OUTLINE:
The Value of Reading Your Bible
Daily reading of the Bible often results in the most profound realizations! If it is used by the Spirit to guide a pastor, it can certainly be used to guide you!
We humans have a really bad habit of forgetting where we came from.
Deu 31:20
For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and spurn Me and break My covenant.
Ro 12:9
Let love be genuine [not phony, sincere and free from hidden agendas (selfish motives) – literally, “without hypocrisy” (unfeigned)]. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
The Blessing of Love
GIVING love is actually a greater blessing than receiving it! (Ref. Ac 20:35) This is opposite of what the world suggests.
Ro 12:9
Let love be genuine [not phony, sincere and free from hidden agendas (selfish motives) – literally, “without hypocrisy” (unfeigned)]. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
We humans have a really bad habit of forgetting where we came from.
Self-preservation
If you read the book “Covert Arrogance,” you know that arrogant people are insecure people. Insecure people cling to themselves in an effort to protect their fragile psyche. Arrogance retards genuine love, which robs you of blessings.
Lk 12:34
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The things you own end up owning you.
Ecc 1:14
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
“Money Changes Everything”
Wealth should first be considered a test, long before it should ever be considered a blessing.
Ecc 6:2 [Amplified Classic]
A man to whom God has given riches, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he might desire, yet God does not give him the power or capacity to enjoy them [things which are gifts from God], but a stranger [in whom he has no interest succeeds him and] consumes and enjoys them. This is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility); it is a sore affliction!
Sometimes, God gives wealth to those without capacity for it.
Priorities
If you’re a believer, you’ve got nothing to be striving for when it comes to money. What you SHOULD be focusing your attention on is your capacity for it.
Privileges
You are not entitled to anything unless God decides to give it to you.
1Pe 1:7 [NLT]
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
The Crucible
Faith must be tested for it to be consummated. In other words, while God always knows the purity of our faith, we must have it “tested by fire” (ala 1Pe 1:7) in order to understand its purity for ourselves.
Gal 6:3
For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
The Result of Testing By Fire
The value of being tested by fire in the crucible is very much about confession. God already knows. We need to have things pointed out to us!
The Proof of Humility
We must willingly go into the crucible to be tested by fire. It’s never enough to say, “God knows the truth.” We must understand the truth about ourselves fully and confess it to God in order to be truly delivered from whatever impurities still remain in us.