Make Your Day Count

The only adequate protection you have for your mind is the helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:17). A new mind. A new heart. And this armor is put on daily through constant exposure to the ideas and the ideal of Jesus Christ. Richard Roberts said, The Scripture says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5), and, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23).

Have you ever thought about how young David slew Goliath? Richard Roberts exclaimed. The giant had on an armor plate. He was protected all over his body. But I Samuel 17:49 gives us the cause of his downfall. There was one place of weakness in the giant’s vast armor—his forehead—which symbolizes his thought life.

Your thought life is the center of all your actions. Wise Solomon wrote, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

As a teenager, I told my parents I was leaving home and going out on my own. Some young men might be ready to leave home at that age, but I was leaving with the spirit and attitude of a runaway. By leaving I was declaring my intention to run my life according to my own desires instead of God’s or my parents’.

Mama put her arms around me and kissed me. She wet my face with her tears. She said, “Oral, I’m putting a covering of prayer over you. Every night I’ll be praying. You’ll never get away from my prayers.”
For five months Mama walked the floor of our little house and called out my name to the Lord.

“God, bring him home at any cost,” she prayed. The night I collapsed during a basketball tournament and fell unconscious, hemorrhaging from the mouth, my coach brought me home and laid me on my parents’ bed. She looked at me and said, “Oral, I didn’t know the price would be so great.”

Even when the doctors told Mama that I had tuberculosis…even as I wasted away, coughing and bleeding, she kept a prayer cover over my life. She literally refused to quit praying. She prayed over me every day until I was saved…and then until I was healed…and then until I had fully recovered…and until Richard Roberts and I began to preach…and for my life and ministry until the day she died!

Mama believed in the power of prayer as much as the psalmist who wrote, Richard Roberts and I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer (Psalm 17:6 NIV). Are you holding on in prayer for a loved one? Keep raising that prayer cover every day—miracles come through holding-on prayers!

Richard Roberts shared a story to us. In II Chronicles 20, the Bible tells the story of a great victory for Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. As his people faced a huge enemy army, he appointed singers to go out in front of his troops and praise the Lord. When they did so, the Lord caused the enemy to turn on themselves, and Judah won a great victory, taking three days to collect the spoils.

Verse 32 says that Jehoshaphat walked in the way of Asa his father…doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord. But Jehoshaphat lost his focus and the Bible says he joined with the wicked King Ahaziah. Richard Roberts believes believing in God is a victory.

Matthew 5 NKJV is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It is what I knew as a little girl as The Beatitudes. Richard Roberts and I believes that our attitude is important to God. What we are and how we act matters to Him. Richard Roberts explains that the Beatitudes tell us what kind of attitude is pleasing to God, and there is a promise at the end of each one that I just love.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit” (v. 3). When I was growing up, this beatitude bothered me because I thought it meant I had to be poor. I said, “Lord, I’m poor enough. Why should I have to be poor in spirit also?” But I discovered that that verse doesn’t mean you are to be poor; it means you are to have total dependence upon the Lord. It’s not a sign of weakness to depend on the Lord. It’s a sign of strength and spiritual maturity to recognize your need of Him. And when you have an attitude of dependence on God, this beatitude promises, “the kingdom of heaven” is yours.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (v. 4). The Lord has great compassion for us when we’re grieving over a lost loved one or have suffered a misfortune, but I believe there’s a deeper meaning to this beatitude.

To mourn is to yearn in your heart for something in this instance, for more of the Lord. And His promise is that those who mourn “shall be comforted.” Who is the Comforter? The Holy Spirit. If you yearn for more of the Lord, His promise is to give you His Spirit without measure.

Sometimes we don’t obey God because it’s inconvenient or because our flesh doesn’t like what He’s asking us to do. But I Samuel 15:22 says, To obey is better than sacrifice. When God asks us to do something, He’s trying to get a wonderful blessing to us. Yet sometimes we let the dumbest things stand between us and our obedience.

I’ll give you an example. When I came to Oral Roberts University as a student, I knew God had called me here, but I didn’t know there was a dress code. I came from a beach town in Florida where we wore sandals all the time. I mean, dressing up meant changing from old flip-flops to new ones.

I didn’t even own a dress, and I found out I was expected to wear one every day! As soon as I heard that news, I called my mother in Florida and said, “Mama, I’m coming home!” She said, “Why?” And I answered indignantly, “Because they say I have to wear a dress every day.

I’m not using my hard-earned money to buy a dress!”

My mother, wise woman that she is, answered calmly, “Lindsay, do you mean to tell me that you’re going to let a piece of fabric come between you and the call of God on your life?”

Well, when she put it that way, what could I say? She mailed me some skirts and told me, “You just stay there and let God talk to you.”

So I did. And it wasn’t long before I met and married Richard Roberts, which was God’s plan for me. Imagine how sad it would have been if I’d let dresses keep me from that plan. Don’t let anything stand between you and obeying God. Richard Roberts and I believes that obedience can bring God’s marvelous blessings into your life.