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Only One Sane Choice!

Joshua 1: 9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

 

As I was drifting off to sleep, God nudged me awake with the idea of this devotion. So up from the bed to my computer I went.

It’s been a rough fifteen months for myself and my husband. It actually started on Christmas day 2011 and we’ve had crisis after crisis since then. The details aren’t important—well, actually they’re very important to me but not to you.

The reality is we’re still going through the crises and we don’t know what the future holds. Things are getting better and God is working in our lives, but we still don’t know and won’t know the outcome of all our “issues” for quite some time. In spite of that, we haven’t stopped smiling, stopped enjoying life, or stopped trusting God.

But guess what?

You don’t know what the future holds either.  You may think you do. You may have all sorts of activities, goals, plans and strategies in place for the next year or even five years. The truth is none of us know what will happen in the next minute, hour, day, week……well, you get the idea.

When faced with that truth, there really is only one sane choice.

TRUST GOD.

Trusting God is the only reasonable choice in an unreasonable world.

God will bring a supernatural peace and joy that confuses the world. We don’t have to understand everything. We don’t have to know the future. All we really need to know is that God loves us and will be with us wherever we go.

Trusting God really is the only sane choice!

Category:

FAITH, TRUST

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UNSEEN BATTLES-PART 2

Ephesians 6:
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

FAITH! FAITH! FAITH!
Our spiritual journey begins with faith when we take that first step to believe and to become God’s child, then faith continues as we grow and mature spiritually, and finally our faith becomes fulfilled on that glorious day when we reunite with our Creator.
In our last devotion, we talked about life’s problems, big and small and that with each of those real-world struggles come an UNSEEN BATTLE—the battle to steal our spiritual inheritance and legacy. That is what the enemy wants. He wants us to listen to his lies, to believe him, to believe we don’t have the power to change our circumstances. To believe that God is not God. To believe that God is not good. To believe that God doesn’t love us as much as the other people around us.

We can’t always choose our circumstances, but we can choose to activate our faith in and through every circumstance. In Beth Moore’s study—Living Beyond Yourself—she has a phrase for each of the fruit of the spirits. For faith, the phrase is FAITH FIGHTS!

FAITH FIGHTS!
Faith is not passive.
Faith is active.
Let’s look at today’s verse again in light of the fact that FAITH FIGHTS. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Which YOU can extinguish…. YOU must do it. Faith is not passive.  Faith is active. You must be the one who activates your faith.
But how?
A good start is with our thoughts, our words, and then our actions!
Every time, those seeds of doubt enter our minds, banish them with God thoughts! A great verse and very easy to remember is “With God, all things are possible.”
Every time, you are tempted to whine about the situation, change it to an act of faith, by using positive words:” It’s tough right now, but God is still with me.”
As you practice using your thoughts and words to activate your faith, let your actions show that you are believing God’s Words and His Promises, not the enemy’s lies.
Faith Fights!
In her study, Beth also talks about prayer and that prayer can change our circumstances. She uses the illustration of a wall of doubt but with prayer that wall can be knocked out and turned into a window to allow God’s Power into our lives. Can you picture that?
I can. I kneel before a sold wall but as I pray to God. I pick up my  axe of faith and start to knock out the wall. With each prayer a little more of the wall of doubt crumbles allowing more of God’s light and power to shine on me. And before I  know it, I am bathed in the light of God’s love.

Bring on the flaming arrows, enemy—I will use them to enlarge my window of faith!
FAITH FIGHTS!

 

 

SHARING TIME: What’s one real way you can activate your faith on a daily basis?

Category:

FAITH, SPIRITUAL BATTLES

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UNSEEN BATTLES

John 16:33

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

LIFE IS TOUGH! And then it gets even tougher. Sometimes it seems as if our problems and troubles will never end. And the truth is they might not! Or they might not end the way we want them to.

Disappointments, worries, and problems come. Illnesses happen. Tragedies strike. That’s the reality of the fallen world we live in.

Those are the battles we fight every day in the natural world.

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, and sometimes it becomes a wait and see what happens. But there’s another battle going on as well. This battle is much more important than whatever you are experiencing in the natural world.

It’s an UNSEEN BATTLE

The unseen battle is about stealing your faith, hope, trust,  power,  peace, joy, and all the other wonderful gifts God gives us as His heir. Paul says it this way in Ephesians 6:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

 

Paul knew what many of us forget in this modern world. Even though we can’t see the supernatural world, it’s out there and there’s an unseen battle going on. And that’s the battle that counts!

You may not be able to do much about the battle in the physical world. Sometimes, you can and you certainly should do all you can, but there are times, it is what it is and you can’t change it.

But the UNSEEN BATTLE.

God gives us the weapons we need for that battle, but it’s up to us to use them. If we don’t we’ll lose the war. So, what are the weapons for fighting the unseen battle?

Ephesians 6: 13-20

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

 

As you can see, God has not left you defenseless in the UNSEEN BATTLES, but instead has given you many weapons. They are all important, of course, but it all starts with that shield of faith which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Wow! Did you read that line? Maybe you should read it again:  that shield of faith which YOU can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Did you notice the word I put the emphasis on that time?

YOU can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one! YOU are the one that much activate your faith. YOU are the one that must use your faith.

So, how do you do that? Good question and we’ll  discuss it some more in the next devotion.

SHARING TIME:  What are ways you activate your shield of faith?

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FAITH, SPIRITUAL BATTLES

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Letting Go Of Expectations

Isahiah 43:18

Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.

This verse is fairly familiar to most of us. Paul also talked about this same idea. Letting go of the past and moving forward. But as I read this verse this past week, another thought occurred to me that I’d like to share with you.

I think the verses are also about our expectations.

As we go through life and all the experiences that it throws at us, we form expectations. Those expectations can become so ingrained in us that they hold us back form God’s best plan for us.

For example, I’ve struggled with my weight for many years. And that means I’ve been on many diets. Each time I go on one, I truly want to lose the weight, but past results of diets have led me to certain expectations. The expectation being that I may lose 10 or 15 pounds before the diet stops working and/or I go back to old habits.

And you know what?

That’s exactly what happens!

And do you know why? Because of the expectations I’ve learned from past experiences. The truth is it doesn’t have to happen that way, but I let my past expectations control my present actions. If I stay with the nutrition plan and the exercise program that’s been working, why wouldn’t it continue to work?

It would except that I’ve programmed myself to expect failure. And so I that’s exactly what I get–FAILURE!

Maybe, it’s time to reset our expectations and experience more of God’s blessings, more of God’s success, more of God’s power in our life.

One way to do that is that as shut down those  negative voices telling  you that you CAN’T do it, that it WON’T work out, that you SHOULDN’T expect good things, use your voice and tell them out loud:  WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

SHARING TIME:  What negative expectations are holding you back from God’s best for you?

Category:

FAITH

WHO’S IN CONTROL?

Proverbs 3: 26

for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about control lately.

If you ask me, who is in control, I would, of course, give the good Christian answer—GOD . If you ask me who is my provision, I would, of course, give the good Christian answer—GOD. If you ask me who the source if my confidence is, I would give the good Christian answer—GOD.

And I believe that but….

On the other hand, I like to think of myself as self-reliant. I started working the same week I graduated from high school in…cough…stammer…uhm 1973 . I found a job the same week and have worked since then with the exception of one quarter in college when I saved enough money to take a break.

I put myself through college along with a few grants and scholarships—no loans. ME and MY WORK. I saveD my money—bought my houses-bought my cars. ME and MY WORK

So, even though I say and believe God is in control, believe He is my provision, I’m not so sure I’ve ever depended on HIM the way HE wants. Because after all, for almost forty years, it’s been ME and MY WORK.

That is until lately.

I’ve been retired and only working part-time for the past few years. That was really awesome!  I had time to write and enough money not to worry!  And then it happened!

NO JOB! I actually didn’t freak out at first. I assumed something would come along at the last minute. But it didn’t.

The last check came and then it wasn’t ME and MY WORK anymore! Just me!  Oh, that’s right, I admit it—I forgot about God for a few anxiety-filled weeks. I worried, I grumbled to myself. I was more anxious than I’d been in years!

And it was driving me crazy!

Suddenly, my peace and joy was replaced with worry and aggravation. A lot of it and I didn’t like it. But I didn’t stop me from doing it until one day when I realized by worrying I wasn’t trusting God. I was NOT placing my confidence in God as my provider.

HE had been my provider all along but as with us fleshly humans, I forgot that for awhile…

So, now each time the worry comes back, I say a quick prayer: “I know You love me. You are all-powerful and I know you will work this out for my good.” Sometimes, it’s simpler and even quicker: “I need you or Your Will be done.”

The anxiety and worry are slowly being replaced by the peace and joy again. And that is wonderful!

We don’t, can’t, and won’t always know why things happen the way they do, but we always have a choice in how we react to them. We can choose to believe God’s promises. We can choose to believe God loves us and will take care of us. We can choose to stay in faith.

My life circumstances may still a mess, but as long as I keep my eyes on God, my faith remains steady. I now know that GOD truly is in control and my times are indeed in HIS hands.

Interestingly enough, I wrote the above devotion a few months ago before I developed complications from the Gamma Knife treatment for my brain tumors. Because of the complications, I was put on high dosages of steroids. And there would have been no way I could have worked during that time. And that would have only put me under more stress–something I certainly didn’t need.

God knew what he was doing when He decided it was time for me to retire for real.

He was in control and He knew what He was doing.

He was working my circumstances out for what was best for me–even though I couldn’t see it at the time.

That’s what TRUST and FAITH  are all about!

 

SHARING TIME: Share a time when what seemed like bad circumstances actually turned out to be the best thing for you. And allowed you to know God was working things out for you.

 

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FAITH, GOD'S LOVE, TRUST, Uncategorized

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