From Frightened to Freedom

As a young wife and mother of three, my life was hectic at best. On top of this, I viewed life and reacted to its challenges and issues from a codependent and perfectionistic attitude - double trouble.

I wanted to please everyone, so they would like and love me; I thought that the only way to accomplish this feat was to be perfect. I was under the delusion that if I loved and served everyone - even to the detriment of myself - they would love me in return.

However, all I did was to teach people to take me for granted and to treat me like a doormat and their unpaid servant - chief cook, bottle washer, baby sitter, housekeeper and problem solver. People took advantage of me, which stressed me out even further.

I even did this with God. I attempted to keep every "jot and tittle of the law" (Matthew 5:18), hoping to please God with my undying service, in order to earn His love. I turned into a foolish "Galatian" and ran myself ragged, meeting myself coming and going (Galatians 3:1-3).

Stress kept me from sleeping and sleeplessness made me grouchy, which caused me to be short-tempered with those I loved. I hated who I was…I hated me, but I had no idea how to change things.

My self-esteem was in the bottom of the tank and I felt like I was drowning in the details of life. Finally, in desperation, I started researching codependence: what caused it and how to get free from it.

I learned that I had to stop neglecting my own needs every day and to allow others to meet their own needs once in a while. The books promised that they would still love me anyway, even if I did not "earn" it.

I figured that even if they did not love me, then they had no true feelings for me in the first place. I also translated this into the spiritual realm. God already loved me when I was a lost sinner, and He would always love me unconditionally (Romans 5:8); therefore, I could enter His rest and enjoy His favor.

This fact stopped the codependence dead in its tracks. I did a 180 degree turn around and walked away from this driven lifestyle. God's Spirit broke the shackles of expectations that I allowed to chain me to a meager existence.

When I entered into God's rest, I found a security and warmth that I missed all my life. Over the ensuing years, the comfort of God's rest brought me more peace and joy than I ever dreamed possible; and He continually supplies all of my needs with His glorious riches.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You so much for Your grace and mercy, which lead us in Your everlasting way (John 10:28-30; 1 Peter 5:10). You teach us lessons all along life's path and You bring us into ever-increasing intimacy with Your presence within us. When we let go of the impossible demands of pleasing people and focus instead on walking by the direction of Your Spirit moment by moment, we enter into Your rest, we receive Your gift of mercy and love, and we learn to trust in Your wisdom.

Due to Christ's saving redemption on Calvary's cross, we are no longer slaves of the demon of perfectionism. Instead, we follow the leading of Your Spirit and rest in Your goodness and grace. We trust in You with our whole heart; acknowledge You in all of our thoughts, words and deeds; and glorify You as You direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Thought for the Day:

God invites us to bask in His love; abide in His peace and hide under His wings when life scares us (Psalm 91:4); we learn to accept love when it is given and to serve others only when God's Spirit leads us to do so; this prevents burn-out and promotes joy in living regardless of our circumstances.

God's Presence in Trials

God’s goal, through His Spirit, is to sever our connection to the vine of the flesh, the world and the devil, and to graft us into the Vine of Christ. He does this through the process of salvation. Then God's Spirit continues to convict us of our sins, as well as to give us the desire and the power to relinquish it (Philippians 2:12-13).

Our Savior dwells within us, and cannot associate with fleshly pursuits. God only withdraws His presence from us when we sin. He provides trials to insure that no flesh glories in His presence, but that He receives all of the glory due to His name (Psalm 29:2). God never uses trials for punishment, but He will use them to discipline us for our protection.

God also allows failure in our ministry or personal life to humble us into realizing that we do not live life according to our will, but according to His will. God may even allow our body to fail in some area, as a testimony that prayer is the only reason we are still living. In fact, God may chose not to heal us on earth, but to take us Home with Him in Heaven.

We do not need to live in fear and desperation; but simply to live in intimate fellowship with our Jesus, who abides within us. We get lost in His presence and affection. He fills us with His Spirit and thrills our soul with His blessings. There is no relationship on earth equal to this, because He knows us from the inside out.

We do not name and claim the victory, but we cooperate, as Christ in us works out our deliverance and sanctification (Psalm 18:6). Even our negative circumstances, when they are in the will of God for us, work out for our good (Romans 8:28). God will use trials to draw us back to Himself and to prove His love for us (2 Chronicles 15:4).

Prayer:
Father God, the Rock of Ages is our foundation, which no person or demon can ever shake. You allow us to be tested beyond our strength; often pressed out of the area of our expertise and abilities; but not beyond Yours. You do this so that we will learn not to trust in our self. Give us Your grace, as You use trials to prove us. Remind us to take You at Your Word and to believe in Your promise of ultimate victory.

Thought for the Day:

God purifies our life through fire, proves our faith as genuine when we go through various trials and suffering, and He will present our faith at the return of Christ to the earth. - 1 Peter 1:7

Surrender Brings Freedom

 

As we walk with the Lord, we learn to submit to His will for our life. We may not like some of the trials we encounter, but He goes through each one of them with us, because He lives within us (Colossians 1:27). As we surrender to His unique will for our life, He works out everything for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28). There is no secret formula for success. We simply yield our plans, goals and desires to God, and He leads us and puts His desires in our heart (Psalm 37:4).

When we succumb to Satan’s lies, we reject God’s truth and we end up stressed, anxious and alone. As we humble our pride in the presence of Christ in us, He exalts us in due season. Since He cares for us, He proves to us that if we surrender all of our anxiety and difficulty to Him, He brings us into the peace of His freedom (1 Peter 5:6-7). God is trustworthy; and as He demonstrates His love to us, we learn to have faith in His faithfulness (Deuteronomy 7:9).

Our surrender to Christ brings Him glory; because our human effort and strength is not potent enough to deliver us from all that life imposes on us. We leave our burdens at His feet through prayer, and then we stand back in faith and watch for the salvation of our God, who hears our prayers (Micah 7:7). Surrender turns our thoughts from centering on our self; then God makes us others-conscious and we prefer one another (Romans 12:10).

Even if abuse and violation pepper our past, which makes us think we have to control every aspect of our life now, our only hope of peace is to sacrifice our pain on God’s altar (1 Chronicles 21:24). Then we can totally surrender to the will of God, because the sacrifice, which Christ made for each of us on the cross, overshadows our pain and is ever fixed in the forefront of our mind. Each time we submit to the will of God, our fleshly nature dies a little more, and the peace of God reigns in our mind and heart (Colossians 3:15-17).

Prayer:

Father God, teach us that attempting to control our life actually makes us more vulnerable to attack from Satan and his cruel world (2 Corinthians 4:4). In our moments of extreme fear and hopelessness, You turn our tears of desperation into drops of healing for our soul. Help us to walk in the freedom of completely trusting You and bring us to the place where we feel Your love washing over us like a waterfall each moment of the day.

Thought for the Day:

Totally surrendering to the Lord prevents us from drowning in uncertainty, chaos and depression. – Psalm 13:3-6

White Washed Tombs

Read: Matthew 23:27-28

In my early years as a Christian, while talking with our Associate Pastor’s wife, I concluded a very lengthy monologue. She responded by summarizing my description, “Then what you are telling me is that you are a white washed tomb.” 

A tomb? Me? But…as I reflected on what I just told her, I realized that she described me perfectly. I was a white washed sepulcher (Matthew 23:27-28)!!! 

Although I already repented of my sin and believed in Jesus Christ for my salvation, presently busyness pervaded every moment of my life. These distractions prevented the Holy Spirit from using me as He so desired. I appeared clean on the outside by Jesus’ blood, but actually putrifying sins and attitudes occupied my inner, carnal nature. The horrible fact about this ungodly predicament is that I had absolutely NO idea how to change this situation in my life!

I knew God; yet, I did not know how to be one with Him. For years prior to this day, I spent my time trying very desperately to please God. I knew my eternal Salvation was guaranteed by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, but I still tried to earn God’s love by my works. I was so active FOR God that I could not squeeze a personal relationship with Him into my busy schedule.

After all, I had three children and a Pastor husband who brought with him the responsibilities of a growing inner city church. Everyone in the family looked to me to match socks, find shoes, and have hot meals on the table three times a day. The phone rang constantly with church members calling for me to quote the price of mushrooms at the grocery store, to head some committee, to start some new program for the church, or to give them counsel on some malady. When did I have time to do more? I never even had time for myself, unless I stayed up late at night, which I often did.

Henry David Thoreau, in his book, Walden, mentions the “mass of men leading lives of quiet desperation.” This quiet desperation threatened to strangle the life from me. I realized that I needed to get serious with this problem, before it got serious with me!

Someone said, “The good things can become the enemy of the best things.” Sometimes we forget that the good we do often robs us of time that we could be doing the best thing. Our goal in life as Christians is to be led by the Holy Spirit moment-by-moment throughout the day. This is the only way to possess ultimate fulfillment and an intimate relationship with the true and living God.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank You for caring enough to show me that busyness robbed me of intimacy with You. Thank You for teaching me to spend quality time with You every day and for drawing me closer to Your heart in the process.

Thought for the Day:

Making mistakes is part of living; but thankfully God forgave them all by dying.

Our Offering

Read: 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10
"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God."  ~ 2 Corinthians 5:20 NKJV

Circumstances in the world in which we live get more perilous with each passing day. A financial collapse, a current event or a natural catastrophe can bring the world to its knees at any moment. We have no need to fear, however.

God unfolds His plan to His children one day at a time. With His peace in our hearts, we can reflect His light into the desperate and dying world around us. Our friends, family, neighbors and associates will see Christ in us as we remove the shadow of our self-reliance and trust completely in the Lord. The power of God freely working in and through us is like a magnet, which attracts those seeking His Truth. Jesus said that when men see our good works, they will glorify our God in Heaven (Matthew 5:16).

We have no fear of failure when it comes to His calling in our life. God's strength is made perfect through our weakness. Our complete dependence in Him is our offering to Him. Do you think that God cannot use you? As a Believer, we can allow God to channel His will through our lives. When we are our weakest that is when He is His strongest. He will use us to share reality with a world that is built on illusions.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, we offer our lives to you as a living sacrifice, to use for Your Glory and for the advancement of Your Kingdom on the earth.

Thought for the Day:

Approaching God with empty hands allows Him to fill them to their fullest.