Don’t think of your service to the Lord as something you can count, as a sort of community service form you can submit for each hour of work completed. Don’t consider your acts of obedience as tally marks on your side of a divine scoreboard! Love dictates a pattern of behavior that cannot be tallied.
"Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep" (John 21:15 KJV).
The Lord would release you from the element of fear that is one of the prime motivators in your acts of service for others. You are afraid you will not be loved. You are afraid they won't love one another properly. You are afraid they will not listen to you, even when you know best. You are so afraid. Let go the fear, and exchange it for faith. God desires your prime motivator to be that you share His heart for those you serve. “To loose the chains of injustice…” (Isaiah 58:6). He has provided for you that you may provide for them.
“Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…” (Philippians 2:6). He did not appropriate God’s power for Himself, but for the sake of those He was sent to save. He used His power on your behalf. He used what He had been given to benefit you. Now. You do the same. Use what you have been given to minister to the little lambs He has entrusted into your care. Do it out of love; not your own, human love, but out of His love.
Scripture: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant..." Philippians 2:5-7.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Repentance
Repentance is sweet. Repent.
If you can be graceful--full of grace--you will be richly blessed.
Repent before the Lord, and then apologize to those you have harmed.
The only block to an apology is your pride. Repent of your pride. Pride cannot be trespassed against and demands retribution. Humility can turn the other cheek. Your humility will enable those who have hurt you to repent and relent as well.
You do not understand the need for repentance? Then understand this: behavior based on fear is wrong.
Repent of wanting to take control. Repent of desiring the course of action that will cause you the least possible anxiety, but will perhaps not be God's perfect will or the path of greatest blessing for those you love. Repent of desiring to be freed of your burdens at the expense of the Lord's work in the lives of your loved ones. Repent of attempting to solve problems that only God is able to solve. Repent of advising out of your own well of wisdom, and for your failure to entrust your loved ones into God's hands.
Repentance is sweet. Repent.
If you can be graceful--full of grace--you will be richly blessed.
Repent before the Lord, and then apologize to those you have harmed.
The only block to an apology is your pride. Repent of your pride. Pride cannot be trespassed against and demands retribution. Humility can turn the other cheek. Your humility will enable those who have hurt you to repent and relent as well.
You do not understand the need for repentance? Then understand this: behavior based on fear is wrong.
Repent of wanting to take control. Repent of desiring the course of action that will cause you the least possible anxiety, but will perhaps not be God's perfect will or the path of greatest blessing for those you love. Repent of desiring to be freed of your burdens at the expense of the Lord's work in the lives of your loved ones. Repent of attempting to solve problems that only God is able to solve. Repent of advising out of your own well of wisdom, and for your failure to entrust your loved ones into God's hands.
Repentance is sweet. Repent.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sufficient Unto the Day
Do not sound an alarm, Dear One. You would not accomplish the purposes you hope; those you seek to warn would draw together but only because you would provide them a common foe. The underlying issues would not be brought to light because those you seek to warn would perceive themselves to be under attack.
You are viewing this situation as a compendium of threats, and you need to accept that your perspective may be inaccurate. In this sense, the perspective of youth, even in its naiveté, is more accurate than yours; because youth does not perceive future threat. By contrast, in your propensity for getting the “big picture,” you attempt to face all of the foes of the next 30 years concentrated at one point on your time-line. Battles come one at a time. They will be fought one at a time. You have forgotten that the Lord grants strength only for the battles of the day. All of the resources for the entire war are not given all at once. That would be like attempting to pour the ocean into a teacup; you can’t accommodate the whole of God's provision for you. He gives only what is needed for this day.
You don’t have fight this battle. Stand firm and watch. Trust in the Lord. You don’t have to accomplish deliverance, and you do not need to call a warning.
Scripture: "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged" (2 Chronicles 20:17).
You are viewing this situation as a compendium of threats, and you need to accept that your perspective may be inaccurate. In this sense, the perspective of youth, even in its naiveté, is more accurate than yours; because youth does not perceive future threat. By contrast, in your propensity for getting the “big picture,” you attempt to face all of the foes of the next 30 years concentrated at one point on your time-line. Battles come one at a time. They will be fought one at a time. You have forgotten that the Lord grants strength only for the battles of the day. All of the resources for the entire war are not given all at once. That would be like attempting to pour the ocean into a teacup; you can’t accommodate the whole of God's provision for you. He gives only what is needed for this day.
You don’t have fight this battle. Stand firm and watch. Trust in the Lord. You don’t have to accomplish deliverance, and you do not need to call a warning.
Scripture: "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged" (2 Chronicles 20:17).
Friday, February 25, 2011
Comfort
When the Lord is the author of a course of action, there are sometimes incongruities. If you all to fear, then logical sounding arguments can be made against a plan that the Lord has designed.
He has never let you down. He won't now. Be at peace.
Here is encouragement for you; the labor is complete. Just that. Your labor has been completed. Willingly undergo this strengthening time. This season of uncertainty can serve as a strengthening program as you cling ever tighter to the Lord and embrace disciplines of the flesh that have eluded you for so long. You will emerge from this “tight place” ready to inhabit the land the Lord has promised to you.
Scripture: "Comfort, comfort my people,says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed..." (Isaiah 40:1-2a).
He has never let you down. He won't now. Be at peace.
Here is encouragement for you; the labor is complete. Just that. Your labor has been completed. Willingly undergo this strengthening time. This season of uncertainty can serve as a strengthening program as you cling ever tighter to the Lord and embrace disciplines of the flesh that have eluded you for so long. You will emerge from this “tight place” ready to inhabit the land the Lord has promised to you.
Scripture: "Comfort, comfort my people,says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed..." (Isaiah 40:1-2a).
Sunday, February 6, 2011
How to Find Peace
Do not think that the Almighty God stands silently, sadly by and allows you to do yourself harm. He is your Creator and your Maker; He has rights to you beyond those you have yet given to Him.
You are not the center prize in a tug of war between two equal powers. A battle somewhat like this exists; but it takes place only on the field of freewill. When you lay down your will at God's feet, you come to a new level. When you abide in Him, you enter a realm where His rule reigns. It is here you will find peace, peace of mind and heart; the peace for which you long.
But the Lord is Sovereign, whether you submit to Him or not. All things will come together under His reign and His rule. The enemy can act only within the current of this inexorable flow that is bringing all of creation (and all that is) to God.
Scripture: "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (Ephesians 1:9-10, NIV1984).
You are not the center prize in a tug of war between two equal powers. A battle somewhat like this exists; but it takes place only on the field of freewill. When you lay down your will at God's feet, you come to a new level. When you abide in Him, you enter a realm where His rule reigns. It is here you will find peace, peace of mind and heart; the peace for which you long.
But the Lord is Sovereign, whether you submit to Him or not. All things will come together under His reign and His rule. The enemy can act only within the current of this inexorable flow that is bringing all of creation (and all that is) to God.
Scripture: "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (Ephesians 1:9-10, NIV1984).
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Submission
Submission is not about one person taking over the freewill of another. It is one person laying aside their own desires through free choice, as a gift to the other. It is like a mighty warrior sheathing his sword, or a beautiful woman covering her face and choosing not to use her beauty as a tool to manipulate others.
When you choose to submit to the Lord, you remain in possession of your own strength. He does not take away your beauty or your power.
The Lord has called you to partner with Him, not to be His slave. There is an important difference. You have Holy-Spirit influenced autonomy. You are not an automaton; you have autonomy.
When you choose to submit to the Lord, you remain in possession of your own strength. He does not take away your beauty or your power.
The Lord has called you to partner with Him, not to be His slave. There is an important difference. You have Holy-Spirit influenced autonomy. You are not an automaton; you have autonomy.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Forgiving
Do not dismiss the fact of your own hurt by underplaying the severity of the wounds you have received; do not trespass against your own heart in this way. See the terrible hurt of rejection you sustained, and forgive those who dealt the blows. This is Christ’s way. Emulate Him. He never said, “Oh, what you did wasn’t so bad after all.” He said, “Father, forgive them.”
Forgiveness opens the door to the acceptance of love, and loving others is a risk. The only greater risk to one’s heart and health lies in the danger of refusing to love.
Forgiveness opens the door to the acceptance of love, and loving others is a risk. The only greater risk to one’s heart and health lies in the danger of refusing to love.
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