Battling Your “Less Thans”

Help When Battling Your Less Thans

battling your less thans

Do you sometimes feel “less than?”

I’m talking about every time you feel less popular, less successful, less attractive, less smart, or less “anything.”

Please stop.

I’m talking to you, my dear sister in Christ.

Cover your ears, and do your best “la la la’s“ to drown out any negative people who like to make you feel “less than” them.

No one is saying this is easy.

Battling your “less thans” gets easier with practice, but it starts with not knowing who you are, but whose you are.

Say Yes to Confidence in His Promises

Confidence when battling your less thans

Have you ever watched the TLC reality TV show, “Say Yes to the Dress?”

The show features future brides (and their wedding parties) picking out their wedding attire in preparation for the Big Day.

Occasionally I’ll tune in.

I admit, I love to look at wedding dresses!

However, there was an episode that made me sad.

The bride said she needed to buy a phenomenal dress so that she could finally feel “significant.”

Have you ever felt invisible when you’re around other people?

Ultimately, a killer dress (or anything like that) isn’t the answer.

You may feel like a nobody, but please remember this, in Christ Jesus you are so valuable to Him that He died on the cross for you.

God Uses Less Thans To Do Extraordinary Things

The Bible is full of people just like us who didn’t think they had what it takes when God called them to a task.

less thans can do extraordinary things

Remember the historical account of Queen Esther?

She was a young Hebrew maiden who, thru Godly intervention, eventually became the queen of Persia.

As intriguing as that is – God was actually putting her in place to deliver her people from destruction by the evil Haman.

All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them.– Oswald Chambers, Evangelist and Christian minister.1

So, you may not be in line to become a heroic queen, but your life is just as important.

We are on this earth for just a short time, really.

Don’t let Satan’s attempts to make you feel worthless distract you from your confidence in our loving Father.

God hears your whispered prayers

You’ll never be lost in the crowd with Jesus.

He’s coming back some day . . . for you.

our citizenship is in Heaven

If You’re Feeling Irrelevant

Dear One,

Please never doubt the Father’s love for you.

Take time each day to realize that you are priceless – an individual with so much potential, who was created to shine His light into the lives of others.

Turn off the naysayers, slay your doubts, and transform your “less than” thoughts to a “loved-more-than-I-could-ever-know” Child of God!

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1 Oswald Chambers quotation, as quoted from Christian quotes.info

2 Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

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“Get ‘Em Lord” Prayers

“Get ‘Em Lord” Prayers

Hands down, the most popular post on my blog, Delight-in-God.com, is an article I wrote called, “How To Pray For Someone You Don’t Like.”

In that article, Pastor J. Josh Smith shared valuable Biblical insight about how to pray for our enemies.

I’m just gonna say it – praying for God to bless our enemies isn’t easy to do.

Why do we have to do that when a “get ‘em, Lord” prayer feels sooo much better?

get 'em Lord

What’s Wrong With a “Get ‘Em Lord” Prayer?

We want quick justice when we’ve been wronged.

Think about that coworker who stole your idea and got all the credit and the accompanying raise.

Or, the neighbor who lets his dog trample your petunias and use your yard as a community toilet every morning.

Oh, that is so annoying. 

Get ‘em, Lord.

From a biblical standpoint, we have to be very, very careful with a “get em” prayer.

A lot of it rides on the nature of the “wrong” we experienced and, very much so, on our intent when asking the Lord for justice.

There’s a huge difference between a mean person who irritates us, and an actual enemy of the faith.

What are Imprecatory Prayers?

Asking God to rain down His wrath on our enemies is called imprecatory prayer.

One of the synonyms for imprecate is to “damn.”

That’s pretty serious business and requires cautious consideration.

We know that the Lord Himself called out enemies of the faith, (the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees), in Matthew 23:31-33.

Imprecatory psalms, from David and others, and the imprecatory pleas in the Book of Jeremiah are some other examples.

Therefore, give their children over to famine
And deliver them up to the power of the sword;
And let their wives become childless and widowed.
Let their men also be smitten to death,
Their young men struck down by the sword in battle. – Jeremiah 18:21, (NASB).1

That’s a pretty obvious “get ‘em Lord” plea from the prophet Jeremiah.

We have this verse from King David, in Psalm 17:13:

Arise, O Lord, confront him, bring him low;
Deliver my soul from the wicked with your sword – Psalm 17:13, (NASB).2

David says “with your sword.” – no mistaking what he meant.

Was that wrong of King David to pray that?

There is no taint of personal jealousy, spite, or ambition in these psalms. Rather, there is a deep concern for God’s people. There is a desire for God’s glory to be displayed. In the case of David’s imprecations, those who opposed the king opposed God, because the king was God’s anointed. In the case of the other imprecatory psalms, they are all national, not personal in character. The psalmists in every case had a deep desire that God’s plan might be fulfilled through His people for His glory.

Thus it helps to understand the imprecatory psalms if we view them in light of God’s purpose and in light of the psalmist’s attitude. He was not seeking vengeance or being selfish. Rather, he was asking God to vindicate His people who had been mistreated and to fulfill His plan through them. – Stephen J. Cole, author and theologian.3

What About What Jesus Said at the Sermon on the Mount?

Bless those who persecute you

Sermon on the Mount – Source credit, Geralt

On one hand, we have the imprecatory prayers and pleas throughout Bible, and on the other, we also have the very real command from Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount to ”pray for those who persecute you”.

To clarify: His imprecatory prayers were against enemies of the faith.

Using imprecatory prayers from the Psalms today should only be done against our spiritual enemies (Ephesians 6:12). Praying imprecations on human foes is unjustifiable, as it would require taking these prayers out of context. In the New Testament, Jesus exhorts us to pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44–48; Luke 6:27–38), but praying for their death or for bad things to happen to them isn’t what He meant. Instead, we are to pray for their salvation first and foremost, and then for God’s will to be done. There’s no greater blessing than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and that’s what Jesus means by praying for and blessing those who curse us. – Got Questions website.

Seeking Justice and Get ’em Lord Prayers

Vengeance is the Lord’s.

Understandably, we rightly grieve when we see evil in our world, like sexual trafficking, for instance.

Pray against perversion, take a stand, call it out, demand justice and jailing the perpetrators. There’s nothing wrong with that.

God hears those prayers, and He hears the cries of the innocents.

He hates Sin, more than we could ever imagine.

It’s in our nature to seek justice in this fallen world, but it must be on God’s terms within the justice system that He has established, not our personal plans to retaliate.

This is a hard topic, so I hope this is helpful.

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1 Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

2 Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

3 Steven J. Cole quotation is courtesy of bible.org. from “Psalm 137: Difficult Words, But True” n.d. 1993. Web. Accessed August 19, 2020.  Retrieved from https://bible.org/seriespage/psalm-137-difficult-words-true.

4 Quotation from gotquestions.org, from “What is imprecatory prayer?” n.d., para. 4. Web. Accessed August 19, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.gotquestions.org/imprecatory-prayer.html

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Leave The Heavy Lifting To God

Leave The Heavy Lifting to Someone Else

Have you ever tried to carry something so big you thought you’d collapse under the weight of it?

leave the heavy lifting to God

I used to take swimming lessons back when I was in middle school.

Our final swim test was to “save the lifeguard” in a mock drowning incident.

When it was my turn, the lifeguard began thrashing around in the deep end like he was in big trouble.

Confidently, I dove in to rescue him.

Uh oh.

Saving him was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

It wasn’t long before I was swallowing water and losing any of the strength I had to pull him out.

He was so heavy I thought I was going to drown, and that he’d end up having to save me.

I think he did, actually.  😉

When you get down to it, sometimes in life, we have burdens that are just too heavy for us to carry alone.

But we aren’t alone.

Best leave the heavy lifting to someone else.

When the storms of life hit, we should leave the heavy lifting to God.

No burden is too big for Him.

Leave the Heavy Lifting to God

Have you ever heard someone say that they felt like a black cloud had settled over their house?

I have, because I was the one who said it once.  🙂

When you receive a lot of bad news all at the same time, sometimes it gets hard to bear those burdens.

We have to remember we can’t solve everything on our own.

We aren’t in control, but God is.

A time-honored lesson to keep reminding ourselves:

Be thankful

No matter what our circumstances, remember how God has blessed us in the past and His promises for our future.

Jesus really is the answer.

Billy Graham quote

Aren’t you glad that we have a personal Savior who knows each of us by name?

When a close friend of yours is hurting, you don’t abandon them when they need you the most. On the contrary, you offer to be there for them, run errands, take the kids, whatever they need to show them your support during a difficult time.

Father God loves us even more.

We are His children.

In Isaiah 46:4, the prophet assured God’s people that throughout their lives, which were often wrought with danger, they were not alone.

His Word is true.

Isaiah 46:4

With Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He can do the heavy lifting for us, from now until our last breath.

Lay your burdens at the Cross.

Have you heard Christian singer Jamie Kimmett’s song about this? 

His song, “Burdens” is a touching reminder of God’s tender care.

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Our Real Source Of Power

Our Real Source of Power – Where Does It Come From?

news across America

The mainstream news coverage of what’s going on in America, when you can bear to listen to the reports, continues to be disturbing.

I’m sure you’ve heard that our Christian faith (as well as some churches across the country) is under attack.

A reported bible-burning during a Portland riot.

Churches closed down.

Threatening churches with fines, or shutting off their power and water, and in some cases, arresting the pastors – these are incidents that are happening more often.

If you’d told me about these news stories twenty years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.

No, it can’t be, not in America –we’re the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

Christians, fasten your seatbelts, unsettling times are ahead.

Regardless of which side of the mask debate you are on, (both viewpoints have merit) the fact is, shutting down churches *with no end in sight* would set a very dangerous precedent for the future.

Wouldn’t the Evil One just love that?

What an upside-down world we live in.

our real source of power

The godless can try and shut off the power to a church all they want, but they will never be able to turn off our “real source of power”.

I’m talking about the real power that we have as believers in Jesus Christ.

Are we ready for this ongoing spiritual battle?

Be prepared . . . for anything.

Can they stop us from worshiping?

The godless may win some victories along the way.

That means we may have to get more creative and find other ways of being together and/or sharing our faith.

God’s Word reminds us that no matter how awful the persecution gets, the light of the gospel always shines through the darkness.

Consider Paul and Silas in the Book of Acts.

Although they were severely beaten and bound, Paul and Silas prayed and sang to God – a powerful witness to their jailer and his family, as well as the other prisoners in that brutal jail.

Paul and Silas witness in prison

Do we have that same admirable courage and conviction today?

Our real source of power comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

No one will ever be able to shut off His light.

We’re going to see, in the days and years to come, evil as we have never seen it. And we’re also going to see the greatest revivals, the greatest awakenings, and multiplied millions of people are going to come to Jesus Christ. – Pastor Dr. Ray Pritchard, keepbelieving.com.

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1 Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

2 Quotation from Pastor, Dr. Ray Pritchard. Courtesy of AFA Journal magazine interview by Matthew White, “In a World of Chaos, Keep Believing.” n.d. Accessed August 5, 2020.

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God’s Copyright On Creation

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Several years ago, I visited a college friend of mine who lived in Chicago.

One of the coolest things we did during that trip was to visit the famous Art Institute.

If you haven’t been there yet, it is huge 🙂

We saw so many exquisite art collections that day.

After walking around for hours, I wasn’t even tired.

My favorite memory was getting to see the works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and specifically my favorite, “The Two Sisters, On the Terrace.”

Here’s a picture of it for you to see . . .

"The Two Sisters, on the Terrace" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The Two Sisters, on the Terrace” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Trust me, there’s no comparison between the picture above, and the real painting.

The vivid reds of the older woman’s hat were striking to see in person.

It was hard to look away.

I remember thinking about the effort it took for the master artist to get just that right shade of eye-pleasing red.

Did you know that one of Renoir’s paintings sold at Sotheby’s for $78.1 million dollars?

Think about this for a minute — can you imagine the public backlash from M. Renoir if another artist had the gall to take credit for his work?

That would be a crime of theft, and rightfully so.

Likewise, in our context as thinking human beings, why would our Sovereign Lord, the Master Creator of the entire universe, share His glory with anyone or anything else?

He wouldn’t.

Man-exalted replacements are graven idols.

God’s copyright on creation is to be revered.

Idol worship robs God of the glory that is rightfully His, and that is something He will not tolerate. (Isaiah 42:8). – Got Questions Website.1

The Golden Calf

You might think that the golden calf of ancient Biblical history was melted down for good, and it was.

“That” particular calf was burned down to a powder, and later consumed as punishment for Israel’s wickedness.

But, idolatry still exists in our modern day.

Any “golden calves” we set up for worship other than the one true God makes God very angry.

We need to learn this and many other valuable lessons from the experience of the Israelites. The major and minor prophets warned God’s people time and time again to stop worshiping false gods.

But, as history unfolded, we read in Scripture that they didn’t always listen, to their own detriment.

God is both merciful and patient with us, more than we could ever deserve, but He won’t tolerate idolatry forever without judgment at the appointed time.

God’s Copyright on Creation

God's copyright on creationConsider the amazing and even the still-to-be-discovered wonders of God’s creation.

Here’s just one stunning example of why the ultimate Master Artist deserves all our praise – the recent Comet Neowise.

God's copyright on Comet Neowise

Comet Neowise

Comets have vapor trails up to 10,000 miles long. If you could capture all that vapor, and put it in a bottle, the amount of vapor actually present in the bottle would take up less than 1 cubic inch of space. – David Guzik, Christian pastor and author.3

Less than one cubic inch!

So, here’s my question: why would anyone risk their eternal life and happiness by insisting that there is more than one way to Heaven, than thru Jesus Christ alone?

This is such a serious question, but I fear many people aren’t taking it seriously.

Gratitude For the One Who Gave Us Life

Consider just one of the many excruciating details about Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross for yours and my sins.

Spikes about 7 inches long and 3/8 of an inch in diameter were driven into the wrists. – allaboutjesuschrist.org website.4

That horrific measurement is about the length of your wrist to the crook of your elbow.

Jesus suffered all of that for yours and my sins.

With that in mind, how could anyone even think of praying to anyone else?

Not surprisingly, even angels warned against it.

God is on His throne at this very moment.

The angels and the saints are worshiping Him forevermore and, at some glorious time in the future, by trusting in Jesus Christ alone, we will join them!

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Photo credits:

Renoir painting photo, “The Two Sisters On The Terrace” photo, courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, Created: 1881date QS:P571,+1881-00-00T00:00:00Z/9. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Source Credit Line is the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection.

Comet Neowise photo, taken in Caliente, CA; July 2020. Courtesy of author,  Jason Hullinger / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0).Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amewzing/50122920178/. Accessed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_Neowise,_taken_in_Caliente,_CA;_July_2020.jpg

1 Quotation from gotquestions.org, from “What is the definition of Idolatry?” n.d., para. 3. Web. Accessed 29 July, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.gotquestions.org/idolatry-definition.html.

2 Scripture quotation is from New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

3 Quotation from Christian pastor David Guzik. “Bible-Commentary/Collossians-1.” n.d., Web. Accessed July 29, 2020. Retrieved from https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/colossians-1/.

4 Quotation from allaboutjesuschrist.org, from “Crucifixion.” n.d., para. 3. Web. Accessed 29 July, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/crucifixion.htm

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