New to You!
God’s Word.
WHAT DID GOD SAY TO ME THIS MORNING
In obedience, the On Assignment By God Blog, now has an audio feature where you can listen to this blog!! Thank you for your prayers as I continue to be obedient and do what God says! Happy Listening!!
Waking up this morning was a bit tough for me. Yesterday I started feeling a bit under the weather with itchy and watery eyes. I was sneezing and my nose was going from stopped up to running. I pushed through and had an amazing Sunday with family. I woke up this morning and the symptoms were still present. Right now, only one nostril is operating correctly and my eyes are super watery, but I have already prayed about it, so now I just keep going until my body catches up to the healing that Jesus already gave me! Amen!
This morning, there was a made-up song in my heart that I kept singing as I took the kids to school. Yup, today was an early drop off day. I kept singing the phrase, “seek ye first.” Now in my true non-singing voice, I was adding notes and runs with every note, every key possible. LOL! But I felt that phrase so strong in my spirit this morning. I just kept singing it. I even shouted a few times when it hit me.
So often we seek out everything else, but God. We prioritize everything else but God. We put other stuff before Him so much that we have become immune to our actions. But as soon as something happens that we don’t like or something frustrates us or things go crazy in our lives, THEN we come running to God. But what if we just committed to giving Him the first few minutes of our day? I mean He is the reason why you are able to even have a day. Even if you just at a bare minimum, opened your eyes and started talking to God, that’s a start!
Anyway, today when I opened my Bible for the Scriptural Surprise, it was indeed a surprise. I turned to Nahum. I don’t think I have ever turned to that book since I have been doing the Scriptural Surprise. LOL. But something that I noticed is that every day, I seem to be reading something about the wrath of God on His people for being so rebellious and disobedient. One thing that stuck out as I was reading the introduction of Nahum is that is informs us that God is loving, yet he is also just. We must not allow one aspect of His character to cancel out the others in our minds.
And that’s when the Holy Spirit said: Don’t take My goodness for granted!
God will allow us to endure suffering and pain because of our sin, but He sent Jesus His son to forgive us and restore us. The key to that though is that we must REPENT and turn to Him. How many times will it take for us to get this? How long will it take for us to really really get this? Now don’t get me wrong. You’re not listening or reading from a perfect person either. It took me a long time to get it. But once I got it, I was like…man, I could have BEEN got this. I could have been living a life dependent solely on God. But nooooo, I want to be out here acting a fool and being disobedient because it seems sooooo fun and sooo pleasurable and sooo good, right? Wrong! If you have ever felt convicted by your behavior, then you know just like I do, all that mess gets old. So what has to happen for us to get it together? Okay okay, I am getting on a soap box here, so let me move on. I’m just saying…we can’t be taking God’s goodness for granted. You don’t know when your last day will be. I’d rather be seeking God first than last whenever that day comes!
Now, today’s blog has two distinct messages. I wanted to share that because sometimes, with my controlling self, I try to force the blog into a cohesive structure, but the Holy Spirit reminds me to share what He gave me. So I will do just that. And today, I am going to simply share it, trusting that God will bring it together for YOU the way He wants you to get it. Here goes:
To reject My word and mistreat My people is to plot against Me (uhhhmmm why would you knowingly plot against an all-knowing and all-powerful being? That’s straight up dumb, but we reject His word when we are disobedient to it and we mistreat His people (each other) more times that we realize.
Don’t go backwards in your thinking.
Look for the new IN IT.
I am doing a new thing within an existing thing. So look for my hand to be on an existing thing that will NOW be NEW! Transformed!
Seek me first and I will show you the new things!
Seek me first and I will reveal what I want you to see.
It’s going to be New to You!
It exists already, but it will be new to you.
Every moment of every day brings a fresh start for you!
I can take a dried up, useless life and transform it into a life of purpose and grace.
As the Holy Spirit was giving me all this, I looked up the verse about nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9) and it led me down this path in my Tony Evans Study Bible that I believe the Holy Spirit wanted me to see and for me to share with you.
God designed our hearts to long for something eternal.
God doesn’t mind us enjoying legitimate pleasures. He isn’t upset that you like your job, food, possessions, or relationships; in fact these are gifts from Him. The problem comes when you look for meaning in these things— because at that point, you are trying to find in them something they weren’t designed to provide.
You will never find the meaning of life IN life.
Without God, life is empty.
Source: Tony Evans Study Bible
Summary
The message that I got this morning from My Conversation with God is this… God gives us an opportunity every single day with a fresh start to seek Him first and live our lives solely for Him. Living a life of sin as if nothing is going to happen to you is just flat out stupid. God gives us an opportunity with every breath we take to repent and turn to Him.
When I look back over my life at all the things that I thought was so pleasurable, they never lasted but for a moment. As it says above, God didn’t even design our hearts to long for temporary pleasures. He designed our hearts to long for something eternal. That’s why we walk around feeling like something is missing in our lives, even when we think we got all the money, cars, houses, and stuff. When you don’t have God as first place in your life, you’re losing. PERIOD! All you have to do right now though is surrender. Don’t try to get it right beforehand, because YOU CAN’T! If you could do it yourself, you would have done it by now.
Surrender to God and ask Jesus to come in your life. Then seek God first thing every day. This life is so amazing when you seek Him first. It will then be NEW TO YOU!
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Check out your assignment questions for today. Take a moment to reflect and then answer the questions in your journal. Pray. Listen. Write. Obey.
Your Assignment For Today:
What did God say to YOU in your conversation with Him this morning?
Are you ready to surrender your old life and start fresh with God?
Today’s Scriptural Surprise is Nahum!! Yup, find it in your Table of Contents. LOL!
SALVATION PRAYER
If you’re not a believer and have a desire to be, openly confess and declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). When you pray that prayer out loud, you are saved. Get connected with a good, bible-based church in your community and start having a conversation through prayer with God every day. And let me be the first to welcome you to your new life with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. YAAAAY!!!!! You made the best decision you could ever make! Feel free to email me at info@onassignmentbyGod.com and let me know about your newfound life or if you need prayer for anything.