Below is the video link as well as my notes for the “Not Another Manic Monday” Video Blog published October 8, 2018. Tune in live every Monday at 10 a.m. on Facebook as I share what the Lord has laid on my heart to encourage us for the coming week.
VIDEO NOTES:
To begin with, it’s hard to begin a conversation with
- Someone we’re not familiar with or perhaps may not even know.
- Someone we’re angry with (if we’re honest)
- Someone we’re afraid of, or
- Someone we don’t understand.
It’s sometimes helpful if we have a conversation starter.
Prayer needs are obvious conversation starters. I used to think I was prayer warrior until I realized all my prayers started with “Lord help me.”
Who wants a friend who only comes around when they need something? Don’t get me wrong, God wants to hear everything we need. But He’d like to have some talk time with us just for the sake of getting to know Him better. Not hearing just hearing about our problems.
1 Timothy 2:5 says “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Conversation Starter
So if by way of a conversation starter you heard God ask “Why don’t we talk more often?” How would you answer?
Which one of the excuses would you have, or perhaps another one. But be honest with yourself and ask, what causes me not to have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you fear Him?
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.”
So let’s break that verse down.
If God hasn’t give us the spirit of fear, who has. Easy question to answer. Satan loves it when you won’t talk to God. Because he knows without a good relationship with Jesus, God can’t work in your life to the fullest extent. So he whispers lies in our ears to keep us apart and a way from a three fold promise.
The Power of God. The Love of God and the Strength of having a sound mind. Power to make it through any problem we’re facing. Love, not condemnation which Satan wants you to have, and a sound mind, meaning that you worry and stress less. Is that not something we all desire?!
So take the time to have that conversation with God today. What’s coming between you and Him?
Tell it to the Scapegoat
Anything that prevents you from having a conversation with God is a sin. Even if you don’t view it as a sin, it is because it’s keep you apart from your Creator.
In the book of Leviticus, an Old Testament ritual was that the priest on the Day of Atonement would take two goats before the people at the temple. The first he would kill which symbolized the blood sacrifice that Jesus would make in the future. The second goat he would release into the wilderness, symbolizing that the sins of the people were carried away.
I love the scripture which says “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
Everything that causes you apprehension with God, is gone. You can visualize it on the scapegoat, running into the wilderness never to return.
What an awesome way to visualize our sins! Running away from us.
The last point for today is to have a
Tell it to Jesus
It’s a conversation that I had last night in the preparation of this morning’s video blog. I needed somethings to go away. I had to get very honest.
I’ll share those with you, because I need to get them out in the open and perhaps your struggle is similar.
- I feel every burden of my family on my shoulders. Everyone’s. And I most always think that it’s my fault.
- I don’t ever feel that I measure up before God or man and that I’ve failed everyone who loves me.
- I feel that my value is tied to my pay. Which for someone in the ministry, (not a paid ministry) that makes my value “0”.
That may or may not be your issue. But something probably is that keeps you and God from having in depth conversations.
I hope that today you’ll take the time to talk to Jesus. Tell Him the truth about why you and He don’t talk as much as you should. And let’s start this Monday on the right foot, getting closer to our Lord.
God bless ya!
