BE____!

Be is a verb in order for it to be active it needs a "qualifying" word to follow it. Like be happy, be healthy, be awesome, and many more. God has a great many "be ____!" statements in the bible and I thought I would write about a few of them today.

"Be still and know that I am God;" (Psalms 46:10) God wants us to be still sometimes and just live in that present moment in Him and only Him. to understand that He was, is, and always be right there and He was, is and always be exalted by all things in heaven and earth.

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?.... Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident." (Psalms 27) The Lord wants us to be confident in the fact that He has our back. Even when wars rage all around us, and our lives are in turmoil, He has our backs, be confident!

"My soul will be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation." (Psalms 35:9) We are to be joyful, but not just giggle and happy, we are to joy in the fact that God has provided salvation for us. In this case David was speaking of the salvation from His enemies, those wishing to harm him. God provides that but He has also provided a way out from the penalty of sin. We should be joyful in that also!

"Oh God, you are my God; early will I seek you... My soul will be satisfied..." (Psalms 63:5) God wants us to be satisfied with everything He has given us, everything we have in our lives, the good and the bad. That is hard, really hard, our self wants to always be happy and we are always wanting more we seem to never be satisfied...

"Be strong and of good courage..." (Joshua 1:6) Joshua was about to cross over the Jordan and proclaim the land that God had promised Israel and he was very scared. He knew a long time ago that God was on there side. He had been among the 12 that went to spy on the land, He and Caleb were the ones that said lets go now... Now God is having to remind him.... I am here, be strong, I promised and my promise is good! We need to be strong also. God has made many promises to us, and He will make good on them... the rainbow is still in the sky isn't it?!

"I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content." (Philippians 4:11) "And having food and clothing with these we shall be content." (I Timothy 6:8) This is the same as satisfied really. The thing is this is Paul speaking not David. He is in jail, not in the king of a nation. Paul had a reason to be depressed, lonely, malcontent, yet in all things he was content, satisfied, and thankful. God wants us all to be content in whatever our circumstances. Again it is very hard to do!

"...Warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all." (I Thessalonians 5:14) This is all about exhorting and admonishing others... it needs to be done patiently... I am terrible at this, I am not very patient, and I try not to pray for patience cause as soon as I do I will be given a trial to work through...

"And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all..." (II Timothy 2:24) Paul was making sure Timothy understood that being patient wasn't enough, he needed to be gentle also. We will get more accomplished when we are gentle with people. I have a hard time seeming gentle because of the gruffness of my voice. I need to work on this.

The last "Be" I want to talk about is the "Beatitudes" I am not going to type them all here, they are found in Matthew 5. Jesus was teaching his disciples who the people that would inherit the kingdom of heaven would be. He told them they needed to be meek, poor, to seek after righteousness, to show mercy, to be pure in heart, peacemakers and mourn (I think for the lost). These are all attitudes we should have toward God and others. I strive to meet each of these yet fail often, I know that if I continue to try to meet them, maybe some day I will. You know what though I think God like any father should be proud of His child for trying to do their best.

Lord, help me to "Be ____!" whatever it is that you want me to be. Your word says all these and more, help me Lord learn to be still, content, strong, satisfied, confident and on and on... Thank-you Lord for all that you do for me.

The Quote: I don't know who I first heard say this, but I have heard it said many times in Church....

"The Beatitudes are the way your attitudes should be." ~Anonymous

The Drawing: