Denying the Truth

Posted on November 21, 2017 by daaorg1214

Much of domestic violence and abuse is about manipulation. The definition of manipulation is trying to control someone in an unscrupulous or unfair way, and those who practice it will often deny that they’re doing it. There’s hardly anything more exasperating than to believe in your own innocence only to have it turned completely in the wrong direction by someone. It is especially hurtful when that person knows full well that your intentions were in the right place, but makes a sport of trying to make you out to be the bad guy. If you’re dealing with someone like that, no matter what you do, you’re always wrong in their eyes, it can be an exhausting way to live.

The truth and a lie do not hold the same authority, no matter how much people try to make it appear as though they do. Someone once said that there are two types of people, those who seek the truth, and those who seek to cover it up. Personally speaking, I think that most folks can only take the truth in small doses, and when overload threatens them, sometimes they completely lose it. They might even try to harm the person that forces them to look truth in the face.

A strange phenomenon can happen when your strength speaks to a person’s weakness. It can be like holding a mirror up for them, and this mirror reflects what they fear the most. Instead of dealing with themselves honestly, they might choose to blame or belittle you for simply standing in your own strength. If no one has told you how strong you are, you might assume that you’re the one that is weak, and the person who manipulates the truth is the strong one. This is the wickedness of abuse, because at its root is the plot to swap truth for terror.

In John 14:1(NLT), Jesus Christ said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” This is a verse of tremendous comfort. The key to keeping our hearts from being troubled is to trust in God and trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Those of us that have experienced domestic violence and abuse know that a civil conversation can turn into a heated argument very quickly. The back and forth can be endless. This is why it is important for us to trust in the truth that is in Christ.

Some of us desperately want to be loved, and we will exhaust an enormous amount of energy trying to change a person’s perception of us. This is a battle already fought and won. In John 14:6, Jesus Christ tells us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” If a person doesn’t understand how incredibly loving, powerful, and strong Jesus Christ is, then they may not comprehend the heft of John 14:6, but if you truly believe in Christ, then you’ll understand that the way has already been made, and through him, we can know the truth. In John 8:32, he tells us that this is what makes us free, it’s knowing the truth of who Christ is. When we know who he is, we then know who we are.

If the color blue is staring a person in the face, and they refuse to call it any other thing but red, convincing them they’re seeing the color blue can be a very difficult and unproductive challenge. Having someone hurt you so deeply and then deny your pain or that they caused it can drive you crazy, and make you question your worth. This is the devil’s trick to undermine your relationship with God. It is to shut you down, so that you do not become anchored and embedded in who you are in Christ.

God warns us through the Apostle John in 1 John 2:26-27The Message (MSG), “I’ve written to warn you about those who are trying to deceive you. But they’re no match for what is embedded deeply within you—Christ’s anointing, no less! You don’t need any of their so-called teaching. Christ’s anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.” Through Christ, the truth lives in you. Live deeply in it! Seek to grow in the strength he provides, and the truth that you are a child of God, baptized in His love, and poised for His purpose will not be denied. ■

The Impossible Mr. Flynn

Posted on November 14, 2017 by daaorg1214

As a kid growing up, there’s always a person that stands out in your memory as particularly odd; for me, that person was Mr. Flynn. He walked with a limp and could barely move his left side, but even at a time when accessibility for those with physical challenges was limited, he never seemed to let it slow him down. Mr. Flynn owned a small grocery store, and if you caught him during one of his generous moods, you were sure to get a free candy bar or two. Like most kids, I loved candy, but I made it a point to try and stay as far from Mr. Flynn as possible. He amused himself with the sport of giving all the neighborhood kids nicknames, and sure enough, he had given me one too, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it not one bit.

The first time I heard it, I was in his store with my friends, and they never let me live it down. No matter what I did, or how far I thought I’d distanced myself from Mr. Flynn and his store, this nickname haunted me for years. I couldn’t hide my disdain for Mr. Flynn, and my classmates thought I should be ashamed for disliking someone with his condition, but my face turned sour even hearing his name. It was harmless teasing by any adult’s account, but for a chubby pre-teen with chubby cheeks, it was a nightmare.

When I think back, I don’t know why the nickname bothered me as much as it did, but I can still remember the angst I felt at the thought of having to go into Mr. Flynn’s store at my parent’s request. He was an impossible nemesis I thought. Even after asking politely that he please call me by my given name, he chuckled and refused. As I think of it now, it wasn’t so much about the name itself, but I think it was the idea that someone would say something that conjured up the most hurtful feelings within me, and I couldn’t make him stop.

His words caused my friends to look at me or think of me in a way that wasn’t how I wanted to be viewed. He didn’t cause my shame, but exposed it, and the exposure nurtured this sense in me that I would always need to hide—to cover up my vulnerabilities, and shield myself from anyone I thought would potentially hurt my feelings.

In John Chapter 8, Jesus Christ tells us about the light, love, liberty, and life that he has made available to us. In verse 12, he said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” Many of us don’t realize that we’re walking in the darkness of pain and shame until one day something wakes us up. All of a sudden, we realize that there’s been a gloomy cloud over our heads and we don’t know why.

Mr. Flynn didn’t intend to cause me harm, but still I felt powerless when it came to his ability to shame me. Even till this day, the thought that someone might render me powerless rouses very intense emotions within, but now I handle the situation a bit differently. I recognized that by hiding in a consciousness of shame or internalizing the anger, I was punishing myself. We don’t always understand the pain we’re inflicting on ourselves subconsciously, and its why Jesus Christ is so precious, because he knows our pain, and he tells us to turn to him.

In Matthew 11:28-30(NLT), he said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” The Spirit of Christ abides within us, and he sees every aspect of our wounded hearts, even those wounds that occurred when we were young. He knows how they can affect us when we’re adults, and this is why God’s healing is so wonderful. He will heal us from the inside out. He has a loving way of revealing the thorns that continue to prick us, so that we can confront and surrender them.

One of my scripture favs is Galatians 5:1 The Message (MSG). It says, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Our job is to have faith and extend Jesus Christ an invitation. He will teach us to live free if we’re willing to learn, so that we can walk in the liberty he’s made available. We can ask him to heal our hearts in our most vulnerable places, and he will, because he loves us. In my youth, I saw Mr. Flynn as pretty impossible. He never knew how intolerable I found him to be back then, but today I see him as man who dealt with his own pain day by day, and managed to give a few kids a little sweetness along the way. For me, that’s proof positive that God has healed my heart in many ways. If you’ll ask, He’ll do the same for you. ■

A Sad Smile

Posted on November 7, 2017 by daaorg1214

Some Christian folk have this thing where they don’t want anyone to see them unhappy. We’ve bought into the persona that we’re not supposed to have problems or issues. We walk around all day long telling folks, “I’m blessed!” as if everything in our worlds is peachy, when actually we really don’t feel all that great. Many of us have a sad smile on our faces, and we’re not as good at pretending as we think we are. Any person that is empathetic and compassionate can pick up when someone is hurting. So we’re not fooling nearly as many people as we think, and we need to stop trying to fool ourselves.

Psalm 37:4 (NKJV) tells us, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” This is a beautiful verse that tells us to find comfort and delight in God’s beauty, bounty, and blessing. John 10:10 is probably on everyone’s favorite scripture list. In this verse, Jesus tells us that he came to the earth to make available a more than abundant life. Most of us would be satisfied if we hit the abundant mark, but God wants us to have a life that is more than abundant. That’s amazing! Another piece of yumminess is in Mark 9:23, where our blessed Lord tells us that if we can believe, all things are possible to the person who believes. This is over the top!

Considering the smorgasbord of blessings that God has provided, we can certainly see how the expectation of the always happy Christian came to be, but the truth is that many of us are not skipping through fields of daisies with blissful delight; not even close. For some, putting on a happy face and pretending is as close as they’ve come to the real thing, but it doesn’t have to be that way. One truth that shouldn’t be lost on any of us is that it’s important to God for us to know His desire. We may not be as happy as all get out, but He wants us to be confident that it’s certainly His Will and desire that we get there.

The feeling of happiness is something that we associate with conditions and circumstances. If everything in our world is going good, we tend to be happy, but when things turn sour, many of us will begin to think sour thoughts and express sour feelings. God’s Will is that nothing controls us to the degree that we lose sight of who we are and why we’re here. In Colossians 2:7, Heavenly Father tells us that His plan is that our roots are firmly planted in Christ, so that we are not tossed about by all the distractions the devil throws our way. He tells us, “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

God wants us to be anchored in Jesus Christ, so that we are living in the Spirit of who he is. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. He’s the Word made flesh, and his love is so extraordinary because he took on all of our sin and gave his life for us. He said in John 15:13 (NLT), “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” If our gratitude and understanding of what Christ has done for us through his love is on a surface level, our roots are not yet as deep as they should and can be. We need to be filled with something that only God in Christ can supply.

If we have even a hint of an inkling that our smiles are sad, we can pray and ask God to fill us with joy on the inside. Only the Lord can give us a smile that is real and filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 tells us that our prayer should be that God, the Source of hope, will fill us utterly and completely with a joy and peace that the world can’t give and the world can’t take away. All we need to do is trust in God’s love. When we trust Him, we’ll overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Ephesians 3:14-19 The Message (MSG), the Apostle Paul gives us the perfect blueprint for how to respond to God’s goodness and turn our sad smiles into joyful ones. He said, “My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”■

What Happened to That Person?

Posted on October 31, 2017 by daaorg1214

For as long as I could remember, I had been in love with Damon Kent. My family moved away for a few years from the town where I grew up. During that time, I changed of course and matured into a sixteen-year-old girl who could pass for a twenty-year old young woman with no problem. My foray into big city life had afforded me a new-found confidence, so the summer I returned to my hometown, I called Damon. It was a wildly bold move for me, but my time away had not been the most positive experience. I was hoping Damon would turn into my prince, that he would rescue me from the disappointments that came with maturing way ahead of most of my peers.

Damon and I talked the entire summer vacation. We had long conversations on the phone and my crush intensified. After returning from a place where I had no friends, was ridiculed constantly for my accent, and had to wear my mother’s clothes because nothing in the teen section would fit, I needed the ray of hope he offered. There was only one problem, my imagination was larger than life. I was never satisfied with just a little; I always had to take it to the nth degree, and nothing short of this would quench my hunger for the grandiose and extreme.

I imagined Damon and I walking to classes holding hands, stealing a kiss after study hall, and getting engaged in college. Oh yeah, I took it there and beyond, even though we hadn’t seen each other in four years. Finally, the day arrived. I, not having my license yet, would be taxied to high school to register for classes. Damon was attending band camp at school, and we planned to meet up. Butterflies couldn’t touch the huge pigeons flying around in my gut. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I tried to look my best, and felt confident that I did, but it was no match for the fact that I had grown over a foot taller than Damon. When he and his friends spotted me, they behaved like ten-year-old boys. I pretended not to see them, and soldiered on as I had always done.

He had been so incredibly kind and tender over the summer. “What happened to that person?” I thought. This is a question that seemed to plague many of my relationships, and countless others have asked it regarding those that have hurt and betrayed them as well.

I love the saying “go big or go home!” And one of my scripture favs is Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV), “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” The wonderful truth that God ‘goes big’ when it comes to blessing us floods my heart with joy. Even at some of the worse times of my life, I’ve always known that God wanted the best for me and that more out of life was available, but oddly enough, I looked to others to fill my cup instead of Him.

As the desire to partner took center-stage in my life, my big imagination gobbled up the individuals I dated. It was no way that they could meet those expectations, but I had a huge hole in my soul. I imagined that my love would be reciprocated from the object of my affection in such enormous proportions that it would fill me up and then some.

I needed to be loved, but I had not seen another person give the kind of love that I craved. I couldn’t even figure out how to love ME, with all my awkwardness and quirks. How was it that I expected someone to do for me what I couldn’t do for myself? It was a tough question, and 2Peter 2:9 has the answer. It tells us that the Lord knows how to rescue us from our trials. It finally dawned on me that I had been looking for love in all the wrong places. I needed to grow in the love of Christ, and at first it wasn’t so much about how I loved other people. It was about me allowing the roots of his love to grow down in my empty places. I had to trust that he loved me more than I could ever know. I encountered God’s love, strength and power in a way that anchored me as I had never been in my life.

God’s perfect love is the greatest reality of all eternity. Heavenly Father loved me to deliverance, and then healed my broken heart. My work continues to be one of surrendering my need to control how I’m loved by others, and I find that the more I release my need to control, the more my heart swells with gratitude and love for Christ. People will sometimes turn on us, for seemingly no apparent reason. When this happens, we have to remember that our identities are not shaped by what they give us, but by how we love them and ourselves through Christ. In John 15:9-13 The Message (MSG), He tells us, “9-10 I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love. 11-13 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love.”■

What’s In Your Heart?

Posted on October 24, 2017 by daaorg1214

I remember the first time I realized that my actions had caused someone important to me to experience feelings of deep hurt. It was a few months after the incident oddly enough. In the moment it occurred, I was very matter of fact about the harsh words that effortlessly spewed from my lips. I rationalized that I had spoken my truth and the person deserved to be put in their place. This woman considered herself to be a close friend of mine. It didn’t bother me one bit that she would no longer look upon me as the nice person she thought she knew. I didn’t have a filter, and for some reason my emotional register was low on empathy, especially when it came to certain unwise choices and actions that others had made.

Ephesians 4:32 (NLT) gives us the mind-and-heart-set that God expects from His children. It says, “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” Being kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving is a beautiful thing, but even though we might have been born-again for years, some Christians haven’t quite hit the mark on these, and I was certainly in that group. Deep down, I carried anger in my heart. I was angry because people had let me down considerably, including the men I had dated. And to be quite honest, I was a little angry at God as well. I didn’t understand why so much had happened to me, and felt like He needed to cut me a break.

The anger, for the most part, wasn’t overt. It was cloaked in all the Christian niceties that are expected of us. I believed myself to be kind, sensitive, and compassionate, but there were certain areas where all that went out of the window. There were certain characteristics in a person that brought out the worst in me, and for a long time I refused to be held accountable for it.

Galatians 6:7 (NKJV) says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” In other words, if you put it out there, it’s coming back to you. We tend to learn this the hard way. I sowed seeds in the form of hurtful words, and when it came back to me, it did so with a vengeance.

One day, as I was going about my usual business, I overheard a conversation between what I presumed to be two friends; they were sitting at a table behind me as I was having lunch. Their conversation had been initially very jovial, but turned to a subject that should have been a very private matter. One of them made a joke about it, and became critical of the other. She didn’t stop, but seemed to get worse by the moment. I was drawn to listen because there was something oddly familiar about her tone. It slowly dawned on me that I was having a déjà vu moment, and I didn’t like the feeling at all. It was very disturbing. I found myself wanting the other person that was being spoken to in this manner to defend herself, to say something that would cut through the mocking and terribly insensitive words from her friend. I turned around, partly because I couldn’t believe my ears, and partly to make an attempt to show a face of solidarity for someone being treated poorly.

I saw the face of the woman who had sat silently, and the hurt was evident. It reminded me of someone that has grown used to harsh words being spoken to them, and just shuts down when it happens. I got up to leave, and that’s when I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit say, “This is what you did to Linda.” It felt like I was moving in slow motion when the Spirit’s words hit my consciousness. I got weak in my knees and could hardly stand. The fact that I had injured someone in the way that this woman’s friend had injured her was too much. It pierced me like an arrow, and I cried violently all the way home, and all night long.

It wasn’t just that I had inflicted hurt on another person, but that I had felt no remorse for it. I had been arrogant and puffed up for a long time. I felt the eyes of Christ spotlighting my walk that day, and the remorse I experienced was exceedingly deep. I had been immune to my own propensity to act out of anger and resentment, to leave a trail of bitterness rather than love. I had let the Savior down. I repented of my sin, and he forgave me.

His forgiveness and my realization that I needed to repent were not surface level realities. Deep calls to deep. His forgiveness reaches deep into our hearts, and heals it, but not until we pave the way. 2Chronicles 16:9(NLT) says, “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” This verse helps us to better comprehend the omnipotence and omniscience of Heavenly Father. He sees all and knows all. He holds us continually before His face, and He’s looking for those of us with a certain kind of heart.

None of us are perfect. We all have things about us that we need to work on. We’re works in-progress, being perfected in Christ day by day as we trust in him, but we must realize that sometimes things like anger, resentment, and arrogance linger in our hearts. We must have the courage to ask God to show us what lurks beneath the surface, so that we can bring it before Him and repent. He’s looking for a heart that is wanting and willing to empty itself of these remnants of fear, so that He can strengthen us as we remain committed to walk in His love. ■

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

A Little Piece Here and A Little Piece There

Posted on October 17, 2017 by daaorg1214

It is hard to say whether the cases of domestic violence are on the rise. Those that have been abused were silent about it for a long time, so it is possible that there have been more cases of abuse in the past than any of us will ever know. We have been keepers of the secret because we felt we had to be. Exposing the abuser was for many victims a case of life and death, so they continued to suffer silently, but things are changing. A current of unprecedented courage is rising because many are recognizing their strength and unity in numbers, but still so many are choosing to remain in abusive, unhealthy relationships, even when they have more options today than ever before.

God calls upon us to walk by faith and not by sight. One of the things that we have to believe in order to walk by faith is that we are never walking alone. God is with us every moment of every day. Hebrews 13:5-6 declares that He will never leave us or forsake us; He is our Helper. Romans 8:31 (NLT) asks, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Who is mightier than God? Not one! So, the goal for those of us that are not quite there in terms of believing that God is fully in our corners is to work in the area of our faith. We need to grow in our trust in God, and we also need to learn to lean on Him totally.

There are many that will tell you that they believe and trust Him with their whole hearts, but the grip that fear has on them is evident in their existences. Fear robs us of energy, and one of the ways in which it does this is to prompt us to portion off ourselves. We do this so that we never have to confront the person—the real you—that is underneath the fear, because if that happens, something about the way we’re currently operating will have to change. Many of us are more afraid of change than we are of suffering. So, what ends up happening is that we give a whole lot to the person that is keeping us tied down and oppressed; we give a little to ourselves, and we give God the leftovers.

Heavenly Father is the One with the power. He’s the One with overwhelming love for us, and He’s the One that can heal our lives and cause us to remain in His everlasting peace, but somehow, we convince ourselves that someone else has more power than Him. Jesus Christ instructs us in Matthew 6:33(NLT), “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Heavenly Father is holy, omnipotent, and magnificent! He can never, ever be in second place. Trying to put Him there is a strategy that will not work.

He tells us in Hebrews 11:6 that the way to please Him is to have faith. Every single person in the earth is a work in progress. We’re not perfect. We’re not going to get this thing right all the time, but God requires that we have a heart that is eager to please Him. Every day each of us has an opportunity to build our relationship with God and to grow closer to Him. He wants an intimate relationship with each of us. He gave His Son’s life for this to happen. If we’ll make a commitment to trust God more today than we did yesterday, we will be amazed at the difference it makes in our lives.

God tells us in Romans 6:16 (NLT), “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.” Heavenly Father doesn’t want you to be a slave to oppression and suffering. That’s not who He created you to be. He wants you to be whole, and to make you whole He wants all of you; not a little piece here and a little piece there. His plan is to transform us through and through into the person that He has destined us to become. Our faith is strengthened the moment we believe in His power—the moment we believe in His ability and willingness to transform our lives, and the moment we stop believing that anyone is more loving and powerful than He is.

The greatest option before us—the greatest choice before us—is to choose to trust God through Jesus Christ with all our hearts. Let Him help you bring all parts of yourself together in the splendor of what He wants you to be. You can begin this process by doing something to build your faith in Him every day. Read and study His Word more, pray more, and have conversations with Him, so that you begin to recognize His voice. If you’ll do this, your faith in Him will be enriched. Before you know it, you’ll be walking with courage in the freedom of His power, confident that you’re all you need to be, and more. ■

When A Dark Cloud Looms

Posted on October 11, 2017 by daaorg1214

Isaiah 26:3(NKJV) tells us, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” This verse is packed full with luscious truth. Not only does our God offer us His perfect peace, but He will keep us anchored in it if we #1) stay our minds on Him, and #2) trust in His ability and willingness to bless us. It is important to also understand that perfect peace is peace that is perfect. Nothing in this world can keep God’s perfect peace from encompassing total and complete tranquility. It’s both inner and outward peace; it’s peace under any and every circumstance. It’s a peace that defies conditions, and through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, God offers His peace to us freely.

As we look at the condition of the world, with all its corruption and dishonesty, we meet people every day that are bewildered and disillusioned. Their state of mind is the exact opposite of peace. They are filled with anxiety and fear, and many of them are depressed. It’s as if they are living under a dark cloud that follows them everywhere. This is not the kind of life that God intended for His people. He wants us to be happy and blessed. In Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT), God tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

A dark cloud is an emotional state of being that causes a person to feel discouraged and hopeless. It makes you feel bad all the time. It weighs us down, and it can also cloud our judgement, and distort how we view ourselves and others. Many people feel that their conditions and circumstances are the driving force that keeps this cloud looming over their heads, but the Lord Jesus Christ gives us another way. His way will help us to dissipate this cloud into thin air.

In John 14:26-27, Jesus Christ tells us, “26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. 27 I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” We place a lot of pressure on ourselves to put on a happy face when deep down we feel like we’re drowning in sorrow. The reality is that you and I are sometimes unable to muster the courage to dissipate those dark clouds and stand strong amid all the strife and struggles of life. This is why Jesus Christ made the gift of Holy Spirit available to us.

Because of Christ, we have God’s Spirit dwelling on the inside of us. Galatians 5:16 tells us to walk by the Spirit, and then we won’t feed those things that pull us down. 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us how to walk by the Spirit. It tells us to walk by faith, and not by sight. So, as spiritual children made in the image of our Heavenly Father, we must learn to walk in a way that isn’t dependent on what we can perceive with our emotions and five senses. God calls on us to walk by trusting Him, by believing what He says in His Word.

In Ephesians 4:23, God also tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. To renew something is to make it new again. Our minds were not designed to be filled with darkness, but society bombards us with negative messages continually. You and I must combat this by flooding our thoughts and attitudes with the positives of God’s Word. To do this, we must read and study it as often as we can. This is what God created our minds for. He created them to hold the knowledge of Him and His Word. Our minds were created to be filled with light, this is what Ephesians 5:8 means when it tells us to “Walk as children of light”; this way our minds can match the reality of who and what we are in Christ!

God is not going to come inside our heads and empty out our bad thoughts and wipe the slate of our emotions clean. He has commanded us to trust Him, and to believe His Word regardless of what our conditions and circumstances look like. Faith wouldn’t be faith if it didn’t require us to trust in what we cannot see. The Spiritual realm is invisible to our physical eyes, yet, it is more real than what we can see. 2 Corinthians 4:18 (NLT) tells us, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

Faith requires that we shift our focus, so that our intention is on changing the negatives in our minds rather than allowing our emotions to dictate how we respond to life. God’s Word is powerful! Way more powerful than our emotions. Our belief in His promises and goodness should dictate how we feel and act. Our hearts and minds must line up with the thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how we introduce his light! It’s not an arduous task, but a glorious one, because putting on the mind of Christ allows us to forever rest in God’s peace. In John 14:27, Jesus Christ tells us not to be afraid or troubled, because our God is all powerful, and He loves us. We are never defeated by our conditions and circumstances. When we truly trust our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he will move those dark clouds, and his love will cover our lives with light. ■

Our Reality is VICTORY!

Posted on September 26, 2017 by daaorg1214

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith, because when we come to Him we must believe that He exists. Faith begins our relationship with God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10 tells us that when we confess the Lord Jesus Christ with our mouths, and believe in our hearts that Heavenly Father raised Jesus from the dead, we are saved! It is believing with our hearts, and the confession of our belief, that transforms our lives from darkness to light. We receive salvation this way and become born-again. God brings us into His family because we believe the truth in our hearts! This gives us some indication of how important it is to keep our hearts and minds anchored in the Lord through faith.

Faith doesn’t end after we confess the Lord Jesus and believe on him in our hearts. This begins our spiritual journey. Our relationship with God through Christ will grow stronger and tighter as our faith in His ability and willingness to bless us increases as well. We should trust that God will honor His promises to take care of us, but sometimes this trust doesn’t develop as smoothly as we would like. We get discouraged from trying to navigate the rocky terrain of life. It can throw a curve ball in a hot minute, and we become wobbly in our conviction to stand strong in faith. Sometimes it’s not just one thing, but an avalanche of problems and issues that come our way, and we feel bombarded and overwhelmed.

One of the things that we have to remember is that we’re not alone, and God doesn’t abandon us to deal with problems on our own. In Matthew 11:29-30 (NLT), Jesus Christ extends an invitation. He tells us, “29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” A yoke is a farming instrument constructed from a bar of wood. It was used to unite two animals, like oxen, enabling them to be steered and directed for work in the fields. As one might imagine, this was a heavy instrument, and a human being would not be able to maneuver well with this kind of yoke around his or her neck. Jesus Christ makes it clear that the yoke he wants to give us is easy to bear.

There is no question that we desperately need the yoke of Christ. We need to be guided by him. Many people struggle tremendously because they refuse his guidance, but we were never meant to go through life without him and without his help and guidance. Our earth experience is an opportunity to prepare our hearts and minds by growing closer to God and becoming better as we learn more about His love. He wants to be close to us, and he wants to help us.

Jesus Christ doesn’t want to move us about like puppets, but he is Lord! He is the only one that deserves this distinction. He tells us in Matthew 11:29 that when we take his yoke and place it on our lives, he will lead us into the kind of life that will be pleasing to God and fulfilling to us as well. He does this by teaching us about himself, because when we learn to flow like Christ, we move in God’s perfect harmony, and have wonderful communion and fellowship with Him.

God’s love is a magnet that will pull us closer and closer to Him, but we know that we have an enemy, the devil, and he wants to pull us away from God. One of the ways he does this is to bombard us with problems. If you feel as though you’re fighting alone, it can be exhausting, but the Lord Jesus Christ has already won the victory for us. 1Corinthians 15:57(NKJV) tells us, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In every situation, obstacle, or problem that we will come against in life, Christ has already won the battle. You might think to yourself, “Well, it doesn’t feel like I have the victory. I’m still dealing with the same situation, and I feel overwhelmed by it.” Feelings and reality are two different things. God tells us in His Word to renew our minds to what He says. This means we’ve got to change our thoughts. As Christians, we don’t let our feelings dictate our reality. We believe God’s Word. He’s our Creator, and what He says goes. He has told us the reality of what and who we are in Christ, and our reality is victory!

We have a choice. We can either have faith in what God says about our victory, or we can be fearful and not believe Him; but we can’t be both. We can’t have faith and fear at the same time. The devil’s goal is to damage our faith in God, so that we do not trust in His love for us. When this happens, we sink low in our emotions and heart, and we stop doing things to uplift God’s Kingdom like giving and being a blessing to others. This is why the enemy tests our strengths, and comes at us with the things that get under our skin the most. We must recognize these tactics for the tricks that they are.

The peace and joy of the Lord is a reality! We don’t have to walk around disappointed, disgusted, and demoralized. Heavenly Father will turn our situations around so that He can receive the glory. Yes, what the devil meant for bad, God will turn it around for our good. But we have a part to play. God will not come into our minds and change things up. This is a responsibility that He has given to us. He tells us to change the way we think—to think on His goodness, strength, love, and mercy. If we will pray to Him with this kind of humility and faith, we will see the victory in our lives in every situation. ■

Stuck, with No Way Out? Not So!

Posted on September 20, 2017 by daaorg1214

A few years back, a very sophisticated looking 37-year-old woman, Phyllis, asked if I would pray with her in confidence. She was adamant that I promise not to divulge her secret before she told me why she was so troubled and seeking prayer. After I had given her my assurance, she confided that she was being severely mistreated by her husband, and had been for the last few years. Although he had not harmed her physically, the emotional and mental abuse had left her barely able to take care of herself, let alone her two children from a previous marriage. Phyllis’s husband, Joe, is a very successful person. He’s not bad on the eyes, extremely sociable, and known to be well-versed about a number of topics. When she first met him, she swore he was her knight in shining armor—the man she had been praying to meet for six years.

Phyllis owned a small professional cleaning franchise, and although it was successful, the insurance she needed to carry on her business and employees was eating into the profit, and she hadn’t been able to keep up with the demands of an expanding clientele. With no time left for herself between her kids and the business, she felt as if she was being swallowed whole. Soon after she and Joe began dating, he introduced her to a friend of his who was an insurance broker, and that connection proved to be extremely beneficial to her business. It didn’t stop there. Joe’s resources were plenteous, and he seemed to love lavishing them on Phyllis.

After a while, she noticed that Joe became increasingly critical of the way she was conducting her business, and when she didn’t take his advice, he’d become angry. It was nothing for him to make an embarrassing comment about her during a social outing with friends, or to ignore her input in conversations all together. His resentment was so out of control that he’d belittle her in front of her children, and he totally withdrew any display of affection towards her. They were both social people, but Joe’s vengeance and jealousy was so unpredictable that Phyllis was too afraid of what he might do in public. She didn’t go out unless it was absolutely necessary.

Joe flipped the script to such a degree that Phyllis was left questioning her own ability to make sound decisions. She wondered how she could have been so wrong about someone that seemed so right in the beginning of their relationship. She was angry with herself for having married this man, and found it incredibly difficult to forgive herself for what she was putting her sons through. She said that she couldn’t remember what happiness felt like, and was so disappointed that her children saw her this way every day. Joe’s connections and money was entangled with her business, and her sons were dependent on his involvement and gifts. She felt stuck, with no way out.

Phyllis kept all of this from her family and friends, but she finally took one of the most important steps that we can take when we’re hurting, and it is to let someone in. When it comes to pain, many of us turn into keepers of a secret. We’re too embarrassed to let others see that we’re hurting, because we don’t want them to think less of us. We don’t want anyone to know that we’ve made a mistake that has caused suffering. In a nutshell, this is shame, and it is the most deceitful weapon in the devil’s bag of tricks.

Shame is a feeling that isolates us, and one of the first steps in its demise is to recognize that its grip is not strong enough to stop God from rescuing us. He’s our Savior and Refuge. Rescuing is what He does. Heavenly Father is never far away from us, and when we make even the smallest move to open ourselves to Him, He will take the ball and run with it. James 5:6 (NLT) tells us to “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” God wants us to know that prayer is effectual, and when a person who loves and honors God prays with and for us, it produces wonderful results. We need to know that it is available to pray and ask Heavenly Father to send someone across our paths that we can pray with; a confidant that will listen and pray without judging us. God is delighted to help us in this way.

Suffering, shame, and guilt will block our view of the Cross of Christ. It will keep us from seeing how much Heavenly Father loves us. We can’t see past the pain because it is a web that seems tangled and endless. It makes us feel as though there is no way out, but this isn’t the truth. It’s a lie that the devil wants us to believe. Jesus Christ tells us in John 14:6 that he is the way, and indeed he is. When we can’t see a door or a window, God will make a way out. He’s God, and He doesn’t need our help to be who He is. If we believe that His love isn’t enough to save us, we’re fearful. He tells us in 1John 4:18 that His love is perfect, and it will cast out fear every time. We just have to trust Him.

We’re so busy doctoring on our mistakes and missteps, trying to make ourselves perfect that we forget He loves us with all our imperfections. He knows the mistakes that we make, and He loves us in spite of them. In 2Corinthians 12:9, He tells us that His power works best in our weakness. So God has our backs, no matter the circumstances.

In John 10:10 (NKJV), our precious Lord and Savior said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jesus Christ didn’t give his body to be broken, and his blood to be shed so that we would have a life more miserable than it was before we knew him. He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. He wants us to expand and increase, not shut down and isolate ourselves. He knows that when we’re operating from a good place, others will see our light and glorify God.

We spend a lot of time believing the worst about ourselves and our circumstances. 2Corinthians 3:5 tells us that God is our sufficiency. He is the only One who deserves this spot, but sometimes we begin to think that another human being can fill those shoes. No man can. God in Christ will forever be our rescue. We need to take a leap of faith and let God take over the reins. It’s easy to trust Him when everything is going well, but when we feel like we’re in the belly of the beast, that’s when we should give Him the chance to prove what a loving Father He is. It might feel as though we’re stuck with no way out, but He will prove that it isn’t so.■

Transformed by God!

Posted on September 13, 2017 by daaorg1214

In the Old Testament, God’s chosen people were often disobedient to His Word. Sometimes they would get so off track that they would worship idol Gods. This was something that goes totally against the grain of God’s love. Our Heavenly Father has laws, statutes, and commandments that govern creation. He’s a Great Big Wonderful God, and He holds everything together with the glue of His love. In Exodus 20:3, He commanded His people that they shouldn’t worship other gods, or have any other gods before Him. He is the Creator, and He is also the Source and Supplier of our needs. Our trust in this truth builds our relationship with Him.

Much like today, when it came to their relationship with God, His chosen people in the Old Testament ran hot one day and cold the next. The thing that we have to remember is that even though they didn’t always stick by God, He still loved them and wanted a relationship with them. In Jeremiah 17:4, He warned that the wonderful possession He had for them would slip through their hands if they didn’t get it together and recognize not only who He is, but who they were through Him. This is what Heavenly Father desires so much from us, that we will see Him as a loving Father that wants to take care of us, and that we will also see the greatest vision of ourselves through the eyes of His love.

Why was this so hard to understand for people living in Old Testament times, and why is it hard for those of us living today? In Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT), God gives us incredible insight about the human heart. He said, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” The heart that God is talking about in this verse isn’t referring to the organ that pumps blood throughout our bodies. He’s talking about the heart of our souls. It pumps life or death into every aspect of our lives. This is why God warns us in Proverbs 4:23 (NLT), to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” God tells us to guard our hearts because in them contains the potential to bring about good or evil.

We are three-part beings; spirit, soul, and body. The heart and mind are parts of the soul. They are gateways, allowing the soul to receive and give out. The soul hungers. Therefore, you and I must also understand that it needs food. This is a fact of life. We determine the kind of diet it will be fed. Either we will feed it the good food of God’s Word, or we will feed it the stuff that comes from the world. The stuff that comes from the world is mostly toxic. God warns us in Romans 12:2 (NLT), “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

In this one verse in Romans 12:2, God gives us several juicy nuggets on which to feast. One of which is the reality that He will transform us as we change the way we think. God is not going to come inside our brains and begin throwing the bad stuff out and putting the good stuff in. No! He has told us to do this. And when He tells us to do something, He is not going to do it for us. In Colossians 3:10(NLT), through the Apostle Paul, God tells us, “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”

God wants to change our hearts so that we love each other, love ourselves, and love Him from a good place in our hearts; but we must desire this for ourselves. When we learn to love with the love of God, we can abide in His peace. Many of us like the sound of this, but in our hearts, we’re kinda hungering for the opposite of it. We have so much fear, and we tell ourselves that we’re not good enough to receive what Heavenly Father has for us. And some of us even tell ourselves that what God has for us isn’t going to meet our expectations. A lot of women secretly feel this way about their relationships. They hang on to the man when they’re not being treated well, because they convince themselves that they won’t find someone that is going to be truly loving towards them. Some of us just don’t like the idea of change. We want to continue as we have been.

Well life just doesn’t work that way. God designed it to be dynamic and ever changing. Life doesn’t flex and bend to us, we have to flex and bend to it. We must have the spiritual flexibility and strength to stand in the midst of life with the authority of Christ. This is when it becomes the thing of beauty that God intended it to be. But we’re stubborn, and we’ve got all kinds of excuses and reasons to remain that way. So, when life throws a monkey wrench at us, or more to the point, when the devil comes to steal our joy and reap havoc in our lives, we must have confidence that God’s given us a way to stand in victory, and it is to allow Him to transform us through Jesus Christ by changing the way we think.

Our minds and heart must come along for the ride, and go hand and hand with our desire to see the possibilities God has designed life to offer, but we must deal with the reality that we’ve got some baggage, and a lot of it is weighing us down. Sometimes we blame God for the things that happen to us, when we have blocked Him out. We need to change our appetites so that we hunger for the love that Jesus Christ offers. Heavenly Father knows the person we were meant to be, and He promises that He will transform us into this person—a person that will have unlimited capacity for good. Heavenly Father wants to show you what He can do for your life. He’s always wanted to show His people this, and when our faith in Him meets our desire to be transformed, we will be amazed by what He does.■

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