A Revelation about Requests

So once I again I apologise for letting this blog get completely ignored :(  Hopefully, I will be a little more diligent in keeping it up this coming semester.  Now for the real stuff.  This past weekend there has been some pretty hard things going on in my life.  Nothing life threating or globaly earth shattering, just some personal things that were completely unexpected.  Through all of this it has been hard to figure out what God's will is for very specific areas of my life.  I spent much time in "prayer" (the quotations are there for a reason) and still didn't have complete confidence in what I thought to be God's will.  If you asked how certain I was, I would most likey have said somewhere between 80 and 90 percent sure of what I thought God's will to be.  That 10 to 20 percent can make you become quite fearful and timid when trying to act on that type of confidence.  Tonight I started reading through Spurgeon's "The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life".  The first chapter starts off with a reminder that prayer is in essence coming before the throne of God, hence we are coming before a king.  Not only a king but THE king.  Of course I know all this, but some of his statements brought me such conviction about how I had been praying.  I had been so afraid to actual say let Your will be done regardless of what I want.  So I knew that I needed to take care of that and first ask for forgiveness then actually get down to business about asking what His will really was with a humble and lowly attitude, willing to do what He actually said.  It was the strangest time of prayer I've ever had.  After getting things right, I was expecting to struggle with letting go of my "right" to what happens in my life.  I was expecting God to take something away, and was preparing for a long struggle to give it over and to beg God to let it stay.  As soon as I had made things right, there was a complete confidence of knowing His will.  A totally confidence that this thing in my life was exactly what He wanted, and that it was something that would stay confounded me.  While this is what I had leaned towards as God's will it now become completely sure in my heart.  Then it felt like i just stood there in the courts of heaven with my mouth open, speechless.  "God that was too easy, I was supposed to have to fight for that" were my only thoughts, yet that confidence remained in my heart.  I ended my prayer and just sat there still baffled, yet the confidence remained.  IF it was enough that this prayer session took place, after a divine facebook status of a friend who had posted verses i really needed to hear (yes see God can use facebook to help His children), I had on some music and had the player set on shuffle and the song that was on when i ended my prayer was centered around the concept "Rest in me".  God truly does hear and answer prayers!  How is your attitude when you come before his throne?  Is it flippant and whimsical?  Do you try to force your will on God?  Or do you truly see Him as the king on the throne of Heaven itself who controls everything, yourself included.  He says come in boldness as one of His children, but even a prince is subject to proper court etiquett, and beyond that he is still confined to the King's wishes.  Are you humble before Him?  Do you have the heart attitude of being willing to accept His answer whatever it is? 

Christ's Recession-proof Riches

So I will start of the new  season of posting with a thought inspired by an old draft for a post.  The title of that was Bankrupt but for God's Riches.  This thought brought back some of the lyrics of a song that I have been teaching my highschool choir.  One line from Jesus My Lord, My God, My All is "poor down the riches of your grace"    I actually asked my highschoolers what they thought that phrase meant and they came up with some pretty good answers.  Lets  just start with some of the obvious answers, because God's grace I have forgiveness of my sins!!!  To think that almighty creator God sent his son to die for me, as unworthy as I am, what an awesome thing!  To think that one day I will be able to std completely justified before a holy and perfect God because of God's grace.  So now that the really big obvious one is out there, how about some of the "every day" riches?  Its easy to forget about the every day blessings that God gives, whether it be the air we breathe, or the provision for our needs.  How about the strength to make it through hard times and circumstances?  Or the comfort of the Spirit when something is painful or hard to go through?  To think that Jesus Christ is right now in heaven making intercessions for me?  God's love for me didnt stop at the cross!!  He STILL loves me!!!  Even though I fail Him, He still loves me and provides for me.  Now sometimes that love comes in ways that seem kind of weird or contradictory from our viewpoint, but even our santification is important to Him.  He loves me and wants me to be holy, not just in heaven, but to live holy and pure right now!  Well I know this is an abrupt ending but I need to head off to choir practice, so please keep checking up on me to see if i keep posting :)

The Halt of the Hiatus

So I havent posted on here in almost two years and I finally decided to get back to putting up post on this site. I am going to try to get at least one up each week, possibly more depending on how the week goes with school and all. As the first post on here says, this blog is really about what Gods is teaching me through my daily bible study and prayer times, so if you see that its been awhile since the last post, send me a message and ask me whats going on. Well with all that said, I will get on to the real posts :)

What Wondorous Love

Recently I was listening to the Steve Petitt Team's song O Wonderous Love, and man it really hit me just how great God's love really is. Think about it a completely holy God, free from all sin, loving me enough to pardon all my sin, and not only that, but making me His own son. Adopting someone, but for the blood of Christ that is covered in the one thing that He cannot abide. O truely what wonderous love. Not only did He choose to love me, but He continues to do so, no matter what I do, what a truely humbling thought. I can never run from God's love. In Psalm 23:6 it says that His love pursues us, the idea being that of a hunting dog chasing after its prey. He loves me enough to chase after me, even after he has already paid for my life. Its not that He is chasing me as an ecscaped slave to return him to service, but it is a chase that is motivated out of love to see His child be next to Him once again. God's love will not let me go, what a wondrous thought, no matter how far I stray in attempt to replace the God with vain and empty pleasures of the very sin He has forgiven me of, His love will always be there calling me back to His side. Patiently He will call and lovingly wait for me, His erring child, to return. There is nothing that can now condemn me, not in heaven nor on earth, for Christ love has wonderously covered all my sin. O how I betray that love!! O how great my sin is, one who has been forgiven so much and one who has benefited so much from Go's endless love and yet I give it such little value. My ever changing fancies are put in front of my unchanging God, o how little I esteem the love of God. O God, change my heart!! Let me truely say with the songwriter "Sin with its follies I gladly resign!" What are you doing about God's boundless love? Have you accepted the forgiveness He offers for your sins? If you have, how do you repay the God that loves you so? Let His love drive you to His face and to His side!

Glory in God's Gift

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galations 6:14

To Glory in the cross, what does it mean? To glory, my first thought is taking great pride in something and then living your life in a way that everyone knows that that one thing means more than life to you. I often think about my last name, Stover. Its always been something we glory in, something we take pride in and even something we are willing to fight for. Come to think of it the only time I almost got in a fight was over the Stover name. I take so much pride in it that i even dont mind people that i know calling me by my last name. Yet do I treat Christ sacrifice for me the same way? Do I claim it in a public way? Am I really willing to defend it? Is it the first thing people see when they meet me? Or have a given Christ honor in my life to something else? Do I care when people at work say "O well he is a christian"? So often i dont take that as the compliment that it ought to be to me. I care more about my earthly family name than I do for the name of my Savior and Lord. My focus ought to be that of II Corinthians 10:17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Forget the accomplishments, the awards, the praise of men, but instead let Christ's purchase of my soul mean everything to me.

A Ready Residence of Refuge

First off, my apologies to any of you who check this. My laptop has been down for a while now, so I was not able to post anything up here. Anyway, onto better things. As the second half of the semester gets going, I have found myself seemingly overwhelmed with work, whether it be ministry, homework, or just regular work. I'm not the kinda guy who gets stressed out about stuff like that, but after awhile it just seems to pile up, and the grades start to fall as the work piles up. This past couple of days has seemed crazier than the rest. Yesterday, I was supposed to play in piano studio, have my lesson, turn in two projects for one class, and write a paper for another. Talk about a busy day. Praise God for His kindness and mercy though! Someone shared a verse with me a couple of weeks ago, Nahum 1:7. "The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him." God has really been placing all these things in my life just to show me how that in and of myself there is no way that I can accomplish all that I need to. That's not how He designed the christian life to be. I am reminded of what I wrote in a previous post, about the light bulbs, without the power of the Spirit I can do nothing. While it would seem that God has called me to do impossible things, all I need to do is trust in Him with simple obedience. He truly is a strong tower, one the the storms of life will bash against and the enemy will assault, but it will stand. Why do we not avail ourselves of our trustworthy God? Honestly, which makes more sense: worrying about everything that God has put on our plates, or just trusting Him and realizing that He knows best and will take are of everything in His own way. Think of it like this, if there were a siege on a city and you were working out in the field, and you saw the advancing army, would you not run to the tower of defense? I would, yet so often in my life, I think that I can fight off the endless assault by myself, when Right behind my stands a tower ready to provide protection and defense. That sure doesn't make alot of sense does it? I thank God for the crazy exceedingly busy part of the year that I now find myself in. It truly drives me to my knees and shows me my need to trust God and to live in the power of His spirit. He stands ready to provide, ready to strengthen, ready to comfort, ready to protect. Will you take advantage of that and simply step inside the door of the tower?

Psalm 32:1-5

1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Wow, so my brother had asked me to preach on this passage for the junior high group up at my home church, and what a blessing it was! How often do I forget how happy i should be about my salvation!! Honestly, what could make a person happier? God no longer "charges" me sin against me, and my sin is covered under the blood of my savior!!! No game, victory, or circumstance could ever mean so much, or bring so much joy! The second half of this passage had just as important message. Why should I let my sin destroy that happiness? I know i have been in the exact same place as the psalmist. Refusing to admit my sin, or refusing to get it right and how that hesitance and rebellion ruins the joy that I ought to have! God's hand truly seems heavy when His conviction begins its work, but what a glorious work it does! It is that same conviction an pressure that brings me to me knees, it brings me to say "I will confess" and God truly is faithful and just to forgive my sin (1 John 1:9) No longer does the hand of God seem to bear down, but instead now I am lifted up it. The joy is restored and the fellowship restored!! O what a wondrous thing!