 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
Each day, each moment of the day, we get to choose to be positive or negative. We choose victory or defeat. In essence, we have the power to act and react in a way that draws others to Christ. It is our calling, “With loving kindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3b). The recipe for success is humility. First we must submit ourselves to Christ and resist the devil. We must decrease. Beware, for when the ego (our identity) is threatened we are tempted to defend it. Although, when we choose the seat of humility, there is no need to do so, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up (James 4:10). “What does this counsel mean? It means, first exercise humility. We do well to interpret a text by its connection: now the connection here is /God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.’” It’s a win, win if we will only submit. GiGi❤️
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 Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. (Jeremiah 32:17)
Eventually we meet our limitations. Stop! Pause! Exhale! There comes a point in life when we have done all that we can do and we MUST lean solely on God. It is not a sign of weakness to ask the Lord to take the wheel. It becomes an act of faith and trust. “Let no man say, ‘I cannot lean.’ It is not a question of what you can do, but a confession of what you cannot do, and a leaving of the whole matter with Jesus.” Dear Lord, we want to lean on Your everlasting arms first, not after things get so out of control that we become frustrated and angry. Help us to trust you more. Bring the Word back to our remembrance so that we can readily see that what is too hard for us is not too hard for you.Amen. GiGi❤️  “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.” (Ephesians 3:18)
We must be careful of what and who we place our trust in. Misplaced affections can so easily be turned into the sin of idol worship and pride, causing us to long after things that are imperfect. Oh how the enemy longs to turn our affections away from God and place our hope in people or things that cannot satisfy, or love us in return, let alone save us. If the enemy ever tries to convince us that God’s love is not enough, let us remember that no human being, not nothing, not nobody, can fill that void. Only the flesh craves the imperfect after the heart and soul has come to know that: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) “Can you imagine being loved like this? It would change your life. You would want for nothing.” When will we learn that God Is Enough? Once we accept this truth we can stop looking for people and things to fill that void, or give us what God has already provided. GiGi❤️  “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)
Yes, we are our brother’s keeper., We are responsible for one another. The Dali Lami is quoted saying: “And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.” It is a “Cainish Spirit” when one insulates from the concerns that go on around them and responds, “It is not my problem. Am I my brother’s keeper?” What the Lord confirmed for Cain still applies today: “‘YES, YOU ARE!’ While we are not to judge our Christian brothers and sisters, because they answer to God and not to us (Romans 14:12), we are responsible for the way our conduct affects their lives.” Furthermore, we cannot unsee what we see or unknow what we know. We cannot stick our heads in the sand and pretend that reality is not happening around us. It is a Christian duty to respond with good, if nothing else, to pray, “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:7) “We have all of us, especially those of us who are Christians, the power to do good to others. We have not all the same ability, for we have not all the same gifts, or the same position, but as the little maid that waited on Naaman’s wife had opportunity to tell of the prophet who could heal her master, so there is not a young Christian here but what has some power to do good to others…We have all some capacity for doing good.” GiGi❤️  “Go, return on your way.” (1King 19:15)
Just in case we think that no one could have messed up as bad as we have, there are many stories in the Bible that teache us otherwise. As long as we have the flesh to contend with we are apt to make mistakes, to fail, or fall short. But God! Elijah “was a man of like passions with us. He failed in the point wherein he was strongest, as Abraham, Moses, Job, Peter, and others have done.” Yet, during his time of weakness, disappointment, and self-doubt, the Lord restored him, "O Lord, take away my life." God ministered to his physical needs and allowed him to vent and share his pain. Then He refocused him, revealed His purpose and, “gave him more to do,” No matter what we face, if we cry out to God in our time of need he will minister to us with His tenderness and put us back on the rock to stay. Rest, spend time with God, and get back to it. GiGi ❤️  “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Yesterday we discussed moving to action. Today we are encouraged to lay aside any and everything that weighs us down. It is time to lay aside opinion, attitude, and judgment, all of which can distract us from what the Lord calls us to focus on. How do we determine if something is weighing us down? If it is not honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise, then we should lay it aside. “We cannot win if we are weighted: the pace will have to be very swift, and we cannot get to it, or keep it up, if we have weights to carry. Unloaded, we shall find the race taxing all our powers: but weighted, we shall be doomed to failure. Oh, to lay aside all carking care, fretfulness, ambition, anger, greed, and selfish desire!” (Charles Spurgeon) We have carried it long enough. It’s time to lay it aside. GiGi❤️  At the end of every seven years you shall make a release…Deuteronomy 15:1-2
When we do a thing it must be done with the right spirit. We don't love just because we have to. We love because it is a blessing to do so, food for the soul that brings God glory. We don’t give ten percent of our wages, just because we were commanded to do so but because it brings us such joy to honor God and give back. Spurgeon wrote, “They were, at the end of every seven years, to release every man, his debtor, from the debt which he had accumulated…They were never to exact that debt again…None but a generous Lawgiver would have made such a law as this…They were to do this for the Lord's sake: ‘because it is called the Lord's release.’ It is not enough to do the correct thing; it must be done in a right spirit, and with a pure motive. A good action is not wholly good unless it be done for the glory of God, and because of the greatness and goodness of His holy name. The most powerful motive that a Christian can have is this, ‘For Jesus' sake.’ The Lord weighs our heart not the act. GiGi❤️  “And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” — Exodus 14:15
Sometimes we pray as if God doesn’t hear us because we have not received the answer we want. Or, the distress of the situation is so heavy we are unable to exercise our faith by moving to action. Radical Acceptance is accepting your reality “exactly as it is, imperfect.” Practicing Radical Acceptance can prevent us from becoming entangled with painful and unhelpful emotions. When we resist our reality it can lead to immense internal struggle. “Accepting difficult situations can lead you away from pain and into peace.” Radical Acceptance can help us in our prayer life as well. When we take the reality of a situation to God [not an expectation of perfection or how we prefer things to be] we are able to leave that situation at the altar. It is that act of faith of “giving it to God,” that leads us away from pain into our deliverance.” “When we have prayed over a matter to a certain degree, it then becomes sinful to tarry any longer; our plain duty is to carry our desires into action, and having asked God’s guidance, and having received divine power from on high, to go at once to our duty without any longer deliberation or delay.” (Charles Spurgeon) It’s time to leave the situation at the altar and move forward. GiGi❤️  “He kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.” (Daniel 6:10b)
The combination of prayer and praise is powerful as it allows us to connect with the Lord on a deeper, more personable level. Our relationship with God is nurtured through the gift of prayer and thanksgiving. “All of Daniel’s prayers were mingled with thanksgiving. Do observe it, for so many forget this, ‘He prayed and gave thanks to God.’ Surely, it is poor devotion which is always asking and never returning its gratitude! Am I to live upon the bounty of God, and never to thank him for what I receive? Surely, prayers in which there is no thanksgiving are selfish things: they rob God; and will a man rob God — rob God even in his prayers— and yet expect that his prayers should be successful? Have I not often said in this place that prayer and praise resemble the process by which we live? We breathe in the atmospheric air, and then breathe it out again: prayer taken in deep draughts of the love and grace of God, and then praise breathes it out again.” Charles Spurgeon “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1) GiGi❤️  “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
One of the reasons we struggle, often more than necessary, is that we are not poor in spirit. In truth, poverty is lacking the basic necessities of life in order to live. Poor in spirit is spiritual poverty, an awareness of our deficiencies and the need to depend on, and trust solely in God. Spiritual poverty produces humility and a hunger for righteousness. Being poor in spirit produces self-awareness, resulting in “an honest appraisal of ourselves.” Charles Spurgeon wrote: “No man ever mourns before God until he is poor in spirit! Neither does he become meek towards others till he has humble views of himself. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness are not possible to those who have high views of their own excellence–and mercy to those who offend is also a Grace, difficult for those who are unconscious of their own spiritual need…Till we are emptied of self we cannot be filled with God.” Whether the need is physical or spiritual, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 4:19). Spiritual poverty turns our attention away from ourselves and toward God. GiGi❤️ |
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