God takes care of us. He works out events according to His will.
Everything that happens does so because it aligns with God’s ultimate strategy.
However, this does not excuse us from taking our own actions and making our own plans.
The scripture is filled with admonitions to plan ahead, to think, and to strategize. If we don’t do this we will make poor decisions or fall into sin. One such verse is Proverbs 16:9.
“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps”
Proverbs 16:9
There is clear and obvious interplay between God’s actions and our actions. God directs our steps but we still have to plan our way, We have to make plans. We have to think and strategize. It is not enough to hope God will do all the heavy lifting for us. We have to make some moves of our own.
Many people believe their only job is to pray to God and He will take care of the test. That is not the whole story.
If you pray for God to move a mountain, you may find that He sends you a shovel.
Prayer does not excuse us from action and work. We have to make moves in our own lives if we want progress.
Do not make the mistake that so many religionists do today and think that your level of faith is determined by your blind trust in God to do all the heavy lifting in your life. God will work in your life, but He expects you to work in your own life.
Plan, set goals, and strategize: this is what we learn from Proverbs 16:9.
Though God is in ultimate control of the outcomes of our lives, part of the outcome is determined by our own choices.
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
While reading this passage of scripture in the Bible, many people come to the conclusion that Christ was talking about the gates of hell not prevailing against the church itself. Many believe this meant that no matter what would happen throughout history, the Church would always be alive and well.
But as we look through history, we can see that there were some very dark and disturbing periods where there seemed to be very little emphasis placed on faith. Especially when it came to religion as structured in the Bible.
Catholicism and other various man-made and man-influenced versions of religion would come to light and cast shadows on the truth found in the Bible. Many kinds of difficulties would face the church from persecution to false doctrine.
All of that to say, when Christ talks about the gates of hell not prevailing against “it”, what He was likely talking about is the actual building of the church, not the church itself.
“It” = building of the church.
Meaning that hell itself would not be able to stop the building of the church. Christ would build his church, and hell could not stop the building of that church. Once the church was established, hell would be a continual war with the church and everything it stands for throughout all of time.
The gates of hell are constantly trying to claim members of the church and dragged them back there. This is why every attempt at evangelism, every attempt to live in the truth and to resist evil and obey the commands of God is to lay Siege to Hell itself.
We are pulling Souls from the mouth of hell and helping them to see the care and concern of their creator.
The purpose of this brief article is to help you realize what is meant in this passage of Matthew 16:18. Nothing could stop the building of the church, it was coming whether the Gates of Hell liked it or not. And now that is here, you need to be a part of it. If you want salvation, you have to walk through God’s process of salvation.
You have to hear the word of God, knowing that Christ came to Earth and lived a sinless and perfect life, that he died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead after being buried in a tomb for three days.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
You must believe that this story is true. This can be the most difficult of all the steps. There are events and happenings in the scripture that are difficult to believe, but if you want salvation you must believe them.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness,
Then you need to change your actions, which is what we call repentance. This has almost nothing to do with emotions, and essentially everything to do with your personal actions and changing the way that you’re living your life. Repentance is a change of action not a change of emotion. You can change your emotions without changing your actions and change your actions without changing your emotions. Ideally, you change both, but if you can only pick one, change your actions.
You have to confess that you believe the Bible story, confessing that you believe Christ did what He said He did, and what the Bible work words him doing. And you have to confess this in the presence of witnesses.
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Then you must be baptized in water that symbolizes the blood of Christ. As long as you live Faithfully this Blood continues to cleanse you from all sins.
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the [k]remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Samuel 9, we are introduced to king Saul before he was king. What is interesting to note is that the first thing mentioned about him is his physical stature.
There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of [a]power. 2 And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
The Bible does not note elements of his character, but rather his physical stature. What a thing to focus on!
It makes one think, what would be recorded about you in the Bible? Would we have elements of good character that would be worth recording? Or would only what we looked like to be passed down in the annals of history?
The Bible does not talk about Saul’s nobility, humility, his good spirit, or willingness to learn. It does not talk about his religiosity or focus on the spiritual. All that one could say about him was that he looked like a king. He had the stature to be king.
But is there not more to leadership than what someone looks like? But we as people concentrate on the physical aspects of others to the exclusion of all else.
Perhaps this is why God specifically saw fit to teach Samuel that physical stature was not what was important in a king.
6 So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!”7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have [c]refused him. For[d]the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
People were in the habit of looking at the physical first. Perhaps even Samuel believed that the next king would look like the first king physically. but this was not the case. When God sought out David, He was looking for a man after His own heart. And he found that in Davis, despite his stature.
Lesson: Pursue character and do not rely too heavily on your looks or strength. Those will decay with age, but good character will last for a lifetime. Do not rely on things that fade away. Character will be the bedrock upon which you build the rest of your life.
Most people prove this hypothesis based on simple observation. What do people do the second they have a moment of downtime? They whip out their phone and start scrolling. Most people cannot sit with their own thoughts for more than fifteen seconds. It is just too much for them to deal with.
But the biblical model is one of stillness. There are moments in time when we need to be able to sit down, be still and recognize the power of God in this universe. This form of meditation is a biblical exercise.
So what we must do is figure out how to sit down, learn to be comfortable with our thoughts, and remember God. We also must not get discouraged when we find it extraordinarily hard to just sit down and be still. This stillness is a new skill for many of us. And it is understandable that we would have difficulty for us. Learning to be still is similar to learning to walk for the first time again. And all kinds of thoughts and fears are going to bubble up when we try to sit there and be still.
In fact, that is what we are trying to avoid, aren’t we? We are uncomfortable with our own thoughts so we treat them with the toxic medication of distraction.
We have to slowly build up a tolerance to the uncomfortable nature of our thoughts until they become more comfortable.
What are we trying to avoid? Usually, it is the difficult questions of life. And it is easier to place our thoughts somewhere else. Instead of thinking about death and mortality, the nature of God, and the nature of the impending judgment, we choose to watch the lives of others or sedate ourselves with entertainment. We cannot blame ourselves for that, it is simply natural as pain-avoidant beings. But that is no excuse to remain in that state.
We have to exercise and learn to increase our ability to endure sitting alone with our own thoughts. Perhaps that is with traditional meditation, perhaps that is with a mindfulness meditation on the power of God. There is no limit on the number of exercises that can be done. But the fact remains that some exercise must be done.
Start by sitting still for just one minute.
If you cannot sit still for 60 seconds, just reduce the amount of time spent. Try to spend more than 15 seconds though. Spend at least that much time daily concentrating on the power of God while being still. Then try to build it up on a regular basis.
Once you consistently reach 7 days in a row of meditation, add 5 seconds. That might not seem like much to add, but you need to develop consistency with the practice, do not try to overdo it. Once you complete another 7 days with 20 seconds of meditation, add another 5 seconds. Slow progress is infinitely better than no progress.
Incorporate this into your daily routine and learn to be still.
Proverbs 4:25 – Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.
One of the principles teachings of the Bible is that of focus. A man’s role in life involves a degree of focus. It is important whether we can focus on the task at hand, attend to our work, and shut out the superfluous matters of life.
When we begin looking side to side and forgetting to look ahead, we easily get off track. The body goes where the eyes gaze. The head and body both follow the eyes. therefore, whatever you look at and focus on will be your destination.
It makes sense, then, to focus our eyes on things that matter, or as the Bible says “Let your eyes look straight ahead”.
Orient your eyes to the place you want to go. If you are not sure where you want to go, then you have some introspection to do.
You will head towards that destination that you follow with your eyes. Do not waste time looking to the left and the right because you are not going that way. Do not look back because you are not walking into the past. But rather look straight ahead so you can begin to make progress towards your goals.
Completely contained in this brief passage of scripture is the all-important idea of focus. There is no need to write about it for days, its simplicity does the talking for it.
Do not get taken off track and distracted by the things that do not matter. Focus and cut everything superfluous. Serve God honorably and live simply.
