The PB&J Formula to Keep Your Flame Burning

God Gold of the day

“Desire without knowledge is not good—how much more will hasty feet miss the way!”

-Proverbs 19:2

Two different aspects of our lives of followers of Christ:

Desire: the passion and enthusiasm one has to live their lives for God

Knowledge: the information or “truth” one gains through diligent study, focus, and seeking out to learn more about God and His truths

The main question I have for you today; which one of these areas do you find yourself living with more and leaning towards in your daily life? Is it more desire, a fire to get up and get after it, or is it knowledge, spending more time in study and learning? Both aspects are greatly needed for our Christian lives but one by itself always turns out to be no good without the other. These two qualities are a tag team, they go together like peanut butter and jelly. Hold on, let’s look at this verse from Proverbs a little deeper.

It says here; “desire without knowledge is no good.” Why would that be? So often we can find ourselves running through this life with the idea of “faster is better,” because if you have more “desire” you’ll be able to get more done, serve the Lord even greater right? Not so fast!!!

Desire is great but still it needs it’s tag team partner of “knowledge.” And it says exactly why here in Proverbs, “how much more will hasty feet miss the way!” The word “hasty” is meaning; “done or acting with excessive speed or urgency, hurried.” If we go go go and don’t take a second to slow down, we can find our flame of desire that has been burning at all time high’s experiencing something called, “burnout.” Have you ever heard a sermon or went to a camp, conference, those unbelievable moments of experiencing a spiritual high where you are on the mountain top and so fired up to go and serve the Lord with all you have? Yeah, I’ve experienced those moments too but how does long does that fire keep burning? Usually, not too long because there is no fuel to keep the fire going.

That’s where knowledge comes in, knowledge is the fuel to keep our desire fires burning at a high level. Knowledge is found when we step back to reflect, spend time with God in His Word and in prayer. In those moments when we seek God, His Word and presence brings knowledge to our lives, truth-filled knowledge about who He is, how He feels about us, truth that fills us up when we reach those burnout moments when our desire is getting weak.

Knowledge is like throwing kerosene on the fire that your desire has produced, when we find ourselves in moments where we want to give up, we’re too tired, we don’t see why the daily battle is worth it. SEEK KNOWLEDGE from the Lord. He provides for us truth that gives us all we need to battle against the weakness we face, it shows us that the purpose and calling God has given us is worth it. Knowledge is the fuel to keep your desire fire burning!

We can take off running the race God has set before us with all the desire in the world but without knowledge, God’s truth, we can find ourselves running in the wrong direction all too often. Knowledge of God directs us and keeps our eyes in the right direction to make an even bigger impact for His Kingdom than we could ever do without Him!!!! Seek the balance of desire and knowledge today, just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it never gets old, only better and better!!!!

Here’s an example of how truth-filled knowledge of God’s Word can reignite the flame of desire that may be running low in your life.

‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ‘ –-Galatians 6:9

DON’T GIVE UP!!! KEEP PUSHING FORWARD AND SEEKING GOD DAILY!!! YOU MAY NOT SEE IT NOW, BUT IF YOU DON’T GIVE UP AND KEEP DOING WHAT IS GOOD, THE HARVEST WILL COME!!!!

Jesus:30/The Consistency Queen

God Gold of the Day

We’re talking about tips, lessons learned, and encouragement for your quiet time with Jesus. Whether praying or spending time in His Word, we all have our struggles and battles with making this time a consitent habit! Dig in with me through these “Jesus:30” God Golds and let’s learn how to make the most of this time with Jesus because it’s these moments that will change our day, ultimately our lives!

‘ The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor. ‘

Proverbs 12:24

Meditation Monday: Do you believe this?

God Gold of the day

“The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.”

Proverbs 18:10

The simple question to think on today; “Do you believe this?” It’s a simple question, but it’s the answer that we tend to make difficult.

This question is one I first found in the Book of John, where Jesus is talking to Martha and Mary as He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He makes a statement about who He is, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Then afterwards asked this question, “Do you believe this?”

The easy answer is, “oh yeah of course, God’s Word is God-breathed, it’s all true, of course that’s who Jesus is.” That answer is easy to say but once again, “Do you believe this?” The easy answer may be yes, but do you really believe it to be true in your life? If you say yes again, that’s good but if you truly and really believe this, then why does your life say otherwise? How come your actions and the decisions you make say otherwise? It’s easy to answer yes and move on, but this question digs deeper than just a surface level, breeze by “yes.” What you believe, you do. If you believe you’re going to be able to run a mile, then most likely you can run a mile. If you believe you can drive to the nearest grocery store and get your groceries for the week, then you do that no problem. If you believe you can’t do something, you won’t do it. How we live and act, all we do is rooted in our belief, all we believe we can do and can’t do usually turns out to be true by our actions that follow.

I caught myself posting this verse on here earlier with this title of “do you believe this,” because I was trying to get ahead on writing this and I’ve found this to be helpful for me in the past so I thought this sounded good to say. Then later this same day, I found myself in a battle, temptation to give in and give up to sin and do the wrong thing was all around me. I found myself in a situation that I couldn’t handle, it was too much for me. Then this verse popped in my head, (thanks God), along with this question. At first I wanted to say yes and be done with it, just go ahead and give in. But this question hit me deep, I was convicted in the fact that I was going to send this to you and put you on the spot with this challenge of your belief but when challenged myself, I said “yes,” but my actions and thoughts were saying, “Come on dude, do you really believe that the name of the Lord is like a strong fortress? Because if you did you’d stop trying to handle things on your own and instead you’d run to Him! If you did then you would stop leaving yourself open to attacks from my own sinful desires, from the lies of the enemy and justifying it with actions of others in the world around you. If you REALLY believed this, you would take your troubles to God, cry out for help, and rest in the truth that in His name, He guards me from all evil and temptation. In His name He protects me, His loving arms are like walls of a fortress that can’t be torn down.

If I really believed this to be true, then I would run to God, my strong fortress and know that I am safe. In those moments, teetering back and forth between giving in to lies or giving myself up to believe the truth. I did nothing, God’s truth was too real, the stakes of this battle were too high, He helped my belief and in His name, He protected me and helped me stand strong behind His strong barriers. I was safe because of who He is. Thank God!!!!!

So if you read this today and say, “yeah, of course I believe this.” Do yourself a favor and ask again, and again. Because if you really believed this, would you be doing what you’re doing? Would you be giving into lies that say you’re too weak to handle this when God says, “you may be too weak but in my name, you’re covered and protected! Nothing can keep you from standing strong.” If you believe who God is, FOR REAL, your life will look a lot different, and by different I mean WAY BETTER than it could ever be on your own.

So…..DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?

Surrendering Trust (Matt Howard)

God Gold of the Day

I am extremely excited and thankful to share with you today a God Gold from a good friend of mine, Matt Howard! I had asked Matt if he was interested in writing a God Gold awhile back and thankfully he was because what I thought I saw in his pure and faithful heart was displayed for real in this message! Before posting this message I read it myself and it resonated with me the very next day as I found myself in a situation that called for this truth found here to get me through! Then, later that day, still before this Gold had even been posted, I was listening to a friend discuss some tough situations he was going through. Not having the words to say to help my friend, this God Gold message from Matt came to mind so I sent my friend these truths which turned out being EXACTLY what he needed to hear!!! It amazes me how God works from one person’s heart to another, and to another to bring His faithful and loving presence so HUGE in our lives when we need it most! After seeing what God has already done through this gold even before being made public, I can’t wait to see what all God has in store to use these truths in your life!!! BIG thank you to Matt again for sharing what God laid on his heart and Matt is also one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever seen so this may not be the last time you’ll hear from him!!!

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways submit to Him, And He will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6

 

Good morning God Gold Family! My name is Matt Howard, and I hope that this truth speaks into your life this morning. Proverbs 3:5-6 is one of my favorite verses, reminding us to place all of our trust in God alone, laying all of our burdens at his feet. It promises us that God will take care of us no matter our circumstance. Every day, I have to remind myself to cast my cares upon the Lord and commit everything to prayer. I pray that whatever you are going through that you would realize that you are NOT alone in the fight and that every circumstance is a part of God’s PERFECT plan.

Isaiah 55:8-9- “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Jeremiah 29:11– “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

God’s ways are higher than our ways, and he has a PERFECT plan for each and every one of us. Right now, I challenge you to commit anything and everything in your life to prayer. Whatever burdens or worries you carry; I pray that you would surrender it all to God.

Proverbs 18:10- “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.”

 

Video on Trusting God:

 

Meditation Monday

God Gold of the Day

‘ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.’

Proverbs 3:5-6 

This is today’s meditation for you to start the week! Remember last week we talked about the big question to ask yourself to check and see if you meditating on God’s Word truly in the way He’s called us to.

At the end of the day ask; “What scripture did I study this morning or at some point today?” 

The answer to this question will be a great way to keep yourself in check and help you to stay intentional in how you are embracing and staying close to God’s Word. If you don’t know the answer, then you simply did not meditate on this Word enough, if you know the answer that’s good, that means you really thought on this Scripture throughout the day but I’m going to take this meditation one step farther.

If you can answer this question at the end of the day that’s great but another question to make sure you’re not just memorizing the words, “How was this truth applied to my life today?” It’s something to really think on, last week I caught myself meditating on Scripture by remembering what I read but that was just it, it was nothing but thoughts in my head. To really back the truths you read up and empower them with faith, it takes action to put them to practice. Or just start by asking, “in what areas of my life can this truth be applied?” Then, out of faith that God’s Word is LIVING, LIVE IT!!!! I ran into this problem last week thinking on 1 Thessalonians 5:18, talking about “giving thanks in all circumstances.” I felt convicted because I could tell you the verse at the end of the day but if you followed me with a video camera all day, it was easy to see that I was leaving it as just words instead of the LIVE and LIVING Word that it is. I went through that day complaining, and carrying a victim mentality throughout the day when this verse pointed me in a complete other direction. The next day, I prayed over it and made a point to be intentional about applying it to my life, my circumstances didn’t change but God moved His truth through me changing the way I handled them. It’s more powerful than you’ll ever think to experience what God’s Word is capable of, and the only way to ever know is to try it out, LIVE IT!!!