Tuesday, March 8, 2011

What Do You Provoke God to do in Your Life?

What Shall We Provoke?

Ezra 5:12  But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.


     In what way today, Christian, has your life provoked the Lord?  There is a law which holds ever true:  sowing and reaping.  Have you sowed your life today to God and brought blessings on your life?  Or have you been lacking, sowing to the flesh bringing about certain corruption?  Let us look now at how we may provoke God to blessings!


Hosea 10:12  Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.


     We have a field to sow in.  And what a responsibility it is, for this field is our heart.  As any proper field, this soil, when met with seed, cultivates and nurtures the seed.  A fallow ground is a plowed heart ready to receive the Word of God in its fertile soil.  The good seed is the Word of God.  Good seed is that which is produced by the Holy Spirit and takes root in your heart.  There is another seed type present among us as well.  This is the ungodly seed which is held by satan and the ungodly people of the world.  This is planted in your heart to produce that which is sinful.

     Our hearts will cultivate the seed of suggestion.  It is in design that God has made us to do just that.  The ideas and thoughts which we allow to pass through the gates of our senses lodge in our minds.  There they sit, often nourished, thought upon, and in doing they grow until they produce the fruit of their kind.  Every voluntary action has a thought before it.  Tell me Christian, have you ever sinned a sin that you have not thought about first?  Has not every yielded temptation come because you gave into the thought of it?  And so it rings true, a thought is cultivated until it blooms, and that bloom is the action produced from the planted seed.  So then, think and realize the direction of your life.  Your actions determine the direction of your life, and they are the fruit of what you have sown in abundance to your mind.

     Christian, be ever careful in this day!  For we are bent towards the hazards of sinfulness.  Beware,  because we have an enemy who wishes to sow tares and thistles in our minds.  And how subtle he shall be when doing it at times.  If we see unholy fruit we may be sure that we are not sowing good seed but the seed of the world in our minds.  And what if this is the case today, Christian?  Then we must diligently weed the tender soil of our minds.  Ask Christ to help you, and He will.  Count all tares as the curse they are and let the Lord pull them out of your heart so that it may be ready to receive that good seed !

     I encourage you today, child of God, to sow the good seed of the Bible in your heart.  Daily it should be sent to cover the field of your heart, and its harvest shall be rewarding.  The righteous Word harvested shall be mercy, which when gathered in its due time shall cause the God of Heaven to rain righteousness upon your thirsting soul!  His reward will come in the splendors of showers of blessings.  Surround yourself then Christian with godly influence; for we must sow to reap!  And if it be that the seed is good, and from it we produce holy actions, then we shall provoke the God of Heaven to bring blessings in our lives.  Only let not the seed be that which the enemy has sent the world to sow.  Unholy actions may provoke the Lord to a righteous anger.  Sow to the Spiritdfe and reap in joy, for it is time to seek the Lord!