Guarding Your Thoughts of God

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’"GENESIS 3:1

 

PONDER THIS

Satan does not deny the existence of God. Satan admits God is there, but he wants you to think of God as cruel and harsh and severe. When you think of God, Satan wants your mind to be filled with negative thoughts.

If Satan can get you to thinking negatively about God, he already has you. Can you imagine the glories of the Garden of Eden? Can you imagine how beautiful it must have been? Not so long ago, I was in Victoria, in the Butchart Gardens. They’re so indescribably beautiful. It looks like every blade of grass has been manicured. It made me wonder what the Garden of Eden must have been like. God made this beautiful, perfect place and put Adam and Eve there. With a smile on His face, He said, “Adam, I made that for you. Eve, I made that for you. Help yourself.” This is the wonderful God we have. He has invited us in and has made a way of keeping us close. It is vital that we think of Him rightly.

When you think about God, what comes to mind? Are your thoughts mostly positive or negative? Why?

When have you struggled with doubt? What were your thoughts about God in that time? Who or what helped you?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage those who are struggling with thoughts about God. Listen to them and share how God has worked in your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Don’t Doubt in the Dark

 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” 

HEBREWS 10:23-25

 

PONDER THIS

The closer we get to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the more we need the house of God, and the more we need the people of God. We need to practice separation from the world and communication with the people of God. It’s not always easy, but this is the way God designed us to get through life in this world. We need each other; we need Him.

Remember what you’ve learned. Don’t doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light. Remember the Word of God and remember who you learned it from. Hold onto His truth and to the community He has given you to learn it with. This is how we continue to stand strong. God has given you a family for a purpose; don’t neglect to gather with them.

How do you invest in the people in your church community? How have you grown with them?

How do you invest in your relationship with God? How have you grown in your relationship with Him?

PRACTICE THIS

Spend time with your church family over a meal or coffee and ask these loved ones to share how they have grown in their relationships with God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Believe the Alarm Clock

Pray Over This

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:3-4

Ponder This

So many of us rely on whether we feel victorious to know whether we’re living a new life. The problem is, our feelings are the shallowest part of our nature but salvation is the deepest work of God. He doesn’t do the deepest work in the shallowest part. He doesn’t say, “Feel it.” He says, “Believe it.”

A woman woke up one morning, the alarm clock went off, but it seemed like she’d just gone to sleep. She said, “It could not be six o’clock in the morning.” But she looked at the alarm clock, and it said so. She turned on the radio; the six o’clock programs were playing. She opened the window and looked out and the sun was coming up. It was six in the morning whether she felt like it was or not.

Day by day we count on what happened two thousand years ago. Day by day, every morning, every believer must wake up and say, “I’m dead to sin. I’m alive in Christ. I know it is a fact. He died for me; now I choose to believe it and live like it’s true.” Christ not only gave Himself for me but also gave Himself to me. The life I now live is by faith in the Son of God, and I must count on the life of Christ in me daily.

What are some things that make it challenging to feel close to God?

What would change if you started your day trusting God and all He has done for you as the promise that He will continue to do so?

Practice This

Write out different truths about God that you struggle to believe. Confess your doubts to God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

You Can Be Sure

PRAY OVER THIS

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:13

 

PONDER THIS

A woman once told the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody, “I’ve been saved twenty-five years, and I’ve never had one single doubt.” He said, “Madame, I doubt you’ve been saved.” That’d be like someone saying they’d been married fifty years and had never had an argument. I’d doubt they’d been married.

I’m not trying to say arguments are good. I’m not trying to say that pain is good. I’m not trying to say doubts are good, but they are facts of life. John’s words in today’s verse imply that it is possible to be saved and have doubts about it. John was trying to clear up those doubts for the Christians to whom he wrote. John was pointing the way for us to be able to say, “Praise God, I know that I know that I know that my sins are forgiven, Christ is in my heart, and Heaven in my home.” The assurance of your salvation is the base you work from. When I know my future is secure, then I can concentrate on the present. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12). Likewise, John said, I wrote this book that you might have assurance that you might KNOW—not hope, think, wish, or surmise—but that you might know you have eternal life.

What things cause you to doubt your relationship with God?

How does regular time in the Scriptures give you assurance of your life in Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Work this week to memorize 2 Timothy 1:12 and 1 John 5:13 so that you can return to them regularly in times of doubt.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You in Doubt?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.” Matthew 14:31-32

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

A man was in the back bedroom of his home getting dressed while his wife was in the living room talking to a friend. He called out to his wife, “Darling, is this shirt clean enough for me to wear?”

Without hesitation, she said, “No.”

He said, “How did you know it wasn’t clean enough to wear? You didn’t even come back to look at it.”

She answered, “If you had to ask, it wasn’t clean enough!”

When it comes to the question of whether you should do something or not, if it’s doubtful, it’s dirty. Don’t. Unfortunately, most of us don’t give God the benefit of the doubt. We just go ahead and do it.

ACTION POINT

Are you in doubt about something today? If you have even the smallest doubt in your heart that it might be sin or lead to sin, be strong and choose to say “No.” He will be your peace.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Ever Doubt God?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel” Psalm 103:7 

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass”

Psalm 37:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

In the book of Acts, Peter and James were both put in prison for preaching the gospel. But James had his head cut off while Peter was delivered miraculously out of the same prison. Did God love Peter more than he loved James?

Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost. He stood up for the Lord Jesus Christ, and 3,000 souls were saved (Acts 2). But Stephen preached, and he got 3,000 stones. They stoned him to death (Acts 7:59).

If all you see are the works of God, you’re going to be hopelessly confused. If you don’t have a deeper insight into the ways of God, you’re going to be pushing the panic button all the time. You will never be able to rest until you know God intimately. To know God intimately is the way of tranquility.

ACTION POINT

To know God intimately begins with two things: time in His Word and time in prayer. You know God intimately by directly dealing with God. You can’t know anyone you don’t spend time with. Commit today to spending time in His Word and prayer.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Starve Your Doubts

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith”... 

(1 John 5:4)

 DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Are you uncertain about some things? Are you walking on eggshells and Jell-O theologically? Don’t do it! Get a bulldog grip on the truth and stand by it. Learn to feed your faith and starve your doubts.

If you don’t consistently, regularly, join with fellow believers to experience worship and the teaching of the Word, daily reading your Bible and praying, then you have no shield of faith! Sometimes at the university, college students who aren’t deeply grounded in the Word will let some ungodly, unbelieving professor make fun of their faith. They’ll fall apart like a house of cards. That’s because they don’t have a strong, rock-ribbed faith in God.

Faith will be like a shield to you to protect you: “Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:16). Faith will give you certainty. Feed your faith. How do you do that? “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

ACTION POINT:

You must actively, consciously clothe yourself in the armor of God. How much are you dedicating yourself to being in His Word, learning how to wield your Sword?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Doubt - The Enemy of Faith

Doubt - a feeling of uncertainty, lack of conviction 

Doubt is the struggle all people face.

Do you find yourself making faces when people tell you things they will do?

Have you ever used these phrases?

I'll believe it when I see it!

If I was a betting man!

That dude ain't worth water!

When pigs fly!

When h freezes over!

Have you ever been made promises that weren't kept?

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" - Mark 9:24

God is faithful even though we have our doubts and fears!

You must have a relationship with God.

What can we learn from Abraham about doubt and faith that would help us remain faithful to God?

Doubt causes us to focus on our present situation.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." - Genesis 15:1

Fear not He is your shield.

Every child of God has this as their hope 

Doubt enters!

He is focusing on the present.

2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"

3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." - Genesis 15:2-3

Faith causes us to focus on God!

4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."

5 And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." - Genesis 15:4-5

Look to God!

Look forward not backwards!

You have a choice to make...doubt or faith.

And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:6

God is sovereign.

He is not to be approached with a mind of maybe, He will do what He says!

With God, you are either all in or all out.

Holy God is worthy of your all!!

Even though we doubt, God is faithful.

7 And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess."

8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" - Genesis 15:7-8

God made a covenant with Abraham!

This shows His faithfulness.

Just as God has made a covenant with me and you through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through faith alone, in Christ alone!

9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.

11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

13 Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.

16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites." - Genesis 15:9-21

Thank you Pastor Draper!!!

When In Doubt, Let Jesus Be Your Peace

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.” Matthew 14:31-32

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

A man was in the back bedroom of his home getting dressed while his wife was in the living room talking to a friend. He called out to his wife, “Darling, is this shirt clean enough for me to wear?”

Without hesitation she said, “No.”

He said, “How did you know it wasn’t clean enough to wear? You didn’t even come back to look at it.”

She answered, “If you had to ask, it wasn’t clean enough!”

When it comes to the question of whether you should do something or not, if it’s doubtful, it’s dirty. Don’t. Unfortunately, most of us don’t give God the benefit of the doubt. We just go ahead and do it.

ACTION POINT:

Are you in doubt about something today? If you have even the smallest doubt in your heart that it might be sin or lead to sin, be strong and choose to say “No.” He will be your peace.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Season of Doubt

What is a season of doubt?

It's a time of not feeling God's presence.

It's when you are feeling your world come apart.

It's a time of testing and trial.

It's those fiery darts that are cast in your direction!

Just remember these words in times of trouble:

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 

23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  - Lamentations 3:22-23

1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 

2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; 

3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. 

4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; 

5 he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; 

6 he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. 

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; 

8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; 

9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. 

10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; 

11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 

12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. 

13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; 

14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. 

15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. 

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 

17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 

18 so I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD." 

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 

20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 

21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  - Lamentations 3:1-21

Can't we all identify with Jeremiah?
What were Jeremiah's last words in this chapter?
I have Hope!
Why?
Because he knew he worshiped a God who is able! 
Jeremiah also knew that God wanted a humbled obedient heart! 


1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  - Psalm 51:1-11

So what do we take away from this teaching?

There is a time of testing!

There is a time of joy!

God's creation will doubt!!

God is more than able!

Hold fast to your faith in God and His promise of everlasting love and mercy!!!

Doubting Our Salvation

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A woman told the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody, “I’ve been saved twenty-five years, and I’ve never had one single doubt.” 

He responded, “Madam, I doubt you’ve been saved.” 

That would be like a couple saying they’ve been married 50 years and never had an argument. I’d say, “I doubt you’ve been married.” 

We all have doubts. You see, doubt is to your spirit what pain is to your body. It is a signal that something is wrong. And just as you seek to find a remedy for your pain, you should seek to find a remedy for your doubts. Jesus is your remedy. Get into His Word and know the assurance of your salvation. It’s not you, it’s Jesus that makes it possible. 

ACTION POINT:

Are you doubting your salvation? Then run to Jesus. Soak yourself in these truths from God’s Word: 

* Romans 10:13

* Ephesians 2:1-10 

* Titus 3:5

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Happens When You Worry

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What happens when you worry? You bring tomorrow’s difficulty into today. 

God didn’t give you grace for tomorrow’s difficulties. He only gives you grace for today. 

When you reach into tomorrow’s troubles, you overload today’s circuit. Worry doesn’t take the sorrow out of tomorrow, it takes the strength out of today. When you meet tomorrow, you’re out of breath because you’re already overloaded from today. Worry, therefore, does not make you ready for the future, it really makes you unready. 

Yesterday is just a canceled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today has all the cash you can handle. Spend it wisely.

ACTION POINT:

Worry will eat your lunch! It’ll eat your breakfast and dinner, too! Confess your worries as sin (because they are). Put your concerns at the throne of Almighty God, trusting Him to provide.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers