Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Matchless Love

Today as I was driving home God reminded me of a time this past year when I was worshipping to "How He Loves" in Church. It was a cool time because God was revealing to me in a way that I could better understand how amazingly deep His love is for me. At the time I was in a relationship with someone that I felt I had a love for that could never stop, God was asking me to think about how much I love that person, and how much I wanted to give to and bless that person. It was easy to recall and then God said "your love for him, as great as it may feel does not even hold a candle to the love I have for you daughter, it cannot even compare to it." I couldn't measure someone elses love for me but I could however better understand my love for someone else, I knew how much I loved that person, God knew too, thats why He used that to show me. The greatest love I can give someone can not even come close to the love God has for me, it is a radical, unconditional, matchless love! I'm glad God reminded me of that worship experience today, it wasn't just for that time :) He so knows us! So relax in God's matchless love for you, it's hard to get your mind around, but it's there.

18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." Ephesians 3:18-19

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

My Defender

"Come with great power, O God, and rescue me! Defend me with Your might." Psalm 54:1

I heard a song today that says "I trust in Jesus, my Great Deliver, My Strong Defender, the Son of God" The name defender stuck with me, I've known God is our defender but it was perfect timing for me to be reminded. It has been an emotional week, one where I kept feeling like I was being knocked down just as soon as I would stand back up from the last time. Struggled with feeling like I was allowing these things to happen, to just take another blow and become passive to it. But it is time that stops! Yeah things are going to happen, people are going to let you down, say hurtful things, things may not seem to go right at times , etc. BUT God does not want us to stay in that place of hurt with our face to the floor. He is our defender! He has given us the weapons needed to fight the enemy and those negative emotions he tries to throw on us. I was reading about Jehoshaphat today in a Bible study book I'm doing and was reminded once again that God defends His people, He does NOT make them go out to battle alone. 2 Chronicles 20 says “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow, march out against them. You will find them coming up through the ascent of Ziz at the end of the valley that opens into the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord’s victory. He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you!” Haha, if God never changes and this is how He handled a battle Jehoshaphat was facing I believe this is how he helps us when we seem to be facing a battle. He tells us to not be discouraged or afraid, we will not even have to fight, but to stand still and firm in faith and watch God's victory, He is with us! Hallelujah. I like the next verses as well, something too that I believe is essential when we are facing a battle. We need to come to a place of praise and thanksgiving. “Listen to me, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in his prophets, and you will succeed.”
 21 After consulting the people, the king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army, singing to the Lord and praising him for his holy splendor. This is what they sang:
   “Give thanks to the Lord;
      his faithful love endures forever!”
 22 At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves.

This is awesome. They praised God BEFORE the battle was won :)  I love how Jehoshaphat tells them to believe God, then they will be able to stand firm. How true! God is more than able to handle the battle you are up against, so stop trying to fight it yourself, stand still and watch God deliver you and bring victory. Believe God, stand firm in faith and praise Him, for He is entirely faithful and always good :) He is your defender, so trust Him to defend, and use the Word as your weapon to fight that enemy, don't let him deceive you to thinking you have to stay in a low place of disappointment because it's not true! Stand on the Word and get out of that low place, don't let satan steal abundant life from you. Rest in God and His total peace and unconditional love, walk in what He has for you. And you can't walk in what He has for you if your face is to the floor in despair. Stand up and walk, good is ahead so get excited!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6koz1p2Q6Bw Trust In Jesus by Thrid Day

Thursday, July 14, 2011

You are forgiven, loved and free!

Do you sometimes feel trapped by the same old sin? Living in guilt because it keeps coming to surface? That's been me the past couple weeks, allowing empty things to attempt to fill me just to leave me filling more empty than before. It's hard not to beat yourself up over it and we tend to camp out in a guilty place for a while.  But that is not  what our loving God wants from us when we find ourselves slipping up. He doesn't need us to live in guilt and depression just so that He can see that we know we were wrong. He wants us to live in victory over sin, and in the Truth of His Word that when you repent you are indeed set free and forgiven. John 8:36 says "So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free." You are free! So let that sin go, move out of the camp of condemnation and guilt and live in the loving freedom that God has lavished on you! There is nothing that you have done that is going to keep God from loving you, theres no sin you have commited that is too big for Him to forgive Psalm 103:3 says "He forgives ALL my sins and heals ALL my diseases." All means all! That's good news! I know what you are thinking...how can God love and forgive me after all the things I have done? Right? My answer to that is- He is Love! He knew we would mess up so He sent His Son as a sacrifice for us, Jesus took the punishment we deserved upon Himself. God didn't do that for no reason, so of course He is going to love and forgive you now, He already bought you with a price! You are valuable to Him. Zephaniah 3:17 says "The LORD your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [Who saves]! He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall them]; He will exult over you with singing." (amplified version) Well there you have it- that past sin and guilt you have been consumed by and let get you down is FORGOTTEN in the eyes of God! He will not bring it up and He will not recall it! If you have repented it's a done deal, you are forgiven, you are loved and you are free! So don't let satan steal your joy, God made you good. I heard before if the enemy keeps reminding you of your past; remind him of his future! he doesn't win!! God always causes His kids to triumph, so walk in the victory He gave you over sin! And renew you mind, and then renew it again, so that you won't become victim to falling into that old sin. Romans 12 reminds us that we put on our "new person" by the renewing of our minds, so "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." Philippians 4:8. This means we are going to have to say no to some thoughts, shut them down and take them captive, replace them with praise. In Isaiah 26 its says that God keeps in perfect peace those whose thoughts are fixed on Him. And I don't know about you, but I desire perfect peace! ""So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." Romans 8:6. Walk in that peace friends!

"Purity me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7

"But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." 1 John 1:9

"In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by His victory over them on the cross." Colossians 2:15

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Are you waiting?

 Waiting. Definately something we all have to do and something we all probably don't like doing so much. It may seem that there is always something we are waiting on- a dream to be fulfilled, a promise to come to pass, a goal achieved, brokenness to be mended etc. One day in the midst of my waiting I felt God ask me how I would act or respond if I knew the answer were to come sooner than later, today rather than tomorrow?  I responded with well I would act and walk in faith! It's easier to act in faith when we have a confidence that the answer is right around the corner. And that may even be the case, but for those times that we wait and wait a little bit longer we still need to walkin faith just as if we were promised the answer today. Why can we be confident and walk in faith? 1 John 5 14 says "And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for." Psalm 89:8b says "You are entierly faithful."  We can be confident and walk in fath in the midst of waiting because we know we serve an entirely faithful God who hears His kids when they pray. Not only can we be confident that He hears us but we can have confidence that He will answer us. What good news! There's no such thing as an empty promise with God! So rest in Him, and enjoy the waiting season while you're in it. I'm confident there are things God will reveal to you there.

"Yet I am confident I will see the LORD'S goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD." Psalm 27:13-14

"Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for Him to act." Psalm 37:7

Monday, July 4, 2011

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus!

So, do you have those times when you feel God keeps bringing something to your attention? It has been like that with me the past few days. Several times now God has reminded me to keep my eyes on Him rather than my circumstance. Like with Peter walking on water, when his focus was on Jesus and the word He had spoken "Come", Peter had faith to walk on the water. But when he took his eyes off of Jesus and his attention diverted from the word He had spoken, fear slipped in and Peter began to sink. Peter got distracted by the wind and the waves and started to focus more on the "issue" than His God. All Peter had to do was turn his eyes back to Jesus call out for help and Jesus immediately responded and Peter gained his faith back again. I think this is exactly what we do, atleast me anyways. We find a Word to stand on and keep our eyes focused on Jesus until the fear of our circumstance grips us. We get distracted by the problems and whats going on, and begin to look at the circumstance more than we look at our God, the cicumstance then becomes magnified, and we feel stuck and don't know how to handle it. When Jesus is asking us to fix our eyes on Him, the circumstance may be there yes, but if our focus is on Him, He will lead us and show us how to handle it. He will strengthen us with the faith to move that mountain.  Hebrews 12:1-2 says "Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish." In the amplified version the last part of that verse says "Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus. Who is the Leader and Source of our faith, and also the Finisher." Proverbs 4:25-26 says "Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path." At Church yesterday Pastor Chris said that we tend to go wherever we are looking. If that is the case which I believe it is, lets look to Jesus- not to the circumstance. When Jesus becomes bigger to us, the circumstance becomes smaller! Praise God! So find a Word to stand on and look to Jesus! The Word is truth and we know that the truth sets us free. John 8:36 says "So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free." The other day I was burdened by an emotional pain that kept coming to surface, I was asking God to lift it off of me, I was tired of thinking about it and tired of the pain that came with those thoughts. God led me to Psalm 30:11-12 "You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing  praises to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give You thanks forever." God has already lifted that burden from me and is clothing me with joy. That's the Word I'm going to stand on and that Word is truth and since that truth has been revealed to me I am truly free of that burden! Jesus said so :)