Buy Time and Use Time Wisely

I haven't been putting up teaching posts, because I have been really busy and tired out with work. Also, I wanted to do posts only if I could spend as much time and effort on them as I did in my earlier posts. That was unrealistic, to say the least. So, just to break the drought of posts, here is a simple one to get things going again. Hopefully...

2 Chronicles 17:3-5 (ESV) - The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the practices of Israel. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand.

Jehoshaphat had just ascended the throne. He decided in his heart to not follow the example of his father Asa, who rejected the LORD in the later part of his reign, but instead to seek the LORD fully. The LORD established the kingdom in his hand. Simply put, his devotion to the LORD gave him a good head start, a position of strength over his kingdom.

2 Chronicles 17:7-10 (ESV) - In the third year of his reign he sent his officials, Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah; and with them the Levites, Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah; and with these Levites, the priests Elishama and Jehoram. And they taught in Judah, having the Book of the Law of the Lord with them. They went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat used that time to teach the people the Word of God. He made the deliberate effort to raise national Scripture literacy levels. To him, it was not enough that his heart was in the right place, he wanted his people to be educated in the ways of the LORD and how to please him.

Notice the result - because he sought to teach the Law of the LORD, the usual foreign enemies made no war against Jehoshapat. Of course, this was only a temporary reprieve; we know from the Scriptures that war eventually came against Judah later. But the point is this: the teaching of the Law bought him time even more time of peace, and allowed him to accumulate resources and prepare for war.

2 Chronicles 17:12-13 (ESV) - And Jehoshaphat grew steadily greater. He built in Judah fortresses and store cities, and he had large supplies in the cities of Judah. He had soldiers, mighty men of valor, in Jerusalem.

Lessons for us
1) Start Well - set your heart upon the LORD. This is the essential foundation for everything else. It will bring us a basic level of success and prosperity.

2) Feed on the Word of God - many people get complacent. "Ever since I believed in Jesus, my sickness went away and I got a promotion at work". That's absolutely wonderful, but don't stop there. This is the time to renew your mind and feed your spirit man on the Scriptures, so that you become stronger still.

Hard truth - what helped you clear the easier trials and tests of faith is NOT going to be enough to clear you through what will come later. You need to continually grow in the LORD, to establish yourself more firmly in the faith. And a huge, huge part of that depends on the time you spend feeding yourself the Word of God. Use the time of peace to prepare yourself for the trials that will come, for they will come.

3) Plan for Trouble - Part of preparing for trouble is of course spending time in the Scriptures. By now I am convicted that every believer needs to regularly read though the entire Bible every few years at least, to ensure that they have some hope of remembering the next Bible verse they need. I have been reading through the Bible once a year every year since 2016, and given the trials I face that is just a bare minimum.

Another part of planning for trouble is being practical - save up money, don't splurge it unnecessarily Invest your money in what strengthens you (Jehoshaphat building fortresses and investing in troops) and build up supplies (Jehoshaphat building store cities). Build up your health, reduce your intake of unhealthy food, eat healthier food and get some proper exercise regularly.
You don't want to face the trials of life broke and sick!

Conclusion

I hate seeing believers get caught offguard when they are hit by the trials of life. What I often see is that they had a time of peace before that, but they failed to use that time well to prepare for trials. Don't let that happen to you, OK?

 

Quick Update

(personal blog post) 

Yes, I know I haven’t been posting.

Life used to be ups and downs. Ever since I last posted it has been a lot of downs, to the point when I often can’t think straight. Whenever I see all that happening, I hunker down and go into crisis prayer mode. That means – no Scripture reading plan, and if I don’t think of any new Scripture passages to look at today I relook at whatever I meditated and prayed on yesterday. 
Actually, I will usually try to relook at the previous day’s verses also, to further ram them into my mind!

The pain of this season is more acute because of how well things went last year.

Psalm 30:6-7 (NIV) - When I felt secure, I said, "I will never be shaken."1 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.

Anyway, I am thinking of just sharing in a small way the verses that are on my mind this season. Bear in mind, there is no plan, so don’t expect things to build one day on top of another. Here goes:

1 Peter 1:3-5 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 

One thing I have to put in effort into – keeping my mind on things above, especially when things below are going badly. Earthly problems have this way to shout loud in your mind in the voices of fear, anger and despair. And that makes it hard to remember the living hope I now have.

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 

This is the part that grabbed my attention – suffer grief in all kinds of trials. During the time of writing, the trials the believers faced were various forms of persecution for their faith. And let’s face it, no matter how bad things are at my side, I am still not persecuted for my faith in Christ yet. 

But the passage said “all kinds of trials”. Does that include many disappointments and let-downs in my teaching? Does that include my son’s injury and all the stress and hassle that follow? 

“All kinds of trials”.  

I am very much a Word-of-Faith person, and I believe that God prospers and heals his people. So I do get tired of people who say that they bearing with sickness glorifies God. Nope, it doesn’t. It makes people wonder if the Jesus you believe in, who healed multitudes of people during his ministry on earth, is unreal, misrepresented or uncaring. Who gets the praise, honour and glory, then?

I believe we do. I believe God is the one who will lavish on us praise, glory and honour at his chosen time.  

1 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV) - Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The salvation of our souls – if we take an expanded definition based on the Greek word sozo (Strong’s #4982, “make whole, to heal”, as in Mark 5:34), this also includes the healing and making whole of our souls. This ties in with Romans 5.

Romans 5:3-5 (NIV) - Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

In the midst of my trials, as light as they seem to my logical mind, my true character comes out. Eeewwwww, I don’t like what I see! And the only way to fix the character flaws and faults I see in myself right now, according to Romans 5, is to rejoice in my sufferings. Peter does not tell me just to rejoice, he says I can be filled with “an inexpressible and glorious joy”. How unreasonable! How ridiculous! How unbelieveable!

But it is just so like God, isn’t it, to ask of me what I cannot reasonably accept or do, so that I have to trust wholly in his wisdom and empowering to do what he wants of me? OK, enough of this for now. Will post again soon, hopefully. See you then!