An Always God

Our God is an always God.  Always with us, always guiding us, always healing us, always teaching us.

Always forgiving us, always cleansing us, always sanctifying us.

Always remembering us, always thinking about us, always wanting us.

Always wanting more for us, always wanting the best for us.

Always loving us – dearly, deeply, in the best way we need to be loved. 

Our God is an always God. 

Always abiding in us, abundant, able, adopting.

Always blessing us with every spiritual blessing, believing in us.

Always calling us to be who and what and where we are, caring about us, caring for us, cherishing us, compassionate, comforting us, in control, completing us, consistent, counselling us.

Always declaring us holy, blameless and righteous, dependable, determining the exact places where we should live and work, and have our being.

Always eager and earnest about our relationship with Him, energetic, enthusiastic, eternal and everlasting, exalted and excellent.

Always faithful to us, favoring us, deeply feeling what we feel, making us fruitful.

Always lavishing His grace upon us, generous with us, giving to us, glorious, good, great.

Always hearing us, helping us, holy, honest, honorable, our hope.

Always indwelling us, illuminating Himself, His word and His truth to us, inspiring us, instructing us.

Always joyful, just.

Always keeping us, kind to us, knowing all things.

Always listening to us and for us, living.

Always majestic, merciful, mighty, moving toward us, making us and our lives exactly as He wants them to be.

Always near, new, open and opulent.

Always passionate, patient, persistent, persevering, perfect, peaceful, powerful, promise keeping, protecting us, providing for us.

Always radiant, redeeming us, rebuilding, refreshing, renewing, restoring, revealing, rewarding, right, righteous, romantic.

Always saving, securing, separating, sovereign, superior, sensitive.

Always tender, spending time with us and on us, trustworthy and true, truthful.

Always understanding, victorious, visionary, wise, zealous and jealous. 

God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit always have been, are now and always will be God.

We must also remember one particular never.  He will never, no never, no never, leave us or forsake us, abandon us or change His mind about us.  (The original Greek in Hebrews 13:5 is a quintuple negative).

An always God.

The Authority

And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Matthew 21:27

But He just did.  The Pharisees wanted to know by what authority Jesus drove out the merchants and moneychangers from the Temple.  So, Jesus says He’ll tell them if they answer whether or not John the Baptist was sent by God.  If they say he was, Jesus will want to know why they didn’t believe him.  If they say he wasn’t, the people will mob them.  So they say they don’t know.  What they didn’t realize was that Jesus’ question was in fact the answer to theirs.  Jesus, like John the Baptist, was sent by God, and by God’s authority, He cleared the Temple.

Prayers that Get Answered

The crowd told them (the two blind men) to be quiet.  But they shouted even louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”  Jesus stopped and called them.  “What do you want me to do for you?”, He asked.  They told Him, “Lord, we want You to give us our eyesight back.”  Jesus felt sorry for them, so He touched their eyes.  Their sight was restored at once, and they followed Him.  Matthew 20:34-34 (GWT)

Here are the keys to praying prayers that get answered:

1. Don’t listen to what everyone else tells you.
2. Pray more fervently – especially with opposition.
3. Ask for mercy.  In other words, the request must be one that God will agree requires His mercy.
4. Tell God exactly what you want/need done, what you desperately need Him to do for you that you cannot do for yourself. 
5. Wait for His reply.
6. Follow Him, even if your request takes longer than “at once”.
7. Have faith that you will receive what you ask for in prayer (Matthew 21:22) and if you don’t receive what you requested, remember and trust that His answer will be better than what you had hoped for.

Standards of Measurement

Can’t I do what I want with my own money?  Or do you resent my generosity toward others?  Matthew 20:15

Frankly, no, You can’t and yes, I do.  Every time I think about how the times I have been denied and cheated in my life, and go into detail, this is my answer.  My demands lead to resentment because they all seem to have gotten away with it in this life.  Each time (they are less frequent as time passes, but still, every once in a while…)  Please God, empty me of my demands, my sense of entitlement. My resentment.  God’s reply?  “Whoever wants to become prominent among you shall be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  Matthew 20: 26b-28).

God answered me quickly in verse 28.  You didn’t put me on this earth to be served by You.  You put me on this earth so that I could serve You and others.  You don’t owe me anything for I don’t even come close to Your standards.  Yet You have granted me eternal life and therefore, I owe You everything. 

The Amplified puts it: “Am I not permitted to do what I choose with what is mine?  [Or do you begrudge my being generous?] Is your eye evil because I am good?”  Each and every person on earth was created and designed by You.  Therefore, each and every person on earth belongs to You and You can do what You choose with each person’s life.  My problem is that I started life on the poor end and am back there now, but in the middle, I knew some financial prosperity and I have always been one to compare.  The friends who got to marry wealthy husbands, or the ones who get promotions, salary increases and bonuses I always compare as “better”.  But how about “worse”?  The friend who lives paycheck to paycheck, can’t afford a house, has tons of debt and goes to the food pantry.

You have designed each person’s life with what is best for them.  You have designed my life with what is best for me.  For me, harder is better.  Restoration isn’t always measured by quantity and comparison.  Restoration is also measured by the qualitative – depth of relationship, spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth and change.  Please change my standards of measurement.

The Rich Young Ruler

Matthew 19:16-30

When the rich young ruler asks which commandments he should keep, the list Jesus gives is the fifth through the tenth (verses 18-19) – all the relationship with people commands (the ones we break the most, the ones that are more obvious).  Although these commandments are about outward behavior, they come from the heart, and our hearts are easier to straighten out when we’re in line with the first four commands.

The young man says he has kept all those and asks what he was still lacking.  He was lacking a deeper relationship with and a deeper trust in God (what we gain when we are working on the first four commandments). So Jesus gives him a God-related list.  Trade in earthly treasure for heavenly treasure and follow Jesus.

Exactly what we need to do.  Deny self.  Take up our cross.  Follow Jesus.