Category: Strength for Today

1 Samuel 20:18
“Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.”

David was running for his life when King Saul had his annual feast where mandatory attendance of his cabinet members was expected. This put David in a bad position because he knew if he went that he would probably be assassinated. David sent word to Jonathan, Saul’s son, and asked him what he should do. Jonathan came up with a plan for David to stay out of town for a night, and at the first night of the feast, he would see if David would be missed because his seat was empty. Of course, David was missed, and Saul became angry at Jonathan for protecting David from being killed.

If you are saved, God has given you a seat to fill in His work. Your seat cannot be filled by anyone other than you. Yes, others may be able to fill in, but nobody will be able to do what you can do in your ministry seat like you can. You are a unique individual who God made to fill your seat like no other person. Several observations can be learned from this empty seat.

First, you are uniquely designed to fill your seat. You must never allow Satan to deceive you into believing that others can do your job better than you. Nobody can do your job as good as you can. God gave you the personality you have, the background you grew up in and the influences in your life so that you can fill your seat. You may feel like you are inadequate to fill your seat, but you must remember that God has made you to fill your role in the ministry.

Second, you don’t have to fill another person’s seat. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that you have to be like someone else. God never said you have to fill another person’s seat, He only requires you to fill your seat. You are right, you couldn’t do as good as another person in their seat, but they can’t do as good as you can in yours either. Stop the comparisons that lead to discouragement and realize each of you are uniquely equipped to fill your own seat.

Third, when you are not where you are supposed to be in the ministry, you are leaving a vacancy that causes strain on the ministry. Because nobody can fill your role like you can, you have to realize when you are not where you are supposed to be, you are causing the ministry to underperform. Aside from sickness, you need to do your best to be sure that your role in the ministry is filled. Don’t allow outside influences or distractions to keep you from doing what God made you to do.

Fourth, are you doing anything to be missed? I ask this question because you need to ask yourself if you are doing enough to be missed. Some people would never be missed because they are not doing what they should be doing in the LORD’s work. Friend, you should be filling your seat so well that you would be severely missed if you are not there because of sickness, a death in the family or a short vacation. Don’t be so aloof in your duties that you are never missed in the areas where you are responsible. God has given you a seat to fill. Be sure that you are doing what you can to fill your seat in the way that God intended for you to fill it.

1 Samuel 13:22
“So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.”

No army would go into battle with the goal of losing the war. Army troops would not go into battle without the weapons needed to fight the war and defeat the enemy. It would be total foolishness for a leader of a brigade to tell his troops to leave their guns and weapons of war at the camp while they went to fight the battle. That would be ludicrous!

There was a reason that Israel was distressed when they went to battle the Philistines. The verse above says that there was no sword or spear in the hands of the people. All they had to fight the Philistines with were picks, plowing blades, pitchforks, axes and goads. In other words, all they had to fight the battle with were farming tools. They didn’t have the swords and spears needed to fight the battle. The reason they were hiding in the caves and behind the rocks was because they didn’t have any instruments of war which they could use to fight the battle. Had it not been for Saul and Jonathan having a sword and spear, they would have been destroyed by their enemy.

Sadly, many Christians go off to battle every day without taking their Sword with them. The Sword I am talking about is the Word of God. Many Christians head off to work and school without spending time in the Sword to get something from God to fight the battles they will face that day. Instead, they go to battle each day with the inferior weapons of human wisdom and self-confidence. A sure way to lose the battles you face every day is to fight those battles with man’s inferior weapons and not with the Sword of God’s Word.

Christian, every day that you live is a day that you will have to battle your flesh and Satan. You cannot win the battles you face every day without spending time in the Sword of God’s Word. You need to set time aside daily before you face your day being sharpened with the Sword of the LORD. You can face your day in your own strength, but that is like going to the battle with farming tools. You will never be as successful as you should be without spending time in the Sword of God’s Word.

Moreover, it would be good to be sure you have your sword with you throughout the day. In other words, always have the Scriptures near you so you can access them throughout the day. It would be wise to use one of your breaks at work on in school to look at the Scriptures and get your life sharpened by God’s Word. Your life becomes dulled by the attacks of Satan and the temptations of sin, and a brief time in the Scriptures will help to sharpen your life to fight the remaining battles of the day.

Furthermore, be sure to use the Sword of the LORD and not farming tools to fight your battle. God’s Word is the King James Bible; any other version is a farming tool. If you want to lose in the battle of life, use the farming tools of false versions to fight those battles. Only God’s Word, the King James Bible, has the power to overcome your daily battles. I challenge you to take the Sword of God’s Word and read it every day and carry it with you throughout your day. God’s Word is the sharpened Sword to help you win the battles of your daily life.

1 Samuel 7:8
“And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.”

When Samuel was taking the leadership role over Israel, he was taking a country that was spiritually bankrupt. Eli overlooked sin because he didn’t want to deal with the sins of his sons. Because of this, Israel had set up gods to worship, lived wicked lifestyles and had become captives to the Philistines. When you see the condition of Israel when Samuel took over, you will see that sin left them the same way it will leave you when it has taken its course.

First, sin leaves you without confidence. Israel had no confidence in their relationship with God, no confidence to pray and felt that they could only get God’s attention through someone other than themselves. Sin always takes your confidence from you. You may go confidently into sin, but you will come out being skeptical of everything you do. One of the greatest reasons Satan tries to get Christians to sin is because he knows it will take their confidence. A Christian without confidence is a Christian who is lacking spiritual results. You need confidence in your Christian life if you are going to make an impact on those around you. Don’t let sin take that from you.

Second, sin leaves you fearful. It was incredible how afraid Israel had become. This was the nation that saw God part the Red Sea. This was the nation that had seen Jericho’s great walls fall and the mightiest armies destroyed with God’s help. Once sin left them, they were afraid of armies they could easily defeat. Sin will always leave you looking over your shoulder wondering what everyone is saying about you. It is amazing how a person who has fallen in sin becomes once they come back to God. They always have the feeling that everyone is against them, and this is the tragic result of sin.

Third, sin leaves you spiritually bankrupt. Instead of praying to God themselves, Israel asked Samuel to pray for them. Sin always leaves you with the feeling that the only way you can get anything from God is if someone else does the asking. You will get to the point where you will ask others to pray because you will think God won’t listen to you because you’ve sinned. Don’t let sin rob you of the confidence to glean God’s truths from His Word. Don’t let sin rob you of the faith to pray. Sin will leave you spiritually bankrupt believing that only others can help you in these areas.

Fourth, sin leaves you with a defeatist spirit. Israel didn’t believe they could conquer the Philistines all because sin had taken the conquering spirit away and left them with a defeatist spirit. You will find that sin always leaves you believing that you can’t do anything for God. It is sad to see how sin has left those who sinned with a spirit that is totally defeated and with no vision to conquer.

In all of these areas, you can reverse them if you will confess your sin to God and believe in His forgiving power. Sin may leave you with these four destructive attitudes, but if you believe in God’s power to forgive, you will be able to remember that “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) Let me encourage you to remember how sin leaves you the next time you are tempted to sin. You are no exception to sin’s destructive path. Don’t go down that path if you don’t want to experience its crippling power.

Proverbs 29:15
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”

One of the greatest mistakes that many parents make is they leave their children alone because they “trust” them. Years ago, I had an older gentlemen give me some advice before I even had children. He said, “Never trust your children.” I wish every parent would heed that advice because “a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” One of your responsibilities as a parent is to be sure that your children are safe. A child left to themselves are not safe because that is when the Devil will do his work in their hearts. With this thought in mind, let me give you several areas where you should never leave your child alone.

First, don’t leave your child alone in choosing friends. Every parent needs to know with whom their children are friends. There are going to be times as a parent when you will have to tell your child that they can’t be friends with someone. This may sound harsh, but many good children have been ruined by a bad friend. Your children are too young to know who they are to befriend. It is your duty to teach them what type of friends to have by carefully controlling their circle of friends.

Second, don’t leave your child alone in decision making. Children don’t have the privilege of knowing where decisions will take them. As a parent, you should teach your children how to make decisions. When they are young, you should make every decision for them. When they get older, give them leeway in making decisions, but veto the bad ones. As they make decisions, teach them why a decision was good or bad.

Third, don’t leave your child alone with digital technology. One of the great mistakes many parents make in this technology age is they allow their children to be alone with cell phones, the internet or interactive gaming. The Devil will use the digital technology to get to your children with people who are dangerous to their safety or spirituality. Never leave your child alone with digital technology! The rule of your house should be that that they can only use digital technology in your presence.

Fourth, don’t leave your child alone in their walk with God. Don’t just assume that your child is reading the Scriptures every day. You need to ask them consistently if they have had their personal time with God. Ask them what they read and keep track of it. Don’t just ask them what they read, but also ask them what they learned and from what verse they learned that lesson. You will have a better chance of your children turning out right if they have a personal time with God daily.

Fifth, don’t leave your child alone! I wish parents would understand the dangers of children being alone. I believe a parent needs to be home when the children get home from school. You may think that one hour every day won’t harm them, but much temptation can come their way at that time. Trust me, if the Devil knows they are going to be alone every day at the same time, he will use that time to destroy your children. He will always start with things that seem harmless to the child that you would never allow if you were with them. Children need their parent’s presence at all times. If you don’t want your children to bring you shame, you will be wise to heed the advice of the verse above and always make sure they are with you or with a responsible adult whom you trust.

Judges 20:13
“Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:”

The verse above is the result of a very sick story about a man whose concubine left him to go to her father’s house. During the time that she was with her father, she lived an immoral life, but though this man knew about it, he still wanted to reconcile their relationship. He journeyed to her father’s house to reconcile the relationship, and apparently was successful with his attempts.

When they left her father’s house and took the long journey home, they stopped late at night to get some rest. Certain men of the city saw them enter an older man’s home, and these men of Belial approached the house to force the man to commit wicked acts with them. Instead, the man gave them his concubine whom they abused all night. When the morning came, she had enough strength to make it to the house but died on the doorstep. When this man saw what was done, he cut her body into pieces and sent it throughout Israel to ask for their help to make these people pay.

The part I want you to see is that when the men of Israel approached the tribe of Benjamin to ask for those men, the men of Benjamin would not deliver them; instead, they were more loyal to their tribesmen than they were to truth. It says in the verse above that the men of Benjamin “would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:” They were willing to overlook the sin committed just for the sake of their name and relationships.

One could argue that the men of Benjamin were loyal to their friends, but their loyalty was wrong. When you are more loyal to personalities and tradition than you are to truth and right, your loyalty is wrong. Being loyal isn’t always a good thing. If you are loyal just for the sake of being loyal, you are loyal to the wrong thing. You need to reconsider your loyalties whenever they cause you to compromise truth or do the wrong thing. Let me give you a couple of suggestions concerning loyalty.

First, be loyal to truth and right and not to loyalty. These people should have been angered at the wrong that was committed, but they weren’t because of their loyalty. You must always do right even when others say you are disloyal. Truth and right are what we are to do no matter who it may affect. When you have to choose between doing right and being loyal, you shouldn’t have a difficult decision to make because truth and right should be where your loyalty is placed.

Second, if you give your loyalty to God and the faith, you will never have to make the difficult choice as to what to do when personalities or institutions that you love do wrong. It all comes down to where you place your loyalty. The main difference between those who take a stand against family, friends and associations when they do wrong and those who don’t is that those who make that stand are loyal to God and truth.

Friend, be careful about developing the wrong loyalty. Place your loyalty in God and the faith and the stand against those who do wrong won’t be as difficult. Yes, they will call you disloyal, but you are not disloyal because your loyalty is placed in the right person and place.

Judges 9:15
“And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.”

Abimelech was a very wicked man. His desire for power was evident when he killed anyone who could have challenged his ability to reign. He was so wicked that he killed seventy of his half-brothers all because he was afraid one of them might try to remove him from power.

After he removed everyone who he felt to be a threat, he then went to the men of Shechem and said, “…put your trust in my shadow.” It is very evident that Abimelech was all about himself. His priority in life was himself, and all he wanted was everyone to look at him and no one else. When he asked these men to put themselves under his shadow, he was actually trying to pull their attention away from God and have their place their sole trust in him.

A very valuable lesson can be learned from the life of Abimelech, and that lesson is that you must be very careful under whose shadow you place yourself. When you read the Scriptures, you will find that there is a different shadow you can put your trust in. Psalm 91:1 says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” The shadow of the Almighty is the shadow where you will find blessings, life and a good testimony. Hosea 14:7 reminds us of this when it says, “They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.” You certainly do have a choice under whose shadow you can dwell, but be very careful with your choice. Let me give you a few thoughts about whose shadow you place yourself under.

First, don’t place yourself under someone’s shadow who points to themselves or a man. Any shadow that you trust in that is not God’s shadow has become your idol. Amazingly, many Christians do trust men more than they trust God. You cannot allow anyone to take your eyes off God.

Second, only the shadow of God can promise protection and blessings. Psalm 75:6-7 says, “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” All too often we try to get close to someone who we perceive can give us a higher position, when the Scriptures teach that only God can give the promotions and protection you desire. Friend, stop looking at the shadow of a man and place yourself under the shadow of God.

Third, you can choose under whose shadow you dwell, but you can’t choose the consequences that come from dwelling under that shadow. Go ahead, and place yourself under man’s shadow, but you will find that the person whose shadow you are trusting has the power to destroy you if you place yourself under their shadow. On the other hand, if you choose to place your trust under the shadow of the Almighty and dwell in His presence, you will find the peace and security for which you are looking. God’s shadow brings His favor, blessings and protection. Always remember that man’s shadow will one day be removed, but God’s shadow is an eternal shadow that will always be there no matter what you face in life.

Joshua 22:11
“And the children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the borders of Jordan, at the passage of the children of Israel.”

Many things can damage or destroy a relationship, but one of the biggest contributors is jumping to conclusions. I’ve seen people hear something and instantly correct people without ever giving that person a chance to tell their side of the story. Jumping to conclusions will at best damage the trust in a relationship and at worst destroy it. Many leaders have hurt their ability to lead because they jumped too soon on something they heard. Many friendships have been destroyed because one side believed a rumor and responded without hearing their friend tell their side of the story. This damage to relationships doesn’t have to happen.

The children if Israel nearly went to war with the two and a half tribes because of hearsay. They heard that the two and a half tribes built an altar, and they jumped to the conclusion that they were worshipping other gods. Fortunately, the two and a half tribes didn’t react according to Israel’s reaction, but they were wise enough to explain what truly happened and saved the lives of many people. This would have never happened if they hadn’t jumped too soon. There are some steps you can take to keep yourself from jumping too soon and hurting a relationship.

First, slow down. Your personality may be one that immediately jumps before it has a chance to calm down. You need to slow down and not act in such a reckless manner. Your emotions will hurt a relationship if you don’t allow them time to cool down. You will rarely act rationally with an immediate response. Slow down and let your emotions settle before you decide to move forward.

Second, listen to the other side. Always make it your practice to listen to the other side before you respond. You will find that by listening you may hear an entirely different story than what you initially heard. It could be that the reason someone did something was right, but you will never find out if you don’t stop and listen.

Third, don’t let perception dictate a conclusion. Perception isn’t always right. Perception without information results in a blurred conclusion. Sometimes what you perceive is entirely different from what actually happened. You must not let your perception of a situation dictate anything without taking the time to listen and learn what actually happened.

Fourth, don’t believe hearsay. When someone says to you, “Someone told me…”, it should immediately cause red lights to start flashing in your head because this is hearsay. Even if it is firsthand information, it is still one side of the story. Always take the position that hearing one side is hearsay, even if they say they know it to be true or saw something. You can’t make a proper judgment off hearsay because you have yet to hear the other side tell their story.

Friend, don’t be guilty of responding too soon. Let these steps guide you when you happen to hear hearsay. If you’re approached by someone who’s responding to hearsay, be measured with your response, and do your best not to react as they have. This will help to save a relationship worth having.

Joshua 12:7
“And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon even unto the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir; which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;”

The verse above is an itemization of Israel’s victories. At the point this verse was recorded, they had conquered several cities, but they still had more land to subdue. One of the reasons God wanted this recorded was because He wanted Israel to keep a victory mindset. God wanted them to remember what He had already helped them to do, but He also wanted them to keep perpetuating victories so that future generations would learn a victory mindset. There are several principles seen in these verses if you want to experience victory perpetuity.

First, fresh victories must not drown out the remembrance of former victories. When you read the remainder of this chapter, you will see that God records every battle they won. His purpose in doing this was so that they didn’t forgot each victory. He didn’t want the fresh victory to diminish the honor of previous victories. You must be careful that you don’t allow present victories to take away from the magnitude of previous ones. One of the greatest ways to keep discouragement from overcoming you is to keep every victory God has given you fresh in your mind.

Second, every victory will be different, but they each are a victory. You will notice that some victories were fought in the mountains, some in the valleys and others in the plains. Every victory will not give you a mountain top feeling. Some victories will leave you at times feel like you’ve not accomplished much, and others may almost feel like a defeat. What you must never forget is that no matter how you feel after a victory it is still a victory. Being thankful for each victory in life will help you to keep a right mindset towards the Christian life.

Third, victory is obtained one battle at a time. God defines each victory as “one.” One of the mistakes many Christians make is that they try to win everything at one time instead of fighting one battle at a time. The Christian life is won one battle at a time. Don’t get discouraged that you still haven’t got to where you want to be, because what you have yet to conquer are future victories God has in store for you. Just keep fighting one battle at a time. You will find that is how you grow in grace. Every great Christian has gotten to where they are by fighting one battle at a time.

Fourth, don’t revel in the victory too long, another battle is coming. A mistake many people make is that they revel in the victory so long that the next battle destroys them. Indeed, you should take a short amount of time to praise the LORD and enjoy the victory, but remember that the Devil is not going to sit idly by and let you celebrate the victory. The Devil is going to regroup and quickly come back at you. Continuing what gave you a victory after the victory is what will help you to continue to see victory when the next battle comes. Don’t let your victory be the catalyst of defeat by reveling in it and stopping what made you successful. You will perpetuate victories by staying faithful and continuing to do what brought you victories in the past.