The Blinders of Life

Posted on by stevenlucht1

Have you ever driven down the road and you see a horse and buggy traveling along the road? If you have, I’m sure that you noticed the horse (or horses) have blinders on. They will put those on the horse so that they don’t get spooked by whatever may be coming up behind or on the side of them. They are only able to see what is right in front of them.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a human wearing blinders? It was quite comical looking up pictures of such attire. (I see a new fashion coming soon) As humorous as it may be, so many Christians are wearing such contraption. Now, it may not be a physical blinder, but a spiritual blinder.

Too often my head can get the best of me. For whatever reason I will get in a frustrated mood. Once in this mood I will start to overthink whatever area of life that is giving me frustration or disappointment. From there, it only grows. I will get more frustrated because of my frustration. (Makes sense right?) My mind will start to believe whatever lie that has festered in my thoughts until I believe it to be reality. That’s when the spiritual blinders are put on. The reality around me turns into tunnel vision that looks right down on the dirt path I’m walking on. We see the potholes and mud puddles and forget to look up and see the beauty that surrounds us. It really boils down to ones pride and selfishness. One tends to see only what we want to see and not what God is trying to show us. In part, we forget who we are in Christ. In these times, I get thoughts of depression and negative self worth.

In our day to day lives we can get so caught up in the business. We quickly lose sight of our surroundings and all that God is providing. There are flowers flourishing and we see the dirt around our feet, He places paintings of awe and wonder around us in the sky and all we focus on is the cloudiness that dampers our day. He passionately pours out His love to us that we barely notice it because of our spiritual blinders. STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES! Satan loves the spiritual blinders, and he will gladly put them on for us. (Even though most of the time we put them on ourselves)

When these times of depression come, it’s like being in a small boat and it’s slowly sinking. I watch as I feel hopelessly fall deeper into thoughts of failure and doubt. Satan wants to destroy us in any way that he can. (John 10:10a) He would love to see us fall and to sink into these mindsets. Now the beginning of verse ten expresses the destruction that Satan would love to see. However, in the latter part of the verse it expresses to resist. Resist clearly means to block out or stop. He WILL flee from you! You have God on your side!

These blinders are just as easy to put on as they are to take off. Read God’s unfathomable Word, and get on your knees and pray. The greatest ways that you can resist those thoughts is by diving into the Love Letter from God, to get on ones knees in supplication and we should be in constant prayer throughout the day. What greater way than to spend time alone with God. Read about all that He has, is and will be doing in your life! I have a hard time being in a depressed mindset when I read about His love for me. Then spend time talking and pouring our your heart to Him. When we make a common practice of spending time devoted to God, we will experience a spiritual high that words will only dim the true breathtaking high.

Lately, I’ve started a habit that has greatly helped me in my day to day life. It helps keep these blinders off and be able to constantly see the blessings that God places all around me. Anytime a thought or lie creeps up into my mind I will immediately stop what I am doing and take a short time to ask God for help. God is the one that will give us strength to overcome whatever thought, sin, depression may try to creep into our heads. (Phil. 4:13)

So, will you join me in this quest? Life can get really difficult at times. Strive to keep the spiritual blinders off and to see all the blessings and beauty that is around us. God deeply desires a personal relationship with us! Take the blinders off and see what He is doing.

Know who you are in Christ.

The Conversation of a Lifetime

Posted on by stevenlucht1

What if I told you that I recently got off the phone with Aaron Rogers, 21 Pilots, Billy Graham, Donald Trump, or any famous person out that you really want to meet? Let’s say we were catching up on life and try to call each other every other week. You would be fairly impressed, or even have some kind of desire to be able to talk with that person also. I feel like most of us, if not all, are willing to admit that we would get pretty excited if we had the opportunity to sit down with someone we really look up to in the “famous realm”. Whether that is someone in the music industry, sports area, or in the mission field we all have someone that we would really like to meet.

Here is the interesting predicament that I find. We would do so much to be able to have that conversation with that famous person and get all giggly or excited about it, but have little affect over our personal conversation with God Himself. “Wait, hold on a minute….” you may be thinking, “I definitely value my conversation with God more than I would with a famous person.” Now, let me challenge this thought. Are we the type of people that mention our relationship with God or would you boast to your coworkers and friends that you were able to talk/be a close friend with a famous person. Think about this for a minute. When is the last time you mentioned to anyone how God answered your prayer, small or big? When’s the last time you even expressed your relationship with God to any nonbeliever? Now if you had the opportunity to talk with Aaron Rogers, whether you like him or not, I almost guarantee you that you will be telling others about that conversation.

When is the last time you really thought about who you are talking to when you pray? The Almighty God, the I AM, the All Knowing, the Lover of your Soul. He is actually listening to what you are saying! Even thinking about this should get you excited! I AM!!! There is no greater comfort knowing that we have the opportunity to reach out to the Almighty God!

“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”
~Corrie Ten Boom~

Open God’s Word to I Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without Ceasing” (ESV). It’s an incredibly short verse that packs a mountain of meaning. Praying shouldn’t be something you feel you HAVE to do, it should be a passion and desire. Keep in mind the One that you are talking to. Here’s something that might throw you off. If you don’t want to pray… DON’T. However, you are going to miss out on one of the most incredible relationships you could ever be involved with.

So, How DOES God answer prayer? Well, we will touch on what I see the three most common answers: No, Yes, and Wait.

No: This is by far one of the hardest answers. Whether this involves a huge opportunity/”door” closing, or a change in careers. The answer spans to all kinds of areas of life. The majority of the time this is not the answer that we desire from God. However, it’s one of the greatest teaching moments that God can bring you closer to Him. He always knows what is best for us and “no” might turn into the biggest life-changer that you needed. The verse that I always try and keep in mind when I feel God has told me no is I Thessalonians 5:18:

“Give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (ESV)

Yes: Now I Thessalonians 5:18 is really easy to practice in this answer. “Yes” can give you absolute joy, depending on the situation. The warning I give when this is the answer God gives you is give the praise right back to God. He has allowed whatever circumstance to happen and He is the one to get the praise. Don’t be going off boasting about how you did whatever to get that new job, promotion, or dating relationship. It was God’s hand that guided and helped you along and He is the one to get the praise.

Wait: For some, myself included, this can be the most challenging answer. What am I suppose to do in this wait??? “Wait” never means to stop praying. I find the waiting period to be the most growing and challenging. Whether that’s praying for a beloved friend or family to deeply desire God more than this world, or waiting to be in that relationship you desire to be in, or even that next step in your career path. Wait is the time you spend all the more time in prayer. Luke 18 expresses this well.

“And he told them a parable
to the effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart.” (ESV)
~Luke 18:1~

One of my favorite activities to get alone with God is going for a walk. Some people call me nuts, but I love going for looong walks. Recently, I went for a 20 mile walk. There was a specific area of my life that needed deepened prayer. It forces me to get away from the distractions that may pull me away from my time of prayer at home and focuses me on why I am walking. Sometimes it’s to focus on a person struggling or asked for prayer, or to pray about different areas of life (either present or future.) Prayer is one of the greatest parts of our relationship with God.

Now, we have looked into how great prayer is. Why is prayer so important? Why is it something that I need to set time aside for and to practice praying more often?

You have an open communication with God, and you abuse that communication. He desires so deeply to have a personal relationship with you!

“Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving
let our requests be made known to God” (ESV)
~Philippians 4:6~

Why should we let our request be known to God? Isn’t God all-knowing? I’m glad you asked! I see this as a deepening desire between God toward us. He desires to have a personal relationship with you and wants the best for you. He wants your attention! Are you giving it to Him?

What if someone you desire to be in a relationship or someone you are in a relationship with never talked to you or barely talked to you. The relationship isn’t really going to be healthy. There is no communication. How can you grow towards someone when you don’t communicate. God communicates to us through the Word of God and through our day to day lives. We need to be spending some serious time in prayer and in reading the Bible.

First, I suggest getting a prayer book and write down prayer requests. Leave some space by the prayer request so that when time comes you can see (and write down) how God provided and answered for that prayer request.

Second, Get people in your life that you trust to send prayer requests to. I have a few people in my life that when life is getting hard or something is really tearing me apart, I send them a quick text to pray. It has helped incredibly in my walk with Christ.

In conclusion, You may have a once in a lifetime opportunity to talk to a famous person. Whoever that person would be for you. Just remember, that you have an opportunity to always have a deep and incredible communication through prayer to the God of the universe.

Time Well Spent

Posted on by stevenlucht1

Where is it? Where are we spending our time?

There is a jealous God waiting for us to spend time with Him. Oh too often I neglect my personal time with God, time set aside that I build myself closer to Him. A relationship takes time and effort.

Time:
While looking at several different articles, the average American spends approximately five hours watching television. That’s JUST watching television and not including how much time we are on our phone or computers…etc. Fairly ridiculous if you ask me.

We are completely wasting our time! There God is waiting for us to start talking with us. Personally, if I were to be in a relationship, I would get quite jealous if she spent the majority of her day wasting her time and neglecting conversations and time with each other. That is exactly what we are doing to God when we neglect spending time with Him. He’s jealous of us. The Bible speaks about this several times. (Exodus 20:5, 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24, Joshua 24:19)

Why would we not want to talk with God and have our own personal time with Him?! It just shows that God just wants to have this personal relationship with us. He wants us! I don’t know about you but that definitely pushes me to invest more into my personal time with Him.

So many people say that they don’t have time, or it’s hard to work around their schedule to spend devoted time with God. Some even say that Sunday church should be good enough. Personally, Sunday is wonderful but I most definitely need to be fed so much more spiritual insight and guidance other than 45 minutes on a Sunday morning. Make time. I would struggle to say someone has a strong personal relationship with God and neglects personal time with Him. It’s like saying that I’m a really strong person, yet I only work out once a week for just an hour. Sure, you may be able to do a couple of push-ups, but don’t expect me to come to you for exercise advice.

Make time. It’s that simple. He made time for you, it’s your turn to make time for Him. If you have accepted Christ into your life then you have this relationship that you need to invest into.

 

Effort:
As it’s said, it takes effort to make something work. This relationship that we have for God takes a lot of effort. Those days that we are just too tired to set time aside and all we want to do is sit back in the lazy boy and relax are those very days we need to get into the Word of God all the more.

I very much enjoy my time of listening to messages online through trusted pastors that really challenge me and help me get into my Bible during the message. Most times after I listen to a message and look over my notes, I spend some time in prayer.

My weekends I try to be all the more into my relationship with God. I have thoroughly enjoyed putting different messages on my phone to listen to. When I work on the weekends I enjoy playing those messages and keeping myself encouraged while working. If I don’t work on Sunday afternoon that is when I take a nice long walk. Most of those walks last for four or more hours, but it’s valuable time spent with God.

Never let anything, and I mean anything, get in the way of you spending personal time with God. It is one of THE most important times that is very well spent. I can not describe the love I have for God on my walks. Everything in life seems to dwindle while my relationship with God goes to an entire new level.

Now, I will say, it takes a lot of effort some days. Today it started to rain and at first really didn’t want to go. However, it didn’t take so long for me to have that desire to want to have some personal time with God.

Find a place that you will not be distracted from your time with God. Preferably a place that doesn’t have any kind of electronic device. If that’s too much to ask then I highly suggest turning them off and putting them away for the time being. It’s way too easy to get distracted whether by the internet or communication with others.

 

All this said, I pray that we make it more of a priority in our lives to have a time each day to spend alone with God. Even if it means to say no to some activities we would have done otherwise. We have lost the importance in our alone time with God. It’s time we changed that and bring our relationship with God to a new personal level.

Stuck in the Mud

Posted on by stevenlucht1

When is the last time you went for a walk? I really enjoy going for a nice long walk. Usually, I go out for a couple hours to spend time with God and think about my direction in life. The other day I was walking along and I noticed something quite interesting. What do you usually do when you go for a long walk? I caught myself several times looking down at my feet. Here I am, in a beautiful area, walking along and I’m looking down at my feet. I might as well walk on a treadmill. I found that a lot of us do that when we are going for a walk.

I thought about this for a while (as I was still looking down at my feet.)  Along the walk, I walked right into a muddy spot and tripped over several roots in the ground. I thought it was a great way of looking at life! We are so concerned about what we are doing in our exact location that we completely forget to look around at what God has for us. I know in my own life that I have “looked down at the ground” way too much. We miss so much of what’s around us and neglect to get involved. We are so concerned about what is going to happen and what we are going to step in that we don’t take amazing opportunities that are right in front of us.

I’ve learned to stop saying “no” to different opportunities in life because I was too concerned about my “free time”. The more I get involved and surrender my time to others, the more rewarding life seems.

I so often have those days that I get “stuck in the mud.” So many difficult situations happen during the day and it seems like the whole day is ruined. I keep “looking down at my feet” on where I am that day that I forget to look up and see some amazing things that God has so incredibly blessed me with. We stay so focused on on the bad things that are happening during a certain period of time that we forget to look up and see how much God has blessed us.

Most people that know me are familiar with my passion to work with youth and young kids. I long for the day to make that a daily reality in youth ministry. My passion is to tell kids about Christ and to be in the ministry somewhere. However, I am not on that direct path right now. As some people know, I am a law enforcement officer for two agencies. I don’t really get the opportunity to see the good side of people and to tell them about Christ in that field. Don’t get me wrong, I have had some amazing experiences being an officer, but it’s not where God has called me and put this burning passion inside my heart.

This being said, I could be quite discouraged and keep looking down at were I am in life and lose hope in what I want to do in the future. God has taught me so much in looking up at Him that it’s been a blessing to where he has me. I recently was offered and accepted a job as being a sort of tutor for a boy in the fourth grade. The family that offered this job to me is a good Christian family that I attend church with. Now, I’ve only worked with the boy two days, but I absolutely love it. I praise God every day for such an incredible opportunity that he placed in front of me that if I was so focused on looking down in my life, I would have never noticed this!

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
~Psalms 37:4~

I don’t believe that looking down at our feet is delighting ourselves in the Lord. It’s focusing too much in what’s going to happen to us and worrying about tripping over some root or stepping in mud instead of focusing on Christ and what He has placed in front of us. So, lets pick up our heads and focus on Christ and give thank to God for whatever we step in.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18~