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February 17 - July 8, 2023
where we pay attention matters more than we know.
If it is something foolish, we will make foolish decisions. If it is wise, we will make wise decisions.
Satan’s schemes are well-thought-through plans specifically targeted at our particular weakness to do three things: To increase our desire for something outside the will of God To make us think giving in to a weakness is no big deal To minimize our ability to think through the consequences of falling to this temptation
Messy realities in the midst of the miracles. And isn’t it so like us to miss this about Jesus’ everyday life? We hyper-focus on the lines of Scripture containing the miracles, and we miss the details of the mess.
Jesus saw them. He went down to them. And they missed the miracle in the midst of the mess. The same miracle worker they had watched multiply the fish and the loaves was now walking on the water near them. And they thought He was a ghost: They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.
The NASB translation of verse 52 hints at this: “for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.”
The Greek word for insight here is syníēmi, which means to put facts together to arrive at an understanding complete with life applications.
A rock song can inspire us. The nightly news can inform us. But it is only by applying the truth of God to our lives that we can be transformed in the direction of God’s best for us.
Inspiration and information without personal application will never amount to transformation.
Only when we seek to apply His revelations to our situations will we experience transformation.
Any place where we have hardened our hearts or refused to let truth touch and transform that part of us, there will be confusion.
Let’s look at that word terrified as it is used in these scriptures. It’s tarasso, which means “to set in motion what needs to remain still.”
The disciples had their own issues that led to their hearts becoming hardened, but what is it that has so often led me to this condition? Trading God’s truth for what the world said was a better plan. Resisting God’s promises will make us forget God’s presence.
But if there’s an area of my life where I turn away from the direction of His truth—perhaps a place where I’ve been hurt by rejection and started believing lies about my God and who I am in Him—I deny myself the protection of His truth.
The world’s plan always leads us to places of pain, loneliness, and a deep ache for belonging that seems just out of reach.
According to Romans 12:2, the only way to know God’s best for you is not to let your thinking be conformed to the patterns of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
That renewing is not a brief spiritual inspiration that comes from brushing up against the truth. It is anakainosis, which is a change of heart and life. A heart softened by God’s truth. And a life transformed by the application of God’s truth.
The voices of condemnation, shame, and rejection can come at you, but they don’t have to reside in you.
Information: Have I sought out God’s truth regarding this situation? Application: Have I applied God’s truth without compromise to this situation? Transformation: Do I now own this truth as a personal revelation from God to use in future situations like this?
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
Pain is the invitation for God to move in and replace our faltering strength with His.
We must invite God into our pain to help us survive the desperate in-between.
If we avoid the hurt, the hurt creates a void in us. It slowly kills the potential for our hearts to fully feel, fully connect, fully love again.
Pain is the invitation for God to move in and replace our faltering strength with His.
To keep my prayers from feeling forced and insincere, I pray Psalm 91.
No matter how vast our pit, prayer is big enough to fill us with the realization of His presence like nothing else.
If I will let Him enter into the darkness of my hurt today, He will open wide the door to a much brighter tomorrow.
This sounded good in theory. But in reality turning to God felt a bit like trying to hug air. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap my mind around something I can’t wrap my arms around.
He releases the grip of the dark and helps me see this is a part of the tunnel, but it’s not the whole journey. It might be dark in this section, but it won’t be dark all the way through. But even in the darkest parts, I have immediate access to Him.
Judas had left the supper to commit an unthinkable betrayal against his friend, his teacher, his Lord. His feet were still freshly clean from the Lord of heaven and earth bending low to touch his humanity and rinse off the dirt. But the warmth of the best kind of love was soon traded for a handful of cold coins.
An interesting fact about the Garden of Gethsemane is that it sits at the base of a known escape route from the city over the Mount of Olives toward the Judean desert. This is the route David took when running from his son Absalom.
I saw myself looking at my dad with pleading eyes to write the opening scenes of my life with the theme of love. He chose rejection instead.
life. Instead of looking at life with the hope of receiving love, I started expecting rejection. Even if life handed me love, I suspiciously waited for it to be snatched away.
But if I really believed that God’s healing is more powerful than any hurt the world could ever hand me, I could trust God. I could trust His plans. I could move forward by saying, “Yet not what I will, but what You will.”
Heartbreaking seasons can certainly grow me but were never meant to define me.
Jesus modeled this. He was betrayed, mocked, abandoned, beaten, crucified, and buried. Those were all facts of His past, but they were not the destiny of His future. His
The olive tree needs both of these winds to produce fruit … and so do we. We need both the winds of hardship and the winds of relief to sweep across our lives if we are to be truly fruitful.
For the olive to be edible, it has to go through a lengthy process, which includes … washing, breaking, soaking, sometimes salting, and waiting.
If we are to escape the natural bitterness of the human heart, we have to go through a long process as well … the process of being cured.
When the sorrowful winds of the east blow, I forget they are necessary. When I’m being processed, I forget it’s for the sake of ridding me of bitterness. And when I’m being crushed, I forget it’s for the sake of my preservation.
On the other side of every hardship is a resurrection.
The spotlight never fixes our insecurities. It only magnifies what we thought popularity would cover up.
Our Lord’s divinity has never been hesitant to step into the mess of humanity. He is the great answer to our every desire. And He will not let our need for divine, deep love meant to be fulfilled by Him alone be cheaply met by lesser things.
“It’s not about you becoming anything. Your soul was made to simply be with Me. And the more you are with Me, the more you will stop fearing what the world might take from you. With Me you are free to be you. The real you. The you honesty called to at the very beginning of this journey. The you whose core is in alignment with My truth. The you who doesn’t fear imperfections or rejections, because grace has covered those in the loveliest of ways.”
“Rejection never has the final say. Rejection may be a delay or distraction or even a devastation for a season. But it’s never a final destination. I’m destined for a love that can’t ever be diminished, tarnished, shaken, or taken. With You, Jesus, I’m forever safe. I’m forever accepted. I’m forever held. Completely loved and always invited in.”
From now on when misguided voices or the enemy himself tries to put you down with lies or pull you away from the truth or push you into anything that could derail your destiny, I pray that you will sense the mighty hands and heart of God … Lift you up with truth. Draw you close with His loving tenderness. And shame Satan back to hell with His resurrecting power.
You are destined for a love that can never be diminished, tarnished, shaken, or taken. You have a story. May it be His Word that becomes the word of this story you absolutely must tell to the glory of God.
The most frustrated people are those who feel their lives can only improve when others put forth the necessary effort to make things better. That’s problematic since we can’t control others.
“Proverbs provides both a goal and route. The goal is successful living and the route is the way of wisdom.”
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
