Christ Our Overcomer

 

As a parent, spouse, student, and even professionally we suffer animosity, discouragement and loss. Life seems to overwhelm us at times. We get so weary, pessimistic, unfulfilled and depressed.

Regret dogs our steps throughout our lifetime. We slop through the gutters of this world and spend our time in the devil's playground.

We try and fail, resist until we give in, and then pull our self up to start all over again. The only reason that we struggle with the urge to hide under the covers is because someone else needs our help.

Our failings can cripple us and distort our view of God and life. That is why we need Jesus. He is the ultimate Overcomer; and with Him dwelling within us, we can accomplish everything, which He calls us to do (Philippians 4:13; James 1:2-8).

Jesus frees us from all shame and condemnation, if we sincerely repent and accept His forgiveness (Romans 8:1-2). We are victorious over guilt, past mistakes and fearful events in the future.

Since God forgives us, He also heals us from the wounds of our past and helps us to deal with unresolved issues.  Then, we are also able to forgive our self and others.
( www.theophostic.com ) 

In Christ, our failings are never failures, but lessons learned in order to help us to improve our thoughts, attitudes, words and actions. He justifies us, sanctifies us and makes us whole.

Prayer:
Father God, Your grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9). By the riches of Your grace, You strengthen our inner being by Your Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16). By Your power and might, You give us patience and the self-control to endure the trials in our life (Colossians 1:11).

We are humbled that You consider us worthy to work in Your service during our lifetime (1 Timothy 1:12). We know that it is only through Your presence in us that we have either the desire or the power to accomplish anything for You (Philippians 2:12-13).

Thought for the Day:
When Jesus hung on the cross, He finished the work, which God gave Him to do, and He forever triumphed for us over sin and death. - John 19:30

Worthy of Our Love

Authentic Christians are so in love with God that things in this world lose their appeal. As we contemplate His goodness, the memories warm our heart. We burst out in joyful songs because of His righteous treatment of us. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in loving kindness. He is good to us all and all of His works are full of His tender mercy (Psalm 145:7-9).

God is the Lord of hosts of angels and His magnificence fills our hearts with respect and awe (Isaiah 8:13). As we read about His work through the ages, we realize that His thoughts and methods are much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). Sometimes they do not make sense to our finite, human mind; however, hindsight always gives us a glimpse of His wisdom.

We trust in God’s loyal love and rejoice in the salvation that Christ's redemption provides for us. We sing of the benevolent and bountiful ways in which He deals with us (Psalm 13:5-6). He hears our prayers and is our shield from danger and our strength to deal with life's unpleasant experiences. Our heart trusts in His goodness, because of the ways He always works out everything for our good (Psalm 28:6 Romans 8:28).

We cannot help but to rejoice in God's bountiful provision and give Him continual thanks night and day for all that He does for us (Psalm 28:7). God is high and lofty above the earth and lives in a high and holy place with our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father inhabits eternity, yet cares enough to revive the spirit of the depressed and to forgive the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15).

Prayer:

Father God, heaven is Your throne and our earth is Your footstool. You made all of these things by Your wisdom, understanding and power, or they would never have come into existence (Jeremiah 10:12, 51:15; Isaiah 66:1-2). You are the one and only, true living god, our eternal King. The earth and nations tremble at Your righteous anger, and many come to You in repentance (Jeremiah 10:10).

Thought for the Day:

God is always nearby and never far from any one of us, even though He fills both the heaven and the earth. - Jeremiah 23:23-24

Freedom from Negative Thoughts and Emotions

 

Our behavior and emotions are fueled by our thoughts (Proverbs 23:7). We act out what our soul - our mind, will and emotions - is experiencing. However, once we spend time analyzing our thoughts, and coming to a complete understanding of what is really bothering us, then we can go to God for healing.

When negative emotions are controlling us, then we are not totally surrendered to the will of God in our life. Trusting God with our hurt and insecurities will insure that we will gain His perspective on them. He will reveal to us the lie, which Satan planted in our mind and His truth about the issue.    ( www.theophostic.com )

We fight Satan's deception by drawing near to God and then resisting the devil, so that He will have to flee from us (James 4:7). Too often we look at a person's outward behavior and detest them for it, or try to change it, but issues in their inner soul are causing their behavior. Once we denounce Satan's deceptive stronghold in our life, we are set free to see the problem from God's perspective.

Yet, at other times, our thoughts and emotions are based on real problems, such as abuse, neglect, deprivation or a myriad of other concerns. This is when we need to find help from law officers, counselors, our pastor or a caring friend. They will assist us in finding alternate living arrangements to protection us from the behavior, which is killing our soul and our body.

Prayer:

Father God, this evil world is so full of issues, which try our soul. When Satan's deception is added to the mix, our soul is often depressed and overwhelmed. You give us ideas to rearrange our life or our activities, which are fueling these negative thoughts and emotions. Enable our Born Again spirit to rise above these problems and to find our solace in You. Remind us that even if our physical or emotional conditions never change, we still have Christ in us, who is our eternal hope of glory, now in our inner being and also for eternity.

Thought for the Day:

When we sense the battle going on in our soul, we can surrender our thought, emotions and behavior to God's Spirit and He will conform our mind and transform our nature into the mind and divine nature of Christ. - 2 Peter 1:4; Romans 7:15-19, 12:2

Health and Well Being - Part 3

Our Spirit, Body and Soul are all interconnected and depend upon one another for complete health. God shows mercy on our troubled soul and infirmed body; and He wants us to respond when He calls us to help each other (Psalm 6:2-3). If we see the anguish in someone's soul and do not obey the Spirit's direction to help alleviate that distress, God finds us guilty of neglect (Genesis 42:21).

With God as our gentle shepherd, there is nothing we need, which He will not supply. He gives us more than we need physically; and He also restores our soul, after we experience a wounding and upsetting situation (Psalm 23:1-3). As we wait on God, He feeds our body and spirit as He delivers us from the prison of our wounded soul (Psalm 62:1, 142:7; Proverbs 13:25).

The more depressed our soul is, the more God encourages us to hope in Him and to praise Him through our trials. He brightens our emotions and body language, while He delivers our soul from grief (Psalm 42:5-6, 11). As we grow spiritually, we long to walk in the courts of our living God, and we cry out for a deeper union with Him (Psalm 84:1-2). Our intimate relationship with Him gives us a new perspective on life.

Attending church services, reading our Bible, praising God continually, fellowshipping with Christian friends and staying in tune with God all day long, through communion with His Spirit, will help to strengthen our spirit. This causes our soul to blossom and brings health to our body all at the same time (3 John 1:2).

Prayer:

Father God, Your sound wisdom and discretion give life and grace to our soul. You allow us to walk safely without stumbling, even during treacherous experiences throughout our lifetime (Proverbs 3:21-23). Remind us to be aware of our own and also our neighbor's need for nurturing; and lead us by Your Spirit to help us in these times of necessity. We incline our ear to You and follow hard after You, so that we may hear Your life-giving Words (Isaiah 55:3).

Thought for the Day:

Our soul clings to God for comfort in times of both stress and distress. - Psalm 63:8

New Strides in Life

 

American youth grow up under the assumption that we can achieve the American dream. We go to college and we obtain job experience to guarantee our future success. However, life often careens out of our control. We pull our self up by our bootstraps and try all over again, shaking off the depression and hopelessness nipping at our heels.

Time after time, life sends us debilitating storms. We end up treading water, feeling like we will drown. There comes a time in everyone's life that we eventually admit that we are ultimately powerless to overcome the negative aspects of our life. Some people give up, and end up with physical and mental illnesses; some turn to addictions; and some realize that we need a savior outside of our self (Romans 7:18).

First, we attempt to trust in a person to bail us out. We get into codependent relationships that seem to stifle us in the end. In order to reinstate our sanity, we eventually realize that we must come to believe in a higher power. Some people try Eastern religions, positive thinking or something that epitomizes wholeness to them. This lasts for a little while, but often fizzles out, because our spirit is still dead in sin.

Everyone ever born has an innate knowledge of God within their soul, and they are yearning for their spirit to be reborn (John 3:1-21). Once we come to Christ as our Higher Power, He helps us to clear our conscience of the dead works of unforgiveness, anger, resentment, bitterness, etc. He is greater than anything this world has to offer (Philippians 2:13).

He also reminds us of people to whom we need to ask forgiveness, and He helps us to make amends for the harm we perpetrated on their life (Lamentations 3:40; Luke 6:31; Matthew 5:23-24). We can obtain Christian counseling or find an accountability partner to continually hold us responsible to walk in God's Truth (James 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:12).

As we humble our self before the Lord, He replaces our moral deficiencies with the fruit of His Spirit (James 4:10; Galatians 5:22-23). We come to know Him intimately, and He progressively exchanges our carnal nature for His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). God assures us of His love, which transcends our human understanding. Filling us with His Spirit He slowly and deliberately floods our entire being with Himself (Ephesians 3:19).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that no one is perfect, and we can forgive those who harmed us and ask forgiveness from those whom we have harmed. As we pray and read Your Word, draw us closer to You, tell us Your Will for each moment of our life, and give us the power to carry it out (Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 3:16). Thank You for totally forgiving us for our transgressions of Your law and for sanctifying us daily as we walk toward Your perfection (1 John 1:9; Matthew 5:48).

Thought for the Day:

Nothing but living in service to Jesus Christ can fill the void that continually haunts our life. - Romans 12:1

Balancing the Soul and Spirit

 

Our spirit, the third entity of our existence (body, soul, spirit), is originally dead in sin, until we repent and come to Christ as our Savior. This starts a gradual process of total surrender to God’s will for our life. We no longer follow our heart, but listen to God’s Spirit instead (Jeremiah 17:9). The Spirit keeps us grounded and focused in comparison to the fickle and wayward emotions, which guided us in the past.

At salvation, Christ unites us with Himself in one Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17; John 17:11, 20-23). Then, God’s Spirit fills us with His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). We have a more peaceful and secure life now. Our spirit is filled with love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control and faith, regardless of the emotions presenting in our soul. We can take the emotional wounds of our soul to Christ and allow His Spirit to exchange them with His fruit through our spirit.

Sometimes we still allow our soul’s emotions to dominate over God’s spiritual fruit in our spirit and to dictate our behavior. This is a common human malady. One of the goals of our Christian walk, however, is to surrender our soul’s emotions to God and then to walk in the Spirit and to express the fruit of God’s Spirit. Our spirit is not angry or depressed, our soul is. It is not hypocritical to be joyful, even when we feel depressed, or to show love to someone we feel anger toward.

This is part of the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). We cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit, only God can, but we must choose to exhibit them rather than negative emotions. We do this by walking in the Spirit all day long. Our spirit is always exhibiting the nature of Christ, the fruit of God’s Spirit, and can overcome the negative feelings in our soul

Negative feelings are a direct sign that we are not taking care of our soul. We feed our body food all day long, and we study the Bible to feed our spirit, but our soul needs care too. We do this by paying attention to how we feel. Then, use the Serenity Prayer Principle. If you can fix the situation causing your soul stress, fix it. If not, then submit that need or feeling to God for Him to heal or to fulfill.

Prayer:
Father God, our spirit is eternal and connects with Your Spirit in our inner man (2 Corinthians 4:16), our true spiritual self. You deliver us from the power of darkness and open the door for us into the Kingdom of Your Son (Colossians 1:13). We are Your emissaries to the world in which we live. Your love flows like a river through us to those You place around us. Remind us that our self-life is dead and we no longer live, but Christ lives in and through us (Galatians 2:20).

Thought for the Day:

God cares for us abundantly more than we could ever ask or think (Ephesians 3:20-21). He will meet the needs in our soul.