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Remain

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ~ John 15:4–5

The main point of the lesson is Abide. Abide in me, and I in you. This word abide is the Greek word, μένω which means:

“To remain in a place,” “to tarry,” as opposed to going away.

But before you can remain in a place or tarry in a place, you have to get to that place or be in that place. Therefore, Jesus is also talking to us Christians, those of us who believe in Him and have accepted Him as LORD and Savior. Yes, His words were directed toward the disciples, but they are also meant for us.

We Christians cannot produce good fruit apart from Jesus, who is the Vine, and neither can we have the Holy Spirit, who is the Sap. All of the nutrients come through the Sap, which equates to power. No Spirit. No power.

LORD God, help me to remain in Your love. Help me to understand that there is nothing I can do apart from You. Lead me in the way that I should go, and teach me to follow You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Run With Endurance

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ~ Hebrews 12:1-2

Your best life is ahead of you, not behind you, so don’t look back, keep looking forward. Living in the past or yearning for the past disrupts your future. God has something better for you, but longing for familiarity, disobedience, and fear can disrupt this future.

There is a little phrase that plagues the whole human race, and that is “What if….” It’s so popular that Matthew West has a song called “What If.” What if I can’t? What if they laugh? What if I look foolish? What if I fail? What if… What if…

You cannot get to where God has for you if you are constantly looking backward. Stop thinking about the wrong decisions you have made in life. You can’t change them. Start thinking about the right decisions that you will make in your future. The past is dead and gone; the future is bright and promising in the LORD.

Here is the thing, if you try walking looking behind you, you cannot walk a straight line. You will stray. You will swerve off. Now look forward at a specific point and walk toward that point; you will be able to walk a straight line.

The bottom line is: As Christians, under no circumstances, are we to look back longingly. Under no circumstances are we to stop regretfully! We are to keep moving forward, not backward, but forward toward the prize that is before us. God has greater things than we can imagine in store for us; run toward those things. Now is not the time for stopping and resting. Now is the time for fighting for and running toward the prize.

LORD God, help me to run the race set before me. Help me to look forward instead of backward so that I might run a straight line to You. Please help me to give You my past so that I can receive my present and, one day, my future. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Let Go To Receive

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained. ~ Philippians 3:13–16

Paul said, this one thing I do: I am forgetting everything that has happened to me. All my missed opportunities. All my failures. All my broken dreams. All my hurts. All my pain. All the bad things that have happened to me. Every disappointment. And every teardrop that fell. I’m forgetting all those things, and I’m pressing on to the good things that God has ahead for me. I’m looking forward, not backward.

Is there anything in your past that is worth holding on to? What I mean is this. Is there anything in your past that is worth more than what God has in front of you? What He has in store for us in eternity? I understand that there are some hurts that seem hard to let go of. Maybe a nagging pain when the face of that someone who has done you wrong came into your mind. Or maybe you endured a painful divorce. Or maybe someone willfully slandered you. Maybe someone you cared for betrayed your trust. Or your promotion went to someone way less deserving.

But I want you to know it is not worth holding on to. Now what I want you to do is to symbolically take those thoughts out of your head and crush them. Roll them up in a wad and toss them to one side. Do not look at where it lands because where it lands is where it will stay, and the Holy Spirit will clean up the rest.

You are now forgetting that which is behind you, and you are now looking forward to what is ahead of you. Good things. Bright things. God-centered things.

I want you to make a commitment now that your past will no longer define who you are in Christ. No longer will your past keep you from achieving. No longer will past failures keep you from trying. No longer will the taunts of your past depress you. No longer will whisperings behind your back sidetrack you. No longer will someone else’s carelessly thrown words knock you down. No longer will fear and doubt paralyze you. No longer will popular culture hold you back. No longer will criticisms trip you up. No longer will someone else’s image of you define who you are.

Because no longer will you put the power over your joy, your peace, your life in someone else’s hands. No longer will you let someone else have that kind of power over you to determine these for you. You are a child of God, and it is God who defines who you are. You are blessed and highly favored. God is for you, and He worketh all things to your good. This will be your best year yet. Believe it. Live it.

LORD God, my past is holding me back, so I give it to You. I understand that I can’t receive the good future. You have in store for me if I’m holding on to my past. Help me to not just say I give You my past, but show me how to actually lay it at Your feet. Show me how to move forward, LORD God. I don’t want to live in the past anymore. I want to live in Your perfect and holy will for my life. Help me to do so. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Let Your Faith Lead You

4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 5 and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the Angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’” ~ Genesis 31:4-13

Jacob was an honorable man. He lived his life according to the will of God, and for this, the LORD loved him. Because Jacob put his trust in the LORD, the LORD was always with him no matter where he went or what happened to him. Jacob could have been angry and disgruntled at Laban and allowed the Spirit of Rejection and the Spirit of Resentment to come upon him, but he didn’t. Jacob fully and wholly put his life in the hands of Almighty God. Jacob’s faith kept him from falling into the temptation of the enemy because Jacob understood no matter what Laban or any other man did to him, his life was in the hands of the LORD, and the blessing of the LORD was upon him. Jacob had faith in his blessing.

We’ve all been given blessings. They’re the promises of God written for us in Scripture, but often times we miss out on them for lack of faith. We put our faith in our own abilities or in situations or other people. The only person that can keep your blessing from you is you. Don’t believe the lie that if God has something for you, you’ll receive it no matter what. You have to do something. You have to have faith. You have to continue working regardless of what the enemy tries to take from you. Laban cheated Jacob and changed his wages ten times. If Jacob had given up or gotten upset instead of putting his faith in the LORD, Laban would’ve successfully cheated him, but Jacob stood on his faith in the LORD.

Is there something or someone that keeps cheating you or changing your wages? Does it feel like you’re losing your blessing or your promise, no matter how hard you try? Put your faith in the LORD. Don’t look with your natural eye. Don’t look at the situation you are in. Look at the promise you have been given from God. Keep your focus on His word, and the LORD will bring you through. Keep going. Don’t give up. The LORD will neither leave you nor forsake you.

LORD God, teach me to keep the faith. Help me to focus on your call, blessing, and promise for my life instead of the situation or stumbling block that is in front of me. Help me to not see the times I have been cheated or done wrong. Help me to see what’s on the other side of the obstacle. Please give me the faith to overcome everything the enemy throws at me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Cry Out Again

17 Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem. ~ Zechariah 1:17

The LORD promises that if we cry out to Him, He will hear us, and He will pour His blessing out on us. We almost take for granted what God is actually saying, though. God isn’t just saying to call on His name but to fully and completely humble ourselves before Him. Often times we think that we can live our lives however we want, ask God for something, and then continue living our lives as if He doesn’t exist. But that isn’t at all how it works.

God desires a relationship with you. He isn’t a genie, and neither does He want to be treated as one. God desires for you to want to spend time with Him and get to know Him. That’s when He will bless you when you’re dwelling in His presence. So, when God tells us to cry out. He’s saying to come before Him. Pour out everything we have at His feet. He wants us to say, “Here I am, God. I’ve tried to do this on my own, and I can’t. I need You. You’re the missing piece to make me whole. Please, God, help me.” That’s what God’s looking for. He doesn’t just want us to call on His name to get stuff. He wants us to call on His so that He can come down to us and dwell in our midst.

LORD God, please help me not to take Your mercy and grace for granted. Teach me to empty myself out before You so that You can fill me. Teach me to seek Your presence, Your Spirit, and Your love above all else. Teach me to seek You first. Help me to not see You as just a genie or a get-out-of-jail-free card. Help me to love You the way You deserve to be loved. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Pray That He Might Relent

4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.” ~ Isaiah 38:4-6

Israel had just become overtaken by Assyria, and Judah was next. Hezekiah, king of Judah, was on his deathbed. The LORD had told him that he wouldn’t recover from his illness and that he was going to die. But Hezekiah didn’t take that as just words set in stone. Hezekiah pleaded for mercy from God, reminding God of the good things he had done in his life. Because of Hezekiah’s pleas to God, God relented His hand and spared not only Hezekiah’s life for another 15 years, but Judah wasn’t overtaken by Assyria. Hezekiah’s decision to plead for the mercy of God spared him and his people.

Today, many of us have been given death sentences. They may not be death sentences on our lives, but they’re on our dreams, our promises, our relationships, and our blessings. God has told us that these things shall die and they shall not recover, but if we humble ourselves before the Almighty in repentance and pleas for mercy and grace, the LORD will relent His hand as He did with Hezekiah.

LORD God, please forgive me for turning away from You and opening a spiritual door in my life that has claimed my dreams, promises, relationships, blessings, and even my health. LORD, please have mercy on me. Please give me another chance to follow You with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Please relent Your hand and close the spiritual doors that I’ve forced open with my sin and rebellion. Thank You, LORD God, for Your mercy, Your grace, and Your everlasting love. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for Your precious and Holy blood that redeems me from all of my sin, shame, and disease. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Claim Your Restoration

12 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing. 13 There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you. 14 All your allies have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many. 15 Why do you cry out over your wound, your pain that has no cure? Because of your great guilt and many sins I have done these things to you. 16 But all who devour you will be devoured; all your enemies will go into exile. Those who plunder you will be plundered; all who make spoil of you I will despoil. 17 But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the Lord, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.’ 18 This is what the Lord says: ‘I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on His dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place.’” ~ Jeremiah 30:12-18NIV

Zion, the city of the LORD, has constantly been attacked through the generations since its establishment. Zion has been trampled, and the Temple no longer stands in its place, yet the LORD says He will have compassion on the city of Zion. He will have compassion on His dwelling. He will restore Zion and heal her wounds. This is just a city, but the LORD will restore it. If the LORD has compassion on His city, how much more will He have compassion on His people in whom He dwells?

The LORD promised us restoration from the days of the disciples and the apostles. Restoration for all that we have gone through, from sickness to torment. For by the wounds of Jesus, we have been healed. The chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him. There is restoration for the Church in Christ Jesus. We don’t have to remain wounded beyond repair, as the world tells us. We don’t have to go through life without peace, constantly tormented as the world tells us is normal. No, we have been restored by the LORD God Himself. He bought our freedom, so don’t dwell in slavery. Claim your healing. Claim your freedom. Claim your restoration.

LORD God, help me to claim my healing that You have purchased for me. Help me to claim my peace of mind that You purchased for me. Help me to claim the peace that You gave me that belongs to You. The peace that is Yours, that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away. Teach me how to be restored in You, LORD God. Help me to be transformed by the renewal of my mind through Your precious and Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Faithful As Joseph

39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. 40 You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” 41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. ~ Genesis 41:39-42

Joseph started in Egypt as a slave. His own brothers had sold him into slavery to his cousins (generations removed), who then sold him to an Egyptian. The story of Joseph is definitely a rollercoaster but look at the restoration the LORD gave to Joseph. Only Pharaoh was above him. He was given everything he never had. He was more than just restored. Joseph was elevated beyond belief. He was elevated to the second in command only to Pharaoh himself. In fact, Pharaoh, in verse 44, that he may be Pharaoh, but nothing will be done in Egypt without the permission of Joseph. Pharaoh gave Joseph his authority and power but not his throne. This is an extreme jump from being in prison to being in charge of an entire nation.

Sometimes our seasons feel like they will never end. Like they will never cease because they’re rough, they’re difficult, but the restoration comes in a moment. And when we are restored, we are restored to new heights. But only if we remain faithful to the LORD. The LORD only elevates those who are faithful during difficult times. Those who are faithful in a little because they will also be faithful in a lot. So, if you are going through a season that’s rough and difficult, remain faithful to the LORD. While in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Joseph remained faithful to the LORD, and the LORD honored this. You have to act like Joseph to receive restoration like Joseph.

LORD God, please teach me to remain faithful to you when all things are going wrong. Help me to remain faithful to you when the world seems to be offering me an out to the hard season that I’m in. Transform me through the renewing of my mind and replace my heart of stone for a heart of flesh so that I might love You with everything in me. Be with me in all things, LORD God. Thank You for Your love, mercy, and goodness. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Seek Also In The Valley

10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. 12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days. ~ Job 42:10-17

Job was a man of righteousness and faithfulness to the LORD. Job even sacrificed on behalf of his children just in case they sinned against the LORD. So, when the testing of the Devil came upon him, Job knew it wasn’t punishment from the LORD. Job knew his relationship with God. And because Job knew his relationship with God, Job knew God’s heart. He understood that there had to be another reason why he, an innocent man, was under spiritual attack. And because he knew his God, Job didn’t sin or speak against God during his test.

Some of us are going through a season of testing. We’re under attack by the enemy. Everything is being taken away from us. Finances. Relationships. Blessings. Health. Everything. During these seasons, it’s difficult for us to keep our mouths closed and not speak out against God. This is where Job and the Church today differentiate. So many of us speak against God as Bildad and his friends did. Very few of us refuse to give up. Very few of us turn to God and seek Him in these times. The majority of us blame God and become angry with Him. But look at your actions. Is this a test from God? Or is this an attack of the enemy because you let your walls down? You’ll know the answer by the actions you’ve made prior to this season. Were you faithful? Were you having a true relationship with God? Were you spending time with Him every day?

If you are faithful to the LORD in this season, regardless of how you got there, the LORD will be faithful to you and see you through it. When God restored Job’s fortunes, it wasn’t just the fortunes he had previously lost. God gave Job more than he lost. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, was poured into Job’s lap. Why? Because Job remained faithful to God. He refused to curse God and die. He refused to betray the LORD. He withstood the test, and the LORD restored and rewarded Job’s faithfulness.

So, if you’re in this season of testing, or even if you’re in a season of attack because you opened the door to the enemy, don’t be discouraged. Repent, close the door, and seek the LORD for restoration.

LORD God, please show me the season that I’m in. Show me whether I have opened a door to a spiritual attack or whether I am being tested. LORD, I know that I have sinned because I know that I haven’t yet been fully perfected, so LORD God, forgive me for each sin I’ve committed. Help me to close any door I’ve opened that isn’t of You. Teach me to seek Your face in the valley and in the mountain. Teach me to have a true relationship with You and not just a superficial one. Help me to trust You and love You the way that You deserve. Please help me to never take You for granted, so that when you take me through this season the restoration might also be of my soul and spirit. Thank You for Your love, mercy, and grace. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Bring Your Appeals

1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years.” 2 So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. 3 And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. 4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.” ~ 2 Kings 8:1-6

Elisha, the prophet, warned the Shunammite woman that a famine was coming, but when she returned after the famine, her home and land were no longer hers. The Shunammite woman was a wealthy woman, so leaving all of her land and her home behind to become a sojourner in the land of the Philistines for seven years wasn’t easy, but she wholeheartedly trusted the man of God. Now that the seven years of famine were over and she returned home, her home and her land weren’t even hers anymore.

This is how it is with us sometimes. The LORD sends us a warning, so we try to react to this warning, but maybe we make a mistake, and when we return, all we have left is gone. Or maybe we do exactly as the LORD tells us, and all we have left is still gone. But don’t be discouraged. Look what the Shunammite woman did. She didn’t gripe. She didn’t get angry. She didn’t get discouraged. She went to the king of Israel to appeal for her land, and her land was restored to her as she left, plus the seven years of production from the land while she was gone.

Sometimes when we follow God, the LORD allows for the enemy to swoop in and collect our land. Collect our home. Collect our job. Collect our blessing while we are away, but when we go before Him and appeal, the LORD has mercy and grace. Why? Look at who introduced the Shunammite woman to the king, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God. The king might not have given the woman such a favorable response to her request if it were not for Gehazi explaining who she was to him. And just as Gehazi went before the Shunammite woman and, in a sense, spoke on her behalf, an even better spokesman speaks on our behalf.

Jesus, God incarnate, went before us into the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Heaven and spoke on our behalf. He tells the King who we are. We aren’t just someone He healed; we are the very children of God adopted in through His precious blood and His Holy Spirit. So, how much more would the King of kings give to His children? The king gave the woman all she left and all that was produced while she was gone, and he only knew of her because of the word of Gehazi. The King of kings knows who we are because He died for us and washed us in His precious and Holy blood. So, again I ask, how much more would the King of kings give to His children?

When the enemy swoops in to take something from you, it’s only for a season. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t become angry. Take it straight to the LORD. What has the enemy stolen from you? Lay it at the feet of Jesus. Bring an appeal to the LORD. Don’t waste any time, for you are more than just a common person. You are a child of Almighty God.

LORD God, help me return to my promised land so I can see what the enemy has taken. Please restore to me all that the enemy has taken from me. Finances. Assets. Investments. Jobs. Blessings. Be with me, LORD God, as I return to my promised land. Defend me as I bring forth my appeals. Teach me how to never give up. Teach me to be like the Shunammite woman and never become discouraged by my circumstances but always seek after You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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