Your pantry is empty. You have nothing left to set before your guests, your family. Spent, exhausted, frustrated, all you can do is borrow from friends.

Late at night you go next door and ask your neighbor for a little something to eat so you can feed your guest, but your neighbor replies:

• “Don’t bother me.”
• “I’m in bed.”
• “Go away.”

Jesus warns that when we ask our friends for help—even when what we seek is for others—many will reply, “Don’t bother me. I’m your friend, yes, but…”

It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Do not be surprised by this. The nature of man is to withdraw, withhold, allow others to go without.” Instead Jesus encourages us to:

• “Ask your Father in heaven for what you need.”
• “Seek from your Father in heaven your provision.”
• “Knock on heaven’s door for the help you need.”

Grab these promises of Jesus. Hold onto them with both hands.

• “I promise you will receive from my Father.”
• “I promise you will find all you need in my Father’s house.”
• “I promise my Father will open doors for you.”

These promises from Jesus are not simply for those who are “good,” righteous in their own eyes—for those who can quote chapter and verse. These promises from Jesus are for all who come to the Father in humility, repentance, and faith.

What doors do you need opened today?
What supplies do you lack?
What have you conceived but not yet received?

Jesus says,

• “EVERYONE who asks, receives.”
• “EVERYONE who seeks, finds.”
• “EVERYONE who knocks, a door is opened.”

How is that possible? Jesus replies, “Your father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

• God’s Holy Spirit reminds us of the character, works, and words of Jesus and the father. (John 14:26) God is good. God is loving. God is generous. God is compassionate. God is faithful. God gives all the grace we need for every task.
• God’s Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. (John 16:7-8) When sin interferes with our relationship with the father, his Holy Spirit brings our offenses to mind. Through his mercy and our repentance, our relationship and communication is restored.
• God’s Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God and the deep needs of our soul. (1 Corinthians 2:10) We think we know what we want, but the Holy Spirit digs deep into our soul and supplies us with wisdom, revelation, and vision from the father.
• God’s Holy Spirit guides us in all truth, making our steps firm. (John 16:13-15) Our wants, goals, and needs may seem right, but God’s Holy Spirit reveals all truth, all that is noble, all that is good.
• God’s Holy Spirit gives us good gifts for the common good: wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) Our daily needs are not for us alone but for others. The works of our hands are not for our enjoyment alone, but for the benefit of others.
• God’s Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, searches our hearts, intercedes for us according to God’s will. (Romans 8:26-27) When we are frail, tired, and beaten down, God’s Holy Spirit continues to ask the father on our behalf.
• With patience and self-control God’s Holy Spirit enables us to live in love, joy, faith, and peace while offering kindness, goodness, and gentleness to others. (Galatians 5:22-25) With God’s Holy Spirit within us, love, joy, faith, and peace replace anger, worry, fear, and stress.

With God’s Holy Spirit we have all we need to provide for others and ourselves. And should we lack anything, we only need to ask.

Jesus tells us we will, “Do the works I do and even greater works than these. (John 14:12)

Are we doing great works?
Are we writing great words?
Are we spending our efforts on others?

If you believe your words, your books, your vocation as a writer serves God’s kingdom in small and great ways, then invite others to join you in this prayer.

“‘My Father, your name is holy. Your name is greatly to be revered and honored. Your kingdom is here with me, within me, for you are in me and I am in you.

Each day you give me all that I need. You know my needs, even the needs I cannot fathom. Provide today as much as I need.

Forgive me of my sins. I confess them before you now. I repent of my sins. Have mercy on me.

I forgive all who offend me, hurt me, ignore me, past judgement upon me, and seek to harm me.

Lead me not into temptation. Instead lead me to open doors where I can display your love, joy, faith, peace and patience to others. Lead me to open doors where I, in the mighty name of Jesus, can show your kindness, goodness, and gentleness towards others. May it be so, father. Amen.

Did you know that your sins and filthy farming can leave your bountiful harvest mired in muck?

When we exchange our lives for the life of Christ, our old bodies rot away on scarecrow poles. With sin dead in our old bodies, we are no longer slaves to sin. In fact the only way sin can live in our new born bodies is to resurrect sin. But in hopes of living two lives, the life of sin we enjoyed and our new life in Christ, we often bring to life that old corps.

In order to survive sin needs energy and nutrients. Because sin is always dying in our new bodies, it needs more energy and more nutrients. This is one reason sin is never satisfied and always demanding more. In our old bodies sin found a natural source of nutrients in our carnal flesh, but it our new bodies sin faces a hostile environment—one purified by the Spirit of Christ.

To revive sin and allow it to once again become our master is to become a traitor, and in war traitors are shot. Jesus will can and will forgive us if we confess our sins, but the back and forth fighting over our heart’s desire will often leave our crops trampled.

If we wish to see a bountiful harvest we need to remove all filth from our fields and keep our tools clean.

• Our obedience to God’s Word leads to righteousness in Christ.
• His righteousness leads to holiness.
• Our righteousness and holiness in Christ brings power and plenty and abundant grace for the work we do.

Let us stop opposing ourselves by resurrecting the corpse of sin. Claim the righteousness of Christ, live in his holiness, and stop feeding that old scarecrows corpse that is rotting away.

As we continue to study how we oppose ourselves, let’s examine how our thoughts, imaginations, and fantasies work against the desires God places in our hearts.

We feed our hearts with purpose and success when we build fantasy worlds in our minds with honorable thoughts, God’s word, and perfect and pure images.

Serve God with a perfect heart and willing mind, for he searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of our thoughts. (1 Chronicles 28:9)

Once good things are conceived in our hearts we can look forward in hope to the finished outcome.

Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23)

God gifts us with the ability to imagine what is not and create what will be. But when we use words, said or silent, in perverse ways, those things which we create can destroy. Consider how many times — by simply creating a conclusion in our mind and without any evidence — we’ve believed in the negative motives of others. We expect a reply from a text, email, phone call, but none comes. We assume the worst. We conceive a negative trait in the other party. we begin to rehearse in our mind what we will say.

Consider how many times you sought to accomplish something small, perhaps even great, but at the time of the “big reveal” you silently expect failure, loss, judgement. Novelist Sarah Dessen writes, “If you expect the worst, you’ll never be disappointed.” For many, these are the fantasy worlds we build: ones constructed without hope, expectation, or risk.

Jesus calls us to hope, expect, and risk all for him. He calls us to love our enemies, not portray them as evil individuals deserving of judgement and punishment. To do good to those who hate us, not shame them. To bless those who curse us, to pray for those who mistreat us, to give to everyone who asks and lend without expecting anything in return. The fantasy worlds created in the Spirit of Christ are large, often messy, sometimes dangerous, but seldom boring.

Rather than imagining the worst in others, expect their best. Help them reach their best.

Rather than preparing for bad news, plan for success. Risk your heart in hope.

Jeremiah 29:11 is perhaps the most misapplied verse in all of Scripture, but the spirit behind the verse accurately reflects the heart of God.

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

If we will but claim the back half of this promise, hope and a future, our fantasy worlds will begin to more accurately reflect the creative character of God.

Let us stop opposing ourselves with our negative thoughts, imaginations, and fantasies and begin supporting ourselves with thoughts, imaginations, and fantasies inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.