Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” This episode talks about how God wants us to seek Him and also how He wants us to be His light in the world. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Be My Light In The World
Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
I thought this would be a good verse for the first episode in 2022. This verse, like the year, presents so much possibility. What will you ask for this year? What will you seek this year? What doors will you knock on this year? I heard something on the bible in year intro yesterday that I want to share with you as I though it was really good. Father Mike was talking about Adam & Eve in the garden. He was talking about how the serpent lied to them and tricked them into eating the apple. Then he said one line that I thought was so good. He said when Eve at that apple she was seeking the creation instead of the creator. Are you seeking the creator?
I came upon this verse because I wanted to share with you a bookmark from my prayer group. Each bookmark has a scripture verse that goes along with it. Our monthly bookmarks contain a summary of sorts from all the words of prophecy given that month. I may have described this before but in case I haven’t, let me explain. Each week at our prayer groups we have time for silence so we can listen to anything the Lord wants to say to us. Back in the early 2000’s the prayer group started to record these words of prophecy that were given at the meeting. Each month they had several people re-read all the given words and discern what God’s call, directive, proclamation, and promise were for that month. They would then put this information on a bookmark for everyone in the group to keep. I would like to share the bookmark from July of 2020 as I feel they are great words for the beginning of this new year. As you listen to this close your eyes and imagine God is saying this directly to you. Because He is. It is not by accident I felt let to read this to you today and it is not by accident that your are listening to this episode today. The Lord, your Heavenly Father, wants you to hear this today.
“I have called you by name into life. I have called you every day by your name because I know you, I love you, because you are my friend. My children, I have so much more for you. I have more for you every single day-- more for yourself, more for you to give away, and more for you to enrich the world around you. Even though we are in troubled times, my graces abound for you and yours. Fear not to move forward in trust every day. Seek me at all times. The more you seek me the more I will enlighten you and guide you in ways that you never thought possible. Do not be anxious. Believe in me. I will take care of you forever. Be my light to the world. Reflect in everything that you do that you are mine.”
There is so much in this bookmark. Let’s start at the beginning. “I have called you by name into life. I have called you every day by your name because I know you, I love you, because you are my friend.” This is remarkable. I am not sure if we all know this is true, or if we ever really think about it. I bet if someone asked us if God knew our name, we would probably say yes, because we know that God knows everything. But have you ever really sat with that though? God knows your name, He knows you personally. There are billions of people in this world and yet God cares about you personally. In this message from the Lord He is saying that He calls us everyday by our name because he knows us and He loves us. He tells us that He is our friend. That right there, is something to sit and think about. God is your friend. Did you know that? Do you treat Him like He is your friend? He is calling you by name daily, are you doing the same? What can do you in this upcoming year to treat God more like a friend?
Next He says, “My children, I have so much more for you. I have more for you every single day-- more for yourself, more for you to give away, and more for you to enrich the world around you.” Wow, did you know that God has more for you? And not just more for you, not just enough to get by, He has so much for you that you will have some left over to give away. So much so that you can enrich the world. Did you know that God is calling us to do that? He does not give us all that we have so that we can just get by. He gives us all that we need and then some so that we can share His love and joy with the world. When we enrich the world, we are spreading the Gospel, spreading God’s love, peace & joy. That makes Him so happy. I think what He is trying to telling us in this word is to be on the lookout for more. I think He wants us to be on the lookout for how we can give away His love, joy & peace. I think He wants us to be on the lookout for how we can enrich the world with all God gives to us. Can you be on the lookout for that this year?
Next He says, “Even though we are in troubled times, my graces abound for you and yours.” We certainly are in troubled times. My friend said that she is back to not leaving the house as the numbers for Covid in the city she lives are the worst they have been since it started. There is a father of four young children that just died from Covid complications just before Christmas. Just when things seem like they are getting better, they get worse. In this word God is telling us that even in the middle of all this His graces are abounding for you and yours. It doesn’t just say for you, it says for you and yours. What if we were on the lookout for these graces each day? How much different would our days be if instead of looking for all the ways life is hard, or all the things that are going wrong, we looked for all the graces that God is giving to us and our loved ones?
Then the Lord says, “Fear not to move forward in trust every day. Seek me at all times. The more you seek me the more I will enlighten you and guide you in ways that you never thought possible. Do not be anxious. Believe in me. I will take care of you forever. “ Wow, that is a lot in just a few sentences. Fear not to move forward in trust. This is hard. It isn’t easy to move forward in trust especially everyday. The next line tells us how to do this though. Seek me at all times. If we want to trust in the Lord then we need to seek the Lord. We need to bring our problems to Him and seek His solutions, not our own. Rely on Him to fix them, not ourselves. I love the next line. “The more you seek me the more I will enlighten you and guide you in ways that you never thought possible.” Who doesn’t need to be guided by the Lord? But it doesn’t just say that He will guide us, it also says that He will enlighten us. We need this. This world can be so confusing and the enemy uses all the noise of the world to keep us in the dark and to keep us from who we are meant to be. The more we seek the Lord in our lives the more He enlightens us and guides us to the path He has planned for us. I also loved how He said he will guide us in ways we never thought possible. I have seen this over and over again this year. Prayers have been answered in ways that no one would have thought possible. He has done the impossible in many peoples lives this year. Don’t you want that in your life? Can you seek the Lord more this year?
This word ends with, “Be my light to the world. Reflect in everything that you do that you are mine.” This brings us back to the beginning. The Lord is calling us to be His light in the world. This world, where there is so much darkness, so much anger, and lately, so much despair. We can spread the Lord’s light to all those dark places. The last line is so important. “Reflect in everything that you do that you are mine” Are we doing this? Can people tell just by looking at the way you live and the way you interact with others that you belong to Christ? The world has enough people to spread the darkness and the negativity. Can you spread the Lord’s Light? Can you act in such a way that all will know just by looking at you that you belong to Christ? What would be great is if that was our number 1 goal for 2022. “I will be a light to the world. I will reflect in everything that I do that I belong to Christ.” Will you join me?
Dear Heavenly Father I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord I ask that you bless this whole year. I ask that you walk with each one of us throughout this year and that you rain down blessings and graces on all of us. Lord I ask that you help us to be a light to the world and that you help us to act in such a way that we reflect that we are yours. Lord, we can’t do anything without you but with you we can do all things. Lord we ask that you help us to see what you want us to do this year and how we can put You first in our lives. We love you so much Lord. We thank you for bringing us into a whole new year of life. We are so grateful to you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am so happy to be walking with you through another year of life. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow, Have a blessed day!