Hosanna Restoration Church

The dictionary defines par as the established value of a monetary unit; a common level; an amount taken as average or norm, or an accepted standard. You can often hear people say things like, “Well that is about par for the course.” Often times this is when things are not going so well and they anticipate a continuing slide down hill.

The word par came to me as I was seeking the Lord and I saw that Jesus accomplished everything He did by Praying, Acting, and Receiving the answer to His prayers. That is par for the course in the Kingdom of God. It is what the norm is.

I think the most familiar place where par is used is in the world of golf. Par is a very acceptable score in golf, but the real desire is to do better than par. Now certainly a large part of the game of golf is raw talent, but it takes effort to develop that talent and the harder a person works the better they get. The better a person gets, the more they expect to do par at the least and better than par more and more often.

As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to be careful not to accept the norm of the natural world. We must press for par in the kingdom of God. I believe that we are often fooled into accepting less than God’s best because we have been conditioned to agree with things that exalt themselves against the truth of God’s word.

You see, the devil wants to steal the truth from us because he knows that the truth will make us free. He tries to convince us that par in the Kingdom of God is subject to our natural surroundings. He tries to get us to accept that sometimes that is just the way things go so that we will not work to change things.

Tiger Woods is a famous golfer. Many times people have criticized his play because he was working to correct his swing and make it better. To those watching it looked like he was messing it up. However, each time he has done this he has gotten better. He was not willing to just accept things the way they were. He was looking for better.

According to God, we should pray. Once we have prayed, we should act according to His word. Maybe we have to give. Maybe we need to forgive. Maybe we need repent. Maybe we just need to continue standing. What ever action is required we should do it. Then we should receive the answer. Remember, we do not have to see it to receive it.

We all have the same gifts given. We can develop them and become champions, or we can settle for the par of the earth. The Bible tells us to grow (improve) in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We make the choice. Pray, Act, and Receive. Do not settle for less.