Live Freely!

Just finished reviewing the last week of James: Mercy Triumphs' homework for tonight's last session. You never know what is going to go on in your life during the weeks of a Bible study, but every study I've ever done has spoken to what I was going through at the time. Isn't that just like God's Word? It is relevant and it is applicable to your daily life, and it will speak to every circumstance, transition, and just plain everyday life. As Moses told his people,"These are not just words to you, they are your life!" (Deuteronomy) We can't survive in this world culture without the Word of God. It is truly our daily bread and the living water that quenches our thirst. The world culture today is self-centered, dark, evil,  and  tries to violate our spirits and souls. We need godly provisions daily.

My favorite verses that were brought up in this week's homework: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10

I praise God for choosing me to be His special possession that I may declare His praises for bringing me out of the darkness of the futility and hopelessness of my thinking and into His glorious light. Flawed and sinful, with evil desires I cannot control without Him, He sought me and paid the price so that I could be made righteous and holy and live now and forever with Him. Truly, "Mercy triumphs over judgment." (James 2:13)

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I have a new identity. I belong to Christ. This Servant--Shepherd--Savior loved me and died for me. He took my filthy rags away and wrapped me in His robe of righteousness. He who died and rose again is mighty, faithful and true. He hears my cries for help and saves me from a broken past, wrongful thinking, oppression, and from my sinful nature.

I have a new identity. I've been transformed from death to everlasting life by Christ's rejuvenating resurrection power. When the enemy tries to tempt me to believe I haven't changed, I can turn toward my God and find refuge. I no longer have to walk in brokenness, weighed down by guilt, circumstances, or driven by anxiety. I can choose to believe and have hope. I can choose to pray to my heavenly Father because I am His child. He rewards my faith as I withdraw from worldly passions and diligently seek Him.

I have a new identity. The Holy Spirit testifies with my spirit that I am God's child. Panic and anxiety do not get to define me. I don't face anything alone. I can ask in the moment of my need and wait in expectation. He will answer. He lives in me to teach me, guide me, lead and protect me. Panic cannot take His protection away. He provides for me and keeps my soul safe. He is trustworthy. There is no one in heaven or on earth who is like Him. He is Truth and Life. I have a new identity. I've been bought with a price. I am not my own. My body is His temple. But when I am weak, His grace is sufficient for me. His power is made perfect in my weakness. So when I am weak, I humbly bow, and in due time, He raises me up again. He enables me to persevere, to continue to do what I cannot possibly do on my own.  

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Meditated on these verses during an anxious morning yesterday and experienced the peace of God as I prayed them back to Him and thanked Him for them. Thought I'd share them with you. They're from May 1 morning reading in the Daily Light, ESV version. God timed it so this was the reading I woke up to--He knew beforehand that I would need them. I love how He forsees everything. He truly goes before us and is our Rear Guard. :)

But the fruit of the Spirit is....peace.--To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.--God has called you to peace. --"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you."--May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.--I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.--You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.--And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.--"Whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.--Great peace have those who love your law.

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Sometimes we get disappointed with ourselves because we're believers but our actions (or maybe reactions) aren't what we want them to be in certain situations. Sometimes we get disheartened because we know God could change some things in us, but He hasn't yet. Sometimes the battle is an old one-- that "thorn in the flesh." Sometimes we don't feel like "more than conquerors", and yet, we know we have a Champion for whom nothing is impossible and Who is "for" us, not "against" us. Sometimes trying to walk like Jesus walked seems too hard, and it's easier to say, "I give up" instead of looking up and trying one more time.

Negative thoughts and feelings can really discourage us, paralyze us, and drag us into despair. We need to take them captive and bring them to Christ. We are not perfect human beings. We need to confess our sins and shortcomings. We need to accept hardship as the Lord's discipline, knowing that we're being changed for the better. Our hearts and our faith are being purified. In the meantime, Jesus says His grace is sufficient for us. God's Word tells us that He is indeed working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. We're encouraged to stand firm and to put on the armor of God in Ephesians 6. And in order to think like Christ, we need to meditate on God's Word which contains whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, noteworthy, excellent. (We're told to think on these things in Phil. 4:8) Then we can trust God to take care of our concerns and problems that we've laid out before Him in prayer. We can cast all our anxieties on Jesus because He cares for us. We can trust Jesus. But it's hard to trust Him if you don't know Him.

Almost a year ago, I placed a card on my refrigerator that had this verse on it: "[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [the power it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death." (Phil. 3:10; Amp)

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Prayer from Richard Foster's book, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. Picture from http://www.incourage.me/2013/03/53649.html

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"Another excerpt from John Ortberg's book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat:

How do we go about developing minds that focus on Christ in the middle of storms?

We are very aware that the fuel that goes into things ultimately determines their performance and well-being. That is why it is so ironic that in the most important area of life we often disregard one basic human resource with a nonchalance that is nothing less than astounding--the mind. What we feed everything else we possess is nothing compared with the importance of what we feed our minds. The apostle Paul wrote, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, or whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing...think about these things"-or in other words, "feed our minds."

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I'm currently reading (and LOVING) John Ortberg's book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. I love his writing style--funny but informative, serious issues and concepts but explained in a down-to-earth manner. While talking about possible failure when you "step out of the boat", out of your comfort zone, to follow Jesus, he gives many illustrations. But my favorite is this: "When we are young, failure does not seem to affect us much. No one-year-old stumbles when he tries to walk, then says to himself,  Well, that was stupid and clumsy of me! I guess I wasn't cut out to be a walker. I sure don't want anybody else to watch me fall. I'd rather settle for crawling the rest of my life than put myself through that experience again. Children are perfectly content to put up with unsteadiness and falling on the way to walking. That is why we call them toddlers.... Peter was a water-toddler. His steps, like his faith, were uncertain. He was willing to risk failure for the adventure of trusting Christ more fully." Ortberg goes on to talk about how failure produces defeat and a desire to hide in some people, but in others "it becomes a kind of goad to push on to new learning, deeper persistence, more vigorous commitment, more courageous hearts." It all has to do with our perceptions of failure. My own perceptions of failure need an adjustment. Can't wait to finish this book!

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I woke up Sunday morning early. I was having my quiet time with the Lord when verses from Psalm 37 suddenly came to mind: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret..."

I thought about what those verses meant to me at that particular moment. I realized how much I really wanted to delight myself in the Lord, and I pondered what the desires of my heart were. I realized what I desired most was to always be close to the Lord, to hear His voice, and for my family and friends and all the saints to know Him and desire Him, too. I don't want any of my loved ones to miss the wonder of God and His Word, the leading of the Holy Spirit and His filling, and the joy of the companionship of the Lord moment-by-moment. There is nothing else I could desire that would bring me more joy.

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Over the hillside the sunrise is coming,

gentle and warm it wakes up the day.

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"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" Ps. 8:3-4, ESV

Have you looked at the heavens lately? As a teenager, I used to stare at the stars and wonder what God was like. How did He make those stars? How did He create all the galaxies? Was He up there? And did He really care about me? Why would He?

Last week I reread the diaries I'd written as a teenager. As I looked back on my life, I could see just how much He cared about an insignificant teenage girl filled with such fear and anxiety that breakfast couldn't be kept down on most days, so I only drank coffee or hot tea. I saw the way He worked through the people and circumstances of every-day-life to bring me to a time of victory after experiencing several defeats. I was thrilled to see that as a teenager I had written, "I love God!", on one of the pages, and I went to church more than I thought I had at that age. So many things I'd forgotten. I did remember the heartaches, the disappointments, the rejections. It's funny how I always remember the negative things. But I was pleasantly surprised at all the good things the Lord had done for me. And I saw with fresh eyes how He engineered the meeting of my future husband who was not even a blip on my radar--but like the moon and the stars, God set him in place in my life at just the right time back in 1969.

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