Just do the best you can.

 A few weeks ago at church, I heard this new profound way of approaching my faith and my relationship with Jesus. It came during the offering time, where one of the other pastors or elder members will get up and speak to the congregation for a few moments about a Bible passage that God put on their heart that also related to the offering.

Typically the themes have been about honoring God. The passages are almost all the same, which I don't mind. I'm finding repetition is good: God is good. God is good because He is God. God is good all the time, and all the time He is good. There is never a time He isn't good. God loves you. He loves you and He wants you blessed. These are things no previous church I've attended have ever really preached. In addition: the importance of honoring God. And it's not just about giving but giving for the right reasons. It's good to give, but it's even better to give because you truly want to give. I'm trying to adopt that attitude. I tithe. (I try to go a little above 10%, not to boast but rather as a financial tactic considering for many years my income wasn't the same month to month. I had to guesstimate.)

I digress. The point of today's post is about this profound way of approaching my faith and my relationship with Jesus, which ties into the theme of giving, and it is this:

You don't need to be perfect. Just commit to following God's word, and do the best you can.

"Just do the best you can."

On the one hand, the last year-and-a-half has been a series of complete wholesale changes in my life. Yes, COVID, but also other things. On the other, just the last two months have been that: risks and adventures and steep learning curves. I've had moments (privately) of wanting to quit. "But God..." Exactly. "But God." He's propping me up. As is my love and her family. As well as a few others that I text periodically or call. I'm committing to following God's word, and sometimes doing so feels like being in some sort of torture chamber, not because of God's word (it is 100% good) but rather because of the world we live in, which includes the flesh and all its failings, which includes the spiritual realm, and which includes the enemy himself. Sometimes doing the next right thing means having the armor of God on and praying/declaring/speaking fighting words against spirits and voices that try to prey on my past and all its brokenness, sin, pain, and fear. But having the armor of God means facing it and standing in the midst of it, all the while trying to make sense of the current adventure and learning curve.

I'm doing the best I can, and I'm committing to it.

Lately, I've felt a nudge to read Psalm 119. Yes, that's not only the longest Psalm, but it's also the longest chapter in the entire Bible. No other chapter has 176 verses. But today, this particular verse struck me: My soul breaks with longing For Your judgments at all times. Psalm 119:20, NKJV

To me, it has become a spiritual version of "trust the process," from my therapy days. But it wasn't until recently that, thanks to my church, I heard a Biblical version of "spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection."

Commit to following what God's word says, and just do the best you can.

Sermons from Good News: what to do when a challenge is present, part 2

[Blogger's note: after being crazy busy one month, and then crazy sick for much of another month, by God's grace I am finally back and able to catch up on posting my notes from sermons at my church for the months of June and July. Thank you all for your prayers; I am believing and claiming that I will be completely healed, and even healed beyond whatever Satan or the world calls a "preexisting condition." I completely reject that term in Jesus' name, and choose to receive by faith the complete healing that GOD says He has for me: a new [undisclosed part of the body] in Jesus' name!

In the meantime, I pray that you are blessed by these sermon notes as much as I was blessed by these sermons. I will post sermons twice weekly until we are caught up again, in the same manner that I did from January through May, 2021.]

Church 8/14/2021

Offertory scripture:

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=2%20Corinthians%209:6-8&version=NKJV

Don’t give just because someone tells you to. Do it because you want to honor God. And God notices.

Sermon message:

What to do when a challenge is present.

Last week: it’s important to speak faith.

There’s a difference between positive words vs faith words. Positive words are better than negative words; but they lack the spiritual power that faith words.

Point #1: this is not a new teaching. We need to speak faith.

The confession of your mouth determines your salvation. You get saved by confessing that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. This is not new teaching. Jesus and Paul said it. Even before him, David (before he was king) even said and demonstrated that it is important what you say.

Sometimes we speak faith but the mountain doesn’t move, and we get discouraged and weary. But we have help via the Bible:

The apostle James talks about the power of the tongue.

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
James 3:1-12 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=James%203:1-12&version=NKJV

Sometimes things change quickly, sometimes things change slowly.

Point #2: it’s important to have faith so that we can speak faith.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Romans%2010:17&version=NKJV

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Luke%206:45&version=NKJV

You can speak positive words, but you need to have the word of God in you to speak faith words. The way you get faith words is to get into the word of God. Get knowledge of the things in the word of God.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:2-4 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=2%20Peter%201:2-4&version=NKJV

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=2%20Timothy%202:15&version=NKJV

Walking by faith is a battle. Like paddling a canoe upstream or against the wind. Walking by faith is contrary to the rest of the world.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:12 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=1%20Timothy%206:12&version=NKJV

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Hebrews%2010:23&version=NKJV

Four (actually five) powerful faith confessions: God said them

Faith Confession 1: God rescues me because I love Him

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
Psalm 91:14 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%2091:14&version=NKJV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Matthew%2022:36-40&version=NKJV

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Revelation 2:4 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Revelation%202:4&version=NKJV

Everything Satan does in his attacks is to get you to stop loving God. But God says continue to love because I will take care of you.”

Faith Confession 2: God protects me because I trust Him

Psalm 91:14 again
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
Psalm 91:14 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%2091:14&version=NKJV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Proverbs%203:5-6&version=NKJV

Every attack in your life is meant to steal your love and trust in Gods. But God says continue to trust and love Him.

Faith Confession 3: God answers me when I pray to Him

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
Psalm 91:15 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%2091:15&version=NKJV

Faith Confession 4: God is with me when I’m facing trouble

Satan wants you to think that you are all alone. But God tells us that He is with us when we are facing trouble.

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%2046:1&version=NKJV

No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord .
Isaiah 54:17 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Isaiah%2054:17&version=NKJV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Romans%208:31&version=NKJV

Note about Psalm 91: the second half God talks and makes His promises of his protection

Faith Confession 5: God supplies all my needs because I acknowledge Hum as my source

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Philippians%204:19&version=NKJV

My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.
Psalm 62:5 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%2062:5&version=NKJV

Something cool: the middle two verses of the Bible point to a critical lesson about faith and trusting God.

That said, not all theologians agree on which two verses are the exact middle of the Bible. But most agree that it’s one of the two following options:

Middle of the Bible option 1:

It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes.
Psalm 118:8-9 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%20118:8-9&version=NKJV

Middle of the Bible option 2:

Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
Psalm 103:1-2 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%20103:1-2&version=NKJV

Bottom line: trust the Lord; bless the Lord. Always.