Walls

P 3052 What was that?

/ DVH

Today I want to exhort you, don’t give up on yourself if or when, you give into how you feel, when you are trapped by terrible circumstances. Even if you find yourself going under. In our efforts to please Him, and others, we can end up occupying ourselves with frantic efforts to mend things by ourselves. That’s called works and it is bound to fail. Never stop praying, but also remember to give the Lord the muddle and mess. 

I’ve learnt to trust Him to redeem and transform everything. Remember, ‘His Love covers a multitude of sins.’ If we repeatedly give in to how we feel, a strong-hold can form in our lives, and that becomes more of an issue to overcome. That’s when we often react automatically. Yet we have His power in our lives to live differently – to bring joy to others. Nothing is insurmountable – because “… nothing, nothing  … NOT ONE THING … can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Great place for a full stop!

The bible says: Jesus “…will work all things together for our good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.”  His purpose is for us to destroy the works of the evil one. He longs for us to ‘dwell, live in, take up residence within His love. In other words, we are to LIVE THERE in the land of love – living a life laid-down for Him and others. Here are two of my favourite questions that I ask myself: “Is this Love? Would Jesus do it?”

“Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” Ephesians 3:17. This is what I am aiming at in the issues I face from day to day – my aim is to automatically give a response that is filled with His love. Not that I have achieved that aim… but I keep pressing on! Life is short. I can’t afford to goof off and indulge myself in a pity party. “Poor me” is a waste of my remaining delegated days! I want the people around me to catch the smell of the sweet fragrance of Christ, so they end up saying: “What was that?” 

Don’t ever give up on pushing through to find love when you have lost your peace. Even if you have just abused your spouse, slammed the door and kicked the cat!  Repent. This is a matter of our will, not our feelings. The harder it is to repent, the more you are stretching that faith muscle. It will hurt!  But think of the pain as breaking down any big brick walls, we’ve built to keep other people out! If it is hard that means it is working.

I ask myself, when people take a bite out of me, what will they taste? Just recently I discovered that I was cultivating complaining and criticising – instead of living a life of acceptance with joy. I didn’t complain when I was with the people who annoyed me – BUT -I complained long and loudly when after I left them! Yeah … not proud of that lot! Each one of us needs to prioritise remembering that our hearts are His home, and Jesus loves sacrificial love. If we want Him to be in charge and present in our lives – then we will have to deal with any entitled attitudes that lead to us into sin. 

Sin separates us from His input and wisdom – fortunately repentance restores us, immediately. Our roots are designed to grow down into our Father’s love and keep us strong – even in the storms and hurricanes of this life. Instead, let’s talk about the things the Lord Himself is doing and share what’s really happening in our hearts. Moaning, complaining or getting angry at others, creates death. ‘The power of life and death is in the tongue’ and so we need His help to speak LIFE. BTW, this means what goes IN will eventually come OUT. I’m not being legalistic when I say that we can diagnose our own hearts by listening to our speech!

Life flows more easily when we live in His kingdom, instead of desperately trying to manage everything alone. We need His help, all the time! Sadly, it is way too easy to take this life too seriously, stressing over the things I can’t possibly change, or majoring on minor issues. I can get cranky when somebody at the shops is unaware of the disabled around them. I heard someone say this yesterday – and it impacted me — everybody around us has a story. Life is difficult for all of us.I think if we truly want to follow the Lord, we will need to remember Jesus SAW people. They were not like extras or bit players on the stage of His life!

Here’s something precious to think on when irritation strikes: “He chose the lowly, the laughable in the world’s eyes—nobodies—so that He would shame the somebodies. For He chose what is regarded as insignificant in order to supersede what is regarded as prominent, so that there would be no place for prideful boasting in God’s Presence. For it is not from man that we draw our life but from God as we are being joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. And now He is our God-given wisdom, our virtue, our holiness, and our redemption.” 1 Corinthians 1:28-30 TPT.

You are not all that, and neither am I. On the other hand – HE IS EVERYTHING. When people cross my path I want them to think, what was that? Bye. 👋

P 2842 Are people drawn to the light in us?

/ DVH

Mark 4:21-25: “He said to them, Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

I think the reason we sometimes hide from the light, skip church, don’t read the bible, and we don’t pray – is simple. We don’t want to be convicted or convinced of our stinky attitudes. Maybe whatever we are doing, we don’t want to be found out, so we pronounce church things as ‘boring’… when the reality is – what is said comes way too close for comfort. Where is His light in your life currently at? Is it tucked away, under the bed? Many people build walls to keep them safe, a coffin has walls – a coffin is made for dead things.

As you can see from the above verse, hiding His light within us is a waste of time and energy. One day, everything we’ve said and done quietly, perhaps even sneakily – concerning Mrs Kerfoops across the road – will be shouted from the housetops.BUT!… “IF we confess our sins, He will forgive our sins. We can trust God. He does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrongs we have done.”I LOVE 💕💕 THOSE LITTLE WORDS… BUT IF …!! This is a good time to praise God for His ongoing, always active, ever-forgiving love in our lives. 

The awful stuff we hide from others, and – even worse – from ourselves! … needs confession and healing. Why not wipe the slate clean, make reparation wherever necessary and move on …??  The point Jesus is making in these verses is that the light of God’s Word is meant to shine in us, and through us, not be hidden away … so we can save face. We are not undercover brothers – WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. That’s why He said don’t put that light in a place where it can’t shine — the light of God is meant to be seen.

At the same time, the light and power of God within us, changes our perspective. It doesn’t just illuminate sin – it makes our surroundings clear and visible. There is way too much darkness all over this earth, because Christians look like everybody else. Being hidden doesn’t mean we are safe – it actually means the people around us can’t see our faith in action. Sadly, who we really are, is who we are when we are squeezed tightly by our circumstances. And no! I don’t much like that sentence either!! 

You and I live wherever we live, because we are to be His light. So the people who live around us can clearly see the dirt and squalor they are choosing to live in. We don’t have to be pompous and look down our noses at others either. The plain truth is this world is currently living in a majority rules situation — they don’t have any light, because we are hiding who we are! God’s Love is His Light! Everyone will know we are Christians by our love, and because LOVE is a verb not a noun, this is something that others can see and experience for themselves. We are Christians – We choose to live and die, loving others. 

You and I are the front-line of what Jesus wants to do on the earth today. Forget people focussing on the pastor, they are looking at us to see if what we say we believe, is real. And if that sentence doesn’t give you and I something to reflect on, we’d all better think again. We aren’t just here to stand up for what we are against – we are here to shine His light and love around, everywhere we go.  His love, needs to be in every dark corner of this world. Loving Jesus means we are for the people He came to save. People were drawn to Him – are they drawn to us? On that happy little note, bye for now! 👋