Righteousness is always right

1 Chronicles 2 "Genealogies are not boring"

Genealogies when you think of them, especially when you read in the first chapters of Chronicles, you most of the time think, "well, this is boring, names here, names there, etc." Well I was reading and the biggest verse which stood out to me was 1 Chronicles 2:30, "Seled died without children". When I read it, it hit me hard because I was thinking, "wow, that would be the worst thing ever" and then I realized how I at times I can be fearful of the dreams and desires of my heart not coming to pass. I know that the Lord has showed me and I'm sure all who are reading this, great things, great dreams, great desires, hopes, and ideas. Yet the enemy always seeks to devour those which are wandering. When we allow our thoughts to wander, to wander into fear, into doubt, or worry, then we become subject to the attacks of the enemy. Yet we must learn to take every thought captive, trust our dreams, our hopes, desires, wants, and all of US down at His feet. When we do so, no matter what happens, we can know that all will work out for HIS GLORY.

Psalm 4:1-8

"Righteousness requires sacrifice"

When you think of the word "sacrifice" usually the first thought to your mind is a loss, losing something, and usually it can be thing which does NOT come natural to us. Yet one thing that the Lord continues to teach me is to lose me to gain more of Him, this requires sacrifice.

In the times of which I find myself at a loss, not sure what to do, angry, frustrated, upset, and needing to simply here His soft, gentle, and loving voice. Always we find relief when we call out to our God, even in the times when we have fallen short of the glory of God. I know that it's in those times which we have fallen short, we sin, that we feel in our hearts so much shame, guilt, and are afraid almost to enter into His presence. Yet we must realize that we find NO RELIEF apart from the PRESENCE OF GOD, because there is where you find LIFE!

One of the verses which hit me hard was verse 2 when the Lord questions, "who turned His glory to shame?" To glorify God means to be CONTINUALLY worship the Lord without ceasing, yet when we stop glorifying Him, we can begin to glorify other things. We make other things priority in our life instead of the Lord and because of it, we become to shame instead of glorifying Him. The Lord asks, "how long will you LOVE worthlessness?" All other things in this life, no matter how much you may love them, WILL fail you at some point, will let you down, will not meet your expectations, will have conflict, and it's because our life was created to have the LOVE OF GOD in our life. In Him do we move, breathe, and have meaning, we find our worth in God.

It's when you find your worth in God that you find out how worthy HE IS.

SET APART: Whenever I read this, it truly gets me excited knowing that God would have set me apart to do His work, to serve Him. Yet one thing that we don't realize at time is that when God sets us apart that means there's a SEPERATION from things. At times that means us being seperated from that which we find comfortable, what we once had and enjoyed, and the things we once used to cling to. Yet we are set apart not for OUR purpose, but for the purposes of God, yet we must allow ourselves to be seperated, to be set apart. The reason God sets us apart is because we are godly, not because we are religious, we go to church, we serve in ministry, but because we have a heart after God! Though the seperation at times causes us to walk through hurts, trials, and isolation, ITS WORTH IT! :D

To wrap up this blog...verse 5, God is asking of us today to offer the sacrifices of righteousness. To walk in righteousness is a sacrifice, it requires laying down what you want, what you've been in the past, and striving to hit the mark or the standard of God, not man, not the world, or not even the standards which YOU have put on yourself. God has created us so uniquely so different, yet so many times we can fight against what we are because in the past it's been despised, it causes us to stand out. For Joseph for him to walk in righteousness caused him to be tossed into a pit, then sold into slavery, tossed into jail, but in the end his sacrifice lead to one thing...TRUST. Through all the trials which Joseph walked through, no matter what, God was perfecting him, in the pursuit of righteousness, the Lord perfects that which is lacking, which is futile, which needs His touch and molding. Yet if we can make the sacrifice of righteousness, then we can truly learn to trust in Him, and in that, is a blessing...

Rest...

As I was reading Psalm 3 right now it really hit me today how so many times we can have "those" types of days like David. David at the time was at another time of running, this time from the wrath of his very own son, Absalom, which sought to kill him. I can only imagine the thoughts of David as he sat down, after a very hard day, yet another time which a man after God's own heart found himself now again in the same position, same struggle, and same mess which has hit him time after time..."Why must I continue to run..." David was at a point that his very own thought began to say, "There is no help for him in God"; yet his heart still trusted and believed that no matter what storm he was walking in, even though it felt all too familiar, he knew that the Lord was his shelter. One thing that I've learned in walking with the Lord is that the storms always come, yet the Lord is always there to be our shelter, our refuge. Even in the midst of hiding in the Lord though we can be overwhelmed within our thoughts, but we must look to the Lord, the lifter of our head and thoughts! His ways, His thoughts, His plans are always HIGHER than ours, yet at times we can get so stuck in the low parts that we stay in the valley. Yet even there, the Lord hears us, as it says in verse 4 that the Lord hears us from His Holy Hill. Though at times it seems to wonder if He is there, He never leaves us.

The biggest difference though between actually knowing God and knowing of God is the times of trials and hardships, can you really find rest?

You cannot dream unless you have rest, and sometimes as even believers we can get caught up in the moments of life, even in serving the Lord and not have rest. David laid down and he SLEPT, it was a thing which no matter what was going on around him, he still had peace, joy, and comfort.

Many lie down, and cannot sleep, because of the pains of the body, or anguish of mind, or the continual fears in the night.

David though he had 10,000 men against him, He didn't fear because the Lord was at his side. I know at times it seems like the attacks keep coming, our thoughts becoming more futile, heavy, and feeling tossed like the wind, yet HE calms the storms as we rest in Him.

He gives rest to the weary.

Are you done yet though? Are you done doing it your way? Are you done worrying? Will you trust the one which is right there to be your shelter?

ALL I know is that I find rest in you....that's all I NEED to know...

Psalm 2

One thing I can see in this world always is the fact that are wars are not against flesh and blood but against principalities and strongholds. The earth is full of the curse of Adam and Satan has his rebellious spirit in the hearts of so many men they go against God and all that He desires

In the opening verses it shows that the kings of the earth come together in unity against the Lord and His anointed ones. Notice that their first attack is on God, they come against the foundation of the anointed ones in order to try to get to us, yet if Christ is the foundation, who or how shall we be moved? Never!

· Though we may see in this nation the wicked seeming to be ruling, tearing apart God’s laws and they seem to be making more progress, like they’re winning, we must place our trust in the Lord! In verse 6 it says that the Lord sits on His holy hill, the place which is HIGHER than ours and HE is still in control!

· I love in verses 7 and 8 how the Lord calls us His sons and daughters, which He is the one which has birthed us and that as we ASK, and then He will give to us the nations as an inheritance and the ends of the earth as possession.

• Inheritance- a title that has been inherited or the right of an heir to inherit wealth or title, it’s simply something which is given due to a status of being an heir.

• Possession- ownership, state of being controlled, it means that you must make an ACTION in order to have ownership!
• As Sons and Daughters of the King He tells us that as we are his children, we will be given the nations, or areas in our life such as peace, love, joy, and the blessings of the Lord as we walk in obedience to His Word.
• Yet there comes a time when we must take possession of the ends of the earth, a time when we step out and because we are a child of the King, we walk in the authority He has given us and take the places which were conquered by the enemy at first, but we will TAKE BACK for the Lord!
• We must learn to walk in the inheritances, the blessings which the Lord gives us as we walk as a child of Him but also learn to walk in the authority of the Lord and take possession of which is to be for the Lord’s use (souls, business, finances, and everything which we are lacking in order to serve Him).

· In serving the Lord we must walk in fear of the Lord and also rejoicing with trembling!

• Whatever we rejoice in, in this world, it must always be with trembling, because of the uncertainty of all things in it. To welcome Jesus Christ, and to submit to him, is our wisdom and interest.

· When the fear of the Lord, the desire to do His will above ours in our guide and we learn to rejoice in the times which God has given us, it truly is a blessing! We must not hold onto the seasons or blessings which God has given to us, but continually lay them down at His feet, because they’re in His control, not ours!

· The reason in the last verse that it says that we are to kiss the Lord, to bow down at His feet and surrender all that we are is because apart from Him, we are NOTHING and our lives were nothing before Him and apart from Him, we don’t have life!

• It will be absolute destruction to ourselves, we will perish in the way of our sins and from the way of our futile hopes and dreams; and perish when we try to do things the way we want to.
• We will always miss the way of happiness, fall short of getting the desires of our heart, when anything but the Lord is our delight, He is the ultimate source, and apart from Him we are nothing and have nothing.
• Christ is the ONLY way; we must follow Him and walk in the Spirit instead of the flesh because the flesh only births the death which we don’t want, but His Spirit brings life!

· Christ calls us blessed as we place ALL of our trust in the Lord!

• We begin to walk in the blessing of God when we surrender our lives into His hands; it’s when we truly lose our life that we gain it in Him. Losing things into His hands and out of our own hands can be the hardest thing to do because it’s scary; it’s out of our comfort zone.
• Yet every time we put our hands to something, it creates death, look at man who put his hands to the Ark of the Covenant, he was struck dead, when David put his hands to Bathsheba situation, and he killed not only Uriah but also his baby.
• Yet just as Abraham, the man whom God calls the father of Faith, laid down Isaac at the altar, the very promise which God gave to Him, then he truly gained the promise which God gave to Him!

· One of the greatest things I’ve learned is the art of surrender, it something that I still struggle with, but am learning daily. As we lay down the desires of our heart, but instead of picking it back up, we lift up instead the prayers of our hearts, the desires of our hearts. When God sees a sacrifice, the actually burning of our wants, it’s a sweet fragrance to Him! Though we think we may have killed it and it’s gone, God has shown in His Word that which we thought was dead He can bring back to life! (Jesus, Lazarus, the dead girl, etc.)

• Yet it all comes down to TRUST, the art of surrender is the key to trusting the Lord.
• Unbelief is a sin against the remedy. When we don’t believe God, then it’s impossible to trust God and it’s the very thing which keeps us from the answer, the results we desire, and the dreams of our heart becoming a reality.

TRUST not in yourself but in your ever present help in time of NEED, the lover of your soul, which seeks to bless you, which laid down His life for you, which gives you hope, future, and a purpose, fear not, because perfect love casts out ALL FEAR.