06-07-13 Your Will Not Mine

Psalm 40:8-11 "I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, Lord, as you know. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help. I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly. Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord; may your love and faithfulness always protect me."

The last part of the Third Step Prayer says, "May I do Your will always".  I give it a twist and specify today and always. That keeps in my mind that just for today, I CAN do His Will, not mine.

See, the First Step for you that don't know 12-step addiction recovery language, is to admit we are powerless over our addiction.  Any addiction - drugs, food, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, etc.... 

The Second Step is to 'come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity'. This is the step where a glimmer of hope enters into our hearts and minds. 

The Third Step is that we 'made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him'. This is the step of surrender.

First, we admit our weakness. Then, we agree to believe that there is something or Someone greater than ourselves that can help us. Then, we surrender ourselves to 'hopefully' that SOMEONE, whom many choose to call Jesus or God.

To turn our wills over to God isn't just a one-time deal.  It's a daily and sometimes spur of the moment deal. It's not doing what we want to do when we know that it is wrong or at least not all the way right... or when we hear that still, small voice inside saying 'do that' or 'don't do that' and we kind of push it off to the side just a little or sometime a lot.

Our souls can be detrimental to our spiritual health. Our minds, wills and emotions can weak havoc if we let them run wild. That is why the Lord gives us His Holy Spirit - so we can have the strength and the wisdom to rein in our souls to conformity with the Word of God.

This is a must for Christians. Why? We are the reflection of what is inside of us.  Now for the shocker..... in 1 John 1 the Bible says that Jesus is the Word of God. if Jesus lives inside of us, then we are the Word of God to others. We are the Good News. 

Today.... this weekend - let's be somebody's Good News. Givers of the Life within us, because no matter how we feel, the Spirit of Jesus is still there to give that Life. We may feel depressed, down and out, whatever - but we can still give Life and Truth to someone who needs it.

Let's get out and show it!

Hands - Jewel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk0bKfC8XSE

06-06-13 Take Away My Difficulties

Psalm 55:22 "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken."

The Lord Jesus says that we can cast our cares on Him - our difficulties - our problems - our issues and He will sustain us. But doesn't it seem like sometimes, we go to throw the difficulties down at His feet and they stick to our hands like some kind of goo that stretches and comes straight back to our hands? 

Why is that? 

1 - We don't really want to let it go as we've become quite accustomed to it.

2 - We are afraid to deal with the pain it may cause.

3 - We don't think He will really take it away.

4 - We feel unworthiness and shame and just want to hide it.

5 - It doesn't want to let go of us, until we tell it to go.

You could probably list a few others.

So, let me explain why I chose to list those above.

Regarding 1 - It's like a captive not wanting to leave a captor because it's all they've ever known.  The Lord wants to show us what that difficulty really looks like in His eyes and then show us how much more HE has to offer.

Regarding 2 - Some difficulties are quite painful - and they will stay that way until they are dealt with. They come up - we bury them. They come back up - we bury them again... they will just keep coming up until we come to the place where we're sick and tired of being sick and tired. The Lord knows how to deal with pain, and He is a Gentle-Healer. He's waiting to take the difficulty and deal with the 'roots' that may accompany it.

Regarding 3 - We don't believe that He does what He says He will do. We may lack faith, we may have seen Him not do what we've asked in the past. But by faith, we need to believe that He is doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves... and maybe literally picture putting that difficulty into His hands.

Regarding 4 - If the difficulty is something that we've initiated or was initiated against us, we may be shame.  If it's something that we've given to Him over and over and over again, we may feel unworthy to come before Him AGAIN. But He forgives each time we ask - when we truly want to repent for our unbelief and for agreeing with shame and unworthiness.  He then clothes us with Honor and Righteousness.

Regarding 5 - God sets us free from our enemies, not our friends. If there is a demonic entity behind the difficulty, then we need to tell it to get the heck out and away from us, in the Name of Jesus. That we are no longer going to listen to it - agree with it - be friends with it. Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed! John 8:36

Lastly, and I didn't list it above, but at times the difficulty doesn't go away - because we're meant to go through it - leaning on the Lord's strength and mercy and grace.... leaning on our support system... not withdrawing. Sometimes we may feel like we're going around the same mountain... and we are.  But it's more like a spiral - we start at the bottom and we go around, but we're also going higher and closer to the top. We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus! Romans 8:37

So, when I pray this prayer, I pray "Lord, take away the difficulties that you know I can't handle or keep them from me - and give me the grace and strength to go through the difficulties that you know I can handle.

The end of this sentence in the prayer says, "So that victory over them may bear witness of Your Power, Your Love and Your Way of Life to those I would help.  We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony! Revelation 12:11   ---- So that we may bring glory to God and bless others with Who He is!!

How exciting is that!

So, let's begin to look at our difficulties in a new Light - and ourselves as the overcomers that we are!

Overcome - Desperation Band 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sjYWrpNoCs

06-05-13 Bondage of Self

Colossians 3:5-10 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."

Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Your will... - AA Third Step Prayer.

Actually, that's what I'm doing this week - breaking down the 3rd Step Prayer. In a nutshell, it's giving our lives over to God.

Again, here we are asking the Lord to take away the junk inside of us to make more room for Him to fill. 

The prayer asks the Lord to relieve us of the bondage to self. There are probably many more ways we can be in bondage to ourselves.  How about self-protection, self-hatred, selfishness - for starters? God can't release us of them until we're ready to let them go.

Once we're ready to let them go, then the Lord is over-ready to take them away and help us to put on a new 'robe of righteousness'. We don't need all that clutter in our lives - it just makes us weighed down and weary.

Then Jesus comes in and fills us with good things, like love and purity, cleanness and wholeness, faithfulness and calmness.  

The thing is, we need to stop picking up the same thing over and over again. We shed the robe of righteousness and exchange it back for the chains of bondage to our own desires and wants. If we want to better do His will in our lives, to know His will for our lives, then we need to be very close to Jesus. Once we start to heed the voice of self, then we are on a slippery slope down the slide of sin, which leads to despair.... and our separation from hearing the voice of the Lord.

Let's all continue to shed the old rags and to keep on the Royal Robe of Righteousness that Jesus has given us.

06-04-13 Do and Build

Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Galatians 5:22-23 "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Another part of the prayer I pray in the morning is for the Lord to take my life and do with my and build with me what He will.

Do you ever notice that we ask the Lord in song or in verse or in just talking to Him to search us, know us, test us with our anxious thoughts; to see if there is any sin in us and to lead us.... but the HE ACTUALLY DOES IT???

If you are anything like me when He starts messing around with that heart area, I'm like, "God, WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" I was going to tone that down a bit, but that's really what I and I think others actually think or say.  He comes back and says, "Only what you asked me to".  Oh, really?? Like I asked you to bring all this junk from the past back up into my life - like I really asked to be turned inside out to where my heart doesn't even feel like it's where it supposed to be physically!!  I asked for that?? He says, "Fortunately, yes." 

I get mad at Him! Like He's doing something to me and exposing my vulnerabilities and defenses and self-protection.... oh, well.... I guess He is.... and well, He's right, I asked Him out of my love for Him and my desire to give Him more of me so can have more of Him to do just that.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?????? 

I was thinking about Jesus and how much He gave for me, and how much I want to love Him in the same way He loves me.

To build with me and to do with me - in me - what He wills. I think of letting Him lead my day and to build in me the fruit of the Spirit. To build in me love towards others and myself - joy, that is my strength - peace, that guards my heart and my mind - forbearance, patience with people around me who act like... well, you know - kindness, doing something nice for someone, even smiling - goodness, having a purity of thought and deed - faithfulness, know Jesus is our center and following His Voice alone - gentleness, showing compassion to those who need it, but also learning to be gentle in reproof - self-control or temperance (don't particularly like the word self-control - it implies we are doing it ourselves, when in fact we need Jesus for everything), keeping ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit away from sin and doing what's not sinful in moderation.

Just my belief of what He wants to build in us... along with the various gifts He wants to pour out on us. When we act in accordance with the Spirit, nothing can harm us. Think about it.

Search Me - Know Me - Travis Cottrell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ4dVPPmUWc

06-01-13 Giving Our Lives To God

Romans 12:1-3 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

So, I was talking with the Lord this morning. One of the lines I pray daily is that I give myself, offer myself to God - as a living sacrifice - to be holy and pleasing to Him and for Him to do and build with me as He will.

I immediately thought, 'This isn't going to work'. Why? I'm not holy - I'm far from being holy.  Not just feeling like I wasn't holy - but that I wasn't holy enough even be offering myself as a sacrifice to our Father. 

I pray that part of a prayer every day... the rest of the parts I'll explain the rest of the week. I ask Him to burn off the dross and the fat for a sweet smelling aroma (oh, how I wish that could be true in the physical also ;)). But I've been very guarded for approximately the last day. Just happens whenever the Lord does what I ask (i.e., burns off the dross and fat) - it doesn't set well - like it's so unnatural to let the Lord into those places where the dross and the fat are. Am I talking to myself here??

If I'm not open, then how in the world can I let Him do in me and build with me as He wills? I took it by faith that at least I was talking with Him and continued on with my prayer. That is, after He said, "Do you think you need to be wholly holy in order to offer yourself to me? Because, you know, from My standpoint, I'm seeing you already as holy in my sight. The dross and fat that has been burned away already has revealed some holes that need filled and patched; some wounds that need to be healed; some forgiveness that needs to be given; some sin that needs to be made rid of. But I have seen in the past that even those are beautiful in my sight when you have given them over to Me.... a sweet-smelling aroma of freedom and my songs of deliverance go forth. What is still bothering you, I see as the same way. Don't be afraid to go where I lead. Peace, be still. You are Mine."

Our true act of worship is to offer ourselves to God - not conforming to the world and its 'programming', but being transformed in our minds by the Word of God and the Power of Holy Spirit. Only then can we know what God's good, please and perfect will is for us, maybe not for our whole lives, but for that day, that hour, that minute.

Many Blessing of peace, grace and mercy to you. Let's all keep moving ahead to have open hearts before the Lord.... let His peace overtake the anxiety and fear of letting Him in to heal the broken places.

I Offer My Life To You - Don Moen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-JJg-8qPso   Lord, please let this be so in our lives.