I've been getting a repeat lesson the last week. Apparently I am not the type of person to learn things right away, first time around. I need repeats and reiterations. Many. And my mind came up with a dos and don'ts list for this lesson. I am so thankful that our Lord is so very very patient!
DO accept God's forgiveness. DON'T think your sin is bigger than His sacrifice.
DO believe God accepts you. DON'T dismiss the fact you were chosen.
DO trust God's compassion. DON'T believe you can ever out run it.
DO know that God loves you. DON'T make more of your failures than His love.
DO make God the King of your heart and life. DON'T set yourself up as higher than Him.
Every day, every moment choose the dos. Choose humility, choose to lift the sacrifice of Jesus and the love of our Father higher than any other thing in your life. We place ourselves above God when we reject His forgiveness, acceptance, compassion and love. When we think we are too far gone, too far beyond, don't too much, we are setting these things above the reach of our Father's heart.
Lamentations 3:22-23 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
Psalm 103:12-14 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Ephesians 1:3-12 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Romans 8:31-39 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The forgiveness, acceptance, compassion and love we receive are because of God being who He is not, because of who we are or what we do. Hallelujah!!!
Lord, thank You! Help us to commit these truths to heart. Believe them even when we don't feel them. Help us to not make ourselves bigger than You. Forgive us for doing that. Increase our faith. Let us believe Your Word over our feelings, over our sins, over our failings. We pray in Jesus Name. Amen.
Read, meditate, believe these Scriptures. Lift God up!
I have a message for you today. It's from God. He gave it to me and I am sharing as I believe He wants it shared. He wants you to believe it, and me to believe it. He wants us to own it as our truth.
Ephesians 1:3-6 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.
We need to stop seeing ourselves as a "sneak in the back door, a begrudgingly added leftover" that He felt sorry for or had to take in.
That's it. That's the message.
Lord, thank You for this message today. Thank You for Your amazing, all consuming love which with You love us. Thank You for desiring us, even the most undesirable of us--which I know I often feel like. You do not see us as we do. Thank You. I'm overjoyed with this message. Please help those who are reading it take it into their hearts and make it there own truth...because that's what it is. Truth. Let us not live in rejection, but in the knowledge that You call us Your very own. In Jesus Name. Amen.
BELIEVE.
Psalm 61:3 For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
What are you facing right now? Attacks of the enemy? Illness? Persistent sin? Family difficulties? Financial troubles? Physical, spiritual, mental, emotional...whatever kind of trouble is plaguing your heart right now God knows. And He sees. And He cares. And He will not leave nor forsake.
I've been struggling with bitterness for a long time now. I make some progress, only to fall back into old habits, old thought patterns. It happened again this morning. Sometimes I can't seem to go more than an hour without having to battle thoughts of anger or resentment. The Lord continues to lead me back to Hebrews 4:16, and I am so often running back to that throne of grace, I think I've run a rut a mile deep! But, to me that is progress. Catching myself falling and instead of leaning into the freefall, I turn, run back and grab hold of that throne, looking to the Lord Himself for that promised mercy and grace.
So this morning I fell again, I turned again, and yet I still beat myself up over the persistence of failure. Well, the Lord wasn't going to let that self recrimination go unanswered. As I was driving to go help out at the animal shelter I volunteer at, He sent a triple blessing on the radio...three consecutive songs to uplift and reassure. I'm sharing them knowing that I am not the only one who needs this encouragement.
