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I Kings 19:3-4 - And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."
God had honored him by sending fire down from heaven and consuming the water drenched sacrifice after Baal didn't answer the false prophets. Jezebel then threatens to take Elijah's life and he flees. What is with that? I really don't understand Elijah's actions here. He had defeated the 450 false prophets of Baal by trusting in God and now he is going to flee. He is not going to trust God. If I ever could ask Elijah a few questions one would certainly be: "Why not trust God one more time? Why did you flee?" Elijah had shown his faith so many times by trusting in God. He was used by God to raise the dead. He knew he had a special relationship with God. So why did Elijah become such a wimp? He runs away and hides and now he wants to die. When have you not trusted God? How did you feel afterwards? You will want to remember that awful feeling so that you don't have to feel it again. Allow that feeling to motivate you to stay faithful and not wimp out.
If I were you I would be careful because I have observed that right after a spiritual high comes a testing of your faith. This usually will result in a spiritual low if you aren't prepared to battle against this test. Not trusting God is never the correct answer. The word "beware" is used 14 times in the New Testament. Here is one from the book of Mark 8:15 says, "And He was giving orders to them, saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." He was telling His disciples to "beware" of the teachings and the life style of the Pharisees and Herod. That is a pretty good indication that we should be on guard as we walk through this life. We have an enemy who seeks to devour us. We need to beware of the teachings that the world is throwing at us today.
When it is looking very dim for you that is the time to draw closer to God and not run away from Him. You can never lose by keeping your faith in God. NEVER! Think About This: All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I haven't seen. - R.W. Emerson I am organizing a trip to the Holy Land in January/February 2023. If you are interested in possibly going on this trip reply to this Pump Up and I will add your name to the list. As I receive more details I will send them to you. I am very happy to inform you that Dr. Mark Ziese is going to be our Bible Lecturer for this trip. You can read more about him and the trips he has already led on his website. www.MarkZiese.com I hope you will be able to join us on this adventure of a lifetime. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word
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Mk 5:21-24 - When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. 22 One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet 23 and implored Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live." 24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him. NASU
I can remember going into meetings and saying, "Hold all my calls I don't want any interruptions."
Jairus is not the only interruption that Jesus will encounter this day. While on the way to Jairus' house Jesus is faced with another interruption. This time it is a woman who is in need of Jesus' healing powers for herself. She thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well." She moves in and secretly touches Jesus' clothes and when she does she is immediately healed of her 12 year long illness. This is where the story gets interesting. Jesus stops, turns around and says, "Who touched My garments?" This is not going according to her plan. She wanted to touch Him be healed and slip off into the crowd. Jesus wasn't supposed to stop and turn around and question the crowd of people.
Would you get involved and speak out like this? "Alright, if you touched Him I want you to tell Him, NOW, the longer we stand here the sicker my daughter becomes." Jairus waits patiently while Jesus engages with this lady and commends her for her faith.
The lady was sick for 12 years with her illness yet she never gave up on her faith. Would we continue to pray about something if our prayer had not been answered in 12 years? Would we remain faithful to God if we hadn't received the answer to our prayer sooner than that?
Do you know that anything that doesn't help you accomplish your goals is an interruption in your life? When interruptions entered into Jesus' life He used them to Glorify God. We need to realize interruptions may come into our life and stay for years so that we can glorify God with them. Jairus is going to receive more than he asked for that day. He asked for a healing and what he is about to receive is his 12 year old daughter resurrected from the dead. Many times with God you will receive more than you ask, but you must persevere through to the end. If your life is being altered because of interruptions, be like Jairus and the woman who suffered for 12 years, put your faith in Jesus and wait for Him to answer your prayers. Think About This: Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Prov. 24:16 - "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again,..."
A study of Proverbs will reveal the way to overcome adversity is to get back up after you have had your encounter with adversity.
It may have been an illness, a medical set back such as a torn ACL, a rejection of your resume, failure to accomplish a set goal, a divorce or the death of a loved one. There are thousands of ways to get knocked down but if we intend on overcoming adversity we must get back up and re-enter the race. We must get back up on our own two feet and start again.
For some, it would be a conversation with someone that you respect, or watching a movie or reading about other people who overcame adversities. Are you one that is able to motivate yourself? Or are you the kind who will graciously allow others to help motivate you? It doesn't matter which method works for you. What matters is in order to overcome adversity you will get back up and move forward with another plan and a new head full of ideas.
Every time you get knocked down by life you get back up on your feet and start all over again.
What can I learn from this trial? I then write down the things that I can learn and allow these to help motivate me positively to keep moving forward to accomplish my goal. If you ask "Why" you may never be able to determine if the answers you come up with are true. If you're knocked down get back up and you'll be glad you did. If you meet some events that knock you down in life then plan on getting back up and re-engaging. This is the correct way to overcome adversity. Think About These: The difficulties of life you're going through now in 20 years will be the good ole days. Say what you will about trouble; it always gives us something to talk about. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Gen. 42:21-22 - Then they said to one another, "Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come upon us." 22 Reuben answered them, saying, "Did I not tell you, 'Do not sin against the boy; and you would not listen? Now comes the reckoning for his blood." NASU
Now years later, there had been a famine and Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain. This is when Joseph sees his brothers. He recognizes them but they don't recognize him. Joseph has them placed in prison and accuses them of being spies. He leaves them in prison for three days and tells them they must leave one of the brothers in prison, travel home and bring their younger brother to Egypt to prove they are telling the truth that they are not spies.
The two best ways I know to overcome a guilty conscience if you have hurt someone:
The brothers asked Joseph for forgiveness and it was granted to them.
I am not perfect now, but thank God I am not what I used to be nor am I what I want to be. I want to do what 2 Pet. 3:18 says, "…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Like the sign says, "Under Construction: God isn't finished with me yet." We really need to memorize this statement. We are under construction. God is working on us and will continue to work on us as long as we are on this earth and will let Him.
People have told you, "To let it go." You wish you could but everything you have tried isn't working. So what should be done in those situations? I would say, "You need to remember what God has done for you. He has forgiven you, so forgive yourself."
I like this saying, "When the devil wants to remind you of your past, remind him of his future." God is going to CRUSH him one day as it says in Romans 16:20 - "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." If you want to dwell on something, dwell on what God has done for you and what He will do to the devil. Think About This: Your conscience is not the voice of God; it is a gift from God. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Jere. 26:8-11 - When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You must die! "Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant'?
….Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, "A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing." NASU
I can say without a doubt that Jeremiah was a man of God and he discovered that serving God brought with it some very painful situations. He was a Prophet of God, called to be a prophet before he was even born. Jere. 1:4-5 - Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." NASU I can guarantee you that he didn't believe his life was a piece of cake because he was a servant of God.
You obey God and the end result is suffering for you. This is what happened in Jeremiah's life. The very people Jeremiah was sent to help were the ones that wanted him dead. The people the prophets were sent to help would be the ones who either made their life very miserable or they killed them. Here is a conversation Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees about killing the prophets sent by God - (Mt 23:30-31 - 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets." NASU) Jeremiah was an obedient man of God, but it caused him a lot of grief. You may be a servant of God today and have lots of grief. If you do, don't let your thoughts get you to doubt your calling. Don't be led down the path that God must not care about you or He certainly would not allow this suffering in your life. He called Jeremiah and told him exactly what to preach and who to preach this message too. Jeremiah did exactly as he was told and he was hated by the priests and the false prophets. Their hatred was so great they wanted him to be killed.
I mean do you have any enemies like Jeremiah? They want you dead and have a plan to end your life. The answer to that question for most of us would be "No". When I read what Jeremiah was going through I laugh now at what I had to endure in the ministry. I had people lie about me, misquote me, and God forbid the false accusations about my motives. Hello! Could you imagine me sitting down with Jeremiah and telling him how hard my ministry was? I can actually see this person who I visualize as Jeremiah rolling on the ground laughing. When he stops laughing he says to me, "Really, that is all that was done to you? They didn't try to kill you at anytime? Jere. 38:10 - Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies." NASU They were literally trying to kill this man of God. Why? He was doing what God had asked him to do.
Think About This: As long as your conscience is your friend, don't be concerned about your enemies. 47 years ago today (2/2/75) I was baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of my sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you have not been baptized as an adult please make this a priority in your life and as always I am always here to help you accomplish this act of obedience to God's Word. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word |
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