Blessings & Curses

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. – James 3:2-10

Have you ever said something to someone and then wished that you could take it back as if you never said it? I have. Many times in my life I have said something without really thinking about what I was saying. I have hurt people and myself by letting my tongue say what it wants instead of controlling it. But, can I truly control my tongue?

James tells us that we all stumble. If we didn’t stumble, we would be perfect and there has only ever been one perfect man. You see our tongues aren’t really the problem. The problem is with our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Jeremiah said, “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”(17:9) I propose that the tongue is just a tool of the heart. If we do not “keep our heart with all vigilance,” our tongue will reveal the attitudes of our heart. As Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

Our heart is where we struggle with our fleshly nature, or at least we should. The Apostle Paul told us to put the flesh to death, but I am afraid that many of us have learned to live with our sin nature. We are comfortable with it and believe that we have it under control. This is why we can bless and curse in the same breath, and this ought not to be. As believers in Christ we should “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32) We should, “…respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13) Many times, unfortunately, we fall way short of Paul’s standard on how we should treat each other. Many times we think we are complementing when in fact we are cursing. The heart is so deceitful.

So how do we tame the heart and the tongue. We can’t. “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26) Our only hope is Jesus Christ.

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:8-13)

It is only our faith in Jesus Christ that can tame the tongue. We must believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the grave, and proclaim with our tongue that Jesus is Lord. This in not a one time and done. This is a daily acknowledgement that Jesus is Lord and then living it out.

Father, you are a God of solutions. You do not leave us alone to deal with our sin, but you provide a way to overcome our sinful natures. You provided your Son to defeat sin and then you gave us the Holy Spirit to help us live. Help me Father to tame my tongue and heart by your power and not on my own ability, because without you I can do nothing. Help me to bless and not curse those around me. May your grace be apparent in my life. – Amen

 

 

Perspectives

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Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. – 1 John 4:4-6

Have you ever tried to explain an idea to someone and they just cannot grasp the concept? I mean the idea of what you are trying show them doesn’t even make a crack in their comprehension. So, you approach it from another angle and they still don’t get it. Then, all of a sudden, it is like a lightbulb goes off in their head and they can see what you have just spent the last hour trying to explain to them. Now they can see the idea that we found so easy and simple to understand. Why is it so hard sometimes to express an idea that we have floating around in our head?

When we approach an idea, we are approaching it from our own personal perspective. All of the experiences of our life play into that perspective, so unless someone has experienced everything that you have experienced there is a pretty good chance that they will not be able to grasp an idea in the same way. And this is where the breakdown begins. Another factor that comes into play is that verbal by itself is not exactly a perfect mode of communication. Each time you add another form of communication, you increase the possibility that your idea will be grasped and decrease the amount of time it takes to grasp the idea. But you still have to get over the hurdle of perspective, and that is a big hurdle to overcome.

Even though each of us may have our own experiences that makeup our perspective, the Apostle John shares that in reality there are only two perspectives…..God’s and the world’s. If we are of the world’s perspective we cannot see God’s perspective. It doesn’t make sense to us and may even seem to be a bunch of hooey to some people. In order for us to see things from God’s point of view we need to know God. If we know God, we see the world from His perspective and we can discern the truth from the lie that “he that is in the world” tries to convince us is a truth. But we must know God. We must spend time with him, like we would any friend, in order to fully understand where He is coming from. The beauty is that He does understand us better than anyone and has experienced through the Son what it is like to be human.

So who’s perspective are we going to take, the world’s or God’s. There is no middle ground. We are either of God or of the world. If we are of God, then we have a mission to complete. We are to make disciples of everyone who listens to God. This is a really big task and one that the western church has increasingly been very bad at accomplishing. We need to get serious about our mission, because the time is short. As Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” Are we up to the task? We better be, and if not we better begin to become the church that Christ founded. A church that is in the world, but not of the world. A church that storms the gates of hell and will not be overcome by them. A church that prays without ceasing. A church that loves beyond worldly comprehension. The only way the church can be this way is if the people that make up the church are this way.  

Father you are a mighty and powerful God, and yet you wish to be my friend. Just as I am sure you enjoyed your walks with Adam and Eve in the garden, you enjoy the times that I spend with you. Not because You need them, You need nothing, but because You enjoy who I am in You. And like any good friend would do, you lead me back when I become too much of this world. You lead me back to the joy of my salvation. Help me to never lose that joy! Help me Father to introduce You, my best friend, to everyone that You put in my path. Help me to make disciples of you and not disciples of this world.   – Amen

Falsehoods

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 1 John 4:1-3

Has anyone ever told you something that you knew for certain was untrue? How did you know? Was it because you had read somewhere what the truth was or was it how the person was telling you the facts that exposed the false information?

There are a lot of stories and facts out there about Jesus. Many of them are very true and just as many of them are lies. Why would there be so many lies about Christ? It is because faith in Christ has eternal consequences. Satan wants nothing more than to spread as many lies about Jesus as he can in order to either lead people away form their belief in Jesus as the Son of God and our Messiah, or to keep as many people as possible from believing the truth about Christ. But how can we know which are lies and which are truths?

John gives us the answer. If someone comes proclaiming that Jesus was not from God, or was not God, and did not come in the flesh, they are a false prophet. I believe that this encompasses a lot of other facts about Jesus also. Jesus was both fully man (Romans 5:18-19) and fully God (John 1:1). Jesus was born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:18-25). Jesus was tempted, but never sinned (Hebrews 4:15-16). Jesus bled and died on the cross  to pay the penalty for our sins (John 3:16, 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus arose from the grave, ascended into Heaven and is alive today (1 Peter 1:3, Colossians 3:1-4, Acts 1:9-11, Hebrews 1:3). Jesus will return to earth one day (Revelation 1:7, Mark 13:26). It is important for us to be vigilant in “testing” the spirits.

The world is full of antichrists and religions that teach false doctrine about Christ. A collision is coming and there will only be two sides. One that believes the truth about Christ and the other that is believing the lies. We know who will be victorious, but there will be a lot of collateral damage that occurs. There will be many that we know and love that will believe the lies and suffer the consequences. Next time you are at the mall, or at a baseball game, or even at church, think about how many people that are there that believe the lies of the antichrists and will suffer the consequences. It should break our hearts. It breaks God’s heart.  

I echo the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

Father, I pray for those that I know that do not know you and the truth of your Son Jesus Christ. Lord I pray that their eyes and hearts would be open to the truth of your love for them and the salvation they need in Christ. Lord I pray for those that are here in the room right now as I am praying this that do not know your Son. Lead them to a knowledge of You and if there is anything that I need to do in order to show them Christ, please give me the courage and the strength to do so. It is by Your grace that I have been saved, and it is by Your grace that I live. Help me to be Your evangelist to everyone that crosses my path so that You name may be praised. – Amen

Joy

“And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” – Nehemiah 8:10

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Recently I have found myself more and more frustrated with people who complain. Now, I am not saying that all of their complaints are invalid and in their heart they don’t have the right motives, but are we as believers supposed to just complain? What about those things that we have no control over and no matter what we do we will never be able to change? I guess the key is to know what we can and cannot change.

In the world, there are many things that we do have the power to change. If we do not like what our government is doing, we can make phones calls to our representatives and inform them of the items we strongly oppose. If they ignore us, we can change things at the ballot box. If we find ourselves in circumstances we don’t like, we can work on changing those circumstances. In other words, we need to work on changing ourselves. But there are some things that we cannot change. We cannot change someone’s heart. This is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. We cannot force someone to forgive us, but we can forgive them. You see, it is important to understand what we have control over and what we cannot control. This doesn’t mean we can’t address an issue and try to change something to make it better, but if it is beyond our control to change we should not continue to complain about it once we have voiced our opinion and nothing changes. There are many things we need to pray about and allow God to work.

Paul shares in romans 8:28 that, “…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” Do we truly believe that God is in control of our lives? If we do, then we should be thanking God for the plan He is working out for us and stop complaining. Complaining gives Satan a foothold in our lives. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul warns the Corinthian church, “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.” Satan thrives when we complain. He uses our discontent to divide and conquer. He did this a lot to the Israelites in the desert and many of them died because of the their discontent. In everything we are to “give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18).

Do we complain because we have a lot of problems? No, we have problems because we complain. When we complain, it doesn’t change things or make situations better. It amplifies frustration, spreads discontent and discord (which God hates – Prov 6:16-19), and can invite Satan the destroyer to cause chaos in our lives. We need to trust God and find our joy in Him, not in our situations. When we do this consistently we will find the strength to overcome anything that this world throws at us.

Father, help me to be content in every part of my life. Help me to not complain about things that are beyond my control and to change those things that I can, and give me the wisdom to know the difference. Help me Father to understand the part I play in every situation that you put me in, and to understand how I need to change me to make the situation better. Help me to find my joy in You! I know that the more I focus on You the less I focus on me. Help me to speak words of encouragement and joy and not words of bitterness and discontent. Don’t allow me to let Satan have a foothold by what I say. Help me to frustrate his schemes to create chaos in my life and in the church. May you be glorified in all that I say and do. Amen.

“But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36-37).

Doubt

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 3:19-24

Have you ever doubted your salvation? I don’t mean doubting whether God exist or not, but wondering if God has forgiven you. I have. There have been times in my life that I have wondered if there is not some undisclosed sin that I am hiding from God and not asking for forgiveness. Or there is a sin that I am continually struggling with and I seem to not be able to overcome it. It is at these times that Satan cracks his knuckles and begins to really work on trying to discourage me. I believe he whispers to my soul that I am lost and that God does not love me. Or he tells me that I will never overcome the sin in my life and will never measure up to God’s standards. This can be very discouraging.

Satan is a thief and a liar. Satan lies to us in order to steal our joy in Christ. God is not waiting for me to make a mistake in order to punish me. God is not recording my mistakes in a ledger titled “Times When Chris Has Disappointed Me.” How do I know this? In 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 Paul says, ” Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.” John will tell us later in 1 John that “God is Love.” So God is patient and kind. He is not arrogant, rude, selfish, irritable, or resentful. It is the resentful part that gives me hope. God does not hold our sins against us, but we must confess them and ask for forgiveness. 

John tells us in 19-24 that our heart condemns us, but God is greater. When we stumble and struggle with sin, God places in our heart a desire to correct our relationship with Him. God is patient, so He is not going to give up on us. He knows everything that we are struggling with and He walks with us as we work to overcome the flesh and the world. As we overcome sin in our lives we will get to the point where our heart is not longer condemning us and we can be confident that we can ask God and will receive what we ask for. We will keep His commandments, which are to believe in Christ and love one another. As we do this, we abide in God and His Spirit is in us. Sin no longer will rule our lives and we will have a confidence and joy that Satan will not be able to steal it from us.

Father, please show me where sin has a foothold in my life and help me to overcome the flesh. Give me the joy of thy salvation and help me to recognize the voice of Satan and ignore his lies. Abide with me and help me to be passionately in love with Christ and to passionately love those around me with a love that surpasses all understanding. Thank you for being patient and kind with me and for not holding my sins against me. Help me Father to rest in the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the flesh and the world. In the name of Christ.  Amen.

Love One Another

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:11-15

Love, true love, is a rare commodity in the world today. The bombing in Boston showed that there are those out there who do not love for whatever reason. At the same time, the bombing in Boston showed that there are still those out there who do love their fellow man. Many people ran to the spot of the explosion to see if they could help anyone who was hurt. I will talk about this more in my next post, but for now this verse in John reminds me that there are people out there who do not love and do not understand the true meaning of love.

When Jesus was teaching about the coming “end of the age,” he said in Matthew 24, “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Now, while most of us would never think about needlessly hurting innocent people, I have to question whether or not our love has grown cold. It seems that this world is quickly spinning out of control. Financially our country is on a collision course with disaster, over 53 million children have been killed in the name of personal rights by abortion since 1973, while we think we have stemmed the tide of terrorism it is still alive and well all around the world, pornography is continuing to destroy the lives of not only those outside the church but even within the leadership of the church, and these are just a few of the problems we are facing. There is no doubt that our love has grown cold. Jesus said it was because of lawlessness. It is not that we need more laws, but that we need to remember the most important law….” love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40) Forgetting this law to love God with everything we have is the foundation of lawlessness.

So how do we combat the lawlessness in our lives and the world? The first thing we need to do is repent. I am afraid to say that repentance is not preached enough in our churches today and in our lives today. What I am talking about is true repentance, actually turning from the course we are on and turning back to God. Joel Rosenberg shares how he teaches his kids about repentance:

“Lynn and I have tried to teach our four sons what repentance means in a very simple way. Our youngest son is Noah. Sometimes I will bring Noah over to my side and say, “Noah, start running running away from me, out of the family room, through the kitchen, and to the dining room. Ready? Go!” So Noah starts running. Then I suddenly say, “Stop, Noah!” and he stops. And I say, “Repent, Noah.” And he turns around. And I say, “Come back to Daddy!” And he comes back running to me and jumps into my arms and I hug him and kiss him.”

Now that is repentance. God is waiting for us with open arms to turn from the path we are walking down. We need to turn in run into His arms. If we do this it doesn’t mean that all of our problems will be gone. We will still suffer persecution and we will still struggle with sin. The difference is that we will not be doing it alone. We will be doing it with the creator of the universe and in the power of His Holy Spirit.

Father I am sorry when I love myself more than I love what You love. Help me Father to not only love when a tragedy occurs in those you have put in my path, but to love everyone daily with the love that You have for them. Help me to show Your love so that Your name may be glorified. Amen

Laboring in Vain

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I consider myself pretty handy. I can do most of the repairs required around the home and I even have moments when I can actually build something unique and useful. So when I decided to make it easier for me to garden, I decided to build raised garden beds. Now, I had seen pictures of these types of beds in catalogues and articles so designing them was not that difficult. Building them was another story. My first attempt, or what I call my prototype turned out pretty good, from a distance. If you get close you can see a lot of imperfections. My second one was a breeze, even though it took about 5 hours to build. My third one was the problem child. I had it completed, except for two boards and realized I had to take it all apart and start over. As I look at them now, I am pretty happy with how they turned out, again from a distance. Even on the ones that seemed work out better have a lot of imperfection if you get close enough to them.

Sometimes I think I am like these boxes. From a distance my life seems pretty well put together, but if you get close enough you can see the imperfections. I try very hard to live the life that Jesus wants me to live….to be the person that Jesus wants me to be, but that is the problem. I try to do it on my own abilities. Psalm 127 says, ” Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” You see, God has a plan and design for my life. The interested thing about His design is that He is the only one that can use it. He is the architect, I am just one of the many tools in his toolbox to make my life the way it should be. God uses the abilities He has given me to build me into the man He wants, the man that fits His design. Another tool He uses is the people He puts into my life. The trick is that I need to allow them to get close enough to me to see my imperfections. As much as I want them to see me from a distance and only see what I want them to see, in order to grow and become everything that God wants me to be, I need to open and honest with those he brings into my life. This is not easy, but it is what God wants.

Father, please help me to be who You want me to be. Help me to allow people to see my imperfections so that they can love me with the same amount of grace that You do. Help me to see through the imperfections of others and love them like you do.  -Amen

Adoption

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. – 1 John 3:1

Before I continue in 1st John, I want to talk a little bit about adoption. As I said in my last post, my wife and I have two beautiful children. Caleb is 3 and Abigail is 15 months old. Both of our children our adopted. We adopted Caleb in 2009 and Abigail in 2011. In the adoption world, the first day you see your child and get to take them home is called their “gotcha day.” I vividly remember every detail about both of our kids gotcha days. I was excited because both days were watershed moments in our lives. Everything from this point on was going to be different. I was also in awe of the courage that their birth mother’s had to do what was best for their child. It was not easy, and we prayed and cried with each birth mom on those days. The price they paid was great.

This week as we sit between Palm Sunday and Easter another adoption is weighing heavy on my heart, my adoption. As a believer in Christ I am now a child of God. The price that God paid for my adoption is extremely great. Isaiah wrote in 53:5 “ But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;  upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”  In order for me to be adopted, Jesus Christ the Son of God was beaten, spit upon, ridiculed, forced to carry a heavy cross, nailed to that very same cross, and died. What a huge price to pay. Would I have paid such a heavy price for my two kids before we adopted them? Now that they are my children I would pay any price to save them, but to pay that heavy of a price before they were mine seems incomprehensible. But God paid that price for me, and you.

Just as Caleb and Abigail are now co-heirs of everything I have, we, if we are believers in Christ, are co-heirs with Christ. Paul tells us in Romans 5:7, ” Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” We share in Jesus’ inheritance. One day we will experience the full inheritance of Christ. I believe that day is coming sooner than many people think, but that is a subject for another post. Until we are in eternity we can still experience our inheritance through the Holy Spirit. The question is whether we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives or are we going to squander our inheritance like the prodigal son? Just as the prodigal son’s father was waiting and looking for the son to return, God is waiting with open arms for those who have wandered away from Him to return to Him. How great is Your love God, that You would love a sinner such as me.

Here are the words to one of my favorite songs. Oh, How He Loves by David Crowder:

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realise just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh, Oh how He loves us, How He loves us all

And we are His portion and He is our prize, Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes, If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking. And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss, And my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, When I think about, the way…

Oh, how He loves us oh, Oh how He loves us, How He loves us all How He loves

Yeah, He loves us, Oh! how He loves us, Oh! how He loves us, Oh how He loves. Oh what love

Yeah, He loves us, Oh! how He loves us, Oh! how He loves us, Oh! how He loves us so.

Father, you are God and my Savior. I pray Lord that I do not squander the inheritance I have through Christ. Help me to surrender to Your Spirit daily, even by moment if necessary. You are my Hope and Salvation and all glory and honor and praise is due your name. May Your praise always be on my heart, my mind, and shared by the words that I say. – Amen

Abide

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.  Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
1 John 2:28-3:10

I have two children, Caleb and Abigail, who are a huge blessing in my life. When I come home after being gone for the day they both scream “Daddeeeey” and want me to hold them. Even when I discipline them, they still will want to be in my lap loving me as much as they can. Is this how I am with God? He calls me His child, but sometimes I seem to push him to the peripherals of my life.

God wants me to abide in Him. This means that I should rely on the power of the Holy Spirit 24/7, not just when I feel like I am in trouble and need to throw a Hail Mary pass. This idea of abiding is daunting because it is sometimes easier to rely on my own abilities. This is not to say that my own abilities are bad because God has given me gifts he wants me to use, but by whose power am I living? Is it God’s or my own? If I am honest, I rely on myself more than I should. God has been showing me that the more I struggle to overcome the sin in my life, the more I sin. But, the more I rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome my struggles, the less sin has a hold on my life. Romans 8:37 tells us that we are more than conquerers through Him who loved us. We are to be overcomers by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Father, help me to be an overcomer by the power of Your Spirit and help me to surrender my desire to do things on my own. – Amen