The Secret of Godly Success

Self Doubt can be overcome! Photo Credit: Creative Commons

 “God doesn't require us to succeed, He only requires that you try.” Mother Teresa 

Selling Myself Short

I have been beating myself up lately. Picking on my ideas, and criticizing my goals. Who am I to want to write a book? Why are my ideas so important I want to share them with the world?

The answer of course is I am a child of God. Created for a purpose. I've been given a mission. I must try to do what I can to get the message out, because it isn't really my message. It is God's.

There is nothing new under the sun. God has been working toward one goal since the fall in the garden: the restoration of mankind into right relationship with Him. I have a small part to play in spreading that message so others can grow closer to God.

I am no Paul. I am no Peter. I am no Billy Graham, or Amy Grant, or Joyce Meyer, or any of the other people I admire. I am me.

And you are you. Made for a purpose. Born with a unique calling: to be who God made you to be and to share that with others so God gets the glory.

Encountering Resistance 

There was a man named Nehemiah. He had a job working for one of the most powerful men in the world. He was good at his job, he was even friends with his boss. Then he began to feel a tug. A call to do something big. A mission to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. He was changing. 

He  traveled thousands of miles only to find resistance. From officials, and from enemies. But he did not give up, he tried anyway. 

He gathered the resources and he worked 24/7. He recruited everyone he could to help. He became foreman of one of the largest construction jobs in history. 

And he nearly failed. 

Enemies worked against him. Rumors flew. He had to work with a shovel in one hand and a sword in the other just to get the work done. So what did he do? 

He prayed. 

Sometimes resistance comes from within: like the doubts I have experienced. Sometimes resistance comes from our co-workers who wanted the promotion you just got. Perhaps you are experiencing resistance from a family member who does not support your dreams like you want them to.

Where ever the resistance comes from you have to press through it. 

Do Not Give Up

So what you get knocked around a bit. What is a bruise in the grand scheme of eternity? Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again. What you do now, this great thing you are doing, will reverberate through time. This will be a legacy that will live through eternity. What you do now is what matters! 

Whether you are trying to be the next great American novelist or just be a Godly parent, your purpose is worth working and fighting for. Like Nehemiah, you may need a shovel in one hand and a sword in the other, but do not give up! 

Keep pressing in and pressing on! Keep going! Don't stop! Don't listen to the detractors, shush the voices that tell you "you can't"! You can! You have a purpose, you matter! 

God's promises are yes and amen! He has a plan for you. He makes your paths straight and lines up your footsteps. Trust in Him and go, go, go! The real success is in the trying. 

Join the conversation: Do you struggle with moments of self-doubt? How do you pick yourself up? 

Grass for the Donkey: Gas for the Dodge

He's Still Working On Me

God is not finished with us yet. 

That childhood song “He’s Still Working on Me” goes through my head. 

Thank God He is, because I know I need it. 

 God’s word says in Isaiah 55 that His word will not return void, but will accomplish what He intends it to and his word will prosper what he sent it to. 

God is faithful. 

Waiting

Waiting is work and it means we should be like Jesus, about His Father’s business. (Luke 2:49) At twelve, Jesus was not ready for the fulfillment of God’s purpose for Him, but He was BUSY doing and practicing what He had been called to do. 

“Pursue the desire of your heart in the name of Jesus, giving glory to God in both the big and the small things, and you will be in the will and call of God for your life” (Jimmy Kirby) 

When we walk in grace, the Holy Spirit is there to guide us through life. With a faithful teacher that shows us the way, our way is clear. Now I want to look at what it means when we walk the path God chooses for us.

 Isaiah 30:18-25. (The Message)

 But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right-everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones. 19 Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find its grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer. 20 just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, 21 urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road."22 You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!" 23 God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. 24 oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well 25 near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills.

Verse 22 says we will scrap our god-images. The King James says graven images, and it means that we will turn away from the idols we have put above our relationship with God, and sometimes, above God himself. When we truly pursue God, we prioritize our life in a different way. Philippians 3 13-16 (The Message) says

 I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back.So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you'll see it yet! Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it.

Running the Race

 Running the race means adjusting our stride sometimes. A friend of mine just ran a race called The Tough Mudder. While the name is unfortunate, the race is one tough cookie: a half marathon that has a massive obstacle course full of mud, ice, monkey bars, electricity, and much more. He ran it with a group and he and one of his teammates had a tough time with the actual running because they caught the giggles. Giggles and running do not mix well, so they had to adjust, and refocus. But a race well run and enjoyed is worth a stitch in our side, right? 

Paul thought so.

Now as we look at verses 23-25 we notice that God is faithful to provide for and even prosper His children as they faithfully follow Him. The imagery here is both poetically beautiful and spiritually practical. God meets our needs. He gives us seed to sow. ( Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; 2 Corinthians 9:10) And HE provides the increase. 

A farmer plants, but he cannot make the seed grow, God does that! When we try to do things on our own, we get inferior product, if we have any success at all. This is where waiting is such a blessing. When we wait we allow God to do his part, and increase the provision and blessings in our lives. Our “grain will be abundant’.

Hee-Haw! 

I get a real kick out of the last two verses. Our oxen and donkeys, those things we use to haul our stuff back and forth, our forms of conveyance, (I think we use cars these days) will be well fed, near brooks that flow freely. As we do the work of waiting, we need supplies, and getting those things back and forth has a cost. God promises that the cost of those supplies will be met. So, if God asks us to travel around preaching the word, He will provide the way to get there. At least, this is my interpretation of these verses. 

Grass for the donkey equals gas for the Dodge. TWEET THAT

 I love my Father’s sense of humor and His faithfulness to His children!

No wonder this passage says he who waits is the lucky one. When we wait on God to show His faithfulness, we are the recipients of His blessings. God is for us. He will never forsake us. He has plans for us. Rejoice in that, and learn to wait. Pursue Him in your waiting time, and allow Him to prosper you until your purpose and dreams come true.

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember wait is an ACTION verb!

Do you have a hard time "waiting"? 

Waiting is Work!

We talked yesterday about God’s timing and how He wants us to wait. Waiting is an active service to God though, and not sitting on our backsides twirling our thumbs.  

Let’s look at the text again. Isaiah 30:18. (The Message) But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right-everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones. 19 Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find its grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer. 20 just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, 21 urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road."22 You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!" 23 God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. 24 oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well 25 near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills.

Now let’s look at verses 19 and 21. First, I feel like I should say that Ecclesiastes is clear about there being a time for everything at one time or another and there is a time for crying, but there is a time for rejoicing too. Here I believe God is saying that time begins when we FIND GRACE. What does this mean? Well I believe it means salvation. The children of Israel were locked in the law, a cyclical situation that could never truly bring freedom. Grace, salvation, comes when we cry out to God and once freedom is received no one can take it away. (Ephesians 2:8-9)  When we cry out to God, He hears, and He moved toward us. (Luke 15:11-32)

So now that God has moved toward us, brought us salvation through grace (Romans 3:22-25) what does He do next? Because salvation IS NOT enough, If it was, God  would immediately take us to heaven the moment we were saved and over half of the New Testament would not have needed to be written. Once we are saved, God gives us a teacher: the Holy Spirit.  20 just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, 21 urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road. “

I Corinthians 2:13 (KJV) says “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

So now when we think about waiting, it is not such a lonely existence. We have already said we should be moving, but we do not do it alone. We move and breathe IN HIM and HIM in us. (Acts 17:28)  As He guides and teaches us what path to take the Spirit is a vital part of our lives as Christians. When we look at the word for Spirit in Strong’s Concordance (4151) it says this: the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes his personality and character (the \\Holy\\ Spirit) sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes his work and power (the Spirit of \\Truth\\) the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ

He will tell us what paths to avoid and most importantly He will show us which one to take.  The Holy Spirit will lead us the WAY we should go while we wait. I call this Server training. Stay with me…

A server (that politically correct word for waiter) is only as good as his/her training. If he has never been taught to serve from the right side, then he might make his guests uncomfortable or worse yet, mistakenly spill hot food on someone. We are the same. We must be trained (taught) by the Holy Spirit to do things the right way: God’s way.  Who do we serve? Well we serve God by serving one another. (Mark 10:45) No matter what your “dream” is that you are waiting on, you must train. Yesterday we talked about the runner, training for a marathon, today a waiter, serving the body. Do you get the theme? Waiting is work. I am reminded of Nehemiah 6::9. The enemy has tormented us into believing that waiting means being forgotten, and even abandoned. We must remember that WAITING really means working, and we must ask God to strengthen our hands for the task.

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember that training is work and work is a verb! 

What do you mean You want me to WAIT???

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

God takes the time to do everything right! 

EVERYTHING!

So what about your dream?

You know that one thing you have secretly held in your heart, that thing that no one but you and God knows about that seems like it will never happen: What about THAT? 

Doesn't God give us the desires of our hearts? Yep, but it takes patience, because believe it or not, (and I hope you do) God’s timing is perfect. 

So let’s talk about waiting. 

O no! What a dirty word! Waiting. Oops, did it again! 

That word has caused more melt-downs than any I can think of. We hate to wait. Christian or not, people are impatient; especially Americans. Somehow we have the false notion that first, the customer is always right, and second that we should have what we want 2 seconds after we ask for it. We have been conditioned to being waited on and we need to learn to wait. But, this is not going to be about the practical applications of patience, though we all need to learn that lesson, myself included (believe me), but this will be a closer look at learning to trust God’s timing and what real “waiting” is.

Isaiah 30:18. (The Message) But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right-everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones. Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find its grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road." You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!" God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills.

Did you think I was making this waiting thing up? Nope, I wouldn’t do that to you. But this week we will break this passage down bit by bit and when it is all said and done; we can "geek out" together over the great things we have learned and the exciting things God has for us that are still to come.


Today we will look at this: God is not finished with you and I. 

The finished work is the Cross. He sent Jesus to die for our sin so first we could be redeemed (bought, purchased back from death) and second so we could become the sons and daughters of God. But you and I are His workmanship, like fine art pieces that take time to sculpt cure, and fire before they are priceless works.(Ps 139:14, Ephesians 2:10) Keep in mind, He is our potter, we are the clay. (Isaiah 64:8)

Sculpting a Work of Art

I know a little about sculpting because I loved to sculpt in college. This involves pounding the clay out, beating it on the table, shaping it with hands and other hard tools, sometimes even cutting away large chunks of clay all together. OUCH. 

And that is just the first part of sculpting: there is curing, which involves being left up on the shelf for a long period of time slowly drying out. Then there is glazing, which means you get dunked in muck, slathered in slime and left to dry again. And the most difficult part is the firing. Temperatures get so hot and pressure so high in the firing that only the strongest and well-formed pieces come out without cracks. 

Sound like something you are ready to sign up for? 

With a Master craftsman working on us, the outcome will be worth it! What if I told you that in this final state, after all the work was done, you would bring glory to your Creator? Interested now? The process is the hard, but necessary part, and we often become impatient to get to the end without the willingness to go through the “creative process”. That is why the passage says the ones who do wait on Him are the lucky ones.


So does that mean we just sit around waiting for some burning bush moment before we get to begin to live our dream, before we get to be that masterpiece? Nope. Let’s look at what wait means in the original Hebrew. Wait means to wait (duh), to tarry, (hang around) to long for (those heart’s desires) and it comes from a root word that means to carve out, to engrave (To achieve our dreams there has to be some preparation right?) So while we wait there is work to be done!

But Wait! There's More!

They that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength… (Is 40:31) But it doesn’t stop right there. They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.


There are things to do in the waiting, running the race God set before us and walking out our faith daily. You don’t prepare for a half marathon by simply reading about it, dreaming about it and talking about it. You practice running, you feed your body what it needs, and you don’t slack off just because it isn’t a full marathon or a cross-country event in the Olympics - you know- those things you “dreamed” about doing all your life.

In Pursuit of More

I want to close with this. Years ago, a man who spoke a tremendous amount into my life through Bible School, and later when I was a praise and worship leader at his church, told me something I will NEVER forget. 

“Pursue the desire of your heart in the name of Jesus, giving glory to God in both the big and the small things, and you will be in the will and call of God for your life”- Pastor Jimmy Kirby.

Pursue is defined as this: to follow in order to overtake, chase. 2. To follow close upon 3. To strive to gain; seek to attain or accomplish (an end, object, purpose, etc.). 4. To proceed in accordance with (a method, plan, etc.). 5. To carry on or continue (a course of action, a train of thought, an inquiry, studies, etc.).

So when we look at the journey, THEN waiting becomes not just sitting around, but actively pursuing the things of God in our lives and continually striving for that dream He put in our heart in the first place. 

If we want to become His workmanship we have to understand The Master’s creative process. While you walk the path God has for you, and you faint not, you will find (much to your joy) that He gives above and beyond all we could ask or think. The dream you thought was the culmination of all you wanted to become may just be the beginning of what He is doing.

Do you have a "waiting" story?