Lord, I want to follow You and You alone, filtering out the temptations of lesser loyalties. Lord, I thank You in advance for protecting me against the plots and plans of many sources to distract and derail my life, to create chaos, creating disappointment and discouragement. However in the middle of Your protection, Lord, protect me from myself when I try to move on my own accord. Like Balaam and his donkey I know that You can and will use any sign to stop me from moving in a direction You do not desire me to go. Therefore, keep my mind attentive and alert to see the signs that You’ve placed around my life to protect me. Open my eyes and my ears so that I can hear Your message with clarity and a push to be courageous for You. I decree and declare that I will not allow pride to get in the way of my protection. You have my heart, You have my ears and You have my unwavering devotion, now and forever! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
We can be stubborn, blind, deaf, and hard hearted to what God is doing or we can have participate in His kingdom
The biblical reference for Balaam and his donkey is Numbers 22:21-391. This is the story of how God used a donkey to speak to Balaam, a pagan prophet who was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites. The donkey saw an angel of the Lord blocking the way, but Balaam did not. The donkey tried to avoid the angel, but Balaam beat it three times. Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth and it rebuked Balaam for his cruelty. The Lord also opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel, who warned him to only say what God told him. Balaam eventually blessed the Israelites instead of cursing them, to Balak’s dismay23456.
Some additional sentences are
- This story shows that God can use any creature to accomplish His purposes, and that He is sovereign over human plans and schemes5.
- Balaam’s donkey is one of the few animals in the Bible that spoke, along with the serpent in Genesis 3 and the raven in 1 Kings 176.
- Balaam’s story is also mentioned in the New Testament, where he is condemned for his greed, deception, and corruption (2 Peter 2:15-16; Jude 1:11; Revelation 2:14)4.
Flourishing is participation in the life of God. It’s finding your satisfaction, hope, and identity in him, and allowing his shalom, ashrey, and tamim to radiate from you. Flourishing is living like Jesus. It’s so much more than self-focused feelings, you-be-you slogans, or trying to make your wildest dreams come true; it’s knowing and being known by the One who breathed life into you. In him, you thrive.
Flourishing isn’t perfection. It’s a process.
Eccl 3:11 a hole in our heart
Richard Foster wrote, “Don’t you feel a tug, a yearning . . . ? Don’t you long for something more? Doesn’t every breath crave a deeper, fuller exposure to his Presence?”14
Following Jesus isn’t a quick fix. It’s a journey: an invitation to learn and grow. It’s a slow, aching, desperate-for-grace process of being shaped into the image of God. But the journey is why you’re here.
Every time you read the Bible, you’re introduced to men and women who’ve gone before you and navigated dark and grueling seasons. They’ve battled weariness, discouragement, soul-numbing depression, and betrayal, but were sustained by God’s unabating grace. The highs and lows of their lives are examples for us to learn from (Philippians 3:17).
Every one of us is on a journey from Simon to Peter. It’s a rigorous, humbling, and exhilarating path to walk, and we’ll need all the help we can get. But that’s why God gives us guides. Peter is wonderful to learn from because his life exemplifies that no matter how fractured our lives are, they can still become rocks.
By the way, the surest sign God is about to do something deep inside you is when he calls you out of what’s easy. God’s vision for you isn’t about comfort; it’s about sculpting your character. Don’t let security be your metric for discerning God’s will. If it’s of God, chances are it will look crazy.
God calls you upstream. He wants you to feel the rush of resistance. He wants you over your head because it’s there your soul will thrive. What if, instead of making life easier, he wants to make it harder to teach you grit, trust, and the intimate beauty of all-or-nothing prayer? Jesus’ healing feels a lot like pain. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer could attest, “Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend . . . Plunge into the deep waters beyond your own comprehension.
“comprehension, and I will help you to comprehend even as I do.”4
You weren’t made for shallow waters; you were made for the depths. That’s where you’ll flourish. But to get there, you don’t drift. You dive.”
Excerpt From
Your Longing Has a Name
Dominic Done
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=1574133438
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You stand there, blindsided, disbelieving as you hear yet another scandal, another betrayed marriage, another addiction, another person who did the unthinkable: “I never imagined he’d do that.”
Back to Bible: Stay On Step
Read Galatians 5:22-26 (ESV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Reflect
Since you became a Christian, what has been the biggest change in your life?
Have you ever watched a marching band? It's important that everyone in the band stays in step. Musically, the band members have different parts to play. In a field show, they may be walking in different directions and making different formations. But each and every member of the band should be marching to the beat of the same drum. They should even be on the same foot! When they are all in step, they all move as one unit.
Likewise, Paul wrote that if we want to live by the Spirit, then we need to keep in step with the Spirit. But what does he mean by that? Well, if we recall the context, we remember that Paul has been explaining how Christ has set us free from the law. The law does not have the power to save us, only faith in Christ’s gracious work on the cross on our behalf.
But Paul emphasized in Galatians 5:13 that we shouldn’t use our newfound freedom in Christ to gratify our sinful fleshly desires. In the previous verses, we read a list of “works of the flesh.” Unfortunately, all of these things come very naturally to us. In fact, apart from Christ, we are enslaved to them. But once we have been spiritually reborn, we are new creations. The problem is we still have to battle our flesh. We have to choose to put on our new selves, otherwise, we’ll just return to old, sinful ways.
This isn’t easy. We can’t accomplish this using our own willpower. Plus, if we place our trust and reliance in our own efforts again, we’re returning to the bondage of legalism! When we rely on legalism, all we do is change our outsides while the problem of sin still remains on the inside. Thankfully, in Christ, a changed life doesn’t depend on us, it is a work of the indwelling Holy Spirit—an Agent of change from the inside out.
Earlier, Paul listed out the deeds of the flesh but in this passage, he listed the “fruit of the Spirit.” All of these virtues are the polar opposite of the deeds of the flesh. Those of us who identity with Christ in His death and understand that He died in our place belong to Christ. As Paul said in Galatians 2:20, our flesh has been crucified with Christ. Now, it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us! We have new spiritual life and the flesh no longer dominates us! Plus, that new life produces good fruit.
In his New Testament Commentary, Warren Wiersbe pointed out that fruit is grown whereas works are manufactured. He wrote: “When you think of ‘works’ you think of effort, labor, strain and toil; when you think of ‘fruit’ you think of beauty, quietness, and the unfolding of life. The flesh produces “dead works” (Hebrews 9:14), but the Spirit produces living fruit. And this fruit has in it the seed for still more fruit (Genesis 1:1).”
Our job is to stay in step with the Spirit and move as one with Him. That means that we submit ourselves to the Spirit’s leadership in our lives and rely on His power rather than our own. We have to keep walking. We keep moving forward. But these steps are guided by the Spirit so that we go where God leads, not where our flesh leads. And step by step, He produces a fruitful life in us.
Respond
Lord, I want to be led by Your Spirit. Help me to stay in step with You. Please guide my steps and produce Your good fruit in my life. Amen.
Reveal: All believers are called to walk in step with the Spirit. Who can you come alongside to encourage to keep walking step by step with the Lord?
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