What it means to put your hope in the Lord…..

Hi all….!

It feels like it’s been ages since my last post. I have been

incredibly busy but it goes much deeper than that. The

drive to write left. I am serious. I woke up one day and

nothing! Conpletely nothing! It wasn’t because of a lack of

ideas….

The stuff I had didn’t feel relevant so I trashed it.

Maybe I was just being lazy, I don’t know.

Anyway I am back and ready…..(anyone else feel the same?)

 

There is a scripture that spoke to me this past weekend,

 

[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed

that I would see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living!

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and

enduring.

Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.

Psalm 27:13, 14

 

As we go through life we need to believe. We need to believe

things will change, we need to believe the winters will end, we

need to believe God will deliver us from our fiery storms!

Without a belief in God’s goodness, our lives will be miserable.

 

It’s not wrong to believe in the goodness of the Lord. It’s

not wrong to believe God will breakthrough for you. It’s

not wrong to believe in God period!

So if it’s not wrong, believe!

No matter how dark things are, believe.

No matter how impossible a situation seems, believe.

No matter the years you have spent waiting on God,

believe!

He will come through for you!

 

“Wait and hope for and expect the Lord”

 

I love these words. Wait, hope for and expect the Lord!

 

Wait on the Lord. It’s because He loves you that He makes

you wait.

Hope for the Lord. Put your hope in Him! Like I heard

someone once say, be a prisoner of hope. Never stop

hoping! The Lord is faithful and He sees your hope in

Him.

Expect the Lord to move on your behalf.

Expect the Lord to answer your prayers.

Be expectant!

 

As I have spoken on those three amazing words we must not

ignore the next part of that verse,

 

“be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout

and enduring.”

 

It’s not easy to wait, hope for, and expect the Lord.

It’s a battle to wait

It’s hard to keep hoping

It’s a fight to be expectant

 

The word says as you do those things (wait, hope for, expect),

your heart must be stout and enduring, you must have courage and

be brave.

Waiting on the Lord, putting your hope in the Lord, being

expectant will stretch you to the limit. Even when you feel

like giving up hope, keep hoping, be expectant, wait!

Don’t let the darkness around you quench your faith.

As I close remember to wait on the Lord, put your hope

in the Lord and expect the Lord!

God bless you….

 

Rolain

 

photo credit: google images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I don’t understand”…….

   image credit: google images

 

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the

man void of understanding;

and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had

covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was

broken down.  Proverbs 24:30, 31

 

This is a very familiar passage of scripture. As I read it

something jumped out at me that I didn’t see before. People

who know this scripture talk about it in context of laziness

but there is more.

 

The lazy man was not just lazy but was void of understanding!

Those two things are not the same.

Look at the effects of not having understanding:

 

His vineyard was all grown over with thorns

The nettles had covered the face thereof

The stone wall thereof was broken down!

 

To own a vineyard you had to have some sort of wealth.

This man had wealth. He knew stuff but…..

What happened??

How could he let things just decay like that?

My pastor taught me that

the problem in the world today is not a knowledge problem.

We have a wisdom problem!  And I think that applies here.

In all his “knowing” the man didn’t apply what he knew. He didn’t

pursue understanding! In other words, he didn’t seek to

understand what was going on. He was wealthy but he didn’t seek

to understand how to use it!

 

I was challenged when I read that scripture. Laziness is deadly

but not having understanding is just as deadly. The man’s walls

were broken down!

We need to make it a goal to get understanding. Don’t settle

for knowledge only but seek understanding!

 

As I looked at my life after reading this scripture I saw areas

where I was like the man who was void of understanding.

Laziness crept in because he had no understanding!

I asked myself, do I have understanding?

It’s not enough to just know about something? It’s not enough

to have information, because that is all it will ever be, information.

Understanding comes when you apply what you know.

 

It’s not too late to get understanding. There

is so much going on today. A lot of people don’t have understanding

and it’s destroying them. Their walls are broken down, with thorns

all grown over. We have a chance……

 

Am I void of understanding or

Am I seeking to understand?

 

Where are you at?

 

Rolain

 

 

The “dream killer”………!

 

The greatest enemy to our dreams is something called stagnation. A pastor came to our church a few months ago and said something quite profound. He said our nation was plagued by the spirit of stagnation! When I say “our nation” I mean it in its literal sense. I am talking about the nation I live in. I remember being so embarrassed by those words because he was speaking about us as a nation and I knew he was right!

What I wasn’t ready for was to find out I was affected as well. Stagnation had come into my home stealthily! I didn’t even know it at the time. Like a cancer it started eating away at my life. It was sucking the life from me and I didn’t even know it! Unannounced it came, silently it entered my life! One thing undone turned into two then three then four and so on! My mind didn’t register when something was left undone!

These are some of the things that needed to be done:

 

Meet with children’s band to discuss new plan of action for the New Year coming.

Set a date to have children’s seminar. Sit down and plan it.

Map out the song I am doing for Christmas service.

Get together with my friend to create a playlist for the kids.

Work on my book.

Read the books I have been given.

Start revising the material I was given for a course I did.

Change the light bulb.

Buy new dining room chairs.

Find someone who can repair the sofas in the lounge.

Crazy right…..!

 

But something happened this week, maybe it was the Holy Spirit bringing to remembrance the word I heard all those months back. I saw everything differently. I saw all the things in my life that were undone, the unread books, the damaged light bulb, and the unfinished projects!!!  It drove me mad…..! Every time I saw something undone my blood would begin to boil. It was my fault, I was the reason! I had no one else to blame but myself!

If you didn’t know, Stagnant has a few other family members. There is Procrastinate and his brother Laziness! Arghhhh…..what a nasty family to be living with!

But no more!!!

There is one way to break the back of stagnation, one way that will silence it for good. Prayer is needed but it’s not the answer I am looking for. What I am looking for comes after prayer. The answer and the key to breaking stagnation is to DO!!

Get into a habit of working. That’s what I did. I got up and started working!! I felt good after that. I want that to be the norm! Stagnation is serious; it is a dream killer and must not be taken lightly! We need to pray and after that get up and do!!!

 

I liked this definition I found for stagnate:

(Verb) Deteriorate by lack of action.

Synonyms for stagnate:

Fester, hibernate, stall, decay, rust, stifle, vegetate, not moving!

 

 

There is no progress, no growth when stagnation is in your life. You are not effective when you are stagnant. It eats away at your potential like a leech. It kills you gradually. It really is the dream killer!

If this is where you are at in your life, will you then stand with me and make a decision to DO…..

No matter how hard it is, do something!

Pray then get up and act!

This dream killer is going down! Amen!!!

Rolain

How God Works On Our Behalf……

Where are you at in this season? Are you satisfied with where you are? Are you in a place where you don’t need anything? Or are you in a place where you need God to come through for you? Have you looked at your life and come to a realization that you need more of God? Are you in a place where if God doesn’t come through for you, you will go under? Does it seem like you just pray and pray with no answer? If you are in that place I would like to share something God revealed to me.

When God revealed this to me I was trusting God for some things. I would pray and pray but nothing would happen. It was a really puzzling time for me because I was not getting what I was trusting God for. Puzzling and frustrating until God showed me what I was doing wrong. Please get me, praying is important. You cannot be an effective Christian if you don’t pray. But what I am saying is, you can’t just stop at prayer. There must be more. In that frustrating season i was reading the story of the four lepers in the book of Kings. They were in a really bad situation. Look at what the word says,

It happened that four lepers were sitting just outside the city gate. They said to one another, what are we doing sitting here at death’s door? If we enter the famine-struck city we’ll die; if we stay here we’ll die. So let’s take our chances in the camp of Aram and throw ourselves on their mercy. If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we’ll die. We’ve got nothing to lose.   2 Kings 7:3,4

I don’t know about you but that is a really bad situation!! But God managed to help them and a whole nation because of a simple act. They got up from where they were and starting moving!! And that is what God showed me. It is not enough to pray or to even desire. There needs to be more and that more is moving, you doing something!! So I was praying and trusting God but only as I started moving and doing something did God come through. Doors began to open, things began to happen. It is important in our trusting that we step out and do something. without works faith is dead. And the action may be something small, calling a friend, going somewhere, writing that letter, but do something!

As the lepers got up from where there were and started moving God did something amazing and that applies to you. This way that we follow is one of grace and I am in no way advocating for a works based life. The pharisees thought works would save them but they didn’t. What I am saying is, there needs to be a balance. There comes a time when we need to get up and act and that is the way God works on our behalf. A lot of the times we think God works by Himself, alone, but He works through people. That is the way He has chosen to move.

This is not an easy word. I am trying to walk in this daily. At times I forget I need to act. Sometimes I am just plain lazy, at times scared but if we are going to see God move on our behalf we will need to step out. My prayer for you is that God will show you what you need to be doing in your life at this moment. Amen

Rolain.

 

3 Things To Know About Discipline.

As Christians we need to be disciplined. I believe there are areas where we are disciplined and other areas where we need help in. For example, you may be disciplined when it comes to keeping time but you are not disciplined when it comes to spending money. The goal of this post is to make you see the need to strive to be disciplined in every area of your life. There is a reward for being disciplined. Without wasting anymore time let us get into the 3 points.

 – Character is the by-product of discipline.
Your character as a person speaks loads about how disciplined you are. Are you a person of character? Your character is developed when you are disciplined. You cannot be a man or woman of character if you are not disciplined. Can you call someone who sleeps around a person of character? Can you call someone who is generally undisciplined a person of character?  We need discipline if we want to be men and women of character.

   –  The undisciplined person is always at the mercy of the disciplined person.
That is the truth! If you are not disciplined you will always be at the mercy of the person who is. I don’t want to be at the        mercy of someone else. I want to be in control of what is happening in my life and not succumb to someone else idea because I am not disciplined! Which category are you in? Are you at the mercy of disciplined people or are people following you because you are disciplined?

 – To successfully lead others you need to be able to lead yourself.
Are you self disciplined? If you are undisciplined in your own life then it is impossible to lead others. Master yourself first before you master others. If you are disciplined when it comes to money then you can lead others when it comes to money. If you are disciplined when it comes to purity then you can lead others in purity and so on and so on.

This is the point, men and women of character are not born but are made by choices and decisions they make everyday.
Let us make the right decisions. Let us make a decision to be disciplined. Look at your life and see the areas you need to be disciplined and ask for help. Let us desire to be disciplined in every area of our lives. And remember, it is a process. It doesn’t just happen. You will need to work hard at it.

Rolain.