Moses Principal
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. – Hebrews 11:24-26 NIV
Even after Moses learned that he was Hebrew, Moses has access to all the pleasures of Egypt but decided that serving God and His rewards were better, even thought he would have to wait for it was worth more than the immediate pleasures that Egypt had to offer.
Likewise, we need to think about avoiding sin and the pleasures of this world that are against the things of God. We have to keep our eyes fixed on Gods reward and you do this by resolving in your mind that Gods way is better.
Adam’s Second Job
“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” Genesis 2:18-23 NIV
It’s important when reading the Bible that you pay attention to the order I’m which things happen. Here we see that God said it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone. Then God formed animals for Adam to name. (Why didn’t he make Eve at this point?) Then Adam said there was no suitable help for him. And only after that was over then God caused a deep sleep to come over Adam, he took a rib and made Eve. Immediately when Adam saw Eve he knew that that was his help.
Sometimes God needs to shape our minds to see what is not suitable or adaptable to our specific situation so that we can learn what won’t work. So that when we see what is right for us, we can immediately accept it and stick with it because it’s the best thing for us. In Adams case it was Eve and this is specifically important in relationships. You may have tried some relationships with some people who were not good for you only so that you can learn what type of person is perfect for you.
Worship – Who It Really Moves
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” – John 4:23-24 NIV
Why is God seeking our worship? We here that Worship moves God but he doesn’t need it. He is God weather we decide to worship him or not and if we don’t worship the rock will cry out instead (Luke 19:40). The point that I’m trying to get to is that when we worship it doesn’t move or change God, but it changes us. We are changed and pulled deeper into relationship with God and as we spend time in deep worship we then learn how to operate and live from a spiritual/heavenly perspective rather than an earthly perspective. So the more time we spend in worship it changes the perspective that we have about our daily lives.
Prayer – God Knows What We Need Already
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.- Matthew 6:7-8 NIV
This verse says that God already knows what we need before we ask… so why does God want us to ask for what we need from him? Why doesn’t he just give us what we need when we need it before we can ask? This again is God using heavenly psychology on us. He wants to have a deep intimate relationship with him. But not a relationship that is forced but that we choose to spend time with Him and his word to get to know him better. This is why we have needs in our lives. When we have needs as Christians who know who God is, we know he can meet all our needs. This then causes us to spend time asking and it deepens our relationship with him. So the needs and wants that we have in our lives cause us to pray to him and as we seek him, that caused our relationship with him to get stronger which is what God really wants.
Affliction – How Is It Good For Us?
It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. – Psalms 119:71-72 NIV
Why would it be good for us to go through tough time? Why would God allow it? I can say that this is good because it causes us not to stay stagnant in our Christian lives. When we are faced with challenges, we need to turn to the Word of God in prayer and seek God for a breakthrough. Once this breakthrough happens and we get the answer to our prayers, then we will find out that we are now on a new spiritual level than before. We learned something new, have new illumination of scripture and increased level of faith. In other words we grow through affliction and this is one of the things that God wants for us.
Speaking To and Over Yourself
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. – Psalms 43:5 NIV
Just like the psalmist here, we often have to talk to ourselves in the midst of our despair. We need to remind ourselves that God is worthy of our trust and that we should expect him to answer in a way that will give us a new reason to praise him. Physiologically, when we speak our thoughts out loud, our brains record the information sent to our lips, mouth, and vocal chords. This helps to fortify the thoughts that we speak in our minds. If we speak out loud, it forces us to slow down our thoughts and process them differently because we are engaging the language centers of our brains. So this is amazing that the psalmist did this before all of the physiological studies that have been done up to today.