"Passiveness... A Dangerous Detour"

Habakkuk 2:3 "Write the vision make it plain on tablets so that they that run may see it. For the vision is for an appointed time."

I can't seem to get this word, "passive" out of my head....I'm sure God has a word for someone reading this devotional. Not only has this been a word for me, but sometimes it helps and is extremely encouraging to have someone say, "Hey God has a word for YOU!" To define the word "Passive" it simply means....lacking in energy or will. I was reading a book a couple of days ago and came across that word.

Immediately I heard in my spirit, "Don't allow passiveness to overtake you in waiting!" A couple of weeks ago I shared a devotional on prayer. Is God really listening to us? What about an unanswered prayer? So if you are waiting on God for something, then this devotional is for you.......

When we are waiting for God to come through for us, the enemy really works on our weariness! Waiting is difficult and while we are waiting there are many detours that we will be tempted to take. Suddenly I thought about being passive and then I realized that, that was one thing that I most definitely did not want to engulf me.

Refusing To Settle For Less

How many times have you seen someone give their all to a pursuit, only to come up short? We see it all the time…

• A thriving business that ends up failing due to bad decisions, mismanagement, and financial chaos;

• An actor who receives accolades for a performance, wins an Academy Award, then falls into obscurity;

• An athlete or team that wins contest after contest, only to fail when it really matters. (Remember the New England Patriots 2007 season – they were undefeated going intoSuper Bowl XLII, only to lose to the New York Giants.)

But worse than coming up short in a contest or personal pursuit is someone who makes a conscious decision for defeat… someone who makes a decision not to take advantage of every opportunity, resource, or gift available to them.

HAVE YOU THROWN IN THE TOWEL ON PRAYER?

Jesus told his disciples a story about how they should keep on praying and never give up.  Luke 18:1 CEV

 I have always been a boxing fan. Without question, boxing is a brutal sport that can get out of hand in a hurry. Sometimes, to protect his fighter from serious harm, a manager has to "throw in the towel" to get the referee to stop the fight.

The phrase "throw in the towel" quickly moved from the boxing world to everyday life. As we all know, when you throw in the towel, you quit ... you give up ... you accept defeat. And people do it all the time. They throw in the towel on their marriage, or their degree, or their dreams, or their very lives. It is easy to throw in the towel. It is much harder to push through and keep going.

PERSISTENT AND PATIENT PRAYER

“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you.”

 1 Samuel 12:23

An important aspect of prayer is to pray patiently. God meets our needs “at the proper time” (Galatians 6:9). Too often Christians weary of praying, and give up. This is often justified on the basis that God's failure to answer means the request is not according to His will. Remember, God can:

1. Deliver- whatever we ask in His name;
2. Delay- to fit His perfect timing (only He sees the end from the beginning);
3. Deny- and say ‘No’ because we ask amiss or give a
4. Different and better answer.

Jesus urges us to be persistent in prayer (Luke 11:5-8). This does not mean that God does not want to meet our needs and that we need to try to persuade Him. It simply means that only God, who completely understands the whole situation, can know when and how to answer. Only when we have assurance in our hearts from the Lord, should we remove a matter from our prayer list.

As Long as the Candle Burns

“Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.” — Genesis 42:3

This Torah portion for this week, Mikeitz, is from Genesis 41:1–44:17 and 1 Kings 3:1–4:1.

By the time Jacob’s sons go down to Egypt because of the famine in Canaan, Joseph has been gone for 22 years. So the Sages find it strange that in the Scriptures, the ten brothers are referred to as “Joseph’s brothers.” They haven’t had anything to do with Joseph for over two decades and they certainly hadn’t acted much like brothers the last time they saw Joseph! Wouldn’t "Jacob’s sons" have been a more appropriate term?

The Sages explain that they are called “Joseph’s brothers” in order to teach us that when they came down to Egypt, they were indeed behaving like family. They had long regretted their act of selling Joseph and were desperate to find him. But that leads to another question: Why would they even imagine that Joseph would still be alive? The life expectancy for slaves in Egypt wasn’t very long!

Perseverance Gets Results

"I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs." (Luke 11:8, The Amplified Bible)

If, as God tells us in 1 Timothy 2:4, it's His will for all men to be saved, why aren't we seeing more of the masses of lost people born again every day? Have you ever wondered that?

I have...and as I've sought the Lord about it, I've come to realize that, for the most part, it's because those of us who are already saved don't pray persistently for those who aren't. Instead of persevering--staying before the Father, praying for them to receive the bread of salvation--like the man in Luke 11:8 did for his friend, when we don't see immediate results, we simply give up and go home.

What we don't realize is this: Perseverance is the key to success in intercession!

Press on in Patience

"...be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Hebrews 6:12)

You've been walking by faith. You've been believing God to meet your need. But what do you do when the results seem slow in coming and you are tempted to give up?

Be patient!

There is not much said about patience these days. But, when it comes to receiving from God, it is just as important as faith.