Our Firm Foundation

Our spiritual maturity is validated by our ability to rest in God, even when negative emotions overwhelm us. God is never absent or distant.

He simply lets go of our hand occasionally, so that we can take some faltering steps on our own. God is always right there with us; in fact, He never, ever leaves or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5).

When we experience anxiety, sleeplessness, stress, unforgiveness and trials, it does not mean God went somewhere.

We simply stopped dwelling in our spirit and focused instead on our soul - our mind, will and emotions. Considering the needs of our soul is vital to a fulfilled life; but we cannot dwell there.

The tyranny of life keeps us tied up in knots, running in two directions at one time and burning the candle from both ends at once. This is a recipe for destruction.

If we focus instead on the finished work of Christ on Calvary's cross and His resurrection from the dead, we have a solid foundation on which to build our life.

Prayer:

Father God, You meet with us in our spirit and You are with us always, but You help us to grow up into a mature person who lives with faith in Your faithfulness. You occasionally let go of our hand to teach us to walk in Your Spirit.

If we build our life on the instability of this world, storms will demolish all of our best laid plans and foundation. If we wisely choose Christ as our foundation, our life will stand firm regardless of the most torrential circumstance (Matthew 7:24-27).

Thought for the Day:

This world is not our true home; we are simply doing God's will for our life now, as we progress toward our eternal Home in glory.

Loving Others as Our Self

Jesus made a point of telling us to love others as we love our self. Most of us despise our self, have grudges and disappointments and unforgiveness toward our self. We do not love our self at all (Mark 12:30-31).

Therefore, how can we truly love anyone else? We compare our self to worldly standards and find our self lacking. We listen to significant others in our life and adopt their opinion of us, even if it is negative.

We try all of our life to earn the unconditional love, respect, worth and affirmation we so desperately need. We sell our self short and give up on our self. We feel useless, hopeless, helpless and unlovable.

We are not powerful enough, rich enough, adorable enough, smart enough, talented enough, or attractive enough; we are not enough. We see our self through the eyes of others and we feel disappointed and ashamed.

However, God wants us to see our self through His eyes - as a person He cares about so much that He gave His life for us. He wants us to love our self as He loves us, and then to love others as we love our self.

We can start by accepting our self as He accepts us, just the way we are. We can make better, healthier, wiser and more nurturing choices. We can speak only kind, loving words to and about our self and others.

We can take care of our body, soul and spirit. We can accept our feelings and seek God to find resolutions for our negative feelings and unresolved conflicts. We can judge our self only through the eyes of God, not the eyes of the world.

We can stop using addictions, people, vocation and talents to make us feel better about our self. We can stop abandoning our self and taking our self and others for granted. We can stay in touch with who we are, what we need and how God is leading us all throughout our day.

Prayer:

Father God, enlighten the eyes of our understanding to see our self as You see us: as Your adopted children, co-heirs with Christ of Your entire Kingdom. Remind us to pay attention to our physical, emotional, spiritual and mental needs and to seek You on how to fulfill them.

Help us to accept our feelings and circumstances, even the negative ones, as Your tool in our life to bring us closer to total surrender to Your will and to keep us from depending on our human resources and understanding. Give us Your peace and joy as our strength. Remind us that without You we are nothing; but with You, all things are possible if we simply believe (John 15:5; Mark 9:23).

Thought for the Day:

Take the time throughout the day for a personal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual inventory; meet your needs or ask God to meet them; and then give yourself time to renew Your strength in the Lord and to rise up on wings like eagles. - Isaiah 40:31

Many thanks to Matt Milligan for the use of his photo.

Abundant Grace

Forgiveness is one of the hardest spiritual disciplines God calls us to do, but the result is worth it when we find His freedom in our soul. Forgiveness does not let the perpetrator off the hook, but it puts them in God's capable hands and He will exact His revenge from them (Ezekiel 25:17). Nothing we could do, not even holding a grudge, will be that effective.

As we surrender to God’s will and have faith in His faithfulness, He guards our hearts and minds through Christ in the most miraculous of ways (Philippians 4:4-7). If we refuse to forgive, this bitterness is likely to cause us to suffer from health issues (Proverbs 14:30). We can find joy, even in the most trying difficulty when we pray with gratitude in our heart.

When life spirals out of our control, we never need to fear, because it is never out of God’s control. His abundant grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9). If we do not have what we want, we can be assured that God does not want us to have it at this time. When He is ready to supply it, we will receive even more than we ever thought possible.

Although we are human and weak, God makes us strong, and His grace is always sufficient to meet any needs, which arise in our life (2 Corinthians 12:9; 2 Timothy 2:1). He works out everything, which we entrust into His care (2 Timothy 1:12). When we hope in the Lord, He keeps us from becoming weary; He renews our strength and we soar like eagles (Isaiah 40:31).

Christ is in us every moment of every day. The fact that He is our God vanquishes any depressive or hopeless thoughts. As we walk in God’s Spirit and obey His commandments, we prove our love for Him (1 John 2:3, 5:3). We know that He will always encourage, support, defend and care for us (Isaiah 41:10).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for replacing the negative characteristics of our soul with the fruit of Your Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Your sanctifying process gives us the mind of Christ and transforms us into His likeness (1 Corinthians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). Now, whenever we feel anxiety, we can ask You to reveal the reason behind it, and we can confess it as an idol of unbelief in our life. Remind us not to get out of bed without listening to Your Spirit’s direction for each moment of our day. Thank you so much for Your abundant grace in our life.

Thought for the Day:

As God's grace reaches more and more people, we shout with great thanksgiving and give God more and more glory. - 2 Corinthians 4:15

Forgiveness Sets Us Free

 

How do we forgive someone who hurt us? By hearing and following God's advice to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who abuse us. When someone takes something from us, we give him/her more of what they want. We treat others the way we want them to treat us (Luke 6:27-31).

Forgiveness does not take the offender off the hook, but it does set us free (Romans 12:19).  Our fellowship with God is broken by unforgiveness and His blessings cannot freely flow into our life. With God’s help, we can gain freedom from Satan’s strongholds in our life as we readily forgive those who hurt us and walk in God's Truth.

We also learn to exhibit patience with other people who mistreat us, because we realize that their behavior comes from their wounded soul. Once we forgive those who hurt or offend us, the fruit from the root of bitterness ~ anger, anxiety, depression, irritability, meanness, pride, indulgence and doubt ~ are pulled out of our soul.

The Holy Spirit can then move into our spirit and plant the seed of His fruit in the place of our old carnal nature. As God's chosen people, His holy ones, we cooperate with God's Spirit and put on the cloak of love, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience. We bear with one another and forgive each other, just as the Lord forgives us (Colossians 3:12-15).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us to put on Your love, because it binds everything together in perfect harmony. This allows the peace of Christ to rule in our heart, and we live in gratitude for all You do for us each day. Help the word of Christ to richly dwell in us. Whatever we do, in word or deed, we will perform it in Your name (Colossians 3:16-17). Once we find Your forgiveness for our self, we can give it to those who hurt us, and receive healing from the lies Satan planted in our wounded soul.

Thought for the Day:

Satan wants us to live in bondage to the law of sin and death, but Christ already freed us by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. - Romans 7:22-8:3

Why Forgiveness is the Best Option

Every person ever born deserves to go to hell. We can never be good enough to deserve a place with God in heaven. Earning our own forgiveness is out of the question. Disobedience brought sin into the world and only obedience to God’s Will can free us from its penalty. God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103:17).

God does not expect us to arrive at perfection by our own efforts. He gives us both the desire and the power to live a righteous life (Philippians 2:12-13). We are human with our own distinct set of flaws and foibles. Our idiosyncrasies are no better or worse than any one else’s. Therefore, we have no reason to expect perfection from our self or from any other person.

However, God wants nothing less than our perfection in Christ. God is all about grace. He wants us to use mercy and grace when we deal with our self and others (Luke 6:36). God desires that we forgive our self and others as well (Ephesians 4:31, 32). We are all wounded souls attempting to survive in this world. Mercy is as important to God as justice.

The Pharisees attempted to please God by adding to His law. They believed that more rules were better. Jesus set them straight. God calls us to forgive each other, to show compassion and mercy in the same way that God forgave us through Christ (Ephesians 4:32). If we fail to comply, then we open the door to Satan. He works havoc in our life and defeats us at every turn.

If we fail to forgive, we also allow our enemies to persecute us (Matthew 18:34-35). We tie God’s hands with our unforgiveness and He cannot forgive us either (Matthew 6:14). We will prevent Satan from interfering in our life, if we choose to forgive (2 Corinthians 2:10-11). We will also allow God to forgive us. Forgive does not let the troublemaker off the hook, it puts them in God’s vengeful hands and sets us free (Romans 12:19).

Prayer:

Father God, when You ask us to forgive, you know that we are still hurting from the abuse inflicted on us by the perpetrator. Our feelings of unforgiveness allow the offender to control a part of our life. We will never forget the infraction, but forgiveness lessons the pain of it in our soul.

Thought for the Day:

Forgive as You have been forgiven. – Hebrews 10:17

A Luxury We Cannot Afford

There are many opportunities in life to cling to bitterness to try to assuage the pain of some betrayal, unkind word, abuse or rejection. It feels so good to grip this anger, revenge and unforgiveness and to send evil thoughts toward the person who mistreated or exploited us. We like to tell anyone who will listen about the incident and paint the picture of our nemesis in dark, evil colors.

The problem with availing our self of this luxury is that bitterness, and all negative emotions, are a root, which when planted in the soil of our soul – our mind, will and emotions – start to grow like a weed. They displace any good fruit of the Spirit, which already grow there (Hebrews 12:15). Bitterness causes us to miss out on the grace of God. It robs us of our vitality in our spirit, soul and body (Job 10:1). It tarnishes our reputation and spreads a bad attitude to others as well (Hebrews 12:15). We suffer the most when we do not forgive our offender.

Most of us experience wounds at some time in our life. Our parents, coaches, school chums, teachers, friends, neighbors, mate, church leaders, doctors, grocery clerks, employer, or any other member of our community that we love, trust, respect and want to gain their approval may have ridiculed, embarrassed, undermined, criticized or discounted us in some way or another. We feel hurt, which triggers anger to protect our self. If we cannot express that anger outwardly, we nurse it inwardly and it turns to depression, resentment, bitterness, complaining and irritability (Job 7:11).

Avoiding the offender for a while may help us to heal quicker. If we happen upon the offender, we may feel the pain all over again, but we can choose to forgive again. If the offender passed away or moved out of our life, reconciliation may be impossible; however, our willingness to resolve the issue sets us free from the bondage of unforgiveness. We can always expect people to act humanly. If they do a human thing and offend us, we can forgive them simply because we are human also.

Forgiveness is the only way to heal these negative emotions, attitudes and behaviors consuming our life. We have a choice to allow the seeds of bitterness to take root in our soul, or to avail our self to the grace of God and allow Him to love that offensive individual through us. This strengthens Christ’s power in us. We relinquish our role as victim and free our self from the power the offender had over our life. We do this by first putting our self in the offender’s shoes. Why did he/she act this way? Would we do the same thing in a similar situation?

We probably will not forget the incident, we may have to forgive that person often, but it leads to a better understanding of human nature, empathy for their shortcomings and compassion for others who suffer injury. Forgiveness restores our unity with God, helps us to foster healthy relationships, puts us in a better frame of mind, heals our body and lowers our risk for addictions. Forgiveness enhances our physical, mental, emotional, behavioral and spiritual welfare.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, remind us that forgiveness is obedience to You and does not depend on our feelings or on the one who offended us. They may never change or even repent of their behavior, but forgiving them will change our life. Forgiveness takes that person off the throne of our life and away from the center of our focus and replaces You in that lofty position where You belong. You keep all of our tears in Your bottle and you record the cause of them in Your journal (Psalm 56:8). Your love for us overcomes every slight or devastation we can ever experience in life.

Thought for the Day:

Showing mercy means that we release our self from the bondage of unforgiveness. - Ephesians 4:31