What Are You Holding On To?

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 CSB

What Are You Holding On To?

I was shopping one day and came across some “Worry Dolls”.  I was instantly drawn by their bright colors, adorable faces and petite sizes.  There were dolls for everything you ever worry about – kids, weight, job, marriage, being too skinny, etc. They were cute and fun, but proved two things: Worry is something we all deal with and are looking for a way to keep it out of our lives; and people are willing to do anything almost to get rid of it. 

It is so hard for us as humans to really let go and turn things over to God.  We want to fix everything. We want to hold on to that worry and clinch our fists, squint our eyes and fret ourselves into frenzy. As a parent, you may find it especially hard to trust God and really give your kids over to Him.  We know we can trust Him, and we may truly do believe that He is in control and that He loves us and wants the best for us.  But we have a hard time with the surrendering and not worrying about what could happen.  

When we hold on to worry, truthfully we are holding on to control, although we don't like to see ourselves this way.  It is understandable that we want to control our world.  We want out children and spouses, friends and family to all stay safe and happy. We don’t want any horrible illness or tragedy to come to anyone we care about. We want the circumstances of our lives to play out a certain way.  But we have no control over what happens.  God is in control, and when we try to take that from him, we believe that we know better than him. We are taking the reigns back from God because we really don't believe he is capable or will do it for us.  

We are more willing to give our worries over to a cute little worry doll than to surrender control to the King of the universe. Would this little piece of cloth really make us feel better? Would we rather put our trust into that instead of almighty God? To surrender we must be willing to be okay with things not turning out the way we think they should. We must be willing to say and truly mean "Your will and not mine be done." We can let go and rest in his sovereign love and care for us.  What a blessed discovery to make!  Most of us don’t usually get to that point until our hands are so full of all we are holding on to that we are literally falling on our face from the weight of trying to hold it all ourselves.  

What are you holding on to? What do you need to surrender today? Open your hands, give it to Him.  He wants to relieve you of your burdens and give you rest. He wants us to trust him and rest in the truth that he knows the best for us and wants the best for us so we can set it down and leave it with him. 

A Radical Faith

Monday, April 22, 2024

 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6

A Radical Faith

Abraham was a man whose life displayed great faith in God. He was called by God in Genesis chapter 12. God asked Abraham to leave his home with all his servants, animals, and family and go to a place that God would tell him in the future. So Abraham was to pick up literally everything he owned and all his family and start out on a journey with an undisclosed destination. He had no idea where he was going – how far, how long, etc. What great faith he must have had in God to uproot everyone he cared about and and go because God asked him to go. How hard would that be and how many won’t understand? But Abraham was obedient and did what God asked him to do. When God called Abraham, he made him three promises:1) The promise of a land of his own; 2) the promise to be made into a great nation; and 3) the promise of blessing. 

At the beginning of chapter 15, God speaks to Abraham in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield; your reward will be very great. Abram has some doubts about what God says and he asks him: But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”  Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.” Abraham heard God say that he would bless him and was trying to figure out how that was going to happen. He was looking for a human solution to a God promise, and he couldn’t find one, so he made one up. God responded:  Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.”  He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” God promised him that he would give him his own offspring and they would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Abraham tried to comprehend and give an explanation to everything God promised him. Even though he couldn’t figure out how it was all  going to happen, he believed what God said and stepped out in obedience.

A great lesson for us to draw from Abraham’s life is that we are to live a life of faith. Abraham’s faith wasn’t a blind faith; his faith was a settled assurance and trust in the One who had proved Himself faithful and true. He believed the promises of God and God fulfilled every one of those promises in his perfect timing – which is way different than our timing.  It takes faith and patience to believe and receive God’s promises. 

When we have radical faith like Abraham, we do sometimes suffer the opinions of others. People won’t understand even if they are believers and think they have faith. Real faith happens when we take the step, and it may look like a crazy thing to do to those around us. Sometimes radical faith looks like building an ark, and sometimes radical faith looks like stepping into a raging river or a red sea. And sometimes radical faith looks like staying where you are. What radical step of faith do you need to take today? 

Strongholds “Worry”

 

Strongholds
“Worry” 

Genesis 15:1-6: 16:1-16; 21:1-7 (CSB)

When our spirit of self-control turns into a controlling spirit, we fall prey to one of the classic strongholds to spiritual growth.

Key Truth: “Eliminating obstacles to faith clears a pathway to live The Jesus Way.”

- Worry- “To torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; to fret.”

- Key differences between worry and anxiety:

·      Worry tends to reside in our minds. Anxiety affects both body and mind…

·      Worry is specific. Anxiety is more generalized… 

·      Worry is ground in reality. Anxiety is marked by catastrophic thinking… 

·      Worry is temporary. Anxiety is longstanding… 

·      Worry doesn’t impair function. Anxiety does…

- Henry Ford Livewell, 08/21/20

Main Question: How does worry hinder us from trusting God and what can be done about it?

1.    God’s promises are true. (Genesis 15:1-6)

 

2.    Worry happens when we doubt God’s promises. (Genesis 16:1-16)

 

3.    God can move us from worry to faith. (Genesis 21:1-7)

After the Message: Read Philippians 4:6-7. What is bringing worry or anxiety to your heart and mind? Will you pray this scripture and trust in God’s overwhelming peace?

 

 

 

Paul’s Prayer for Joy, Peace, and Hope

Friday, April 26, 2024 

Paul’s Prayer for Joy, Peace, and Hope – Romans 15:13   Submitted by Kay Crumley

What does it mean to have lost hope? We hope for lots of different things. We may hope for wealth, peace, happiness, or good health. What does it mean to have those earthly hopes? Some similar words of desire, expectation, and longing. If those hopes are fulfilled what is the expected outcome, power, status, or carefree life? But in the Bible hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness. Another way of saying is that our hope is in Him. We can be confident in that hope because of our faith in Him.  

Paul wrote in Romans 15:13 about things we can have through our God of hope. I have included the passage from both the NIV and Amplified versions for you to compare.  

Paul is praying for us to be filled with joy and peace in both versions. Joy isn’t just happiness. He wrote in his letter to the Thessalonians to be joyful always, 1 Thes 5:16. This joy is what comes from our attitude that God is in control of all the details of life so no matter what the circumstances we can be joyful in our trust in Him to be in control. That kind of joy leads to peace. We can be free from worry or anxiety because we are being cared for by our loving Father. Notice that these are provide by our God, these aren’t mind sets that can be achieved in our human strength. Paul concludes the verse by restating that we can only be filled with that hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. This biblical hope can fill us to overflowing by placing our complete confidence in Him and by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. WOW, that’s good stuff. 

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – NIV 

I have learned that reading the same verses in different versions can sometimes expand my understanding of the Word. The Amplified version does just that, it expands the Word with more clarification as to what the author means. Read and compare the two versions. 

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in His promises. – AMP 

The meanings are the same, but the Amplified version expands so that you can gain a bigger or deeper understanding of the meaning of the verse. It uses ‘believing’ rather than trust. That suggests to me that it is not a one-time thing but that we are to be continually or constantly believing in the power of the Holy Spirit living in me. But why should we believe? Through the experience of our faith. As we experience the work of God in our lives to bring good, to answer prayer, or to heal sicknesses, we can trust Him even more that before. Just as exercising our muscles helps them to be stronger, to grow so does exercising our trust, believing in His promises, helps our faith to grow. Go to the gym and lifting weights one time may make our muscles sore but it will not grow them into stronger muscles. Believing, when it is an ongoing behavior, will increase our faith because we see that He is trustworthy. Then we will abound or meet our full potential and overflow with confidence in His promises. Shouldn’t we all like to be fully assured of His faithfulness toward us, His children? We trust Him completely and rely on Him for every need that we have. We grow in that by spending time in His Word and learning about His character and actions. We must get to know Him intimately. 

Paul’s prayer is one that applies to us today. It should be our prayer for ourselves and our loved ones. We can be filled by God through His Holy Spirit with joy and peace because of our consistent trust in Him. 

How to Protect Yourself From Temptation and Sin

Thursday, April 23, 2024

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:1-6

 

How to Protect Yourself From Temptation and Sin

We have been looking at the life of David and what we can learn from his life. David was anointed as king of Israel when he was just a young man. He was fearless as a shepherd killing lions and bears to keep his flock safe. He was brave and confident when he went to battle against Goliath. He really lived in his anointing. He knew he was marked from an early age, and he lived passionately in that knowledge. This didn’t keep him from making mistakes and bad choices and it didn’t spare him from the consequences of those choices either. 

One of the most known stories of David was that of his fall into sin with Bathsheba. He went to the rooftop of the palace one evening and saw her bathing. He found out she was the wife of one of his best soldiers who was away at war.  David wanted her, so he had her brought to his palace and slept with her, to later find out she was  pregnant with his child. He had her husband killed and married Bathsheba. The consequences of his sin devastated his family for years. Even the most spiritual leaders, who seem to follow after God so closely struggle with sin and are susceptible to temptation. 

How can we guard ourselves against falling to sin and temptation if we are all capable of making wrong choices that can bring devastating consequences?  By taking a look at some things that David did not do we can learn some safeguards to remember in our own lives.

1.        Be Where You Are Supposed to Be and Don’t Be Where You Shouldn’t Be.

Some scholars believe that David should have been at war with his army battling the Ammonites. Had David been at war this might have been avoided. It is usually when we are not where we are supposed to be that we get in trouble. In Proverbs it tells us Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece. Proverbs 16:27 Anytime we have nothing to do we are always at risk of giving in to temptation. When we are bored and/lonely, we look for ways to fill those voids and many times we find the wrong things. 

2.        Don’t Take Your Eyes Off Of Jesus – when you do and you see something you are not supposed to see, fix your gaze immediately.  

When we take our eyes off of Jesus, they will always end up somewhere they shouldn’t be – whether it is on something physical (like someone else’s wife) or on something like our circumstances. When we take our eyes off him we begin to sink. Our faith keeps us Proverbs 4:25-27 says Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil. Keeping our eyes on him keeps us on the right path and keeps our feet away from evil. 

3.      Accountability – 
God sent a prophet to Nathan confront David about his sin, and David felt the weight of his sin and confessed. Listen to the people that God puts in your Listen to your friends and family who will speak the truth in love. 

 Temptation will always be there and everyone is susceptible to it, no matter what their level of spiritual growth. We have to be intentional about staying on the path and keeping our focus on Jesus to protect ourselves against it. 

Is there something in your life that needs to go because it draws your focus away from him? Find an accountability partner and share the strongholds you struggle with. Pray for each other, encourage one another, and keep each other accountable.

What David’s Life Teaches Us About The Dynamic Nature of Salvation

Wednesday, April 23, 2024
Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:21-22 CSB

What David’s Life Teaches Us About The Dynamic Nature of Salvation

Salvation is not a one-time event for Christians. It is a dynamic, eternity long transformation. We are saved when we make the decision to accept Jesus as our Savior. This is healing on earth. We are continually saved as long as we live on this earth. Sin and our flesh will always be a struggle for us and we will fail sometimes. We are also continually saved from sin and temptation. And we are saved for all eternity as we will spend eternity in heaven with him. This is the true transformation of believers. We have been saved – when we made the initial decision. We are being saved daily from sin and temptation. We will be saved as we spend eternity with him. This is the dynamic nature of salvation. Our transformation through this life is this process – the dynamic nature of salvation. Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification are a part of this process.

We have been saved - Justification

Justification refers to God's forgiveness of our sins, and His declaration that we are righteous. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become justified through him because we could never do anything to justify ourselves. It is a gift of God’s free grace.   

We are being saved - Sanctification 

Sanctification is the transformation process that begins when become Christians and continues until we get to heaven. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us as we grow and become more like Christ. It is learning to walk The Jesus Way. 

We will be saved - Glorification 

Glorification happens when we leave this earthly life and in heaven will be made perfect by God's grace and spend eternity in a glorified state with Him. 

These are not levels to be achieved by our own actions because as we have stated, there is nothing we could do for ourselves to achieve any of this. Justification, sanctification, and glorification all began at the cross through Christ’s sacrifice and they are carried out in our lives through him and nothing we do, except to surrender.

Pastor Jim spoke about the story of David and Bathsheba this past Sunday. David made lots of mistakes in his life and yet was still a man after God’s own heart. God loved him and he loved God. His life is a great example for us of how God redeems us, and still uses us, even after we make horrible choices in our lives. David saw Bathsheba bathing one evening from his rooftop. He had her brought to him, knowing he was another man’s wife, slept with her, and she became pregnant. After unsuccessfully trying to trick her husband into sleeping with her, he had him killed. After her time of mourning, David married Bathsheba and they had a son. God sent a prophet named Nathan to confront him about his sin and tell him how displeased God was with him – even though God loved him and David loved God.  

God does not stop loving us when we sin. He does not take away our salvation when we mess up. He loves us always and forever no matter what and after we have become his child, we are his child forever no matter what. God was not happy with David and his choices and unfortunately some very devastating consequences came with those choices that affected not just David, but his family for years. God forgave David, and he forgives us too when we repent, but the consequences of sin remain even when the sin is forgiven. 

Even in our bad situations, God has a plan that serves His sovereign purpose. David’s sin was devastating of course. He paid high consequences and in the end, receiving forgiveness and dealing with the guilt are really the easiest part. The hard part of sin is the consequences that sometimes last for years. This is where shame can steal our identity if we are not careful. The long time effects of our sin – the consequences – are part of our transformation story. Yes it will be painful and sometimes devastating, feeling like it is too much to bear. But we must allow this pain to shape us in the way that God desires and will use, or it will destroy us. It is hard and you will be in the fight of your life, but you really have two choices – you can surrender, choosing to learn from it and allow God to change you – to transform you – or it will take your life too on top of everything else you may have already lost. 

Guilt, shame, and regret can ruin our lives if we let it. Repenting, surrendering, and walking in obedience will not take away the sting we may still sometimes feel when we glance back, but will turn our eyes back where they need to be – on Christ - moving forward in transformation. All is not lost, even when it feels like it is. He forgives, redeems, and walks with us through the hard parts and leads us right back to the path where we need to be.

  

Surely This Can't Be For Me

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  Psalm 23:6

Surely This Can't Be For Me

David wrote Psalm 23 when he was older, looking back on his life. If you have read anything at all about David, you must have read about his many failures as well as his victories.  Yes, he was the boy who killed Goliath.  Yes, he was the shepherd boy who became a king. Yes, he was a man after God’s own heart. But he was also the man who took another man’s wife, Bathsheba, as he was off fighting a war. He was also the man that had her husband killed. David and Bathsheba had a baby together and that baby died. How do you get past these kinds of failures in life and be able to testify that you know surely God’s goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life?

The answer is that David believed something that we sometimes have a hard time believing. He knew that he was forgiven, set free, and redeemed.  When he looked back at his life, David didn’t see his sin, he saw the goodness of God, over and over again in his life.  He didn’t see the shame, the guilt, and the failures. Every wrong thing in his past was covered by the goodness and mercy of God. When we ask for forgiveness, God forgives us. And when He looks back on our lives, He doesn't see the sin that He has forgiven. He doesn't want us to live in that bondage.  He freed us so He wants us to live free in His goodness.  

When we don't deal with our feelings of guilt and we begin to believe the lies of shame, we can start to believe that there is no good thing that we deserve. The voices in our heads may sound more like Surely God wants nothing to do with me.  Surely He is disappointed in all my failures. Surely He sees my continuous failed efforts to get myself together – only to have to continuously start over, sometimes from 3 steps back.  Surely He can’t forgive me. Surely He would never pursue my heart or chase after me to have a relationship with Him. Surely He is not jealous for me. Surely I don’t deserve His love, mercy and goodness. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life? Surely that wasn’t meant for me. 

You don’t have to live with shame and guilt following you, surrounding you, and suffocating you.  The lies of Satan will keep you from believing what David believed - that you are redeemed, and that God plans for goodness and mercy for you all the days of your life. Yes, it was meant for you!  He has been faithful and good to you already.  The lens of shame and guilt cannot see the goodness of God in your life. 

Surely God does want everything to do with you. Surely He picks you up every time you fail so you can try again.  Surely He will forgive you if you ask.  Surely He chases after you.  Surely He is jealous for you. Surely you deserve His love, mercy and goodness. Surely His goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. Surely that is meant for you because your Heavenly Father loves you. 

The Battlefields of Strongholds

Monday, April 22, 2024

For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.  2 Corinthians 10:3-5 CSB

The Battlefields of Strongholds

The greatest battles are not fought with guns and bombs or by combat soldiers on the battlefields of this world; they are fought in the mind.  The mind is the oldest, most common battlefield known to the human race. Ever since God provided Adam and Eve a fierce battle has been raging over who will control man's thinking, God or Satan. Stongholds can begin to take hold in our lives in our minds. 

The first objective of the spiritual warrior is to capture his mind for God. God wants us to tear down anything that holds us back from fully knowing Him - every stronghold that keeps us from living in our freedom and from living The Jesus Way. We walk in the flesh, but we do not war according to the flesh and the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, The Corinthians, who Paul was writing to about  lived and evaluated things according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, so they completely missed the power of the Spirit that was available to them.  Paul however followed a different direction in life. Though Paul lived in a body of flesh, he would not walk after the pattern of the flesh or according to the natural man, but he walked in the Spirit depending on God. The key to tearing down strongholds is learning to walk in the Spirit and not the flesh.  

The Battlefield of the Mind 

Satan knows that he cannot snatch us out of our Heavenly Father's hands but if he can get us to listen to the untruths about ourselves then he can turn our head to focus on the guilt and shame of our past actions. When we believe we are not worthy, then we stop believing that God is God. If we are guilty forever from our sins and never redeemed, He is not who he says he is and cannot do what he promises to do. 

Satan’s desire is to make us think wrong. We can rationalize our sin and talk ourselves into it believing that God desires our happiness over our obedience. He longs to turn the mind of a believer to the world for the definition of what has occurred in our lives and who we are because of it. He loves for us to be focused on shame and guilt instead of grace and forgiveness. He wants us trapped in the thought cycle that we are too damaged and no good. He wants us to believe that God would never want a relationship or to use a person like us - someone who has messed up in the past.

The truth about who we are does not come from our past sins and mistakes. The truth about who we are comes from the shed blood of Jesus that covered those sins and the grace and freedom that is ours for all eternity because of it. 

The Battlefield of Experience (Environment)

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey[g] its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace. Romans 6:12-14 CSB

To fight against strongholds, we have to get ahead of the battle by being intentional about where we go, who we go with, what we do, and everything that we let into our lives. What we listen to, read and watch can affect our spiritual life. The place where Satan gains a hold will become a draw on our life and will eventually become a stronghold if not dealt with.

Strongholds only need a piece of our lives to rule our lives. One relationship, one attitude, one fear…

It can consume all of our thoughts and energy.  This can produce guilt in our lives that drains us spiritually and paralyzes us in the work God has for us.  We feel no one will understand or, even worse, judge us so we remain silent. When we fail to confess and deal with our strongholds they gain even more power over us. We begin to obsess about it and can quickly be consumed with it. 

We cannot let Satan have the upper hand in this battle.  He wants us to feel defeated, but we are not defeated.  In Christ, we will be victorious over every stronghold.  He will lift us up and out of the bondage of the strongholds that strangle us. Take every thought captive and leave them at His feet. What do you need to confess today? It always helps to have accountability and the encouragement of other Christians. Find someone you can talk to. Take the power away from what holds you captive. Banish the guilt and shame of past mistakes by talking it out with a trusted friend or spiritual leader. Jesus has broken chains and opened the prison doors, it is time to walk out and live in your freedom.