June 22, 2014 · 6:31 AM

Haiti Day 4: Feeding The Least Of These

20140622-071834-26314214.jpg

Day four started out like most days. We were up early, ate breakfast and had a morning devotion. We heard from one of our team members about I Corinthians 13:1-3. It doesn’t matter what we do on this trip or back home. If we don’t do it in love, it’s not worth anything. We were challenged to look at our motivations in helping these orphans. We also shared some take aways and what God spoke to us the night before.

We went back to the Gonaives orphanage to continue the paint job. The day before, we had done cut work and trim work. Today, we had to retouch, finish cutting and then start painting the walls. The children loved the bright yellow that we were painting. We also painted the outside wall to the orphanage so that the entrance would stand out on the street. The staff seemed to enjoy it as well.

We took a break from painting when it got close to noon. We loaded up in the trucks and drove across town. We went into the poorest part of Gonaives to a place called Raboto. It sits right on the ocean and is where a lot of fishermen are. The beaches are covered in the filthiest trash you can imagine. There are pigs roaming around eating what they want. Broken boats and boats that look broken are also strewn about the beach. Children are running around in all of it as well. Their houses, made of tin, line the beach and have walls up to keep them from seeing it directly.

It’s in a place like this that our team not only encountered Jesus, but became His hands and feet. We weren’t going just to see how the poorest people live. We were taking them food. About 150 children crowded into the room where we were setting up to feed them. They were singing and laughing. The energy level was high. You sense how excited they were. Our being there meant that they were going to get to eat that day. Their parents have barely enough money to feed themselves, let alone their children. This food is the only meal most of these kids will get.

I watched as a couple of them brought other containers with them. When they were handed their food, they carefully split it up and put some into the other container. I thought, “Wow! That kid is taking their parents some food.” As I watched a couple more kids do it, I remembered that it was Saturday. We typically bring food in Monday through Saturday. That meant these kids were rationing their food so they would have some the next day when we don’t feed them. It broke my heart to see that.

After our team served these children lunch, I took them to the back to show the school we had built. Since so many children were coming each day for food, we decided to provide them with an education that they couldn’t otherwise afford. I had them look at the beach and pointed a few hundred yards away to the salt flats. There, people dig holes so when the tide comes in and goes back out, they are filled with water that drains into the earth leaving salt behind. It was there that our youngest orphan was abandoned by his parents. He had been left to let the tide take him out. God ordained that a fisherman would come into that spot and hear his cry. His life was rescued.

We went back to the orphanage to continue painting and doing crafts with the kids. We came back to the guesthouse to clean up, have dinner and devotions. God moved again during our time of honoring Him. The message we heard was simple. God wants to use what we have. We heard stories of an 8 year old holding a concert in their front yard to raise money for orphans. We heard about a 16 year old who raised $16,000 in two months to be able to outfit and paint every room in the Myan orphanage. We also heard of a dentist who took 100% of what came in on one day at his practice and donated it.

Each of us have something we can give God. The less we have in our hand to give Him, the greater the miracle He can do. He is looking for us to offer Him our everything instead of excuses of why we can’t do anything. He is looking for people who will listen to what He wants to do through them in their community and then to step out and do it. Each one of us are able to reach people that others can’t. Each one of us have God given ideas. If God gives them to you, He wants you to do them. He’s not asking you to tell someone else to do it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have enough in your hand to make it happen. Step out in faith and let Him work. If He gives the vision, He’ll make the provision.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 21, 2014 · 5:50 AM

Haiti Day 3: God Refreshes Us

20140621-064801-24481914.jpg

Exhausted. Tired. Wore out. These words aren’t strong enough to describe how this team felt at the end of yesterday. Have you heard the saying, “Leaving it all out on the field”? That’s what this team did yesterday. They worked their hearts out in the hot, Haitian sun. They gave everything that was in them to these orphans and God has rewarded them. When they were tired, they kept going. When they wanted to take a break, the kids kept coming up for love. At the end of the day, everyone was talking about an early bedtime.

We started by eating an early breakfast. We separated into three teams who each had a different purpose and team leads. We loaded the trucks with the supplies we needed for the day’s work and then headed to the Gonaives orphanage. As we pulled up, you could hear the excitement in the children on the other side of the gate. We went over the plan one more time before the gates were opened. As we walked in, the kids grabbed our hands and asked to be held. We sat down with them and then explained we had a surprise for them.

On my last trip, we took many of these children out to Myan to see the new orphanage and to play with them. They’ve heard stories about that orphanage so we thought we’d introduce them. As they walked around it, many kept talking about how nice it was. One even asked if they had TV’s. They began comparing it to their home. So on this trip, we decided we would paint their home and make it look nice. They cheered when they heard the news. We told them that they were going to go play with one team while the other two painted.

After painting the window frames and trim all day, I met with the missionaries and we decided to take the team to the ocean to swim and cliff dive. We made the drive winding down a dirt road through the beautiful scenery. It took about an hour to get there. We unloaded and then had to walk down a beach and over a half mile of boulders with jagged edges. Our knees and hands were skinned up. Our bodies were covered in paint. As hard as it was to get there, we all made it to the cliff. People who were tired became exhausted. The ocean waves became more difficult to swim in as the tide came in.

Jumping off the cliff into the water was fun though. It was an exhilarating reward for the work it took to get there. I jumped off with my sister in law. We were among the last to jump. We counted to three and over the side we went. It seemed like forever until we hit the water. When we did, we must have gone under around 20 feet. It took a while to come back up. When we did, I grabbed her and we decided to try to swim around a big rock and head for shore. The more we tried, the harder it got. Fear set in. Hopelessness started to creep up. Our exhaustion was beginning to overpower us. The waves and current were stronger than we could manage and the group had already moved on.

We made our way to a rock. The edges cut our hands as we tried to hold onto it. The waves hot us and pushed us into it time and time again. We stopped and prayed for peace, wisdom and safety. She said, “We have to get on this rock.” I made my way up it and pulled her up too. We then started to make our way back to the rocks that would lead us to the group. We got the attention of one of them and he stayed back to help us navigate through the boulders. She said, “Jumping was the easy part.” If you’ve ever stood on a 30 foot cliff and thought about jumping, you know the first time isn’t easy.

We arrived home, changed clothes and went to dinner. The team was beginning to ask if we could just have our nightly devotion at the restaurant. We toyed with it, but decided it was best to keep the routine. We arrived home and headed for the balcony. As we began to sing the first song, I recognized there was something different about this service. During the second song, one of the missionaries spoke what God told him. We began to push into God’s presence despite our exhaustion. We sang louder than before. Our hearts opened wider to receive from God. People stood in the street and watched as we worshiped corporately.

Mike Reizner spoke up and shared how in Acts 4 it talks about the disciples praying and being filled with the Holy Spirit. They had already been filled in Acts 2. Why did it mention that they were filled again? It was because when you give out what is in you, you need to be filled again and again. We had given everything in us and all needed to be filled up again. We were on empty. One by one people walked into the middle and we prayed over them. The presence of God was thick and refreshing. We could have stayed on that balcony all night singing and praying.

As I spoke to them, I remembered what Isaiah 40:31. It reads, “He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon GOD get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind (MSG).” I recited it to them and reminded them how tired we all were. No one wanted to go to bed at that point. Everyone was energized by God’s presence. We refreshed and renewed. We’ll need it because we are only half way done.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 20, 2014 · 5:48 AM

Haiti Day 2: Worship With Our Lives

20140620-064834-24514382.jpg

We started day 2 early. After breakfast, we loaded the trucks to head to Gonaives. We stopped outside of Port au Prince to pay respects to the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives in the 2010 earthquake. One of our Haitian guides shared his story of living through it and what life was like during that time. I’m humbled every time I step foot on the ground where so many were just dumped in a field because there was no time to bury them all. As our guide put it, “It doesn’t matter if you were rich or poor, Haitian or not, upper class or lower class, you were buried here.”

We left the gravesite and took the winding road between the coast and the mountains to the northwest of Haiti. We made our way through street markets full of people buying and selling, we drove through small towns and big towns, through the mountains and farm lands to make our way to Gonaives. We were greeted at the guest house by applause and shouts of “Welcome home” from the Coreluv interns. The weariness from the hours of travel seemed to melt away as we backed the truck into the gate.

We headed out to Myan after we unloaded all of our bags. When we arrived, we were greeted by local children who followed us up a hill to pray over the orphanage and their village. Mike Reizner, founder of Coreluv, shared the story of how God provided miracle after miracle to take a dream He placed in his heart to turn into the orphanage and school that was below. He also shared the parts of the dream that had not been realized yet. We then prayed for, prophesied over and blessed the area of Myan. As I prayed, God reminded me that He is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides.

We went down the hill and walked through the gates of the orphanage. I watched as members of this team grabbed these orphans in their arms and began to love on them and play with them. Within minutes, one young child had fallen asleep on one of our team members. The others began to play chase, ride bikes, and held the kids. After some private time with the orphans, some took them out of the gates and started a soccer match with the local children. It was hot, dusty and we were exhausted from traveling, but everyone played with the kids.

After a few hours, we made our way back to the guesthouse, got cleaned up and had dinner. Afterwards, we met on the balcony for nightly devotions. We were reminded that everything we had done that day with those orphans was an act of worship. When you love the least of these, when you give them a cup of cold water, you’ve done it unto The Lord. Singing is a type of worship, but true worship comes from our lives and actions. We honor God most when we live like He wants us to.

Mike shared the story of Moses and the burning bush. He was called to deliver his people, but he had run away from his calling and got stuck in a routine in the desert. When God told him to go back to Egypt, he asked God four questions:
1. “Who shall I say sent me?” He was really asking God, “Who are you?” God responded, “I Am That I Am.” He was basically saying, “I’m all you need.”

2. “Who am I that you would send me?” God believes in us when we don’t believe in ourselves. He has orchestrated our lives to live out our calling. He’ll search and find us to return us to our calling.

3. “What do I do?” God responded with, “What’s in your hand?” Everything Moses needed to accomplish what God had for him was already in his hand. God took that shepherd’s staff and turned it into a snake, split the Red Sea, brought water out of a rock and so much more with it.

4. “Who can go with me?” God had already sent Aaron to help Moses. God never gives you a calling without giving you people. He puts relationships into your calling to guide you, support you and help you.

Each of us are called to do something. We are called to worship God with our lives. He has given us the tools we need and the people around us to help us accomplish it. We simply need to quit making excuses and hiding in our routines to keep from doing it. Our lives honor Him most when we fulfill what we were made to do. Our lives become worship when we walk in accordance with our calling. Each of us were made to worship with our lives.

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

June 19, 2014 · 5:46 AM

Haiti Day 1: Called To Do Something

20140619-064508-24308570.jpg

The first day in Haiti is always a long one. We arrived at the church at 3:30 in the morning to head for the airport. We had a quick layover in Miami before boarding another plan to Port au Prince. We were delayed for what seemed like hours before take off. In reality, it was only about 30 minutes. We were so excited to get here. When the plane finally took off, there was a sense of relief. We arrived safely and got through customs with no problems. After stopping for a quick lunch, we headed to Miss Dorothy’s Faith, Hope, Love Infant Rescue center.

She and her team care for children with medical conditions that cost more than their parents can afford. Our team got right to work loving on each of these kids and began to play with them. It started off with the orphans coming up and sitting with our team. It quickly turned into chasing, soccer, swinging and a lot of laughing. One team member was playing with four boys and wooden swords that were there. The kids were “attacking” him and he fended them off. It was an incredible moment to watch.

After everyone had their fill of fun, we headed back to the guesthouse for dinner and our nightly devotions. The prevailing message was simple: each of us are called to do something. There’s no where in the Bible where is God ok with anyone doing nothing. We were each created with a purpose. If you don’t know what it is, it isn’t an excuse to do nothing. We need to be about our Father’s business. There’s always someone we can help. There’s always someone we can pray for. There’s always someone who needs to be shown God’s love.

As we all shared our story last night, I looked up and saw a tree across the street. It was taller than all the other trees and it’s growing at an angle. I wondered when it was planted and by whom. I wondered what caused it to grow at an angle. Was it the earthquake? Was it poorly planted? Was the ground bad? I looked at the other trees and saw all different shapes, sizes and types of trees. Each one was growing in its own way and at its own rate. Each one served a specific purpose. If that tree compared itself to other trees growth, it could think it was better. If it compared itself to their straightness, it would think it’s a failure.

The problem with comparisons is that we are all different. We’ve all been planted in different soil and come from different seeds. Each one of us grow at our own rate, produce different fruit and have our own purpose. When we compare ourselves to others, we lose sight of who God made us to be. We each are called to do something that only we can do. We have been planted where God wants us. It’s up to us to grow and produce what He wants us to. It’s up to us to keep our eyes on Him and to stretch ourselves as high as we can so we can get more of the Son. When we do that, we will be success by God’s standard.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 18, 2014 · 8:20 AM

Staying Salty

Here we go again. I have been blessed to be a part of multiple missions trips over the past couple of years. Each time I go, I discover more of who God is and who He wants me to be. There’s something special about leaving the normal distractions and pressures of life behind and embracing the opportunities God has available on a mission trip. You experience God is a whole new way when all you are focused on is serving others in His name.

For the next several days, my focus is mainly going to be about experiencing God on a deeper level. I will purposefully look for Him in every conversation, every interaction and in every person I meet. In normal, day to day life, it’s easy to forget to look for God. It’s easy to forget to seek Him because there are so many things on our plates. We live in a fast paced world and it’s necessary to slow things down or to stop so that you can make time for God to move in your life. For me, the best way to do that is on foreign soil. For you, it may be some other way, but it’s imperative that you do it.

God’s design was not for us to live our lives on autopilot. We are to be actively engaged in our relationship with Him. We are to continue experiencing Him beyond our initial conversion. There are multiple warnings in the Bible about becoming complacent. One of the most notable ones is written about in Revelation 3. God says to them, “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking… You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit.” Can you imagine God saying that to you? It scares me to think that I can live my life in such a way that it would make God want to throw up.

The only time God speaks that harshly is to those who have let their faith grow stale. When we do nothing with our faith except show it off at church, it makes God sick. He didn’t sacrifice His only Son so we could live comfortably in a church. He did it so that none would perish, but all would have everlasting life. He didn’t die so we could accept the work done on the cross and then keep it. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Let me tell you why you are here. You are to be salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve list your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” I think He was pretty clear about how He feels about it.

The way we keep our saltiness is to keep our relationship with Him fresh. You have to figure out how you can make that happen in your life. Each person is different in how they do it. One way that it is the same though is that it only happens when we sacrifice our time and get away from the distractions that prevent it. Today, make a commitment to God to find time to work on your saltiness. Find a way to keep from getting stale in your relationship with Him. There’s nothing worse than for God to think you’re useless or to make Him want to vomit. Only you can prevent it. Only you can make the time. He won’t force you to do it, but He’ll be waiting with open arms when you’re ready.

5 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

June 17, 2014 · 7:06 AM

Shifting The Prism

One of my regular prayers is that God would shift the prism through which I see Him and others. I see almost everything in black and white. I was raised in an unbroken home and at the same church my whole life. There hasn’t been a whole lot of shifting where I change my perspective of who He is and how I see Him. Over time and with life experience, I have shifted and changed. I see God differently because of what I’ve seen Him do in my life and in the lives of others. I just don’t want to get complacent with where I am or how I see Him. I don’t want to box Him in to what I think He should be.

The early church went through a lot of shifting. In Acts 10, Peter was praying on the balcony while he was waiting for lunch. God gave him a vision of a blanket being lowered down with religiously unclean animals in it. God told Peter to kill and eat, but he refused because he had never touched food that wasn’t Kosher. God came back and said, “Don’t call unclean what I have called clean.” It was then that he was awakened by his vision from visitors knocking. A man named Cornelius was told by an angel to get Peter so he could hear what he had to say.

Peter traveled the next day to Cornelius’ house with the group that came for him. When he spoke to the people who had gathered, they were filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. Peter was shocked. How could non-Jews have received God’s gift? He turned to the Jews who had traveled with them and said, “Do I hear any objections to baptizing these friends with water? They’ve received the Holy Spirit exactly as we did.” That event created a fundamental shift in how they saw God. They now saw that God’s plan of salvation was for Jews and non-Jews alike. It changed their ministry.

My prayer is that God would radically change me so that I see deeper into His Word than I do now. I pray that He shifts my focus so that I can connect things that I’ve never seen or understood in it. When I understand what He says, then I can know Him more. When I know Him more, my life is forever altered. I cannot accept that I know God as much as I will ever know Him. I cannot believe that I know everything that I will ever know about Scripture. I have to put myself in position to be shifted. I have to spend time in prayer so He can show me. I have to be willing to go with strangers to see what God is doing.

What about you? Are you willing to allow God to reveal more of Himself to you? Are you open to Him showing things that will fundamentally alter how you see Him? What can you do to put yourself in position to be shifted so you see Him in a different light? My prayer is that God would radically change us in the Church who have become complacent with our view of Him. I pray that He would reveal Himself to us like we’ve never seen. We don’t need to fix the Church. It’s not our responsibility. We need to fix our relationship with Him and that will change the Church. We need to change the prism through which we view God and that will change the world.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

June 16, 2014 · 7:39 AM

Extravagant Love

During my pastor’s Father’s Day sermon, he talked about how kids pick up a lot of their early habits from their parents. After the sermon, he called all the men to the front to pray over them. I had my son back in service with me by this point so I took him down there with me. While my pastor was speaking to us, my son was watching him intently and then said, “Amen!” I laughed and thought about the message. When he prayed over us, I heard my son say, “Yes, Lord.” He’s starting to pick up a lot of habits by watching me. He’s imitating what he sees me do. It’s important that I give him a good example to follow.

When you look at Ephesians 5:1-2 in the Message Bible, it speaks to us as children and how we are to be imitators of Christ. It says, “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” It’s pretty clear message what God wants us to do.

The first thing is that we choose who we imitate. The people we spend the most time with are the ones who we become most like. We end up liking the same things, going to the same places and even speaking the same way. It’s part of life. You become like those you run with. Your parents told you that line and you’ve told it to your kids. It’s such an important lesson for every stage of life. If we want to be more like God, then we have to spend more time with Him. If we want to see what God does, we have to be around Him and we have to be paying attention.

Mostly what God does is love. How would our lives be different, if most of what we did was to love others? How would the world be different? God’s message to us over and over is simply to love others. Jesus said that was the greatest commandment. In I John 4:7-8, John said that the person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God. In I Corinthians 13, Paul gave us all the attributes of love including that it was patient, kind and that it didn’t keep score of the sins of others. We typically apply those to romantic love, but they are to be applied to Christian love toward others too.

You and I are called to love and we have been shown the greatest example of it. It’s time we started to imitate our Father and demonstrate the kind of love we’ve been shown. The people around us who need God’s love the most don’t need another person pointing out what’s wrong in their life. They need someone who will love them in spite of it. They need someone who will love the me extravagantly. They need someone to show them what selfless love really is. You have experienced it from your Father. It’s time we started imitating it to those around us. Who in your world needs that kind of love today?

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

June 13, 2014 · 7:55 AM

Five Lessons For Fathers

It’s Free Friday! Today is the day you let go of the things in your life that keep you down or hold you back from all God has for you. To celebrate Father’s Day, I’m giving away two books: “Being a Dad Who Leads” by John MacArthur and “The Worth of a Man” by Dave Dravecky. Keep reading to find out how to enter.

I’m by no means the perfect father. The truth is that no one is. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t aspire to be great fathers. The Bible is full of men who were flawed, but showed us how to be great fathers. Here are five lessons in fatherhood from the Bible:

1. Sacrifice What You Want

When I think of sacrifice, I think of Abraham. He was promised numerous descendants, but was asked to sacrifice his only son. As a father, you are going to have to sacrifice the things you want for the sake of your children. You will have to sacrifice your “me” time, your TV time, places you want to go and things you want to do for your child. I haven’t perfected this, but I’m learning time and effort spent on your kids pays higher dividends than anything else.

2. Bless Your Children

In the Bible, it was common to give blessings to their children. Isaac blessed Jacob to show us the importance of speaking blessing over your kids. Jesus blessed the children who were brought to Him. There is power in your words. Use them to speak into your child the things you want God to do in them. Let them hear what you are saying. The words will sink in and become a part of who they are. It’s never too late to bless them. Isaac did it on his deathbed. Your child, no matter how old, needs to hear the blessings you are giving them.

3. Teach Them Wisdom

Solomon was our prime example here. What good is being wise and learning so many lessons in life if you keep them to yourself. Your child will make their own decisions in life ultimately, but don’t let them make those decisions without knowing what wisdom says. They may not recognize your wisdom early in life, but as they get older, they will see you were offering wisdom. When they’re old, they’ll come asking for your advice. Give them the wisdom they need to make better decisions in life.

4. Pray For Them

Jarius in the New Testament fell at Jesus’ feet and pled with Him to heal his daughter. He knew that Jesus had the power to heal her. He still has the power today to heal your child, protect your child, save your child and to keep them safe. It’s your responsibility to spend time at Jesus’ feet for your child. If you don’t do it, chances are that no one else will. Believe that He hears your prayers and will answer them even in the face of negative news. God isn’t bound by what the doctors, teachers or anyone else says. Your prayers are what makes the difference.

5. Praise Them

Every child needs to be praised by their dad. They need to hear you say that you are proud of them. Twice in Scripture God spoke out for others to hear, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” One version puts it, “Who brings me great joy.” Your children should know they are not a bother to you. They need to know they bring you joy and that you are proud of them. Don’t hold back the praise they so desperately need. You are the one who holds the key. Unlock their greatness with your words.

If you would like to win one of the two books I’m giving away this weekend, go to the Devotions By Chris Facebook page here and write on the timeline, “Enter me in your Father’s Day book giveaway.” You can also enter by tweeting, “@DevotionsByMe enter me in your Father’s Day book giveaway.” I will randomly pick two people tomorrow (June 14, 2014) who has done this. If enjoy reading these daily devotionals, please invite your friends to like my page so they can receive encouragement from God’s Word too

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 12, 2014 · 7:56 AM

Learning Through Relationships

When is the last time you looked back over your life to see the people God placed in it at just the right time? I’ve been reflecting this week on my entire life as an exercise in faith. I spent time looking back thinking about the people who have mentored me in the faith. I’ve also spent some time thinking about the people who were brought into my life for a brief period and then were gone again. As I’ve done this exercise, I have been able to see God’s hand on the relationships He’s brought to me. It has also built my faith in trusting Him with the relationships He has given me right now.

Sometimes we don’t understand why God has brought certain people into our lives. Some rub us the wrong way. Some push us out of our comfort zone. Some challenge everything we say. Some make us want to run away. As I’ve mentioned those, you’ve probably put some names to those people in your life right now. We all have people in our lives that we are grateful for. At the same time, we also have people in our lives where we wonder what God is thinking! We’d rather that they not be in our lives. In looking back, I’ve found that those people shaped me as well. The ones who rubbed me the wrong way actually acted like sand paper and smoothed out some of my rough edges.

When I look at the story of Joseph in Genesis 37, I see the relationships God put in his life. The first relationships you see are with his dad and brothers. His dad loved him, but his brothers didn’t. When his brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites, God put Potiphar in his life. Potiphar was the captain of the palace guard for Pharaoh. When Joseph did well for him, he made him his personal assistant. Joseph got to see the inner working of Egypt. He got to see how to act in the presence of a king. He learned how to be an effective administrator which he would need later.

After being wrongfully put in prison, Joseph used the skills he learned from Potiphar to run the prison. He leveraged the relationship with the guards and eventually the warden to be put in such a position that he was over all the other prisoners. It was then that he met two prisoners who worked in the Pharaoh’s court. He was able to interpret their dreams putting him in direct relationship with someone who had Pharaoh’s ear. When Pharaoh had a dream no one could interpret, the released prisoner mentioned Joseph. He was then able to be put in a position to save his father and brothers.

You may not understand the relationships you have right now, but God is using them to get you where He needs you. Joseph could have sulked that he was a slave or a prisoner and spent his life being bitter. Instead, he took bad situations and forged relationships he wouldn’t have made any other way. He looked for opportunity instead of excuses. He built relationships instead of resentment. Looking back it’s easy to see what God was doing. I’m sure Joseph didn’t understand why he had those relationships at the time. He accepted the people that God placed in his life, learned from them and moved on.

Who is God trying to use in your life right now?
Have you been building resentment toward them or relationships them?
What do you need to do to learn from each relationship?

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

June 11, 2014 · 7:31 AM

A Servant’s Prayer

Father,

There’s nothing more that I want than to be your servant. I want to do all the things that you have planned for me to do. I want to fulfill the plan you have for my life. The harder I try to do the things you ask me to do, the more I seem to fail. I find that alone, I’m incapable of doing all that you ask. I need your help. I need your hand on my life to guide me, direct me and to open the doors that stand shut in my way. I’ve knocked on them until my hands hurt and no one opens them. I need you supernaturally intervene.

Open my eyes to see what you need me to see. If there are other avenues, other doors or other ways to get where you’re leading me, show them to me. I know you have a greater plan for me, but I just can’t see how to get from here to there. Progress seems to have stopped. I was running full speed towards the goal when all of a sudden everything slowed to the point that I’m at a stand still. I only see closed doors, but you see the path. Open my eyes to see where you want me to go from here.

Open my ears to hear your voice above all the noise in my life. I know that you speak in a still, small voice. Train my ears to listen for it so I can hear it through all the distractions. I know you are always speaking, but I’m not always listening. Help me to turn down the things in my life that block out your voice. Teach me to listen for your instruction as I go throughout my day. Speak to me through the Bible, through others and with your voice. I don’t want to miss what you have to say so give me ears that hear you.

Open my mouth so that I will speak the words you want me to speak. Help me to speak life and not death, to build up and not tear down, to lift others up instead of putting them down. The power of life and death are in the tongue. I want to use mine to speak life. Keep bitter water from coming out of the fountain of my mouth. Give me words of wisdom to speak, words of knowledge that are confirmation for others and words of life to those who are dying. I pray that the words I say and the meditation of my heart are acceptable in your sight.

I know that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So I ask that you would make changes in my heart. Take out the hard, stoney parts that are cynical. Remove the parts where I’ve stored up bitterness against others for things they’ve done to me. Replace them with a heart that loves others the way you love them. Put a heart in me that runs hard after you. In order to be the servant you need me to be, I need a heart that sees servant hood the way you do. I need a heart that is sensitive to the things that you’re sensitive to, that breaks for the things that break your heart, and that has compassion for the lost and broken the way your do.

I thank you for hearing my prayer and I ask that you would answer it in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

4 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,