Dwell in Joy Not Sorrow

 Don’t waste time hating suffering your loved ones have endured; rejoice in their deliverance.  Don’t rehearse pain that has past, dwell in the joy that is present.  Don’t fear the trials of the future, rest in the confidence of God's sculpting hand and His presence there.  

 The Lord says, "I am with you.  I am with those you love.  Be at peace, and rest."  

Scripture:  "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land" (Song of Solomon 2:11-13 KJV).

Don't Depend on Emotions

 Do the work before you, and do not depend on your emotions as a gauge for “how things really are.”  

The word "emotion" is not used in the Bible* because you are to depend on what you know to be true and act accordingly.  If you are in a situation not to your liking, it is because the Lord has placed you there.  If you have been hurt, God knows of your pain and has made provision for you.  Look for His provision and keep your eyes off the injustices you've suffered; these things are God's business and not yours. 

Scripture:  "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?...Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up" (James 4:1,10).

*NIV 

God Will Take Action on Your Behalf

The Lord hears the cries of the oppressed, he sees injustice, and He answers the prayers of those who cry out to Him with broken hearts.  This is why it is better to be wronged, weak, and yet obedient; these things assure that the Lord will intervene for you.  And how astoundingly, amazingly, sweet to know that the God who controls the wind and the lightning is taking action on your behalf!  That sweetness is now yours and will be yours in increasing measure in the future.  You can trust Him to make things right; all the desires of your heart are safe in His hands.  

Avoid Solitude

The best songs are written in the midst of life, as the result of living.  The least valuable songs come from solitude and reflection.  Use your solitude to pray, write what you learn from the Lord, and live your life in active engagement with others.  In this way you will be productive until the end, and better prepared for eternity.  Yes, Child, living takes energy and dying takes preparation.  God will provide both the energy you need, and the time required for good preparation for the end of earthly life.  The Lord is with you.  

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,  not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24-25).  

How to Respond to Disrespect

When you are given little to respect you need to do three things:  One--and this is most important--love (love covers a multitude of shortcomings).  Two, look for the good, no matter how small, and respond to it as though it is the whole person.  And three, remember that since you are in this circumstance, the Lord is the One who has placed you there. 

Do not work hard to love others by attempting to emulate the highest standard of human love you know.  You are to love them as God has loved you.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). 

Flowing with the Spirit

The cadence of God's voice reverberates in and out of time, and to flow with the Holy Spirit is to keep pace with God's voice.  When you walk according to the Spirit, you will not often be in step with the world, but attention to the Holy Spirit's leading is protective. God's wisdom will guide you to safe harbor when the world's "wisdom" would place you in harm's way. 

Trying to pay equal attention to God's voice and also to the world's demands will result in the instability of confusion.  "You cannot serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24).  Hearing God's Word but failing to put it into practice has a similar result (Luke 6:49). 

Pray to put into practice the good guidance that flows from the Holy Spirit within you.  He will never lead you astray.  Obey the Lord and leave the results of that obedience in His hands, even when you must turn your back on the opinions and judgments of other human beings.  The Lord will be your advocate (1 John 2:1). 

Sin

Sin makes the sweetest drink bitter and the bitter intolerable.  Forgiven sin (the clean heart that results) makes even the bitter sweet.  

"Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered" (Psalm 32:1).  

Embrace Humility

The constraints that hold you are not external, but internal.  Rebellion has a characteristic stench; skirt a wide path around it.  Humility is protective; embrace it. 

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you" (Romans 12:3).  

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love"  (Ephesians 4:2).  

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble'" (1 Peter 5:5).  

 

Not Your Own

The Lord is with you, not because of any merit of your own, but because of His love. Past, present, and future, His all encompassing, full coverage love surrounds you.  God's love for you depends upon Him, not you. 

This love edifies, lifts, and grants you status in His eyes; status that is not of you, but of Him. Love is His gift to you, so that you have no reason for pride.  It is possible to be humbled and simultaneously glorified by God's love, but you must remember the glory in which you participate is God's glory and not your own. 

Do not fall to the snares of success.  Humble yourself before God, and He will lift you up.  Serve others, and He will cause you to be served, not for your own sake, but for His.  There is no task too small (inconsequential) for you to perform.  Scrub toilets, mop floors, serve others,  and do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.   

Your beauty is not your own.  Bear it with humility, trusting the One who has given you strength.  God is with you.

"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you" (Romans 12:3).  

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7).   

Take the Freedom Path

I tell you, the enemy you face does not come from without but from within.  There is nothing keeping you from blessings but the paralysis of fear through which Satan would afflict you with laziness and overweight, not as primary sins, but as offshoots of a need to escape from the terrible discomfort of fear. 

The Lord is going to make you a way through, Child, but you must have courage to walk the path. 

Ease will come as you walk the freedom path.  Freedom from overweight.  Freedom from weakness.  Freedom from procrastination and its accompanying helplessness of guilt and remorse.  The Lord is with you. There is time yet.  Take the freedom path.  

Scripture:  "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).  

Only Trust Him

There are many quotes about courage to face reality.  You do not need that kind of courage, which is many times a euphemism for the willingness to face worse case scenarios.  The Lord never asks you to extrapolate from your current circumstances to “what might happen” in the future, He asks you to trust in Him despite circumstances that seem hard.  Trusting God for your current circumstances is a very different proposition from trusting Him for what might happen in the future.  He asks of you the former, never the latter.  Trust the Lord for today and leave tomorrow in His hands. 

"Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me" (John 14:2 NLT)

Do Not Give Way to Fear

You fear what will not happen, and this drains your resolve and energy.  Walk in the Lord's freedom, which will not be compromised because it is His and not yours.  By submitting to God you have gained higher ground, above the ability of the enemy to broach.  Do not succumb to the devil's fear tactics.  Stand firm.  This is not too difficult for you; only do not give way to fear. 

Scripture:  “No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them (Numbers 23:21).

Self-Discipline

The key to self-discipline is to remove “self” from the discipline; "disciplined to obedience” is a better phrase.  Strive to abide, rest, exercise, eat, relate to others and serve in Jesus' Name and for His Sake.  Don’t research the art of discipline, you will be overwhelmed.  Moment by moment walk, talk, breathe and live in the Lord, and discipline will be a result rather than a goal; an effect of the Holy cause of abiding in Him   

Do not pray for self-discipline, pray to abide more consistently in the Lord.   

Abiding is a state the devil can’t disrupt; his strategies only spur you to abide more closely.  Understand that abiding in the Lord is your best pursuit.

Scripture: "Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it...'" (Luke 9:23-24 NIV).

"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7, KJV).   

Easter

Participating in the cleansing provided by the Blood of Christ is not an admission of failure, and it does not cause Him to suffer more on your behalf.  The suffering of the Cross is complete; do not cause Him the sorrow of separation from you because of your aversion to being cleansed by the Blood.  You do not need to feel more shame but rather to feel more of the cleansing that is yours by heritage and by right; you have been adopted as God's own child. 

Discipline Is Your Friend

Embrace discipline, because it will serve as a vehicle for strength.  Push yourself a little bit. The fruits of this will be for good and not evil in your life.  The Lord is with you,  and He will protect you. 

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it"  (Hebrews 12:11). 

What You Can Do

You are not in charge of saving the world. 

You are unnecessary in the sense that you do not have to lift weights only the Lord can lift, move mountains only He has the strength to move, or bring about transformations that require the power of the Holy Spirit .  But you can pray the weight lifted, the mountain moved, and that the Holy Spirit will flow. 

Obedience makes a beginning. Obedience heightens the human spirit’s ability to flow with the Spirit of God.  When you are flowing in the same channel as the Holy Spirit, you place yourself in the path of His movement.  Cleansing is the result, cleansing, healing, and power to participate in the bringing about of God’s will on Earth and Christ’s second coming.