Everything Will Fall In Place When You Take Time Alone With God!

have you ever had a moment where you've quietly said to yourself I need to do better I have to start doing better you could have said this at your job you could have said this after you forgot something important but I guess the good thing is you've identified that there has to be an improvement in some area of your life and so I'd like to ask you have you ever stopped and thought I need to do better when it comes to things of God when it comes to how much effort you're putting into reading God's word have you ever said to yourself I have to start doing better when it comes to my prayer life when it comes to my priorities there is always always room for improvement when you're a Christian there's always another gear another level of effort you can reach no one on this Earth can ever say I've maxed out all I can do in terms of my relationship with God none of us can ever get to know God enough none of us can ever spend enough time seeking the face of Jesus Christ I once heard someone say the devil doesn't mind how many times we go to church in a week it's only when we live with the awareness of the presence of God and allow his Spirit to control our lives that the devil gets upset it takes much more than a few hours per week to be a Godly Christian who makes an impact on the world it takes sustained time in his presence how true is that time alone with God is crucial for every believer we need to abide in him to be still and know that he is God we need sustained time in his presence we all need to do better let me give you a couple of verses to keep in mind the Amplified translation of second Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 says study and do your best to present yourself to God approved a Workman tested by trial who has no reason to be ashamed accurately handing and skillfully teaching the word of truce First Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 to 25 says do you not know that in a race all the runners run their very best to win but only one receives the prize run your race in such a way that you may seize the prize and make it yours now every athlete who goes into training and competes in the games is disciplined and exercises self-control in all things they do it to win a crown that Withers but we do it to receive an imperishable crown that cannot wither let's do better people of God when it comes to studying the word do better when it comes to prayer do better when it comes to self-control I encourage you to do better now let me be honest with you being a follower of Jesus Christ isn't easy being a true Christian isn't easy the Bible tells us on multiple occasions that there will be those who will turn away from the faith there will be those who will profess the name of Jesus but have him far from their hearts it tells us that there will be many who will choose the broad road instead of the narrow way to heaven the Bible is full of teachings that run counter-intuitive to the way we naturally think about life the commands of Jesus can be hard to accept and even harder to obey and perhaps one of the hardest things that Jesus commands us to do is to love our enemies [Music] Matthew 5 verse 44 says but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you we find it relatively easy to love people who love us our friends our family our church we may even find it in our hearts to forgive them when they have wronged us but what about our enemies what about the people who persecute us and stand in opposition to us the same standard applies and these words can be so hard to obey at times it can be difficult to love someone who has only ever shown you hate when people lie to us and root against us and plan our downfall our natural reaction is to seek revenge but the Bible tells us to leave Justice to God he alone knows the hearts of people he alone is able to execute Justice with all Holiness and Truth Romans 12 verse 19 says beloved never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord for us to do this we need to shift our Focus from the situation in front of us to a God who is high above us God doesn't need us to write every single wrong here on Earth he is more than capable of doing that himself but in order for us to be effective messengers of the Gospel we must approach the evil of this world not with a hateful vindictive attitude but with Grace and forgiveness the same Grace that Christ himself has shown to us the same Mercy he's shown us as followers of Jesus we are called to live differently from the rest of the world our conduct and our character will only be completely transformed when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord over our lives that means we can stop seeking Revenge that means we can react to persecution in a Godly way we can love those who hate us we can pray for those who persecute us these are hard things and they certainly don't come naturally to us however Matthew 19 verse 26 says but Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible but With God all things are possible on our own we couldn't possibly live up to God's holy standard but praise God that his holy spirit dwells in US empowering us each and every day to live righteously he's able to do amazing things through us things that we couldn't possibly accomplish on our own nothing is too hard for him the Amplified translation for Romans 10 verse 3 says for not knowing about God's righteousness which is based on faith and seeking to establish their own righteousness based on Works they did not submit to God's righteousness [Music] consider the following question are you righteous in Word are you righteous in thought are you righteous in your deeds and motives to put it another way do your words reflect Jesus Christ do your thoughts reflect Jesus Christ are your deeds and motives reflective of Jesus Christ if you find that your answers to these questions are no that it's time to repent and remove the hindrances when we are correctly positioned in Christ as the righteousness of God we can have the confidence to present our troubles to him and await Deliverance now I want you to also be aware that being in Christ and chasing righteousness that does not make you immune from troubles because the scripture says in Job 14 verse 1 man who is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble when I read this it hits home these troubles spoken of are the troubles that God is saying bring to me and I will help you these are the troubles that God is saying bring to me and I will help deliver you as long as you're in your rightful standing you will see the hand of God deliver you as long as you are in your rightful standing as long as you are in him in Christ you will see the hand of God reaching out and delivering you [Music] [Music]