Canary In A Coalmine

 

May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.  2 Thessalonians 3:5

Recently, I have been seeking God's wisdom and guidance about a specific situation,  and began to grow tired and frustrated because I just couldn't seem to hear any kind of answer.  I was hearing other people's insight without a doubt, but nothing from God.  It finally dawned on me that I was neglecting an important aspect of my faith walk by not digging deeper into His Word, which is the reason I was not feeling God's nudge either way.

God can and will speak His truths into our lives if we allow Him to.  When seeking Him, He will always move us closer to His will and His never ending love.  He always leads us to what is right, never wrong, and His answers to our prayers are clear cut, definitive, and absolute.

If you think you can truly seek God by only showing up to church on Sundays or just praying your personal wish list, save yourself some time and frustration by incorporating God's Word into your daily routine.

Everyday I Write The Book

 

“Stop your striving and recognize that I am God!  I will be exalted over the nations!  I will be exalted over the earth!”  Psalm 46:10

God sure has a unique way of speaking to me.  As stubborn as I am, He often hits me with the same truth(s) over and over again until I finally yield.  The past month has provided a wonderful season of Spiritual growth for me and the reoccurring themes that I have been focusing on are: ‘giving up control’ and ‘yielding to God.’  Almost daily, I have either read or heard something regarding the subject matter of ‘letting go and letting God.’

The key to giving up control in our life and submitting to God requires us to be patient and wait while remaining hopeful and trusting.  These virtues certainly do not come natural for me, as I would like to have some say over matters or hang onto a false sense of belief that I am actually in control of my life.  Our strength is found in our weaknesses and our patience in waiting for Christ to do His work, which is evidence that we honestly do trust Him.

Hoping is directly tied to our future inheritance in heaven, but the benefits of hope can be experienced right now.  Instead of trying to manipulate or ‘control’ every aspect of our lives, we must learn to just live each day simply looking for or just being aware of His presence.  Your eyes will be opened to a whole new world realizing that God is the one who is in control and his plans are for our good!

The Seeker

 

You will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.  Deuteronomy 4:29

Being a creature of habit, I like to keep to my same routines each and every day.  While I have maintained my normal exercise regimen and other morning rituals, I have not been digging deep into scripture too much.  In fact, I have felt convicted about not spending much time seeking God by reading my bible, so yesterday morning, I read Luke 11, and, as always, that verse was exactly the one I needed for the day that awaited me.

To ‘seek’ God means to pursue Him as the only source of definitive truth and wisdom.  Instead of letting our problems pile up and seeking God out of desperation, how different would our lives be if we sought Him first and foremost in all matters?

To seek God and His way puts us on the path of a life that is blessed and pleasing to Him. 

If You Leave Me Now

 

“My God, why have you forsaken me?” –Jesus Christ  Matthew 27:46

To put today’s passage of scripture into context, Jesus spoke the above words from Matthew 27 after He had been nailed to the cross for well over nine excruciating hours.  These words are certainly perplexing as one would cannot imagine how God’s beloved Son could be forsaken.  I believe that it was in those final moments on the cross that Jesus suffered spiritual agony as He was bearing the guilt of the world on Himself by becoming sin for all of mankind. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

There are have been many circumstances in where I have felt like I too, was forsaken or that God had abandoned me.  However-the reality is, God has NEVER left my side and NEVER will.  If you have ever felt this way, please understand that God is bigger than any circumstance you can ever possibly face in your lifetime.  More importantly, as believers in the body of faith, we also must learn to live above our circumstances as well.

Doing this will require us to spend more ‘focused’ time with Christ who is the One who overcame this world.  When we live in His presence, we are set free from the bondage to trouble and anxiety that is common in the world and little by little we lifted up above our circumstances.  We also begin to see our lives from Jesus’ perspective which, in turn, helps us to discern what is important an what is not.

Rest in the peaceful presence of our Loving Father knowing that he will never leave us or forsake us; we can all live with a joy that can never be taken away from us!

Helpless

 

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.  Jeremiah 33:3

Thankfully, I have never had a first-hand experience with a near-death encounter, but I have always found interviews with people who have survived the unimaginable very interesting.

Living a “Spirit-filled” life begins with the realization that we are absolutely helpless and hopeless without the power of the Holy Spirit.  Until we have an understanding that God is in total control of our lives and everything else in the universe, we will never experience the true power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within each believer.

When we don't draw our strength from the Holy Spirit, we only use our strength and for that reason, we work in vein.  It may not take us experiencing some near fatal accident or miracle to understand that God is in control and we are helpless, but God is an expert at creating circumstances so that we find ourselves completely dependent on Him.

Hold Your Head High

 

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.  Psalm 42:5

Depression is one of the most common emotional ailments today.  In fact, there are more medications on the market to treat depression than almost any other disease.  There are times where I tend to feel a little ‘down and out’ about my current set of circumstances and it's easy to feel like God is distant and begin to lose hope...these past several months in particularly. 

One antidote for feeling 'down' is to meditate on all of God's wonderful  blessings and never-ending goodness that is recorded throughout the Bible.

It gives me hope to read about His promises and reminds me that God is who He says He is. Scripture also gives me proper perspective and helps me to focus my thoughts on God's ability to help me rather than on my inability to help myself.  That, my friends, is a good thing!!

Thorn In My Pride

 

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me...For when I am weak, I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

Just like Paul, we all have an area of weakness, or a "thorn in the flesh," as is mentioned in an earlier verse from this same passage of scripture from Corinthians. We do not know exactly what Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was, but it was something that caused the apostle to remain humble and stay in constant contact with God.

Too many people often claim that "trouble makes you stronger." I tend to disagree. Once we recognize our limitations, we must rely on Christ for our strength.  We must rely on God for our effectiveness rather than depending on our own energy and individual efforts.

I have faced many situations that have left me feeling completely helpless, weak, and humbled, to say the least.  I have reached the point of having no choice but to rely on Christ for His strength and He certainly carried me through and still is carrying me through to this very day.

Allow God to fill you with His power and you will be stronger than you ever can be on your own!!