Overcoming

Yesterday I got a clear message from the Lord:  Romans 12:2  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  Very simple.  Very direct.  But not so easy to do.  Especially when you are tired, frustrated, overwhelmed or feel like attacks are coming from every direction.  The world itself seems to be determined to eliminate God from their sight.  Bad news is everywhere.   A lot of people (myself included), are busy, tired and sometimes grumpy.  So how do we shine for Jesus.  How do we defuse the evil around us.  We may not be able to change the world, but we can change the little corner of it around us.

Prayer.  The Lord tells us to pray for our enemies.  Matthew 5:44  "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,"  It's hard to stay mad at people you are praying for.  Pray for ourselves.   Matthew 26:41  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”   Keeping our mind pointed upward helps calm our spirits and strengthen our hearts.  Prayer for one another.  Ephesians 6:18  praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.  It's so encouraging to know that others are praying for us, others are on our side and petitioning the Lord on our behalf.  It also takes our minds off ourselves.

We need time in God's presence.  We need to focus our minds in His direction, continually in prayer and supplication.  This is the way we will overcome evil.  We make our minds so busy praying that we don't have anytime to worry about the things in the world or entertain negative thoughts about others or our circumstances.  We tune in to God, His will, His leading, His voice.

Lord, let Your love shine through Your children!  Let us overcome the darkness we see around us, the sin we struggle with inside and bring Your goodness and light to all things.  Holy Spirit prompt us, remind us, and lead us.  In Jesus' overcoming Name.  Amen.

Pray without ceasing!

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, pardon

Where there is doubt, faith

Where there is despair, hope

Where there is darkness, light

And where there is sadness, joy

O Divine Master, grant that I may

Not so much seek to be consoled as to console

To be understood, as to understand

To be loved, as to love

For it is in giving that we receive

And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it's in dying that we are born to Eternal Life

Amen

The Answer to No

The answer to the "no" answers we get?  Faith.  That's it.  Psalm 62:8  O my people, trust Him at all times.  Pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge.   Expecting "yes,"all the time, expecting things to be perfectly aligned, expecting to sail through life with barely a ripple will only bring about frustration and discontent.   This leads to bitterness and a hardening of the heart.

Ruth Meyers said, "In spite of what I think or feel when I get my eyes off You, I choose not to resist my trials as intruders, but to welcome them as friends."  We want trials to disappear.  We want the Lord to swoop in a sweep away every struggle, large and small.  But this is not what happens.  It's just not reality.  "No" answers come to us. 

2 Corinthians 12:9  My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  God's grace is sufficient for all our trials, all our faults, all our ailments.  Paul was given this answer when He pleaded with the Lord to take away his "thorn in the flesh."  Basically, God said, "No."  But Paul stepped up his faith and relied on God to take care of him.  He used the "no" answer to give glory to the Lord.  So we are called to accept the "noes."  To trust God's answer, timing and heart.  We are called to live by faith.  Wow, that is certainly not easy for me!  LOL 


We are told in Romans 1:17  The righteous will live by faith."  We will not get our way all the time.  God's desire is our spiritual growth and strengthening, not making our every wish come true.  He not only wants to benefit us through the "noes," He has a plan that encompasses those around us and beyond.   I want to get to a place where hearing "no" makes me smile because I trust God has a better way and something good is going to happen because of it. 

Lord, thank You for saying "No."  Give us the grace to accept it as Paul did.  Help us smile through not getting our own way, increase our faith.  Let us look for the blessing that comes when You deny us our desires.  Lord, give us greater trust in Your heart and Your wisdom.  Let frustration turn to praise.  Lord, I struggle so much in this area.  Help me, and all of us grow.  Forgive me for getting angry when I don't get my way.  Forgive me for not trusting Your heart and Your ways.  I fail so often.  Thank You for being a God that forgives, a God of patience.  In Jesus Name.  Amen.

Let's try saying "thank you" every time we don't get our way today. 

Paul's "No" Answer

There is Scriptural evidence that Paul wrote his letter to the Romans because He was not permitted to visit them.  Romans 13:1a  I want you to know dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now.  For some reason Paul was told "No." to his desire to visit the church in Rome.  Perhaps there was a very good reason for this 'No."  Perhaps the book of Romans would not have been written if Paul was permitted to go when he first desired to head to Rome.

Think about this "No" answer for a while.  What if Paul was permitted to go to Rome and we never had the book of Romans?  How different would all of Christendom look?  Would we still be under the dogma of salvation by works?  Would Martin Luther never have given us the revelation of salvation by faith?  Would we all be living in doubt of our salvation, relying on some obscure, unknowable scale as to whether or not we measured up or earned enough points to enter Heaven?   We would never have had the understanding that righteousness came through faith alone, not by our acts, even our best acts being as filthy rags compared to God's holiness.  Romans 1:17  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”  Isaiah 64:6  But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.  The understanding of God's grace and unmerited favor may have been lost to us.

Wow.  What a "No" answer this was.  And what a blessing it was.  "No" answers are like that when they are from God.  I doubt very much that Paul understood why he was not permitted to visit the Roman Christians, but I know he trusted God's plan.  Millions upon millions maybe even billions have benefited from this "No" that Paul received and obeyed.  It's truly amazing.

Lord, help us to see Your "noes" as blessings rather than hindrances.  Let us remember You are God.  Instead of pouting, getting annoyed, stamping our feet, let us say "yes" to Your "no."  Give us obedient and trusting hearts, hearts that remain at peace when we hear "no" from You.  Thank You for saying "no" to Paul, we have all been so blessed, amazingly blessed through the ages.  What a wonderful God You are, all knowing, all wisdom, all desire to bless Your children!  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Thank God for the "noes."

Romans 3:21-22  But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

The "No" Answer

This is sort of a three part series.  First part is the "NO" answer.  Many times in life we seem to get a "no" for an answer from God.  Or sometimes no answer at all.  For me, those times feel frustrating, especially when it's the small stuff I'd like help with that seems to have (and just maybe I am wrong about this lol) no bearing on kingdom life...no eternal value. 

For example, I was cleaning out my car lately and just wanted to get done quickly.  It was one thing on a very long to do list that day and the faster I got done the better I'd like it and the quicker I'd be able to move onto the next item.  Of course, nothing was going smoothly.  Paper towels rolling away, papers flying off needing to be chased, spots that were difficult to reach with the vacuum...you know, the little minutiae that gets in the way when you are trying to complete a task quickly.  So I started bickering with the Lord.  Well, I was bickering...He was being quiet, just taking it all in I guess...waiting on me to get the point of His silence.

Me:  Help me.  Can you make this easier?  Make it go smoothly?  Why does everything have to be a struggle?"
God:  No reply.
Me:  "If you don't want to be involved in my life, just let me know, okay!"
God:  No reply."

And we went on this way for a while longer.  I had that whole spoiled brat tantrum thing going on.  I got finished with the car (that in and of itself is a victory), and went on my grumpy way to work through the list until it was time to go to work. 

As is my practice, I put my Christian radio station on and mentioned to the Lord, I really like to hear a certain song.  Of course, we all know what the answer was..."NO."  UGH!!!!  But actually, the Lord had a something better in mind...He had a message to get across to me on that drive.  He wanted me to know that He had no intention or desire to not be involved in my life.  "Drops in the Ocean" by Hawk Nelson came through the speakers, surrounding me with God's love.  In that song is a line: " I am for you.  I'm not against you."  Wow, I just felt wrapped in His heart.

Lord, You have Your ways.  The fact that they don't line up with my thoughts is a struggle and a frustration to me.  Help me to learn to trust You.  Help me to let go and let You be God.  This is one of my biggest battles.  Lord, let me and all of us live in the peace that comes from practicing faith.  Help us to not try to usurp Your position even in the smallest details of our days.  Help us to learn to walk by faith not by sight in all things.  In Jesus' most faithful Name.  Amen.

Give up being in charge of your life.  That job belongs to Jesus.

Even Me

Many times I feel like the worst Christian in the world.  I think of all the times I lose patience, I fail to notice the needs of others, I act selfishly, get annoyed with my husband or a coworker, judge those around me....blah blah blah.  Intellectually I know I am not the only one struggling with these things, but in my heart, at the end of the day, I often feel like I've struck out again and all His other children have scored a home run.  I feel like my witness is ugly rather than shining the love of Christ to those around me.

So in the daily devotional "31 Days of Praise" by Ruth Meyers I read a coupe of lines that set the proverbial light bulb off in my mind.  "Thank You that I can trust You to remove or change any of my weaknesses and handicaps and shortcomings the moment they are not longer needed for Your glory, and for my good, and for the good of other people....and that in the meantime, Your grace is sufficient for me, for Your strength is made perfect in my weakness."  What an amazing thought.  Even my failures can and will bring God glory.

Now, I am not saying we do not strive to be like Jesus.  To improve and grow and change  so that we reflect His character and His love.  I am not saying that we don't cooperate with the Holy Spirit to put off the old man, as we are told in Colossians 3.  There we are told what our behavior as Christians should look like. 

Colossians 3:5-13  Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.  8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.  Man
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 

But it is God's timing as to when we grow, when we change.  I want to be changed completely overnight!  I want all my rough edges gone and to be the sweetest, most loving, most Christ-like person who walks around in my little sphere of the world.  And I want it now!!  But what if the world only saw perfect Christians?  What if they never saw real people who struggle with sin and failure.  What if they only saw people who did everything right and never had to have the courage to apologize for doing wrong?  I'm not sure I'd want to be around someone who was "perfect" all the time, how much less a non-Christian would want to be.  And if I was that "perfect" Christians where would my need for God be, would pride come in and steal my heart from depending on my Savior?

What an encouragement to me to know that God's timing, and God's plan for my change and growth is perfect and active.  How encouraging that I do not have to go around feeling guilty all the time because I know as long as I am working with the Lord to change I am in the center of His will.  How uplifting that He can use me anywhere, anytime, just as I am to reach those who need Him.  What a wonderful God visit!

Lord, thank You for making me just as I am.  Thank You for using fallen, stumbly Christians just like me to reach fallen, stumbly people who need to hear the Gospel.  Thank You that in me they can see a normal, fallible human being who needs a Savior just like they do, not a perfect person, but a person who is perfectly loved.  Please use me in a mighty way to reach those I come in contact with.  Thank You for using our weaknesses to show Your strength.

God will use you just as you are.  Keep relying on Him.

Morning Prayers

Before I get out of bed I like to pray.  I need to pray.  I believe it is imperative that we start our day with a focus on the Lord.  (Although my cats seem to think the focus should be on them....lol).  So before the covers come off and my feet hit the floor I greet the Lord and pray a few short prayers to set my day in the right direction.

We can pray to be a blessing and glorify God in all we do and say that day.  We can pray that He will give us eyes to see His handiwork and touch in and on our day.  How about praying to see the needs of others, to be observant.  Maybe pray to be an encouragement to those around us.  How about, Lord let others see Jesus in me today?  Lord, lead me this day, show me where to walk, show me what You want me to do today. bJust a few simple prayers to start the day right. It only takes a couple of minutes of time.

They day may not go exactly as I have prayed that morning.  Our days rarely go as we desire or plan. We don't always live up to our expectations.   But I think if we start out in an upward looking place and start our day with the Lord, we determine our focus and point our minds in the right direction giving us a good foundation to build on for the rest of the day. 

Lord, You are our starting point.  Help us to make You our focus the moment we open our eyes in the morning.  Then give us the grace and strength to carry that focus throughout our day.  We, Your children truly want to glorify You and be the blessing You desire us to be.  Give us the right start to our days so we can honor You in them.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen

Start your day with prayer.

Psalm 5:3 Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.

Pslam 143:8  Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.

The Right Perspective

A recent meme on Facebook gave me a little bit of conviction today.  I mean, did you ever really think about all the things that go right as you go through your day?  Or are you like me, mumbly and grumbly when things go wrong.  You stub your toe, drop a glass, spill your coffee....whatever little annoyance happens...we kind of mumble under our breath or complain out loud....and then we clean up and move on.  But we just darkened our space, inside and out a little bit more.

What if we spent just one day adjusting our focus to the things that go right.  LOL  And then lets up the ante a bit and be thankful for each and every one of them.  I bet we wouldn't have even a second to notice or complain about the things that go wrong or get under our skin that day.  

Just an interesting thought.  Just another way to place our focus on the blessings of God.  

Lord, forgive us for looking in the wrong direction.  Give us eyes to see the good, the right, the usual that You bless each day.  I know there is good in all things because all things come from or are permitted by You.  But we take for granted all the things that run smoothly just because they are running smoothly.  Let us give You thanks and glory and notice Your touch upon our day.  

Change your focus.

Philippians 4:8  And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

The Road Less Taken

Gossip.  It's everywhere.  TV, tabloids, newspapers, social media, the workplace. We live in a gossip laden society, everyone loves a juicy story about someone else.   In my workplace gossip is practiced on an olympic level.  It's hard to avoid someone saying something about someone else.  But avoid I try.  I'm not always successful, but I'm working on it.  Gossip is so detrimental.  It focuses on the negative, changes our opinions about someone else, usually with no other basis than the biased opinion of the gossiper.  We have a new co-worker coming on board in a couple of weeks, and I've already been told this person is not a great worker.  I've already judged and condemned the new person in my mind without ever even meeting them.  (Yes, I repented of this, but you see how damaging gossip can be).  Lord forgive me!

So it's funny (and of course a timely God visit) that I just read a short devotional on gossip.  As a meditated on the devotional and the accompanying I wondered how else we can step away from the gossip games that surround us.  The Lord had a few suggestions!

The Scripture given was Philippians 4:8   And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  If we bend our thinking toward the positive, we see people in a different light.  The first thing that needs to change is our thinking.  Secondly, our speech needs to reflect the new way of thinking.  Say something positive about the person.  Even the smallest thing can change the flow of conversation.   Steer the conversation away from damaging to uplifting.  This takes practice, but eventually we can become stars at doing this.

And as it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17  Never stop praying.  Pray for the person who is being gossiped about.  Pray for the person you want to gossip about.  Pray for those doing the gossiping.  And pray for ourselves that we would have the courage to speak out against gossip or walk away.  Sometimes we may have to speak up, not in a self-righteous, holier-than-thou kind of way, but just simply putting it out there that we would rather not speak ill of others.  (think humility!) We may just end up starting a trend--the gossip free zones!

Lord, let us be light in the darkness.  Help us to not only opt out of gossip, but to lead others away from it as well.  Help us to see others through Your eyes, to seek out the positive and speak out the uplifting.  Proverbs 16:24  Kind words are like honey— sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.
Let our words bring health and sweetness to those around us.  Let our words be encouraging.  Help us to stand against Satan's evil tool of gossip, wherever we encounter it.  Give us hearts of love.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen

Put into practice God's remedy against gossip.  Pray.  Think.  Pray.   Speak.  Pray.

Ephesians 4:29  Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Good Advice

The Lord gave me some good advice lately.  He brought me back to my early walk with Him after I got clean and sober.  I was a drug addict and an alcoholic.  The Lord delivered me from the prison of addiction through a lot of time spent with Him in prayer and study, and working through the 12 step program.  He brought godly councilors into my life and surrounded me with strong, determined people in the groups I was involved with, gave me a wonderful support system in my family and friends and brought me to a place of freedom that I am grateful for every day. 

One of the things I learned back in those days was a simple prayer called the "The Serenity Prayer."  Many of you may have heard of it, but have never really given it much thought.  Many of you may have some of it memorized or know it just because you've heard it a few times before.  Our Father brought this sweet gem to my mind a few days ago, when I spent yet another day at work fussing and fretting over things not being done right, or as efficiently and wisely as possible.  My partner and I have a desire to see things done in a way that brings the best job we can for the customers we serve. 

Having that desire is good.  Wanting to do your best is admirable and godly.  And that's where God's advice came in.  He brought the Serenity Prayer back to my mind (I hadn't thought about it in ages), and told me to do my job with excellence and let the rest go.  I can't always change things and people around me.  And it isn't my job to do so.  That's not saying I don't make suggestions on how we can improve or do something better.  But I cannot force anyone to change the way they do things, especially the United States Postal Service.  LOL.  All I can do is my best. 

We are called to maintain peace and remain in peace.  We are called to be peacemakers.  Fussing and fretting will never coexist with peace and joy and loving others.   Another piece of advice we used to bandy around the 12  Step groups was "Let go and let God."   This does not mean giving up, but letting God do what I cannot do.  1 Peter 5:7  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Our God gives great advice! 

Lord, thank You for bringing these things to my remembrance.  Help me and all of us to put them into practice.  Make us people of excellence, not perfection.  Help us to let go of expectations for those around us...You work in them and let us focus on glorifying You in our work and loving others as You did.  In Jesus Name.  Amen.

What situation do you need to let go and let God?  Where could you use the Serenity Prayer in your day? 


A lot of people have the first few lines memorized and those are great to get us through the day with our sanity in tact...but I put the complete prayer because it is so perfectly suited to our days walking through this world.