Today is the day of salvation! His mercies are new every morning. (thankfully!) No one can go back and change the past, we can't change the things that we've already done. I read this in a book recently: "No one can go back and make a brand-new beginning, but anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending." That's so awesome! God's desire for us is complete deliverance from our sin. Okay! That's awesome, but here's the rub, we're the one's who can't seem to let go of our past. We linger there and by doing so, we unknowingly refuse to allow God to transform us. When we indulge our thoughts and mull over our failures and mistakes, we only magnify our sin and allow it to further control us Then the sin that we have already asked forgiveness for, becomes Lord over our lives. Whatever you give control to IS the Lord of your life. When thoughts of failure, guilt, (fill in the blank) come to our minds, take that thought captive and throw it out. The bible says to "take every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5) If we push through the very things that Satan designs to hold us back, we will see awesome things and be used by God in ways we never could imagine. Be relentless in following God. Don't hold on to the things that are trying to pull you down, hang onto Jesus. In him there is life and forgiveness. We will not always get it right, unfortunately we will continue to blow it, but the freedom is in Jesus!
"There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death" Romans 8:1-2
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A Prayer
Help me, oh awesome and mighty God. The enormity of your holy presence, fill me with your love and peace. Let my voice sing in awe of how you love me; of how you lift me up; of how you are ever near, ever present, ready to pour out your love and grace for me. In my life, may yours be the victory.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Refining
I read about the process of gem and precious metal refining today. Though I already knew about this process somewhat, I was shown again by this example how God is taking us through a firing process. Gems and precious metals are UNRECOGNIZABLE at first, laying among the dirt, covered with hard unwanted minerals. They go through a long and painful (if they had feelings) process of scraping, washing and firing.
Our walk towards becoming like Christ is very much the same. We are all in a refining process, where impurities mingle with the treasure that He is trying to create. He knows exactly what it will take to make us into the creation and person we were designed to be. The only obstical to this refining process is US. With a gem or precious metal, the end result is always beauty because it has no choice. We, however, have a choice. God wants to take us and refine us into something of great worth, but if it hurts too much, or we decide we want our own desires more than Gods, we bail. We choose not to listen to God, which leaves us right where we started; in the dirt, hard with unwanted impurities, hardly recognizable as one of Gods precious creations. The saddest part is that we don't even understand our own desires. We want to have happiness and think that we know best how to attain it. We think by doing things our way we will be happy. But our way can never fully satisfy the longing for the true joy that only God can give. Getting our way may partially satisfy our hunger, but will ALWAYS fall short in the end.
If only we really knew the end result that God desires to bring about in us...guess what...we can know and be sure that God ALWAYS does what is best for us, ALWAYS intends everything for our good.
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