Change Your Situation!

Life is full of ups and downs—some big, others small. That’s just life—no need for anxiety! The questions are—how do we manage life in the seemingly dry or difficult times? How do we turn a desert place into a spring? Make a dead place alive? How do I change my situation???

Psalm 84 has the answer,

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring.

1.      1.  We are blessed when we find our strength in God. Blessed doesn’t mean we won’t have ups and downs—no, it simply means we are never alone or left without solutions in our ups and downs.

Finding our strength in God is a trade—we give Him our weakness in exchange for His incomprehensible strength. Acknowledging our weakness—basically humbling our self—makes way for a flood of God’s grace, strengthening us to get through any situation.

2.       2. We set our heart on eternity—ever looking forward. As long as we focus on this world and all the fulfillment it can bring—we will come up empty. We must set our focus on Jesus, knowing we are on pilgrimage—a journey—always moving forward—constantly drawing nearer.

3.     (Next is the answer to the big question…”How do I change my situation?”)

3. When we pass through a desert place, we determine—resolve in our self to make it a spring.

You can change your situation. How? By calling God into it. As God’s presence fills our heart, soul and life even the driest of times are refreshed.The dead places are made alive by His very life in ours.

I love how verse 6 of Psalm 84 says “they” make it a spring. It’s a choice. We can wallow in the dust of our hard place, whining to God or worse accusing Him of unfaithfulness, or we can choose to make it a spring. Yes it’s hard. But worth it! Remember; the purest gold is wrought from the hottest fire!

Please be encouraged—to determine—to make every dry, dead place in your life a spring.

 

Not Just for Kids

Have you read the story of Jonah lately? Every time my grandson and I read the Bible together, we read about Jonah—how he didn’t obey God, fled and got swallowed up by a whale. Read Jonah to get the whole story—it’s not just for kids!

Today I read the book of Jonah on my own. What caught my attention was his faith in God.

In Jonah 4:2 he says this about God;

I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, One who relents from doing harm

Jonah knew the character of God and had faith that He wouldn’t be anything but faithful. Why then did Jonah disobey God and run the other way?

Basically, Jonah did not let his faith in God change him.

He lived a life where He knew all about God but didn’t actually know Him.

I’ve lived this lifestyle and understand how comforting it can be. But the truth is—in living this lifestyle we miss the whole point.

Our faith in God must rearrange our life—transform us—causing us to become who we know God is. It must also draw us near to Him—where we actually know Him and experience what we believe. Knowing God causes personal relationship—relationship leads to obedience—the more we are with Jesus the more we become like Him.

Our goal in life is to live and be like Jesus. Please be encouraged to let your faith in God transform you.

Apology: The advertisements on my page are allowed by the blog site WordPress, I personally have nothing to do with them…sorry for any inconvenience.

 

 

 

Passion

If someone invited you to a party using these words; “The party will be dull, pretty much boring and very stale—you should come”—would you go? I think not.

How about relationship? What if a young man has interest in a young lady and when asking her to date him uses this line, “I really like you and want to date you, but first you must know—it will be a very dreary and lifeless relationship.” What girl, in her right mind, would date a guy with that personality and perspective?

What would be missing from such a relationship? Passion.

There are a couple of meanings to the word passion—the passion I’m referring to is the zest in life.

The opposite of passion is—mundane, routine, common, boring.

Passion causes people to go beyond normal—in life, relationships, work and play.

All my kids love and play extreme sports. Why play chess for a hobby when you have rock climbing or MMA? Hockey, dirt bike riding, white water rafting, kayaking, snowboarding, skateboarding and skydiving? They are passionate people and could never be satisfied with anything dull or commonplace.

Likewise we should press the limits on our Christianity. Always moving forward—insistent on loving and knowing God more—adamant in service—courageously sharing our faith—undaunted by culture and boldly exhibiting godly character.  We are to be people who go beyond normal in everyday life—faith filled people who represent God—people consumed with passion!

When God created us He set passion inside of us. Just look at the young—who live with child-like wonder, excitement, and enthusiasm about everything they encounter.

Our relationship with God should be one of passion, where we crave His Holy Spirit, and His presence. A relationship packed with zeal and fervor—not mundane—birthed out of obligation.

Matthew 22:37 boldly states what is most important in life,

To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. (NKJ)

Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. (MSG)

It takes passion to love God in this manner.

Many things steal passion—heartache, sickness, offense, doubt, disobedience, selfishness and busyness. Mainly the devil—he loves to usurp our passion, along with it he steals our faith. He is master at causing situations to arise where we question and doubt God’s goodness. It’s what he lives for.

Along with passion for God we must have passion for His Word. God’s Word amongst many things, is where we read about the greatest love story ever! Not only that—but in His Word is the secret to living life skillfully.

John 1:1 says,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

If you love God and are in a relationship with Him—filled with His Spirit, then you also love His Word and are in relationship with it as well. We must diligently guard our passion for the Bible—the sneaky devil is expert at making the Word seem uninteresting and irrelevant.

Last but not least—another area where passion gets evaporated by the enemy is where church is concerned.

Psalm 69:9 says,

Passion for your house has consumed me

We should be passionate for our church—if we belong to God, then church is our house and we should passionately—with all our heart—not just out of duty—love to be there, serve there and be a part of what God is doing in our local church.

The reason the devil loves to steal passion for God’s house is the isolation factor—he isolates the weak and picks them off. He initiates grumbling, offense and disunity—which make church seem routine and pointless. Fact is—passionless church goers weaken the church.

We have to be intentional in protecting our passion. Making sure not to waste our affections on trivial things of this world.

What’s your passion level? Has the enemy seized your passion for God, His Word and His house?

An incredible attribute of God is his loving-kindness. He will never be content with allowing the devil to steal from His people! He has made a way for each of us, by His grace, to take back what the puny devil steals. It will take an act of our strong self-will, but after that it’s a cake-walk.

We must simply use our will, to turn to God—access grace, confess our passionlessness and lean into His great and awesome love. With an open embrace He welcomes us—here we exchange our dryness for a greater thirst.

Please be encouraged to ask God for more passion—and it will be yours!

Grace is a Force

Star Wars anyone?

This current season of digging deeper into God’s grace and its true meaning, is changing not only my everyday life, but my embedded opinions of the power of grace.

For a few weeks now God has been speaking to me about grace being a force. Consider that statement for a moment. Grace is a force.

Force defined as:  Strength, energy, power; intensity, influence and effect.

Until now, I have never thought of grace as a force—but it makes perfect sense. (Remember in a previous blog I said I lived in sloppy grace—using grace as an excuse not to do things I should. See blog titled Grace.)

When I woke the other morning, I had thoughts of Star Wars—weird—because although I like Star Wars and have seen all the movies, multiple times—I’m not a huge enthusiast. But I was pondering Star Wars in light of those who struggle to overcome sin.

I was reminded of grace as a force, and the words “May the force be with you,” came to mind. I began to ponder all that the “Force” does and is for the characters of Star Wars.

I’m putting my disclaimer out there—I do not believe in the force from Star Wars and merely view it as something in a movie—I am not into cult practice or magic! Don’t get all religious on me and not read this because I’m using the force to relate to grace! Relax and just go with it!

The force gives the people in Star Wars supernatural ability. God is supernatural and gives us supernatural abilities. One of these supernatural abilities is grace to overcome—grace to live holy—grace to do the things God asks of us—grace to obey—grace to move forward—grace to love and forgive—grace to find God in impossible situations—grace to heal.

As I’m diving deeper into accessing grace and applying it to daily life, I’m finding that I’m able to do things I did not think I had ability, heart capacity, time or money to do. It’s the simple everyday things—such as getting things done, restored relationship, giving, meeting needs, praying more, living healthy, feeding people and  meeting writing goals. What’s interesting is that God is not increasing my natural resources, but there’s this dynamic taking place where I have the ability to do more and press further. It’s the force of grace working in my life. I do believe it has always been at work, but since I’m seeking more knowledge about grace—I have a new deeper revelation and I’m able to, by faith and the Holy Spirit, step into the fullness of grace.

When we view grace as a force it changes not only our perspective on grace, but or natural abilities.

God’s Word says in 2 Corinthians 12:9,
“My grace is sufficient for you for, My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

In regards to overcoming, this scripture informs us that His grace is what we need—it’s enough. If we feel too weak to overcome—it’s okay—His strength is made perfect in us—in our weakness.

When we are weak and become too scared or apathetic to overcome, is when we most definitely have to lean on grace as a force to help us. We access grace by faith. (Romans 5:2) But what if our faith is weak? This supernatural force will help even when our faith is lacking. Just muster up enough faith to call out to God—by His grace, He will strengthen us and our faith.

In areas where we lack maturity, God’s grace will carry us to maturity.

When I was a new Christian I thought I could linger in an immoral relationship and use the reasoning that God’s grace covers me. Well, it sort of did cover me—but really it carried me to maturity where I found and learned to believe God’s truth about sin.

Another time when I was not so new of a Christian, (that’s an understatement! I had been a Christian for twenty-five years!) Anyways, after following Christ for a quarter-century, God pulled the plug on a very serious issue that I struggled to overcome and foolishly lived with—fear.

That’s right, fear was my biggest road block; it debilitated me spiritually, because its root cause was unbelief—unbelief in God’s trustworthiness. I had been so hurt and disappointed in life—trusting did not come easy, if at all.

The Lord very boldly told me one morning that the grace to live in fear was over.  If I wanted to be in a relationship with Him, I would have to abandon fear and the lifestyle of mistrust I lived in because of it.

At first I was shocked that I had grace to live in fear, but the way God explained grace to me in this situation, is that it carried me to maturity. It was as if grace was the training wheels in my life—not God’s best for me—that’s for sure. Have you ever seen a twenty-five-year-old ride a bike with training wheels? Gross, right? That was a natural picture of my spiritual condition. Obviously, I was not accessing grace as a force during that time in my life. No wonder God in His mercy pulled the plug!

Devastated, I had to overcome fear. This is where grace as a force took over. Remember force defined as:  Strength, energy, power; intensity, influence and effect.

I knew I could not live without God—so I had to relinquish fear as my safety net in life. It was agonizing, no doubt. But the exchange was priceless. I traded fear for faith and trust. I did it by God’s love and grace (a force) moving me—undergirding me to heal and mature and believe in His faithfulness.

Can you see how weak we become when we live in sloppy grace? And when we don’t  use grace as a resource to overcome, but as an excuse to live a half-hearted life

Surely a half-hearted lifestyle cannot be God’s best for us. God’s best is that we overcome—live victorious—live holy—press forward—heal—exchange our weakness for His strength. This comes by knowing God’s grace as a force and believing in His love to change us through and through.

Please be encouraged to find this force, life is too short to settle for good enough—we should live in God’s best! May His force be with you!

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10

Grace

Does the grace you believe in draw you closer to God?

Everything we experience in life should cause us to have a greater dependency on God—drawing us nearer to Him.

There are a few areas in my life where I have been living in sloppy grace. I am at present making an exchange my sloppy grace for His real grace.

Sloppy grace says; “I can’t overcome my flesh or human weakness, but it’s okay because grace covers—so no big deal. Sloppy grace is to be slack-full. The trouble with this mindset is that we don’t move forward. Instead we settle for not being able to overcome, or worse—live in denial that sin even exists.

Being under grace does not mean we give into the weakness of our flesh. No, being under grace is to be justified and to live our lives filled and led by the resurrection power of Christ, which overcomes all weakness.

The travesty with living a sloppy grace lifestyle is that we don’t depend on God (thus draw nearer to Him) for the strength needed to push through and overcome. Why?  Because grace is not seen as a strength and help—but only as justification from sin. Consequently, we miss out on all that grace is and can be in our lives.

God is showing me that real grace says; “I can’t—but by God’s grace I can.”  “I don’t have to be perfect—but I do have to be submitted to God” Then receives the truth, and disciplines self to stop feeding the flesh and to do God’s will. Moving forward, trusting and depending on God for the strength and grace to walk out the hard stuff in life and overcome challenges.

Real grace draws us nearer to God because we realize—He is our life source and strength to overcome (by His grace) any weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9 says

 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Grace is sufficient for us because it not only helps us receive and live in what the cross did for us, but it is God’s divine assistance—we overcome sin by the resources that God’s grace provides us.

If you are living in sloppy grace—please be encouraged to make the exchange—God’s grace is sufficient!