Stevemidkiff's Blog

When we pray we make our needs known & we clearly explain to God what we feel is best

But we also yield to Him admitting that if He has something different in mind,

than what we are asking or are thinking is best

That we want what our Lord wants

As we know His will is the best for us

This isn’t always the easiest & maybe we’ll fight inside thinking we know what’s best

John Newton’s poem says it best

“Begone, unbelief, My Savior is near,
And for my relief He Will surely appear;

By prayer let me wrestle, And He will perform;
With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.

Though dark be my way, Since He is my Guide,
’Tis mine to obey, ’Tis His to provide;

Though cisterns be broken, And creatures all fail,
The word He has spoken will surely prevail.

His love, in time past, Forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last In trouble to sink:

Each sweet memory I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure To help me quite through.

Why should I complain Of want or distress,
Temptation or pain? He told me no less;

The heirs of salvation, I know from His Word,
Through much tribulation Must follow their Lord.

How bitter that cup No heart can conceive,
Which He drank quite up, That He did receive

His way was much rougher And darker than mine;
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, And shall I repine?

Since all that I meet Shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, The medicine, food;

Though painful at present, ’Twill cease before long,
And then, oh, how pleasant The conqueror’s song!”

‘We should not be too curious in analyzing & condemning
any means, which Nature devises to save us from ourselves,
whether it be collecting coins, old books, curiosities, flowers, or butterflies.’

Any means which Nature devises…Nature abhors a vacuum…and Nature is right, after all.

We can never be saved by Nothing.
The abstract will never satisfy us.
We want something; yes, more,

We want Some One & until we find Him
Our restless soul calls down all the echoing corridors of Nothingness,
Oh that we knew where we might find Him!’

From Faces In The Fire by Frank Boreham

Cast all our worries on Him because he cares for us.

1 PETER 5:7

Why would we have anxious thoughts that we do not bring to Jesus?

Do we think that there is one concern
that’s considered too light or too small,
to put in His hands?

If it’s then too small to give to Him then what’s the worry to us.
Actually He wants us to give Him each microscopic detail

Either cast our concerns (great or small)
on Him that cares for us,
or cast it away from ourselves totally

if it’s unqualified for His sympathy, it’s unworthy of our concern.

If we examine our troubles,
we‘ll discover many of them come
from unbelieving fears about our future;

Christ is at the right hand of God,
He’s in the position of control of all things
He considers all our troubles & problems as His own;
And Jesus removes all our fears about tomorrow!

ROBERT C. CHAPMAN

We discover constantly
that most of our trials & sorrows
are made up of anticipated or imaginary evils,
which only exist in our disordered, unbelieving minds.

FOOD FOR THE DESERT

We won’t be startled by various events & odd things
When we see that all that we have in Christ
Who enables us to meet everything calmly.

GEORGE V. WIGRAM

So we begin each day with this confidence,
that we have enough in Christ
to meet every difficulty
that will happen to us

J. B. STONEY

If it is the time God has chosen for us to die,

We can drown in a thimble;

if it’s not our time to die

We can survive for days in the open ocean.

When the Lord sends His chariot to take us home

We’re gettin in, but if not yet. Enjoy a Giraffe

Today is another day I will spend surrounded by God’s love

There’s not a minute in the next 24 hours that I won’t experience God’s love through Jill

She is always open to pray with me at any moment of the day

She is always open to talk with me at any moment of the day

She is always open to hug & receive hugs with me at any moment of the day

She is always open to read with me at any moment of the day

She is always open to go anywhere with me at any moment of the day

Today is another day I will spend surrounded by God’s love & tomorrow is going to be the same

The beauty of praying to You Father is:

With You we’re comfortable

We know we can talk about anything to You

We can sit with You in complete silence

You see us at our worst

But You only talk about our best

Around You we can be happy about our biggest achievements

While You know our deepest insecurities

We’re totally comfortable with You

And You know that means everything to us

“Prayer is what greases the friction between us,

lubricating around the grit & flecks of irritability

that work themselves into the system,

preventing the normal wear & tear of life

from causing us to grate against or rub on one another.

Instead we maintain our fluid motions, our synchronized interconnections.

Prayer helps us stay focused on bigger things,

on much more eternal things than the petty stuff

that threatens to puff itself up beyond actual size

and become some huge deal it doesn’t deserve to be.

In prayer we experience the kind of hard-fought peace

that unites us into an army of soldiers for Christ.”

Pricilla Shirer

How we choose to treat others has much impact on how we ourselves are treated.

And as we would that men should do to us, do we also to them likewise.

Or as we wish that others would do to us, do so to them.

Or Do to others as you would like them to do to you. Luke 6:32

If we thrive in living depends far more on our response to others

One factor often leads to another then suddenly other things light us up.

When our weird challenges are handled poorly, it often leads to miserable outcomes.

The path to our happy place starts with one choice:

Are we kind or unkind to others?

Are we kind & considerate when we’re pushed out of our comfort place?

Oh Lord to be like Jesus, please help us Lord please help us

The Lord saves not with sword & spear. For the battle is the Lord’s.

1 Sam. 17:47

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.

For the battle is not yours, but God’s.

2 Chron. 20:15

God fights our battles for us.

We have daily battles.
We’re wrestling not against flesh & blood.
It’s not just human opposition.

Wrestling is close in, hand to hand combat.

Sure, the conflict may present in human opposition.

But the power behind each attack & every conflict is demonic powers.

We’re not to be peaceful doves. We’re not to be diplomats.

We need to engage in the battle with our weak faith

It’s not our smooth stones, it’s God who fights our battles & it’s Him
that makes giants collapse before us

The battle belongs to God & yes we are surrounded by intimidating giants

There’s the powerful politicians, there’s the scary pandemics, there’s the lying exaggerating
Journalists, there’s the google hackers that are hired to track our entire background & our
every move. There’s the billionaires that want to control & confuse. There’s the power abusers,
turning up the volume on every crisis to achieve a power grab on our liberty & freedom.

God who sits in Heaven is mockingly laughing Ps. 2

But Jesus our Savior-King wants to know. Where’s your faith. Worship me. Praise me.
Let me fight your battles.

Our enemies are brimming full with accusations.
They condemn us.
They ridicule us.
They mock us.
They bring up every flaw, weakness & miserable mistake we’ve ever made.

But the battle is the Lord’s. He fights for us. He defeats our opposition
David said to Goliath: You have mocked the Lord.
That’s amazing that when someone mocks us they’re mocking our Lord
We’re tempted to fall down & worship brute force.
We’re tempted to shrivel in the face of strong arguments & majority opposition

God’s faith training comes through gigantic opposition
God’s faith training comes through impossible unrelenting storms & inconceivable odds

Our weapon is the name of the Lord of Hosts. Our concern is about God’s reputation.

The criticism is not against us. The mockery is against the honor & glory of God.

When David said to “Goliath, I will have your head!”

It was so the whole earth will know there is a God.

It’s sad that sometimes the greatest hinderances in our various challenges come
from those who claim they have faith. Those who claim to believe in the same God
we believe in.

Most of us fight our giants in obscurity. David’s fight was in full exposure in front
of two warring armies.

All the same, since God is for us who can be against us?

God will fight for us.

Moment by moment, hour by hour & day by day the battle is the Lords

Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps;
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”

Judges 15:16

God uses the strangest things to accomplish stuff

The irony of it all is to show that it’s God working instead of the tool?

Many of us feel like the jawbone of an ass at times

But when we surrender ourselves to God for His use He can do amazing things

Even in our enormous inadequacies. God uses weak things to confound the mighty

There is a play on words in this narrative

“With the jawbone of an ass I have ass-ass-inated them,”

“With the jawbone of an ass I have piled them in a mass!”

“With the jawbone of an ass I have assailed assailants” (Moffatt).

Even after the death of the old jack ass, God used the remains of jack asses bones

Our life can still have effects even after our death

And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. Heb. 11

So we pray that God will use us even in our flaws & failure

So we pray that God will use us even in our inadequacies & weaknesses

So we pray that God will use us & be glorified even after our bones are in the ground

Old Bones are unusual weapons for warfare

The Philistines were armed to the teeth.

They had removed all the weapons from the Israelis

The Philistines had all the swords, all the spears, all the artillery, all the shields

But God doesn’t need conventional weapons to defeat an army or our various enemies

God uses weaknesses in us to exhibit His power.

God uses even our mistakes & miscues

The biggest victory ever accomplished, on the biggest enemies ever, was at the cross of Jesus in a total submission of weakness

Samson didn’t excuse himself from the fight because he had inferior weapons

We shouldn’t complain about what appears bad tools that God puts at our disposal

Never blame your tools. Never blame your weaknesses, never blame your faults or inadequacies

We use what God gives us & pray for His miracles.