Scripture
"...Because the hand of the LORD my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me" (Ezra 7:28).
Observation
I noticed that the hand of God was upon Ezra, and because of that, he took courage, he received his requests, and he succeeded. Everything fell in place because of the hand of the Lord being on his life. Now, this didn't excuse him from hard work. He still had to log his requests with the King. He still had to organize. He still had to make the long, arduous journey to Jerusalem. He still had to fast, be on guard, and be wise. But you can still do all of the above, yet if the hand of the Lord was not on us, we would not succeed.
Application
The same is true today. Over the years, I have been a student of the hand of God, and I have seen His blessing poured out on some, and I have similarly seen his Hand removed from others.
I have seen brilliantly funded projects that are well planned, yet the results were far less than desirable. On the other hand, I have seen projects with very low budgets, and God blessed it beyond compare.
Now, I haven't yet understood it all. And then again, maybe I am not supposed to. But I know that without God's presence and without His hand, we can do nothing. Come to think of it, if we figured it out, we'd probably make a science out of it. We'd conjure up a formula and sooner or later, we'd market it. It would be touted as the latest and greatest.
I think God wants us to just stay near to Him without making Him into a formula. In that way, we'd stay in relationship with Him rather than seeing God as a method to get our desires met.
This Christmas, we are going to stage our musical at Victoria Concert Hall. This is a project that not just involve finances but planning and preparation. Will God bless it? Yes, he will not because it is a big project but because we choose to be heavily and humbly dependent on him.
I have seen brilliantly funded projects that are well planned, yet the results were far less than desirable. On the other hand, I have seen projects with very low budgets, and God blessed it beyond compare.
Now, I haven't yet understood it all. And then again, maybe I am not supposed to. But I know that without God's presence and without His hand, we can do nothing. Come to think of it, if we figured it out, we'd probably make a science out of it. We'd conjure up a formula and sooner or later, we'd market it. It would be touted as the latest and greatest.
I think God wants us to just stay near to Him without making Him into a formula. In that way, we'd stay in relationship with Him rather than seeing God as a method to get our desires met.
This Christmas, we are going to stage our musical at Victoria Concert Hall. This is a project that not just involve finances but planning and preparation. Will God bless it? Yes, he will not because it is a big project but because we choose to be heavily and humbly dependent on him.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for Your mighty hand on my life. I so desire to have a vibrant relationship with You and to see Your purposes fulfilled in my life. I ask that you would see me as your did Ezra and may I proclaim that the Hand of the Lord was always on my life.
