Keep Bitterness Out and Love In

Posted on December 11, 2023 by daaorg1214

James 1:20(ESV)
“For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

A woman ran into an old high school classmate she hadn’t seen in over thirty-years. They were attending a repast after a funeral, and she spotted him while looking for a seat. She made a beeline to where he was sitting and without a formal greeting, she said to him “Why don’t you move down a couple of seats so I can sit down.” This to someone she hadn’t seen in over thirty years, and the oddity and familiarity of that moment didn’t escape him. With a humorous chuckle, he said, “You hadn’t changed a bit. You’re still just as bossy and mean as you were in high school.” Bossy and mean is what her husband used to say about her when they were married. It’s why they divorced. He told her that her bitterness had canceled out the love.

In significant relationships, a couple becomes very comfortable with one another. They see each other’s vulnerabilities and strengths, and they also see things about one another that they don’t like. James 1:19(NLT) tells us, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” This is God’s standard for how we should behave towards one another, but when things get heated, we use our mouths to go for the jugular. We sometimes resort to name calling, and bad language. We put each other down and say words that we wish we could take back, words that can cause irreparable damage to the relationship.

We must understand that God is the One who sets the standard for how people should treat one another. He tells us in Ephesians 4:32(ESV) “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” 1Peter 3:9(ESV) commands, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” And Colossians 3:12-14(NLT) says, “12Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.”

These are God’s directives. They are not suggestions. They represent the conduct of someone who is saved by His grace and seeks to love and honor Him with all that they are. When we step outside the boundaries of love’s way and look away from God’s directives, we punish ourselves and subtract from our level of blessedness. To assume that we can violate God’s standard for how we should conduct ourselves in His love but then expect the rewards of a loving and respectful relationship is irrational and unreasonable. The manifestation of a blessing requires that we meet the conditions that cause it to materialize. God’s Word is law! It does not yield to our whims, arrogance, or rebellion against it. If we choose to ignore it, we will live beneath our privilege, and our relationships will not be what they could and should be.

God tells us in 1Corinthians 13:4(ESV) that “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.” Bitterness is the manifestation of rebellion or neglect of 1Corinthians 13:4. Nothing unkind, selfish, arrogant, vengeful, or envious can be birthed when God’s love is our unyielding commitment and way of living. God’s love must be worn like a second skin, and we should be this kind of person before we get into relationships, so that we are honoring God and putting Him first from the very beginning.

2Peter 3:18(ESV) says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” What does it say about a person who, after thirty years, is still stuck in the habit patterns of bitterness and resentment and refuses to live in God’s grace? It says that they are not growing in Christ the way He commands. God wants us to spiritually grow in Christ so that we live in a continual cycle of giving and receiving genuine love.

When we are habitually and frequently stepping outside the boundaries of God’s love in our significant relationships, we are making the wrong choices. We are choosing to ignore God’s standard and acquiescing into levels of darkness that are injurious and not sustainable in the relationship. We’ve assumed a certain comfort level that isn’t ours to assume, and because of this, we’ve taken license to say and do things that take us out of the example of Christ. We don’t have the right to treat people anyway we chose. God says we can only treat them with the love of Christ, and that must be our code for life. There’s a cost for going outside the boundaries of love, and we should avoid it. Understand that a comfort level in any relationship doesn’t afford you the option of going low. You must choose to keep bitterness out of your relationship and do all that you can to remain rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. ■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Don’t Let Anger Control You

Posted on November 13, 2023 by daaorg1214

Ephesians 4:26-27(NLT)
“And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.”

Grace and her sister have had a contentious relationship since they were young. Fighting weekly was the norm for them. Their parents saw it as sibling rivalry and did nothing to help them get along. Now that they’re adults, nothing has changed. Holidays, birthday celebrations, weddings, dinners with their parents, no matter the occasion, because of their deep-seated anger, these two sisters ignore each other and hardly ever speak.

Anger is a strong feeling of displeasure, disapproval, and hostility. It is a mistake to think that once the situation or event that caused us to feel anger is over that it will go away. Sometimes, the anger doesn’t go away. Instead, it remains in our souls and increases its grip on us in the background. It can be a strong sense of powerlessness that causes us to lash out whenever we feel threatened. For many of us, it’s the go-to emotion that we use to cover up other pain and hurt. Our minds tell us that holding on to the anger with resentment or a grudge seems easier or more beneficial than to forgive. Grace and her sister took that approach. They never learned to address their anger through the love of Jesus Christ, and because they didn’t, they lived beneath their privilege.

As we look back over our childhoods, some of us might remember that there were a lot of passively angry people within our everyday environment. They used profanity and didn’t have a whole lot of compassion for the feelings and well-being of others. Some of us who saw this picked up those habits without giving it much thought. We took on this anger and used it in our words, attitudes, and manner of dealing with even those relationships that are dearest to us.

My nephew told me about a Christian woman that is a notoriously good baker. One Saturday, he went to a bake sale where she was selling her homemade cookies. The place was packed. People were getting antsy, and the baker was feeling pressured. They had been waiting in line for her cookies, and when it looked as though they would soon be sold out, things got a little disorderly. They began to yell out their orders rather than waiting their turn. My nephew noticed that the baker’s son had become agitated by everything, and when he yanked on her apron to get her attention, she spoke to him in a manner that was harsh, angry, and profane.

Many of us have seen mothers do this in public and not thought anything of it, but we should think of what it does to the child’s heart. God commands us in Ephesians 4:29(NLT), “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” The habit patterns of anger can be very easily passed on to us, and when they are, God commands us to root them out of our hearts.

Proverbs 14:12(NLT) says, “There is a path before each person that seems right,
but it ends in death.” We think we have it all figured out, but the truth is, we can only see as far as our eyes allow us, and that is very limited. God sees the entire scope of our lives, so we must always trust His leadership and guidance, because only He can make our path clear and straight. There will always be things that will come against us and try to hinder or hold us back, but we must not respond in anger, because anger will set us further back. It will separate us from God’s blessings if we do not deal with in through His love.

Proverbs 14:17(NLT) tells us, “Short-tempered people do foolish things.” Many of us have witnessed this firsthand. People can appear to be very calm and non-reactionary. They look as though they’ve got it all together, but underneath all that exterior is a rage that seeps out at the most unassuming times. They are angry at the world but cover it up with a smile. This isn’t what God wants for us. He doesn’t want us to be fake. He wants us to exercise self-control that comes from trusting Him with all our hearts.

Anger should not be dominant or dormant in a loving person. As a child of God, you can’t hide behind it, because anger will never remain hidden. It must be nailed to the cross and left there. We must relinquish it and put on more of the love of Christ in its place.

Psalm 4:4(NLT) commands, “Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent.” Life will respond to what we give it, and it knows when anger is ruling the roost. It will show up in a way that keeps people at bay. Anger will keep a future husband circling around us but never making contact, because we haven’t created a soft place for his love to land. Let’s not do this to ourselves. Proverbs 14:22(NLT) says, “If you plan to do good, you will receive unfailing love and faithfulness.” So, plan to root out any anger and rage that is in your heart, so you can both give and receive the kind of unfailing love and faithfulness that God wants you to have. ■

A Clean Heart Creates a New You

Posted on October 23, 2023 by daaorg1214

Ezekiel 36:26-27(NLT)
“26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”

Our Lord is in no short supply of blessings and riches, and it is His good pleasure to lavish them on His children. We can see this so clear in Ezekiel 36:26-27, as He beautifully illustrates the level of His power and grace. In Old Testament times, God chose the Israelites as His very special people. He made a covenant with them. He would be their God and they agreed to follow His statues, rules, and laws. Following His Word allowed them to be covered under His protection and provision, but they would not keep their end of the covenant and began to practice idolatry. This betrayal against God landed them in serious hot water. They turned their hearts away from Him and had no desire to obey, but God had a plan to do the exceedingly abundantly. He always does, and this is a truth that we can rest in with a heart and mind full of unwavering faith.

Even after countless miracles and blessings, the children of Israel strayed away from God. They didn’t represent Him among the other nations, and those nations were cursing our Heavenly Father’s name and speaking lies about Him. He was not going to stand for that. During this period in the Old Testament, His people had stony hearts towards Him. They refused to listen to our Heavenly Father and chose to go their own way, but He had a plan. In this passage in Ezekiel 36:26-27, He speaks to His people through His prophet, Ezekiel, and tells them that a day is coming when He will no longer write His Word upon tablets of stone, but upon the hearts of those who love and honor Him.

Some believers living today have done what the children of Israel did, they have developed a hard heart towards God and His Word. They are listening to the world and disconnecting from the truth, and there’s a price to pay for this. The Israelites of the Old Testament were not sons and daughters of God the way that we are. They were servants of God, so there’s a huge difference between those living in Old Testament times and believers living today. We have received an enormous gift from God. We have been empowered through His Holy Spirit, and we have a greater responsibility to live by the rules of God’s Kingdom and follow the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Because of what God accomplished through Jesus Christ, we have received God’s seed, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he lives inside us! 1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) says, “19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

Through the Holy Spirit, God has given us a new heart that is tender and responsive to Him, and it is our privilege and responsibility to nurture our hearts with His Word every chance we get. Philippians 2:13(NLT) says, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” This is what God’s Holy Spirit does. He works within our body temples and gives us both the desire and power to do the things that please God. Jesus Christ also tells us in John 16:13 that the Spirit will lead and guide us to all truth! With this exciting good news, we must also understand that yes, the Spirit is working in us, and yes, he will guide us into the truth, but he will not go against our free-will and make us comply with his leadership and direction.

In Proverbs 4:23(ESV), God tells us to “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.” We are the keepers of our own hearts, and we must make the choice to surrender to the Spirit. Sometimes we don’t do this because we have not kept our hearts through God’s Word. As His beloved children, we always have to put ourselves in check. Have you noticed the condition of your heart lately? Has anyone mentioned something about your attitude or behavior that needs changing? Are you aware of how quickly you get upset when something doesn’t go your way? How do you handle not being the one in control?

We can be very petty and picky, and we can have an attitude that looks nothing like the attitude of Christ. We must be blatantly honest and examine whether things like these are holding us back. It would be a mistake to think that we can walk by faith while still resisting change. We must be flexible, pliable, and humble to God’s Will, and we must nurture our minds and hearts with His Word.

We can’t listen to what others think is right, we must know what is right according to what God says. If we have any question about this, the Spirit will straighten us right on out. Cynicism and pessimism can take root in us if we’re not careful, and when they are in our hearts, they draw the situations and people that latch on and keep us from growing and going higher. 2Corinthians 5:17(NLT) tells us, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Because of his sacrifice and resurrection, Jesus Christ has given us the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit has made us a new person. We can’t allow people to take us back to those old stuck in the mud ways. We must keep our eyes on Christ and follow where he leads us through the Spirit.

Jesus Christ has made a ‘new you’ possible! This is the ‘new you’ that must be presented to your future spouse! You’ve been empowered to love yourself and others through his love, and this makes all the difference in our relationships. God made good on the Word He gave to His prophet, Ezekiel. He’s given us a new heart, and we are responsible for keeping our hearts responsive to Him and pliable to the plan He has for our lives. His love is deep and everlasting, and we must be confident that His promise of a new heart and a new life in Christ is all the hope we need to usher in new blessings in our lives.■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

God Wants You to Think and Feel Good

Posted on June 11, 2023 by daaorg1214

God created us to live from the inside out, which means whatever we think and whatever is living inside our hearts is going to manifest on the outside. Many of us forget this when the situations of life don’t work in our favor. We’re very quick to blame others, or to think that God is punishing us, but this is never the case. God doesn’t punish us. He has created the universe in such a way that it will give us what we give it. With each action we take, each behavior we display, each word we speak, and each thought we think, we are building our futures. With our thoughts, behaviors, confessions, and conversations, we are laying the groundwork for what is going to come back to us. That can be a blessing, or it can also be the same negative energy we put out there, and it is boomeranging at our direction with a speed and velocity we’re not going to like.

Proverbs 23:7(NKJV) says “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” This verse makes the connection for us between our minds, our hearts, and the state of our existences. God tells us in His Word why it’s so important to put on the mind of Christ. Changing the way we think is vital to walking in the Spirit and living by faith. Before we knew about life in Christ or about his example from the Word of God, many of us were dissatisfied with life. Some of us were heartbroken over our relationships, and others of us were very lonely and sad. Whether it was trauma, health challenges, or financial hardship, we were desperate for help and sought the Lord. Jesus Christ invites us in Matthew 11:28 to bring our burdens to him, because he wants us to rest in him. He also wants us to learn about him so that we increase in his strength and love and become the men and women that God wants us to be.

God commands 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.” Copying the world’s customs and behaviors is what we did before we learned about Christ. Now that we have accepted the Lord into our hearts, God tells us to let Him transform us into a new person. He accomplishes our transformation as we partner with Him by changing the way we think.

Many of us have known women that gossip, talk about people, and even talk down on others because of their clothes or anything else they may not like. Friends get on the phone, and sometimes their whole conversation is about negativity and tearing other’s down. This isn’t an okay thing to do. God will not bypass it because it is a sin. There is a price to pay for it, and the person putting this negativity out there will receive it back in greater portion than their original sin.

2Corinthians 5:20(NLT) tells us “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” We represent Christ in the earth. God’s Will is that when people look at us, they see the love and light of His only begotten Son. So, we must know that God wants us to be as happy as we can possibly be. He doesn’t want us to keep setting ourselves up for failure by continuously thinking and speaking the negativity of darkness over our own lives. We must stop doing this. If a situation looks bad, don’t say what you think, say what God says. Change your thoughts to line up with the hope and faith of Jesus Christ.

God has given us His Word, His Son, and His Spirit because He wants us to live the more than abundant life that Jesus Christ talks about in John 10:10. God accomplished our salvation through the sacrifice of our precious Savior so that we could live free. Colossians 3:1-4 (NLT) says “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.” Again, God wants us to feel good all the time, and we achieve this by focusing on His goodness. We can’t feel good feelings and think good thoughts by focusing on the world. We must keep our eyes on Jesus Christ, because he’s the One who can put a smile on our faces and joy in our hearts. So, put the Word in your mind and in your heart, because God promises that it will change your life!■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Being Your Truest, Highest Self

Posted on February 27, 2023 by daaorg1214

Proverbs 4:7(KJV) says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Wisdom is defined as truthful, right knowledge that aids correct and right believing, and God’s Word is the source of it. He tells us that wisdom is the principal thing, and we need to take a minute and digest this, because the world would have us to believe other things are principal, things like money, fame, or success. These are very nice, but they are byproducts received from believing and trusting God’s Word. They are not the principal things, so our decks must be restacked so that seeking wisdom becomes the major objective for us. And not only are we to seek it preeminently, we are to make sure we get an understanding of the wisdom we seek. This is the part, that if missed, will cause us to approach faith sideways; without the benefit of hitting the target we hope to achieve.

Some of us are about ready to implode, to burst open at the seams because we’ve acquired a tremendous amount of biblical knowledge, but we’ve lost the connection between understanding and the knowledge we’ve gleaned. Another way of looking at this is that we’ve got a lot of knowledge in our heads, but it hasn’t yet trickled down into our hearts in a way that truly makes the knowledge a part of us. We keep acquiring and acquiring—getting and getting, but we’re not applying what we’re learning. More knowledge may make us smart, but it doesn’t increase us spiritually until a spiritual connection is made.

Understanding is the spark that makes wisdom the revelation it needs to be. It is very often the missing link to the blessing we’ve yet to acquire. This is important because our lives will mirror a lack of understanding. Our lives will reflect that something we need is missing. A lot of us are so busy and tapped to the max with everyday life that we can’t even think deeply about what we’re doing. We’re just moving from one thing to the next, and it all just seems like one big glob of transactions and activities. We can’t make sense of what we’re doing or why. Well, your life is supposed to make sense. You may not understand all the moving parts, but at the end of your day, you should have a sense of purpose and pleasing God. This comes from understanding who you are, what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it.

Who are you?
Jesus Christ said in John 1:12 that he has given everyone who has accepted him the right to become children of God. Through him, this is who we are. Because of Christ, we’ve received eternal life, and our faith in him made this possible. Our faith began our eternal journey. Our faith made it possible for us to receive God’s Spirit, and only the increase of our faith will allow us to continue to grow in Christ. From where you stand today, you do not know the end result of what you will become, but God knows. And although mentally you don’t know the ‘you’ that you are becoming, everything you need to transform into this person is in you already. Please don’t let this piece of yumminess slip by you. All that you are destined to become in Christ is already in you!

When we became born again in Christ, the old life we had died. Colossians 3:3(NLT) tells us, “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” Before we accepted Christ, our human-spirit was dead. This was because of Adam’s fall. When he sinned in the Garden of Eden, he died a spiritual death, and every person born after him is born in sin, and therefore, is born with a spirit that is disconnected from God. A human-spirit that is disconnected from God is not alive to Him; it has no light and no life.

Our human-spirits are recreated in Christ through the new birth experience. The totality of who we are becoming is hidden in him, Colossians 3:3 tells us this. Our real spiritual self is in Christ, but our soulish self is the thing that is visible to everyone; interacting and reacting to the environment around us. It’s the part you and I have to work on while we’re on this earth. 1John 3:2(NIV) encourages us to accomplish this work by setting our minds and hearts on our Christ reality, because this is the person God has destined us to become. This verse tells us, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

You and I can’t alter our real lives one bit. They are hidden in Christ for safe keeping. The only thing left for you and me to do is to reveal our gratitude for what is hidden in Christ, by demonstrating outwardly what is hidden inwardly. We are commanded by God to be Christ-like by living, loving, sharing, and being like him more and more each day. This is our destiny! This is how we affirm our truest, highest selves—by making sure our everyday walking-around, soulish-self is mirroring our eternal self that is hidden in Christ! It’s walking in his love! Walking in his love is walking in the truth, for he tells us in John 14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

You are being your true self as you make choices and decisions that line up with your Christ reality and identity. If you make choices and decisions that do not line up with your truest self, you will betray the core of who you really are. When this happens, your life will then mirror this betrayal. You will have given the enemy, the author of confusion and chaos, an opening. We don’t want to do this.

What should you be doing?
Understand that God designed the universe to respond positively to our highest self in Christ, because our highest self in Christ is the truth. In 2Peter 1:5-7(NLT), He tells us, “5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.” This is our call to action—the kind of action that backs our faith. We are to respond to God’s goodness with actions that are morally excellent, intelligent, disciplined, patient and persistent, and most importantly, Godly.

Why are you doing it?
The reason we should be responding to God with actions that are morally excellent, intelligent, disciplined, patient and persistent, and Godly, is because these are actions that keep us in fellowship with Heavenly Father. These actions represent the truth of who we are, and who He has made us to be. They speak to our Christ reality, and place us squarely on the path to our destinies. The one thing of which you and I must be absolutely sure is that God has a good plan for our lives. Our destinies are far greater than any of us can imagine, and the purpose to which you have been called fits perfectly in His plan. Everything that God created was designed to be successful. We were created to be successful and blessed, and when we align our wills with God’s Will, His plan for us will beautifully unfold.

We come to earth with deficits, but God’s plan is to help us make sense of our lives, to give us direction, and to do a work in us through the Holy Spirit. We are not perfect, we are being perfected in Christ moment by moment. Hebrews 12:2 (NLT) tells us, “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” We must walk in the purpose for which we’re called, because it is our destiny to have all that God desires us to have and to be all that He has called us to be. Get wisdom, and get understanding, so you can order your steps in His Word, and walk according your destiny.■

Overcoming the Discomfort of Dissatisfaction

Posted on February 20, 2023 by daaorg1214

Discomfort is often a calling card for change. This is a truism that we need to be reminded of constantly. We’re creatures of habit, and we like being able to count on the familiar. Even individuals we consider to be spontaneous and impulsive have made a habit of not adhering to plans and schedules. Inevitably, we will all come to a place in life where the status quo will no longer work for us. It’s a place where we begin to feel a strong sense of dissatisfaction with the way things are, and we know that something in our lives has to change. For some of us, going into the same building, seeing the same people at work, and doing the same job day in and day out has become very dissatisfying. For others, the dissatisfaction is closer to home, because they’re unhappy and unfulfilled in their relationships. Most of us can put up with agitation on certain fronts, but when we’re totally dissatisfied to the point of feeling feel down about ourselves, something must change, and it must start with our prayer lives.

Prayer should always be our first step
1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. Our Heavenly Father is not telling us to pray twenty-four hours a day. He wants us to rest and take care of our obligations and responsibilities. He also knows that we have occasions during the day when we can and should devote quality time to Him. This verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us to be very careful that we don’t neglect these opportunities. We are to use them to pray with discipline and diligence. God wants us to make prayer a habit pattern because prayer is one of the most powerful instruments of change that Heavenly Father has given us. Quite naturally, when we begin to notice that our lives are losing vitality and fulfillment, praying to God in the name of Jesus Christ should be our first step. Ephesians 6:18(NLT) tells us to “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”

Prayer creates and maintains an open line of communication with Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. We talk to Him with an earnest and humble heart, and He speaks to us as well. Often, it’s not hearing the counsel of the Lord that develops a dissatisfaction with life. Heavenly Father doesn’t want us in this state because it opens the door to temptation. We saw this with Adam and Eve. God blessed them beyond measure and provided everything they could ever need. They were tempted by a plan of the devil to manipulate them. They allowed themselves to believe his lies over the truth of God’s Word. Once doubt entered their minds, the devil then landed a one-two punch with temptation, and they fell for it.

Getting to the Root
When the sadness of dissatisfaction with life persists, it can cause even the most mature Christian to abandon good judgment and opt for what they believe is an immediate fix. We can start to view money as the solution, and get ourselves into a debt situation. People have been known to pick up gambling and over-indulgence to put a band-aid on their pain. In marriage, a sense of dissatisfaction with our spouses may give the devil an opening to tempt us to step outside the marriage–to think that the grass is greener on the other side, when in actuality our souls are withering, and our partners are reflecting this decline back to us.

Spiritual maturity will always press us to recognize that dissatisfaction with external situations is a calling card to look within. Often, when Jesus Christ healed an individual, he pointed out to them that a mental and emotional adjustment had to occur first. In Mark 9, when a father sought him for the healing of his son, Jesus Christ clearly pointed out that the father had a responsibility to believe, because the son wasn’t in a condition to believe for himself. In Mark 9:22, the father begged Jesus, “Please have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” This word ‘IF’ nullifies faith. Jesus wanted to help them, but the father of the boy created an atmosphere where faith would not move.

Responding to Christ
1Timothy 2:5-6(NLT) are such powerful verses regarding our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This passage tells us, “5 For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.” We have a Mediator in the person of Jesus Christ. To mediate is to intervene for the purpose of bringing about a result, reconcilement, and/or agreement. Mediation is what Jesus did for the father of the son that needed deliverance. Jesus Christ knew both the problem and solution. He told the father in Mark 9:23(NLT), “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

Jesus Christ delivered a straightening rod in the form of a question and an answer. You can be guaranteed beyond certainty that Jesus Christ will respond to you, because this is what Mediators do; they respond, or else how can they mediate? In the world system, a person typically will trust a mediator implicitly. How much do you trust Christ? In the world system, a person would understand that the mediator only wants what is in their best interest; therefore, they would tell the mediator the absolute truth. Have you told Jesus Christ the absolute truth? Have you come to him with every detail of your pain? Are you using a person, situation, or thing to camouflage your doubt in God’s Word?

We should be praying to God in the name of Jesus Christ, asking Him to help our unbelief. Like he did with the father whose son needed deliverance and healing, Jesus Christ will respond to our prayers, and will do so in a way that brings out the thing that is blocking our faith. He will direct the Holy Spirit that indwells us to point out any “IFs” in our mind-and-heart-set. It’s an internal thing, we can be most assured of this. We should then respond to Christ with full surrender, allowing him to guide us through as we leave doubt and dissatisfaction behind us. ■

Is a Flaw Keeping Your Blessing Hostage?

Posted on February 13, 2023 by daaorg1214

Aisha grew up in New Jersey, with three brothers. Even though she’s the oldest, her younger brothers were always very protective, and they still are today. She’s 43, has never been married, and has been in and out of relationships most of her adult life. She wants a man that makes her feel as protected as she’s always felt with her brothers, but inevitably, she ends up being disappointed. In her view, the men she’s dated haven’t been able to live up to this standard. She swore off dating for a while but is now open to it again. I had a conversation with her a little while ago. She had met someone new at her job and they went out on a date. She told me she experienced a really awkward moment on the date when he asked her a question. She really struggled to answer it and was embarrassed about it. He wanted to know, “What is a beautiful woman like yourself still doing single?”

Driving home that night, all Aisha could think about was why she had such difficulty answering this question. In her conversations with girlfriends, she had been accustomed to blaming character flaws in the men for her past failed relationships, but there was something about the manner in which this man asked the question that left no room for blame. She would have to look within for answers, and this was something she hadn’t done to any great degree before.

Aisha is undeniably a beautiful woman, but her manner at times can be likened to putting a bull in a china cabinet. She has a negative filter when it comes to a lot of things, and she views many people and situations through a very critical lens. Things that would be better left unsaid, she says them; and her criticisms are almost never tempered with love. The thing is, she doesn’t put herself through this same scrutiny.

All of us have flaws, but we can’t afford to use this as an excuse. There are certain flaws that impede our destinies, cause us to walk outside our purpose, and they cause us to miss out on the blessings God has stored up for us. Ultimately, these particular flaws take us so far outside the Will of God that they harm our relationship with Him severely. These are the flaws and weaknesses that we’re in the earth to address. They spawn the lessons that continue to cycle back until we either learn them or die. Arrogance will always keep us blind to this, but through humility, God will give us the grace to see it.

Romans 10:9-10 (NLT) tells us, “9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” Believing in our hearts and confessing with our mouths are required for the new birth reality. It is the only way to receive salvation. God makes it clear that it is the heart that makes the difference, for this is where love abides. We must swap out the heart that causes harsh judgement and undue criticism against others and exchange it for a heart that welcomes kindness and compassion.

Ephesians 5:25 tells us that God’s standard is that a man loves his wife just as Christ loves the church. Christ loved the church so much that he offered up his life for her. This allows us to know beyond a shadow of doubt that truly a man can love a woman this way, because God has told us it is so. The question for the woman is whether her heart draws this level of love. It will be challenging to do so if her heart is filled with remnants of fear and darkness.

Demonstrating the love of God must be at the top of our agenda in life and in relationships. Once we are anchored in it, this love then becomes actively engaged as we give it out, but you can’t give something you haven’t practiced within yourself. When Aisha was asked why she’s still single, she came up with, “I’ve been patiently waiting for the right fit.” It sounds good, but it didn’t feel authentic to her soul, and she couldn’t hide it. She very much wants things to work out with the man who asked the question. So, she has begun to confront some things that she has hidden behind for many years.

God doesn’t want us running away from the truth ever. And the truth is that, to the extent a flaw keeps our blessing hostage, we must confront it and do the work to get it handled. It can be very uncomfortable, there’s no mistake about this. Aisha must learn to lean on God for her protection, and not look to a man to be something more than what he is. God will often work through the man, but all protection comes from Heavenly Father, and we should never think anyone can do it better than Him. There must be room in our hearts to accept that the right fit for us may not be strong in all the areas we expect, but they will help to build us up as we seek to fulfill the purpose to which we are called.

Making Right Decisions

Posted on January 2, 2023 by daaorg1214

If we are honest, we all have to admit that sometimes we get a little ahead of ourselves. God blesses us to achieve success, and when it comes to important decisions, we might begin to think that we do not have to lean on His intervention and guidance as heavily as we once did. This is an area where we have to be extremely attentive, and not slip back into old habit patterns. We have to remember the many sticky situations that God has delivered us from in the past, because the truth is that life is becoming more complex. More is at stake now than ever before, and even small decisions and choices can change the course of your life. So trusting God in the area of decision making is extremely important for us.

Most of us get it. We know that we need to hear from God before we make important decisions, but sometimes we lose sight of our spiritual status; more to the point, we fail to remember that God is a Spirit (John 4:24). He communicates with us in spiritual ways. This puts the responsibility on us to make sure that we are spiritually able to hear Him speak as He tells us which path to choose and what decisions to make. There are some practices that we can put in place that will help us to do this.

Ponder your past
Sometimes we forget how costly our past mistakes were, especially the decisions we made when we were maybe too impatient to wait upon the Lord. I know a very talented lady that prayed about whether or not to start her own business, or to continue working for a large corporation. She and her husband had saved a nice retirement nest egg. They were hard working, Christian people with a passion. Her husband loved her dearly and supported her in the decision to leave her job. She felt she received a definitive ‘yes’ from the Lord, simply because she had not received a definitive ‘no’. As it turned out, this was not the best decision for her or her family. They forced the timing, lost much of their nest egg, and it ultimately broke up their marriage.

Really the only times that God wants us to focus on our pasts are those times when we seriously need a reality check. It’s true what they say; sometimes we need to remember where we’ve come from in order to help us get to where we’re going. Proverbs 4:26 (NKJV) tells us, “Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.” We should do this not just for the path we are about to take, but in some cases, we should also think about those we’ve taken in years gone by.

It’s true for all of us that some of the paths we’ve chosen in the past have landed us in a lot of hot water. Maybe we chose to continue in a toxic relationship or maybe we left it too early. Some of us have taken jobs that were not optimum for our personal growth, and some of us have stayed at the jobs we are currently in far too long. Mistakes that were made in the past have long-lasting repercussions, and some of us are where we are because we didn’t use the wisdom of God’s Word. Heavenly Father blesses us of course, but it is always good practice to ponder the instances of our poor choices, so that we become more established in patience, faith, and better judgment.

Trust that God Will Guide You
If we will look back over the times when we’ve walked according to God’s Will, we’ll have a good basis to recognize that it is indeed His Word and His way that establishes us. It gives us a solid foundation that we can depend on, especially during the times we are unsure.

Psalm 25:12 tells us, “Who are those who fear the LORD? He will show them the path they should choose.” Talk about the Lord’s willingness to guide His people, you don’t get any better than this!!! The word ‘fear’ in this verse doesn’t mean that we are to be afraid of God. It means to honor and reverence Him. He promises to guide those that reverence Him, and show them the right path. So we can’t ever say at any point that we trusted Heavenly Father to guide us in our decisions, and He did not do so. When we are honoring Him the way that we should, He will steer us in the right direction every time.

Make sure you have the right motives
Things like selfishness, pride, and arrogance can block our way. Sometimes when we go to God, we consider only the outcome we desire for ourselves without any compassion and thoughtfulness for others that may be affected by our decisions. I have prayed for blessings that I thought initially would benefit my entire family, but these were things that had been my life long dreams, and not theirs. In these instances, I prayed for God to help me make the right decisions as to whether or not I should proceed, but I didn’t feel as though I received a definitive answer. I wondered why, and began to get upset. I thought that I was deserving. This is a harmful mindset of entitlement that many of us have without realizing it.

Upon deeper reflection I discovered that the things I wanted and prayed to receive would have made things more challenging than helpful for my family. I had to repent for being selfish and prideful. We have a responsibility to clear our hearts of any such heavies prior to going before the Lord.

Be willing to yield your preferences for His
God has a plan for our lives. Ephesians 1:4(NLT) tells us “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” God handpicked us long before we were born. This doesn’t mean that our whole lives are prearranged. It means that God has already laid a path and made a plan for us that is based on His Word. It’s up to us whether or not we will follow it.

In Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT), He 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.”” The path for our lives has already been chosen. It is a narrow path, and it is a good one. God would not have us to be confused, not knowing the difference between left or right—right or wrong. He is an on-purpose God, and everything He does is purposeful. You and I should be extremely interested in knowing what God has planned for us, and we should be very committed to following it.

The fantastic news is that Heavenly Father knows what is best for us always, and if we’ll lean on Him and trust in His guidance, He’ll show us the way to go. Proverbs 3:5-6(KJV) tells us, “5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Often we have different motivations for wanting to make one decision over another, but we do not know the future, God does. We must acknowledge the sovereignty and omniscience of God. He knows the plans He has for us.

Sometimes He speaks to us inwardly, through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Other times He speaks to us through His Word, other people, and even our circumstances. The important thing to know is that we don’t have to look to the left, nor to the right when it comes to making decisions that please God and are the best for us and our circumstances. If we’ll just be willing to offer up our own our preferences and opinions, have patience, and continue to be prayerful, He will continually direct us to make the right decisions for our lives.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Seven Things You Should Never Tolerate in Your Life

Posted on December 19, 2022 by daaorg1214

There is one thing that you can know for sure, and it is the fact that God has empowered you to shape and mold the quality of your existence. This power is extended to us through Jesus Christ, our powerful Lord and Savior. He made it possible for us to be the master builders that the Apostle Paul referred to in 1Corinthians 3:10. God never intended this vehicle called life to be one big, out-of-control mess. He is a God of supreme order, and through His Word and the example of Jesus Christ, we can take authority and begin to fashion our existences through the help of the Holy Spirit that indwells us. Part of doing this is drawing a line in the sand and being firm about the things we will not tolerate and give place in our lives.

#1 Draining Relationships
Jesus Christ taught us the importance of unity and respect in our relationships. He modeled this for us in the way that he interacted with the disciples. Ephesians 2:21(NLT) tells us, “We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.” As the body of Christ, we can see how dependent we should be on one another, but not everyone will see it this way. Rather than adding to our walk in Christ and blessing us to go higher in our walk with him, we may find that some people are very draining. They limit our enjoyment of life, and it doesn’t feel good to be in their presence. If you find that this person’s negativity is bleeding into important aspects of your life and keeping you from living a joyful existence, you are well within your rights to put some distance between you and them.

#2 Negative Conversations
One of the things that we will often dismiss is our responsibility to govern what we listen to and hear. God tells us in Colossians 3:8 to not let filthy communication come out of our mouths, and this should also remind us to steer clear of it all together. Proverbs 17:4 (NLT) tells us, “Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip; liars pay close attention to slander.” This is not the person that God wants us to be. It is important for us to remember that participating in negative conversations or listening to them can have a long lasting and negative effect on our lives, because there is most assuredly a price to pay for indulging them.

#3 Defeating Self-talk
We’ve heard it said a number of times, but it really is the truth; we are often our own worst enemies. Never is this more true than in the case of beating ourselves up with thoughts of inadequacy, and feelings of self-doubt and insecurity. David said in Psalm 139:14 (KJV), “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” David knew that he wasn’t a perfect man. He had made some mistakes, but he also knew enough to understand the omnipotence, sovereignty, and omniscience of God. Heavenly Father has predestined each of us according to His divine Will and plan. Having a healthy respect for our individual uniqueness will aid our Godly endeavors. So we can never dismiss or diminish that we are masterful creations in Christ. We don’t have time for defeating or negative self-talk. Instead, we should busy ourselves by honoring our standing in Christ and having confidence in our ability through the Holy Spirit, because this is praise to the Almighty.

#4 Ingratitude
Gratitude is a strong sense of being truly thankful for what has been done for you or on your behalf. Colossians 3:17 (NLT) tells us, “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” Gratitude is a dominant attribute in the culture of heaven, and it is a legal requirement of operating by faith. Tolerating ingratitude in our Christian walks is not only harmful to our relationships with God, but also to our ability to remain in a state of well-being. Psalm 97:12 (NKJV) tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.” Our hearts should be so filled with gratitude that merely thinking about the goodness of God, and all that He has done for us should ignite within us feelings and thoughts of pure thankfulness. So we would do well to put off feelings of entitlement and arrogance, and to make thankfulness a continual and firmly engrained habit pattern for the duration of our lives.

#5 Living without Fun
None of us deserve all of the blessings that we have received, but the truth is that God chose us on which to lavish the fullness of His love, mercy, and grace. Not only that, He has made us worthy to receive these wonderful blessings through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In John 10:10, Our precious Lord told us that he came to this earth to make a more than abundant life available to each of us. It’s true that some of us are living beneath our privilege, but this is something we can change. We can start by having confidence that Heavenly Father wants us to have fun and enjoy life. This is a very meaningful aspect of living an abundant life.

We see so many unhappy Christians, and we should be the happiest of all people because we have the knowledge of what Christ has accomplished for us. Not only is it possible to be happy and have fun as a Christian, but the Spirit will help us to make the most out of every moment. He will help us discover new interests and to develop new talents. We just need to have faith in God’s desire to see us happy, and then make a conscious decision to enjoy our lives.

#6 Ignorance Regarding Your Purpose
Sooner or later, we will all come to a place where we’ll realize that journeying forward will be extremely difficult without knowing ourselves on a deeper level. You were handpicked by Heavenly Father to be His very own, and everything He does is purposeful. When we recognize this, we can then begin to reflect upon our lives more constructively.

So few people know why they are here, and most often it is because their eyes are closed to it. They take life as it comes without using the tools that God has given through His Word, the example of Christ, and the indwelling Holy Spirit to find out the purpose for their existence. God demands that we seek His Will and place it above all else, and we shouldn’t ever tolerate living a life without knowing our purpose and committing ourselves to walk in it.

#7 Living Outside of Your Integrity
Integrity is a deeply embedded allegiance to uphold qualities like being honest and having a strong sense of do-rightness. It is also a state of being whole, complete, and undivided. All of us have a register of integrity that is based upon things that we absolutely will not accept in ourselves and others. It’s a threshold that we understand and compute as a level that is too low to go. As we grow in Christ, our level of integrity should rise; not go lower.

God has created us with a trigger within our souls that automatically goes off when we are about to make choices and decisions that undermine the core of who we’ve been called to be. Some of us have become so accustomed to ignoring this trigger in certain areas of our lives that we don’t even recognize it any more. One of the greatest gifts that we can give ourselves is to pause, listen to that inner voice, and examine whether something is well with our souls. In these cases, we need to wait for the ‘all clear’ from the indwelling Holy Spirit. He’ll give us warnings before we head in a direction that violates the integrity of our very beings.

As Christians, the way we move throughout our existences daily should be built upon the mind and heart of Christ. Each of us has the capacity to build up ourselves to extent that we flat-out refuse to accept things that move us away his example. The bottom line is that when we take a stand on the integrity and authority of Christ, we will find that everything in our worlds will follow suit. ■

Kick Pain to the Curb!

Posted on November 28, 2022 by daaorg1214

Release the pain and anger of past heartaches and embrace the
victory God gives us through Jesus Christ!

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14(NLT), “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” In order to get the full impact of what God is teaching us through Paul in Philippians 3:13-14, we need to know a little bit about Paul’s background. At one time, his mind was so blinded by satan that he actually authorized the persecution, murders, and imprisonment of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The things he had been taught were wrong, and because of this, he was going backward instead of forward. He fed his mind and heart lies and misinformation. He became full of arrogance and surprisingly, he thought he knew what God wanted.

Before Paul was converted and gave his life to Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, he made humongous mistakes. Again, in his past, he was notorious for persecuting the very people that God commanded him to preach to after his conversion. So, when he started ministering the Gospel, as we can well imagine, it was an uphill journey. He understood that this was his purpose and destiny in Christ, but people had reservations because of Paul’s murderous history. They knew the things he had done, and it was hard for them to accept that he had been transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Paul became such a devoted and masterful teacher of the Gospel that the people could not deny that God was working through him. This is such a poignant example for us because Paul counted the things that he gained in Christ to be far superior to anything he had possessed or done wrong in his past. In Philippians 3:8(NLT), he proclaimed, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.”

This is the posture, mindset, and attitude that God expects from us. We have made many mistakes in our past. We didn’t know the Lord as we do today, and we may not have had the desire to please Him as we do today. Some of us have gone through painful divorces. We’ve injured others and we’ve been injured ourselves from broken relationships. The emotional heartache and hurt of this pain can be very challenging to get over, but like the Apostle Paul, none of us can afford to allow our pasts to define our present or our futures.

This is a choice! Each of us must choose to let the past remain in the past. We must do this for our own sake and for the sake of God’s Will and plan for our lives. God tells us in Ephesians 4:31-32(NLT), “31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” I recently had a conversation with a woman that is still enraged over the infidelity of her ex-husband. She refuses to get over how he treated her and their marriage. He’s moved on and is now in another relationship, but she is stuck in her past. This isn’t what God wants for any of us. He doesn’t want us to be blocked in our hearts and minds by something that occurred a long time ago. And if we’re keeping it real, none of us can change what has already occurred.

We can’t have a redo when it comes to our past. When those situations occurred, they may have impacted us in a very painful way, but instead of allowing them to trap us like quicksand, we should learn from them. We must understand that we can kick pain to the curb and keep it moving by attending to the things of God. We were born with God’s purpose in our DNA, and we will not be satisfied until we begin to walk in the destiny that He has placed us on this earth to achieve. We have victory in Christ! This is the truth! Paul recognized that everything outside of Christ is a lie, and everything in Christ is love, light, liberty, and life!

Everything in Christ is the truth! Our emotions may remind us of the past, but our emotions were never intended by God to govern our lives. Jesus Christ is Lord! He governs our lives, and nothing should ever come before him. We can be very emotional creatures, and as women, a lot of us base our emotional well-being on how the men in our lives respond to us. Instead, we should base our emotional well-being on how WE respond to GOD. It’s not that God doesn’t want us to be committed to our spouses, but He requires us to make Him the center of our universe. This is a space and place that cannot be shared with anyone or anything, because God is love and we can only truly love others because His love fills our hearts to overflowing.

1John 4:11-12(NLT) teaches us, “11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” This is the goal, to love better through Christ. Don’t hold grudges and resentment and be angry for a lifetime; don’t allow yourself to go there. It’s so destructive to our entire being. Don’t make room for emotions and attitudes that don’t serve you well. Instead, be committed to let God’s love fill you to overflowing. Believe the promises of His Word and repeat them to yourself continually. Pray and ask God to give you a new heart and be confident in His healing and His desire to give you victory in your life.■

Domestic Abuse Awareness.Org

Breaking the chains of domestic abuse through the power of Jesus Christ.

Category Archives: Personal Growth & Development

Keep Bitterness Out and Love In

Don’t Let Anger Control You

A Clean Heart Creates a New You

God Wants You to Think and Feel Good

Being Your Truest, Highest Self

Overcoming the Discomfort of Dissatisfaction

Is a Flaw Keeping Your Blessing Hostage?

Making Right Decisions

Seven Things You Should Never Tolerate in Your Life

Kick Pain to the Curb!