Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

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burdens, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, clinging to the altar, clinging to the horns of the altar, don't stop praying, encouragement, exhaustion, faithfulness, family devotions, horns of the altar, our faithfulness, perseverance, prayer

The other day I was scanning through Netflix trying to find something to watch while waiting for my man to finish up with a project. Of all the great things for me to choose from (ahem), I started to watch Galaxy Quest. It had been years since I had watched it and I was astonished at some of the actors in it…but I digress. If you will remember, Tim Allen played the part of an actor who acted in a T.V. series like Star Trek. He was the captain and whenever their “crew” hit a rough patch, he would say, “Never give up! Never surrender!” I literally watched ten minutes of it, my man finished his project and off we went about our evening.

The next day as I was praying and thinking about some “hard cases” that were on my list all of the sudden I heard that crazy motto from Galaxy Quest: “Never give up! Never surrender!” Isn’t that a great mantra for Christians? How many of us have people on our prayer lists that have been shuffled to the side of our minds because we have just become negligent, or we have given up? We would never say that out loud, but that’s the truth of it. After a few years, or months, or days, we have simply stopped praying. We expected things to happen quicker than they did, so we relegated that job situation, or relationship, or person who needs Jesus to the category of throwing a prayer at it every now and again just in case God still wants us to pray about it.

I’m here to tell you that God does want you to keep praying about it and I want to encourage us (and by us I mean me) to never give up and never surrender!

In First Kings 1 we see a man who would not let go of the horns of the altar. He was there to save his own life, but we can definitely use the illustration to remind us that there are situations and people who are worth clinging to the altar for. First Kings 1:50-53 says, “Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, so he got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar. It was reported to Solomon: “Look, Adonijah fears King Solomon, and he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon first swear to me that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’” Then Solomon said, “If he is a man of character, not a single hair of his will fall to the ground, but if evil is found in him, he dies.” So King Solomon sent for him, and they took him down from the altar. He came and paid homage to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go to your home.”

When we never give up and never surrender in prayer we are clinging to the horns of the altar like Adonijah. We are refusing to give up for the sake of our friends, family, neighbors and even those who don’t like us very much. We need to be like Adonijah and cling to the horns of the altar. We need to be willing to never let go and never surrender for the sake of those who need Jesus. Jude 23 says that we can actually “snatch them out of the fire”. I want to be a fire snatcher, don’t you?

We need to cling to the horns of the altar for our job situations that we have given up on. We need to cling to the altar for our marriages. We need to cling to the altar for our country, our church and our communities. We need to cling to the altar when things seem bad and when things seem good. When Jesus comes to take us home to Glory, may He find us clinging to the horns of the altar for someone, somewhere.  May He find us never giving up and never surrendering.

As King Solomon had to send people to take Adonijah down from the altar, I want Jesus Himself to have to remove us from our places of prayer when He returns. And then, as Adonijah did, we will come before our King, pay homage with great joy because He is so worth it and then He will say to us more than just, “Go to your home”. He will tell us things like, “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” “Look what I’ve prepared for you,” and “You are home.”

He is so faithful. Let’s be faithful to Him and cling to the horns of the altar for someone today. Oh, and remember … Never give up! Never surrender!

Go be with Jesus today!

Seeking Hearts Ministries         My Story

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In Awe Today and Everyday

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Christian encouragement, christian walk, Christianity, encouragement, family devotions, focus, God, God is, perfect peace, perseverance, perspective, praising the Lord, who is God

O Lord, we are in awe of You today. You are majestic in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders and there is none like You.

You are beautiful beyond description and too marvelous for words. You are enthroned on high and You are God alone.

You are Sustainer, our Refuge and any perseverance that we may have. You are our very present help in times of despair and joy. You never leave us, or forsake us and You are the same yesterday, today and forever. You change not and O Lord, we confess we do not wish You to change. You are perfect and glorious, indescribable and all powerful. You are righteous in all Your deeds. Why would we ever want it any other way?

We are not worthy to unlatch Your shoes, yet you choose us to fulfill Your will on this earth. Make us worthy of that call, O God. Yet, in praying that I know that our righteousness will always be as filthy rags. We will always have an agenda, a selfish ambition to seek the praise of others. Not a lot Lord, just a little, when all praise, honor and glory should be Yours alone. Forgive us, Lord. Be our righteousness. Cover us with Your righteousness so all that others see is You.

Help us Lord to give You the praise You deserve. You are awesome. You are true. You are faithful. You are strong. You are glorious. You are all-encompassing. You are love and life and solidarity. You are the only truth and You love us. You are freedom. You are Creator. You are Sustainer. You are boldness. You are delightful. You are energizing. You are God alone and we are in awe of You.

Help us to bring You glory today. Help us to bring You glory tomorrow. Help us to bring You glory for the rest of our days. Clean our hands Lord so that we may lift them in praise to You. Draw us closer and closer each day so that Your presence is as normal to us as breathing. You are our Breath. You are our heartbeat. You are our Lord and we are in awe of You.

You are all wisdom, all knowledge, all power, yet You allow us to abide in You and touch the hem of Your garment. We are in awe of You.

Help us to worship You in spirit and in truth. Help us to know that You are worth more than anything this world can offer. Help us to love You as You alone deserve to be loved. Help us to know to the core of our being that You are the best and no other offer can compare.

Help us to know that we must see the mountain in order to see the miracle and help us to trust You to remove that mountain, or when the mountain is looming ever closer that You have already given us the strength to climb it. You are God and we are in awe of You. No words can explain You and nothing that anyone can say, or do thwarts Your plan. You are God.

We are in awe of You today.

 

• image by inhisgraces blogspot

 

I Want to be a Bulldog

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battles, breath of God, burdens, calling, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, deep things of God, encouragment, exhaustion, goals, hanging on, perseverance, tenacity, YHWH

I learned something about bulldogs last week that fascinated me. The nostrils of a bulldog actually slant backwards. Bulldogs were created for not letting go. When they are hanging on to something with those massive jaws, they can still breathe. Bulldogs are designed by the God of the universe to hang on! Amazing, isn’t it? YourPureBredPuppy.com says a bulldog’s “tenacity and resolve mean that it’s difficult to change his mind once he decides to do something. He is surprisingly sensitive, remembers what he learns, and responds well to patient, persistent training that utilizes food motivation.” Hmm…food for motivation…I definitely want to be a bulldog. GRIN!

Seriously though, I want to have the tenacity of a bulldog, don’t you? I want to remember all the things that God has taught me over the years. I want to be persistent and cling to the dreams that God has placed in my heart. I want to hold fast to the truth of God’s Word even when everyone around me loses their grip. II Timothy 3:14 says, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;” In other words, hang on to what you know! Be a bulldog!

In all honesty, I usually give up too easily. Over the long haul my excitement fades and my perseverance is not all that it should be. The ministry that started out as an exciting dream now just seems like work. I begin to doubt. I get discouraged. I start to lose my grip. I need to be reminded almost constantly that Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” I want to have the resolve of a bulldog, but it does not come naturally for me. So, I have to ask the questions, “How does a bulldog hang on?” “How does he keep a tight hold when everything around him is saying to let go?” “Where does he get his strength?”

I’m beginning to understand that a bulldog can stay locked on to its target because he can still breathe. Our God’s name is YHWH. In the Hebrew language it is said that the pronunciation of YHWH is impossible. It is like the sound of a breath. He is our oxygen, our breath, and He is how we will be able to hang on. We can never hang on in our own strength. It’s always about Him, His Spirit in us.

Isaiah 42:5-12 says, “Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” Not only does this verse tell us that God gives us breath, but also that He is holding our hands while He is doing it. Think about when we go to the dentist and have an invasive procedure. Oftentimes, we are offered some sort of “laughing gas” to help us be calm. As youngsters, we often not only had the “gas”, but also a parent sitting with us holding our hand. We are God’s children and He is beside us not only providing our breath, but He is also holding our hand. We are never alone. He is with us, providing what we need every step of the way. That’s our precious YHWH.

In the book of Ezekiel we see another example of how God is our strength through His breath. Ezekiel is taken to a valley of dry bones and is told to prophecy to the Breath of God’s Spirit to come into the dead, dry bones and they will come to life. Ezekiel 37 tells us that is exactly what happened. Those brittle, weak, dry bones received new life, new strength and new perseverance through the breath of God’s Spirit. When they could breathe the breath of the Spirit again, they were able to hang on to their original task. They had the strength to continue. We are reminded that it’s never too late to become a bulldog!

So, the next time you see me struggling to hang on to a dream that God has placed inside of me remind me that Acts 17:25 tells me that God gives breath to all things. Remind me that any struggle God calls me to is worth it. Remind me that He will receive glory and remind me that I want to be a bulldog.

I’ll leave you with a link to a song that ties in so well. Enjoy!

Seeking Hearts Ministries