Blooming Like a Garden

 

Human beings are slaves of whatever entity we obey: either Almighty God or the god of this world - Satan. Allowing the devil to entrench us in sin leads to destruction both now and for an eternity in the lake of fire (Romans 6:16).

Instead, we enjoy life so much more as slaves of God in obedience and holiness. This allows us to live in the Spirit rather than in the flesh, since God's Spirit abides within us (Galatians 5:15-25).

Whoever does not have God's Spirit does not belong to Christ (Romans 8:9). Yet, as we totally surrender our humanity to Christ, He saves us and adopts us into His family (Ephesians 1:5).

Satan continually attempts to draw us away from God through our body and soul. He trips us up with a single temptation. Then, it is easier for him to tempt us in the future to follow his will for us.

Yet, Christ in our spirit gives us a way to escape temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). As we ignore Satan's lies and keep our mind on Christ, we are not tempted by his fiery darts and lies.

Our thoughts and emotions affect the decisions of our will. The decisions of our will determine our behavior, which motivates every area of our life: financial, relational, emotional, spiritual, physical, etc.

When we walk by the faith of Christ in us rather than by our human reasoning, we avoid so many of life's pitfalls and live in a serene and victorious existence (2 Corinthians 5:7).

God gives us a free will both to choose His salvation; and then to choose to live in His will, rather than to follow Satan's or our own plans for our life.

By submitting to God's Spirit within us, we reap the blessings of His will. He sanctifies our soul and fills our spirit with His power, so that, as His Body, we bloom like a spectacular garden (Romans 12:1-2; Jeremiah 31:12).

Prayer:

Father God, we want to present our bodies to You as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), to do Your will and to live in Your ways all the days of our life. Teach us to submit to the leading of Your Holy Spirit and draw us ever closer to Your presence within us.

Thank You for Your Spirit, who abides in our midst and fills Your house with greater splendor and glory than Solomon's Temple (Haggai 2:4-9). Remind us that, as Your Body, we are perfectly joined together with Jesus, the chief corner stone, into Your dwelling place (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Thought for the Day:

As we walk in God's Spirit, joined together by His love, we bloom where He plants us in His garden. - 2 Corinthians 2:15

Purpose for Our Life

God fearfully and wonderfully made each one of us and knit our body together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:14). Most people forget that we are actually made from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). People rise from the dust and take many shapes and sizes. But like the mountains, our destiny is to rise into the Heavenlies.

God made each of us with various personalities, gifts, talents, assets and peculiarities. However, we all have one thing in common: we need Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. God has a plan for each of our lives, and once we come to Christ, He reveals it to us one moment at a time (Ephesians 2:10).

When they hear the Good News of the Gospel, some people indifferently walk away, others vehemently reject the message and sometimes even the messenger, then a few actually accept the sacrifice Christ made for all of us on Calvary’s cross. Aligning our life with the will of God brings us fulfilling love, peace and joy.

We live a more positive life, successful in all the areas that matter with family, friends and the necessities of life provided. We are able to share these blessings with those less fortunate than we are. We share with them the source of our faith too and encourage them to trust in Jesus completely for their present and future life.

Prayer:

Father God, reveal Your purpose for our life in such a way that we cannot possibly misunderstand or walk away from it. Give us Your wisdom and help us to follow Your Spirit when we have decisions to make. We seek You and Your strength, we seek Your presence continually (Psalm 105:4).

Thought for the Day:

Even Creation, which God made for mankind to enjoy, constantly honors the Lord and eagerly waits for the revealing of the Sons of God. – Revelation 4:11; Romans 8:19

Victim to Victor

Read: Romans 8: 31-39

“Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.- Romans 8:34

Did you grow up and/or are you living in an abusive situation? Are you living in a perpetual downhill spiral that never seems to end? It is very easy to model our current life on the basis of our history and to choose to believe that our past and present is our “reality”. To be stuck in this victimized thinking, however, will continue to create negative energy in our soul and it will perpetuate the idea that we cannot help but to be victimized by life and others.

There is a huge need in most people today to be liberated in our beliefs, thinking, words and actions by the Word of God. Do you know how fortunate we truly are? God gave us the wonderful ability to make decisions. In reality we are never truly stuck. We can decide to create a new life and move forward no matter what our “reality” looks like. It may seem that we are powerless, but the truth is: we are actually more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).

Even when you have a supportive family and friends, at some level you know that you are the only person who can get you out of the negative spiral in which you are living. This fact can feel terrifying. After all, aren’t you so grieved and broken already that the thought of getting strong and motivated and making balanced and authoritative decisions feels about as feasible as climbing Mount Everest without any equipment?

When we are shattered by hurt and loss, anything new, self-confronting and empowering seems light years away from our capabilities to achieve. However, the Good News is that when we are weak, God in us is strong for us. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Even if we are terrified and have to crawl along, or curl up in a corner somewhere and grieve for a while, Christ is waiting to help us to find the victory.

When we finally understand that God has a plan for our life, we realize that we really do want to hold onto and honor the life He has given us. Through His power, we can let down the walls within us that keep our shattered soul from being healed and set free.

Christ gives us the victory to know that our life CAN change for the better. This is how we overcome depression and defeat. This fact keeps us from getting sidetracked and drawn down by the upheavals and chaos of our circumstances and the people in our lives.

Humility is incredibly empowering and transformational. Humility admits that we cannot, but God can. The humility to admit that we are powerless leads us to surrender to God. Our most important function in our road to recovery is to submit to God as He develops His character and fruit within us.

It isn’t until we are forced to our knees that we finally understand God’s purpose in all the pain we experienced throughout our lifetime. As we release the pain of the past and survive, we start to realize that we truly will thrive through Christ in us. Then, He gives us the potential to experience the aspects of our life that our heart truly desires.

The key is to create a solid sense of Who We Are in Christ (see former post on this blog). Then regardless of what is occurring in our outer world we have these truths filling our personal concept of who we are. Jesus is our inner security, anchor, direction and purpose in life. Godly principles do not react to anything – they remain constant and consistent. Life evens out and things flow more smoothly. This strongly formed core of values is consistent in the face of outside influences. Life may be changeable, but Biblical values and principles are timeless and unchangeable.

This inner security comes from knowing our true identity in Christ and having healthy self-worth based on the fact that you are a child of God. With this fact firmly planted in our mind, we know that we have the ability to emotionally, and if necessary, to physically detach from situations outside of our self that we have no control over. This gives us a firm mental, emotional and spiritual foundation within our self.

Since Christ lives within us, Godly values and principles become our ultimate reality. All of our experiences are viewed through this lens, and our world completely changes. Even our vision of life, circumstances and ourselves begin to take on a new shape and are viewed from an eternal rather than an earthly perspective. We no longer react to life, but we act according to the direction of His Spirit within us.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus help us to submit our past, present and future to You, one moment at a time. Help us to view life from Your perspective and to love the things You love and to turn away from the things You despise. Help us to make Jesus the center of our focus and to walk in Your joy and peace throughout our life.

Thought for the Day:
But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:57

Commitment

Read: Isaiah 26:3

“Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Psalm 37:5

Commitment is a word few take seriously today. If it’s broken, we usually throw it away and get another one, including our relationships. There was a day, when we took things to the Fix It shop or to the counselor to be repaired. Nowadays, we just pitch it and go shopping…looking for a newer and bigger or more powerful model. God gave us the commission to live up to our obligations (Ecclesiastes 5:5), to protect what He gives us (1 Timothy 5:8) and to nurture our relationships (John 13: 34).

We get so caught up at work with meeting deadlines. Our time gets inundated with people we need to see. Then our spare time is taken up with chores at home. The busyness of everyday life consumes our thoughts and actions. We are so tired by the weekend that we resent spending any of it in the house of God. We just stay at home and sleep-in, so that we have enough energy to get back on the treadmill of our daily schedule once Monday rolls around again.

Therefore, before we can ever live such a committed life to others, we must first surrender our life to the Lord. If we continue to pursue our own agenda for our life, then our decisions will all be influenced by our selfish, human tendencies. God calls us to draw intimately closer to Him each day, to live in His presence.

Developing habits of quiet time every day will enable us to hear God's voice. We get our marching orders from Him; and when we do, we start to experience a whole new life as we keep His will in the forefront of our thoughts. Our job is less burdensome and our work flows more smoothly. We interact with people on a deeper level. We care more about the little things that mean so much in life.

Make a commitment to yourself today to surrender your life completely to the will of God. Make the changes He shows you that are necessary and be kinder to yourself and to all of those in your other relationships. Our frustrations with the present and our guilt from the past will rob us of the gift of tomorrow that God has in store for us. We cannot allow Satan to deprive our spirit of the life-giving flow of God’s Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit has the power, which makes our lives more productive for both the Kingdom of God and for us. By forgiving past hurts and walking in the Spirit in the present, we can look forward to a fulfilling future.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, we commit our daily schedule to You and we dedicate our lives wholly to You. You will cause our thoughts to line up with Yours, and You will established our plans and cause us to succeed (Proverbs 16: 3). You are ever able to keep what we commit to You. (2 Timothy 1:12)

Thought for the Day:

Society has rarely seen what God can do through a person who is fully committed to Him.