Sherri Sand's Blog, page 5

How Does God View You?

Which nature do you view yourself through?

By that, I’m asking if you view yourself through the lens of your old nature or your new nature?

I was not the mom that I wish I had been when my kids were little. I so badly wanted to parent well, but all I saw at the end of the day were my parental flaws. I yelled instead of patiently asking questions. I accused instead of looking at my children’s heart motives. I responded with anger instead of gentleness and love.

For years regret tormented me. I so badly wanted to go back and undo all my mistakes and re-parent with the love and understanding I have now.

The other night my daughter was joking with a friend over a disciplining moment when she was younger. Her brother chimed in too. They thought it was funny that I had broken a ruler when I spanked her. I was horrified and ashamed.

My daughter and I were talking about it later and she said, “Mom, if you really had been this bad parent you think you were when we were young, you wouldn’t be my best friend.”

I sat there stunned. I realized that I was looking from a perspective that was illegal in the kingdom of God.

Whether or not my perspective is correct and God has lovingly graced my daughter’s memories, or I’m looking at my past performance through a skewed lens, I’m still sitting in the ditch of the wrong kingdom.

Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

Lies That Prevent Our Freedom

We aren’t to allow the torment of the enemy near us. He is a liar and a deceiver.

We talk so much about what Jesus has done for us that I wonder if we truly grasp the significance of it.

And we live in a culture where we sing Christian songs that reinforce wrong kingdom thinking. Songs that speak of believers as sinners and wretches.

A sinner is who we were. It’s not who we are. When we are saved (think about the meaning of that word), God places us into Jesus and clothes in Jesus’ righteousness. How then can we think that God would call us anything other than beloved and cherished?

I’m not here to criticize any song writers, but I believe we need to be careful what we speak over ourselves when we sing songs that label us (in our current state) as sinners or worse.

Perhaps we consider ourselves “sinners” because we don’t really know what it means to be a new creation in Christ. We just judge ourselves for our failures, rather than viewing ourselves as God does.

So how does God view us? And how does He want us to view ourselves?

First, He tells us not to judge (Matt. 7:1). We feel the rebuke of judgment when we judge others and ourselves. It’s a reaping and sowing principle. We judge, then we will feel that same judgment against ourselves.

We miss the fine points of what God requires, which is relationship. When we fail, we’re to bring our failure to Him. It’s similar to how small children come running to their mom or dad carrying the pieces of the broken decoration they knocked off the end table. In the same way, we’re to carry our broken pieces to God. Not sit on the floor with the glue gun trying to fix our lives back together with no input from Him.

His whole purpose in creating us was to be in deep and intimate relationship with Him. He’s not angry and He won’t treat us in the same broken way some of our parents did.

He is the God of restoration and hope, and He died to make a bridge between our brokenness and His wholeness. All we need to do is come to Him with our broken pieces.

Prayer

Father God, give me insight into who I am in You. How to view myself through Your lens, and love and accept myself as You do. Help me to come to You with my flaws and brokenness. You are the only one who can remove the things that keep me from being like Jesus. Fill me with Your hope and love. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Our Deep Desire to Belong…

How badly do we want to belong?

I believe we come hardwired with a desire to belong. To feel connected.

Some of us crave it more than others—–which is probably based on how secure we felt growing up and how deeply connected we are to others right now in our lives.

For those of us with strong, loving relationships, we don’t notice the pulsating need to belong. It’s only when we lack those relationships does that aching need surface.

When I was a junior in high school, my parents transferred me from our small, rural high school of one hundred twenty-five students, to a thriving school of twelve hundred. It was a radical change for me and I felt terribly insecure and alone. Sixteen is a rough age for an introvert to try to slip into social circles that are already firmly established.

But another new girl and I became friends. I was daily at her house. Having grown up in a casual farming community, I didn’t think much about just opening the front door and walking into her house—-other than it made me feel like I belonged. Like I was part of the family.

Her mom thought differently. Guests are required to knock. I totally get that and completely respect it. But I was sad. I so desperately didn’t want to feel like I was on the outside. I wanted to be part of the inner circle.

So now, when my kids’ friends open the back door and slip into our house with a smile and a hello (no knock required), my heart warms. I love that they feel comfortable coming into our space uninvited—–knowing they are welcome and they belong.

How many of us feel that sense of belonging with God? That He is our safe place? A lap we can crawl onto…a shoulder we can cry into…and an ear we can vent to?

Do we know Him as Friend? Counselor? Teacher?

Or do we fear Him as “the Lord who points out our sins?”

He wants to be our ultimate safe place. The One we can turn to with a certainty that we belong to Him. In Him rests our identity, security and being.

Without connection to Him, we are more vulnerable to loneliness and isolation. If you feel far from God, or intimacy feels too overwhelming to try to create, just start talking to Him as if He were a safe and trusted friend.

He can handle any emotion or thought you throw out to Him. He’s actually longs for connection with you, and there is nothing about you that disappoints Him.

Prayer

Father, please give me the insight into how much You crave relationship with me. Stir my heart to talk with You and share my thoughts, dreams and desires. And my day to day experiences. To talk to You as I would a friend. Teach me to recognize Your voice and to know You are with me even when I don’t feel Your presence near. I want to know You as My safe place. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Photos via Pixabay 

How Do We Get Free From Condemnation?

How often do we crawl back into the prison of condemnation?

Why can we not believe that Jesus has truly freed us from it?

When we hear of abuse done to the innocent, it moves us to righteous anger. We want the perpetrators punished for the injustice.

But how would we feel if rescuers were sent in and the abused girl just shook her head and said no…choosing to stay with her violators?

Has the feeling of condemnation become so familiar that we’ve bought into the lie that we deserve punishment? That we have to suffer to prove we understand the severity of our infraction? Or that we have to “do” something to make up for it?

When we live in that place, we live opposed to truth. We have aligned ourselves with the enemy and his lies. We are choosing to agree with him, rather than the One who gave His life to rescue us.

The book of Love clearly states that we are forgiven, that we are washed clean, that we’ve been reconciled to our precious Father (Eph. 1:7, Isaiah 1:18,  2 Cor. 5:18).

How do we reconcile coming down so hard on ourselves when scripture paints a completely different picture of our sin?

“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1)

Okay, so we may know the truth of the Bible, but what do we when our feelings say, “Yes, I am unworthy and have to make up for what I’ve done? I deserve judgment.”

And what about the utter conviction some of us have that God has to be in agreement with our self-condemnation? Some of you may be saying, But you don’t know what I’ve done, Sherri.

Getting Free

You’re right, I don’t know. But I do know, with absolute conviction, that God does and if you ask Him to forgive you, He will. The Bible is full of adulterers, murderers and thieves that God forgave and loved dearly.

Because, if we have sincerely repented—–and we only have to do it once—–our sin gets covered under the blood of Jesus.

Literally.

Because God no longer sees your sin once you repent (Micah 7:19).

Your feelings don’t determine truth.

So then, how do we overcome our feelings and get our hearts and minds to agree with God?

Part of it is choice. We have to choose to believe that God means what He says.

And part of it is discipline. Scripture is magical. Okay, I know that word probably makes some of you cringe, but God’s word contains power. So if we start meditating on verses that pertain to the lie we are believing, God says He will come in and cut away the untruth and deposit truth (Heb. 4:12). That’s how we get transformed and changed (Rom. 12:2).

Recently, I heard a pastor talk about our approach the Bible. He said, “When are we going to stop reading what we believe and instead start believing what we read?”

I get that.

Spirits of legalism and religion focus on behavior and sin management. The Holy Spirit draws us into relationship and freedom with God.

When we draw near to Jesus and the wonder of friendship with Him, we tend to become more like Him. Our hearts get filled with love. And when we know how loved we are by Him, we start loving ourselves. And when we start loving ourselves, we don’t fall back into the sins that resulted from the deficit in our hearts.

There is a reason sinners flocked to Jesus. Have you thought about why that is?

So we shouldn’t fear going to Him with our own dark secrets. He doesn’t judge or condemn.

He welcomes us.

Prayer

Father God, please reveal the truth of your Word to my soul. Lead me into deeper, life changing relationship with You. Accelerate my process to know you in intimacy and freedom. I want more of You and less of the lies this world tries to feed me. Change me and make me new in You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Prison photo via Pixabay 

Bible photo by Ryk Neethling via Flickr

What Is It Like To Truly Experience God’s Love?

Have you truly experienced God’s love?

I mean, have you felt His pleasure in you? Just for being you?

Not because you purchased someone’s groceries, or gave up your seat on the bus, or let an injustice slide past without picking up an offense.

Has your heart experienced the pleasure of Him smiling over you?

When we experience His love, we can’t help but smile at everyone around us. We can’t contain the love filling us and it spills over as joy onto others.

What would it be like if we walked through life feeling God’s pleasure and love for us? Even when we messed up?

Of course, we won’t always feel His love in an experiential way. But sometimes the knowing creates the experience.

When TDH (tall, dark and handsome) smiles at me with his love showing through, I feel that love. When he’s not around, just thinking about him and his love for me creates an experience of his love. My heart warms and I can’t wait to see him.

Unlike anyone else in our lives, God and His love are always with us.

God’s Love Is Always With Us

Recently, I was sitting in a gym waiting for my son’s basketball game to start and realized I hadn’t had a meaningful conversation with God all week (to steal a quote from Graham Cooke). Suddenly, I felt enveloped by His love.

We can live from His presence with the confidence of His constant love and acceptance, regardless of our faithfulness or faithlessness (2 Tim. 2:13).

A mindset that tells us we aren’t worthy to live from that place is instilled in us from the enemy’s camp to steal the standing God purchased for us (Eph. 3:12).

What if we took Him at His word (from His Word) and tried living from a place of complete acceptance and love?

What would that look like? The picture I get is of a toddler secure in her parent’s love.

When a toddler is scared, hungry or upset from being disciplined, what do they want? They reach for the comfort of a parent’s love. They anticipate and expect comfort, acceptance and love, even from the hand of loving discipline.

What would it take for us to rest in the confidence and security of our Daddy God’s love?

Maybe an adjustment away from how we’ve humanized God’s emotions and reactions.

Often we anticipate His anger, disappointment and judgment over our behavior. Forgetting He’s already dealt with our past. Our sin—–past, present, and future—–is outside of time. Already dealt with (Rev. 13:8). Forgotten and washed away by very precious blood.

We’ve been forgiven and placed in Jesus (Gal. 3:26, 27). The safest place we can be.

Jesus has won the victory for us. But we have to discover how to apply it to our lives and break free from habits of unbelief and bondages that keep us locked into fear. It’s the only way for us to walk in our destiny as overcomers.

Imagine how we would walk in if we broke free from the enemy’s shame and guilt, and instead lived from the victory and freedom God purchased for us.

Prayer

Father, please reveals the lies and unbelief that have become entrenched in my thinking. So much so that I don’t notice or question what is contrary to Truth. Teach me who I am to You and how to walk and live as an Overcomer in the Kingdom of Light. Your Kingdom of Truth, and Love, and Justice. Make Your ways known in my life. Bring low the mountains and raise up the valleys and straighten my path so I can walk in Your freedom of grace and truth

(Isaiah 40:4). In Jesus’ name, amen.

Photos via Pixabay

How Do People Experience Us?

How do people experience us?

Honestly, I’m not sure I’d like to know how some people experience me.

There was that time, many years ago, when I got really irritated with an employee at a pizza parlor. Words are my gift and if I’m not connected with Jesus I can draw more than a little blood. I called back and apologized and she was so grateful. The level of her gratefulness painfully revealed how she had experienced me.

Each one of us is wired for a different purpose in the kingdom. Some of us bend easily, like grass blown in the wind, when someone pushes too hard. Others push back. Neither is wrong. All temperaments were created by God, just some need more polishing to let love shine through when they need to stand firm.

I used to think I was right about most everything and that it was my responsibility to educate those around me. Fast forward many years, and lots of skinned knees, and I’ve gained some wisdom and maturity to recognize that each of us views things based on the lens of our spiritual giftedness and our upbringing. Each uniquely different.

A friend gave me this great analogy to explain how giftedness operates: There is a party and a woman trips and falls, spilling red wine on the carpet. The mercy person rushes over to help the embarrassed woman. The servant starts cleaning up the spilled wine and the prophetic person says, “Honey, don’t wear high heels on a shag carpet.”

The gifts work beautifully together, just as God designed. But if we don’t understand how they operate, we may misunderstand why someone says or does something. Or we may find ourselves frequently misunderstood.

The Fruit of Understanding

TDH (tall, dark and handsome) and I are very compatible but complete opposites in our approach to life. The poor guy has endured years of me trying to turn him into…well, me.

I didn’t see value in his giftings because I didn’t understand them and they were so vastly different than mine. Where he would apply grace, I would want to apply truth (think the whole bloody sword thing). But we needed both. Truth without grace leaves us with the law. And grace without truth leads to permissiveness.

When my eyes were finally opened to the beauty in our differences, I was able to embrace who he is, not focus on who I think he should become.

God’s desire is for us to love and accept ourselves as well as each other in our humanness. He doesn’t hold us to perfection. He smiles and helps us up every time we trip and fall.

When we bump up against each others’ differences, God has equipped us with exactly what we need to create unity with the people in our lives. They are called the Fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22, 23). When you find yourself struggling, ask God what fruit he’s holding out to you.

Is it Love? Joy? Peace or Patience? Kindness or Goodness? We also have Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self-Control. We don’t have to muster up these attributes. He gives them to us.

So how do we access them when we are all kinds of frustrated?

By connecting to God. Our own effort produces smelly fruit through self-effort. It looks good on the outside, but people still experience the residue of our frustration because we haven’t had a heart change.

Heart change comes through hearing how God sees the situation and looking through His eyes. Then we can take the fruit He’s holding out to us and apply it to the person He desires for us to love with His love.

Prayer

Father, teach me how to connect to you. Show me how to apply the fruit you’ve attributed to all the difficult situations in my life. Teach me how to practice applying your fruit and how to have grace for myself when I don’t do it well. Show me the victories You see in my life and help me to rejoice in them, even when they may seem little in my own eyes. In Jesus name, amen.

 

Photos via Pixabay

What Motivates God to Answer Our Prayers?

Is it our job to motivate God to answer our prayers?

Somehow, in my growing up years, I picked up the concept that it’s my fervor and persistence that will move God to answer my pleas.

And rarely were those fearfully motivated prayers answered the way I desired.

So, the obvious reason my prayers lay unanswered on heaven’s floor, was I wasn’t fervent and persistent enough. But I found that amping up desperate prayers is exhausting. And not any more fruitful.

So how does prayer work? Why do we petition God when He is powerful enough to move mountains without our input or help?

I don’t have answers, but I do have some thoughts and amazing experiences of prayers answered.

To understand prayer (and I’m talking about petitions) we need know who He is to us. Is He a friend, a judge, a distant but all powerful Being, a dad, or something else?

Who is He to you?

This is the crux, because when we define who He is to us, that reveals the type of relational interaction we expect from Him.

Luke 18:1-8 shows Jesus teaching a principle of prayer. But I think the enemy twists the story so people place God in the position of the unjust judge, creating fear of Him in us. But Jesus is not making any kind of connection between God and the judge. He is underscoring the need for persistence and faith.

What is Faith?

Now faith isn’t something we can muster up through self-will. But many of us attempt to, trying really hard to have a strong faith in God. But faith develops out of belief and trust.

I have faith in my husband’s character because I know him. I have faith in certain company’s products because they’ve proven  consistently reliable.

Faith is both an act and a journey. We choose to believe and then we step into faith to trust God.

And that’s where what we believe about Him affects how we pray to Him and what we expect to receive from those prayers.

Is He good? If we believe that, we will expect good things from Him. If we don’t, we won’t. I’m not saying we won’t receive good things, just that we won’t expect to.

If we pray from fear and lack, we don’t really know to whom we are praying.

Our God is extravagant in His love for us, so we need to expect and anticipant the abundance He promises us. Abundant joy, peace, love…It doesn’t promise an easy path, but it does mean in the midst of trials we know He is with us and has our back.

When Jesus is teaching the disciples about prayer in that passage of Luke 18, He is showing them that even an unjust judge will render a just verdict when someone doesn’t give up. He points out how much more quickly

(Luke 18:8) God will render justice to His kids.

But I wonder if many of us miss the end of verse 8? Persistence has to be coupled with faith. And faith that moves mountains comes from knowing the character and goodness of the One we are petitioning.

When we know God’s goodness, we don’t pray hoping to be heard. We listen and ask how we should be praying, so we are partnering in what God is doing.

I’ve seen so many more prayers answered when I come to God knowing He has the answer. I just need to be still enough to listen for what it is, and then pray it with Him into existence (Heb. 11:1).

This is a beautiful song to sit and let your heart soak in Him.

Prayer

Father, teach me how to walk in faith. How to trust You with the difficulties in my life. I want to know You in a way that strengthens my faith and trust. Show me how to come to You rejoicing in who You are when life is hard and to listen to discover how You want me to pray. Help me to pray from Your goodness instead of my lack. In Jesus’ name, amen.

desperate.prayer by Mathieu Jerry via Flicker

Faith… by Art4theGlryofGod via Flickr

 

 

 

What is Our Greatest Assignment As Believers?

What is our assignment as believers?

Most of us would quote Matthew 28:16-20, the passage where Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world preaching the gospel and making disciples of men.

God desires to send us out to spread the good news and reveal the Father’s love to lost and hurting people. Just like Jesus did.

But I wonder if we miss a key component when we are trying so hard to accomplish this feat?

Where does the greatest commandment fit into the picture?

Six chapters earlier in Matt. 22:36-40, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all of your being. And the second greatest is to love yourself and those around you.

I wonder if we get so fixed on pleasing God that we jump to the great commission and skip over its crucial foundation?

I don’t think it’s a stretch to state that there are just as many people hurting inside the church as there are outside it. So what are we missing as believers? Why do so many people—–both in the world and in the pew—–seem to be starving for love? For attention? For a sense of worth?

If we don’t live as royalty in God’s kingdom, knowing our sonship, our belovedness, our special place in God’s heart, we will live as orphans.

And orphans can’t effectively show the goodness of God to a hurting world. They can only tell them. Because the world sees their hurts and their fears and their continual frustrations and endless cycles of discouragement.

And for an orphan, that just makes her feel like a failure and so she works even harder to show others how good her God is. Because she does know He’s good. The Bible she believes in declares this. But something is missing. And that something is the freedom of an empowered daughter.

The woman who knows she is a beloved daughter leaks God’s goodness wherever she goes. She doesn’t have to tell the world about God’s goodness, they see it and experience it just being around her.

Believers who walk in freedom aren’t immune to difficulty. Sometimes the enemy actually goes after them with more fervor because they are a significant threat to his kingdom. But the believer who knows her God as Abba goes to the secret place and gets refilled and refueled worshipping her Daddy God and talking with Him and learning how to abide in His presence.

She’s learned the power of forgiveness, the freedom of deliverance, the blessing of humility.

Until we experience God’s love, we won’t love ourselves well.

And the only love we will have for others will come through human effort, not flow as living water from our core (John 7:38).

That’s my heart’s cry—-to love God with all my being and to get so rocked by His love that I love all of me as He does. No one around me will stand a chance of not getting loved on. I won’t be irritated by their flaws, I’ll see where they need an experience with Love. Because I’ll see them with renewed eyes. Through the eyes of love. The eyes God wants to give each one of us.

Here’s a powerful video that describes the great command. Leif prays for the Father’s love to fill us at the end (the reenactments weren’t my favorite, but the content is powerful).

Prayer

Father, please fill me with Your love and let it seep into every part of my being so I can love You with all that I am and love myself and others with the same love. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Photos via Pixabay

 

 

What Does it Mean to be a Christian and Have an Orphan Spirit?

Do we live as orphans or as God’s children?

God’s been shining light on an area I thought I had more freedom in. He exposed a giant crack all the way across my heart.

I know what an orphan is in the body of Christ. They work really hard for love and acceptance. And they carry a hollow place inside that never gets filled. All their hard work and effort goes to proving they are worthy of love and to hiding their faults  (1 Cor. 2:12).

It can be hard to know if we live from an orphan spirit when we have so much head knowledge about God’s love for us. It’s our hearts that determine whether we believe it.

Liking who we are is one indicator to whether we have that spirit or not. Can we gaze in the bathroom mirror and smile with genuine warmth and affection at the face looking back?

We smile at our friends without quickly looking away. Shouldn’t it be natural to give ourselves affectionate grins now and again when we are washing our hands?

Yet what do most of us do when we see ourselves in the mirror? Think how amazing we are? Or fixate on that mole, or those wrinkles, or the forehead that’s too short or too tall, or that awful cowlick we despise?

We see flaws where Jesus sees a daughter.

Hiding From God

God showed me that when I wasn’t “doing” for Him, or receiving some amazing truth from Him, I would run and hide.

When we were eyeball to eyeball and there wasn’t something for me to do or absorb, I had no idea what to say. I felt awkward. Not sure I was enough when it was just me being me.

So I would escape into a book or go to the gym or tidy things up (and with four kids there’s a lot of tidying to do).

The Bible tells us that He loved the entire world in its degenerate state, so why didn’t I feel enough in my un-degenerated state?

Because I didn’t feel like a beloved daughter. It’s not that I thought He was upset with me. I just didn’t feel enough. Like I should apologize for not doing or being more.

I’m not that bothered by my flaws. I feel His grace for my crankiness, and the selfishness that pops up at times and takes the biggest piece of pie or the last brownie (or two) without offering them to my family. I feel His grace over my imperfections.

So what was lacking?

Adoption.

Knowing I’m beloved. Cherished. Sought after. Having an awareness that the King of kings hangs on my every word.

So how do we make the jump from orphan to daughter or son?

We ask for that revelation. We meditate on scriptures that declare the love God has for us. We press in and ask until we receive it.

And if you want that understanding and that freedom, start talking to Him about it. Ask Him to show you how much He loves you. DON’T GIVE UP!

God is not withholding any good thing from you, trying to get you to work harder for it. We have an enemy who works to keep us from receiving all God has for us. Fight to hear God’s voice, to absorb and become all He has for you.

Prayer

Father God, show me how to press into You. I want all Your promises for my life fulfilled. I want to receive revelation for how much You love me, so I can love myself as You do. Teach me how to follow You along the path of freedom and get free from the orphan spirit of this world. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Photos via Pixabay

How Should We Pray When Difficulty Arises?

The other day I found myself praying like a beggar instead of a daughter.

“Please be with them. Please help them.” It was a default prayer. I had a concern and pushed the play button on my auto-recorded prayers. The ones from yesteryear when I didn’t believe God would really listen unless I tugged on his robe long enough to get His attention.

And then I would have to pray frequently and fervently enough to draw that attention onto my concern. I lived in a place where I believed I was more concerned about my issues than He was. That was my faulty belief system.

I was picking cherry tomatoes from my tiny little garden (think big plot, few plants and an abundance of weeds skirting my broccoli and peppers) when I caught myself doing this. I crunched down on a sun-warmed tomato and pushed stop on the orphan prayer.

Why was I praying like that? Did I really need to petition God for His attention when He is wholly focused on my life and the lives of those I love? And cares even more than I do.

Perhaps one reason we beg and plead is we don’t trust. We worry that God’s desired outcome won’t line up with our need for a security the world offers. Job security, financial security…

What if His plan is to cut us adrift from all we think we need to be “happy?” What if His plans are designed to loosen our hold on the things we want to control?

But fear and doubt do nothing except move us farther from the Source of goodness and hope.

If we go to God with agenda in mind (“I need x, y, and z to happen, Lord”), we will likely end up feeling disconnected from God with our distrust of Him increasing.

It’s almost as if our hearts trip from problem to solution, bypassing God except to plead, “Fix it. Oh, please, fix it.”

I think we often miss the critical element of relationship with the Lord.

What is He thinking about our problem? What does He want to see happen? What role does He have for us in it: praying intercessor, an action He wants us to take, or just resting in peace without holding onto any part of it?

The only way to discover this is to ask Him.

What if, instead of going to fear or frustration—–which always, always leads to doubt and unbelief—–we go to Him? Not tugging on His robes, but inquiring of His heart.

Then we take our cue from what He’s thinking, how He is praying, and how He wants to position us

(Rom. 8:34, 8:26-27).

And when we bypass thoughts of fear and doubt to climb onto His lap and listen and wait for direction and clarity, we abide in His peace. We get wrapped by His assurance.

When we go in faith, knowing He is good and has our best in mind, we’ll discover deeper levels of trust, peace and contentment despite our circumstances (Matt. 6:26).

Prayer

Father, help me to come to you without an agenda, trusting that You are surprised or worried by my situation. You have a beautiful plan that will bring me closer to You, into deeper levels of trust.  Show me how to let go of fear and step into faith. You always catch me when I jump of the fear cliff. Thank You for Your goodness. Give me deeper understanding and help me to step into all You have for me. In Jesus name, amen!

Photos via Pixabay

 

 

What Would Happen If We Monitored Our Thoughts?

How do we battle the enemy? And who is the true enemy?

When I was growing up, hearing anything related to satan and his demons scared the bejeebers out of me. I didn’t want to think about him, let alone say his name out loud for fear of attracting a hellacious attack.

After college, I learned that while satan is very real, believers have been given the power and authority to defeat him. Unfortunately, many of us lack understanding when it comes to spiritual warfare and end up getting our hinnys kicked by not showing up for the fight.

We are in a battle for our minds. Satan is masterful at planting thoughts and manipulating our emotions. And since we tend to believe our thoughts and feelings originate with us instead of questioning where they come from (2 Cor. 10:5), we end up putting our oars in the boat and floating along where he wants to take us.

What would happen if we challenged our negative thinking?

Satan is crafty and I believe he’s pulled the wool over the eyes of the world and the church.

We live as if it’s normal to be sad and frustrated and unhappy. We accept other people’s judgmental thoughts and raise them two rumors, abetting and fueling the gossip swirling around us.

I get it. It feels good to spread dirt on people. We feel seen and valued when we are the source of information. But this is why we are unhappy. We are living in and feeding the wrong kingdom.

We hate being depressed. We hate the tensions and back biting. But I wonder if we looked closely enough would we connect the dots that have led us down disappointing paths?

The path of disconnect and unhappiness and depression is littered with seemingly small choices and inconsequential comments that take us further from Love.

When I complain about my co-worker, grumble at my husband, judge our politicians I’m choosing to unify with the enemy’s kingdom. I’m choosing satan’s weapons of choice. Without realizing it, I’m actively participating in a spiral into negativity. The very place we hate living.

It is so much harder to turn the other cheek, to forgive, to think the best of others when their choices may be affecting us in damaging ways. Choosing well—–choosing to love, to forgive, to be gracious—–isn’t the easiest path. But it is how we practice taking up our crosses to follow Jesus (Matt. 16:24).

We practice defeating the enemy and stepping into freedom by becoming more like Jesus. Not through reading the Bible more, though that arms us with knowledge about Him. It shows us His character. It teaches us how to live in His kingdom. It’s full of amazing wisdom and knowledge that we desperately need to live fulfilled lives.

But the most effective way to become more like Jesus is to spend time with Him, getting to know Him. Talking with Him. Being still in His presence. Listening. He’s a Person that longs to spend time with you. We can focus on our behavior—–work to stop gossiping, obey all the Bible says. But outward compliance has nothing to do with inward transformation. Transformation comes from being with Jesus. People were changed by being with Him.

You’ll be amazed at the joy you’ll feel by sitting with Him a little while. We can’t help but be changed. He’s that good. And that powerful. He’s absolutely amazing and He wants to spend time with YOU.

Prayer

Father, I want to get to know You. I want to spend time with You. But I’m afraid. Help me find the moments in my day to share what I’m feeling. Holy Spirit, teach me more about Jesus and how to be like Him. I want to know each of You more intimately in my life. Reveal Yourselves to me and take me deeper into relationship with You. Thank you! In Jesus’ name, amen.

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