When you cry out to God, are you crying out for Him and Him alone or are you calling on Him out of personal need? Many times when we do this we don't even know it until it is an afterthought. Our Father is there for us twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. He never sleeps or takes a break. The people that are in right communication with the Father are the ones who spend time in His presence daily. These people spend time meditating on His word and they put what they've read to use in their daily lives. They spend time with the Lord just to spend time with him. They're not calling on him just because they need something. By spending time with no personal motives, we establish a relationship filled with knowledge and understanding. There is daily fellowship with the Father and those that spend that kind of time know him best.

There is no room for negativity in our lives when the Lord is a part of our daily routine. Negativity can not be where God is. When we spend time with the Lord as we are supposed to, it is unlikely that we'll experience things like bitterness, oppression, hatred and selfishness. because we are so full of the word and God is guiding our every step. Our faith is high, our hearts are full and there is no room for these negative things to come in to our lives, no matter how hard satan tries. Negativity can not be where God is.

When we start to feel negativity creeping in, it is because we have allowed room for it. We have not spent time with God on a personal level. We may have gone to church and heard a great sermon, but that is nowhere near the same as spending personal devotional time with the Father. When we go to God with a problem or a need, is it fair to expect an answer or a blessing when the only reason we're calling on Him is because everything else we tried has failed? Not at all. I would never expect God to move on anything in my life unless I have a relationship with him based on love for Him all that he does.

If someone came to you only when they wanted something from you, would you respond in a favorable way all the time? Most likely no, but if a person has a relationship with you just because of the person you are, it's very likely that your going to move mountains for that person. Why then should our relationship with God be any different. Seek God just for God. Spend time with Him because you love Him, not because you feel your supposed to. He wants us to come to Him because we want to, not because we have to. He'll never force us, but if we miss out on what the Father has for our lives, it's entirely because of the choices we made.

Being in right standing with God is the key element and deciding factor of how your day, week and life will be. We can choose to spend time with God and become very strong in Him, which will in turn produce great things or we can choose to call on him just when we need something and pray for his mercy. God is merciful and he gave us free will, so he will answer both the prayer warrior and the one lost in the wilderness of life, but wouldn’t you rather have the comfort of knowing that you have a great relationship with God instead of hoping he’ll help out of mercy?

Like anything else in life the more you do something the better you get at it. Nobody can just pick up an instrument for the first time and sound like a great musician, nor can we expect our first efforts with our prayer life or devotional time to be life changing. We are a work in progress always. Our prayer time and devotional time will improve with use and the more time we spend, the better we'll get at it. The result will be a great two way relationship with Our Father in Heaven. He so wants to have this time with each and every one of us. He will never force us to come to him, but he is there waiting for you to pick a time in your day to spend with him. He loves you and he wants to bless you. The question is do you want Him the way He wants you? I pray that your answer is a resounding yes!

I invite you to pray this with me.

Father your mercy is often more than we deserve. I pray Father that you would help us all to always be faithful in our devotional time with you. To always spend time with you just to be with you and no other reason. I pray for that person who is coming to you only as a last resort Father. I pray that you will forgive them Father and be merciful to their need, because they don't know you. The power of your blessing can make them see that you are who you say you are, you are God almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth. Guide us in our daily lives Lord God, help us to seek out the lost and give them the opportunity to know and understand you and have that relationship with you that they need and you want for them.

I ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.

God Bless You All



“The Sharpshooter”

A Change of Pace

Many of us have heard the term “God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow”. Well, that goes for Heaven as well. In an effort to think more in line with what things are like in Heaven, I took notice of many things. I’m here to tell you, our lives here can be a whole lot better than they are now, no matter how well we think we’re doing

In Heaven there is no stress or anxiety. Time itself I would imagine is not a big deal, as eternity is a very long time. This life we are living now in these bodies on this planet should be lived following the Bible which is the owners manual for humanity. Have you ever noticed that the people living their lives by the word of God are living much different than those that are not living by the word of God?

Faith is important to the people that are referring to the owners manual (The Bible) but faith is not important to those not living by the Bible. There are many manuals for us to refer to when problems arise, but only one holds the answers to anything we could ever have a problem with or a question about and that manual is the Bible.

A good example of what I mean is the out of control pace that we live at today. Life here on earth is not the same yesterday today and tomorrow as it is in Heaven. Do you think that this was part of God’s plan regarding having life and having it in abundance? I don’t. Over the past fifty years or more, the pace of life has gotten increasingly faster. With that speed comes the expectation for us to maintain that speed and still have the same quality that people had back in a simpler time. That goes for life at work or at home, whether you’re making your bed or making a major corporate decision. Anxiety becomes a problem because our minds and bodies were never meant to go at breakneck speed all of the time.

So today we live in the most medicated society ever. Medications for stress, anxiety and depression issues have become such common place that the lay person knows as much about these medications as the doctors do. The world shoves this information in our faces and many of us buy right into it. Take this pill you’ll feel better! This is an extremely temporary remedy and it’s the farthest thing from a solution. This all goes into something I wrote about a while ago regarding childhood. That was a simple time too but because we wanted to be older and get the drivers license and even become legal age to drink alcohol, we asked for it and we got it, but in rushing to get there we lost our child like thinking.

In the same way, through the years we have wanted to improve things to make them easier and faster.. There is a price for that and I don’t think that was ever considered. The great deceiver satan, the great illusionist made everything appear as though all of these improvements would be free. They are far from free and now we’re paying the price. There are people ending their lives today by suicide because they can’t take the stress. In that respect satan accomplished what he set out to do. He wants to kill, steal and destroy us. We have the power to take back what is ours and that’s our peace and sanity.

The solution is that we need to make a conscious effort to take time to breathe, literally stop and smell the roses. We may not be able to go back to 1940 but we sure can make the effort to live at that pace. Put aside the microwave oven and cook a real meal. Put away the remote control and get off the sofa to change the channel of the television. Go for a walk to the mailbox, don’t drive one block. Take the time to spend with God every day. He’s there waiting for you and He’s the great problem solver and the great physician, all we have to do is make the time and go to him and ask Him for help. Let go of this frantic way of living and let God guide your every step.

Please Pray this with me.

Father I thank you for this message and for the wisdom and insight into the way’s we should be doing things. You want the best for us and your word tells us this many times over. Lord God I pray for your guidance. I pray that you would open our eyes to see the deception going on around us being promoted by satan. Help us to get back to a simpler way of living. We are in a time when we can’t even appreciate what we have because we’ve taken efficiency to far. We’ve made things more difficult by trying to make life easier. You meant for us to live life, not rush through it. Bring us out of the darkness Father and into your light where we will live in your perfect peace forever.

In Jesus name I pray

Amen.

God Bless You All








“The Sharpshooter”