Month: February 2020

Trading Fear for Peace

1 John 4:18.
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

The scriptures are filled with the words ‘fear not.’ Over and over again the Word of God drives home the fact that fear has no place in the believer’s life, yet we often find ourselves fretting and worrying about things that are out of our control. Worry is the complete opposite of trust and faith and as the little chorus goes, it asks a very pointed question, “Why worry, when you can pray?” Why do we fall under the torment of fear and distrust when we know that we have a sovereign, all-knowing, all present all perfect, God of love, who sits on His throne at all times, directing the finest, most intricate detail our lives with His all-powerful hand?

In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul reminds us “That God hath not given the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Trust in a perfect God brings peace to an agitated, fearful mind. We can’t trust and worry at the same time. When we know the Lord and enjoy a personal relationship with Him, we have the Spirit of the living God dwelling within us and the spirit of fear has to leave. It cannot take up residence in the heart of a trusting soul and within the heart of one that truly knows who God is.

To trust doesn’t mean that struggles won’t come our way and that troubles won’t knock on our door, but through them, the Holy Spirit gives us an unexplainable peace beyond our understanding. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 7. The Lord carries us through, enabling us to fight off the power and destruction of the enemy’s fear! What peace is ours when we become like little children and with child-like faith, trust God to bring us through. “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”.

As Christ Ones, and those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, our sins are forgiven and cast into the sea, to be remembered no more. They’re done, they’re over and they’re gone. We have accepted God’s plan of salvation and perfect love and we have no need to fear judgment from our most perfect God of perfect love because we’ve settled our account with the One who paid the debt for our freedom from the punishment we deserve. Yes, He’s an all righteous God and the all righteous judge and He will come again to judge, but He comes to judge those outside of His love; those who have chosen not to trust in Christ, the spotless lamb who died on the cross shedding His blood for their reconciliation to God.  If you are outside of His plan of salvation today, and you’ve never asked Christ to forgive you, then you will fear and have reason to fear, because His perfect love does not dwell within you, nor you in Him, and God Himself says, there will be a payback day, when God will take action against the evil and the sin that has never been repented of. Our hope is in the Lord as 2 Corinthians 6:2 tells us, “At the right time I heard you, and on a day of salvation I helped you. Listen, now is really the “right time”! Now is the “day of salvation!”.

Our relationship with God has to be more than a head knowledge of God because a head knowledge won’t save us. It has to be a heart knowledge out of true repentance. When we know, that we know, that we know His Spirit indwells us we have His perfect love empowering us and motivating us to go and be and do all that He has for us to do in His kingdom work, without fear, because, remember…“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.’.
#Brokenandloved

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Acceptance Heals

 

Raising four kids over my ‘mom’ years has taught me some interesting and valuable lessons about forgiveness. I’m still learning but I’ve realized it isn’t about the other person or the offender at all. No ~ As selfish as it sounds, It’s about the “me, myself and I”, before the Lord, in the situation, and His power and His strength in us, giving us the ability, to accept the loss or the hurt, regardless of how deep it may go! We have to get closer to God in order to forgive and accept any loss. You see beautiful soul, simple ‘acceptance’ releases the chained weight of the bitter spirit. That bitterness that binds and tugs around the ankle! Simple acceptance, like a key, clicked in the lock, sets us free of the offence! Yeah, simple, straight forward acceptance! It’s the only way! Only then can I ‘begin’ to heal in the whole healing process. It won’t be instant, it never is, but just as time heals a surgery, a wound, or a broken bone; the broken heart, the pain of offence and the hurt of loss also heals with time, if we’ve accepted the loss before our Lord who lost His life at the hands of the angry mob. What did He do? He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They weren’t asking but He accepted His brutal treatment and ultimate loss of life on the cross and all for us, who are so undeserving! So must we ask God to forgive them and “accept” our lot and our loss? You see, when we accept the loss, it can’t get any worse so, what does it matter? It’s done! it’s over! It’s happened and we can’t change it! So we accept it and we learn from it! We forgive and we are forgiven over and over and over again in this life and each time we move on hopefully a little smarter and a little wiser in our journey!

Think of it this way! Have you ever forgiven your kids, even when they haven’t asked? When they’re young, we do don’t we? And in their child-like simplicity, they forgive us when we fail them in their little worlds, so big to their concerns. It’s all in a day’s work and just a valuable part of training in kids-world and parenting. However, as they get older with their own minds and rebellious behaviours, it becomes a little more “adult-like” difficult and chances are they’re not asking because they don’t care. So, rather than harbour it, holding it against them ~ we have to accept what they’ve done, forgive and let it go and yeah, maybe ten times a day or more and always with the knowledge of another day tomorrow with maybe more of the same scenario. Remember the offender seldom asks nor do they have the ability nor power to heal. If we depend on the offender for our healing we may take the bitterness to our grave.

Matthew 18: 21, 22
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? “Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

#Soulnotetoself #Brokenandloved

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Whatever You Have Is Enough

The boy only had five loaves and two fish but In our Lord’s hands, it was enough to feed the multitudes. He blessed it and broke it and then performed His awesome miracle to feed 5000 people. So, hey you there, wherever you are, whatever you have today is enough! In the Lord’s hands, you might be amazed at what He can do with it.

Don’t be surprised if He blesses it and breaks it first ‘cuz He uses broken things to multiply His Kingdom! When you feel you have nothing but brokenness to offer, that’s when you have everything to give. 

Beautiful soul, the more broken you are, the more useful you are in His kingdom work. ~k

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.”
Mark 6: 41

“The number of men who had eaten were five thousand.” Mark 6:44
#Brokenandloved #Lovenote

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The Age Old Message of Love

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”
1 John 3:11.
You’ve heard the old song, ‘Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage?” I’m sure we all have. It’s an old one but a fun, little song, that my grandparents sang for light-hearted fare. Love makes the world go round. Love? It’s a classic! It’s a relevant theme that has flourished through the ages and never goes out of style. God designed it for good and blesses His people with it but sadly the world cheapens it and flaunts it and uses it in the wrong way.
 
God is the author and creator of love. He is love and His Word is a love letter to His people, whom He loves with unconditional love. A love that transcends far beyond the ecstasy of the physical love and marriage the world knows! His love letter is our guidebook for this journey of life and our defence against the enemy. Hebrew 4: 12 says, “It’s alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” His love letter is a message of hope to the hopelessly lost and dead in trespasses and sin. His is a message of Truth for those deceived by the enemy and victory for the down and out.
 
Our verse is an awesome word from John, who reminds us of the underlying love theme in God’s word from the very beginning and the very foundation of our salvation. It’s so easy to lose sight of it because life happens, people hurt people and love becomes difficult if we take our focus off of Christ. John knew it well and goes on to warn his hearers not to be like Cain, whose jealousy led him to murder Abel, his brother. Let’s take care not to crush the spirit of another because of envy or jealousy in our ministries, families and places of work or school.
Love and forgiveness go together somewhat like love and marriage. One will follow the other in this Christian walk. At least it should if we live to bring glory to God, the author of love. To love and forgive is a difficult action when someone has taken from us and left us wounded, yet it’s a command and true evidence of Christ indwelling us! Someone said,  “We don’t just send our forgiveness out into oblivion but, rather, we place it in God’s hands. We turn it over to the all-knowing, righteous judge! The one who says, “I’ll take care of that for you, just leave it with me! No one better give you a difficult time, or they’ll have me to answer to.”
It’s a comforting thought to think about our forgiveness being placed in God’s hands. Remind yourself about that the next time there is a need to forgive and love another. His message is clear and we can be victorious over the pain, hurt, and rejection. Let’s forgive to free ourselves and give it to God to deal with because it’s the age-old message and the one we’ve heard from the beginning of time….”We should love one another.”
#Brokenandloved
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