Skip to main content

Five F's to Avoid

Satan loves to get us down and discouraged, or if nothing else, at least to distract us.  Satan is the Master Deceiver:  He is the Father of Lies.  Why?--because he knows the end of the story!  His end is in "the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Rev. 20:10) --And because he knows his end, he wants to take as many as he can with him!  But if we know Christ as our personal Saviour, the most he can do is get us down, or discouraged, or distract us.  And why does he want to do that?--so that we aren't of any use to Christ.  (not a good place to be in--don't go there!)  So today I want to talk about the five F's to avoid!

  1. Fear
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound   mind.  (2 Tim. 1:7)  Those are key components to the workings of Christ.  We need to stand upon them.  Don't allow Satan to distract you with fear…fear of
         (a) change
         (b) being found out
         (c)  death
  1. Failure
Luke 16:9 says, "when ye fail," not "if."  Failure is part of life.  Failure is part of learning.  So if you've failed at something, get up, dust yourself off, and get goin' again!  Proverbs 24: 16 says, "For a just man faileth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked shall fall into mischief."  My second point is this, failure is an event, not a person. Just because you might have failed at something, doesn't make you a failure.  Look beyond it!  Christ sees so much more!
  1. Feelings
vs. The Word of God
I don't know why it is (particularly as women), we tend to live our lives by our feelings; but that is just wrong.  Feelings just tend to bring us down and depressed and discouraged (funny how a lot of the devil's tactics begin with the letter "d"!).  No, we as Christians need to live our lives by the Word of God!  It is there that we find power and strength and encouragement.  Don't forget, the Word of God plays a major part in the Armor of God that God tells us to put on every day--and every part of every day!  It is powerful!  Meditate upon it, memorize it!
Let's think of a train for a moment:
Fact
Faith
Feeling
"Fact" is what we get from God's Word.  God's Word is true and it is powerful.  Next comes "Faith."  Don't forget, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of truth." (Rom. 10:17).  Then lastly, is feeling.  God will give us the right kind of feelings (faith, of course, confidence, courage, love, joy, peace, etc., as we put God first and depend upon Him.  But the key here is putting God and His Word at the front of the train.  Anytime we get that train turned around, we're in for disaster!
  1. Futile
--thinking our service to Christ doesn't count or doesn't matter--you would be so wrong!
1 Corinthians 15:58 says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain the Lord."  God is the reason for it all!  He is what we should be laboring for!
  1. No Future
There is life after whatever it is you're going through.  Don't allow the difficult times to make you bitter; they were provided in your life to make you better.  Question is--which one will you choose?  God isn't finished with you yet--ya know how I know?--because you're still here! 

  • Check your report card!  Are you focusing on some F's today?  Ok--it's time to take your eyes off what's getting you down--it's time to focus on the Lord.  God can still raise those grades!  He can and He will--if you will just trust Him!


It’s time to focus on the Lord!
   Merle

This was taken from a sermon preached by Pastor Mike Ray at our church, Lighthouse Baptist Church in Pleasanton, CA, on October 13, 2008.  Mike Ray is Pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church in Napa, CA.  If you're ever in either Pleasanton or Napa, CA, be sure to stop in.  Both churches are just wonderful and you wouldn't want to miss either pastor preaching.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Christmas Is

Christmas is not just a holiday.  Nor is Christmas just about a baby being born in a manger.  Yes,  we celebrate Jesus being born--and don't minimize this--if Jesus hadn't been born of a virgin, He would not have been God!  Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, God in the flesh!  And wonder of wonders that God would come to this earth--why? to die for mankind!  How precious, how wonderful that is!  That is the truth of Christmas--Jesus Christ was born so that He might die for us!!  That is the wonder of Christmas-- Jesus coming to earth to provide salvation to lowly sinners like you and I.  But that really is only the beginning.  Christmas is all about Christ and the gospel--His death, burial, and resurrection.  Once you start to tell about God Incarnate, you just must tell the whole story!  John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlast...
2 comments
Read more

All that I Need

Psalm 23:1 "...I shall not want."                                                      This is rather a continuation of the last posting.   Although I'm not inclined to use other versions of the Bible, sometimes it is good just to get an idea for study purposes.   Course, if I were a student of the Hebrew and Greek, I suppose that wouldn't be necessary.   At any rate, other versions would state it this way: "There is nothing I lack," or, "I have all that I need."     God is so good to provide us everything that we have need of.   Course, our problem a lot of the time is, we get our wants and our needs mixed up.   Especially here in America, we have more than enough...certai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Real Christianity

I love flowers--all flowers--but these are petunias in particular.  I'm showing a photo of not only a seedling that has germinated and grown, but also the full-grown beautiful flowers.  They're planted that they might bloom, bringing forth its full fruit of a flower.  That is what we are meant to do as Christians!  We are saved that we might grow and bring forth fruit.  Jesus said in my first Bible reference, "Ye shall know them by their fruits."  Do people see Jesus Christ in you?  Do people see a difference in you?  Are you producing fruit for His kingdom?  Please read further!  Please be certain that you are Christ's and have a home in Heaven--not just following a crowd.  May Christianity be real in you! Matthew 7:16-27   Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.A good ...
Post a Comment
Read more