Salvation – Page 2 – Living 2 B Free

Angry at God

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.

Is God Asking Something Of You?

^22-24“Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance?

Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?

Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?

About face! I can revise your life.

Look, I’m ready to pour out my spirit on you;

I’m ready to tell you all I know.

As it is, I’ve called, but you’ve turned a deaf ear;

I’ve reached out to you, but you’ve ignored me.

Is He asking to be your friend?

Is He asking to grow deeper in your relationship with Him?

Why won’t we move?

Why do we just go through the motions?

Do we think we are good enough and good people make it to heaven?

Why don’t we want more of God all the time?

We should never get to the point of not wanting more because we will always have room to improve.

What will it take?

A good Prayer
A good Sermon
A good Testimony
A Song
A Shattered Dream
The Death of Someone Close
Family Devastation
Financial Collapse
Marital Problems
Serious Illness
Serious Accident

What is stopping you?

Pride (With pride comes destruction)
Arrogance (With a haughty spirit comes a fall)
What people will think (Who do you want to please? God or People?
Fear of what God may ask you to do (God won’t give you anything that He won’t supply you with what you need)
Wanting to stay in your comfy zone (God will be with you through everything)
Fear of not having control (If you don’t give God control, who do you think has control?)

Will it be worth it?

What blessings are we giving up because we refuse to be obedient to Christ?

Would it be better to bow out of obedience or to fall on our face in humiliation or out of desperation?

Do we want to bow out of adoration or devastation?

We will bow! We can bow now and be blessed or we will bow in disgrace.

Philippians 2:10

¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Are You Refusing To Accept Any Free Gifts?

Christmas is a time of gift giving. We buy gifts for those we love whether they deserve them or not. They don’t do specific things to earn them. We just want to make them feel good and want them to know we love them. God offered Christ as a gift to everyone that would believe. He offered His Son freely that we could feel good about who we are and to know that we are loved. It is a gift we don’t deserve. We can do nothing to make ourselves worthy of God’s gift. He wants to give us His Son so that we can benefit from all that He has to offer.

We cannot benefit from the gift’s rewards unless we accept it, open it, and use it as it is intended. We can only feel the love when we have a relationship with the giver and can accept the gift honestly and resolve the things that have kept us at a distance. Christ wants to keep giving and giving. Once Christ is a part of our life and we continue to give Him all our broken pieces, He continues to give to us like we could never have imagined.

What Answer Are You Getting From God?

God answers all prayer. He may answer with a yes, no , maybe, later, etc. He always has a reason for doing what He does and not doing what He doesn’t do and His reason is always right. How can someone think they know what is best when God is God and He knows all that has happened and all that will happen. If we are walking close enough to God and listening, we may know specifically what the answer is and may even know why. If we don’t get specific answers, it is still our job to continue to know and believe that God is God and He is making the right decisions.

It may be our fault that we get the answers we get or someone else’s fault that we get the answer we get. The only one we are accountable for is us. We can’t determine what part others play in the situation and we can’t determine what decisions they make. We can walk close enough to God to know what we are to be doing to get a right answer. God will ask us to do certain things. If we are telling Him, “no”, why would He feel obligated to tell us, “yes”? If we disobey, then we are in sin and sin will separate us from God. It is our job to get rid of the sin with a prayer of repentance so that we are no longer separated from God and He can hear our prayer. God may be asking us to do something out of our comfort zone in order to show us what can actually be accomplished if we walk in obedience. God may be asking us to do a simple, beneficial thing like to just walk a little closer to Him. If we aren’t walking with God and we are still asking Him to move in your life, then He is probably asking us to walk with Him and allow Him to guide our steps. If we won’t do what He asks, He is not obligated to do anything on our behalf.

And, Yes, sometimes he does do things on our behalf even when we aren’t being obedient because He loves us even when we aren’t loving Him back.

God Can Get You Through “It”

I went to a Gordon Mote concert. As Gordon took us through a series of songs, it occurred to me how God had a plan in my life that I could have never understood as I began to walk with God. In my late teens, maybe early 20’s, our pianist at our church chose a song for me to sing. It was Through It All. That song resonated with me because it is not easy to be a teen or a young person and not have some struggles. I was thankful at that time for the struggles that God brought me through for I knew I would not be the person I was becoming without the struggles that God allowed. I believe those struggles may be greater today for teens, but I don’t know some say it is the same but it probably depends on our perspective and our experience. That is a long time back to remember but I believe I knew then that no matter what I would face, God would be there to get me through it.

Through It All

As Gordon Mote finished that song, he said he didn’t know what the “it” was in everyone’s life but we all have an “it” that God can bring us through. Some of you know what my “it” is during this season of my life and I would have never expected to be where I am today. Gordon went on later to sing Something Beautiful. We had just sang that song in church the Sunday before and I was thinking how it says that God brings beauty when we bring him our confusion, our brokenness and strife. I think of the confusion we bring to Him when we come to Him for salvation. In the midst of my current confusion, I believe that God can bring beauty from any confusion that we go through while we walk with Him. When I mention confusion, I don’t mean the kind satan throws at us but the confusion of now knowing God’s plan in the situation and what outcome He is striving for or how long it is going to take.

Something Beautiful

I am not sorry for my struggles that God is allowing because I know that I am stronger because of them. One thing I believe I am doing is making Satan sorry for even trying to mess with me and someone that I love. I don’t plan on stopping that mission. I am waiting for the beauty that will come from the confusion that I am currently going through with my “it”. God is good in the midst of anything that comes our way that we may be confused about. We don’t always know what God is doing but we can know that it will be right because God is always right.

Something Good Is About To Happen

Humble yourselves and pray looking to heaven expecting Him to work in your situation.

Praise Him in all things no matter what your current situation. He will get you through it.

I believe the longer and the closer you walk with Christ, the more you will see the fingerprints He has made in your life before you even realized how much He was there with you, even before you were walking with Him. Once you begin walking with Him, you will realize He was there all the time. You will begin to see those fingerprints that you didn’t notice at the time and they will mean more to you than they would have then.