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3 Tips for Getting Out of a Spiritual Desert

We have all had them; periods in our lives when God seems so far away.

Our souls are hungry for Him yet we can’t seem to find Him.

We are discouraged.

It’s like walking through a spiritual desert.

I know how this feels. I’ve been there, and if you’re there today, be encouraged that every single Christian has been there.

But what do we do when God is silent in our lives, and we are in a spiritual desert?

In our passage today, 1 Samuel 28:6-19, we find an example, but sadly, it’s an example of what not to do when we are in a spiritual desert. King Saul is being threatened by a huge army of Philistines and is extremely scared. Because of his own sinful worry and distrust of God’s sovereignty, he decides to treat God like his own personal genie and ask Him how this battle against the Philistines will go. 

These wrong motives in asking God, and Saul’s already broken relationship with God because of prior unrepentant sin (trying to kill David), ultimately led to silence from God.

This is the darkest place a person can be, but it was a consequence of Saul’s own sin.

Instead of realizing why God was silent and repenting of his sin, Saul makes things ten times worse and ends up going to a witch, who he asks to call up Samuel from the dead.

This is extremely dark stuff, but a reminder that there are very powerful, very real forces of evil out there opposing God. (1 Peter 5:8) Thankfully we know we are on the winning team!

God allows Samuel to appear to Saul, and as a consequence for all Saul’s sin, Samuel ends up telling Saul that there will be a huge defeat and Saul is going to die in the battle.

So what can we take away today from this story?

1. When you feel far from God, don’t turn to worldly things for satisfaction, comfort, or answers.

There’s an old song from the Christian artist Plumb that says this: “There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us, and the restless soul is searching. There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us, and it’s a void only He can fill.”

These words perfectly communicate the fact that the only thing that can satisfy our hungry, discouraged, empty souls when we feel far away from God is God Himself, not anything else in this world. Turn only to Him when you’re discouraged.

2. When you’re in a spiritual desert, look for unrepentant sin.

Often times, but not always, the reason you feel far from God is your own sin. This is clearly illustrated in the life of Saul, who continued in unrepentant sin and because of this was not answered by God.

When there is sin in our lives, it draws us away from God and makes having an honest relationship with Him difficult.

This is just like if you were to break something that belonged to your mom, and decided not to tell her about it and just hide it. It would be pretty hard to act normal and have a loving relationship with your mom with that bugging you in the back of your mind, wouldn’t it?

It’s the same way with God.

If you are feeling far from God and realize that you have been sinning without telling God and asking Him for forgiveness, repent and ask Him for forgiveness, then your close relationship with Him will be restored.

3. When God is silent, cry out to Him and trust in His promises.

Maybe there isn’t any major unrepentant sin in your life, but you still feel far from God.

This could be because of a difficulty in your life, or maybe you’re just discouraged and you’re not sure why.

When you are in this situation, that is the time to get on your knees and really cry out to God.

1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” Psalm 102:19-20 says, “For He looked down from His holy height; From heaven the LORD gazed upon the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to set free those who were doomed to death.” 

God guarantees us that He hears us and that He is there.

He cares and even when it feels like He isn’t there, He is.

This is when you must trust in that truth and find comfort in it. 

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. When is a time when you have felt far from God?
  2. How did you get out of your spiritual desert?

 

There are Consequences to Obedience

Consequences.

The word sends chills down the spine of any young child being disciplined. It means there will be unpleasant results of whatever transgression they committed.

When we sin and disobey God, there are always consequences as a result, and they are never pleasant.

But did you know that the Bible says there will be consequences when we choose to obey as well?

You are probably wondering how there could be anything but good results when we choose to obey God. In 1 Samuel 22:6-19, however, we see a horrible tragedy as a result of obeying God.

1 Samuel 22:6-19 tells the story of a tyrannical king Saul. King Saul is very jealous of David, who he knows is going to succeed him as king and wants to stop. Saul has his heart set on killing David.

In Chapter 21, David had gotten help from a priest named Ahimelech. David was short on food and had no weapon as he was running away from Saul, so he had asked Ahimelech for help. Ahimelech had helped David graciously by giving him bread and a sword.

While the bread was holy bread designated for priests, and Ahimelech had therefore broken the law by giving it to David, it likely saved David’s life. Regardless of whether or not it’s ok to break God’s law to save someone’s life, mercy and compassion were shown here by Ahimelech.

In today’s verses, King Saul finds out that Ahimelech had shown compassion to David and provided him with supplies from a member of his army who happened to witness it.

This does not sit well with Saul, and he calls Ahimelech and all the other priests from his town and after a quick questioning, orders all 85 of them to be murdered. After this, the whole town is ordered to be killed.

This is a horrible tragedy resulting from one kind act of a priest and the evil selfishness of  a tyrannical king.

The compassionate action taken on Ahimelech’s part, albeit one that broke God’s law, was a kind action that resulted in his death and the death of all those around him.

This sad story can still teach us something today.

Many Christians face danger and even death daily as a result of their obedience to Christ.

According to Open Doors USA, “Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their belief in Jesus Christ.”

322 Christians worldwide lose their lives for their obedience to Christ every single month, not counting the hundreds more who endure violence for their faith.

According to 2 Timothy 3:12, these statistics should not surprise us.

It says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Life as a Christian is not guaranteed to be easy, contrary to many who misunderstand the gospel.

We are not guaranteed health, possessions, or any other worldly blessings.
Instead, we are guaranteed to have difficult times in our lives; times of sickness, times of financial disaster, times of broken relationships.
Most of all, we are guaranteed to be, at some point in our Christian lives, persecuted on some level for our faith.

This is not a popular message today.

We don’t want to hear these things.

But these things are necessary, and in fact, are very good for us in our faith.

God grows us through our sufferings and persecutions.

There are countless verses in the New Testament admonishing us to look to Christ in our sufferings and rejoice in them, because when we respond in this way, we are bringing more glory to God than any material or relational blessing in our lives ever could.

So today, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”  (1 Peter 4:12-14)

 

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. Describe a time in your life when you were persecuted for your obedience to Christ.
  2. How have the sufferings and persecutions in your life brought you closer to God?

 

The Secret to Successful Friendships

 

In the words of musical artist Bill Withers in his hit song Lean on Me, “We all need somebody to lean on.”

Friendship is one of the greatest blessings God has given us to enjoy in this life here on earth.

However, friendships among men are in dire shape.

Alan Loy McGinnis, an expert researcher and psychologist, estimates that only 10% of men have any real friendships in their lifetime.

Frankly, this is a heartbreaking and inexcusable statistic. What are some steps we as men can take to build the real, lasting friendships that are so vital yet so neglected today?

The answer to our question comes in 1 Samuel 18, where we will be focusing on Verses 1-5. These verses show the start of a friendship between David and King Saul’s son, Jonathan, that has served as the poster child of friendships countless times.

In Verse 1, Jonathan first meets David immediately after David has just killed Goliath. Jonathan is obviously amazed at what David had to say about his victory, because Verse 1 says “As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” That’s some pretty crazy stuff right there!

Later we see in Verse 4 that Jonathan gave David his royal robe, armor, sword, bow, and belt. In giving these royal possessions to David, Jonathan is showing his great loyalty to their friendship.

 More importantly, he is showing great humility by acknowledging David as the next king, instead of himself.

Being the king’s son, he was expected to be the next king after Saul, but Jonathan had enough humility to know that David was chosen by God to be the next king.

Most of us would have a hard time giving up our future kingship to someone else at all, much less becoming best friends with them and voluntarily giving them all your royal garments as an act of loyalty!

This is a picture of true, radical, God-glorifying, soul-building friendship!

 

How can we as Christian men today implement what we see here in 1 Samuel 18:1-5? I see two main things we can work at.

  1. Humility: Jonathan showed humility in acknowledging David as the future king. Today you can show humility in a number of ways in your friendships.
    1. Acknowledging when you’re wrong: When you realize that you have wronged a friend and sinned against them, have humility and confess it to them, asking for them to forgive you. (Matthew 5:23-24)
    2. Confessing your sin and asking for help: We can’t fight sin on our own, and it’s prideful to think that we can. First of all we need God’s help, but secondly we need the humility to ask our friends for help too. Find a brother in Christ and keep each other accountable on the sins you most struggle with. (Galatians 6:1-2)
  2. Sacrifice: Jonathan showed great sacrifice in giving up his royal garments to David and loving him as his own soul! There are so many ways you can sacrifice for your friends. Here are a few.
    1. Sacrifice your time: Giving valuable, quality time to just talk and support your friends is a huge act of sacrifice.
    2. Sacrifice your resources: Maybe your friend is in need. Sacrifice your resources to help them out. Or maybe you just want to bless them in a special way. Show them you care by giving gifts to them.
    3. Sacrifice your own interests: Put what your friends want over what you want. Maybe they want to go to a movie and you don’t. Go with them anyway. That’s sacrifice!

If you seek to have humility and try to sacrifice of your time, resources, and interests for your friends, you will be well on your way to glorifying God and building more lasting, meaningful, helpful friendships that challenge you to be more like Christ!

 

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. How have friendships impacted you personally?
  2. In what ways specifically in your life can you demonstrate humility and sacrifice in your friendships?

 

Our Battle Plan

How are we supposed to truly live as Christians?

Many times we find ourselves asking this question. Is there one rule we can really focus on, and if we do, everything else will fall into place?

I know that I sometimes ask that exact question. As believers, our hearts should be so full of love for God that we are always asking what the best way to live for Him is.

1 Samuel 12:20-24 gives us the answer to that question.

1 Samuel 12:20-24 comes at the end of Samuel’s farewell address to Israel, as Saul is now taking over the kingdom and Samuel will be taking a backseat in the leadership of the country.

Samuel’s farewell speech rebuked the people for their sin of asking for a king, and to prove how horrible their sin was, Samuel called down thunder and rain.

The people were convicted for their sin and felt extremely guilty.

They were afraid that they were going to die because God was so angry with them.

However, in Verse 20, Samuel shows the great love and mercy of our God despite the Israelites’ sin.

“Do not be afraid.”

Those are the great words of grace from Samuel to the people. Samuel tells the people that while they have surely sinned, they should not dwell in their fear of punishment, but instead “serve the Lord with all your heart.”

 

As sinners, we can all relate to the words of the famous hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, when it says “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.”

We so often “turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.” (Verse 21)

So often our attention is turned to worthless things that distract us from God, but there is good news for every distracted Christian.

The greatest news of all is that, as Verse 22 says, “the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.”

What a comforting truth for us today. We may continually wander into worthless sin, but God is always there to rescue us and set us back on the right course.

“What is the right course?” you may ask.

Samuel gives the answer in Verse 24. “Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart.”

This is our battle plan. Every day we should wake up and say, “How can I serve God today?”

The most practical way to serve God is to serve others and put them before yourself, for in this way, you show God’s love.

God’s kingdom is backwards compared to the world, because in Matthew 20:26 it says, “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.”

Even more importantly, when we serve others with the gifts God has given us, we are actually serving God. Matthew 25:40 confirms this when it says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

In the end, the best answer to the question we all ask, “How are we supposed to truly live as Christians?” is to serve God faithfully with all our hearts.

The best way to do that is to put others before yourself every day, and use your gifts to serve them. This is what Samuel told Israel to do, what Jesus did for us on the cross, and what we should be doing each and every day.

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. What is distracting you from God’s path for your life? It could be a sin or something good that you have made into an idol.
  2. What is one way you can put others first today?

Are You Being Defiant Towards God?

Have you ever rejected instruction from your parents, pastor, or from reading the Word of God itself?

Maybe you were told that your friends were a bad influence on you, or that the movies or music you were filling your mind with weren’t God honoring. Instead of listening to your parents, pastor, or the Word of God, you probably just ignored them and kept choosing what you knew in the back of your mind was sinful.

This has happened to all of us, but it shouldn’t, especially we who claim to know Christ.

The passage of 1 Samuel we are looking at today shows us a whole nation of people who ignored first their own leader’s instruction, and then the instruction of God himself!

1 Samuel 8 tells the story of Israel demanding their first king.

Before this time, Israel had been ruled by God himself through Judges like we saw in our last study through the book of Judges. In this chapter, Samuel, the current judge of Israel, was getting old and had set his sons as judges over Israel. His sons were not obedient to God, however, so the elders of Israel came up with a plan.

They wanted a king!

At first, it seems like a reasonable request. I mean, Samuel’s sons were very evil and there would be no one to judge and lead Israel without Samuel.

But the key here is in verse 5, where at the end they say they want a king to “judge us like all the nations.”

They are directly rejecting God as their leader, desiring to conform to the ways of the pagan nations around them. Understandably, both Samuel and God are very angry with this decision.

God tells Samuel to tell the people all the consequences of having a king.

When Samuel tells them in verses 10-18, the people are defiant to God and Samuel, saying, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we may also be like all the nations…” (Verse 19b-20a.)

When I read this, I picture a defiant toddler throwing a temper-tantrum when their parent disciplines them. Israel is honesty acting very pitifully in this passage of scripture.

The sad truth is that many of us are being just as defiant towards God in our lives today as the Israelites were in Chapter 8.

Many of us are holding onto sins in our lives that God wants us to get rid of, but we, like bratty little toddlers, refuse to let go.

Maybe you know your music isn’t honoring to God.

Maybe that movie you’re planning on seeing with your friends is less than holy.

Maybe you are making sports or relationships an idol in your life, elevating them above God in importance.

When we let these things happen without ever addressing them, we are being just like the Israelites here in Chapter 8.

We are demanding that God does it our way and ignoring His commands.

We are putting ourselves in place of God, and who could imagine a more disgusting sin than that?

So what are you holding onto today? What are you trying to force to work your way instead of God’s? Let it go, give it to God, and repent of your pride and selfishness today.

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. Has there ever been a time in your life when you ignored God and did things your way?
  2. What were the results of ignoring God?
  3. What is there in your life that you aren’t giving to God today?

When God Calls

God speaks. He speaks everyday.

 Do you hear Him?

 “How does God speak?” you may ask, “I’ve never heard God’s voice.”

 The answer is not as simple as just one way that God communicates with His people.

He uses His word to speak to us, as well as the Holy Spirit’s prompting inside of us during prayer, worship, and daily life, and the words of our pastors, teachers, and even parents.

God can and does use all of these ways to communicate to us, but we have to be willing to respond.

Jesus talks about hearing and responding to Him in John 10:27-28, where He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

In our reading today we will be looking at 1 Samuel 3:1-14. Samuel had been dedicated to the Lord to live at the temple while he grew up by his mother who hadn’t been able to have children. She had promised God that if He helped her have children, she would give her firstborn to God’s service. When Samuel was old enough to be separated from his mom, she brought him to the temple to serve there with Eli, the head priest.

Eli had three very evil sons who did not honor God, so God decided to make Samuel the next high priest instead of Eli’s sons.

In this amazing passage of scripture, God calls to Samuel 3 times, and Samuel finally answers the third time after thinking it was Eli who had been calling him.

God told Samuel that He was going to punish Eli’s family forever, and that their family would no longer be the priests. It isn’t recorded that Samuel would be the next priest of Israel, but this is the first time God really takes away the blessing from Eli’s family and puts it on Samuel.

What is very important to see in this passage is how Samuel responds to God’s call. In verse 10, Samuel responds to God’s call with “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

The question is, are we listening to God with a servant’s heart today?

When we hear God’s word in church or read it on our own, are we humble enough to let it change us and to follow where God has just told us to go?

When the Holy Spirit inside of you prompts you to do or say something, are you brave enough to listen?

Or do you just let sermon after sermon, bible verse after bible verse pass you by, never changing or truly following after what God is speaking to you everyday?

It’s time for you to pray and really speak to God, and then read His word or listen to your pastor’s sermon and let His spirit speak to you through it.

God will show you what you need to change in your life.

When He shows you, respond in humbleness, asking for His help to accomplish the changes in your life, and then go out and live for God!

Trust me, I am nowhere near perfect and I don’t listen to God enough either, but this is truly something we all must work on if we want to grow to be more Christ-like.

So today, let God speak to you, and then go out and do something about it!

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. How is God speaking to you today?
  2. Tell about a time when you felt led to do something by God, and took a step of faith and listened.

 

 

The Consequences of Disobedience

 

judges-16-21

Everyone faces the consequences of their sin every day.

Maybe you disobeyed your parents and got grounded. Maybe your mom or dad got pulled over for speeding. No matter how big or small the sin, there are always consequences.

In today’s passage from Judges 16:4-22, we will see the horrible consequences Samson faced when he disobeyed God’s law and did what he wanted instead.

When we look at Chapter 16, verse 4 shows Samson’s horrible mistake right away. He committed adultery with a woman he wasn’t married to, which God commands against in Exodus 20:14, where He says, “You shall not commit adultery.” 

To make matters worse, this woman, whose name is Delilah, is a Philistine, not an Israelite. God told Israel not to marry women from other nations to protect them from being drawn into those women’s false idol worship. Solomon made this same mistake years later, in 1 Kings 11:2, which says, “They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.”

Clearly, Samson is already breaking two big commands from God. However, things get worse.

The Philistines wanted to capture Samson because of all the times he had attacked them, but they first had to find out the secret to his superhuman strength, which was his long hair. He had never cut his hair as part of a vow to God.

They convinced Samson’s new lover, Delilah, to find out Samson’s secret for them. When Delilah tries to find out the secret in Verses 6-14, Samson lies to her 3 times, further adding to his sin.

Samson should have ran far away from Delilah the first time she tried to get him to spill the beans, but instead, he continued living in sin with her for many days, lying the whole time.

In the end, in Verses 15-21, he finally tells Delilah the reason for his enormous strength, and Delilah has his head shaved in his sleep. This is further disobedience against God, since Samson had vowed never to cut his hair. The consequences come quickly when the Philistines capture Samson and brutally gouge his eyes out, putting him in prison for the rest of his life.

Samson ended up losing his freedom and sight, all because of his disobedience to God.

So what can we learn from this extreme example?

The truth is that every single sin we commit has consequences, whether we know it or not. We will never, ever get away with a single sin.

Sometimes it might seem like we have gotten away with doing something wrong.

Maybe no one found out that you snuck out of the house one night, or no one saw you steal candy from the grocery store. The truth is, though, that God sees every single sin, even if no one on earth has, and He will bring those secret sins into the light, judging every single one. (Ecclesiastes 12:14, Romans 2:16)

You can escape man, but no one can ever escape God, no matter where you go.

Everyone has sin, whether it’s secret or not, so what do we do to fix this judgement that God says He’s going to bring on them?

The answer is in Jesus Christ.

If you have given your life to Christ, know that your sins are forgiven. Now live your life for God, doing your best through His power to get rid of sin in your life and asking forgiveness when you don’t. And most importantly, tell others this good news that has changed your life so much. Jesus tells us in the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations.

That is a command for every Christian, so we all need to be working our hardest to tell everyone we know about Jesus, who has saved us from the consequences of our sin.

Finally, if you do not know Jesus, know that He came to take God’s judgement for your sin upon Himself on the cross when He died. All you have to do is confess and turn away from your sins and trust in Jesus for your salvation, choosing to live your life for Him from now on.

If you do this, you will have new life in Christ and be saved from the wrath.

If you have never given your life to God, do that today!

It is so important. You don’t have to be like Samson, stuck in your sin and facing horrible consequences. Just turn to Jesus today.

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. What is a time where you have disobeyed God and suffered the consequences?
  2. Who can you share the good news of the Gospel with today?
  3. Have you accepted Christ as your savior?

How God Works Through Our Weakness

judges-2

Have you ever had to do something that you thought was too big and too hard for you to do all by yourself?

Maybe you had to lift something really heavy or do something really hard in a sport you play. We’ve all had those experiences, but I’m pretty sure none of us has ever had to save a whole nation from an evil oppressor.

That’s exactly what Gideon was told to do by the Lord in Judges 6:11-16

Israel was being oppressed by an evil nation called Midian. God had actually caused Israel to be oppressed in Judges 6:1-10 because Israel was disobeying Him and worshipping false gods.

The people of Israel had to hide out in caves and forts, and the Midianites kept stealing their animals and crops.

Israel got so fed up that they finally cried out to the One True God to save them. That’s where our story today about Gideon picks up.

In Chapter 6 Verses 11 and 12, we see an angel approach Gideon while he’s working and telling him that God is with him, and calling him a “mighty man of valor.”

Can you imagine an angel randomly coming up to you and calling you a warrior?

To make things even crazier, he tells Gideon that he’s the man God wants to defeat the Midianite oppressors of Israel.

At this point, anyone would be pretty worried about having to lead a war to save a nation. Gideon asks the angel how he’s supposed to do this when he’s the weakest man in the weakest family of his tribe.

The angel simply tells him that God will be with him.

Looking ahead to Chapter 7 Verse 19, we see that in the end God helped Gideon defeat the Midianites just like the angel says here.

So what can we learn from this crazy story of God using a weak, insignificant person to save a nation?

Chances are most of us can identify with Gideon. We’re just normal guys living normal lives. We’re not important or strong.

But just like Gideon, God can use us despite our weaknesses.

The Bible is filled with stories of weak, insignificant people being used by God. Just look at the twelve apostles! They started out as lowly fisherman and tax collectors, and God used them to establish His church!

So how does God want to use you for Him today?

Here are some ways God wants to use you for His kingdom even when you think you’re insignificant and unimportant.

 

    1. Serve Others.
      God wants you to consider others as more important than yourself. By loving others and giving to them without thinking about yourself, God uses you to make Himself known! Jesus says in Matthew 20:16, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” Living sacrificially is how you are truly great in God’s eyes.
    2. Pray.

      Prayer is how we communicate with God as Christians. When we pray, we are made more and more like God. We get closer to Him, and He strengthens us to be able to do what He commands us to through His Holy Spirit. In this way God works through your weaknesses by giving you His strength instead of your own.

    3. Tell Others About Him.
      As Christians it is our duty to tell others about Christ. Whether we only influence one person to accept Christ or we bring thousands to Christ, each soul is infinitely important to God. If you tell others about Christ, you are bringing glory to God and God is using you to further His kingdom, even if you feel like your efforts are weak and insignificant.

Don’t Try To Do Things By Yourself!  

When Christians try to live for God, stay away from sin, and tell others about Him by themselves, they aren’t relying on God’s strength that is available to every Christian through the Holy Spirit.

God is most glorified when we rely on Him.

Paul sums this up perfectly in 1 Corinthians 12:10, when he says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul isn’t saying that somehow weaknesses actually make him strong, he’s saying that when he’s at his weakest, God is strongest in him, because it’s not by his strength that he’s living for God, but by God’s strength.

So today if you’re feeling too weak or unimportant to do anything great for God, remember that it’s when we are at our weakest that God uses us the most.

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. What situations are you facing in your life that make you weak?
  2. How can you rely on God to help you in those situations?

How Can You Make a Difference?

 

If you’re like me, you probably look around at the world and all the bad, evil things going on and wonder how someone like you could ever make a difference. I know I often wish there was something I could do to help, and I’m sure you do too.

As Christians, God put that desire in us, and He wants to use each and everyone of us to affect the world around us, for His cause.

Today we’re going to look at one person who did something that changed the whole course of a nation for 40 years. That person is a woman named Jael, and we find her in Judges 4:17-24.

In the days that this story takes place, Israel was being oppressed by an evil king and his empire.

In verse 17 we learn that Jael’s family was at peace with the oppressive king and his empire. Because of this alliance between her family and the kingdom, the fleeing commander Sisera expected to find a friend to hide from the Israelite army in Jael’s house. His army was being overtaken by Deborah and Barak (not Obama). Instead of the peace and safety Sisera expected, he was greeted by his own downfall at the hands of Jael.

In verse 21, we see a courageous initiative taken by Jael.

She took it into her own hands to rid Israel of the oppressive empire it was under. Sisera was exhausted by the battle he had just fled from, so he fell asleep in Jael’s house. Jael seized this opportunity by taking a tent peg and a hammer and hammering the tent peg through Sisera’s head, killing him as he slept!

This ultimately won the battle for the Israelites (Verse 23) and brought 40 years of peace to Israel. (Chapter 5 Verse 31)

This action by Jael took huge amounts of courage for two reasons.

  1. Jael was a woman, and women were not considered to be warriors at that time. Jael went against the status quo and trends of the day to defeat the enemy.
  2. Jael’s family was in an alliance with the kingdom she ultimately helped defeat. By killing Sisera, Jael was breaking this alliance and most likely going against what her husband and other leaders in her family would have wanted her to do.

Application

Jael’s courage and leadership can teach us a lot about how to stand up for what we believe and make a difference for God in our world today.

Here are 3 things to remember as you look to be a leader for God’s kingdom.

  • Don’t ever let your young age hold you back.  

    1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in faith, in purity.”

  • God is telling you that even though you are young, you can be a leader by speaking with love, treating others kindly, trusting God, and staying pure in your thoughts and actions. That is how you can make a difference for God.
  • Don’t be afraid to stand out.

    Ephesians 5:11 says to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

  • In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us to be salt and light, pushing back against the darkness in our world and shining a light with how we live. If we live as Christ calls us to, we can change the world for God in a big way.
  • What you do doesn’t have to be big.

    Many Christians feel guilty that they have never done anything big for God.

  • The truth is, though, that we don’t have to do anything huge to advance the kingdom of God. All we have to do is live how God called us and be an example of Christ to those around us, wherever God has put us. We have to fulfill the Great Commission by telling everyone we know about God, but you don’t have to be a missionary or pastor to do that. If you even lead one person to God, that is worth an infinite amount in the eyes of God, and who knows how many more people will be saved because of that one person being saved!

 

In conclusion, as young men chasing after God, let’s follow Jael’s example and be leaders and examples of Christ to those around us.

Don’t be afraid to stand up and stand out for God, and out of love for Him, show others the love of Christ. That’s how to live right as a Christian young man.

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. What are some ways you have made a difference for God?
  2. How do you think God is calling you to make a difference for Him today?
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