epistle to the Romans.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NKJV)

We have the power of the almighty God within us, call on it. Call on it like Paul did. Be aware of His presence in your life and He can, and He will carry you through any and every situation.

You have to trust God.

He never said understand me…He said, trust me.

SESSION NOTES:

No session this week due to coach’s illness.

Word of the Day (WOD):

Way Maker

Way Maker is Christian music song that has been covered by many artists and is sung in churches around the world. The original ‘Way Maker’ was released two years ago by the Nigerian singer ‘Sinach’. Her full name is Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu. She did not start out in a musical career but graduated with a degree in Physics from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Music was considered a hobby for her. She was inspired to write ‘Way Maker’ while reading the book of Genesis.

‘Way Maker’ is such a great title for the song.

You see, when things feel hopeless, when they feel helpless, you just need to know that God promises to make a way.

When you feel like every door has been shut and you can’t see how something is going to happen, He will make a way.

Because our God is a way maker and He will make a way through providing a miracle, He’ll make a way through keeping a promise, He’ll make a way by shining a light into the darkness of your situation.

Our God is the God who makes a way right in the middle of there being no way.

When the Israelites found themselves at the Red Sea and God separated the waters, in the midst of impossibility they walked through on dry ground.

That’s our God who makes a way in the middle of no way.

When we talk about God being a miracle worker there are a lot of people in the world today that that would say that the miracles of the bible never actually took place.

But the real question for believers today is God still in the miracle business? Can God still take a small amount of food and still multiply that food to feed thousands? Can people still be miraculously healed when everything says that there’s no way? Does our God still intervene into human affairs in an extraordinary way?

Based on what I’ve seen with my own eyes and what I’ve experienced, I want to tell you that God is still very much in the business of doing miracles.

I’ve seen miracles happen in my own life and I want you to know that I believe that with all of my heart –

That He is still a miracle worker:

God has healed relationships that seemed beyond repair.

He’s healed people of cancer when doctors said it couldn’t be done.
He’s provided financially for people when all hope seemed to be lost.
He’s provided for my family when we’ve said there’s just no way.
He’s healed my neck injury when doctors said I would never exercise again.
He’s given meaning and purpose to my life that for 50 years had none.

God is still in the business of doing miracles – I want you to know that. And I want you to believe it, because I believe it with everything inside of me.

The thing is, most of us would say we have no problem believing that God does miracles today, but we’re not quite sure he’ll do them for us.

In order to experience a miracle, sometimes you have to take a step of faith.

Miracles are God’s business. Faith is yours.

He’s still the miracle worker, but you’ve got to take a step of faith.

If you want to see the miraculous, sometimes you have to take a step of obedience & faith. You have to trust God. You have to have faith. And you have to ask. You have to do what he’s asking you to do – even if you don’t want to and everything inside of you is saying “No that doesn’t make sense…”

What you are asking God to do for you sometimes requires a miracle to get it done.

You need a miracle and Jesus is the miracle worker. Nothing is impossible for Jesus to do for you.

I’ll say that again, nothing is impossible for Jesus to do for you.

Luke 1:37 says “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (KJV)
Matthew 19:26 says Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (NIV)

what does that scripture mean? It means simply, God is able.

If Jesus does a miracle in your life there’s always a bigger purpose involved. And that purpose will always be about bringing God glory and drawing you closer to Him.

Every one of the miracles in the bible is about bringing glory to God and deepening the faith of the people involved.

God will never waste your pain. He will never waste your hurt. He will never waste your suffering.

And he will never waste a miracle.

Here’s the thing – regardless of how long you’ve been waiting on a miracle, Jesus has not forgotten about you. He’s still our savior. He’s still a miracle worker. He is still a promise keeper.

He is our way maker.

Peace Train

Now I’ve been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun
Oh, I’ve been smiling lately
Dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be
Someday it’s going to come

‘Cause I’m on the edge of darkness
There ride the Peace Train
Oh, Peace Train take this country
Come take me home again

Now I’ve been smiling lately,
Thinkin’ about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
Something good has begun

Oh Peace Train sounding louder
Glide on the Peace Train
Come on now Peace Train
Yes, Peace Train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the Peace Train
Come on now, Peace Train

Get your bags together,
Go bring your good friends, too
‘Cause it’s getting nearer,
It soon will be with you

Now come and join the living,
It’s not so far from you
And it’s getting nearer,
Soon it will all be true

Oh Peace Train sounding louder
Glide on the Peace Train
Come on now Peace Train
Peace Train

Now I’ve been crying lately,
Thinkin’ about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
Why can’t we live in bliss

‘Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a Peace Train
Oh Peace Train take this country,
Come take me home again

Oh Peace Train sounding louder
Glide on the Peace Train
Come on now, Peace Train
Yes, Peace Train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the Peace Train
Come on, come on, come on
Yes, come on, peace train
Yes, it’s the peace train

Come on now, peace train
Oh, peace train

– Cat Stevens

Portrait of Faith: Mr. Bi

I’m going to do a series of posts that highlight the extraordinary faith & sacrifices that people have made. These are people who have faced enormous challenges in their life and yet had the courage, the strength and the faith to give their lives completely to God.

The message here is clear. If we could ourselves give a fraction of what these extraordinary individuals have given, then we would be in good company in the eyes of the Lord. Its humbling to look at their lives and how much they have given, when we have so much and have given so little. I hope these portraits will inspire you to live a life in a way that matters just a little more and that you give of yourself (to God & others) just a little more..

Mr. Bi

Mr. Bi was a professor in China at Beijing University. This university is commonly known as the ‘Harvard of China’. One day he made a joke in class about the Communist party to a group of students. One of those students reported his joke to the police.

The next day the police burst into Mr. Bi’s office and brought him to a remote, cold Communist prison – without warning, without a trial, his life changed in an instant.

He woke up that morning as a professor chairing one of the most prestigious academic positions in the world. By nightfall, he was behind bars in prison. Chinese prisons at this time were some of the worst places on earth—horrible lairs of disease, torture, and death. Mr. Bi quickly plunged into depression and despair. His depression led to thoughts of suicide over the course of weeks. One afternoon, in a cloud of sadness, he brought himself to the window of his eighth-story prison cell. The Chinese did not put windows in the higher floors of prison cells. If a prisoner decided to throw himself to his death, it was not a problem. 

Mr. Bi’s heart raced as he looked out and thought of jumping. And then it happened. He heard a small voice say, “Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go.” He sat down in the middle of his cell, desperate. 

There on the hard concrete floor, memories flooded his mind. A friend of his, a foreign professor who was a Christian, had shared the Gospel with him. Mr. Bi prayed, “Jesus, if You are real, please bring me this forgiveness and peace my friend told me You promised. In turn, I will offer my life and service to You.” 

He looked up and, “The sky was never bluer, the sun was never brighter through the open hole of a window, and I had joy rise up inside of my heart like I have never felt before.” 

This distinguished professor threw all his reservations away and shouted out, “I have bright future in Jesus Christ!” The guards heard him and cruelly told him to be quiet. But his joy could not be contained. He kept shouting it over and over until they came into the cell and beat him. 

A person in a prison freed by believing the Gospel of Jesus is freer than any person outside of prison without the Gospel. 

Mr. Bi was eventually released and started several orphanages in the interior of China, caring for the poor and leading many to Christ. He had a bright future in Jesus Christ. To this day his joy is infectious when you meet him. And he will tell you the joy he had in prison is the same he has to this day. 

THOUGHTS ON HIS STORY:

His experience hit home for me in many ways. Prisons aren’t necessarily physical. In fact, for the majority of people they are not. His experience of profound joy struck me as well – as a goal that we should all work towards, a closeness & dedication to God that produces such a joy. There was another part of his story stood out for me on a very personal level as well.

It’s his description of hearing God’s voice. I know that this is real, because its what I’ve experienced myself. And I’ve described it in exactly the same way – a small voice. When I say I have had God speak to me on a number of occasions, I’m certain this comes across to others as an arrogant statement, that I’m entitled in some way or in my own mind to receive this ‘special’ treatment. The reality of that is, like Mr. Bi it has only occurred in desperate situations.

I think that’s what people don’t understand about hearing God’s voice, because most people, even devout followers, will never hear Him speak. And that is perfectly ok. When you hear Him its only because there is a profound change required of you. And the majority of Christians simply don’t require profound change. You may need encouragement to be sure, but if your faith matches your calling by God and your purpose in life then its not required that He speak to you. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that..

The point I’m trying to make here is there’s nothing lost for most people by not hearing Him speak.

Why..?

Reflect on Mr. Bi’s life. Most people have not lost everything in a moment. Most have not been so far in despair that they’ve considered ending their life. Most people have not had to start a new life of faith that requires 100% of their life dedicated to God.

That is when God speaks.

SESSION NOTES:

No workout this week

Word of the Day (WOD):

This is a test

With human tests, the key is knowing all the answers. But with God’s test, the key is not knowing all the answers.

With God’s test you’ve got to trust God to know the answer.

When God tests us, the test is a trial or some sort of difficulty in your life. The test is a trial used by God to purify and prepare you. In this life you will always being tested. You’re always being prepared. Always being shaped & reshaped.

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)

If you fail to see this then you’ll interpret the challenges in your life as problems without purpose. And we as humans will try to avoid any challenge that’s painful. What we often times fail to remember is there is always purpose in the troubles that come our way. There is PURPOSE in our pain. When your faith is tested your faith has a chance to grow.

The primary way that God grows you is by testing you.

Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, there’s a purpose behind every problem in your life and a chance to learn something from it, and chance to grow. If you can choose to look at it from a faith perspective, then the problems that come into your life are there to test your character and to grow your faith and help you become all that God wants you to be. Become the man God wants you to be and the woman God wants you to be.

So every problem has a purpose, and it’s designed to help you grow.

When God puts you to the test and you pass the test, He blesses you. I have seen this in my own life countless times. I have been severely tested since giving myself to God. However, as hard and as painful as each of these tests has been, when I can keep myself together and keep my faith in God there has always been a reward or blessing at the end of the test. Whether that be spiritual, emotional, financial, or whatever.

The greater your calling in life the greater the tests and the challenges you will face. I believe this one hundred percent, because I have lived it. He’s not coming back with less of a struggle – the only way he’s going to get your faith where it needs to be is to keep pushing you. He tests you, and what happens is the next time the test is stronger because He’s not going to let you allow you to stay where you are. The test could be financial, it could be in your relationships, it could be with your health, with your job, whatever.

Regardless, remember this that God’s for you. He’s working all things our good if we trust Him and rely upon Him.

I wrote about this in my post God’s Waiting Room – God has not forgotten you. You can’t interpret this time of testing as the absence of God, actually just the opposite.

What’s really interesting is the Old Testament word for test comes from a Hebrew word that means to examine, to take a keen look at. So if you’re being tested it is because God is looking at you, He is choosing to prepare you for something in the future. When God spoke to me last year, some months later He spoke to me again and told me exactly what that future was, so I know this to be true. But sometimes in the test the teacher is silent, and you don’t hear anything, you don’t see anything improving, but you have to know in the dark moments God still has you in the palm of his hand.

He knows it’s difficult. He knows you feel overwhelmed. He knows you don’t think you can go on.

Take heart though, as the saying goes weeping endures for a night, but joy is coming in the morning. You have to keep standing one day at a time. Don’t worry about tomorrow, you don’t have grace for tomorrow. Stand today and when you get to tomorrow, you’ll have grace for that day. This is so important to realize. God sees the needs of tomorrow, and accordingly prepares the test. You will never be tested with more than you are able to overcome.

Perhaps you can even get to a point where you say thank you Lord and consider it with joy as the scripture says, when you passed through various types of trials. That you thank God that He would consider you worthy of this test.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

So as you press into the test of today, you trust God in the season of testing, and you trust God for the timing. You may be in this test right now “the when test” where you’ve been waiting for an answer and it doesn’t seem like there’s any end in sight…

When are you going to take care of this problem?
When are you going to take care of this issue?
When are you going to take care of this relationship?
When are you going to take care of my finances?
When are you going to take care of my health?
When are you going to take care of my future?

Faith is waiting for God’s timing & trusting it without knowing when.

Some of us been waiting long time for our prayer to be answered. Its hard, but be patient & trust God for the timing. God is always at work. God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves Him. Our call is simply to wait while God works. You just keep trusting God in the testing. You keep trusting God in the timing. Trust me I know this, when you’re down in the pit there’s only one way to look, and that’s up. You keep looking up and the same God who reached in to rescue Joseph is the God who will reach in to rescue you.

It’s probably be taking longer than you thought, you get tired and say to yourself it’s never going to work out & you’ll never see your family restored – don’t believe those lies… that test is not permanent. God will always give you back way more than He took away from you.

God has already set an end to the difficulty. You have to get your second wind. God didn’t bring you this far to leave you. What he started he’s going to finish. Dig down deep and keep passing the test. Keep thanking Him that it’s on the way. Keep declaring what He promised. Keep believing when you don’t see any sign of it.

So stay in this attitude of faith without knowing when. Faith is expecting a miracle without knowing how. Faith is trusting God’s purpose without knowing why. Faith is continuing to persist without knowing how long.

This is a test.