God of infinite love, pour out Your love on this dear readere today; may all s/he faces be done with the sure knowledge that You are with them. In Christ Jesus' precious name, amen.
Special Prayer Request for dear friends, Tommy & Tricia in a need in their lives.
You can't beat God! That was one of my "share" moments, when I ask you to tell your neighbor, and in this case, tell your neighbor, "You can't beat God!" In many, and all ways, that is true. You can't beat God in love, generosity, grace, peace, compassion, mercy, etc. and etc. In the way I meant it, when it comes to wrestling with God, YOU CAN'T BEAT GOD!
We just started a special summer series called "Wrestling With God." Yesterday's inaugural sermon was on Wrestling with Obedience. It was based on "Mom and Dad," aka Adam and Eve and their incident in the Garden with the talking serpent. The serpent twisted everything around, claimed to know what it was talking about, and caused both of them to disobey God and sin. That first sin, disobedience, stayed with us to this day. We laughed at the part where the famous "hand-off" takes place. God asks Adam what he's done, he points to Eve, and says those wonderful lines, "That woman YOU gave me, it's her fault!" The woman turns to the serpent and in a take-off that comedian Flip Wilson would use in the 60s TV character, "The devil made me do it!"
James in his letter to Christian readers says, " No one, when tempted, should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15 then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death." It's true. I shared a story I'd never shared before from my teenaged years; I didn't blame God but I took along my younger brother to make sure I didn't sin alone and that if caught, he could take some of the heat from me. I was very stupid to follow my "own desire," and not the path I knew God wanted me to take. I did not love, trust, and obey God as I should.
Those three things were stressed as the remedy to disobedience. Number one, know that God loves you enough to provide everything for you. With that assurance you move to number two, trust God. If someone loves you enough to provide for you, you can trust that person. If God loves us with a love not found on this world other than in Him, how you can you NOT trust God? Number three, obey! "For there's no other way," the hymn says so perfectly, "to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."
PRAYER: God of love, thank You for loving me and being there for me. I confess that I have often given in to my desires rather than seeing what it is that would best glorify You. I ask forgiveness and I ask that I might be more the person of obedience today than ever before. Help me to be grounded in You. I pray this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
