Satan Doesn't Want Me to Succeed

No big shocker here ... Satan does not want me to succeed. He wants me to fail. He glories in my shortcomings and then reminds me of them. I desire to get into God's word daily, walk with God and grow closer in an intimate relationship with God. Satan's desire? Everything but this.

It is January 6. Two days of January I didn't read God's word at all. I then had to play catch up. Today is the fourth day in a row that I HAVE read God's word. And what has Satan put in my path? Complete inundation!!!!!

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, I was asked today to decorate the stage for Disciple Now - which I had to turn down - and a HUGE project was put on my plate by my principal that is due on Tuesday morning. I truly felt myself hyperventilating as I realized all that I had to do and my first thought came from Satan. "It is okay for me to skip my Bible reading. God will forgive me and I can play catch up tomorrow."

Remember Satan is the King of Lies. But this was not a lie. It IS okay for me to skip my Bible reading. God WILL forgive me. I CAN play catch up tomorrow. What would be lost if I didn't read my Bible today? ... An encounter with the Living God.

Do I want to meet the President of the United States? Let's not go there. However, if I were invited to the White House, I would attend, I would be respectful and I would enjoy meeting the President. I would look forward to the appointment. I would of course put it as my status on Facebook. All of my friends and family would know that it was coming. This would be a REALLY big deal.

I had an appointment with the God that put him into office. Now THAT is a really big deal!!!! And Satan told me it was okay to skip it. He deceives. He twists the truth. He makes things that are bad seem not so bad. He is a heat seeking missle. He is on a search and destroy mission.

Memorize the following. Claim it. Use it. Say it out loud. Make it part of your very fiber.
"No temptation has seized you except that which is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. BUT WHEN YOU ARE TEMPTED, He will provide you with a way out so that you can stand up under it." I Corinthians 10:13

The score today ... Mona 1 Satan 0! Take that Satan. I have God on my side! I WILL sin. I WILL be forgiven. But I will also conquer it!!!!

But God remembered Noah ...

Genesis 8:1 "But God remembered Noah ...."

Okay, so what is this all about - had the flood happened, was the flood happeneing, was it PF? That would be pre-flood. Once of the most important words of this phrase is "but". When reading the bible, any time you see the word "for" at the beginning of a sentence, you should ask, "What is the for for?" The same is true of "but." But instead of asking "What is the but but?", you should ask "What is the but for?" (Make sure you spell that but with one t and not two t's.)

Noah had been ridiculed, mocked, and mentally and emotionally beat up. Think "Evan Almighty." Would you be willing to lay it all on the line and build a HUGE boat in your backyard? As if this wasn't enough, he then watched and entire group of people perish. Remember that God is the Almighty Smiter!

Now compare all of that with the simple word "but." After all of that happened, God remembered Noah. The rain stopped, the sun came out and Noah saw a different day. Noah, his entire family, and all of his "pets" were safe in the boat with a cool breeze blowing.

I find it ironic that I read Genesis 8-11 on the same day that I read Job 1-5. This shouldn't have happened, but (there is that little word again) I am having to play catch up on my daily readings. Talk about a man that went through a crisis - Job!! Have you ever wondered why his name is Job (with a long o) and not Job (with a short o)? It is because it starts with a capitol J - capitol J is long o and lower case j is short o. But I digress. (Right now you are thinking "What is the but for?")

What Job taught his friends is that in the middle of my crisis, God remembered Job. Where are you right now? Wherever you are, remember BUT God remembered . The "but" means you are on the other side of your crisis. This means you made it!!! You have gone through the flood.

Well, I have tried to do this for MANY years now. This is once again a New Year's Resolution. One year my New Year's Resolution was to gain weight, not get closer to God and have a terrible family life. Since I always break my New Year's Resolution, I thought I would try Reverse Psychology. Didn't work that year either.

So now, I start again. My goal - not New Year's Resolution - is to once again read the Bible through. Three or four years ago, I found a WONDERFUL resource - bibleyear.com. At this site you can
1) choose your version
2) choose which day of the year to start
3) choose how you want to read - front to back, chronologically, little old and a little old.
It REALLY is a FABULOUS resource. You can even use it on your "smart" phone - that will be a whole other entry some day! I am now "without excuse".

The only problem is I didn't read the January 1st or January 2nd entry. So here it is January 3rd and a) I have already broken my New Year's resoluation and 2) I am starting out having to play catch up. During the 2010 year, I had to play catch up. I stopped in June so by November I figured out if I read 3 entries per day (that is about 9 chapters per day) I could get caught up. You guessed it, New Year's Resoluation for 2010 = FAIL!!!!

So what did I read today? Genesis 1 - 7. I have read these chapters MANY times! I have taught on these chapters MANY times. I can almost quote these chapters ... okay, not REALLY, but close.

And how did God speak to me? It came from Genesis 5. For those of you that don't have that memorized let me tell you what it is about. It is the "begats" of Adam. As you probably know, the chapters dealing with "begats" don't usually inspire you. But today, I was inspired by this chapter, particularly verses 22 - 24.
22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, an dhe had other sons and daughters.
23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

Now before some of you get too excited about God taking me, that is not what inspired me. Enoch "walked with God." These are Moses words inspired by the true living God. In other words God told Moses to write these words about Enoch. God was so impressed with God that God said that "Enoch walked with God." WOW!!!! What would God say about me?

Would he say "Mona walked with God" or would God say "Mona ignored me and I had to reintroduce myself to her when she arrived in heaven"? There are many days I think I am harder on myself than God is on me, but I don't think he would say I walked with him ... consistently.

So here I am on January 3rd behind on my New Year's Resolution. So I am going to set a January 4th goal ... to read Genesis 8-11 and Job 1-5. That would get me caught up. I still would have blown the New Year's Resoluations, but there is always another day. I'm going to use this blog as my accountability partner. I'm not going to tell you that I am going to blog everyday. I'm not resolving to lose weight. I'm not resolving to read the bible through. I am only resolving to ... WALK WITH GOD! Hope you will join me!