Ron Edmondson » Devotional

7 Actions for the Times God is Silent

Ron Edmondson — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:00:26 +0000

Elijah had been used of God to hold back rain from the people for over 3 years, because of their sins. Obviously, he was not well liked as a preacher. I can only imagine the stress he experienced during those years. Something struck me recently, however, that seemed to further complicate Elijah’s situation.

Consider 1 Kings 18:1 “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

According to a couple NT passages, this “After a long time” was actually 3 ½ years. The famine was 3 ½ years long. For 3 ½ years, the people apparently continued to sin, Elijah continued to hold on by faith, but God said nothing. God was apparently inactive, not speaking, even to His great servant Elijah.

Have you ever been there? Has the silence of God in your life ever been eerily strong?

Imagine you had been faithfully serving…God is using you…you are in constant communication with Him…and then suddenly…everything is quiet.

The separation must have seemed unbearable. Elijah is un-liked and unpopular; he’s an outcast from the people and the One he trusted most was seemingly absent. God would soon do a miracle through Elijah, but during this period, all Elijah could do was wait.

If you have been believer for very long at all, you have had periods where it seems God is nowhere to be found. We often call them periods of spiritual dryness. Sometimes I refer to it as being in a spiritual funk.

What should we do during the times of silence, before the miracles of God come through for us?

If you are like me, you can figure out how to celebrate a miracle. You don’t need much help doing that. The tough part of life is figuring out what to do during the years of silence; during the years when miracles are nowhere to be found.

What do we do during the spiritual dry periods of life when we don’t hear clearly the voice of God?

Here are 7 actions I encourage you to consider:

Don’t ignore the silence…
Some of the biggest moves God has made in my life have come after a period of spiritual dryness; when it seemed like God was doing nothing in my life. Stay very close to God and watch for His power to be displayed.

Confront known sin in your life
This wasn’t the problem of silence for Elijah, but the problem for the Israelites was that they were chasing after other gods and living lives in total disobedience to God. Sin may not be the reason you don’t sense closeness to God right now, but if you have known sin in your life it will affect your intimacy with God.

Go back to what you know
Get back to the basics of the faith that saved you. You’ll do it 100’s of times in your life, but you must remind yourselves of the basis of faith. God is in control. He really is…even when it doesn’t seem that He is anywhere to be found.

Make a decision…Choose sides
You can’t adequately serve God and the world. Something happens in life, often sin, or busyness, or boredom, or a tragedy…but if we are normal, we have periods where we grow away from our close relationship with God. God hasn’t moved, but if you’ve shifted in your obedience, get back securely on the right side.

Trust More…Not less
Times of silence may be filled with fear, but these times will definitely require more faith. Times come in our spiritual life when our enthusiasm isn’t as real as when we began our walk with God. That’s not an indication to quit…it may be that God is using that time for something bigger than you could have imagined, but it will require a deeper level of trust.

Listen and Watch Closely
Some day God is going to make His plans known to you. Don’t miss them. He may come to your personally, through His Word, circumstances or another person. You’ll need to be in a position to know that God is moving. (Read THIS POST if you need help discerning God’s will.)

Get ready to receive
God will break the silence some day…and when He does….it WILL be good. If you mope around in your sorrows, you’ll be less prepared to receive the good things to come. Not because of your circumstances, but because of your faith, clothe yourself in joy as you wait for God to bless you after the period of silence.

Are you in one of those periods of silence today? How do you handle these periods of time?

Waiting Doesn’t Always Mean NO Activity

Ron Edmondson — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:02:11 +0000

Inactivity rarely produces anything…
Waiting on God doesn’t always mean doing nothing…

Jesus said, “My time has not yet come” (John 2:4)… He was in a time of waiting…yet He continued to act on what He could do…carrying out His Father’s work…

Do what you know to do today…
Take initiative towards change you know you should make…

In Joshua 3 they had to get in the water before it started to part…You may have to get in the water first, before you start to see results…

Create action…it is often then God begins to reveal the destination He is taking you towards…

What action do you need to take today?

10 Confessions I Need to Make

Ron Edmondson — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:13:41 +0000

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16

I look good online. I appear to be all the things I’m not. Here’s the truth you need to know:

I can be greedy…
I can be prideful…
I can be arrogant…
I can be stubborn…
I can be lustful…
I can be unforgiving…
I can be judgmental…
I can be egotistical…
I can be selfish….
I can be uncaring…

There’s my list…Thankful, as always, for His grace…

I don’t want my prayers hindered in any way because I’m pretending to be someone I’m not. I feel better letting you know who I really am some days.

What do you need to confess today?

How Will This Decision Impact Others?

Ron Edmondson — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:44:54 +0000

If we want to build a healthy community and strong relationships, we have to learn to think beyond ourselves…

Let’s face it…we live in a very selfish society…

Scripture is clear, however, that the role of a believer is to consider the interest of others, even before we consider our own. Paul writes, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3…emphasis mine)

Before we make decisions, a good practice is to ask ourselves “How will this decision impact others?”

If I buy this…
If I control this…
If I say this…
If I allow this…
If I park here…
If I wear this…
If I post this…
If I ignore this…
If I pull out now…
If I ________(What else would you add?)…

Part of loving God and loving others is considering others interests as we make decisions.

In what ways do you need to think beyond yourself?

When and How Did You Become Disciplined for Spiritual Growth?

Ron Edmondson — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:04:43 +0000

Nate asked me an important question this weekend. He asked, “When and how did you become disciplined in spiritual growth?” That’s a great question. I wish I could say I was most excellently disciplined, but I’m not…just disciplined. I wonder though if some of you may be equal curious as to the answers to this question.

I first got serious about becoming a student of God’s Word and having daily time with Christ in my mid-twenties. I wish it had happened earlier. I grew up in church, but it wasn’t until then that I really took my walk more serious than a Sunday routine.

As to how I disciplined myself, which may be the more important answer, that really has a two-part answer.

I developed a passion for spiritual growth. The bottom line for most of us is that we are only going to do those things we want to do. For me, thanks to the encouragement of a pastor at the time, I gained a sincere desire to know Christ more; serious enough that I was willing to discipline myself to do it.
I found a system that worked for me. At first, I didn’t remember to tell Nate about this one, but it was an equally important part I believe in me becoming a self-learner. Many people have a desire, but they never come up with the system that will accomplish the desire. I found a system that fueled my passion, but also kept me disciplined enough to follow through each day. I haven’t kept the same system I had then continually, but I know even today that without one I’m less likely to be disciplined in spiritual growth. (I once wrote about that system HERE.)

There’s my answer to when and how I became disciplined in spiritual growth. What’s your answer…or is this a question for which you still need to work on finding an answer?

I encourage you to start today!

Jeremiah 18, Part 9

Ron Edmondson — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:30:42 +0000

Then the LORD said, “Has anyone ever heard of such a thing, even among the pagan nations? My virgin Israel has done something too terrible to understand! Does the snow ever melt high up in the mountains of Lebanon? Do the cold, flowing streams from the crags of Mount Hermon ever run dry? Jeremiah 18:13-14 NLT

When my son was little he loved to pretend. One of his favorite characters was Superman. He had a red cape, red boots, and a Superman t-shirt. He could run around the house, jump off the coffee table, and even hold his eye a certain way and pretend to have x-ray vision. As hard as he tried, however, he was never Superman. He couldn’t fly. He didn’t have strength of steel and he didn’t really have x-ray vision. I tried to encourage him, but the whole time He was just Nathaniel pretending to be something he wasn’t. He was playing.

You and I were created by God to obey God. We were created to bring God glory. That’s who a believer is really designed to be. We weren’t created to run away from God’s plan in disobedience. We are given freedom, and we often use that freedom wrongly, but that isn’t God’s plan for His children. When we sin, we are walking away from God’s ultimate design for the life of a child of God.
If you are a Christian who is walking contrary to God’s plan for your life, you are only imitating a person who does not know Christ, but that is not the real you. Simply put, you are pretending to be someone you are not. You have been set free from the power of sin in your life and no longer have to be held captive by your past, but you are living contrary to who you were designed to be.

If you are a Christian, why not quit the pretense, drop the costumes, and get in on the life that God intended for you? Start acting like whom you really are; a child of God, bought with a price, born again for a purpose of glorifying God. Start being like Jesus!

When you sin, isn’t there a part of you that realizes it’s no longer who you really are supposed to be?

Jeremiah 18, Part 8

Ron Edmondson — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:23:02 +0000

But they replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, following our own evil desires.” Jeremiah 18:12 NLT

Some people are going to reject God’s plans for their life. God will go to extreme measures to reach people, He may use you to attempt to reach them, but God will allow people the freedom to reject Him.

I think too many times, however, we spend more attention on others than we do on ourselves when it comes to obeying God.

Consider your life for just a moment. How compliant are you to the will of God for your life? Are you willing to follow God wherever He may lead? What if following God involves extreme sacrifice, which it most often will require you to do? Will you follow God then? If doing God’s will involves a total surrender of your life to Him will you still do His will?

You have the freedom to reject God’s plan for your life, at least on a short-term basis. Ultimately God is in control, but for today (if God tarries), you can live your life, as you want to live it. God’s heart, however, is seeking people who will say, as Jesus did, “not my will, but THY will be done”.

Does that describe your heart today? (Does it describe mine?)

What would you have to change in your life in order to completely follow God with all your heart?

Jeremiah 18, Part 7

Ron Edmondson — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:17:54 +0000

“Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am planning disaster against you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.” Jeremiah 18:11 NLT

As a follow up to yesterday’s devotional, sometimes God allows plans to change during the course of our life, but His end goal for our life will be accomplished. Throughout the course of our life, regardless of what happens to us, God is in ultimate control. When God told the Israelites that He was planning disaster against them, that wasn’t His ultimate end plan for His people, but rather something God was allowing so that He could work in the life of His people towards His end goal.

If you are in a difficult situation right now, God has allowed it. I wish I could sugarcoat that fact, but I cannot. God is in control. Sin in your life may have welcomed God’s discipline, trying to get you back on the right course for your life. . You may have done nothing wrong and your situation may simply be the result of living in a fallen world. God may be strengthening your faith through the trial and you’ll later understand His reasoning, but whatever the reason you are suffering, God allowed it. God’s sovereignty is going to work everything for good in your life through the trial. Additionally, even though you may not currently understand how He could, God is going to use this time for His glory and to accomplish His end goal for your life.

The best you and I can do when going through difficult times is to cling closer and stronger to God during the hard times. Trusting Him through the hardest times of life is called faith. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. When faith is displayed…God must surely smile!

Have you noticed your faith growing more during the hard times than the good times of life?

Jeremiah 18, Part 6

Ron Edmondson — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:09:21 +0000

If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announce that I will build up and plant a certain nation or kingdom, making it strong and great, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless that nation as I had said I would. Jeremiah 18:7-10 NLT

Is this the same God talking that also said, “I the Lord do not change!”? Does God really change His mind? And, if God’s Word says that He has plans to bless and prosper me, will He change His mind on that as well? Can I really depend on a God who would change His mind?

To understand this passage, you must put it into context with the entirety of Scripture. Scripture should always interpret Scripture. First, God is Sovereign. Scripture is clear that God is overall in control. In the end, God wins every time. It is also important to understand that God has an ultimate plan and He is working all things towards that plan. What happens in between now and the completion of that plan is where God is sometimes “flexible”, for lack of a better term. God’s overall plan will not have changed in the end, but He may allow some altering of the path towards reaching the completion of His end plan.

I know that is confusing, so let me illustrate it like this. If you were to leave my house in Tennessee and head to my mother’s family in Kansas, there are several routes you could take to get there. Ultimately one route is probably best, but you could get there from several directions. In accomplishing God’s end goal for our life, God sometimes allows different courses of reaching that end goal. God will even allow us to take turns that are not really His best plan for us. In that way, God has allowed His plan to be altered, but the overall end plan remains the same.

You and I may never fully understand how God has a sovereign plan and yet He allows us to make individual decisions for our life, but both are true in Scripture. In the end, when this life is over, God’s plan for our life will succeed. Our best course of action today is to seek and get in on that plan!

For more thoughts on this concept, read THIS POST.

Pick Up Your Mat and Walk!

Ron Edmondson — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:00:12 +0000

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” John 5:8 NIV

In order to appreciate the value of Jesus’ command, you need to consider the culture of the day. Today, although some may feel we don’t do enough, there are limited opportunities for the physically handicapped to work and lead productive lives. In Christ’s time on earth, the handicapped were outcast. They lived off handouts they could obtain from begging.

In the above instance, the man had been crippled for a long time. Probably the only possessions he had were the clothes on his back and the mat on which he lay. The mat was almost a symbol of the only hope in his life. His existence was one to be pitied. There was no known cure for what ailed him (except Jesus), and even if there had been, he certainly couldn’t have afforded it.

Jesus had sympathy for the man, and with the spoken word, the man was healed. Jesus told him to “Get up!” take his mat and walk. Obviously, this was a gift greater than anything money could have bought.

Whenever I read this verse, this question comes to mind:

What mat am I holding on to today? What mat are you?

This man was holding on to his mat. It had surely become a treasured possession to him. He slept on it, rested on it, and watched the world pass by on it. He couldn’t have imagined facing the day without it. Jesus tells him to pick it up and walk. When Jesus was finished with the man, he didn’t need the mat anymore. It would take faith to trust Jesus and attempt to walk, but the victory was worth it all. Instead of a mat of hope, this man had the hope of Christ!

What would Jesus have you and I pick up today? What are you holding on to tightly as your hope?

Are you drowning in your sorrow, because you refuse to completely trust God? Are you moping about the setbacks of your life, because you have failed to accept His grace? Are you suffering from the sin that has wrecked everything around you, because you won’t submit yourself to accountability? Do you hold back from committing to God because you are afraid He won’t accept you?

Whatever you are holding on to tighter than your faith, I believe Jesus would say, “Pick up your mat and walk!” Trust Him with that in which you currently trust the most. Permit Him to see you through the difficult days of life. Allow Him to carry your burdens, strengthen your walk and brighten your hope for the future.

Jesus wants to help you. Listen for His command to pick up your mat and walk!

What is that one thing you’ve never been able to let go of, but know you need to do so?