What Happens When We Doubt Ourselves

Posted on November 6, 2018 by daaorg1214

Self-doubt is probably one of the greatest contributors to stress and worry. There’s an old saying which states that most of us typically worry about things we can’t control. At the end of the day, we really don’t control anything, but many people still run themselves in the ground worrying about the situations of life. It can be a never-ending cycle of trying to please others and looking externally for strength that should come from within. God wants us off this hamster wheel of insecurity and anxiety. It steals our focus from our relationship with Him and causes us to forfeit the soul work we really should be doing.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us that everything, without exception, has a season; and everything has a reason—a purpose for existing. God doesn’t deal in happenstance and ‘what ifs.’ There is no such thing as luck for a follower of Christ. We worship and adore an on-purpose God, and we understand that He has made us an on-purpose people. He tells us in 1Corinthians 14:33 that He’s not the author of confusion. He doesn’t allow ambiguity and chaos to hangout in His crib. He anchors His kids in purpose. This is good news indeed, but what if you don’t know this about God? A person can’t rise above what they don’t know or believe. So, if this person doesn’t believe in purpose or buy into the reality that they have one, they’ll most likely cast their net in the shallow soil of self-doubt and worry.

In the New Testament Book of Mark, chapter 4, Jesus Christ taught God’s people using the parable of a sower that had some seeds. As any good farmer would do, the sower spread the seeds in several different places. Jesus tells us in Mark 4:5 that some seeds fell on shallow soil that had rocks beneath it. One of these seeds did what seeds do; it sprouted. Jesus tells us that it sprouted quickly, and the reason for this is because, again, the soil was shallow. He then tells us that the seedling soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it couldn’t develop deep roots because of the stony ground beneath it, it died.

Our Beloved Big Brother goes on to explain to us in Mark 4:16 that the seed on the rocky soil represents folks who hear the Good News about all that he has made available to us, and they get happy. They receive it with joy, because it’s so different from the negativity they’re used to. They’re accustomed to hearing the wrong messages about their uniqueness, gifts, and value. “It’s too good to be true…” the devil whispers in their ears. So, as soon as trouble comes—as soon as the abusive behavior begins again, it gets too hot. They give-in to self-doubt, fall away, and don’t allow themselves to become deeply rooted in God’s love.

Jeremiah 17:8(NLT)
“They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”

The seed is like us in many ways. We have more potential than we know what to do with. God has given us our purpose. It’s to spiritually grow, to be fruitful, and multiply in every good way. But self-doubt is rocks in the soil of our lives. It will only allow us to become a seedling, when God’s Will and intention is that we become a tree.

2Corinthians 9:8 tells us that Heavenly Father can pour on the blessings in ways that will blow your socks off. He wants to do this for us so that we thrive with confidence in Him, with roots that can reach water even when the sun’s heat feels too hot. We never have to doubt ourselves when our confidence is in God. So don’t give-in to negative thoughts about yourself. Instead, recognize how important you are to God and His plan, and let Him teach you about your purpose. He’ll nourish your roots if you’ll trust His Word. They’ll grow down into the Lord Jesus, and self-doubt will shrivel up and wither away.■

Learning to Love God’s Way

Posted on October 30, 2018 by daaorg1214

The term ‘self-government’ is used to define the rights that God has given every individual. None of us have the capacity to look into another person’s heart and know what or how they’re feeling. We don’t have the ability to know exactly what another individual is thinking. Only God knows this. Psalm 94:11 tells us that He knows our thoughts, and Psalm 139:4 reminds us that He knows what we’re going to say before the thought of it is formed in our minds. Jeremiah 17:10(NLT) states, “But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Heavenly Father knows us intimately. Even though we speak negative words that do not please Him, we think bad thoughts, and harbor feelings of resentment, anger, and all kinds of toxicity in our hearts; He will not prevent us from doing these harmful things. He will never violate our free-will choices to feel, think, speak, and do as we choose.

Jesus Christ tells us in John 14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life. His example provides access to God and to life everlasting. 1 Peter 2:21(MSG) says, “This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.” Jesus taught us that choosing a life of love isn’t always going to be the easiest choice, but it will forever be the best choice.

Every day, life presents us with choices to help us learn how to love through our Master Jesus. He demonstrated to the tee everything that God would do as a human being. He said, “The Father is in me, and I am in the Father”(John 10:38), and in John 5:19, he said that he doesn’t independently do a thing, but only does what he sees the Father doing. This is precisely how God wants us to live love, so that we will have victory and triumph in our own lives. We don’t have to know someone’s thoughts or see into their hearts, we just have to love with the wisdom, strength, and courage of God’s love.

When God chose the planet earth for our habitation and then created humanity, it was His intention that we would live in fellowship and harmony with Him. We should notice that He would not force this harmony on us, because forcing is not love’s way. He gave us freedom, and our choices could not be exempt from it. He has shown us by example that the way to govern wholeheartedly is through love. It is not a sappy emotion with no backbone. Loving God’s way is the epitome of strength and authority.

Isaiah 9:6(NLT) states, “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Before the birth of Christ, humanity had taken God’s plan for harmony and love and we spoiled it. In many respects, instead of benefiting from God’s great love, we found incredibly destructive ways to brake the rules. Jesus Christ was sent to earth on a special mission. He came to wake us up and reveal the Father’s heart to us. The government rested on the shoulders of Christ. This means that the highest blessing, benefit, and righteousness that could be extracted from God’s plan rested on Christ. He did not let God down, and he didn’t let us down either. He accomplished all that God required and desired him to do. Love won!

Government is control exercised over actions. Again, God didn’t give us government over others. He gave us the ability to govern ourselves, and to do it so expertly through the love of Christ that all things will work together for our greatest good. This is God’s promise. We live in an environment where many allow their emotions to govern them instead of governing their emotions. This is not the way of Christ, and it is not the way to walk in faith. God created us to reign and have authority in our own lives. Studying His Word and learning to love His way, day by day, will bring us in alignment with His purpose. It will cause us to bask in the liberty and joy that Jesus Christ made available.■

Feeling Invisible

Posted on October 16, 2018 by daaorg1214

The first time I heard the phrase, “Complete in Christ”, I didn’t quite understand it, but I was desperate for the truth it holds. I had made the decision at a young age to become a follower of Christ, but like many people who have been abused, my brokenness was deep. Understanding the reality of being totally complete and whole presented a vision for which I had no blueprints to construct. I didn’t see it among those that I loved and had done my best to honor. They couldn’t protect themselves from injury, and in my mind, they certainly couldn’t and didn’t protect me from it. My cherished ones were silent in their pain, and I learned to be as well. I made myself invisible that way.

Often, I felt left out at social gatherings and functions, as if no one thought enough of me to pay attention, or to be interested in my opinions and what I had to say. It took years before I understood that people were simply responding to my tendency to hide. Also at work within me was my need to be validated by others. All the self-help gurus tell us to avoid letting our choices be ruled by other’s opinions. We’re led to believe that seeking validation from others will harm our self-worth. “Be happy with yourself…” they say, but this is much easier said than done.

I didn’t want to be self-indulgent to the point of fooling myself that external pleasures would satisfy an internal hunger. Call it a keen instinct or a gift from God, but I’ve always been able to discern a surface reality from that of something deeply rooted. I wanted the latter for myself. So, on my journey towards accepting the wholeness that Christ offers, one of the greatest lessons I learned is that a physical fix will not take care of a spiritual problem. This level of awareness opens a person’s eyes to what may be buried beneath years of struggling for self-appreciation.

Colossians 2:10(NLT) states, “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” God tells us exactly what makes us complete. It’s our union with Christ! He also warns us in Colossians 2:8 against listening to folks that’ll have us searching under every rock for a wholeness that can only be found in Christ. He tells us to watch out for people like that. They try to dazzle us with big, intellectual talk. They spread ideas that really amount to fluff, and it doesn’t get at the root of our pain, or what we truly need for our souls to be healed. Everything of God is expressed through Christ, and when we invite and accept him into our hearts, he begins to live there. His love is the magnifying glass that makes the invisible visible.

God has blessed us with a physical body, but the bounty of His blessing rests within us, the part of us that His Holy Spirit calls ‘home’. 1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) tells us, “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.” When we begin to honor what God honors, to have faith in what He has faith in, and to think and speak what He thinks and speaks, we step into the visible likeness of Christ. Our goals are misplaced if they are to find treasures in the acceptance of others, or in an identity that really isn’t who we are. We need soul surgery by the Master Surgeon. His love is the medicine we desperately need, and we need to open our hearts to our Lord and Savior so he can do for us what no other can.

His love dwells in our hearts through our faith in him. We may feel invisible because we look to things that can be seen to make us feel relevant. Heavenly Father wants us to look to Christ and become rooted and grounded in him. Something spiritual happens when we do this. We will gain a comprehension that defines our true essence, because it brings enlightenment of the width, length, depth, and height of the love of Christ. Our faith in him transforms us, then we’ll see ourselves through the eyes of his love, and that’s what really matters most.■

Quaneesha, the Dragon Slayer

Posted on June 27, 2018 by daaorg1214

Whenever the subject of anger comes up between Christians, its common to hear a rationale that goes something like, “Well, Jesus Christ got angry when he turned over the tables in the temple, so it’s okay to be angry.” Ephesians 4:26(NKJV) tells us, ““Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,” This gives us some meaningful context about the emotion of anger. We all get angry from time to time. God warns us not to allow our anger to control us, particularly to the point of carrying it with us to bed at night. The problem is that many of us not only let the sun go down on our wrath, we harbor it to full-blown deep and tormenting resentment. That’s when anger insidiously betrays us. It can explode out of nowhere.

Typically, deep-seeded anger is different from that of ordering two fast food hamburgers and finding only the buns with nothing between them when you get home. Still hungry and mildly frustrated, most of us would get over this fairly quickly. But in today’s climate, even simple mishaps and seemingly minor infractions have caused some people to go completely off. It doesn’t take much to surmise that a powder keg has been simmering underneath, waiting for an opportunity to unleash. We see a lot of this expressed through road-rage, something that was virtually unheard of some twenty years ago.

Road-rage was Quaneesha’s wake-up call. She never learned much about cleaning up a kitchen or tidying up a living space, but the one thing she keeps immaculate is her car. It’s a bucket, but it’s hers, and she cherishes that car. She didn’t think she’d ever have a car of her own because for the longest while she lacked the confidence to drive. Even after a few driving lessons, she was convinced that she’d never be able to do it. She was 26 years old when she discovered that driving wasn’t nearly as scary as she once thought, and now she loves to drive.

Her abuser used her insecurity about driving to keep her isolated, afraid, and under his control. God has given us many precious gifts. He’s given us the authority to succeed and triumph in our own personal lives, and to live them to the fullest. The one thing that He did not give us was power over another person’s free-will choice. 2Corinthians 3:17 tells us, “For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Liberty is a defining characteristic of the goodness of God. He’s given it to us through Jesus Christ, and in Galatians 5:1, He warns us to never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on us!

The ugliness of our own fears is that sometimes we grow dependent on others in extremely detrimental ways. We allow them to usurp the liberty and strength that God has given us. We develop a habit of moving from fear to fear. Growth is stunted and self-confidence is compromised whenever we attempt to swap one form of bondage for another. We were created to live free.

Abusers prey upon our weaknesses and fears, and often use them to gain and maintain control over us. God tells us in Romans 8:37 that we’re more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, who loves us. I don’t care how weak or strong we believe ourselves to be, through Christ, we are always exponentially stronger than we think. Quaneesha witnessed this when her abuser and ex-boyfriend, Richard, was involved in a road-rage incident that almost cost them their lives. When it happened, he tore out of his car without any regard for his own life or her safety. It was the wrong place, the wrong time, and the wrong people to mess with, and Richard almost didn’t survive the showdown. To save them both, Quaneesha had to drive, there was no other way.

She saw Richard in a different light. It made her face the reality that she had spent most of her life on the edge, all because she feared someone else’s rage. Until that moment, she had not realized how exhausted she was with living that way. Richard had not protected her, as a matter of fact, the thought had not even crossed his mind. Rather, she protected him. Sister girl drove that night!!! She faced double jeopardy and slayed that dragon of fear and oppression. Quaneesha kept right on driving. She drove Richard out of her life and her out of his. Through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we’re stronger than we think, and as our trust in him grows, so will our confidence in ourselves.■

When Bitterness Gets A Rub

Posted on June 12, 2018 by daaorg1214

Hebrews 12:15(NLT) tells us, “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.” During the time in which God inspired the Apostle Paul to write this epistle to the Hebrews, Christians were being horribly treated, and many were executed for the sake of the gospel. It was a very tense time and as one might imagine, people were stressed. We’re living in stressful times today, but I don’t think it compares to what those before us endured. Still, the pressure of dealing with various challenges can cause a person to behave differently than they might otherwise. This was true thousands of years ago, and it’s true today. Pressure can cause us to harbor the wrong emotions. So, God’s warning in Hebrews 12:15 is a very important one, because it informs us that what grows in our hearts can take root in our lives.

Our emotions and feelings can get out of hand when we’re under duress. This can cause bitterness to fester within, and we’re not always aware it’s happening. God’s desire is that we look after one another and be concerned about our brothers’ and sisters’ welfare. This is one of our Christian duties. It’s a way that God can work through us to comfort one another, especially during hard times. But when bitterness is operating within, we can’t always pickup love’s call. It gets blocked. Therefore, we must do all that we can to get bitterness out of our hearts.

Years ago, I was betrayed by someone that I loved very much, and it hurt me terribly. I agonized over the loss for many weeks. Unwilling to confront the situation with maturity and grace, or to accept any responsibility for how things turned sour, I became very angry. At the same time, I was dealing with an issue at work, and felt I was being treated unfairly by my boss. Both things did a whammy on my head and heart. It was as if I was looking at someone else live my life. I was unhappy, and snappy all the time. I treated people I cared about poorly, and I don’t think I had ever raised my voice in anger the way I did back then. It was an ugly time. I internalized the anger and disappointment I felt, and blamed others for it. I had become very bitter.

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.” God would not tell us to do something that we’re incapable of getting done. He’s not giving us a suggestion here, but a directive to put away the bitterness, along with all its compadres. He’s made us totally responsible and accountable for the evil behavior that comes with bitterness, and He’s also made it very clear that it’s a choice to do so.

Hurt, heartache, and disappointment are heavies. They weigh us down, but they are also part of the human condition. Not only do they cause us to experience an avalanche of other emotions, but they can make us feel as though things are not going to get better. The special person that’s chosen to move on, the friend that betrays us, the family member who abandons or that isn’t there when we need them most; these circumstances are painful, but they are burdens we don’t have to carry alone. God tells us in 2Corinthians 12:9 (NLT) “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” He will carry the load of our hurt and devastation. He will pick up the pieces and make our lives all we dreamed they would be.

We can miss the grace of God if we continue to allow bitterness to take root in our hearts. A negative outlook spoils the growth of newness, and allows corrupt attitudes to poison our hopes. Through Jesus Christ, we can be so much better than this, but we have to want to be. God has warned us severely about letting bitterness take root because it is a contagion that is pervasive if allowed to go unchecked. It spills over into every aspect of our existence, and many of us have grown incredibly comfortable with it in our hearts. I know folks that have lived with bitterness so long that they won’t allow God’s love to go near it, not even to give it a rub.

The greatest thing that we can do for ourselves is to surrender our pain, anger, and disappointment to Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. When we allow His love to takeover, bitterness is rubbed out, and our faith in Him is polished in the process! We need to ask Him to do a work in our hearts—to perform surgery on us through His love and give us a new heart. This should be our prayer—our open invitation to Him. He’ll do this for us, because He loves us, and He wants the joy of His glory to light up our hearts.■

You Deserve God’s Best!

Posted on May 15, 2018 by daaorg1214

In my opinion, the most insidious part of abusive behavior is manipulation. Many of us fall into this trap without realizing we’re doing it. There are things that we said we’d never accept, things that were a part of our zero-tolerance boundary, but gradually, we give up little pieces of it. We’re spoken to dismissively, as if our opinion has no value. Our level of commitment to the relationship is taken for granted, and we compromise the affection and warmth we deserve for even the smallest demonstration of care. Not only are we not getting what we need, we’re not sure we even know what that is anymore. We have to come to grips with the reality that manipulators can pull us in and pull us down before we know it. They are both perceptive and deceptive in ways that undermine our emotional well-being.

Any time we tune out our own self-worth for the sake of accommodating someone that isn’t emotionally stable or available, we’re denying ourselves the opportunity to develop spiritually. God is extremely interested in our well-being. In 3John 1:2, He tells us that He wants us to be in good health, and He wants our souls to prosper. Well, this can’t happen if we’re hurting ourselves and using someone else to do it.

God teaches us throughout His Word that the foundation of our relationship with Him is faith. In Hebrews 11:6, we learn that without faith, we can’t please God. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that all good relationships will be founded in pretty much the same way. Trust will be a central component. Not deception and manipulation, but wholehearted trust that is anchored in honesty, support, generosity, and kindness.

God’s Word gives us the perfect visual of what this trust looks like from all angles, His and ours. He tells us in 3John 1:4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” In John 3:16 (NKJV), Jesus Christ said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And in John 10:10, he 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. God’s got our backs! All day and in every way, He’s taken care of us. Mentally, emotionally, physically, and most importantly, spiritually; He solidified everything we will ever need, and then He said, “Trust Me!”

He gave us the goods first, through our Lord and Savior, and then lovingly begs us to place our faith in Him so that we can share in all His wonderful treasures. Note that God did not ask us to place our trust in shabby, empty, or bottom-tier promises. He gives us eternal blessings and seals them with a guarantee that equals the unfathomable glory of His name. Let that one marinate with you a little bit.

He wants us to walk in truth. He gave us His one and only magnificent and powerful begotten Son, and through him we have life that never ends. God has made a more than abundant life available through Jesus Christ. Most of us would be happy with just an abundant life, but God deals in the exceedingly abundant! He’s made it possible for us to have more than we can possibly imagine through Christ. Ask yourself why?

Why did Heavenly Father give us these exceedingly precious blessings, and why is it so important that we know about His promises?

Here’s the uncompromising and unyielding truth, you will only accept what you feel you are worthy to receive. Your relationships will mirror this in every way.

God, the Creator of the universe, has given us such extraordinary blessings and promises, because He wants us to know how HE sees us. He wants us to measure our worth by HIS standard, not by the standard of someone that is narcissistic, selfish, and manipulative. That’s not the best, and you deserve God’s best. ■

The Salt in Your Salt-Shaker

Posted on April 24, 2018 by daaorg1214

I remember the first time that I heard Colossians 2:10(NLT), an indescribable feeling came over me. This verse says “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” The Holy Spirit did a work in my heart as soon as I heard those words. I have no doubt that it was because I had always felt so incomplete as a person; like no matter what I set out to do, I was doomed to fail. It got to a point where I felt that the safest thing for me to do was to just expect to fail at whatever I attempted. That way the disappointment would not come as such a surprise.

This was no way to live, but it was my reality for longer than I wanted, and my relationships with men followed suit; they were almost always disasters. God’s Word sparked hope in my heart, and I have to say that it was a scary place at first. The hands of my heart had been firmly clinched around a glass-half-empty existence. Part of the problem is that I grew up struggling with an image of God that I didn’t understand. I was trying to believe that He loved me, but couldn’t reconcile it with what others were saying and teaching about Him.

I had extraordinarily loving people in my life that were supportive and nurturing, but I also had individuals that were supposed to love and protect me, but didn’t. I saw and experienced things that no child should, and I always wondered why I was being punished. Why did God allow me to suffer? I could never enjoy my present for the dread of what might happen in the future. This created a dark cloud, and it lingered over my life for the longest time. I didn’t know how to identify it. I thought it was God punishing me, but as I matured spiritually, I came to understand that this dark cloud was the residuals of not knowing who God is, who I am, or why I’m here. It was the entrapment of fear.

God tells us in Hosea 4:6 that His people are destroyed because they lack knowledge. Ignorance destroys. It can destroy the lives of those who never learned to love with Christ in their hearts, and it can also destroy the lives of those under their span of influence and care.

Jesus Christ cleared up my confusion. He said in Matthew 5:13 The Message (MSG), “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” In the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ, saltiness is the flavor of love, power, and goodness; God’s people should bring this seasoning to the earth. Without knowing that we’ve been empowered by God to bring the salt and to flavor the lives of all who know us, we might start to feel like garbage, but when we know better, we can do and FEEL better!

Understanding God’s love has planted a seed of light in my spirit. It has created a hunger and thirst in me for righteousness. It fed me in a way that fueled hope, despite my pattern of self-punishment. The bond between me and disappointment began to crack. I became confident in this person called Christ, and it led me to speak his truth to the one that had oppressed me. In that moment, I thought to myself, “Where did that come from? Is that my voice? Who said that?” This moment was a building block upon which my new future would rest.

1 John 4:18(NKJV) tells us, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” God does not punish. Embracing the truth that He’s on your side, that He will never leave or forsake you, and that He has a wonderful plan for your life; trust, this is the salt in your salt-shaker. Sprinkle it everywhere you go! ■

Deceived by Our Own Hearts

Posted on January 16, 2018 by daaorg1214

One of the most troubling patterns in a woman’s life is not recognizing when her own vulnerabilities are causing her to miss the mark. I’m reminded of someone that I know who, from outwardly appearances, looks like one of the strongest persons you’ll ever meet. Everything about her seems put together, and I’ve visited her home, it’s equally fierce. Beautiful furniture, impeccably arranged, and every room is spotless. She’s a very successful attorney with a penchant for younger men, and no matter how apparent the signs appear to be, she never suspects their infidelity or the fact that she’s being used for her money.

In the case of her current boyfriend, I’m personally convinced that he cares for her, but there have been numerous events that would have caused the average sister to turn him loose months ago. She hasn’t, and it’s troubling to witness. It’s not a good situation. When questioned about her choices, she says, “The heart wants what it wants.” Ain’t that the truth. That’s exactly why God warns us in Proverbs 4:23 (NLT), “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” To guard is to watch over in order to protect or control. The heart is a part of the soul, and God has charged us with the responsibility to watch over and protect it. He knows that our propensity is to allow our hearts to not only make our decisions and choices, but to rule over them as well. This governing position belongs to Christ. Only he is capable of always steering us in the right direction.

Guarding our hearts not only involves what we allow to flow out of it, but also what we allow to come into it. Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:45(NLT), “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” This verse informs us that the heart has a treasury. It has storage capability, and sometimes it has some unnecessary and unhelpful baggage. All of us are works in progress, and part of our soul-work is to come clean to Heavenly Father about our stuff.

God has given us a mission in life. It requires our understanding of what He’s asking us to do, as well as our commitment to do it. Within our mission to please God and grow in Christ, there are certain tasks that we unequivocally must do, and confronting our baggage so we can get rid of it is one of them.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that we can be deceived by our own hearts, because our hearts can and do at times lead us astray. Our human hearts can cause us to veer off the path that God wants us to be on. This is why He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT), “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” God knows our futures. He knows the person that is best for the path that He has purposed and laid before us.

We should never allow the fear of loneliness to undermine our relationship with God and cause us to betray our own destiny within His plan and will. God wants the best for us, and when it is clear that we don’t have it, or that what we have isn’t building us up but tearing us down, then we must examine our hearts. Because if we’re trying to hold on to something that is harmful to our souls, fear is running the show. Whenever that happens, the outcome might cause us to look the part of someone who has it all together, but deep down, we’re falling apart, and we need God’s love to heal our wounded places.

We’ve probably all encountered a friend that doesn’t want to admit the truth to herself, and it might feel as though we’re not able to help, but prayer is the very best help we can offer. It’s a privilege to pray for them in faith. We should also let their examples remind us to put our own vulnerabilities in check, so that we can continually obey God’s Word and produce good things from the treasury of our hearts.■

Let It Go

Posted on January 1, 2018 by daaorg1214

The world is filled with chaos, and we would all do ourselves a huge favor by cultivating a relationship with someone who doesn’t add to it. For some of us, this is a tall order, because we have an underlying belief that draws chaos into our lives. This isn’t God’s Will for us, and it is very important that we know this truth. Heavenly Father is a God of order. 1Corinthians 14:33 informs us that He’s not the author of confusion, and 1Thessalonians 5:23 tells us that He’s a God of peace. He gives every individual the option of introducing His peace into their lives. To do this, sometimes we must let some things go.

Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV) declares, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” This is an amazing reality! Through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father has blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings. ‘ALL’ means all. Colossians 2:10 (NKJV) tells us, “and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” God has made us complete in Christ. Through him, we are a total spiritual package. It is absolutely available for us to walk in this, but we know that not all of us will choose to walk in what God has made available.

In Ephesians 4:24, Heavenly Father admonishes us to put on the new man. This means that we have to put on new thoughts, new attitudes, and new behaviors that line up with our new reality in Christ. We can’t be the same people we were two years ago, two months ago, or two weeks ago. God gives us a chance for renewal every 24 hours, and it is up to us whether or not we’ll make use of it. He reminds us daily that this earth is not our home, we’re just passing through. We’re interdimensional beings because our physical bodies are on earth, but our hearts and minds should be constantly at home in Christ.

Some of us might ask ourselves, “With all the spiritual blessings we have received through Christ, why does life have to be so challenging?” God doesn’t intend for His children to be the devil’s punching bag. He doesn’t want us to go through life constantly in a state of ducking and diving, but we cannot under any circumstances escape the reality that we’re here on this earth to learn lessons about the love of Christ. We are here to walk in partnership with God, to place our hand in His hand so that He can lead, guide, and direct us through the rocky terrain of our challenges. Our spiritual lessons are revealed in literally walking out our hand-in-hand relationship with God daily, but far too many of us are not focusing on walking with Him. Instead, we’re clinging to people, situations, addictions, or things. We’re holding these things too tightly, so the spiritual lessons we must learn are often about release and surrender.

Spiritual lessons not learned will always be on repeat; that’s part of God’s masterful design. If we don’t learn spiritual lessons the first time, situations and circumstances continue to circle back and present those lessons until we do. Sometimes, when they circle back, the consequences of not learning them are a little harsher than before. So, we would do well to open our eyes, be attentive to the Spirit, and learn the lessons that are before us. But the truth is that it often takes us a while to wake up. This is why my constant prayer is that Heavenly Father will help me to see what I need to see, in an effort to learn my lessons well.

God cosigns the overwhelming importance of spiritual lessons through the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 5:11-14 The Message (MSG). It says, “I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.”

Jesus Christ is the head of our lives. He wants to make them function with a harmony we simply couldn’t achieve without him. He starts us off with baby’s milk, but love will require us to digest the meatier, weightier nourishment of spiritual life. Lessons that require us to release those things that no longer serve us well are solid food, because they give us the strength to reach out and embrace the things that will propel us forward, with greater wisdom, love, and faith.

God is our sufficiency. He’s everything to us and we can’t do anything without Him. Jesus Christ commands us in Matthew 6:33 to seek God first and live righteously, so that we can remain covered by His blessings and protection. We can’t get this prioritization piece mixed up. We must not prioritize anything above our God. He will forever and always deserve the number one spot. Only the Lord can lead us to a life of endless possibilities, but it will require us to surrender totally to him. We must let go of anything that keeps us from growing in Christ. If we’ll be committed to do this, Jesus will help us kick the fear of discomfort to the curb, then we can be renewed continually as God’s love fills our empty spaces.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

God’s Love Doesn’t Hurt

Posted on December 19, 2017 by daaorg1214

A very good friend of mine has recently endured a tremendous amount of turmoil by the person she was in love with. Because his intention was to injure her at all costs, she feels completely broken, bewildered, afraid, and alone. This is truly not the way God wants His sons and daughters to live. He sent His only begotten Son to set us free, and a life of liberty is our right through the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants the best for us, and it isn’t His will that we’re punished by anyone. He doesn’t want us suffering any kind of abuse; emotional, mental, verbal, or physical. Love does not abuse.

1John 4:8(NLT) tells us, “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Our Heavenly Father is the definitive authority on love because He IS love. He knows how love should feel and what it can do. There’s no greater power in the earth than His love. He tells us in 1Corinthians 13 that we can know all His secrets and mysteries, but if we don’t have His love in our hearts, we won’t amount to anything. This is all we need to know about how important love is. It’s the way God intended life to be lived. We’re His kids, and He wants us to love others the way that He loves us.

God informs us so much about His love in His Word because He doesn’t want us to be ignorant about it. John 10:10 makes it clear that we have an enemy, the devil, and he is a thief, murderer, deceiver, and destroyer. Subtle deception is one of the tools in his arsenal; he’s a counterfeiter, adept at tricking us into believing that something false is the real thing. This happens quite a bit in our love relationships. It’s natural to want to give love and receive it in return. Sometimes we allow this need to be fed by a person that can’t reciprocate love in a healthy way. We make this mistake because we haven’t learned enough about God’s love from His Word. We haven’t made His standard the one by which we recognize and understand love.

My friend says that she will never love again, but it isn’t clear that what she felt for her abuser was indeed love, at least not the kind that comes from Heavenly Father. 1Thessalonians 5:5 (NLT) tells us, “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.” God’s love brings us into the light, so that we are not bamboozled by the enemy. His love opens our eyes to what real and true love is.

When we learn to love God’s way, we don’t have to be afraid of loving anyone, because 1John 4:18 tells us that God’s love will cast out fear. We begin to walk in the rich truth of this verse as we study and meditate on God’s Word. The more we know about His love, the more the indwelling Holy Spirit will help us to mature and grow into the people that God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit does this work within us as we commit ourselves to love God’s way.

1Corinthians 13:4-5(NLT) tells us, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.” Love does not hurt. It encourages, inspires and motivates the giver and the receiver to love more. This is what we should learn from the example of Jesus Christ. Through his life, ministry, and sacrifice, we see the Father’s heart. He wants us to know that there’s a difference between love and fear, so that we can choose to give and receive His brand of love and walk in the freedom and wisdom that it brings. ■

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

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