“To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27 NASB
If you are born again, I don’t care what your situation is; there is hope. Because, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
God has been dealing with me lately about my speed. I am a fast driver. The Bible tells us to obey the laws of the land, obey the speed limit. You may think well they will give me five over, or nine over on a highway. Just because they give it to you, doesn’t mean you should take it. It is a speed limit. He has been dealing with me about things happening on the road, not getting me upset. Now when somebody cuts me off, I don’t get mad, I ask God to bless them. I had a mercury bobcat one time, that car was in bad shape. It ran great for me; it just wasn’t pretty. I sold it to a used car dealership that was owned by my buddy. He called me 20 minutes after I had bought my new car and said, how did you get this car here on the lot? He couldn’t start it or move it. I told him I had driven it there. The next morning, he called me again and said, that car is undrivable; why didn’t you tell me that when you traded it in? I said buddy; you have known me a long time, I promise I drove that car onto the lot. He said, well, I am not a Christian, but if you drove that car on the lot, it was held together by angels because it is not drivable. He said I have to sell it now for junk. I have a car right now that I recently took to get fixed. The bar that is between the two back tires was completely rusted through and broken. My mechanic Dennis said that the car was undrivable, the back tires were going in different directions. See, when you are God inside minded, that kind of stuff just happens to you.
You don’t want to spend time with or listen to people who operate in unbelief. I’m not talking about sinners here. I am much more comfortable hanging around sinners than Christians because you have to be careful with what they say and believe. Hang around people who are going to encourage you in your faith.
Where I go to the doctor, my nurse is a smoker. I asked her when she was going to quit smoking? She said, you know, I’ve quit smoking three times. I asked why she kept going back to it, and she replied that her friends would say, come on you know you want one, just take one, we all smoke. I asked why she hung around them, and she said it was because they were her friends. I told her they aren’t your friends; they aren’t helping you. She was willing to choose comfort. You hear this from church people too, they may be in a church where the Word isn’t taught, but they don’t want to leave their friends, they are comfortable there. Then when cancer comes and attacks your family or your life, and you are around a bunch of people that don’t believe in healing, don’t get angry when healing doesn’t come. When you need a financial miracle, and the money doesn’t come, don’t get mad when one doesn’t come. Learn to understand when you are God inside minded; don’t listen when people start speaking unbelief. You may have some of these people in your life, when they start speaking unbelief, just say, I’ve got to go. There are people in my life that I need to spend time with. I tell myself that when they start getting over into a particular conversation, I just leave. It doesn’t mean I don’t love or appreciate them; I just get out of it.
Faith begins where the will of God is known. You are not going to find the will of God around people who speak against it. If you are trying to build your faith because you have learned the truth, why would you hang around and talk about Jesus with people who are going to say, we don’t believe that. Isn’t it amazing the things most religious people don’t believe that are blessings? They will take all the condemnation, guilt, and shame but not the blessing. It doesn’t take a donkey brain at midnight in an old tin barn to figure what the problem is there.
I understand that I need God in my life, more than I need any man or woman. Husbands, do you want to impress your wife? Look at her and tell her baby, I don’t want you to love me more than anything in the world. I want you to love Jesus first. When you release your wife to love God more than you, it is a blessing. Women, you shouldn’t marry a man that won’t tell you that. Husbands, you should tell your wife, you are going to be number two in my life because Jesus is always going to be number one. You need to tell your children you’re always going to be number three. Be around people that speak life and truth. Start talking about God’s solution and not your problem.
