Doug Rea Archive

Sometimes we just “blow” it.  There’s the  car you shouldn’t have purchased or the job you should have taken.  Perhaps for you its a relation that ended before its time, or an error in judgment that cost you dearly. We all have those, “What was I thinking,” events that have tripped us up over the course of our lives.  But is there still hope?  Yes there is!

At connections. We use the acronym H.O.P.E – it stands for Humility, Obedience, Prayer, and Expectancy.  In 2Chronicles 6:26-42 Solomon, having completed the temple, prays and dedicates it to The Lord.  As he prays, he asks The Lord ‘what if.’  The king was concerned that the people may turn away from the teachings that were passed down from his father King David.  You will need to read the prayer in its entirety to appreciate the magnitude of Solomon’s concern for the people in his care.  In essence he asked, ‘what if we blow it?”

The answer comes in the next chapter, (2Chronicles 7:14). This verse was quoted by then president Ronald Reagan in 1980 during his 1^st inauguration.  It reads, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” And that is where we find H.O.P.E.

Humility –  Without humility, we will never be at a place to admit we’ve blown it.  Pride tells us that we are too good to admit we were wrong or that we might need help in overcoming the situation.  Show me someone who has had a moral failure and I will show you an individual that was to proud to admit they were in trouble

Obedience  – We see this from the phrase, “turn from their wicked ways.”  It’s good to have the humility required to say that you’ve blown it. but we must also do our best to right-the-wrong. I realize that’s no always possible.  We should do what we can to adjust our behavior to reflect God’s way of doing things in the arena in which we have blown it.

Prayer – Have a heart-to-heart with God.  He already knows that you’ve blown it so you may as well talk to Him about it.  His desire is to heal, forgive, and to reconcile. James 1:5 tells us that He wants to give us the wisdom needed to get through the situation we have placed ourselves in.  Humility will cause us to pray.  His word of wisdom should cause us to obey.

Expectation -  As I mentioned in the last paragraph, God’s will is always good for His people!  It is an act of faith to assume God will bring about a good end to bad circumstances (Romans 8:28). God is good for His promises!  (2Corithians 2:20)

Grab yourself a latte, ponder these things, and I will see you next week for part 2 of,

“What if I’ve Blown It”

Doug Rea is the Pastor at Connections in Albany, GA.

I had lunch last week with some pastor friends in the area. After the meal we got on the subject of ministry. As we shared the happenings at our individual churches I challenged them with the title of this edition of, “With your Latte.”  I told them that, in my opinion, there is fresh move of God in our area and we must begin to, “Say what we see.”

I used as an example and interaction between God and an Old Testament prophet. In Jeremiah 1:11 The Lord asked the prophet what he saw.  As the prophet answered The Lord explained to Jeremiah the meaning of his vision.  The process repeats itself in the verses to follow. Then in Jeremiah 1:18 The Lord will instruct Jeremiah to “see” what is going to happen that he may, in turn, warn the people (see also Joshua 6:2).  Jeremiah didn’t understand why he saw what he did, but God gave him insight once he spoke it.

To understand better the power of our, “saying what we see”, I offer Job 22:28. It reads, “You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways.” In a nut shell, we say it, God establishes it, and then we get the illumination we need to move forward. The word declare means to, “cut or divide”.  It was used by the Hebrews to “cut a deal” or “to make a covenant.”  Abraham did this with God and He saved part of his family from a certain and horrible death. If you have family issues you will want to pay close attention.

The bible tells us in Genesis 18 that God was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham had family in those cities. So Abraham talks to God in a manner that we would consider almost blasphemous. Abraham makes his declaration in Genesis 18:15. Abraham said, “Surely You wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, You would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely You wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”  Abraham did not see God allowing his (Abraham’s) family, whom Abraham considered good, being killed in this mass judgment of God upon evil. Once Abraham spoke it, God established a covenant with Abraham, and he receives the necessary information (or illumination) to get his family out of town before it was destroyed.

What do you see happening in your family, at your job, or in your church?  It doesn’t have to be some great spiritual vision.  Good or bad is irrelevant.  If you want God involved you must tell him what you see. The verse in Job offers us this great promise, “light will shine on your ways.” You will get the light you need to move on your situation after you speak.  The Lord will also let you know of you are not seeing correctly. (1Samuel 16:7)  That too can be very helpful as you make plans to buy a home, or perhaps expand you business.

Find more like this at www.WithYourLatte.com

Doug Rea is the Pastor at Connections in Albany, GA.

Last week I wrote about my Albany Half- Marathon experience.  You can catch it at www.douglasrea.com. There, I mentioned that two “giants” had to be killed in order for me to complete the race. The first was diet.  No way was I going to attempt to move some 275 lbs around Albany GA for 3 hours with just the use of “Doug-power.”  The second was my (or should I say my former) lack of discipline.  To get help, I turned to the scriptures looking for a giant killer.  I figured if a teenage boy named David could kill the almost 10’ tall Goliath with a slingshot, then certainly I had a shot at defeating what opposed me. Stay tuned – I plan to write on this topic for the next few weeks.

The first thing that I noticed about David is how different his perspective of the giant was to that of the soldiers. Goliath’s physical appearance was so overwhelming that the Israelite soldiers ran in fear.  David, however, did not concern himself with what he saw but rather what he knew. David viewed the giant as a disgrace that needed to be removed from Israel.  For David, Goliath was nothing more than an, “Uncircumcised Philistine” who was taunting the army of God.  The soldiers saw Goliath with the natural eye while David saw the lens of God.

For me, it was food that did the most taunting. Being an Italian kid from New York, food was at the epicenter of all things good. Whether it was a family gathering, a holiday celebration, or just the family meal, food was always tied to my most beloved memories.  In my world, my best friend food equated to happiness.  Consequentially, food became not only an addiction but a drug-of-choice in times of trouble.  But once I began to find my comfort in God, the need for comfort food was gone. The only thing left to kill was the addiction itself. I did that through counting calories. You see, I had always seen my weight as a physical problem with spiritual connotations.  I have come to realize that the opposite was true. Once I put this giant of food into perspective, I saw it for the crutch that it really was. Now that I am 60lbs less of my former self, I can attest that the giant of obesity is dead.

I used the same strategy of “changing my perspective” to defeat the half-marathon as well.  I no longer looked at the race as 13.1 long miles, but rather a, “1 mile race – ran 13 times.”  That perspective made completing it far more feasible. At the start of my training, the thought of a half-marathon was intimidating. However, I could see myself running a mile and training to gradually repeating that mile 13 times. Do you see what I see?

Now, grab a latte, open your bible, read the account for yourself in 1Samuel 17. Learn, as David did, to keep your giants in the proper perspective.  See you next week.

Doug Rea is the Pastor at Connections in Albany, GA.