"The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Psalm 90:10 On a yardstick, our lives on this earth take up 1/16th of an inch, and then we "fly away." The rest is eternity. How important then, to find out here what it's all about. Life is so short. Then eternity ...Is forever. The status of a believer's life in eternity depends on how well he finished boot camp. It's not a matter of salvation, that's an entirely different issue, this message is to those who are saved. One's status in eternity will depend on the degree to which he grew in the Lord and fulfilled God's plan for his life. We spend our lives here in boot camp. Why? There are things that can only be learned in this present life. In heaven, you can't learn unconditional love because there's no one there to frustrate you or cause you pain. You can only learn unconditional love by achieving it here, in the settings of stress and frustration. Growing in the ability to love unconditionally is a great, VERY great virtue in God's eyes. Another purpose for believer's boot camp is to learn how to walk by faith. In heaven all is provided freely, there's no unseen circumstance calling for the walk of faith. Only here can we learn to walk in God's Word when things seem bleak or when we're presented with circumstances we don't understand. It is in this life that we learn and grow, only here can one acquire "treasure in heaven." “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; BUT LAY UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES IN HEAVEN, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21 Picture yourself on the day you stand before the Lord in heaven. There you will see what "could have been" had you used your days on earth wisely. If you think that you might have regret, now is the time to change that. Now is the time to get with the program. "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12 Pray with me: Father, the cares of this world force me to place my focus on them. I'm so involved in the things I have to do, that I have very little time for you. I pray you Father, get the message across to me that it is of the utmost importance that I place my concentration on the things I need to learn as I walk through boot camp. Help me to bring YOU into all that I do, all that I care about, every circumstance in life, so that I be not consumed with anxieties and cares, but instead that I might learn what it is you would have me learn in each of the stories of my life. Help me be mindful that every event in my life has been ordained by you, and has been ordained with PURPOSE. Father, I don't want to have REGRET when I stand before you and see what "could have been." Help me, oh help me Lord to embrace all the circumstances that come my way and to use each one to grow in them with a totally surrendered heart. Help me to be willing for you to change me. Instead of fighting my circumstances, help me to allow you to grow me up in the faith. I only have one shot at this, Father, please help me to make it a good one. In Jesus's name I pray.
"Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I keep your Word."
Psalm 119:67
Because of his fallen condition, man is by nature a rebel, he is by nature self-willed He is by nature filled with pride. All descended from Adam are born in a fallen human nature, and their hearts are prone to evil. Put two little children in a room with one toy, and you'll instantly see the fallen human nature exposed.
We are born into this world and we learn the principles of the world from the perspective of how we can get what we want out of life. Before one is born again, his world is all about himself. His spirit is dead and he only resists sin when he fears he would be caught in it. Secretly, it's all about him, and it's all about how he can get his way with a smile on his face.
That's why Jesus said that we MUST be born again; as long as we live in the fallen human nature we are doomed to its fallenness - and to its judgment. To bring someone to be born again usually takes the shock of affliction. And what a shock it is when a man's plans are interrupted by calamity. It sends him into a tailspin. He may recover from the calamity and go on with his life - only to be shocked with another one. And this is where many may turn their hearts to God. When the heartache in life overwhelms him, then he might think of God, and often that's the whole point of the affliction.
vs 71-72:
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
that I may learn your statutes.
The law of your mouth is better to me
than thousands of coins of gold and silver."
A person who turns to the Lord in pain and humbles himself before God - this is the person whom God will prepare to be able to receive the revelation of who God is, who we are, what we're here for, what it's all about, where we're going and how we're to get there.
It takes pain to humble a successful person. It takes pain to direct his heart to what is truly important in life.
The person who does humble himself before God will discover there's a whole new life waiting for him. He will seek not his own goals, but will open his heart to the plan God has perfectly fitted him for. Understand this: there IS a plan perfectly fitted for each individual and the wise will seek to know from God what that plan is. Once he is firmly planted in that plan, he will come into a joy and happiness that he never knew possible before. He will find satisfaction in the purpose God planned for him, and then he will realize that the pain in his life was necessary, or he never would have gotten there. He looks back and blesses God who faithfully applied the distress that was needed to bring him to repentance. And his heart will swell with thanksgiving.
vs 75:
"I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right,
and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me."
For many believers looking back on their own story, they see that had the Lord allowed them to continue as they were going, it might have destroyed them because ...Satan has a plan for each one's life too, and that plan is to bring him to destruction.
Jesus said of Satan:
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly."
John 10:10
When a person is born again, he is taken out of the kingdom of darkness which is under the authority and direction of Satan (2nd Corinthians 4:4) and into the Kingdom of God. He has learned that it's not religion, it's relationship. God is no longer his judge, he becomes his Savior. He has learned that it's all about the Word of God. To repeat that emphatically, it's ALL about the Word of God. The Word of God becomes his life, and in it he will find life far more abundantly.
"Unless your law had been my delight,
I would then have perished in my affliction.
I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have given me life."
Psalm 119:92-93
The stories of the Old Testament are picture lessons for us. "For whatever things were written before were written FOR OUR LEARNING, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." Romans 15:4 Through the stories of Israel for example, God has presented a picture of the kind of warfare we're in. King David was up against a giant by the name of Goliath. The giants were true giants, tribes of them. We see a similar picture again in another story - Moses sends spies to scout out the land and most of them came back saying they couldn't take that land because there were giants there. This was no allegory, they WERE true giants. The spies said they were as grasshoppers before those giants, and so they were. “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the GIANTS... and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13:32-33 Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb - who also saw the giants - spoke a different word, they said "Let's go," BECAUSE they knew that it was God himself who was bringing them to this land, so it would be God himself who would give them victory. David wasn't afraid of the giant Goliath. He knew that anyone who came against God's people and boasted how he was going to destroy them - was no match for the God of Israel. With a few stones, David toppled that giant, and then took the giant's sword and killed him with his own sword! Are there giants in your life? Things that are just too powerful against you? God has showed you from his Word that you are not to fear them, but that you are to seek the Lord as to HOW to defeat them. The Old Testament stories of victory over giants is a picture of your victory over the giants in your life. "But," you say, "the circumstances in my life are complicated, they are too big for me." That's the whole point - God has shown us that we WILL be come against by giants that truly ARE too big for us. And God knows that there's no way you have the strength or the wisdom to overcome them. You don't. But he does. And you have to show which of the spies you are - one of those who refused to encounter them, or are you the Joshua or Caleb who said "Let's go" because they knew that what God said - will be! But first, you need to receive God's strategy for overcoming your giant. When the children of Israel were up against Jericho, the Lord told them to walk around the city blowing trumpets. He told them exactly how many times to do that, and explained to them the details. They followed the details exactly, and those walls came down. In other words, God used a strategy that made no common sense in order to accomplish the victory. That's why it's supremely important that you get the strategy from him - sometimes what he will tell you to do will make no common sense. But as surely as he is God, you can trust that if you follow what he tells you to do, that wall will come down, that enemy will be defeated. So - how does one receive the particular strategy needed? The one element you have to put into the story is your TIME. You have to take the giant to the Lord and pray, and seek the Lord's face, and wait upon him to show you how to proceed. It takes TIME, and to some people that's a hard thing to give. But unless you receive from the Lord the direction he will give, you won't be able to do it on your own. Set aside some time to spend before the Lord. Get down on your knees and bow before him. Acknowledge him as Almighty God, your Lord, your shield, your fortress, the God in whom you trust. Empty your mind of YOUR ways, your imaginations, the ways YOU would approach the problem, and seek instead HIS way, ask him to show you exactly what to do - and if he tells you to go dunk yourself in a river with mud on your eyes, then put mud on your eyes and go dunk yourself in the river. Whatever he shows you to do, do it. "He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.' ...So he went and washed, and came back seeing." John 9:6-7 The ways of God are not the ways of man. He alone can defeat your enemies, but it has to be his way. Your way won't work, and I suggest that you already know that, because your ways have not worked until now. His ways though, are sure. He never fails.