Tag: Grace

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Is It Well With You?

Obey My voice, and I will be your God,, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you that it may be well with you.  Jeremiah 7:23

 

Before we ever walked into the store, I told my two kids how I expected them to behave. . . . .in detail.  This particular store brought out the worst begging in my children.  In addition to my detailed outline for good behavior, there was also a reward of sorts for obeying. Maybe a small something from the store or an ice cream cone, or even going to McDonalds or Sonic for lunch.  And no, we didn’t do that lots.  Cumulatively, eating out, even at McDonalds, was expensive and we had to watch our pennies.

I wish I could tell you they always obeyed so the rest of the day went well for them, but I can’t.  They, like all kids, chose to disobey at least half the time, maybe more. 

Today’s verse reminds me that when I obey God’s voice & walk in the way He shows me, it is indeed well with me.

But I tend to be like my children at that store.  I choose to disobey.  We all do this.  Sometimes we do it outright.  Sometimes the enemy sugar coats things and we fall for it, not realizing at the time what a bad choice we are making. 

How thankful I am for God’s grace and mercy.  He is faithful even when I am not.  When I confess my sin, He is faithful to forgive.  I get to start again with a clean slate.

The same thing happened with my children.  The next time we went to that store, they had another opportunity to obey. 

God loves us like that too.  He forgives us.  He picks us up and dusts us off.  He asks us to obey Him and walk in ALL the ways He tells us.  We have another opportunity to obey.

Obeying isn’t always easy.  But the closer I stay to Him, the better I am at it. 

Dear one, press in closer to Him and see how good it is.  And when you disobey ( notice I didn’t say if ), confess it.  He will be faithful to forgive and give you a fresh start.

We all want it to be well with us.  Lean in closer to God.  Stay in His word and talk with Him.  It makes all the difference.

Lord – Help me to obey Your voice and walk in ALL the ways You command.  Thank you for Your grace and mercy even though I don’t deserve it.  Help me to be all you want me to be.  Amen

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My God Just Gets Bigger & Bigger

Isaiah 55:8-9   Psalm 147:5   Psalm 8:3-4

All morning I have been meditating on how big God is.  I’ve mentally listed and thought on all the ways He blesses me, provides, speaks etc.  My hours have been spent focusing on His attributes and character. And I’ve discovered something profound – at least to me.  As time goes on, God is getting bigger and bigger for me.

It’s not that God has been or is small in any way.  But as we grow in our spiritual walk with Him, as we expand in our trust and love of Him, we find Him bigger.  We love more.  We trust more.  We believe for more.  We ask for more.  God keeps expanding just as our spiritual muscle expands and strengthens.  God doesn’t change – we do.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We continue to change – becoming more like Jesus and conforming to the image of Christ.  Hallelujah!

So on a day to day basis, how big is God to you?  Can He orchestrate an unexpected stop in your schedule?  Can He align things perfectly for people to meet and speak into each other’s lives?  Yes – – Yes He can.  He is, after all, the Author of the Play.  This is a continuing theme in my life.

Today is a case in point.  On my way home from physical therapy, I decided it would be really nice to stop at a Christian donut place for a not-on-my-diet donut and coffee.  While there, I noticed and overheard the conversation between twin sisters also taking a break.  My spirit sensed that their spirits were also connected to God.  As they walked passed my table, I stopped them and spoke what my spirit said was true.  We are sisters in Christ !  Their faces lit up with the glow of the Holy Spirit.  God confirmed over and over our “chance” meeting.  One sister suddenly voiced a bona fide need, saying she was trusting God to supply.  I got up out of my seat, put my arm around one on the left, one on the right and prayed over them.  Then they heard my story, but most important,  what God is doing in my life.  They both started prophesying over me – not general but specific.  It was supernatural and I felt a quickening in my spirit because this was the real deal.  This rarely happens.  Oh, there are people that try to speak into my life, but it’s their opinion, their best guess, their wishes or desires for me.  Bless them – – I listen but then let it go.  God gets the final say.

My God is big enough to arrange every moment of my life.  My God has a plan for me and His word says it’s a good plan.  I see in His word that He is a God of redemption, restoration, love, peace, blessing and much grace.  He is a God of order, not chaos.  So while some may say my God meeting today was coincidence, I know it was planned by God long ago.  He gave me the seemingly random thought to stop at this particular place for a yummy treat.  With all the available places to sit, God directed me to a table near my sisters in Christ.  God knew His child needed encouragement and someone to pray over her.  God knew I, too, needed encouragement – – to continue in His waiting room, to believe He has a great plan for me and to speak a specific prophecy about my future.

Every day – every step – every prayer – every moment – my God just gets bigger and bigger.

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Are you a hypocrite?

2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT

My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.

None of us want to admit to a weakness.  Our culture and society pushes us to be strong, never admitting we don’t have it all together.  The crazy thing is, it’s not real.  Every single one of us struggles with something.  None of us has it completely together.  So Christian or not, we are all a little bit of a hypocrite.

Isn’t that one of the main reasons non-Christians refuse to go to church?  They think we are all hypocrites.  And we ARE in one way or other.  We all sin.  We all fail.  The difference is that we can go to Jesus – – confess, repent, be restored.  And so – – we are not really hypocrites.  We’re forgiven.  Where we become hypocritical is when we lie about our confessed sin.  It’s easy to go to God, accept restoration, but never own up and take responsibility for our words or actions.

The deal is, the world isn’t looking for us to be perfect.  They are looking for people who are authentic – – real.  They stand up and take notice when we own up to a transgression with words of apology.  Unfortunately that scenario is a rarity.  People don’t want to hear words of faith.  They want to see it lived out in your life.  When they see faith lived authentically, they become curious and may just decide that Jesus is worth a second look.

The thing is, if I’m honest, I’m not happy about my weaknesses, my failings, the chinks in my armor.  I would really like to hide all that.  Can’t I just keep it between Jesus and me?  Um……..no, not if I’m serious about being real.

It’s the Velveteen Rabbit story.  When the Velveteen Rabbit became real, his stitching was not intact, his fur was rubbed off in places.  But, he was real.  He was well loved.  He was accepted as is.  In fact, he was treasured.  I want that.  So I need to embrace the things in me that are less than.  I must embrace being honest and authentic.  It’s crucial for me to hold  myself accountable and make apologies.

Bottom line – – I have to be all in with Jesus.  I must totally believe 2 Corinthians 12:9.  God’s grace is all I need.  His power works best in my weakness.  I must unconditionally trust Him.

I invite you to completely trust Him too.  We aren’t wired to roll this way, but with God we can change.  We can embrace the weakness instead of hiding it.  If we are faithful to live authentically before others, it could lead to an opportunity to share what makes the difference in our life.  We can share that it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.

Lord –  so much in me wants to hide my flaws and mistakes.  Help me trust You completely.  Give me courage to live authentically and be quick to apologize.  Through this let others see You in me.                  – Amen

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Who’s First?

2 Corinthians 10: 1 – 10

No matter where you look, there seems to be a structure of hierarchy.

  • in the animal kingdom
  • among birds
  • in organizations
  • in business
  • in the church
  • in our jobs
  • in families

It’s this concept of hierarchy, or putting things/people in order of importance, that has me struggling lately.  It was tormenting me under the surface of everyday life for quite awhile.  Then a combination of scripture readings and a video series called “gods at war” by Kyle Idleman, pierced my heart.  As I watched the teaching video, tears came and I saw clearly the reason my heart had been hurting so much.  And – I was wrecked – in a good way.

We think as Christians that we may break some of the commandments, but we certainly have not broken the first two.  In reality, we have probably broken them more than any others.

The first commandment is to have no other gods (small g) before God.  The second is to not make any kind of idol.  In our minds we go immediately to Old Testament pictures of pagans with bizarre gods and gold, bronze, silver or wood idols.  Of course we haven’t done anything like that – or have we?

It’s the hierarchy, or order, that God demands.  He says in the first commandment that He must be at the top – no lesser gods before the One True God.  And the second commandment goes along with that because any idol is something that comes before God.  It doesn’t have to be an object, it can be good things that have gained too much importance.  And that’s where I found myself – Yikes.

Gods……………..idols…………….

 

In the video series it addresses several gods – pleasure, love, power, money, me.  None of them are awful, evil things.  What we do with them and where our thoughts, money and time are spent tell a different story.

Where’s my focus?  What is consuming my thoughts?  Where am I stuck?  What’s invading my heart and mind?

In the midst of all this I read 2 Corinthians 10 where I zero in on verses 3 – 5.  I am living a life in the flesh in a flesh driven world.  But, I have spiritual weapons at my disposal.  I have the power of the Holy Spirit to recognize and take every “above God” thought and put it in the correct place or throw it out completely – whatever the Spirit prompts to do.

If you are struggling with this stuff like I am, take courage dear one.  Don’t be discouraged when you can’t seem to get it right all the time.  Me either !!  Doesn’t it feel sometimes like we take 2 or 3 steps forward and one back?  UGH!  So frustrating.  This is where I hold tightly to Philippians 1:6 – “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  I am unfinished, in progress, under construction.  You and I have to cut ourselves a bit of slack.  It’s not condoning excuses.  It’s acknowledging that we are but dust.  We’re human, broken, imperfect.  But God doesn’t throw us away when we mess up.  He wants us to confess, accept His forgiveness (I John 1:9) and get back in the game with Him.  He has more to do in and through our lives.  He is NOT done with us yet.  We are not failures.  He loves when we come back to Him and put Him at the very top of our priorities and thoughts.

I’m doing this daily………………

 

Here’s what I have started to do and you are welcome to do this too.  First of all I acknowledge every day in my morning prayers that it is my desire to put God first.  I ask Him to help me identify and take captive every thought that competes for His place in my life.  Another thing that has become  automatic every day since the beginning of 2017 is praying the armor of God on myself.  It goes like this. . .

Lord –  I put on the helmet of salvation – Your salvation because there is salvation in no one else.  I pray protection over my mind, my eyes and my ears.  I put on the breastplate of righteousness to protect my heart and other vital parts – Your righteousness because I have none on my own. I put on the belt of truth.  Your truth – not truth from the culture, the country, my church, my friends, or anything but Your Word.   I take up the shield of faith to extinguish the enemy’s fiery darts – the ones I can see and the ones I can’t see coming (meaning I place the shield over my head, crouching down, becoming turtle-like).  I take up the sword of the Spirit – God’s Word.  I infuse my mind with Your Word that I can use as I battle each day.  I put on shoes of peace.  May I walk through my day in peace and bless others with peace.  Above all, I cover with prayer – not just at that moment but conversationally through the whole day……………………….Amen.

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Grace Giving

2 Corinthians 9

I’m sitting in my living room, reading God’s word and listening to the Holy Spirit.  Not all that unusual you probably say.   Except – – -it’s the middle of the afternoon.

You see I had surgery yesterday on my face.  The doctor removed a basal cell carcinoma. So at this point there’s not much I can do around the house because I’m not supposed to bend over or exert myself for a couple days.  So I’m spending some time with God.  It’s pretty neat to NOT have a schedule today.  And yes, I feel sorta like a bum.  But by jumping off the world for a day, I can hear what God says much easier.

All of that leads up to the main message my heart is hearing from today’s passage.  It’s about grace giving – the ministry of giving.

Grace Giving

Usually sermons or studies focus on verse 6 which talks about sowing sparingly or generously.  And I get it.  That’s certainly part of grace giving.  But there’s more.

In this passage it’s clear that it’s all God’s and we are to be faithful stewards.  He’s the one providing the seed, or the resources.  He is also the one that provides the increase and then prompts our generosity.  Every component of this is in synergy. The only time it doesn’t work is when we drop the ball.

God has given us resources, talents, time, love, energy and food to share and give generously.  When we obey His call to grace giving, God gives back so we can give more.  It just goes on and on and on.

But if we take God’s gifts and hold them tightly, saying no to grace giving, the whole thing short circuits.  The world will not see our abundant God or His love if we don’t embrace grace giving.

The great thing about this is that we don’t have to be millionaires to be generous.  Grace giving is giving from what you have.  Honestly most people treasure the time we invest or the meal we share with them.  It doesn’t have to cost a lot.  But I also know from experience that giving financially reaps blessings as well.  The key to it all is to listen to the Holy Spirit.  He will tell us and prompt us what to give, share or offer.

How many times have you seemingly out of the blue sensed you needed to speak to someone, or text or call?  And then when you did, it’s obvious why God prompted you to contact them.  I look at those times and cringe for the times I wasn’t paying attention or was just too busy.

What I’m taking from this passage is a renewed commitment to give what I have.  I want to invite others to my home for a meal, write a note to send snail mail, give monetarily as I can to meet needs.  And even easier than that, I want to take time to speak with and listen to others.  I want to be completely present with them to convey value and worth.  I want to listen more intently to the promptings of the Holy Spirit so I don’t miss any opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I want to generously give what I have, knowing God will restock my supply so I can keep giving.