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P 2895 God’s Love is inexhaustible.

/ DVH

We all need to leave behind the lies we have inadvertently swallowed regarding God’s Love. Our enemy goes out of his way to tell us we can’t have the Lord’s love and grace anymore because we did so and so, and God cannot forgive so and so – it says it in the book. That is a horrible lie sent to torment us. The bible is a balanced book, one thing leads into another – leading us back to HIM.

Today, I am hoping to pass on some reassurance to those of you who have become bogged down in legalism – because I know from experience that our adversary never misses an opportunity to nag at someone – day and night. Many Christians have walked away from what they believe, because what they believed became untenable in the face of their desperate pain-driven reactions to this life. Say this with me: …”there is NOTHING our God cannot do!’

We need to focus on His faithfulness. Here are a few swords for you. 2 Thessalonians 3:3:“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.“ Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Exodus 34:6-7a.“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD,a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …” Fortunately we are this side of the cross, and Jesus took any curses we might pass on to other people with Him to that cross. Read the book.

Confession is often the best solution to accusation. Think of sin as mould, it needs treatment, light and air. Darkness and lack of air will make it grow. We can always have a new beginning. Here’s a verse we all know: “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. What Jesus did was complete and comprehensive. Deliverance from the enemy’s lies starts with us making a quality decision to stop believing those lies, and instead we deliberately choose to put a verses of scripture in its place. The Holy Spirit will help us find them.

Accusatory thoughts can overwhelm and dismiss the power of God’s Love, together with the grace Christ released by what He did. Many times we do not have a sin problem per se, we have simply allowed God to become too small in our eyes, and Jesus stops being the Saviour Who saved everyone. When He said “…it is finished.”It was a universal statement for all time. However, if you are currently doing something or other and you clearly know in your heart that it is sin, and it is slowly dragging you away from everything you believe then you need to repent!  

Almighty God provides us with a tool to access His inexhaustible love. It’s called repentance. That is the quickest route to restoration. Almighty God is incredibly kind. He will lead us out of temptation, AND He will also deliver us from fast approaching evil. Because we need to withstand further and future attacks from our enemy, our faithful God will sometimes allow him to ‘gnat’ at us, so we have opportunities to develop spiritual strength. We fight back with “God says: …”  This is not about how we feel, it is about what HE has already said. Our job is to believe He is a merciful Father Who has done everything necessary to bring about our redemption.

Jesus made reaching God’s standard impossible without His help.I dunno about you – I’ve wished people dead, told thumping great lies, and worse things – and I’ve fallen down the hole of desperate despair. I think it is necessary to point out that God judges hearts, and none of us fully know what’s in there! Sometimes we can be too lenient, and at other times w-a-y too permissive. We need the Holy Spirit’s ever-present, always current, on-the-spot wisdom.

God lets us learn! That’s not an excuse it is a blessing. Think of repentance like this, as regaining our strength after we have allowed it to lapse. Every action we deliberately take against sin, strengthens us spiritually. It strengthens our faith when we step away from something purely because God says: “Don’t do it.” The Lord advises us in this manner because He knows what comes next. It isn’t always about sin – many many times it is about the kindness of God. He leads us into repentance because He doesn’t want us to end up in the land of WORSE – fighting shadows from the past.

We can also choose the road of humility and tell someone else so they can pray for us. Other people can lift us up when we feel lower than the ground we are standing on. Always remember, God’s Love is inexhaustible. Bye.👋

P 2304 Encourage one another.

/ DVH

I’m a big fan of this principle. Encouragement – ‘the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope.’ Did you get that? True encouragement brings HOPE!’ It also means, ‘uplifting, inspiration, rallying, motivation, invigoration, making bold, fortifying, morale-boosting.’ HIS book calls it ‘exhortation.’

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”Hebrews 3:13. Will you look at that? Encouragement can help somebody else to avoid hardening their heart, without encouragement people start to stumble and fall into sin! Now … here’s today’s icky sticky question … when was the last time you encouraged someone? And please don’t tell me ‘that’s not in my nature” because when we said ‘yes’ to Jesus we got a brand new nature. 

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1. See? This facet of Christ’s behaviour was so normal, Paul expected it. Here’s what I’ve learnt about encouragement so far …PRAY. Ask the Holy Spirit: ‘what can I say to breathe Your life into this situation?’  And if you wouldn’t like whatever it is – then others probably won’t either. Encouragement builds UP it doesn’t tear down. 

Katie Scott said this: “… Encouragement is brick by brick, word by word, action by action building towards Jesus. Not only building up, but building into— encouragement builds each follower of Christ into a home, both a dwelling place for God Himself and a location for a fallen world to encounter a risen Jesus.”

Who is Kate Scott? I dunno. But I don’t have to know her personally to appreciate the truth God has given her! 

Joshua 1:9 says— “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” This is God Himself encouraging us – and it is a great example of positive reinforcement. We are not going to do better than that! But use your own words as well as using scripture verses.

Encouragement is our investment in someone else’s future. The Holy Spirit  gave me that line, while I was typing this blog. Isn’t it lovely?  Encouragement is like releasing GOD’S very essence into the air around people. Suddenly instead of criticism, negativity and failure, people start to believe that maybe God wants to help them… maybe He does love them. We all have this power …Christ died to give it to us. 

People often go on about ‘the power of life and death is in the tongue.’  I see that verse as an exhortation to speak life instead of becoming paranoid and analysing everything that someone else says. People don’t actually mean a lot of what they say nowadays. 

I wanted to give a made-up example of what I think ‘speaking life’ might sound like to someone else …‘This is a terrible thing that has happened to you and I will not only pray for you, but I will actively believe with you that you can get through this. I think your power of perseverance is much stronger than you can see right now. These circumstances are stretching you …but you can do it, I know you can do it, I know you can push through to a new place and regain your hope in His goodness.’ 

Encouragement is a language. Speaking life takes God’s discipline and self control in the face of all sorts of visible, and invisible, apparently insurmountable odds. I believe we all need encouragement from day to day, as well as when we are going through the hard things we all face. However, we give ourselves and others a huge blessing when we choose to see what is going on through His eyes. We need to see despair, discouragement and disappointment as tools and tricks foisted upon us by our enemy. And remember that these things attack all of us. 

An encourager helps puts the wind of God back into someone else’s flagging sails so they can continue on with their journey with Him. 👋🏻