Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Feeling Useless And Lost About Your Life?



Could it be that you simply need some changes in your life? Sometimes we don't take the initiative to bring about change. God gives us the intelligence, the desire and the ability to instigate change. He also gives us hope that we can do things that we never thought we could. We know Him now. We are safe in the bosom of His power, and His love. This gives us great ability. 

~ We are so paralyzed about making changes. ~

As Christians, especially babes-in-Christ, we are so paralyzed about making decisions and changes in our lives, for fear of offending God. It has also been drilled into us for so long to wait on God and to follow his prompting, that we are terrified to make a move on our behalf. We feel that we need to wait for a definite word from God on what to do, while not knowing how to perceive the word from Him when it comes. 

There is a balance between waiting on God and using the wisdom and knowledge that He has given us to make changes in our lives. Not understanding that we have the personal power to decide on a new future and move towards that can cause depression to set in. Lack of understanding about the authority that we have for change can cause us to die a slow death of hopeless waiting.   

~ Maybe the current answer in right in front of you. ~

If you are feeling useless, hopeless, confused about the meaning of your life, without direction,  bored, uninspired, etc., maybe the current answer in right in front of you. You may just need to make some changes in your life, using ideas and desires that God has had in front of you for a long time. Take the authority that God has given you, and make the changes that are in your power.  You should know that you are backed by God. He's been backing you for a long time.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

What About The Bad Places In My Life?


Sometimes as Christians we worry about the things that we can't seem to get right. We are frustrated over bad things that continue to crop up in our thoughts, our behaviors, and our lives. We lament that our failures and challenges are putting us behind. We feel anger that the influence or seeming control of another/others is causing unwanted effects to grow as we work to grow in the Lord.

Matthew 13:24-30 talks about the good seed and the tares. A man planted good seeds in his soil, and while he rested, an enemy came by and sowed some tares, or unwanted seeds, in among his good seeds. 

When his servants saw the sprouting of the bad seed among the good, they were aghast. They did not understand how this could have happened when they knew he would not have sown other than good seeds. They wanted to go to work ripping up the tares seedlings. No doubt, they thought it would be better to do this now, than wait for the wheat-resembling weeds to grow larger and stronger. They were concerned that these unwanted plants would take over, and even kill the good plants.

Their master, the owner who sowed the good seed, explained to them that it would be better to let the tares grow along with his good plants. If they ripped them out now, they would also dislodge and destroy many of the good seedlings in the process. He told them to wait until harvest time, when it would be easier to separate the weed plants from the good grain, and throw out the bad and keep the good. The owner knew that the tares would not take over.

This parable relates to what God will do when it's time for this world to end. It is okay that people who don't want to accept Jesus and love God are living, growing, advancing, prospering and even sometimes winning over Christians. In the end, when God's harvest is ripe, he will discard and destroy the remaining tares, those who refused Jesus Christ as Savior, and bring into his bosom those who love Him through the Shed Blood of His Son. 

Practically, we should practice the same confidence in ourselves and our lives. We don't have to worry about our faults, mistakes, failures, challenges, setbacks, relapses, struggles and rebellions. In the soil of our lives and in this world, there will always be tares, planted by any number of people, circumstances and unavoidable influences. Our focus and job is to keep planting and filling our fields with good seed. Don't worry about the bad seeds in our lives, why they are there, or how they got there. Many of them will die off along the way, as our good seeds grow. Those that are stubborn weeds that persist in surviving and even growing along with our good growth? Well, they will be destroyed in the end. In the end, it will be easy for the bad to be completely obliterated, and the good to be preserved.

Don't worry. Continue to focus on planting good seed into your thoughts, your mind, your heart, your being, your life. In the end, anything that is not done for Christ, by Christ, through Christ will be ripped out, separated and destroyed, never to grow, influence and affect again. In the end, everything that is done for Christ will last.



Tares Definition: TheFreeDictionary
Image:  Pixabay Free Images

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

The Trial Will End In Good Time


When we are enduring a trial or tribulation, and we feel that we can endure no longer, we usually ask God to deliver us. We ask him to end the suffering, because we know that if we ask him he will answer. We know that when we ask according to his will, we have the petition that we desire of him.

The interesting thing, though, is that we can sometimes feel that it is not really time for us to be delivered. Deep in our spirits, we can feel that the training or lesson is not quite done. It is almost completed, nearly finished, but not just yet.  

So what do we do about that? Well, we dig in and prepare for a little more enduring. We know that we do want to be delivered ASAP, but if in our hearts we feel that it is not yet time, then we will not receive a favorable answer to our prayer to be delivered now. 

In order to receive favorable answers to appropriate prayers, we have to believe deeply and realistically in what we are asking. We have to be able to receive that for which we are asking. If we don't believe that it is time, then that much desired answer will not manifest today. So while ASAP may mean today for us, God knows, and our spirit knows, that for today ASAP means all in good time. 

So prepare for a little bit more endurance while you are looking to be delivered ASAP. The time will surely come when you pray that prayer of deliverance and your inner man will know and agree wholeheartedly that it is finally, time.

God bless you and keep you safe!

 

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

The Kingdom Of God Is Like...?


The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like...

The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field...

The kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field...

The kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal...

The kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hid in a field...

The kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls...

The kingdom of Heaven is like a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind... 

The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things... 

Matthew 13:24-52 

Have you read and studied to learn just what the Kingdom of Heaven is, and how it pertains to your life here, and in the hereafter?

It's not just a place that we go to when we leave this earth.

It is behaviors, experiences, occurrences and principles, as well as a place where we will be honored to spend Eternity, which is just forever and forever.

But, as many profess today, Eternity is now, the moment when you accepted Jesus Christ as the only Savior of mankind, as your Savior.

So, if you haven't read these illuminating scriptures, or if you've only read them once, read them again, over and over until you feel God's Spirit revealing to you just what your should be experiencing as a member in His Kingdom. Afterall, you do want all that is yours.

 

Friday, March 3, 2017

The Difference That Being Rooted & Grounded Makes


I can tell that I'm much more rooted and grounded in God's kingdom. One way in which this is evident to me is because I can listen to or watch anything about The Lord at any time of day or night. This is versus when I was un-saved, or a babe in Christ and felt comfortable and happy doing that at certain times of the day, or on certain days.

I'm just simply always ready to hear a good word about God, or listen to some good worship and praising. I always feel open to it, ready for it. I don't have to get ready, or get prepared, or get in the right frame of mind. I'm always ready to receive. 

I believe this is because I am on the inside of God's Kingdom, not on the outside looking in. Even new Christians are somewhat on the outside looking in, because they are not versed nor experienced in the things of God. They don't understand a lot about who they are, or what it is that they have. 

When I was on the outside, the things of God had the tendency to infringe upon my life, though I wanted to learn more about God. I was seeking growth, but that separation between my moods and desires were conflicting with being mentally and emotionally immersed in God things. 

Some may call it being in The Spirit. Others may refer to is as being consumed with the things of God. Whatever it is, I call it being rooted and grounded in all things God, to the extent that you are always joyfully willing to hear about Him.

As I ponder on this circumstance, I ask myself how has it come about? I believe it is because:
  1. I have been reading The Bible everyday for years now. Whether it is one paragraph or one chapter, I rarely miss.
  2. I have turned prayer into talking to God. As a result I spend time with Him throughout the day, talking to Him about my joys and sorrows. This allows me to share with Him when things happen, not later at a prayer time when I will have forgotten much of how I felt.
  3.  I pray for a hunger and thirst for righteousness, for God to make my crooked places straight, for Him to order my steps in His Word, for Him to establish my thoughts, and for Him to create in me a clean heart. I pray what The Word says I should have. These requests mean that I have to be continuously submitted to God.
I'm happy and content to be open to teaching, preaching, reading, worship and praise at all times. It's wonderful to welcome the things of God, rather than to be afraid or ambivalent about them. It's wonderful to be drawn to God at all times, rathern than to be repelled by Him at certain times.

To be rooted and grounded in God means that we can never get away from Him, and we never want to.

 

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Poetry ~ Lord How Sweet Is Your Word

Lord How Sweet Is Your Word

How sweet is your Word in suffering,
Though oft' the burden is great.
It feels unbearably frequent,
Such difficulty of late.

Your Word is a precious ointment,
Oft' applied in much duress.
Your Word is a pathway lamplight.
With your Word I make progress.

I read and feel much freedom.
A breath of joy I breathe.
I lose myself in scriptures.
Where found is sweet relief.

Your Word I'll never shun it,
Though hurting hinders me.
That two-edged sword of sweetness,
Is what I need from thee. 


If you are not delving into the Word daily, preferably in the morning, you are missing a treat. It is the necessary nourishment for us to learn more about God, and the gospel of His Son, and to be able to successfully walk in His ways. Many Christians practice what they know of the Bible, but without spiritual power.

It is the daily ingesting of His Word that spiritually transforms us over time, giving us the power to not be conformed to this word, to resist the devil, to take no thought for tomorrow, to fear not, to give thanks in everything, to bear fruit from the inside out, to not turn to the right hand or to the left, to pray for those who despitefully use us, and to increase in faith. It is this very Word that many try to do in the flesh, that when eaten and drunk every day, will give us the power to walk in the freedom where with Christ has made us free, and to not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.






Lord How Sweet Is Your Word (c)2016 sjhollandwriting
Image: Pixabay.com Free Images