Freedom from Anxiety

Anxiety robs us of our peace and joy, spawns other negative emotions and adversely affects our physical health. It is a "killer". God has a tip for us to use to receive freedom from anxiety.

He advises us not to allow anxiety to enter our soul on any level (Philippians 4:6). He shows us the futility of worry by pointing out that anxiety cannot change anything anyway (Matthew 6:27). Then He tells us a secret.

We can avoid these debilitating, negative emotions. The first step is to continually rejoice in the love of the Lord and to realize that He has His best in store for us regardless of our circumstances (Philippians 4:4).

When we realize that the Lord is near to us, even dwelling in our spirit within, we walk in gentleness and peace (Philippians 4:5). We lift up every concern to God in prayer.

In faith, we thank God for dealing with the issue before we ever see the first sign of evidence that He cares about our immediate problem. We lay out our burdens and leave them in His capable hands (1 Peter 5:7).

He gives us the wisdom to know how to deal with the issues of our self, or the courage to leave them for Him to resolve in His way and time. He may just give us grace instead of resolution, the way He did Saul's thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthian 12:9).

When we compare our distress with the weightier matters of life, or the reality of eternity, we may see our anxiety evaporate before our eyes. The magnitude of eternity's reality erases most concerns from our troubled soul (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

God provides for the birds and flowers of the field; and He cares about us so much more, because we are made in His image. As we make His Kingdom our priority, He works out everything else for our good (Matthew 6:25-34; Romans 8:28).

Prayer:

Father God, draw us close to You and never let us go. Remind us of Your saving grace throughout our lifetime and build up our faith with this continual evidence of Your goodness and provision for us. Flood our soul with a waterfall of Your love and allow it to vanquish our fears (1 John 4:18).

The fruit of Your Spirit replaces our carnal nature and we find it easier to walk in Your Spirit and to trust in Your goodness rather than to fear the future. Remind us to ignore Satan's lies and our negative self-talk, which pull us away from faith in Your faithfulness. Thank You for giving us Your freedom from anxiety concerning the temporal issues of this life.

Thought for the Day:

Consumed with worry, we cannot enter and remain in God's rest; yet, if we walk in the center of God's will, we abide in the happiest place on earth. - Hebrews 4:10-11

Draw Me Close to You

As we trust in God alone, He establishes our path and provides us with the resources we need to walk in His victory. Were He leads, we follow. We keep our spirit in tune with Christ in us, and our soul – our mind, choices and emotions – led by His Spirit (Romans 13:14). We submit to God, resist the devil and he must flee from us (James 4:7). Even if Satan uses pain and suffering to sidetrack us, we firmly stand on the faith of the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20). We rest, as God restores or replaces everything that Satan tried to steal from us.

We find our rest in Christ during every time of trouble. As we abide in Him, He is our portion forever (Psalm 73:26). We learn from Him as we draw closer to Him. Once the current, negative circumstance is over, we find our roots clinging more firmly to Him. Even during prosperity, He remains the center of our focus and the joy of our soul. We walk by faith in God’s faithfulness, and He joys over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). The abundance and gentleness of His love is more real to us with each passing day.

The power and the draw of the world, the flesh and the devil decreases as we are transformed into the likeness of Christ by the Spirit of God (2 Corinthians 3:18). Our rebellion, self-centeredness and love for this world diminish as we abide in Him and He abides in us (John 15:4). As we partake in His holiness, our union with Him deepens, His comfort fills our soul and His joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). As God’s Spirit removes the carnality in our flesh, He fills us instead with His fruit, which is the nature of God (Galatians 5:22-23).

His compassion in us allows us to comfort othes with the same comfort He provides for us (2 Corinthians 1:3). His love fills our soul and our cup runs over with agape love for our everyone we meet (Psalm 23:5). We lose our self in Him and care more for His Kingdom and righteousness than we do for the pursuits of this world. When we see adversity approaching, we hide under the shelter of His wings and we abide in Him moment by moment (Psalm 91:1). This pruning results in more fruitfulness in our life, all for His glory (John 15:5,8).

Prayer:

Father God, daily we come closer to the point of finding our satisfaction totally in You and our heart in deeper harmony with Your purpose for our life. We enter times of aloneness to become all-one with You. We find our comfort in You, rather than in any person, place or thing. You are our all sufficiency (2 Corinthians 12:9). We bear the fruit of Your Spirit to edify and nourish Your Body and all those in our world that You bring our way.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus is the tree of life and we are His branches.

Evidence of the Spirit Within

As I fondly look back on experiences in my life, I see that the Holy Spirit continues to slowly replace in me the negative attributes of my personality with His spiritual fruit recorded in Galatians 5:22-23…”But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

What do these words mean:
Love – affection for others
Joy – exuberance about life
Peace – serenity
Patience – willingness to stick with it
Gentleness – compassion from the heart
Goodness – kindness that pervades our entire being
Meekness – humility and service
Self-Control – guided by the Spirit
Faith – trust that God knows what He’s doing
  
Now look at their opposites, these negative characteristics:  Envy, strife, hatred, bitterness, self-centeredness, pride, criticism, worry, depression, quitters and complainers, backbiters, and people who put work and fun ahead of God (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Take a moment to go back over this list of negative characteristics. Read each one and think about it before you go to the next characteristic. Do you see any of these negative attributes in your self? Are you willing to submit this area of your life to God? Are you willing to allow Him to replace these negative traits in your life with the fruit of His Spirit?  

The Good News is that Jesus Christ sanctifies us moment-by-moment! Let Him replace: hatred with love, depression with true joy, discontentment with peace,  irritation with patience, criticism with gentleness, backbiting with goodness, pride with meekness, excess with self-control, and worry with the faith of God as we are controlled and guided by His Spirit.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, help us to walk in obedience to Your Spirit, filled with your fruit, so that we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh or exhibit any of these ungodly characteristics in our lives. Help us to overflow with your spiritual fruit so that we splash out Your goodness on everyone we meet.

Thought for the Day:
Fruity people make the best friends.

True Love

Read: John 13:34-35

“Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. - Philippians 2:2

Jesus challenges us to love others as He loves us. How does He love us? He gave up His throne in glory to take on the lowly form of a man (Philippians 2: 7). Then He died from a horrendous crucifixion for people who would rather spit in His face, torment Him body and soul and malign his reputation than to accept His free gift of Salvation.

Jesus died for the lost, the broken, the forlorn and the persecuted. His love made Him our servant, our brother, our Savior and our King. His love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. His love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. His love never ends (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

His love caused Him to lay down His life for us, to enable us to conquer our fears and live victoriously as His children (1 John 3: 1). Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 7: 38-39).

With His example in the forefront of our mind, let us love one another, fully and completely until Christ returns.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, help us to bear with one another in love with all humility, gentleness and patience, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
- Ephesians 4:2-3

Thought for the Day:
People can survive better with their physical needs met in short supply, than they can thrive without love.