Blog

When Something in Your Faith is Missing

God doesn’t want us living fearfully. He wants us to fully plug in to His amazing power that comes through His grace. Unfortunately we sometimes short-circuit God’s power through negative mind-sets that get in His way.

There is no power shortage in heaven. God is not ever in a recession. His grace is sufficient to meet every need if we’ll just allow ourselves to be open and available to His will.

So to help you do that, I want to share three things that commonly interrupt our faith, cutting off our access to God’s power: complaining, self-pity and pride.

  • Complaining is a negative attitude that keeps us from being thankful for all God has done, is doing and will do. It is a sin we need to repent of, and then be determined to thank God in all things, at all times. His grace and blessings always outweigh the things we think are wrong in our life.
  • Self-pity is simply a “poor me” attitude. It is a form of idolatry because it causes you to focus on yourself and think, “What about me?” But we can’t be pitiful and powerful at the same time, so let’s decide to give up all self-pity.
  • Pride takes credit for what God has done and steals His glory. It makes us independent of God, and we can’t bear good fruit apart from Christ.

We can’t really change until we start taking His Word seriously and trust Him to change us. When we make a firm decision to pray and study His Word in areas where we are weak, then God can give you the power needed to overcome the things that are wrong.

God has all the power you need to do anything you need to do. He loves you and wants to give you His power to live your life with joy. Lean on Him with absolute trust in His wisdom and goodness, and live with God-given confidence.

Confidence in Christ

For we [Christians] are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exult and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances. —Philippians 3:3

God is merciful toward us and wants to bless and prosper us. He sees our heart attitude and our faith in Jesus. When we have confidence in God and His love and kindness, we can progress to living confidently and enjoying the life He wants for us.
Note that I said confidence in God, not in ourselves. Usually, people think of confidence as self-confidence, such as TV self-help gurus or [what] athletes promote when urging us to “Believe in yourself!”

I must disagree. I want to make it clear, right from the start, that our confidence must be in Christ alone, not in ourselves, not in other people, not in the world or its systems. The Bible states that we are sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency (Philippians 4:13), so we might also say that we are confident through Christ’s confidence. Or another way to say it would be, “We have self-confidence only because He lives in us, and it is His confidence that we draw on.”

Lord, I know that far too often I put my confidence in my own abilities, or other people, or the place I work to provide for my needs. I fix my eyes upon You. You alone are worthy of being my confidence. Amen.

From the Inside Out

The King’s daughter in the inner part [of the palace] is all glorious; her clothing is inwrought with gold.
—Psalm 45:13

During the Christmas season, department store windows often feature bright, shiny presents with perfectly tied bows. These gifts may look desirable, but if we were to open them, we would find nothing inside. They are empty, just for “show.”

Our lives can be the same way, like beautifully wrapped packages with nothing of value inside. On the outside, our lives may look attractive or even enviable to others, but on the inside we may be dry and empty. We can look spiritual on the outside, but be powerless within if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to make His home in our hearts.

The verse for today emphasizes the importance of the inner life. God puts the Holy Spirit inside us to work on our inner lives—our attitudes, our responses, our motivations, our priorities, and other important things. As we submit to Christ’s Lordship in our inmost beings, we will sense when He is speaking to us, and we will experience His righteousness, peace, and joy rising up from within us to empower us for abundant living (see Romans 14:17).

The Holy Spirit lives inside us to make us more and more like Christ and to fill us with His presence and guidance, so we will have something to share with others, something that comes from deep in the core of our being and is valuable, powerful, and life giving to everyone with whom we interact.

The New & Living Way

Therefore, brethren… we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus, by this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us. —Hebrews 10:19–20

Believing we are made right with God through our faith in Jesus Christ is a new and living way, one that gives us freedom, boldness, and confidence. Trying to follow the law (trying to do everything right) in order to earn acceptance ministers death (every kind of misery) to us.

Grace is God’s power coming to us free of charge to help us do with ease what we could never accomplish on our own. Grace is freeing! It puts the burden to perform on God, rather than on us. As believers in Jesus Christ, our work is to believe while God works on our behalf.

I cannot make myself acceptable to all people, and neither can you; but we can believe God will give us favor with the people He wants us involved with. Sometimes we try to have relationships with people God does not even want us to be associated with.

Knowing who we are in Christ sets us free from the need to impress others. Once we know who we are and accept ourselves, we no longer have anything to prove.

Lord, thank You today for Your grace and all the freedom it brings. I ask You to help me to be free in my relationships as well. Give me favor with the right people. Amen.

God Is Not Mad at You

If there’s one thing people need to hear over and over again, it’s this: God loves you. That’s all there is to it. He may not like everything you do, but He’s never going to stop loving you.

God is not impressed with your works at all. What He cares about is your heart.

I believe the greatest thing God wants to hear from us is, “I love You, Lord. Thank You for everything You’ve done in my life. I want to do what’s right. Keep teaching me.”

Many of us don’t pray and ask God for what we need because we don’t think we have a right to ask. But the Bible says God wants us to learn how to receive His mercy. Hebrews 4:15 says we have a High Priest, a perfect Savior, who understands our weaknesses. He’s been tempted just like we are, yet He never sinned.

Verse 16 says we can come fearlessly and confidently before God in prayer to receive His mercy and be forgiven

Having a Relationship with God

When you think of religion, what comes to your mind—a set of rules, regulations and obligations or a deep, intimate relationship with God?

I like to consider myself someone who has a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I believe He died so we could have a living, vital relationship with God, not just a bunch of rules and regulations we’re forced to follow.

Yes, there are certain guidelines God wants us to follow, but His purpose in giving them is to protect us from the consequences of sin.

When we have a real relationship with God through Christ, life gets exciting because He stirs up a passion inside us to love people—and we don’t have to struggle to do the things He calls us to do. It just happens naturally.

God’s Power to Acheive

We have been saved by grace…through faith. What a wonderful gift! Sadly though, too many Christians live the way it’s described in Galatians 3:3: …Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?

That’s a really good question to ponder. How do we get ourselves into that place? I think whether we realize it or not, many of us enter into a relationship with God by faith, but then try to maintain that relationship by our own methods. We believed Him for our salvation, but try to make that salvation work on our own.

It’s so sad too, because all this effort is fruitless. We work and work to change ourselves only to end up frustrated time and time again. Sure, maybe we see some small changes here and there, but only when we ask God for His help and depend on His Spirit to lead us, will we begin to see real, lasting changes in our lives.

There’s a beautiful illustration in the book of Zechariah of the way things should be with us. It describes a golden lampstand with a bowl on top that is being continuously supplied with oil from two olive trees on either side of it.

Now, that oil represents God’s Holy Spirit. And this lamp is being continuously supplied with oil through that bowl. That’s what we need…a continuous supply of God’s power. You see, we cannot fix ourselves; it just won’t happen by our strength or power, or our own effort, but only …by My Spirit [of Whom the oil is a symbol], says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6 AMP).

That’s the power of grace. And we certainly need this kind of power to meet all our issues and obstacles in life.

 

 

 

Taking Control of Your Attitude

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. —John 16:33, NKJV

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the world is not perfect. You don’t have to live long to figure that out, but something within us as human beings still seems to want to experience perfection in our lives. We want the perfect family celebration, the perfect marriage, the perfect friends, the perfect job, the perfect neighborhood, the perfect salary, the perfect vacation and the perfect church. Or at least we want what we think would be perfect. But the truth is: perfection is a completely unrealistic expectation. It simply doesn’t exist on earth. As long as we live, we will deal with imperfection. We can be miserable about that, or we can be gracious toward ourselves, others, and our circumstances and respond with faith and flexibility.

Most of us like to think about how we want our lives to unfold and then have them go exactly according to our plans, but that rarely happens. This is not a negative statement; it’s simply a reality of life on earth. Jesus promises us in today’s verse that He has overcome everything in the world, and, through the Holy Spirit, He gives us the power to overcome too.

The enemy often uses unrealistic expectations concerning our circumstances as a tool to bring discouragement and despair into our lives. For example, he knows that if he can get us to focus on the imperfections in our spouse, our marriage will be filled with frustration and disappointment instead of peace and joy.

I urge you to expect good things to happen in your life. I certainly would not tell you to expect bad things. But I also urge you to be realistic and realize that we all have to deal with things that are unpleasant and with circumstances that are less than desirable. Our attitudes about these kinds of situations make the difference between whether we live with continual frustration and disappointment over things that aren’t perfect or whether we can accept imperfections and enjoy life in spite of them.

 

Listening to God’s Voice

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength,Whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.—Jeremiah 17:5-6

One attitude that welcomes the presence of God into our lives is the attitude that honors Him above everyone and everything else. Our attitudes need to say, “God, no matter what anyone else tells me, no matter what I think myself, no matter what my own plan is, if I clearly hear You say something and I know it’s You, I will honor You—and honor what You say—above everything else.”

Sometimes we give more consideration to what people tell us than to what God says. If we pray diligently and hear from God, and then start asking people around us what they think, we honor their human opinions above God’s. Such an attitude will prevent our being able to consistently hear God’s voice. If we are ever going to develop an ability to hear from God and be led by His Spirit as a way of life, we have to stop listening to so many opinions from so many people and begin trusting the wisdom God deposits in our hearts. There is a time to receive good counsel, but needing the approval of people will keep us out of the will of God.

The devil wants us to think we are not capable of hearing from God, but God’s Word says that is not true. The Holy Spirit dwells inside of us because God wants us to be led by the Spirit in a personal way and to hear His voice for ourselves as He leads and guides us.

In the verse for today, God says we will be blessed when we look to Him. According to Jeremiah 17:5–6, severe consequences come to those who trust in the frailty of mere men and women, but blessed are those who trust in and honor the Lord. Good things happen if we listen to God. He wants to be our strength and we must honor His Word above all else.

What Are You Meditating On?

Part of studying is meditating—rolling something over and over in your mind or pondering it. If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate on aproblem all day long, if you let yourself. I call this “stinkin’ thinkin'”.

We don’t really know how messed up our thinking is until we study God’s Word and realize what we should be thinking. The Word is like a mirror. It shows us the way we should be and the way we are. Until I looked in the Word, I thought everybody else was the problem, not me.

Continue reading “What Are You Meditating On?”