What‘s more important than getting a life-changing handle on what God has promised you specifically? Expect this podcast to help you know who you are...REALLY & to help you live fully believing God‘s promises to you...REALLY.
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Thursday Jan 12, 2023
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
Psalm 91 - Pray It & Believe audio course discounted to $14 for The Burt (Not Ernie) Show listeners.
Well, hey there and hello to you. I’m so incredibly thankful you’re listening to the podcast today and I’m super excited to share some encouragement via one of God’s promises that we find in the book of psalms.
Take a look at the faithfulness of God with me for this episode and let’s just see what God does as we take Him at His word and believe His promises are 100% true.
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 132.
The faithfulness of God matters.
In every moment, it matters.
And honestly, it may matter far more than we realize.
God’s faithfulness keeps everything going. Every heartbeat is thanks to the faithfulness of God. Every single time we take a breath, it is proof that our God is faithful. When someone texts you to let you know they care about you, are thinking of you, have just spent some time praying for you, guess what? God put you on their heart and His faithfulness is what actually moved them to reach out to you. God’s faithfulness is something that is so certain, we can miss it on the daily. And in spite of the fact that we so often just don’t see it, recognize it or acknowledge it but it keeps on being our reality, that in itself is proof of just how faithful the Lord God Almighty truly is.
Now, one thing that has been on my heart and mind a lot lately is this: holiness, God’s holiness. And how we, as His people, ought to be living our everyday lives as a response to His holiness and His call for us to be a holy people, a people set apart for His glory and His purposes. So that’s not exactly what today’s podcast is about, but I wanted to share that because I really doubt that I am the only one thinking about this currently. I’ve found that whatever God is doing in my heart, it is often being done in many, many hearts at the same time. If that’s you, be encouraged that He has a purpose in leading you to think about holiness, to be more aware of what you think and say and do and that He is always working on a zillion levels all at once. It’s a good work He is doing in and through you. You just keep leaning in, praying and listening and following His lead, and trust Him to finish every good work that He has begun in you. Cuz He is a finisher!
Today I want to read from the Amplified, Psalm 91, verse 4, the end portion of this verse. It says:
His faithfulness is a shield and a wall.
I’ll say it again, because it bears repeating: the faithfulness of God matters!
He IS completely faithful - this goes beyond a behavior that we might see or experience now and then. The utter and complete and unyielding faithfulness of our God is as unending as the vastness of the universe, but actually would far surpass that, even though we cannot comprehend it. Galaxy upon galaxy of faithfulness. He is, always and in all ways, faithful.
Does that stir hopefulness within you today? Or maybe you find yourself wondering, “How can that be true? How can it be true for me?” A mix of both, perhaps? Nodding your head in agreement as to the amazing faithfulness of the Lord and also hoping that same faithfulness will be true for you in a hard situation?
This very faithfulness is, to us, a shield and a wall.
Those are not my words, they are the words in this verse. And Psalm 91, well, it does not play. It’s in the Bible on purpose, intentionally, and we need to acknowledge that it is the truth, straight from the very Word of God.
And this faithfulness is a shield and a wall to us.
Okay, so in 2023, what does that really mean? Like, a shield? A wall? Those don’t mean so much to us. I’m not sure what I can liken it to for our modern day and age, but just think ultimate protection. What does a shield do? The intercept specific attacks. They protect from projectiles and from close range weapons. A shield can actively block dangers and attacks. It can also close lines of protection, kind of linking up with other shields, as a more passive form of protection.
Okay. Sounds pretty good to me!
What about a wall? Walled cities were places that were safe in days prior, we know that for sure. Think of all the places in the Bible that mention city walls, or think of those cities of refuge that a person could run to and be safe if an accident happened and someone lost their life - you were able to flee to a city of refuge and be safe there, behind those city walls, until it was determined that it was, or was not, an accident. If there had been no walled cities, those would have not been refuge places because the walls keep some things in and other things out, right? Keeping this in, while also keeping that out. Walls do that.
Other things do that in our day and age. Passwords and secure logins for your personal info. Key fobs for the car. Places to keep your valuables safe. Locks on doors. Security systems and doorbell cameras. Modern types of walls. This stays in here, nice and safe and protected, and the not so safe things can kind of stay out, on the other side of the wall. Good fences make good neighbors and all of that.
Walls also bring to mind the idea of fortifications, of a first line of defense. LOTR movies, Helm’s Deep, that was a walled city, protected.
God’s faithfulness is THAT to us. Protection. Intercepting specific attacks that are aimed directly at you. Protection from projectiles, and that can be words spoken to you, about you, over you. I’ve seen a social post that says something to the effect of, don’t worry too much about people that God removed from your life, He may have heard you mentioned in conversations where you were not present. And yeah, there could probably be some truth to that. If Psalm 91:4 is true (and it most certainly is true!), then there could be conversations that were about us but not with us, not to our face, we were not in that conversation but it was about us, and maybe at times God just sort of moves us along a bit and we lose contact with them or something. Could that not be a form of shield for us? Because words can have so much weight. You and I know it’s true, there is no point in pretending we are bad enough to let it all roll off like water off a duck’s back. I am not a duck. You either. We are not water fowl. Words can be heavy, can carry a lot of weight. And sometimes God just flat shields us from those weighty words. Anybody want to say amen to that? It is one of the best blessings of my life! (I had a time when I had to let a couple of folks know that I was not interested in any more phone calls - this was back before texts, btw - no more calls to let me know what so and so had to say about this, that and the other. And when I didn’t want to be part of the family gossip train, they stopped calling me. The opposite of Cameron in Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. He’ll keep calling me… Nope. The phone quit ringing and I was all the better for it.) Words can have weight and the faithfulness of God can protect us from weighty words. That is a blessing beyond measure!
Close range weapons. Projectiles. Need to be hidden away. Need to have some stuff, some enemy attacks, away from us. His faithfulness is a shield and a wall for all those things. Isn’t He good? And isn’t He good to you?
That is what you have in the Lord God Most High. So much faithfulness that it is a shield and a wall --- FOR YOU! Sure, this applies to every disciple of the Lord Jesus. And it right now applies to you. Don’t miss the forest for the trees. This promise is meant to be your promise. That is why you are listening to this podcast episode today. So you can hear and believe this specific promise for your specific life at this specific moment. This is for you. And that is really, really good news.
Here and now, in the middle of the first month of the new year, it’s yours.
For some of you, that’s what you needed to hear today.
I hope it goes from your ears right into your heart and mind. Let God soften your heart and like, literally, bless your heart (not like a southern saying, but really be a comfort and a blessing to you in the places of life where you most need it) and change your thinking with this promise. Because how you think, well, that’s how your life goes. The direction of your thoughts is the direction of your life. Think well. Think on these things, the New Testament says. Think on the truth of God’s Word and the truth of Jesus. Praise God for His truth!
Here today, this is when we praise Him for His faithfulness to us. Through it all, He never abandons His own. Thank Him for that! And make that thankfulness a sort of first fruit offering to Him at the start of this year. Be thankful, right from the get-go. For the next twelve months I am expecting Him to be faithful, utterly faithful, to you. And to me. I’m believing for that. I hope you can believe for that, too.
Don’t go to sleep tonight without reflecting on His faithfulness to you and the truth that it never ends and is all encompassing. Before your head hits the pillow, remind yourself that Psalm 91:4 is the reality of your life, because He who promised is faithful.
Your shield of protection and your protective walls before you, behind you, all around you. That’s God’s commitment to you and He never tells a lie (it’s actually impossible for Him to lie) and He does not deal in partial or half truths. (think of Flick getting the blame for the bad word Ralphie said in A Christmas Story). Aren’t you thankful you have a friend who sticks closer than a brother, a friend in God, and that He is nothing like even your very best earthly friend?
Because we are human, and deal daily with humanity in ourselves and in others, we can sort of do this by-product thing where we start to inadvertently attribute human behavior to God’s behavior. We sort of humanize the Lord, in a way. In our thinking. In our expectations. But that’s not right!
According to the Bible, that is not correct at all. We don’t conform the Bible to our thoughts, right? We conform our thinking to the Bible’s truths. To the Living Word. and the truth of the Word of God to us here is that God’s faithfulness is (present tense!!) a shield and a wall.
I need you to believe that today. Believe it now like you’ve never believed it before.
Jesus is coming for His Church (hear that, for HIS CHURCH, we belong to Him and it’s wise and prudent to remember that). Sooner than later, sooner than we think most likely. We should live believing Him fully because that’s how we will be ready when He comes. May He not find us doubting, but believing. May He not find us waxing and waning, but on fire for Him and living for His kingdom purposes.
When He comes, our faith will become sight.
This is our time for faith.
This is our time for faith-based believing.
As Jesus said Himself, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Isn’t it incredible that you can be one of those whom He was talking about? You can be one who has not seen Him face to face and yet believes.
This is your year for believing. To live believing.
Start today, with Psalm 91 verse 4, and believe.
Tomorrow, believe again. And believe even more of what the Bible says. Keep on that path, my friend, and you will not ever regret it, not for a single moment.
You will be blessed, said Jesus, if you believe without having seen.
Can you say this is your blessing right now?
Why not make it your blessing today?
Thanks for joining me today for this episode.
Hey, I have an audio course I created based on Psalm 91, and I am going to put the link for that in the show notes. It’s like nineteen dollars right now. (The option I have for this course does not allow me to use coupon codes but I was able to take $5 off the price, dropping it to just $14). Check that out if you might like some encouragement in living a life in a state of chronic belief.
I can tell you from experience, there is nothing like it and no better way to live.
Friday Jan 06, 2023
Friday Jan 06, 2023
“The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional”
Well, hey there and hello! First of all, Happy New Year. More than that, blessed and filled to overflowing with God’s love and grace and mercy and guidance and favor to you. What a year it will be if we see God’s hand at work in all sorts of areas of our lives. And what honor He’ll receive if we live out 2023 intentionally, with our eyes on the Lord, seeking and doing His will, praying like we believe our God answers those prayers, loving others like we believe God loves us fiercely, as the apple of His eye. Why not make it just that type of year? I’m in. How ‘bout you?
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show Podcast, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 131.
A new year.
Resolutions, recommitments, restructuring of all sorts of areas of our lives, renewal and revival and basically all the words that start with “re”.
We want the new thing.
We want hope, we want a good, good future. We want the betterment of our own worlds and the whole world. Hope is rekindled in the new year.
What does God’s word say about hope, about that search we tend to have for something new, something good, when a new year begins? We kind of do this at our birthdays, too. What are we looking forward to in this year of life, what hopes and dreams do we have for the upcoming 12 months, and so on.
Is it just foolhardy wishful thinking? Is it people being people, it is optimism rearing it’s head at this time of year? Or is it something God puts inside of us, this interest in and desire for the new thing?
I’m going to read a few verses, all from the New Living Translation, because there are some promises for us from the Bible that can be very, very encouraging to take with us into the coming year.
First, from the very last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation, chapter 21, so the very tail end of Revelation, the very last portions of the Bible, chapter 21, verse 5. Here is what is says in the NLT:
And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”
So, who is speaking here? The One who sits on the throne. And there is one King of kings, Lord of lords, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the only One worthy to sit on that throne.
These are some of the last words in the Bible. There are 22 chapters in the book of Revelation, and this is from chapter 21. Jesus is telling us something important, because what people say when they are closing something out, like a book or a sermon or a speech, those words are more likely to stick, to be remembered, to be carried out with the person when they get up and leave the auditorium, much more likely to be remembered than the words in the middle of the hour long speech. Ted talks are short for a reason, right? That brevity lends to the sticking power of what’s being shared. It also forces the speakers to hone in on the key points and cut the fluff out (reminds me of Strunk & White’s book The Elements of Style…isn’t there a rule in that book about eliminating words?). Ted talks work for a reason. And the reason is, they are direct, to the point, cut to the chase, they get right to it.
God wanted us to read these words toward the end of the book of Revelation, and that’s where He placed them. So, we are kind of starting at the very end of the Bible as we start at the very beginning of 2023.
He who sits on the throne says to us, “Behold. I am making all things new.”
All really does mean all.
That chronic pain you’ve dealt with the last couple of years? That’s on His list of things that will be made new. Finances tight in this economy? Well, He’s gonna make that all new one day. Not sure what you do on the daily to serve your family, your church, in your workplace is making much of a difference? No worries, when He makes all things new you are going to know the actual eternal impact of what you did. Like the widow who gave two mites, which seemed like very little, Jesus may well reveal that what you gave was more than you know.
He also says that these words are faithful and true, they are accurate. The Amplified says they are incorruptible and trustworthy. That’s important for us to know as we roll forward into 2023. God’s words, and His promises made in His word, are accurate, true, faithful, not able to be corrupted, trustworthy. And His promise here is that He is making all things new. What He is telling you in the Bible is trustworthy and true.
And hey, if you need some encouragement, I can say that you can find so much hope and encouragement by reading the book of Revelation. It doesn’t have to be viewed as a scary book that we avoid reading because some of it is hard to understand and some of it seems stressful and some of it seems like it will happen in a whole ‘nother lifetime. It’s a book that holds a promise to the reader (and I am gonna let you read it to find out where it says that and what that exact promise is!) but there is so much hope about the future, our future, in eternity with the Lord, about His coming again and setting all things right, about the joy we will have in His presence. It’s actually a very encouraging book, and reading it could be a great way for you to garner hope as you begin this year.
Jesus has promised that He is making all things new. He is working on all the things! Isn’t that a great promise?? Behold this promise! Take a look at it. And then, choose to believe it. There are blessings that come when we choose to believe God’s promises.
In the Old Testament book of Ezekial, chapter 11, verse 19, we read:
And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart.
Isn’t this an awesome verse? Look at the promises here! God is saying that He will do the impossible. Now, if you’ve ever known someone with a heart of stone, then you get my drift. It is the most miraculous thing to see someone go from a stony heart, like stubborn in a way that defies all ability to reconcile or reason with, from that to a tender, responsive, soft heart. It is a miracle of miracles! And that is what God does. He specializes in it. He does this every single day and it will never stop being one of my favorite things in the entire world.
And just a reminder, when we see a verse of promise in our Bible that uses the word will, it really does mean will. God does not play. God does not mince words or misspeak.
He says it because He truly means it.
He WILL give us singleness of heart. He will put a new spirit within us. He will take away our stubborn, stony hearts and give us tender, responsive ones in place of that old stony hunk of junk.
This is a verse you can remember when you are praying for people. We all know people who are hurting, who have hard hearts, who need the Lord in their lives. I mean, maybe you don’t know anyone like that, but golly most of us do. Because this world is hard to live in. That’s true for us all. So there are people who are hard in one or another aspect of their life, and we can pray and ask God to do as He has promised here in Ezekial, to give His people a singleness of heart (that’s a great prayer to pray over your local church for the whole coming year of 2023 - jus think what might come to pass if you prayed that over your local church every single week of this whole year… what kind of an impact might that have by year’s end?) And for those people who need the Lord, pray that God will keep His word as found here in this verse and soften their hearts, draw them to Himself, put a new spirit within them. What a beautiful way to invest in others and to pony up, ya know, and put our money where our mouth is. Like, if we believe God’s promises only in word, we probably aren’t praying for those promises to be true for us, or for others. Let’s be praying believers! Can we make this year the year we, as individuals, become praying believers? We believe God’s promises and we pray big, bold, daring prayers based on those promises. Let’s do this thing!
Now, from the New Testament book of 1 Peter, chapter 1, the very last part of verse 3 says this in the NLT:
Now we live with great expectation.
When we know what the Word of God says, and then live and pray with that knowing underpinning what we think, how we act, the decisions we make and most certainly how we pray, well, we are living with great expectation.
Not tiny, miniscule, itsy bitsy spider sized expectation.
GREAT expectation. Yeah, I think maybe God’s Word said it first and Dickens took a cue from the Bible. GREAT. EXPECTATION. (Dickens title is in the plural, ours is singular - we set all our hope on Jesus, and all our expectation is from Him. We don’t have a bit of hope over here in this religion, some over there in that self-help plan, a bit more in our own John Wayne pull yourself up by the bootstraps mentality, getting by with a little help from my friends over this a way… No, our expectation is from the Lord. Beginning to end, it hinges on Him. And remember the first verse from Revelation? Trustworthy and faithful.)
Hope resting firmly on Jesus is rock solid. That’s what we need, and that’s what we need to share with others.
I’m not saying you can never have a bad day. I am saying Jesus on the side is not the answer. He is the One who says to take up your cross daily and follow Him. He is the One who says the servant is not greater than the master. He is the One who rose on the third day and sent His Holy Spirit to be with us, in us, when He sat down at the right hand of the Father. That does not sound to me like a bit of Jesus on the side, Clyde. That sounds like the Great I AM as the Lord of all.
There is hope for you this year, because the Bible tells you so.
And there can be hope for those around you who are hurting, because you can pray for God’s promises to become their reality.
You can encourage your pastors, you can be a blessing to your coworkers, you can make a difference in the furthermost corner of the world because you know how to pray according to the Word of God.
The only thing that can stop you from praying is, well, you not actually doing the praying.
Start now, start today, start with this: Lord, who can I pray for right now?
Ask Him to remind you of verses with promises and hope to pray for people, and He surely will. Ask God to hear your prayers and to answer them, to be glorified in this hurting old world, and to be expand His kingdom and do a work in this world that makes a mark, makes a difference, ask that by the end of your life, the world would be a better place because you prayed and you believed God’s promises.
May 2023 be your year to leave this kind of legacy, this kind of impact. And may you be blessed in all your ways, in all you do, as you seek His kingdom first and foremost.
Lord bless you and thank you so much for listening today. I’m thankful for you and I’m praying for you (if you want to know what I’m praying for you, check out the link to the 2023 Prayer Planner… spoiler alert, I don’t pray small prayers for you. I pray big and I really do trust God to do amazing things for you as I pray based on His word.)
See ya next time! Bye bye.
2023 Annual Prayer Planner - 21 Days of Prayer & Journaling to Plan Your Year print book at Amazon
Saturday Dec 31, 2022
Saturday Dec 31, 2022
2023 Annual Prayer Planner - 21 Days of Prayer & Journaling to Plan Your Year digital download
2023 Annual Prayer Planner - 21 Days of Prayer & Journaling to Plan Your Year print book at Amazon
Well, hey there! So good to be with you today on this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are trusting fully in the Lord as we move toward 2023. My prayer for you is that you will know God better, hear the voice of your Good Shepherd more clearly, have more joy and peace and faith than ever before, and see the miraculous happening all throughout the coming year. Is that a big, bold prayer for me to be making on your behalf? Perhaps. But isn’t that what makes it a prayer worth praying from the very depths of my heart? Definitely.
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 130.
Recently I have been reading through the later chapters of the book of Genesis, along with 1 Peter and Hebrews. And every single day it seems like the Holy Spirit shows me places where He wants me to yield more, trust more, believe more, grow up more. Looking at the life of Joseph in Genesis, from his childhood to his difficulties with his brothers to his betrayal to his time in Egypt that was anything but sunshine and roses, to be honest, I have been encouraged, convicted and challenged. That’s not always the most fun place to be in my walk as a disciple of Jesus, but it is always a healthy, good place for me to be. And so, as it says in chapter 4 of 1 Peter, I am finding joy in the hard things (that’s a very, very loose paraphrase, btw).
I’d like to read a verse from the NLT out of Psalm 18. Let me read verse 3 aloud to you.
It says:
I called on the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and He saved me from my enemies.
Here it is from the Amplified:
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; and I am saved from my enemies.
Very small differences between the two versions, but the Amplified Bible changes the tense a bit. From called in the NLT, past tense, to CALL in the Amplified, present tense. And the last portion - and I am saved from my enemies.
Right now is the moment we can call upon the Lord and be saved from our enemies. We have enemies, like it or not. The devil, of course, is our ultimate enemy. But so often, in my own life, I am my own enemy. I fear failing at some new thing so I sort of put it off, do some other stuff, work on this, fiddle around with that. But fail to do that thing I should get going on, fail to do it because I don’t want to fail in doing it. Anybody else?
I know that failure is not fatal, that failure is actually not doing anything. Trying at something, learning and growing and slowly at times taking baby steps forward, that is actually a part of success. Failure isn’t as big a deal as I give it credit for, when I frame it correctly. Failure when I am doing what the Lord calls me to do is falling forward, toward His good and perfect and pleasing will for my life. Failure is falling backward when I do nothing, try nothing, attempt nothing for God’s glory or for His Kingdom or for other people’s benefit. Failure, according to the book of James, is when I know the good I ought to do but do not do it.
So as I live out the last couple of days of 2022 and step toward the new year, which feels new even though technically it is simply turning the page on the calendar and not one single thing beyond the date change may be even remotely new at this point in time - as I live in this moment and move forward into the next moments of my life, I am choosing to remember this truth about failure. Because there are some things I need to work on, some prayers I need to pray, some tasks I need to be about, some people I need to love better, some dreams I need to dream with the Lord, and some nonsense and baggage I need to drop right here and never pick up again. And I am thinking you may need to leave some stuff behind too. Maybe you need to redefine failure for the new year. Maybe we need to, collectively, give each other ample grace while also extending that grace to our very own selves.
Back to Psalm 18, I’m calling on the Lord today and have plans to call on Him as often as need be in 2023, and I am believing He will save me from my enemies. Even if the biggest enemy is me at times.
I’d like to take a moment and pray a blessing over you for the New Year.
Lord, my prayer for each listener is that they will wholeheartedly, with fervency and devotion, love you more in 2023 than at any other time in their life. Would you be their strength, and not only when they face trouble or trials or difficulties or stress, but every single day. Be their strength as they parent their children, as they grieve losses, as they do their job week after week, in their finances, as they face what may feel like difficult economic times that are heavy and hard to bear, in their family relationships and in their ministry roles and even when they lie down to sleep each night, would you be their strength in those times to rest fully in you and be able to sleep and get the rest You want them to have? Be their rock, fortress, and rescuer in this new year. May they turn to you and take refuge in you as often as they need to. Be their shield, their high tower where they will be above the stresses of daily life and able to see things from Your point of view. Be their stronghold, a very certain help and comfort in their time of need.
You are worthy to be praised, Lord. May they praise You often and with great adoration. Save them from their enemies, whomever and whatever those enemies may be. Hear me as I pray today, and keep this prayer before You all year, one You will answer on their behalf again and again. Open dry paths for them to walk on when it seems as if deep waters are hindering their way. Where You lead, may they follow, and may they be blessed in that following of Your daily leading. Reach down from on high, rescue them, delight in them, bring them out into a broad place. Enable them to live clean lives before You, honoring You in public and in private, keeping the ways of the Lord. Help them to remain in Your Word, to spend time in prayer, and to be part of the local church that blesses them and is a blessing through them to other believers. Show yourself kind to them, and may Your kindness spur them on to kindness that overflows onto others. Save Your people who are afflicted, and remind them of the need to remain humble before You. Keep them from arrogance, foolishness, and haughty behaviors or thoughts. By Your power, Lord, they can crush a troop or scale a wall. As they do great exploits spiritually for Your kingdom, may You receive all the glory and praise. Bring them healing in every area that it is needed - emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually, relationally, and every other way that healing will bless them. Encircle them with strength, be their rock, make their way blameless.
Make their feet like hinds feet, stable and sure and able to climb on the heights - because we know that the high points of life require sure footing so we don’t forget You or Your blessings in the good times, or think we caused the good things of our own accord, or focus so much on the good life that we stumble due to not caring for those around us who may not be in a good times season of life. Make us able to stand firmly and walk safely in the midst of trouble. Set us securely on the high places You have ordained for us. Train our hands for the battles we fight, and to be in the fray and in the fight by praying for those You lead us to pray for. May we be able to bend a bow of bronze and see the prayers we pray through to fruition. Uphold and sustain them with Your right hand. May Your gentleness, Your gracious response to them as they pray and on their behalf as I pray this over them today, may Your gracious response make them great, for Your kingdom and Your purposes in this world that needs You so desperately.
Enlarge the path before them and make their steps secure so that their feet will not slip. They will pursue their enemies and overtake them this year. They will not turn back until their enemies are consumed. Satan will not have the final victory, and I am asking that he will not win in the battles they are fighting in 2023. Lord, with humility I am making this request on their behalf. Lord, do not deny me my requests today. May I be like the woman in Luke chapter 18 - like that parable You told about praying and not giving up, I will ask and ask and ask again like the persistent widow. Do not withhold from me answers to this prayer. Answer it again and again on their behalf, all throughout the next twelve months. May their enemies fall wounded under their feet, as it says in Your Word. Encircle them with strength for the battle, strength for whatever comes in 2023. Subdue those who come against them in ways that will not grow them, sanctify them, or honor You through them. Rescue them from contentious people, place them as the head and not the tail, may they be positioned for service among those who are Your people, Lord, and those who are in need of You in their lives. May they live in obedience to You, to Your will and Your call on their lives. And may they see the fruit of the Spirit in their life again and again and again, all year long. You, Lord, live. Blessed be Your name! May You, the God of our salvation, be exalted!
Rescue these ones for whom I am praying today. Life them above those who attack them and rise up against them, whether those are people attacking, circumstances attacking, or satan attacking. Deliver them from men of violence. We are Your people, we are a people of peace, and may we live in peace and at peace as far as it depends on us. We choose today to honor You with our lives all year long. We set this year before You and offer it to You before it even begins. And we give You our worship, our love, our adoration, our hearts. You are good, and You cannot be otherwise. You do nothing apart from Your lovingkindness for us. We give thanks to You, we praise You, O Lord among the nations, and we will sing praises to Your name all throughout this new year. Thank You for Your care for us, for hearing my prayer and answering it, for Your Word which teaches me how to pray and what to ask You for, thank You for Your steadfast love toward us and the mercy You extend. Thank You, and once again I say thank You.
This I pray in the name of Jesus, and may it be done according to Your Word. Amen.
I am always so blessed, so thankful, for the opportunity to pray for you. And I really do mean that. It is a privilege to pray for others, isn’t it? And one thing that gave me sort of a heart jump-start when it comes to prayer was the realization that I won’t need to pray when I am in eternity, in heaven, with the Lord. I am still going to praise and worship and adore Him, revere Him, honor Him. But He will set everything aright, He will make all things new, and He means it when He says in Revelation that there will be no more crying or death or pain and so I won’t need to lift those requests before Him since they will be gone forever. That realization moved me to pray with more fervency, more intensity, more longing for Him to hear and answer when I pray because I don’t have forever to be about this work of praying for others. I only have right now. And that’s, I suppose, why I am so thankful to be able to pray for you in this episode.
If this is something that blessed you, I have three things to quickly mention. One is my private prayer group on Facebook (and it is a private group because prayer requests are confidential sometimes and so it’s just a private group for that one reason). I do videos and pray in the group a couple of times a month, so it’s not an overwhelming amount of notifications from the group. It’s called Praying Through the Storm Online Prayer Retreat with Jan L. Burt on Facebook and the link will be at the top and the bottom of the show notes for this episode and also on my website, Jan L Burt . com.
Second is the new podcast I am working on. This one will be here focusing on God’s promises primarily, and the second one is called The Prayer Podcast with Jan L. Burt, and it will be, you guessed it, about prayer.
Third, a resource I created for the new year (based on something I do each year and on something I did with a group of people via email in early 2022 that ended with so many people asking me to turn the content into a book of some sort, and so that’s what I did) is called The 2023 Prayer Planner. It’s 21 days of verses, devotional type content about each verse, and a prayer for each day with some journal type pages with room to pray and plan and take note of what the Lord is saying to you about the coming year.
It’s a way to give the Lord the first fruits of the year, as an offering to Him. And man, it is a great way to start a year. To begin with the Word of God as our foundation. If you’d like to get a copy, it is available as a digital download on my website, it is also on Etsy and TPT and as a print book to order via Amazon.
The price is between $7 and $8, depending on the platform where you buy it, so it’s not a huge financial investment per se but it is an investment that will pay huge spiritual dividends so check that out if you want to kick off the year praying and seeking the Lord intentionally and to grow your faith, your trust and your prayer life.
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Find me here:
Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon). Find Jan on Instagram: @JanLBurt, TikTok @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.
Take the quiz "Which of God's Promises is for You?" via this LINK.
Sign up for Jan's email list & get info about The Praying Podcast right here.
Well, hey there! Welcome to this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show - the podcast about God’s promises and the impact that believing and praying those promises has on our lives as disciples of Jesus. I’m so glad you’re listening today and my prayer is that this episode will be an encouragement to you, right where you are in your life at this very moment. Because wherever we find ourselves, our God is there, too. And whatever we are facing today, we never face it alone, thanks to the goodness of our God.
I’m trusting God is going to answer that prayer on your behalf as I share from Luke chapter one today. You ready? I’m ready. Let’s go!
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 129.
Luke is a go-to book during the month of December. The first two chapters are just so rich, filled with the hope of Jesus’ advent, the coming of the long-awaited Messiah, the prophecies fulfilled. But sometimes we kind of wander in our thoughts during those Christmas sermons or during worship at church when we’re singing some of the Christmas songs we’ve had as part of our lives this time of year for as long as we can remember. Sort of second-nature and we just don’t focus or pay attention as well as we could, or should, ya know?
It’s good for us to remind ourselves to focus and renew our focus right in the middle of the sermon, shut down the continual to-do list that can start running in the background of our mind (without us even thinking about it - I mean, it just sort of happens!) and decide to listen with some attention, to be an attentive church-goer, take some notes (have a plan for that - use the notes app on your phone, bring a journal and your favorite pen, use the outline that may be right there in the bulletin you were handed). You are going to miss something if you don’t shut down and shut off the wandering thoughts that are all the things you need to get done because it is almost Christmas… spend that time paying attention to a message about the Christ of Christmas. Even if you feel like you’ve heard sermons from this particular text many times before, so? Listen. Take some notes. And expect the Lord to have something to say to you. Your pastor worked to put that message together, and God doesn’t intend for you to leave emptier than when you arrived. But you gotta dial in.
All of that to say, as I begin to read today’s passage, I really want you to listen. With your ears, but with ears to hear and a heart to understand. With a mind that wants to grow in your knowledge of the Word of God, with a desire to know Jesus better than you ever have before by the time this Christmas has come and gone. God loves to bless a heart like that. I mean that seriously, with all the sincerity I can muster. When we want to know Him better and better, well, don’t you think He will honor that?
I’m going to read some words from Luke chapter 1, verses 46 to 55. This passage of Scripture is known as The Magnificat. It is also known as Mary’s song.
This is a young woman, a very young woman, verbally out loud praising the Lord as she meets with her cousin Elisabeth, who was expecting a child in her old age… the one who would grow up to be John the Baptist, forerunner to Jesus the Messiah. Two women, separated by a wide age span, both expecting the unexpected at seasons in their lives that were pretty well figured out. Mary was engaged, soon to be married, ready to begin her new life as a wife and to step fully into womanhood and Elisabeth, an elderly woman, far beyond hope of having her heart’s cry of prayer for a baby to be answered. And here they were, stepping into the most vital, important roles of their lives. As a very young teen and as a very old woman.
The Christmas story reminds us that we are living with wisdom when we live with an expectancy of the unexpected.
As I read, I hope the Lord speaks to you about expecting the unexpected. Our God is still doing His profound and amazing work in this day, and I have a feeling He may just have something unexpected up His sleeve for you, for your life.
And Mary said, “My soul magnifies and exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has looked (with loving care) on the humble state of His maidservant; for behold, from now on all generations will count me blessed and happy and favored by God! For He who is mighty has done great things for me; and holy is His name (to be worshiped in His purity, majesty, and glory). And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who (stand in great awe of God and) fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His (powerful) arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thornes, and exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent the rich away empty-handed. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, just as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
I was reading from the Amplified. And isn’t it just beautiful?
How do you, how do I, respond to the unexpected? Mary was going to deal with scorn, ridicule, accusations of infidelity and unrighteousness not just for the short term, but for the long haul. And this was going to be somewhat scary, a somewhat difficult path to walk, this pregnancy. She did not immediately know whether or not Joseph would divorce her or continue with the marriage as planned. She did not know in any way, shape, or form what her future held. Did she give way to fear or anxiety? Did she doubt the goodness of God toward her?
I can’t say she never had any anxiousness - I mean, every mother has some twinges of anxiousness when pondering labor and delivery, so that could for certain have crossed her mind as this pregnancy went on. But overall, I don’t think she had doubts, as in doubting or questioning God. And here in her song we see her talking about all of Israel being blessed, all Abraham’s descendants receiving what was promised. She wasn’t thinking about herself all that much, from what I can tell! She was too busy praising God and rejoicing in His faithfulness to His people, to the entire world, to think on her own self, her own problems. This is truly remarkable, isn’t it?
Here she is stating that God’s mercy is upon generation upon generation.
The times she mentions herself, it is with thankfulness and rejoicing and exalting the Lord.
Do you think our lives would look a bit different if this kind of response, this level of trust in God that rolls right on over into worship and thanksgiving and praise and rejoicing and thinking of the way this will bless others rather than thinking of the ways this will be difficult or trying for us, do you think our lives would look different with this kind of response?
If we thought of ourselves less? And rejoiced in God more?
Even when we don’t understand the unexpected things that come upon us, could we possibly try to stand on what we do understand - which is that we are in the hands of a trustworthy God, every moment of every day, and we really, truly can rejoice in what He is doing? Perhaps, maybe even especially, in the unexpected things He is doing?
And even if, even when, people don’t get it… like, they’re asking out loud or wondering to themselves, why would God lead you in that direction? Why would God do this in your life when it doesn’t seem like the thing that everybody else sees as the best thing for your life? Even when we are misunderstood, even if God is misunderstood (and based on the things we read in the Bible, isn’t God often misunderstood??), can we still rejoice and be grateful and celebrate in advance, celebrate ahead of time, the ways He is working to bless many, many people? Our lives do not operate in vacuums, and God is always wanting to bless people on an ever-widening scale. He has not stopped being in the rescuing, saving, redeeming, healing, restoring, blessing business. Why do we seem surprised when He does what He loves to do?
We ought to expect God to be about His work of redemption and healing and sure, conviction and guidance, because decent fathers discipline and provide guidance and instruction, right? We ought to expect it when He does the unexpected in our lives. We should believe that He is both trustworthy and very, very good, perfect in all of His ways, and thus we should believe Him for the unexpected.
There is hope for us this Christmas.
There is hope for YOU this Christmas.
God is on the move, but it may not be in the way you’ve been expecting.
But He is too good to merely meet our expectations.
He is so incredibly good that He fully intends to exceed our expectations.
May His work in your world, in your life, surprise you and provide you with exceeding joy this Christmas. And may you find joy and peace as you trust in the God who works in unexpected ways.
Merry Christmas to you - and I mean that from the very bottom of my heart. Merry, merry Christmas.
From Luke chapter One:
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies and exalts the Lord,
47
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48
“For He has looked [with loving care] on the humble state of His maidservant;
For behold, from now on all generations will count me blessed and happy and favored by God!
49
“For He who is mighty has done great things for me;
And holy is His name [to be worshiped in His purity, majesty, and glory].
50
“And His mercy is upon generation after generation
Toward those who [stand in great awe of God and] fear Him.
51
“He has done mighty deeds with His [powerful] arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
52
“He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And exalted those who were humble.
53
“He has filled the hungry with good things;
And sent the rich away empty-handed.
54
“He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
55
Just as He promised to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Monday Dec 05, 2022
Monday Dec 05, 2022
Take the quiz "Which of God's Promises is for You?" via this LINK.
Sign up for Jan's email list & get info about The Praying Podcast right here.
Well hey there! Hello to ya today. Welcome back to the podcast, I’m incredibly grateful for all who listen. And I gotta say, a couple of episodes ago I think I must have touched on something that maybe a whole lot of believers are dealing with right now. I talked about James chapter 4, and how God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and really I looked at several verses from that portion of the Bible. I was pretty blunt, I guess you might say, and I was honestly a bit concerned that I might offend some listeners. But the opposite seemed to happen - I had some record setting download days, new listeners in record numbers, and a reach globally for that particular episode that went far, far beyond the norm for this show.
That is very interesting to me. I am guessing that people are feeling the same way all around the world. We just need more and more of Jesus as this world gets darker and darker. And I am presuming that’s why that episode, on James chapter four, was listened to in record numbers.
I think people want the straight truth from God’s Word, not all prettied up, but just what does it say and how can I live a life of belief, pray big and bold prayers based on God’s Word in this day and age. Because we don’t need to hear that it’s all gonna be okay just wait for the next election or the next economic boom or the next whatever that this world has to offer. We need to know that Jesus is always, always the answer, whatever the problem might be. We need encouragement from the Word of God because these last couple of years have been so incredibly hard, in ways we have not experienced hardship before. On a global scale. And so much of what changed in 2020 has not gone back to “normal”. I do not honestly think we are going to get that old life back. We are here now, and as it was in Daniel’s time, the writing is on the wall.
What we do with the reality we face now, well, that’s up to us. But as disciples of the Lord Jesus, I think we need to to stand firmly on the Word of God and we don’t need it sugar coated or gussied up or added to. We need Jesus, we need the Spirit of the Living God guiding us daily, moment by moment, we need the truths we find in the pages of our Bible, and we need to be a people of prayer. That’s what we need. And I think I caught a glimpse of how needed that is when I saw the response to episode number 126 of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show.
So I gotta follow where the Holy Spirit is leading, and I’m gonna do that.
Today’s episode is step one of me following. More steps come after that.
I don’t want to serve up things that are not what is most needed in your life right now.
So, I’m going to share God’s Word via this show. And I’m praying about a second podcast, tentatively called The Prayer Podcast with Jan L. Burt (because that is kind of a broad title for a show and in case it’s already another podcast title I think I will add my name to kind of not step on someone else’s toes.) I think God is calling me, at this point in time, to keep on hosting TBNES and talking about God’s promises in a way that will be frank and honest and helpful in this day and age, with the particular struggles and hardships we are facing right now, and add a second podcast to share Bible verses and to pray, like actually just pray on that podcast, very specific things based on the Word of God.
I’d love to hear from you about this, what you think, and you leave a comment directly on the podcast (I don’t get notifications from all the varied platforms, but you can leave a comment on the podbean page for TBNES or email me your thoughts at JanLBurt at outlook . com).
Looking forward to hearing from you, and looking forward to praying for you on the new show. But this show, it’s not going anywhere. Okay, let’s dig into Psalm 18, sound good?
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 128.
I’m going to read verses 31 thru 36 from Psalm 18, and I am referencing the Amplified Bible today. Listen as I read and then let’s dive deep into these verses.
31
For who is God, but the Lord?
Or who is a rock, except our God,
32
The God who encircles me with strength
And makes my way blameless?
33
He makes my feet like [c]hinds’ feet [able to stand firmly and tread safely on paths of testing and trouble];
He sets me [securely] upon my high places.
34
He trains my hands for war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your right hand upholds and sustains me;
Your gentleness [Your gracious response when I pray] makes me great.
36
You enlarge the path beneath me and make my steps secure,
So that my feet will not slip.
These verses pull no punches when they state that there is one God, He is a rock for us. The only God is the God of the Bible. That is offensive to a whole of people today. But I am pretty sure it has kind of always been offensive. We want, by nature, to have the approval of others when we go our own way, do our own thing. The God of the Bible does not allow us that luxury. For who is God but the Lord?
If He is Lord, then isn’t there lordship?
There is territory under His jurisdiction. That territory is the whole of our lives, and the whole of our hearts. That’s just the way it is when we follow Jesus. Lordship matters. It’s not a terrible idea to regularly remind ourselves that Jesus is Lord of all, and that we most certainly are not. Then, live like that’s the truth.
When you bump up against something, a desire or some speck of greed or selfishness, remember who is Lord and who is not.
Our God is our rock and He encircles us with strength and makes our way blameless.
That doesn’t really happen when we are living in our own strength…because then God isn't encircling us with His strength, ya know?
I want my way to be blameless, especially the older I get and the ickier this world gets. When I study Matthew 24 and Mark 13, for example, and I see things that for sure fit the description Jesus gave as birth pangs, I don’t read those chapters and think, “Gee, I wonder if I can goof around and not take the Word of God seriously and just do my own thing and put my head in the sand and not dig in and pray with fervency, not keep short accounts with the Lord, I wonder if I can dawdle and refuse to see that the things Jesus described are happening right now. Gee, I wonder if I can read my Bible and then totally flake out on what it actually says? Gee, can I do that and still expect God to make my way blameless?”
No. No I cannot.
If I want God to make my way, which is the entirety of my life, the whole of all the individual parts of my actual life the way that I am living it, for God to make my way blameless, I can’t refuse to believe the Bible. I just can’t. I can’t lapse in my praying, my communication with God Most High. I cannot forsake the gathering together of the saints. I cannot run around sinning sinning all day long, blatantly thumbing my nose at my Savior, and think I am gonna get this blameless life kind of guidance.
What do we really want, like, the most?
Some people really want success, comfort, prosperity, things that may not be God’s ideal for them. Do we want holiness unto the Lord? Do we want to know the Word of God so well that any attempt at deception will be noticed right away? Do we want His church to grow, to thrive, to mature? Or do we mostly want things that are all about us? The all about me myself and I lifestyle really does not fit well with Jesus' call on our lives, does it?
You want God to lead you in the way that is blameless? I hope so! I believe God wants us to want that, and that’s why it’s in the Bible for us to read and to apply. Like, we read it and it changes us because God intends for us to be continually bettered and made more like His Son Jesus. We are being sanctified, or at least hopefully that’s the goal.
Okay, verse 33… oh we’ve got a promise here. This is good, good stuff for us, right now, in this funky kind of world since 2020 and things turned upside down and have not turned right side up again. This is the kind of promise we need, like oxygen we gotta have it, and whaddya know, God provides what we really, really need.
He makes my feet like hinds’ feet [able to stand firmly and tread safely on paths of testing and trouble];
He sets me [securely] upon my high places.
Yeah, that’s what we need. To be made steady and firm, sure footed, in the way that only our God can do. My prayer as I’ve been working on this episode is that you, and I, will be given hinds feet, that we will be able to stand firmly, not wavering, not waffling, not unsteady in any way, shape or form, but steadied and standing steady because God makes us that way. Treading safely on paths that can only be called difficult, paths of testing and trouble. Sound familiar at all? It does to me! Sounds like life on planet earth these days. Did ya blink? Well, wouldn’t ya know it, more bad news.
If I am going to stand in faith and pray big, bold, daring prayers for my friends and family in their hard places, I have to be able to stand firmly and tread safely. This is the promise of verse 33 from Psalm 18. It’s a keeper, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah it sure is.
And it goes on to say that God sets us securely on our high places. . That is the need of the hour, isn’t it? And as always, God shows up, shows off, shows out and meets our needs. I’ve said this before, but it is worth saying again as a reminder: God has not abdicated His throne. He is large and in charge and is not going to give any quarter to the enemy. He intends to make our feet like hinds feet. We will be able to handle this stuff because He will equip us. The Holy Spirit is never going to lie down on the job. You are in good hands, my friend, and thank God that doesn’t just mean you have Allstate insurance. The hands with the nail scars are the hands you are in. You will be set securely upon your high places. Things will be under your feet because the Lord has put you securely atop them.
Verse 34 says God trains your hands for war so your arms can bend a bow of bronze. He’ll equip you for the fight, and there is a fight, of course, because Satan is on the prowl seeking whom he may devour. Not whom he may snarl at, but devour. So God gets us ready and gives us promises and strengthens us. He never abandons us or forgets about us. If He is doing the work of training your hands for war, let Him. Let Him do that work in you. How do you become a prayer warrior? By warring in prayer. And that really only happens in hard times. You don’t start battling in prayer if life is a breeze. Let yourself be readied for the fight. Run your race. But run it well, ya know what I mean? Don’t apply the loser's limp as soon as it gets hard and say, “Oh I did the best I could but I just, oh, it’s hard and I’m not feeling it.” Run so as to win the prize, it says in the New Testament. Run your race. And I’ll be here spurring you on, reminding you that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.
35
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your right hand upholds and sustains me;
Your gentleness [Your gracious response when I pray] makes me great.
36
You enlarge the path beneath me and make my steps secure,
So that my feet will not slip.
The last two verses we’ll look at today - and aren’t they encouraging?
He has promised to give us the shield of His salvation - never forget just how wonderful it is to be saved. Jesus’ gift of salvation is the gift that keeps on giving, this ain’t the jelly of the month club and aren’t you thankful? His right hand upholds and sustains you - there’s a promise worth remembering! His gentleness, His gracious response when you pray, makes you great.
I may have, at times, wanted to be some kind of great… I am such an introvert, that this probably is like great at being the world’s best ever sit in your own home and read books as my form or great. But isn’t it wild to consider that God wants to make His people great? He has a form of greatness for each one of us, and we can attain it when we let Him be God and we get on out of His way. Let Him work. Let Him act on your behalf. Expert the Holy Spirit to counsel you, guide you, instruct you, remind you what the Word of God says, bless you, shore you up, strengthen you daily, and lead you on, step by step. He is literally walking you home. He wants it to be a wonderful long walk home. Let Him do His work in your life with the least possible resistance from you. Because your Father knows best. And He only wants the very best for you. Let Him make you great, whatever that looks like.
And He promises to enlarge the path beneath us and make our steps secure. Why? So that our feet will not slip.
Let’s start praying this verse and believing God will answer this prayer, like, over and over again. Lord, enlarge the path beneath me. If it is where You intended for me to be walking, as in living out my daily life, would you enlarge the path where my feet trod, just as Your Word says you will do? Will you make my steps secure? If I am not in Your will, would You show me and direct me to the right path? And will you keep me from any and all missteps. May my feet never slip, no stones in my path, no rocks in my shoes, no twisted ankles, no potholes on the path of my life.
That’s a good prayer, because it’s based on the Word of God. He put it in the Bible for us to read, and to believe. We show our level of belief when we pray. Did you know that? Your level of belief shows up in the way that you pray. That’s just the way it is. No way around it. If you don’t really believe what God has said in His Word, that becomes very evident when you pray.
Let’s pray with belief, with hope, with expectation, with trust, and with hearts that truly love the Lord our God more and more and more, as we get closer to eternity.
I’m going to go ahead and wrap this up today, but I do want to mention that if you’d like any info about the launch of the upcoming podcast, The Prayer Podcast with Jan L. Burt, you can sign up on my email list and I’ll share two ways to do that. One is a quiz, which promise from the Bible is your promise, that link will be at the bottom of the show notes and also right at the very top. And the other way is via my website, that first page you land on, an invite to sign up is right there and I am going to change the wording for that sign up place to mention the new podcast so you’ll know you’re in the right place. And I don’t over email, I am not a hyper emailer, so don’t expect to get a whole lot from me when you sign up. But I am planning on sending out a link to each new episode of the new podcast, and maybe this podcast too, so that’s my big plan.
Pray some big, bold, daring prayers this week, and I’d love to hear how God moves in answer to your prayers. See ya next time!
Jan L. Burt
Find me here:
Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon). Find Jan on Instagram: @JanLBurt, TikTok @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.
Tuesday Nov 29, 2022
Tuesday Nov 29, 2022
Take the quiz "Which of God's Promises is for You?" via this LINK.
Well, hey there! Welcome to the latest episode of the podcast. I’m so thankful you’re listening, and my prayer for this episode has been for it to encourage and bless you right now, in the exact place you find yourself. Whatever is going on in your life as you listen today, I have prayed and asked God to show up in a way that means something special to you. And I’m trusting Him to do just that. Let’s grab hold of the goodness of our God today as we study His Word.
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 127.
Psalm 145, getting toward the end of the book of psalms. It’s got some beautiful verbiage that is so helpful for us as we wait on the Lord in our individual circumstances that kind of challenge us, push and pull and yank us here and there, and we need to be able to hit pause and focus on God’s Word. So Psalm 145 gives us that opportunity. It’s like a reset, this passage, and after we read it, and hopefully in the reading of it comes some believing of it, you know as in taking God at His Word, and then we experience the reset. The peace that we’ve been promised, the hope we have in the Lord, the reminders that David provides us with in this psalm are just lovely, like in the truest sense of the word.
Let read verses 4-7 from the New Living Translation.
4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
let them proclaim your power.
5
I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor
and your wonderful miracles.
6
Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness.
7
Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
they will sing with joy about your righteousness.
Don’t we get a boost when we hear someone else sharing about what the Lord has done in their life? The process of telling our children, sharing God’s incredible acts, with the next generation is refreshing. And we see here in verse 4 that each generation is to tell its children, and then allow those children, the next generation, to proclaim God’s power. That’s just how it ought to work in the church. Telling the younger ones what He has done. Not remaining silent, but telling of His mighty acts. And if we can’t recall any mighty acts of God, that’s a whole nother issue. If He hasn’t done anything in our lives that we can recall, we need to be talking to the Lord about that. Have we forgotten? Has praise and thankfulness become too far removed from our daily lives and we just can’t find the good things God has done? Or, do we maybe need to study Jesus’ words in the New Testament, in the four Gospels, to check ourselves and make sure we’re not somehow thinking we’re in the Kingdom if maybe we’re not. If nothing has ever happened, in terms of God’s mighty acts, we need to be looking into that. And Jesus’s words in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are where we should start.
Let’s be thankful children of God who are in the habit, like habitually, talking about what He has done. Has He not done some miraculous things? When we start thinking back over our life and remembering, calling to mind, what He has done for us, it is hard to stop that train once it gets rolling. You’ll remember another thing God did, and something else He did, and oh wow, that one thing way back when, at the time I didn’t realize that was the Lord working on my behalf but now I see it more clearly and I’m so thankful. The snowball starts to roll, ya know? It’s the initial movement, getting the inertia going, that takes a bit work. But it’s such a good work, and so worth it. You’ll be encouraged and the next generation will be so blessed by this picture you paint of what God has done. And why can’t He do even more incredible things in their lives, among their peers? He can. I don’t think He has stopped doing what He loves to do, which is work in people’s lives and bring them into His kingdom. Let’s get excited about that, and let’s try to stay excited about it.
So that’s verses 4 and 5, talking about these things and meditating on His goodness, His splendor, His miracles. Just the majesty that belongs solely and singularly to our God. So much better, more beneficial in every way, as compared to letting the woes of life and the daily news reel be our primary meditation.
In verse 6 we read this: Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness.
Wouldn’t this world be different, in a good way, if God’s awe inspiring deeds were on every single tongue? If every person on this planet spoke out loud about God’s deeds, and proclaimed His greatness. Nothing would be the same. Not one single thing, I really do believe that. Everything would change, for the better. We can’t make that happen, that’s a big ask right there, a lofty goal, one we can pray for, but what we can do, you and I, is personally proclaim God’s greatness. And we should do that. A lot. A lot lot.
Verse 7 kind of feels like a promise to me - Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
they will sing with joy about your righteousness.
Everyone will share the story of God’s wonderful goodness. That has not happened yet, but since this verse is in the Bible, I have prayed and asked God to make it a reality. That we would all share about His goodness, that we would all sing with joy about His righteousness.
Has it been your experience that the righteousness of Jesus has changed your life?
I want to bounce up to verse 1 of Psalm 145 - I will exalt you, my God and King,
and praise your name forever and ever.
We are kind of given a life purpose here. To exalt our God, our King, to praise His name.
Isn’t that the heart of true thankfulness? We recently celebrated Thanksgiving in the US and this verse is fitting for this time of year.
Each generation telling of God’s mighty acts. That’s thankfulness!
Are we proclaiming the Lord’s power? He has power, He is all powerful. Do we believe that? Do we live as if it is true? Do we ever talk about it? It’s not gonna be comfortable for everyone in your life, or in mine, to hear us share about God’s mighty deeds, His power, exalting and praising Him. Some people are not going to like it all that much. It will make some people uncomfortable. But what will do with that discomfort? Stay silent? Give people what they want and not do what God would have us to do, based on this psalm?
Do we fear God more than we fear man? Isn’t the fear of man a snare, a trap? Isn’t a trap or a snare a bad thing? I want to choose what’s better, and I will only find what is really better in the Bible.
He is yet to this day so powerful - let’s proclaim that.
And let’s meditate on God’s majestic and glorious splendor. The majesty of His splendor is so far beyond anything we can relate to, but we can still meditate on it. We should, because the Bible says to. It’s going to be good for me to do what He says to do in His Word. So I want to do those exact things. What’s good for me, God? I want to do that very thing.
He is majestic. He is glorious. And His splendor is beyond all ability to accurately describe.
He performs wonderful miracles. You know, salvation is a miracle. It took Jesus’ death on the cross to make a way, the one single way, for us to have our sin debt paid. That’s miraculous. Every person who knows Jesus is a living miracle. It’s just that simple. This week, start right there, with your own salvation, and praise the Lord for that miracle. I’m guessing more things will come to mind to thank Him for, more miracles will come to your remembrance. But start right there. Eternity with the Lord, fully forgiven, our sins removed as far as the east is from the west. Is that not truly miraculous? Thank You, Lord.
Waking up each day, seeing God’s creation, breathing air into our lungs, feeling our heart beat - these are awe inspiring deeds that ought to be on every tongue. May we not be a people who fail to share about His goodness. Somebody could be on the verge of something terrible, a crisis in their finances, their health, a relationship, work, under an attack from Satan that is so intense, they may want to give up. But they may not be showing it at all, now outward signs, cuz we’re so good at hiding our low places. You might share something that could give them hope, remind them of something they're forgotten about God ro reveal to them something they never knew about God. Just realizing God loves you and does not loathe or despise, that He really is for you… that can be enough to change a life. That could prevent a suicide attempt, in all honesty. And you can do this as part of your normal life, with your normal personality. You don’t have to go to seminary or try to figure out how to be like a preacher. You be you, and just mention something God has done in your conversations as He leads. Trust Him with the results, the way it could impact someone who needs to know God still does miraculous things. That’s really all there is to it. I read it can be described as sharing bread with a starving person because you were once starving and you now have the Bread of Life. That simple. That impactful. That important.
God’s people should be the most thankful people in the world. Nobody else on this planet should be more thankful than us. So let’s just get thankful.
And hey, if it seems like more than you can do, way out of your comfort zone to talk about what God has done, His awesome deeds, let me remind you that most all of us at some point or another, or lots and lots and lots of times, will share about our own awesomeness. Like the movie Bolt, the hamster yelling into the air duct vent, “If you're awesome” - doesn’t he say it’s beyond awesome, it’s be-awesome. Invented a whole new word. We tell those old high school football stories. We tell of our kids football stories. We tell of our favorite NFL teams football stories, and those are not our personal stories, I’m never on the field, right? What about work wins? Yeah, we share about those.
It’s easier to share those things, those awesome deeds, because there’s no real resistance. Nobody gets really, really uncomfortable. The devil isn’t likely to fight against that, cuz it can bleed over into those 1 John mentions, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. If Satan has a chance at getting you to those places, he’s all for it.
We hold back sharing about God’s awesome deeds because there is resistance and discomfort, for us and those who are listening as we talk.
I’m an extreme introvert, and this kind of stuff is not my natural happy place. Sometimes the Lord takes us to places we would not go unless He called us to go. That can happen even in our conversations.
You will have some degree of push back, internal or external, if you start sharing about God’s awesome deeds. That comes with the territory. You get to choose, but I really hope you choose to do what Psalm 145 encourages us to do. Because as it says in verse 13, the Lord always keeps His promises and is gracious in all He does. He lifts us when we are bent beneath our loads, says verse 14. He satisfies our needs, verses 15 and 16. He is close to all who call on Him, to those who call on Him in truth. Verse 18. He grants the desires of those who fear Him, verse 19. He hears their cries for help, He rescues them, He promises to protect all who love Him in verse 20.
Verse 21 ends this psalm and it says, I will praise the Lord, and may everyone on earth bless His holy name forever and ever.
How will they know if nobody tells them about our awesome God?
All the promises I just read from this psalm are promises God intends to keep. Which of those promises do you most need right now?
Can you lean in, trust Him fully, and recount with thanksgiving a heart filled with praise, the miraculous and the awesome things He has done for you?
Let’s roll into this Christmas season with thankful and joy filled songs about His righteousness in our thoughts and on our tongues. Lord bless you, right here and right now, and continue to bless you and do awesome things in your midst.
If you happen to have any prayer needs that I could pray for, feel free to email me at JanLBurt@outlook.com and I will pray. I also have a giveaway to my email subscribers, feel free to sign up for that at JanLBurt.com and the next giveaway winner will be chosen at the very end of November and the December winner will be chosen on December 15th so I can ship the giveaway prizes to get there hopefully by Christmas.
Thanks for listening today. Lord bless you, and I’ll see you next time. Feel free to subscribe and get new episodes as soon as they drop.
Jan L. Burt
Find me here:
Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon) & “The Once-A-Year Homeschool Planner” (a multi-grade, multi-subject planning system) – which can be found at JanLBurt.com. She has also been a regular contributor to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Find Jan on Instagram: @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.
Monday Nov 14, 2022
Monday Nov 14, 2022
Click HERE for a free prayer guide.
I hope you are ready for some hope, some encouragement, and some truth from the Word of God. All God’s promises prove true. And every promise is yes and amen through Christ Jesus.
It’s gonna be a good one today. Ya ready? Alrighty - let’s go!
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 126.
So today I am going to do some straight talk. Very, very straight talk from James chapter 4.
You know, I’ve discovered that when the Lord draws me to read any part of the New Testament book of James, I sort of brace myself. Sanctification and probably some discipline is coming my way. Anybody else ever feel that way? Like, “Oh, I’m going to James. Oooh boy, ooh yikes.”
I may as well just yield and let the Spirit of the Living God do what He needs to do. Teach me, reprove me, guide me, discipline me because He loves me, show me something in my heart and life where I am not quite where He wants me to be. Just lean into it, that is what I’ve learned to do.
So recently, like within the last couple of days, I found myself looking at the fourth chapter of James. James 4:1-7 in the NLT, I was journaling and praying as I read it and I wanted to share it here on the podcast because it ended up being such a blessing to me, I want to pass that blessing along to you.
There is a saying, blessed to be a blessing, and it’s really true.
Let’s just get rolling here. And this is a word for the season, for sure.
James 4:1 - What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
Vs 1 - here we find the answer for the strife and angst in life. Is something eating at you, or at me? This verse gives us a source. And, it’s not somebody else or circumstances. It’s me. Yeah, so this is sort of why I internally wince when the Lord has me read in James. I’m gonna give an example that came to mind as I was reading through these verses. Regarding recent elections, can I share that in all honesty I kind of feel like this verse fits so perfectly? How’s my attitude? Am I confused by the choices people made and that is rolling right on over into frustration, anger, grouchiness, grrr. I gotta take those emotions, and emotions are real, but I have to take them and give them to the Lord. If I am not upset about the things that His Word clearly state I ought to be upset about, I’m gonna be off track. What is causing this, Jan? What’s at war within you? How irritated am I prone to get when I do not get what I want? This verse leads me to ask that question, and to let the Holy Spirit put a spotlight where He wants it. Sometimes that is uncomfortable. Okay…well, the deal I made with the Lord is that this is no longer my life, but His, and so if He wants to spotlight something that makes me feel uncomfortable, uh, it’s not my life, it’s now His and also, He was so far beyond uncomfortable when He went to the cross for me, it’s just icky how I sometimes get irritated when He is doing with my life the exact thing He said He would do upon my salvation. Take it from garbage and total trash and make it anew. James helps me get my head on straight when I’m seeing things through my own skewed lenses.
Verse 2 - You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
Vs 2 - do I not have what I want because I have not asked God for it? It’s not a yes or no question, it’s more of a yes on the regular question. Did I even check in with God on this? If I never, ever ask Him for what I really want, then it’s likely that what I want isn’t something I feel comfortable asking Him for (ding ding ding ding - may have a problem here!) or I am just annoyed when I don't get it but I never asked. Sometimes we just didn’t ask, and we should ask. Why? Because the Bible says so. What do I want & why do I want it? Do I want something that belongs to someone else? What aspect of jealousy might be rearing its head in my life? Can my frustration show me something that is amiss, a place where I am jealous and maybe didn’t fully see it until the Word of God showed me what’s up. Is it important enough to me to take before the God of heaven’s armies? To enter the throne room of grace? To pray with importunity, as Jesus taught? If it’s eating at me so much that I am scheming to try and get, fighting and waging war for it, but I haven’t gone to the Lord about it, maybe this is a really wrong, off base desire or maybe I just forgot to go talk to the Father, to make my requests known with thanksgiving. Be sure you are asking God for the things you want. And letting Him give a yes or a no. That’s a safe place to live our lives, and this world is a hot mess and living in a safe place, oh, that’s a good plan.
Verse 3 - And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
Vs 3 - back to my political example… Do I want my choice of candidate to win because I want what I want for my own ease in life and my own pleasures, what will make things more comfortable for me and mine, or do I want that candidate to be in office in order to glorify God and advance His Kingdom purposes? You know, which is it? What is really in my heart? Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful above all things, and so we need to let the Holy Spirit be the One to determine the worth of what’s in our hearts and to change our hearts desires if need be. We can’t make that change on our own, but He can. We do need to be willing to let HIm work. And how does my frustration and anger about not getting what I wanted reveal what I need most? My motives are pretty revealing. Lord, fix my eyes and thoughts and heart on You and get my motives in line with Your will. Amen to that.
Verse 4 - You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
Vs 4 - now the Word of God gets blunt. With frankness that would be deemed rude and even “un-Christlike “ James states that even our tiniest want to be friends with the world makes us adulterers against the Lord. He says it twice to bring the point fully home. God is no chump. He ain’t playin’. This is what He deems as adulterous behavior. Let’s get into agreement with Him and treat friendship with the world appropriately per the Word of God. Let’s make no provision for the flesh.
Verse 5 & 6 - Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
Vs 5 & 6 - God is serious about us being fully His. To be fully His requires faithfulness to Him. How would we react if God were merely hit and miss in His faithfulness toward us? It is nonsense to believe that our faithfulness to Him can be taken as lightly (and to our shame, it so often is). He opposes - OPPOSES!! - the proud. Period. And He gives grace to the humble. Also, period. Which will you have? Which will I have? Grace from God, or opposition from God? You and you alone get to choose. I choose for me, you choose for you. Let’s not slap God’s hand away when He is being generous toward us. He gives us grace generously, it says here. Accept that grace, and live with some humility. Man, how would this world look if people lived with some humility and less pride. We are prideful, as a human race, we really are. You and I, though, we can choose every single day to humble ourselves. And then the promise here is that we get grace. I want grace, because I really need grace, so I gotta do the work of being more and more and more humble.
Verse 7 - So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Vs 7 - here we find one of the most beautiful promises in the entire Bible. So humble yourselves before God (that word “so” indicates that we have weighed this out and have made our decision). Resist the devil and he will flee from you. WILL. Here’s that amazing word, will. You first humble yourself before God Almighty and then you resist , put some force and effort into that resisting, and the devil has to flee from you. He has to! This is an iron-clad promise. Do your part and God will most assuredly do His. He can’t break one of His promises. It is, after all, impossible for God to lie. He is not a man that He should lie. We read this in our Bibles and we gotta apply it to our lives if we want to live at the level God has in mind for His children. Level up. Humble ourselves, then resist the devil, and he will flee. Flee. Interesting word choice, and God could have used any word there but the word is flee. Satan turning on his heel and running straight away from you, from me. Don’t let the power of this promise be lost on you simply because you’ve heard time and time again. This is good stuff, good good stuff. God has good, good stuff in store for us in this life and for certain in the next life.
I don’t want to miss any of that, so I go to the books of James when He calls me to study the book of James, and I ask Him to change me in any and every way that He deems is in need of change. Change with God means improvement. We kind of look at it as a loss, but it’s always a win. Always an upgrade. Always an improvement. So I don’t want to avoid that. Show me the money. Show me the good stuff. If this is how I get what God has for me, so be it. I’m in. Let’s do this thing.
And as for the climate of the world right now, it’s not going to poof get all sorts of better. Because Jesus doesn’t have free reign in the hearts and minds of so many people on this planet. Because our enemy satan is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Not nibble on, not snarl at, but devour. Pretending that anyone or anything outside of Jesus the Messiah can fix what’s broken in this world is really just putting lipstick on a pig. Because what’s broken is internal, it’s the hearts of men and women, it’s sin. Prayer is going to do more to bless you, bless your family, honor your God, bless your church, your workplace, your neighbors, your country, elected officials, lawmakers, the whole wide world - prayer is going to do more to be a blessing than any candidate ever will. Election day is over for 2022 but you know, prayer isn’t over. Let’s be Christ followers who are such tremendous prayer warriors that satan hates it when we hit our knees and fold our hands and bow our heads in prayer.
That’s it for this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. Thanks for listening, God bless you and I’ll see you back next time.
Jan L. Burt
Find me here:
Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon) & “The Once-A-Year Homeschool Planner” (a multi-grade, multi-subject planning system) – which can be found at JanLBurt.com. She has also been a regular contributor to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Find Jan Instagram: @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
Well hey there, hello to ya today. So thankful you are listening to the show today. We’re talking about prayer, which is a hugely important aspect of the Christian life and is incredibly needed in this era in which we find ourselves living. And there is tremendous promise in prayer. The Bible has so much to say about prayer, it’s hard to overemphasize how much hope we have when we stand in prayer.
Paul, in his epistle, Colossians chapter one, that’s our text for today. I’m going to read from the NLT and then I am going to pray this passage for you. And in the show notes for this episode I’m going to attach a link for a pdf you can download that has the prayer I’ll be sharing on the episode, so you can access it on your phone or print it out and keep it with your Bible study items, use it in any way that would be a blessing to you and the people that you are praying for. I’ll put that link at the very top of the show notes so that it will be easy to access no matter what app or podcast player you use to listen to podcasts. I’m really honored to be able to pray for you today, and for the 125th episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, this seemed like a super fitting topic to focus on. Let’s jump into this passage.
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 125.
So as I look at Colossians chapter one, I am going to read aloud verses three through fourteen, and I’m a quick reader so don’t get too worried that it’s gonna take me a long while to read this. I want to read it and then pray it. So as I read, would you listen closely, with some intentionality, and think about who you can pray these verses for? Who might God want you to stand in prayer for today?
We want to be disciples who in turn make disciples. A key aspect of the Great Commission, right? Prayer is one excellent way to focus on discipleship. Because you and I, we will grow in our walk with the Lord as we pray for others. And those others for whom we are praying are also going to grow in their life. It is actually a WIN-WIN. And we want as many wins as possible, especially when it feels like life kind of kicks us around a bit, knocks us down. Let’s get some wins, you know what I mean. Right here, this is a big WIN-WIN for us.
I’m reading from the New Living Translation. Colossians 1:3-14
3 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, 5 which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
6 This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
7 You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.[b] 8 He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,[c] 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom[d] and forgave our sins.
Okay, this is quite a passage. Really so much here for us to believe God for in prayer.
Paul saying that they always pray for the recipients of this letter, can you even imagine what comfort that brought them? You know, when we pray for others, in a committed kind of way in particular, it really has an impact on them. It shores them up, it can steady them where they may not quite be feeling their sea legs ya know, kind of shaky and quaky. It is so good to know that we are not alone and somebody who loves Jesus is praying for us on the regular. It’s a really big deal, and my personal desire is honestly that we all have somebody or several somebodies who pray for us. It’s part of being in the body of Christ, and I really would love to see us get all sorts of fired up about praying for one another. What might change if we really leaned into that? Uh, yeah I actually think everything could change.
And when you pray for others, give thanks to the Lord as you pray. Like, the ability to pray and have our prayers heard by God is huge, so thank Him. And thank Him for your church body, thank Him for your praying friends and family, thank Him for all the things really. I could go on and on about what we should be thankful for.
Verse 4 - Paul is thankful for their faith in Jesus and their love for God’s people. Can the same be said of us? Does anybody see evidence of my faith in Jesus? Is it apparent that I love God’s people? I hope so. And does my love and my faith stem from my confident hope of what is coming for me in the future. Confident. Key word in this passage. Confident hope does not sound like, “Gee I sure hope so.” In Revelation, in His letters to the churches, Jesus said they’d forgotten their first love. When we remember what it was like when we first really got it, what this relationship with Jesus was really all about, man what a moment. Did we have an expectation of what would come in the next life back then? Yes indeed. That can still be our expectation and the source of our hope. God has things reserved for us in heaven. Isn’t that exciting? Hang on to that first love. Jesus is always, always worth it, my friend.
Let’s also pray that the Good News will continue to spread around the world. I have a shirt that says “Make Heaven Crowded” and I’ll be honest, I have some shirts that remind me to pray (and a lock screen for my phone that I created to remind me to pray), a hoodie that reminds me that making disciples and being a good disciple myself, those things matter. I have a shirt to remind me that Esther 4:14 is true, and one to remind me that the work I do in my writing and podcasting, it needs to be handled with care, if you will. Like not flippant, but really focused and prayed up as I do the things I do. Make heaven crowded - three words that might be kind of cheesy in the way that only Christian tshirts can at times be cheesy. But it’s important to me. I wear that shirt when I’m writing, when I’m recording audio content like this podcast. It’s for me, to remind me of something really important. People matter. And where they spend eternity, that matters to Jesus and so it should matter to me.
Now I also have a shirt that mentions it being too people-y outside and a sweatshirt that says homebody. I’m telling you, if you know you know. I love people, but the way God made me, I don’t refuel or recharge with all the peoples. I need to have time alone, and you know what, that’s the time I use to write, to craft out podcast content, to work on things for my next prayer retreat in my private Facebook group. To pray for dozens of people (and I have a prayer list with dozens of names on it) If God had not wired me to be okay, to even be in my sweet spot, without loads of people around me all the time, I don’t know that I could get done the things I do. So, how God wired you is part of how He will accomplish the good works He planned for you to be doing. Don’t get annoyed by the gift (cuz sometimes that’s a shady way of being annoyed at the gift giver). Pray and ask how this gifting fits in with how He made you and His good works that He prepared in advance for you to do. It’s really that simple. I used to think I was a really cruddy Christian because I got worn out by too much people-y stuff. Now, I understand it so much better because I prayed about it and the Lord showed me some stuff. He’ll show us some stuff if we pray and talk to Him about whatever it is we need to talk about.
This Good News about Jesus is bearing fruit everywhere and it is doing that by changing lives. Look, I’ve said it before and this here today won’t be the last time I say this. The Word of God is life changing. God is in the life changing business. So, why are we so surprised when a life is changed by the Lord? Why should that surprise us? It’s His way, so we should expect to see lives changed all the time. And hey, why shouldn't one of those lives be your life? You cannot possibly give me a good reason why not you. Why not you? Let God change your life and let your changed life bear fruit.
In verse 7 Paul mentions the person who told them the Good News. We are coworkers with every other Chrsitian who is sharing the Good News of Jesus. It’s not a contest or a competition. We’re working toward the same goal. Be a faithful servant of Jesus, yourself personally, and pray for others to be the same. And then, don’t let competition get in there. God’s got a crown for you and He’s got a crown for them. No need to compete because what are you competing for? You can’t obtain their crown and they can’t somehow work really really hard and get your crown in place of their own. Let’s pray for one another, and for the Kingdom to advance and take more and more ground. And let’s show that the Holy Spirit really has given us love for one another.
Now, verse 9 on have very clear and specific ways we can pray for one another.
First, don’t stop praying. Be committed in your prayer life. Take it seriously. You know, when Jesus prayed to the Father, He took it seriously. And we don’t always do that. So pray, don’t stop praying and take it seriously.
Next, ask God to give the people you are praying for complete knowledge of His will and to give them spiritual wisdom and understanding. Ask the Lord to enable them to live in a way that always honors and pleases God, and for their lives to produce every kind of good fruit (feel free to study the fruit of the Spirit and to ask for those exact things in the lives of the people for whom you pray). And the last part of verse 10 reminds us to pray for people to grow as they learn to know God better and better.
To grow, so this is showing us what growth as a Christian looks like, what maturity looks like. It shows itself as knowing God better and better. And it says to learn to know God better and better. Do you know Him better now than last year at this time? If you don’t, you may need to LEARN to know Him better. Sit at His feet in prayer, read your Bible and pray and ask Him to teach you (learning means being taught, right?) teach you to know Him better. Take time to listen, to be quiet in His presence, to write down what you are learning, because writing it down will cement it more in your heart and mind. Note takers are world changers. There’s so much truth behind that saying. Learn to know Him better. It’s not enough, my friends, to go to church two Sundays a month and that’s all the time you have for Jesus. That is not learning how to know Him better. Get serious about prayer, get serious about reading your Bible, get serious about heeding the conviction and leading of the Lord, get serious about the things the Bible says to get serious about.
Verse 11 - pray that they (those for whom you’re praying) will be strengthened with all God’s glorious power so they will have all the patience and endurance they need. Ask God to fill them with joy, and to give them a heart of thankfulness that always thanks the Father. Sometimes we are thanking Him in all things, but maybe not for all things. And I also gotta say, while it was not true at first like the first year or two dealing with serious heart problems, but for sure the last couple of years I can honestly say I have gone from thanking God in this situation to thanking Him for it. One result of perpetual thankfulness is that it spreads, and it’s a good kind of spreading. I want to be contagious with things that actually matter. A bad attitude, a complaining spirit, is so contagious. So is gratitude and thankfulness. Pray that those people on your prayer list will be thankful.
Ask God to enable them to share in the inheritance that only belongs to His people. For them to really, really know Jesus personally and to have the assurance of eternity with the Lord and not separated from Him. That’s the only way to obtain our inheritance, so when pray for them to share in this inheritance, we are seeking God to call out to them, to draw them with cords of lovingkindness, for their salvation. We want those people for whom we pray to live in the light. Jesus is the Light of the world, so let’s pray for people to live in the light and not to walk in any kind of darkness.
And be sure to praise Him for the work He has done in your life when He rescued you from the kingdom of darkness and transferred you into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Praise Him for purchasing our freedom and forgiving our sins.
Now that is how I pray Colossians chapter one for those on my prayer list. And to kind of make this grab-able (that’s not a word but for today, let’s pretend it is) I made a pdf you can download and the link is at the very top of the show notes and also down at the bottom with my other links, like to my private prayer group where we are going to begin a new weekly time of prayer and teaching about prayer so you can join that, it will go into mid December and then again in the new year, probably all of January and all of February. And also a link to my book A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents on Amazon.
Let me pray now for you based on what I put together in the pdf you can grab at the link. As I pray, just let the Lord comfort you and kind of lean in and choose to believe that He will answer this prayer on your behalf. He’s got blessings and favor and goodness for you and I hope, I really mean this from the bottom of my heart, I hope that no matter where you are in life right now that you can lean in and believe Him for these blessings. Trust again. Love the Lord anew today. Hope in Him and receive whatever it is that He wants to give.
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Today let's take a look at
the book of Joshua. This book of the Bible is amazing. If you haven’t read it in a while, or possibly ever, well a lot of people don’t read that much of the OT (for a lot of reasons) but I have learned so, so much about who my God truly is in the OT. It’s a really wonderful book of the Bible.
So, Joshua chapter 8 verse 18 - and we are looking at this verse in the AMP today.
Joshua 8:18 - AMP - Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Reach out with the spear that is in your hand (and point it) toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua reached out with the spear in his hand (and pointed it) toward the city.
It is remarkable to read the LORD speaking to Joshua in this verse. It sort of stops me in my tracks in a way when I see the Lord speaking to anyone! It’s a big deal! And I don’t think Joshua took it lightly - I think the sum total of His life proves that he did not ever take lightly the things of the Lord. Joshua was a listener. He listened well to His God. But starting off this verse with those words, Then the LORD said to Joshua, makes it personal. Don’t forget that He is a personal God for you and for me.
Then the Lord tells Joshua to take the spear that was already in his hand and stretch it out toward Ai. (Ai was the city they needed to take in battle, militarily, next). He may tell us at times to pick something up or to lay something down - He is our God, He is both Lord and Savior, so He has the right of way in every aspect of our lives, right? So yeah He can say pick up this and lay down that and so on. But He also will at times ask you to use what is already in your hand. What is in your hand today? For me, it is often a book or a pen. For most of us, a phone is in our hands a lot. But I am not sure that God’s very best for His dearly loved children is to be mind linked and sucked into a device all of the live long day, ya know? So before you say I know what’s in my hand! My phone! Just hold tight for a second and ask Him if the phone were not in your hand all the time what would be in your hand? I am not knocking anybody here - I am as guilty as the next person and I pretty much always know where my phone is (although sometimes I go out to run errands or take a long drive and I leave it at home on my desk on purpose so I can remind myself that there was a time we lived just fine, thank you very much, with no access to a phone. I was not afraid to drive across the country without a cellular phone. I remember it being referred to like this “answer the phone!” and not “let me check my phone”. The phone vs my phone. In my teen years it would have seemed pretty weird to say my phone rather than the phone. And so now and then I like to go backwards a bit, go old school, the old guard, and leave my phone by the wayside. So, no judgment from me on this - but I do caution you from thinking that the automatic answer to the question What is in your hand? Is “my phone”. Only allow that to be the answer if the Lord makes it really clear that it’s the answer.
Think about what might be in your hand if your phone wasn’t.
Joshua’s answer would have been, obviously because the verse tells us, a spear.
So what is the spear that is in your hand today?
What would you say is a key part, an integral part of who you are? Who you really are, not maybe who you have been told you are or feel like some expectation is on you to be. What is the spear you are already holding, a part of who you are, your God created identity that is intended by Him to be used for His Kingdom purposes?
Are we taking the things, all the varied and beautiful and amazing things that are in all of our varied and beautiful amazing lives, pointing them at the enemy and then seeing God move there? Like, right there?
Does that sound like - whew, way out there? Or does it kind of get you a little bit excited, like Yeah! Yes, I am here to make a Kingdom difference and so is she and so is he and so is my small group and so is my bff and and and. Because you are here to make a difference. If you know Jesus personally, then you are here to make a difference. And if any part of you kind of feels like MEH - she is a bit off today in this episode, Jan is reaching here, I don’t think all of us are here to make a difference, that’s a pretty sweeping and broad statement - well, I would point you to the NT book of John, chapters 14 15 16 specifically and just by reading say John 15, I think you would have a hard time not seeing that you and all who are in Christ, are here to make a difference for the Kingdom of our God.
It’s not beyond you because Jesus said it is the way it ought to be.
Joshua had a call on his life. He had a calling. When it was time to step up, he did. Now I don’t see evidence in the Bible that he was trying to step up before it was time, but every time it was time he was right there, ready and willing. And we have info about Joshua and his life in more than just the book of Joshua - we see him in Exodus and in Deuteronomy and Joshua.
He was always ready because he was always willing to do what God said to do. So pointing the spear in the exact direction the Lord told him to point it was easy peasy lemon squeezy for him because he already had the spear in his hand. The more you do the things God says to do, the easier it is to keep doing the things God says to do. (Can I say that again? It’s so true!) Say it again
So what is the promise here?
Let me skip down in chapter 8 of the book of Joshua and read verse 26 - “For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed the inhabitants of Ai.”
Joshua listened for the Lord and then when the Lord spoke he listened to the Lord. He did as the Lord said. And he finished it. With totality. Not with partiality. (sometimes I finish with more partial-ness than total-ness and when I do that, well, I am flat wrong).
He just kept holding out that spear that was in his hand, directly toward Ai, the next place they were told by God to conquer, and he did not withdraw his hand until it was done. The word Utterly here is fitting.
You have anything you need to be done with utterly? Have something you know God wants you to do but you are doing it partially and not totally? That’s okay! What won’t really be just okay is if you hear God’s Word today and then keep on not doing that thing totally. Don’t be partial anymore. Be total. Be utterly.
Sometimes we have got to do the thing God wants us to do and then the victory comes. That’s the promise I find here. To not be so afraid anymore. To just do the thing, Jan, and do it utterly. To slay the beast of partiality in my life and just do that thing with some ferocity, with totality.
Don’t put that thing down just yet, my friend. God may have placed it in your hand for this exact season, for such a time as this. Don’t even lower it. Keep your eye on the prize. That which the Lord has called you to point at the enemy, listen, until the enemy and all the inhabitants of the enemy’s domain are utterly destroyed - keep pointing and don’t drop your arm or even lower your arm a little teeny bit.
Make giving up a non-option. And believe that the utterly will come as you do the pointing at the enemy with what’s already in your hand for Kingdom work. That’s a great promise, isn’t it?
Be a Joshua in our generation and see what God might do!
Lord bless you as you continue to live believing God's promises are true for you - because they really, truly are!
Jan L. Burt
Find me here:
Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon) & “The Once-A-Year Homeschool Planner” (a multi-grade, multi-subject planning system) – which can be found at JanLBurt.com. She has also been a regular contributor to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Find Jan Instagram: @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.
Friday Sep 30, 2022
Friday Sep 30, 2022
#InternationalPodcastDay
Today is a special day on the podcast - kind of an awesome day, a pretty cool day in the world of podcasting. Today, the day that this episode releases, the very last day of September 2022, is International Podcast Day. How fun is that? That there is a day when you can just throw up that hashtag, and if you are a podcaster just share, maybe a bit more broadly than you normally do - and I say that to say, would you share this episode today?
In this episode I share about one of my all time absolute favorite Bible verses and it was really in many ways a total game changer , a life changer for me in my parenting, even in my marriage, and in my understanding of how the Lord cares for me, how He takes care of me. He used this verse so, so many times to guide me in my decisions, my decision making. It’s just one verse from the OT book of Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 11.
If there is something God is calling you to do, or a time of rest He is asking you to take where it feels like you are pressing the pause button on things, go ahead and do it. God will bless it. He wants you to do that thing, so do it. He loves you enough to lay on your heart to do this thing, so do it. If you have people God has placed in your life who love you enough to tell you what you really need to hear, please listen. Take heed. He speaks to us through His word, the Bible. And remember when Jesus said it was better for us that He go away so that the Holy Spirit would come and remind us of everything we need to know, tell us things we need to know, guide us, counsel us. How amazing is it that God has all these things in place to lead us, to tell us what we need to hear, to bless us, encourage us, help us, protect us, for our good and for His glory. Do that thing.
Gonna get to the episode from Isaiah in a second, but I want to share this verse with you today. It’s from Psalm 55, Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous be shaken.
I’m going to read it again, and if you’ve listened to the podcast before then you know I often talk about that word will when we find it in a verse, in one of God’s promises, and this is a promise right? If we do the casting, cast your cares on the Lord, it says He will sustain us. I’m going to read it again and put emphasis on that word will. Because that really cements in my heart and mind that God means it. When He says will, He is not playing. He is not messing around. His will does not mean maybe. When He says will it means WILL. It is absolute.
So, I’m going to read it again. I want you to just listen and think about what cares you have that you need to cast on the Lord today. So, first of all, think about that. I mean that's the first part of this verse. It rings true to what Peter said about casting your cares, your burdens, on the Lord. And what Jesus said about taking His yoke upon you because it is gentle and light. I’ve heard people say that the OT doesn’t apply to them, and I’d be careful to go too far along that line of thinking. Some people don’t ever read the OT due to that way of thinking, so yeah, I’m here to say this verse applies to you. It’s in both the O and NT. God wants you to cast your cares on Him, so his enemy the devil does not want you to do that. Let me read it and you think on what you need to cast onto Him today.
Don’t try to kind of pretty them up, you don’t need to set aside a couple of hours to write them all out. This says cast. Think of throwing off a heavy burden. The very moment you can do that, take off those work boots, get off that cramped plane and stretch out your legs, you do those things as soon as you are able. This is similar. Cast those cares as soon as you are able. And how often are you able? Whenever you realize you are carrying a heavy care. Cast it then, don’t wait till a better time. This is the better time. If you feel like maybe, you don’t have time to do that right now, well, you have time to shoo a wasp away from you right? You don’t ponder if you have time right now. You move quickly. Casting these off of yourself and onto the Lord, chucking them, it doesn't take a ton of time. Like shooing that wasp away, chuck these things away. Just do as the Bible says! Once you do that casting of your cares on the Lord, what will happen? He will sustain you. What’s better than that, my friend?
And He will do it with complete ability, authority, and perfection. You can count on it.
He WILL sustain you. He will never let the righteous be shaken. We’re not righteous in ourselves. There is a zero percent chance of that. But God sees us through Jesus, we are literally gifted His righteousness. So, this promise applies to all who know Jesus, who have repented and received his forgiveness and made Him Lord. It’s our promise, and it’s beautiful.
That’s the intro for this episode, thank you for listening and don’t forget it’s International Podcast Day so please pretty please share this episode. Only comes around once a year!
Isaiah 40:11 (New King James Version)
He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.
Have you heard the saying, “Find a need and fill it?”
There was a season of my life when I was going and going and going like crazy - doing all the church things and serving in every way I possibly could. But what I wasn't doing was asking the Lord what His specific will was for me in each area I was serving. Serving is in no way wrong (Jesus said so in Mark 10:45). But serving so much that you haven't been able to go to church or small group and worship the Lord...that's where I was at. God had to get my attention and show me that as the mother of young children, He would lead me gently everywhere He wanted me to go and serve.
I learned to talk to Him about every area service, and knowing that His word clearly said that if I was not being gently led, then I was out of His will made it so much easier to say no to some things and yes to other things.
Regarding "finding a need and filling it", it can be pretty easy to step into some form of service for a while, and then step back out of serving. But when we are letting God lead us gently in all that we do, we end up receiving a calling. And stepping out of our calling for any reason is, quite frankly, sin.
Learning this in my 20s as a mom of young children saved me so much frustration and fatigue. I served BETTER in the areas to which I was called. It was a win-win for everyone.
If you would like to join the online prayer group on Facebook, here is the link (request to join and we'll get you added to the group right away!)