God speaks to us through Prayer and His Word

Prayer needs are plentiful and grace is available

God’s grace is made available to all of us. God speaks to us. We need to be listening. In praying, I thought how great the needs are and how long the “list” becomes. Having a great need within our own families, how can we have time to pray for all the needs we know of. Then the question, “If I pray for those outside my family, will God not take care of my family?”

God can deal with hardened hearts

After prayer, I proceeded to read Romans 11. I do not want my family members to have God allow their hearts to be hardened because of refusing to follow the way of faith. (vs.7) People do not fall beyond recovery. (vs.11) God is able and still desires to give them salvation. Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles, was meeting the needs of people outside the boundaries of his people and still holding onto the hope that his own would come to know the Truth. (vs.14)

God can deal with pride

If God cuts one, a branch, off because of unbelief, do not be so arrogant in your being grafted in to think that He will not also cut you off if you do not continue in your faith. (Col 1:23) Do not boast in those branches that were cut off seemingly for your sake because they were not. It was because of their unbelief and if they turn from their unbelief, “God is able to graft them in again” (vs.23) and how much more willing will they be to “be grafted into their own olive tree”. (vs.24)

We can always learn from others

One can be called a thriving olive tree and with one roar be set on fire and its branches broken. (Je 11:15-17) What would this look like in today’s world/church? Is not history recorded in the Bible to help us know how to live today? (Ro 15:4, 1 Co 10:6,11) We try to teach our children because of what we learned from our mistakes. Can we learn from the mistakes of others that are recorded in God’s Word?

God’s mercy is available to each of us

Because of our disobedience, not one of us can boast and we are all in need of God’s grace and mercy. (vs.30-32) So much to understand and never understood. (vs.33-34) We have nothing to offer Him but yet He gives us what we don’t deserve. (vs.35) Glory to God forever. Amen. (vs.36) God speaks to us. He will speak to us through prayer and His Word.

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People Do Hurt People

What are you to do with that hurt?

We come to expect that we will be hurt by others at some point in our life. When the hurt comes from “God’s people”, the wounds seem to go deeper. Either way the wounds can cause eternal consequences if not handled properly. These consequences can be experienced by the ones getting hurt or those doing the hurting. We can find ourselves on both sides of the fence at different times of our life. People turn away from God when God’s people misrepresent the true character of God. Don’t allow others to have that power to turn you away and don’t be that person that causes another to turn away.

If your feel you have been hurt by another person, prayerfully answer these questions from Wounded by God’s People by Anne Graham Lotz:

• Where are you in your healing journey?
• Do you remember what your life was like before you were wounded?
• How did you get to this place?
• How is the way you are reacting today going to help you tomorrow?
• Do you want your life characterized by the result of remaining focused on “them” while being blind to your own pride, arrogance, anger, resentment, name-calling, vengeful digs, schemes for revenge, or vicious gossip disguised as prayer requests?
• Are these attitudes working for you and making you happy?
• Do they give you a temporary sense of satisfaction but then disintegrate into a desire for even more revenge? And more misery?
• What are you living for? Instead of living your life to the glory of God, are you driven by a desire to get even, vindicate your actions, prove someone else wrong, justify your opinion, expose the other person, get your own way?
• Consider carefully…do any of these desires truly honor God?
• When was the last time you put your head on the pillow conscious of God’s sweet peace and joy flooding your heart? If your can’t remember, could it be time for you to give your attention to considering your own part in the wounding?

“You might distinguish between forgiveness as letting go of my right to hurt you back and reconciliation as that which requires the sincere intentions of both parties” John Ortberg

Someone needs to make the first gesture to reconcile. You can and probably should make the first gesture but also be aware of any attempt that they may be making to reach out to you. It only needs to be a small gesture. In time, there may need to be an honest conversation in which both listen to each other’s story. Often times the problem was miscommunication or misinformation. No matter who is found to be wrong, the apology and forgiveness need to be spoken. Death to pride is the key to having broken relationships reconciled.

If a person has wounded you or has been wounded by you and you have offered forgiving words or gestures to reconcile the relationship and they reject your effort, take it to Jesus. He understands. He made the ultimate gesture and was rejected. Jesus can heal you even if reconciliation does not happen.

Death to pride and position is the key for reconciliation when a wounder seeks forgiveness. It is necessary to be Christ like.
• Be approachable as Jesus is for you.
• Love those that have rejected you as Jesus loves you.
• Initiate the contact as Jesus does for you.
• Extend forgiveness to them before they ask for it as Jesus does for you.

We can’t force reconciliation or change someone’s heart or mind. The Lord can, therefore we should pray and wait, looking for opportunities and open doors.

No person should have so much power to cause you unpleasant attitudes or to cause any separation between you and God. Take it all to God in prayer.

Jesus always makes the first gesture to reconcile. Are you responding to His gestures? Are you in a relationship with Him and responding to His leading?

Don’t let anyone have the power to keep you from all God has for you. When we don’t have the strength to let go on our own, God will give us the strength that is needed. Let Go!

• Let go of bitterness toward those that caused you to view God differently than His true character. Get to know Him yourself.
• Let go of confusion and fear. These are not of God.
• Let go of your desire to justify and explain yourself. God is your redeemer.
• Let go of your emptiness. He has a plan and a purpose for you. He will fill your cup to overflowing.
• Let go of your desire for revenge. Vengeance is the Lord’s.
• Let go of your hardened heart toward those that have rejected you. Jesus understands. He was rejected like no other.
• Let go of your loneliness. God is the God of the fatherless and of the widow. He is your God also when there is no one else.
• Let go of resentment over the way others have treated you. Consider how Jesus was treated.
• Let go of the injustice. God is Just.
• Let go of unforgiveness toward those that have hurt you. Unforgiveness will hurt you more than them. Forgive as the Father has forgiven you.
• Let go of the hurt. God is your healer. He came to bind up the brokenhearted.
• Let go of the anger toward God for allowing your wounds. Those wounds will bring deeper faith and spiritual fruit. God is more concerned with your character than your comfort.
• Let go of your life dreams and embrace what God has for you. He will give you the desires of your heart.
• Let go of the past to move forward. God has a future for you.

Let go. Give it to Him.

Judicial Forgiveness and Relational Forgiveness

We have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and in order to escape the wages of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23), we need forgiveness.

Judicial Forgiveness

We have judicial forgiveness available to us from God that allows us to receive salvation because of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Relational Forgiveness

In order to be in close fellowship with Christ, we are in need of relational forgiveness. We have this by walking in the light He places on our path and in honest confession before God.

If we at anytime decide to be disobedient to what God tells us or we don’t walk in the light He reveals to us, we have disrupted that relational forgiveness.

It is similar in human relationships. If we disagree with a sibling or spouse or friend etc., we are still their sibling, spouse or potential friend but the relationship is no longer the same. It becomes stressed, distant, or uncomfortable. Until honest confession is practiced, those negative aspects will remain and often grow within that relationship. With God and humans, when we aren’t remaining close then we are often becoming more distant.

If a disobedience/sin (disobedience is sin) separates us from God, we can’t ignore it and continue to hear from God in the same way as we once did. That disobedience/sin needs to be taken care of in order to reestablish the closeness that was once there. Often times the relationship will be more intimate than before.

It will always be our wrong decisions that will be the cause of a disruption in the peace we have with God because He will never be the cause of disunity. He is always the perfect part of the relationship.

God Wants Us to Live at Peace

God wants us to live at peace with Him and at peace with others. God wants unity. (John 17:23, Ephesians 4:13, Colossians 3:4) Awesome thought of what could be accomplished in becoming “mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

With respect to people, we can only do so much to live at peace. It is not just based on one party because there is no perfect side to the relationship as in the relationship with God. We are called to do our part (Romans 12:18) as Christ commands and then leave the rest up to Him. We can love them and pray for them but the results are left up to God and their response to Him. God gives each of us the free will to choose to be obedient or not. We will know those that know Him if they are obeying His commands. (1 John 2:4-11)

In order to see the way God sees, we must hear what He says. (Romans 10:17) You have to be in His Word and have that close relationship with Him to know what He says and to have His perspective.

Angry at God

Read 2 Samuel 6:1-11

David got angry with God because David thought he was doing a good thing and things did not work out as planned. David’s plan was not a God thing so when God intervened, David got mad. David was afraid of God because of what happened while trying to do what he thought was good. David was celebrating and was devastated by the events that interrupted the celebration.

Many have been in the process of just doing life when it is interrupted by an event or events that just turns our world upside down. When we experience a devastating event in our lives or the lives of our loved ones, our heart can shatter into so many pieces that we don’t even think God is able to put it back together. We can get so emotionally tangled up that we get upset with God and don’t let Him help even when He wants to. Sometimes we refuse to move ahead to restoration just to spite Him.

Our lives have so much potential when we give them to God. If I can be honest, instead of allowing Him to work, we choose to pout. God knows how we feel. He knows our questions and our resentments. He wants to be gracious and restore us to more than we could be on our own. Instead of asking God our questions, we choose to decide for ourselves why something has happened. We get stuck in a rut and can spend years there refusing to come out.

We make a choice everyday to who we allow to work in our lives. We can spend it listening to satan and his lies or we can tell God how we feel and ask Him for His answers. We may or may not get the why’s to what has happened, but we will be told what to do with what has happened. When we can trust God to use what has happened for His glory,  He will give us back ground that has been given to the enemy.

Life in a rut will only get worse. We have a Cross that Christ offers to each and every one of us that can take us so far beyond what we can ask or imagine that we and others will see that it is only through Christ that all we do can be accomplished. It is time to let God get us out of the rut. We decide what our future holds.

When we get past ourselves, God will be able to take us past our past and into a future with a future.

Being an Overcomer

While the Israelites were en route to the Red Sea, they spoke against God and against Moses. Numbers 21:4-5

God sent snakes and some died. Others went to Moses and rebuked and asked that the snakes would be taken away. Numbers 21:6-7

Moses prayed and God gave instructions to overcome the snakes bites. He did not take the snakes away. Numbers 21:8-9

In Revelation 3:7-13, the message to the Church in Philadelphia and Revelation 3:14-22, the message to the Church in Laodicea are powerful stories of being an over comer and the benefits that are in store for those that endure.

May 2014 be a year of overcoming.

Two great videos for a positive outlook and encouragement. Both are worth watching.