Two-Stepping

Our Christian walk is a two-step process. We start by repenting of our former way of life, which was degraded by Satan's lies and earthly desires (Ephesians 4:22). Each of us is distracted by various sinful elements.

Some of us lie, but God calls us to speak truth; or we steal and take what does not belong to us, yet God calls us to work and earn money to buy what we need, as well as to share with others (Ephesians 4:25, 28).

Some have trouble with anger; and though it is a God given emotion, we often harbor grudges, while God encourages us to forgive before the sun sets each day, so that we do not give Satan entry into our soul (Ephesians 4:26-27).

Other people use foul language, when God wants us to use our words to edify and minister grace to those who hear us. Some even take God's name in vain and use degrading words, which grieve God's Spirit (Ephesians 4:29-30).

All of us give in at one time or another to bitterness, quarreling, gossip, antagonism and forms of cruelty, when God calls us to live with humility, compassion, patience, gentleness and kindness, as we forgive slights and wrongs just as God forgives us (Ephesians 4:31-32; Colossians 3:10).

The second step is to renew our mind with the righteousness mind of Christ and to walk in true holiness all the days of our life (Luke 1:75; Ephesians 4:24). This may sound daunting, but Christ already did it for us.

We are buried with Christ through our baptism into His death, in order to be raised with Him from death in the glory of God, our Father. This allows us to live a fulfilled, blessed new life in Christ, as we exchange our corrupted character with the nature of Christ, promised to us by God Himself (2 Peter 1:4; Romans 6:4; Colossians 3:3-4).

Prayer:

Father God, by separating our self from the sin, which once bound us as its slave, we are freed from the law and allowed to serve You through Your Spirit, rather than by decrees and legalism (Romans 7:6). You enable us to submit to You as You transform our mind, rather than to be conformed to the design of this evil world.

We have no more desire to gratify the sinful desires of our flesh, and we walk as a new creation, Your handiwork, created in Christ to live in Your will, which You prepared for us prior to our birth (Ephesians 2:10; Romans 12:2, 13:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:10).

Thought for the Day:

My soul silently waits for God alone; my salvation comes from Him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my stronghold; I will never be shaken. - Psalm 62:1-2

Don't Tread on Me

In our world full of people who have no respect for personal boundaries, we often live in a state of simmering panic. Sudden changes and fluctuations in our financial, marital and employment status, and in the conditions around us, compound our natural fears of the unknown. Trepidation and insecurities plague us and we struggle to know when to submit to these changes or when to assert effort to resist or to prevent them.

Living as victims in life is self-defeating. When we succomb to hopelessness and anxiety, this is a sign that we are not seeking our comfort from God. The Serenity Prayer taught me to find God’s courage to face challenges; and then to submit to or resist them, as He gives me the wisdom. I learned that the Lord actually achieves every area of life concerning us (Psalm 138:8). We trust in God’s faithfulness and grow in faith with each lesson we learn.

As we enter God’s rest (Hebrews 10:4), we can live a life of hope and fulfillment regardless of what happens in the natural world around us. We abandon human reasoning and rely totally on the Spirit of God for our direction and encouragement. When we shed all desires birthed by the finite, carnal nature, which is actually dead in Christ, we can then pursue the realm of the infinate and eternal instead, and walk by the direction of God’s Spirit.

As Believers, we recognize that the uncertainties of life have no power over us at all. We display the fruit of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), which is the divine nature of Jesus expressed through our soul - our thoughts, choices and emotions, which in turn influences the health of our body.  Just like Jesus, we return love for hatred and blessing for cursing (Luke 6:28). As we realize that our old nature is dead in Christ (Colossians 3:3; Galatians 2:20), then God’s Spirit can exhibit His nature through us all of the time.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for sheltering us under the shadow of Your wings as we traverse this life, which often frightens us. Help us to realize that our carnal nature is truly dead in Christ (Romans 8:2), and that Your Spirit in us will shine through us. You protect us from any of life’s surprises, because You ordain them in our life. Therefore, when we do experience some trial or tribulation, give us the wisdom to know what to embrace and what to resist, as well as the courage to experience anything You choose for our ultimate good.

Thought for the Day:

If we have the Holy Spirit in us through rebirth in Christ, we have all of God’s fruit abiding in our nature all of the time.

Wholesome Speech

Read Eph 4:29-32

“He who guards his mouth preserves his life, But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” -Proverbs 13:3

My emotions boiled with anger and I wanted to rip my friend apart with a string of curses. Instead, I bit my tongue and walked the other way.

Psychiatrists teach us that if we suppress our feelings, they cause physical and psychological illnesses. I really wanted to express my feelings honestly, but I had no desire to stir up conflict. So, I went home and journaled instead.

From this I realized that when I get upset, I need to use considerate words and articulate the issues that actually bother me, rather than to use malicious words fueled by out-of-control emotions. Outbursts of anger put the other person on the defensive. Then they withdraw from us emotionally, and often physically as well. Or they get on the offensive and strike back at us with the same vehemence we show to them.

This mutual verbal assault solves nothing, especially if it results in physical blows, and it may even escalate with other problems in the future. I decided to follow God’s advice in II Corinthians 13:11 (NAS) “Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”

Prayer:

Lord, help me use my words to express what actually bothers me. Put a guard on my tongue and help me to tame this most unruly member! Cause me to dwell in peace with all men, including myself! Amen.

Thought For the Day:

How do my words communicate God’s love to others?

A Word Fitly Spoken

Read: Ephesians 4:21-32

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” - Ephesians 4: 15

At the risk of sounding like a schizophrenic, if you ever held a conversation with your “self,” you know that as humans, we possess more than one identity within our soul. Many doctors, knowledgeable about the mind, call these inner ego states: the Inner Parent, Inner Adult and Inner Child. I agree with them, and with the Psalmist when he refers to his soul as a weaned child (Psalm 131:2).

At conversion, I persuaded my “Inner Child” to no longer use profanity to express my feelings. God taught me to articulate them with rational words rather than to curse at the person hurting my feelings. However, even after I eliminated profanity from my vocabulary, I still exploded in anger when someone’s words or behavior caused a fearful or insecure reaction in my soul. I used excessive anger to protect my “Inner Child” from perceived injustices. My anger struck hot and quickly like a volcano, and I left just as many deep scars behind in my wake.

In times like these, God recommends that we are quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19). Anger is actually a God-given emotion to use to protect us from injury, not to inflict injury. He allows us to feel the anger as a "red" flag, so that we know that something is wrong. Then, He cautions us to be slow to express it, and to guard against crossing over into sinful behavior with this possibly volatile emotion (Ephesians 4:26).

Anger allows other people to understand that what they just did or said is not acceptable to us. People will behave toward us in the way in which we teach them to treat us. If we allow others to abuse us either verbally or mentally or physically, we are inviting more of that same behavior in the future. Over the last two decades, I developed a habit of using premeditated wording to express my feelings, rather than to use hasty words to verbally attack the offending party.

I am learning to stand up for myself without hiding behind fierce anger and coarse words (Ephesians 5:4). Now I can say, “I feel afraid when you …;” or “I feel like you spend more time with …. than with me, and I need more of your attention;” or “Thank you for your opinion, but I do not agree with you;” or “I will not allow you to do that (or say that) to/about me anymore;” or “I think that you misunderstood the meaning behind my words/actions. Let me further explain to you how I feel (or why I took that action).”

In the face of confrontation, we still make it known in no uncertain terms that the offensive behavior is no longer acceptable to us; however, we respond with a confident, businesslike and resolute attitude. Even in the face of a verbal onslaught, we can state our feelings more clearly with firm, calm words than we can with angry, irrational ones. My husband and I use a notebook to write out our feelings to one another. This way we do not speak off the top of our head and potentially hurt one another more deeply.

God encourages us to live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18). We cannot ever control another person’s actions or responses towards us, but we can put distance between an abusive person and us. We do not need to overreact and divorce the person, but we can separate and work on reconciliation between us through counseling and calm discussions.

Even with all of our precautions, some people still may not accept what we say, and they may never change their behavior towards us. It is better to steer a wide path around such people who tend to abuse us, rather than to constantly put our self in harm’s way. When we take a step back and look at their actions from a spiritual frame of mind, we can pray for them and also about our response to them, by speaking firmly but kindly in the face of any imposition or attack against us.

I also take my hurt feelings to the Lord. He helps me to forgive the offender and to bless them (Proverbs 25:22), whether they respond positively or not. How they feel about me or what they think of me has no bearing on who I am or on my relationship with my Lord and Savior. In reality, His opinion of me is the only one that really matters.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, help me to put away slander, malice, coarse words and explosive anger. Remind me to use positive words to communicate how I feel and how I want to be treated. Let me kindly tell the truth in love, even when it hurts.

Thought for the Day ~  “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Proverbs 25:11