Witness

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Isaiah 37:20 Prayer For God’s Honor

Globe on desk

Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God. Isaiah 37:20 

Desire for deliverance from a problem is desired by all people. No one really wants to go through a struggle or tough time. Even more so, most people do not want an enemy.

Yet, in life there are many struggles that face every person on a regular basis. As troubles occur, people seek out ways to overcome or stop that trouble that is in their life. The will seek self-help books, friends, astrology, doctors, religion, lawyers, drugs and many other people, places and things.

The entire reason for searching for help is for selfish reasons. It is all about making life better for self.

Hezekiah was being attacked by the enemy. As he prays to God for some help, he tells God to deliver them from the enemy so that the world may know that there is only one God and that He is that one.

Along with the rest of the world, believers have many struggles and enemies in life. They may be physical human enemies, or spiritual ones, habits, thoughts, or beliefs. Most will seek God for help against these enemies and struggles that they have.

While there is nothing wrong in seeking God for help against the struggle, many are only seeking it for relief in their own life. They are seeking it to help self, rather than to help others or be a witness of God’s great power.

Every believer is to be a witness of who God is. This is something that is to occur day-to-day with everything that they think, say and do in every situation.

The prayer of the believer should be for relief so that God may be glorified and honored. The answer to the prayer is to be a witness to others of who God is and what He can do, not just for personal relief.

As you are struggling in some situation in your life, go to God for help. As you seek His help, also seek ways to use that answer as a tool to be a witness of His great love and power. Be willing to use that answer to build His kingdom, rather than just hoard it to yourself.

The answers to your prayer are not to just make your life better, but to build you and His kingdom up.

What is your motivation in your prayers?

I pray today that you will know God’s power in your life; that you will have a desire to pray to God daily; that you will use all answers of prayer to be a witness of God’s great love and power; and that God will help you remove all selfishness in your prayers. 

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Isaiah 13:9 See What Is Coming

wildfire destruction

See, the day of the Lord is coming–a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger–to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. Isaiah 13:9 

Danger can sometimes be seen coming. People can often see signs that something bad is about to happen. Very often meteorologists can predict a hurricane or some other bad storm coming up. They give warning to the people that it will be bad and destructive.

When this occurs, many people will take steps to protect themselves from the danger coming. Others will ignore it and take their chances.

In the end sometimes the meteorologists is wrong and nothing major occurs. Other times the disaster hits and many people are harmed because of the great destruction caused and refusing to not heed the warnings.

Isaiah had a prophecy against Babylon about God’s wrath getting ready to come upon them. It would be a day of destruction and all sinners would be destroyed.

Babylon was later destroyed by God, but His day of wrath is still yet to come upon the rest of the world. Although it appears as if the world is getting away with sinning, there will come a day of judgement. Every sinner will have to pay a price, and that price is death and destruction.

God is patient in waiting for that day of destruction to come because He wants everyone to be saved. He does not really want to destroy everyone, but will if they refuse to follow Jesus.

What does this mean to the believer? It means that he must be willing to go out and be His witness to this world. He needs to tell every unbeliever about Jesus and compel them to follow Him.

Too often believers just condemn the unbeliever or ignore them. There is coming destruction, so this must not happen. God is a God of love and so every believer should love those who are lost and headed for destruction.

As a believer, you also must be willing to share the gospel message with everyone. Open your spiritual eyes and see the destruction that is coming. God’s day of wrath is still yet to come upon this earth.

Allow yourself to see every person as loved by God, yet about to be destroyed because they do not know the truth. Go out and tell them about Jesus and what is about to happen. Every day is getting closer to destruction and death. Don’t waste a minute.

I pray today that you will know Jesus as your Savior; that you will see people with God’s eyes of love; that God will reveal to you the destruction that is coming; and that you will be His witness to this world about Jesus. 

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Isaiah 5:2 Looking For Production

Vineyard with grapes

He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Isaiah 5:2 

When someone plants a garden they expect to get something good out of it. They work the ground to ensure it has the right nutrients. Seeds are planted during the best part of the season to ensure good growth. They strive to provide the right amount of water for the plants to grow.

Later when the harvest season comes, the farmer expects to get the fruit or vegetables in great amounts that were planted. However, there are times when the plants yield nothing or only bad fruit.

Isaiah paints of picture of God planting a vineyard with the best of vines. When it came time for harvest, all that was produced was bad grapes of no value.

The vineyard that Isaiah talks about is very specifically the nation of Israel. Yet, this can be looked at with all believers. God is still in the process of building a vineyard of believers upon this earth. He is growing a large body of believers to follow Him.

Just as the farmer expects to get some good fruit and God expected Israel to produce fruit, He expects the believer to produce fruit.

All too often believers are like Israel was, producing no fruit. They claim to believe in Jesus, read the bible, go to church, but never produce any fruit. Their lives never really change. They live purposefully in sin refusing to change. They are never a witness of who Jesus is. They do not show God’s love in their lives.

Looking at some of the people, one will only see the world, not Jesus.

You, as a believer, are expected by God to produce some fruit. He has given you His Holy Spirit to guide you and give you strength to do what needs to be done. However, it is up to you to do it.

Be willing to be His witness. Show His love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace to others. Build others up in Jesus.

Your life should be one that looks like the life of Jesus. Work to live like Jesus as though your salvation depended upon it, but trust what Jesus did for your salvation. Produce the fruit in believing and following Jesus.

I pray today that you will know the salvation Jesus provides; that God will see His fruit in your life; that the world will see Jesus in you; that you will allow God’s Holy Spirit to guide you; and that many will know Jesus because of your life. 

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Song Of Solomon 5:9 How Is He Better?

Best award

How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women? How is your beloved better than others, that you so charge us? Song Of Solomon 5:9 

People have their favorites in nearly everything there is. Each person has a reason for why what they have or think is the best or better than something or someone else.

Every year there are many different competitions and award shows to determine who or what is the best in nearly every category possible, from sports to music, to speaking, to acting and more. After the choices are made, many will argue as to why theirs was the best and should have been chosen and the one chosen should not have been chosen.

In Solomon’s story of love, the friends of the lady are asking why her beloved is so much better than theirs. She was looking for him and asking for their help and they wanted to know why.

One area that is commonly discussed is why is Christianity better than other religions or why is Jesus better than other great men in history. People want to know why someone is willing to follow and even give his life to follow Jesus.

Every believer needs to be ready and willing to give an answer to why they follow Jesus. They need to be able to answer why following Jesus is the only way to get to God.

Answering this may offend some people, and it will, but it will also open the eyes of others to His great love. When they see the love of God really being showed, they will want to be a part of it. It is His love and kindness that draws people to Him.

Jesus is the best way to God, because He is the only way to God.

As a believer, Jesus has called you to be His witness, to let people know about Him and what He has done. This is the way you can tell people how Jesus is better than what they are following.

Jesus is alive and real and will be for all eternity. All the things and gods that people follow will fail and fade away. You need to let them know the truth–Jesus, and let the truth–Jesus set them free from the bondage they are in.

Do not give into second best, but only go for the best and point people to what is the best–Jesus.

I pray today that you will know Jesus as your Savior; that you will tell others about Jesus; that you will know that Jesus is the only way to God; and that you will not fear telling others about Jesus.