Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly... his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. 

Psalm 1:1-2, KJV

 

We talked yesterday about the first key to changing your life being that of beginning to pray. The reason for that is evident: we need God's help and we therefore need to communicate those needs with him. But simply praying will not be enough for, as you know, genuine communication has never been a one-way avenue. We must also listen to what the one to whom we are talking to has to say in response. Now I know that a lot of people fancy that God speaks back to them by placing a message on their heart, and no doubt God does have a way of prompting us when we pray, otherwise we would not be praying for wisdom in the first place.

 

However, there is something everyone who feels that God speaks to them should be aware of: Your thoughts are not God's words!

 

I don't know how often I have heard someone say something along the lines of: "I needed a job, so I prayed to God and God told me to go talk to Joe Jones, so I did and God told Joe Jones to tell me that he had a job, and God told me to accept it, and that is how I got the job at Joe's bar and strip joint."

 

I don't think that is how God communicates to us!

 

God communicates to us through His Word - the Bible! The Bible is an amazing work of literature, history, and practical advice. But if that's all it was, it would just be one more book in a large library of works of excellent literature, history and advice. What sets the Bible apart is that it is the inspired and preserved message of God to His children. It contains 66 separate books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, and it contains the whole will of God. You don't have to worry if He left something important out, because the One who loved you enough to allow His only begotten Son to die on the cross for your sins would not do that. You do not have to worry that men have somehow corrupted the message through something as innocent as a copying error, or by something as diabolical as adding their own opinion that was opposite of what God wanted to convey, because the Creator of the universe is not incompetent! The Bible we have is the Bible He wants us to have. Otherwise, God would not be giving us a fair chance. 

 

Another important understanding that we must have at the start of our reading the Bible is this: God did not make it too difficult for you to understand, nor did He make it so that you would have to consult specially trained people to convey His message. God loves you in a similar way that a good parent loves their children. He would not give us a life-saving message that we could not readily understand.

 

So, now we are ready to approach the Bible as the infallible Word of God. By understanding this, we can understand that His Word can and will accurately communicate His message to us. 

 

And this is a vital understanding, because we need God's communication so that we can know what to do.

 

Many people have messed up their lives to the point where they are ready to just give up. Perhaps they had an abundance of help in getting to that messed up point, but the fact is that they are there and they need help to get out of that mess. Yesterday we spoke of the importance of prayer that we might humbly ask God for the help that we need. Now, we need to continue that prayer that He will lead us through His holy word and give us the guidance we need. And the Bible, you must know, is designed for that very purpose. It tells us who God is and who Jesus is. It tells us the very best way to live. It gives us guidance for difficult times, as well as guidance when times are good. It tells us what we must do to have our sins forgiven, and what we must do in order to be saved. It tells us of God's love and grace, and Jesus' love and sacrifice.

 

And it tells us how to get out of the messes that we sometimes get ourselves into, and how to stay out of those messes once we escape them. It tells us how to forgive those who have harmed us. In short, it tells us everything we need to know to navigate the dangerous passages of this challenging world in which we live.

 

It tells us of the narrow path that leads to Heaven.

 

It's a big book, and it will take you the rest of your life to understand it to the best of your ability. God will help you with the wisdom you pray for, but you must seek the knowledge from His Bible, for while He freely gives wisdom to those who ask, He requires that we seek the knowledge from His Word, without which, this wisdom will do us little good. 

 

One word of caution - it will be hard! Everything worthwhile is! But remember, you are trying to change your life so that it will become bearable again - and more than just bearable, but filled with joy. God has all the answers we need for whatever challenge life may have given us. Are you ready to change your life for the better? It begins with talking to your heavenly Father through prayer and then listening to your loving Father by reading His word.

 

You might be getting a late start at this, but that's okay. If the soonest you can begin is now, then by all means begin now! It will change your life, if you will let it.

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. 

James 5:13, NIV (1978)

 

I must caution you at the outset, that this set of solutions to your problems is going to seem too easy. Do not let the simplicity of the solution dissuade you from at least trying it out. You have little to lose and much to gain by at least trying, so why not try?.

 

So. let's start at the beginning: America is in trouble. For that matter, the entire world is in trouble. Is it any wonder, then that this trouble has spilled over into your life?

 

My motivation for this series is simple. In recent months I have seen video after video of people who are in desperate situations who are ready to give up. Some have gotten in over the head in debt and now feel like they are drowning - and figuratively speaking, they are. Others have lost jobs. Some have had serious health issues. Some have been through personal tragedies that are just too much for them to bear. Some have lost ended a long-standing relationship... 

 

Because of these things, some are just worn out from the struggle and are too tired to fight anymore. Because of this decision to give up the fight, some will be homeless in a very short period of time. Others will give in to substance abuse, others still into sexual immorality. Some will leave cherished relationships - whether spouses, parents, children or friends. Others still will go to the ultimate extreme of considering tsking their own lives - one of the most precious gifts that God has given.

 

So, what is a person expected to do?

 

This is where the simple beginning will prove to be the best - we pray!

 

You might protest and say that prayer is not for you. Some will claim that they have already tried that, only to find that God somehow, in their mind, has let them down. It will be too "churchy" for some, too illogical for others, too "unscientific" for others still. If you fall into any of these excuse groups, let me encourage you to pray anyway. 

 

When you have everything to gain and very little to lose by trying something, then by all means try. And you do, by the way, have everything to gain by trying this. So how, many are wondering, do I start?

 

Simply by turning off your pride and yielding yourself in trust to God! You can begin just by talking to your Father - after all, He loves you! Do so, however, with the respect and reverence due Him. He did not get you into your desperate position, no matter how much you may have blamed Him in the past for doing just that. It was your own bad decisions, or the bad decisions of others, or, more likely a combination of the two that got you to the point where you are ready to give up. So, humble yourself in God's presence. Empty yourself before Him, unburdening your heart of all the poison and malice you might be holding, and bring your requests to Him - He will know what to do from there.

 

If you do not know much about God or Jesus, that's okay - let this prayer be the beginning of your journey to get to know them. Remember that this is just a beginning, because in this prayer you will be committing yourself to finding out what He expects of you. This can only be done by reading His Word, so pray that He will help you to not only begin to read the Bible, but also to understand it. Stop viewing prayer as if it were some sort of a mystical experience and stop treating the Bible as if it were some sort of a book of secrets that only the brilliant few can ever understand. We will have more to say about reading the Bible in the next article, but for now, simply pray!

 

Pray that God will rescue you from your desperate situation! Pray that He will carry you through the things that you cannot possibly handle on your own and then be willing to do your part in the things you can do. Stop viewing prayer as something mysterious and start viewing it as a practical matter. When you call your earthly father on the cell phone you do not view it as some sort of magic box of communication, for you understand cell phones, even if you don't understand the specifics about the technology that makes them work. Just remember that the same Creator that set the principles of physics into place that allowed simple men to develop the phone is the same Creator who designed prayer. It is a practical form of communication that God has designed for you to talk to Him, so do so.

 

Pray for wisdom, pray for peace of mind, pray for understanding, pray for rescue - pray for whatever you need and trust Him to answer in the right way.

 

One more thing - this is the beginning of a process to help save you from a situation that may have been years in the making. Allow Him the time to help you come out of this situation. It will seem too simple, perhaps, but prayer is powerful and effective.

 

If you are ready to begin your journey out of the troubles that have been stealing the joy and peace from your life, then start, this very day, with prayer!

 

And I pray that we will meet again tomorrow for Day 2. May God richly bless your efforts as you seek His help as you begin today to turn your life around. Remember this: No problem that you have is too big for God. Why not let Him help you with this?

Has life turned out the way you thought it would? Are you dissatisfied with your current state of affairs? Do you ever feel so overwhelmed by the pressing problems of life that you can hardly even process what it is you need to do to handle things anymore?

 

If so, welcome to the club! Now, what can we do?

 

We do not know what to do. but our eyes are upon you. 

II Chronicles 20:12

 

Do you ever feel that way? Perhaps you are feeling it right now. We have trouble in our lives, but we don't really know what to do about it - so, what can we do?

 

Over 2,800 years ago, there was a king who felt that very way. His name was Jehoshaphat, a funny name, I know, but his life was anything but laughable for he was a man who sought the LORD!

 

The setting for this verse is fairly simple. Three nations had come to Jerusalem to destroy the nation of Judah and take over their territory. Some years earlier, these very nations were spared by the Israelites at the express command of God. But now they were assembled together as one vast army to wipe out the very people who had spared them. King Jehoshaphat knew that they were too small to fight against such a mighty army, so he took his plea to God. He ordered a fast for the entire nation, and they gathered at Jerusalem - men, women, children, and even their babies - and they stood before the Lord while Jehoshaphat prayed.

 

And God heard that prayer, and God rescued Judah out of the hands of those who threatened them.

 

Now, you might be thinking that this is a fine story, but what does it have to do with me, today? That would be a most pertinent question to ask, and one that we should do our best to answer, so here goes...

 

I believe we all get into situations in our lives where we feel absolutely overwhelmed. Perhaps the problem was one of our own making, perhaps it was one that came entirely from outside forces, or maybe it was a combination of the two. But the fact remains that we are in a type of trouble that we cannot fix on our own. This is where King Jehoshaphat can help us nearly 3,000 years after he died and was buried. 

 

The solution to the difficulties that we might be steeped up to our neck in is to turn to God!

 

And the beauty of this solution is that we don't even really have to have a clue as to how to solve the problems that we might be facing at any given time. All we have to know to start is that God can help if we will just let him.

 

Do you have problems? Not necessarily problems that you feel are as life-threatening as having armies surrounding you, but maybe they are that big. But, big or small, the fact is that you realize that something is not quite right in your life and that you need to fix that before it gets too late.

 

This is what the next 30 days are going to be all about - fixing your problems in order that you might begin to live the life that God called you to in the first place. For the next 30 days, we will look at some very basic principles from the Word of God that can literally change the direction of our lives, if we will let them. I do want to warn you though that while the principles and solutions we will be looking at are very basic and might seem too simplistic, they will not be easy, Coming in contact with these principles will force you to make certain decisions and types of commitments that you have perhaps been unwilling to make in the past, but make them you must if you are to ever acquire the peace in your life that you seek.

 

We will begin looking at these principles, tomorrow. I hope to see you then!

 

 

Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in a great guilt, on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. 

But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. 

Ezra 9:7-8, NASB (1995)

 

How does it feel to be a slave in your own land? I have to admit that while I don't feel completely enslaved in my country, America, I do feel like we are being more and more restricted in our freedoms - especially in our freedom to be righteous. The present state in America does not look good at all. Many people are struggling to get by, even though they work hard and make what used to be considered a comfortable salary. Our children are often being taught that right is wrong, and that wrong is right. Failure to go along with the authorities in these new modern standards can have harsh consequences indeed. Add to that a very real threat to safety on our streets, often in our schools, and sometimes even in our churches. Compounding these pressures are a constant sense of friction among our fellow men. People who used to get along quite nicely with one another, now seem to come unglued at the slightest difference of opinion. It often feels like we are walking on eggshells at every turn. We are worried about confrontation in almost every aspect of our lives. It gets to the point where we almost feel trapped - perhaps even enslaved to the unpredictable behavior of our fellow men, not to mention those who claim to serve, but who really came to rule.

 

How does it feel to be a slave in your own land? Israel and Judah found out the hard way that it didn't feel very good. Their slavery was at first barely perceptible, but it began to grow through the years until it became a clear and crushing burden. First the nation of Israel divided into Judah and the ten tribes of Israel, because they began to follow idols and eventually became enslaved to these false gods. It wasn't that the gods were real, but their leaders who turned wicked were very real and in essence enslaved their own people. They became so burdened with taxes and a two-tiered justice system that the nations became consumed with their own sin and with rulers who did not have the things of God in their hearts.

 

After the kingdom divided, instead of repenting of the sin that brought them to that civil war, Israel and Judah sank deeper into sin and, therefore, into the slavery that always follows that sin. First Assyria came in and destroyed Israel, then Babylon came and destroyed Judah. After 70 years of captivity, Judah did eventually get to return to the promised land, but only with a remnant of about one percent of their original population. Fast forward to the speech we read a portion of above from Ezra, the priest of God. Through Ezra, the people are reminded of their guilt and shame that led them from being God's chosen people - a once powerful nation under kings like David, Hezekiah and Josiah - to a defeated remnant of powerless people held captive in a land not their own.

 

But now, they are back! As Ezra points out, it is due to a brief moment of grace extended to them by God Himself. In order to understand Ezra's effectiveness, it is good to consider the following:

 

For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. Ezra 7:10, NASB (1995)

 

Great story, right? But what does it have to do with the need for revival in our times?

 

Just this: America in 2026 is a pitiful shell of its once great self. At one time, America was the envy of the world - people wanted to come to America! And not for the freebies that so many come to America illegally for in our modern times, but for the opportunities that a free and Godly nation afforded. America once was a shining star among the throng of nations in this world, but no longer. We are consumed with divisive hatred towards one another, consumed with a lust for sexual immorality, consumed with a lust for power and a greed that seems universal within those drawn to leadership. We have enslaved ourselves to sin, and then to debt, and now to whichever political party that we think will give us the most goodies.

 

In many ways, we are like Israel and Judah before they were overtaken by foreign countries and carried off into slavery. The specifics vary from our time to theirs, but the pattern is the same. We first left our service to God and turned ourselves over to become slaves of sin. Can we expect a fate any different from Israel and Judah of old, one nation being almost annihilated with a small remnant so dispersed among the nations that they were no longer recognizable as a people, and the other nation carried off into captivity for 70 years and returned with a remnant one hundredth of its original population?

 

So what is the solution? It is revival! It is a nation that returns to God, and that means a nation that knows God's Word well enough to even know how to return. But it will not start on a national level, for it did not begin on a national level. America rotted from within, one step at a time. America was great, because her churches were strong! If America is to experience a revival it must start with the church and that means the church is going to have to start teaching the Bible again as God's Word, not as some philosophy for the people's consideration!

 

But this, I believe you will find, is still not the right starting place. In order for the church to become strong, her families are going to have to wake up. Mamas and dads, this means we are going to have to get ourselves out of bed and get our children to Bible classes and to the worship - every week! And this will not be enough, because the family is first going to have to become strong in prayer and before they can even know what to pray or how to pray, they are going to have to consult God's instruction book - the Bible! 

 

But this, I know from painful experience, is not the place to start. The place to start is with the individual if there is ever to be hope for the family. And that means you are going to have to return to God yourself, and before you can ever do that, you are going to have to know how to return, and that means you are going to have to read the Bible. And when I say read the Bible, I mean all of it. You are going to have to first read it, then you are going to have to study it.

 

This is going to cut into your leisure time, but it really does work. You can understand the Word of God, despite all of the "religious" propaganda to the contrary. In fact, not only can you understand it, you must understand it. Nothing less than your eternal soul, the souls of your family, the strength of the church - and of the nation - are at stake.

 

If you will do this, revival is possible. If you won't what good would a strong America be, without her first being a righteous America?

 

So, how do we start this monumental task? Here is a suggestion. First, repent! Beg God's forgiveness for getting so far away from Him in the first place. Pray not only for this forgiveness, but for wisdom as you approach His Word. Next, begin a systematic reading through the Bible. My suggestion is a simple plan that begins with a 30-day Bible challenge to read through the New Testament. Next is a 90-day plan to study through the New Testament now that you have obtained a good overview of it. I would study several topics, maybe as many as half a dozen, writing down all of the verses that you see apply to your personalized study. The study topics can be anything that you want to learn more about, but I would for sure have the topic of salvation in that list. The reason for this is simple - everyone has an opinion as to what will save them, but God's Word clearly reveals the exact elements He requires (not necessarily the ones you prefer) for that salvation. If you are not saved, studying the Bible is something of a journey with no destination.

 

After I did that, I would take the challenge to read through the Old Testament in 120 days, and after that to study through the books that interest you most for 120 days.

 

All of this will take a year's time. That means you will be a year older - how old will you be 360 days from now? Do you have the commitment to undertake such a challenge? On the other hand, how old will you be in 360 days if you don't begin such a vital undertaking? 

 

One last thought: America needs a revival, or she will surely be lost. Before that revival can occur, the church needs a revival, and before that can happen, the families need to be strong for the Lord again. And, of course, before the family can become strong, you are going to have to become strong for your family. It will take time. It will take a commitment. And it will take a revival of your heart!

 

 

 

 

If you would like some guidance on the framework for the Bible study plan (not the answers, just the framework), the material for the 30-Day Bible Challenge, the 90-Day Study Commitment, and the Old Testament 120-Day Reading Plan are all available at our 30-Day Bible Challenge Facebook page. You can also get hard copies of these materials by e-mailing your mailing address to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Your information will never be shared, just mention 30-Day Challenge in the subject line so it doesn't get sent to spam.