Stores and companies are required to take inventory. I like Victoria Secret’s semi-annual or inventory sales….LOL
Like a store or company, I like to look back at my life at least once a year as far as what has happened in that year, and how I am progressing in my goals, relationships, job, and especially my spiritual progress.
Sometimes I think it’s nice to do a little “check” on our lives. It’s sort of like before I went on vacation to Florida where we were driving six little children. I wanted to make sure I got my “ducks in a row” otherwise you end up like that family where they forgot a kid on the movie, “Home Alone” with Macaulay Culkin. “All kids are present and accounted for.”
I checked the tires on my car, the oil was full. I would have my Ford Windstar van checked by my mechanic before I took a road trip such as the belts on the car. When I go boating, we make sure the plugs are in the wave runners and the boat. The oil is full in the boat and wave runners. One of my wave runners, the plug was left out when someone pulled it for me, and it flooded the inside of the engine compartment.
The Bible says to “examine ourself to see if we are in the faith.” (Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 2 Cor. 13:5-6)
But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 1 Cor. 11 :31
Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:5
There was an inventory that was taken of a king in the Bible by God and he was found…wanting…..
“But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin…Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians,[hwas slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.” (Daniel 5)
I guarantee if you take an inventory of my life right now I am found wanting. I really liked dating someone with the potential of leading to marriage, and I am disappointed it did not work. With holding a man for 15 years, I enjoy hugging and affection. Just dealing with losing a majority of my income, I am wanting. And yet there seems to be a discrepancy at times between what God’s word says and my circumstances:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Psalm 23:1
James talks about letting patience have her work in use and we will be wanting nothing.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing James 1:4
Let’s just do a little “check” right now since I am “union with God through Christ.” (1 John 4:15-16, 3:24, 2:5, 5:20, Rom 6:23; Col 1:2, 1 Cor. 1:30).
I am a branch in the vine. (John 15:7, 15:4)
Who do we serve?
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
The great I Am? (Exodus 3:14)
the Alpha and Omega? (Revelation 1:8, 22:13, 1:11, 21:6) ]
Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever? (Hebrews 13:8)
We really need to get our lives in perspective at times.
When I first lost my husband, I was dealing with so much negativity and then I was getting emails from someone going through a divorce and it was extreemly negative. I just kept thinking about Moses on the mount of transfiguration and I thought, “Wow God if I could just have a glimpse of your backside like Moses, I know I could have my life in better perspective.” So one day I was lying on my bed. I don’t know why, but it seems that God always speaks to me in my car or on my bed and I just got a “sliver” of God’s glory. That is probably all my pea brain could handle, but it was a sliver of God’s glory and I thought. Why in the heck am I fretting?
I serve the creator of the universe is there anything too hard for Him?
I serve the God who rolled back the red sea for the children of Israel.
He owns a cattle on thousand hills. (Psalm 50:10)
Heaven is his throne and earth is his footstool. (Psalm 103:19, Matthew 5:35)
Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you--majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? Exodus 15:11
No one is like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Jeremiah 10:6
I’ve had a walk with the Lord for 40 years and I’ve seen God come through for me in the “niche of time.” I remember when I was pregnant with twins (did not know I was having twins since I did not have an ultrasound and the babies were lying on top of each other) and when a woman is pregnant, we have that “nesting” urge and I did not have stich of clothes for my new baby and I did not have a place to lay my head like Jesus at the time. My husband and I were in transit with his ministry and he could not come to a clear direction in his life on taking on a church. My friends had a baby shower (for one baby) and then after I found out I was having twins on the table, I met someone who went through a divorce and I got all these girl baby clothes. It was a whole dresser drawer and then I realized something. I realized that I needed to quit fretting about my life.
Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ~ Philippians 4:6, NLT
I’ve seen God come through over and over.
What I have found that many times before the greatest victory in life there is this “heated” battle that goes on. I’ve done a lot of “sowing” for God’s kingdom and we trust when we sow good things in our lives that we are eventually going to reap a harvest.
It takes a little time when you plant seed for it to grow. It’s the same with a relationship. It’s a tender flower and it takes time to grow the flower and to grow love. I heard the example of someone that keeps digging up a plant to see if it’s growing --- of course that is not going to make a flower grow. I like to plant flowers in my front yard and see how they grow. They need watering mostly if they are in good soil, than you know that they are going to grow.
That is how it is with God’s word when it’s in the good soil of our heart.
But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Luke 8:15
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Matthew 13:8
Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. Genesis 26:12
Part of having good soil is getting rid of idols. I always thought that idols were like wood, gold and silver statues or things, but when I broke my ankle the Lord spoke to me, “You know you have not handed fun in your life over to me.” I was thinking about how I was just trying to have some type of joy and fun in my life after I lost my husband, but it seems that on every corner, I was getting beat up by what people said, circumstances, grief and depression that was dragging me down.
They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 2 Timothy 3:4
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matthew 6:24
Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts. 1 John 5:21 (Keep yourself from idols)
I had not thought of fun as an idol but I told the Lord, “okay I hand fun over to you and that will be everything I do related to fun whether it will be dancing, or boating or whatever I consider there is fun and enjoyment in my life.” Since I handed fun over the Lord, life has gone a lot better. I actually find there are certain idols and attitudes in life that I have to hand over to God more than just on a one time basis. I also found that I learned to put more delight in the Lord in praise and worship.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, Then the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the LORD, have spoken!" Isaiah 58:13-14
t If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines he Almighty himself will be your treasure. He will be your precious silver. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. Job 22:23-26
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