Devotion

I started reading Romans today, and, I confess I haven't got very far as I was struck by the first 5 words! 'Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus'!

The commentary I'm reading alongside it says that servant in this context is the same as the word slave. This implies Paul's complete and utter devotion to Jesus, Paul belongs to Christ without reservation. 

I was impacted by this as God seems to be speaking to me, and to those at Cornerstone City Church about being hungry for Him. I know that I have felt 'lukewarm' for a while and am desperate to be more impassioned with God. I admire Paul for his complete and utter devotion, and I want  my life to be about serving Christ Jesus without reservation.

As I was thinking about this I started playing some music, and what should start playing, but the song Devotion (great track by Jules Burt If you've not heard it) 

Here are some of the words that impacted me; 'I've come to be with you......you have my attention, you have my gaze, you will always be the one, you will always be my greatest love, here's my devotion, I am yours' 

 

I felt like I had to pray through this a few times as this is what I desire, it's not what I currently am/am doing in all honesty, but I want God to gave my attention I want Him to be THE ONE in my life, I want Him to be my GREATEST love.

I feel like I'm missing out on something, life's ok, but I know there's more out there and I want it! 

I am going to aim to put God as #1 in my life, starting from now, I don't wanna miss out anymore. I want to be a devoted, unreserved, servant of Christ do you?

I want to stand up and say, 'Jesus my passion is knowing you'. 

As it does so powerfully say in this song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzs3AE27_d8

Living in Lack

Romans 4:18-22

"In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised."

'In hope he believed against hope'

Ever had that feeling that you KNOW something is gonna happen even though it looks unlikely/impossible? 

This is having faith, whether you realise it or not.

My husband and I are living through this even now. 

For years we have been trying to have children, but as with Abraham and Sarah, we have considered our bodies, and it doesn't seem like its possible.

Eventhough ever since I was 12 I have wanted to be a wife and a mother, this hasn't quite been fulfilled yet. 

I am halfway there - I am a wife, and I thank God for that joy, I appreciate so much that God has fulfilled this desire. 

Yet there is that hope, that desire (yet unfulfilled) to have children.

I often call to mind, and remind God that Psalm 113:9 states, "He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!" 

This is a promise at God has given, and He is no liar, He tells the truth, His words will come to be, so I hold on to this hope. 

It sometimes seems easier to try to forget the deep desires of our hearts, as the waiting process can be very long and very painful. Look at Abraham - he had to wait til he was about 100!

So, I reckon he must of found a place where he found inner peace although he didn't understand why his promise had not yet happened. He still held onto the hope as he, "grew strong in his faith". He didn't wander off in sorrow & despair, he held on to something greater.

My question is: How can I get there? 

I don't think it's by shoving my hopes, dreams and desires to the back of my mind, shoving them under the carpet to be hidden away to gather dust. They will still be there if I do that, still as painful, but tucked away slowly causing hope to wither away. Snatching away any other sources of joy as it becomes the enormous white elephant in the room.

So what shall I do? 

Here are five things I think will help me to continue this path;

1)  I shall continue to hold onto the promises that, "He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;" (psalm 145:19) and that "the barren woman.......joyous mother of children" and I will remind myself that God is able.

2) I shall continue to seek Him for the solution, not myself, my body or anything else as these things will let me down.

3) I will live for Him, not for myself.

4) I will talk to Him about how I feel, the frustrations, sadness and despair at hopes unfulfilled. 

5) I will trust God that He knows best and that I don't. 

I want to grow strong in my faith as Abraham is credited with doing. I do not want lack of children to become the main thing of my life - what a depressing life that would be. 

If that were my focus, each and every day thinking about the lack in my life, the sadness would be overwhelming. 

You may not be suffering the sting of childlessness, your journey may have other struggles, but i think the same still applies. I encourage you, if you are overwhelmed by a lack in your life, choose to make the main thing (God) your main thing, and see how this affects you. It could change your outlook, and even your life!

I want God to be my main thing, the one at I focus on, hope and trust in. 

Protection

Where do you search for your protection?

I have seen the hand wash below, "protect" it proudly states. But what can it really do to protect you? is it really an effective form of protection?

If someone tries to; steal something, hurt someone or commit fraud, what will you do? Squirt them in the eye with it?

                                   

Some people are fortunate enough to have body guards, those paid to protect you, but even they are not much match for fraud, health problems or natural disasters.

So, where can we get real protection?

Ephesians 6:14-18 is all about the armour God gives us.

This is REAL protection, available to all those who trust in God. 

Ephesians 6:14 - 18; 'Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,'

You have truth - your mind will be no longer deceived, you are wearing the truth. Protecting your mind from the lies that tell us we are no good, unworthy and bad. We can combat those things with the knowledge that we are right before God.

You have righteousness - not the ability to always be right, but being free from wrongs, from your sin. This reminder can protect our hearts from the fear that we are not good enough, we don't match up.

You have readiness and peace - it's great to be ready, but I hate being in a rush. I forget things, drop things, and panic, so I definitely don't feel the peace in those moments. So being ready with peace sounds quite appealing to me, it protects us from the madness of rushing about! It makes our bodies ready for action so we can act calmly.

You have Faith - certainty, knowledge, assurance that God is with you and for you, no matter what. It doesn't matter what comes at you, you are protected by the shield. Look after it, keep it strong, and it will withstand, 'the flaming darts of the evil one'. 

You have Salvation - let your mind be made up through the knowledge that you are saved, you are in the family of God, and that cannot change. Jesus died for you, if you believe and accept that, you are saved. 

You have the Spirit/ word of God - God will guide you with His Spirit, be open to listen (that means taking some time out to listen, and being aware that God is with you every and any where). Let the Spirit guide you. One way He does this is through 'the word'. The word is the Bible. Read it. Think about it. Make your mind up by it and follow it. 

If you miss this out, how are you going to fight? This is your sword! The other parts are defensive protection, whereas this is an offensive weapon!

What I have noticed about this passage is that we are the ones responsible for wearing this armour. We are responsible for protecting ourselves. 

God provides the armour, but we must, 'take up', 'put on' and fasten these things to ourselves. 

God provides the protection, it's our responsibility to accept it. Like someone with a bodyguar, it's the persons choice whether they go through a mob without the bodyguard or not, if they go alone, they are at risk. If you don't put on this armour, you're at risk. 

The attack will happen whether you are wearing your armour or not. 

The question is are you going into the everyday battle with it? 

Joy in trials

This reminded me that a wise man, named James once wrote, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

For me, i am struck firstly by the first half of the first sentence! Does anyone have joy in trials? During the testing times every fibre of our being desires to be empathised with, to cry, shout, moan, hide or rage about it when things are not going well. But during those trials, are there also good things happening to? are there things that are wonderful and that can give us joy? 

And why would we want to consider difficult times with joy?

Consider this; what does reacting by; crying, shouting, moaning, hiding or raging do for us?

My experience is that it can build; anger, resentment, worry or distress. These things can lead to strain on relationships and health -mental & physical. So responding like this doesn't do us a whole lot of good. 

Maybe a different response would.

If we have hopes and dreams dashed, go through times of debt, depression or despair what would it be like if we were able to smile? 

How can we look at these times with joy?

I don't know about you, but I have found that I always learn something through the tough times, more than I do through the 'ok' times. Now, I try to concentrate on what it may be that I am learning, rather than feeling sorry for myself. It's by no means easy, I am a work in progress, but I am going to try a different response so hopefully they'll be a different outcome. 

Joy in trials? Let's give it a go! 

Blessings of life

A friend recently commented to me, "I know i could do with some wonderful things this year", a simple statement that got me thinking.

I know that life offers it's challenges, but I wonder, do we sometimes miss some of the wonderful things because we're concentrating on the trials? Can we be too focused on the difficulties and disappointments to see that wonderful things have indeed happened right under our noses?

Life can be challenging, disappointing and despairing at times but i know that i don't wanna miss out on the great, exciting, wonderful things that are going on because I'm distracted.

One spring i remember walking past a wood. I hadn't really looked, but I noticed the big bare trees. They looked quite austere, frightening and strong. This reminded me that life can have some huge boundaries in our lives (like the trees) that we don't know how to tackle or overcome as they are so huge. I didn't really take a close look as the bare trees weren't very pleasant to look at to be honest.
But as I carried on walking, I glanced over at the woods and suddenly noticed these beautiful bright bluebells springing up. This really surprised me. There were hundreds of them.

How had i missed them?

I realised then that we can sometimes be overwhelmed/blinded by the few big obstacles in life, failing to see the hundreds of beautiful, bright blessings.

I was so surprised that I'd missed appreciating those gorgeous little flowers.

I don't want to miss the wonderful blessings in my life.

So, no matter what huge obstacles come my way i will endeavour to search for those beautiful, wonderful things that enrich life,

So, if this year you are hoping for a some wonderful things, try taking a closer look at your life and see what is already there that gives you joy. I challenge you to take a close look, inspect your life and recognise the wonderful things that are already blossoming in it.

"whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Accessible God

At the moment I'm reading through a book of the Bible called Leviticus. The intro to this book states that Leviticus' central theme is the holiness of God.
It sometimes may be hard to read this book as it covers the instructions involving sacrifices and the law the Israelites had to follow. But let's look a bit beyond these instructions to why did God give them?

God is holy, pure and just. We are not. So we can't have access to Him as we are. Yet, God wants to be close to us. The purpose of the creation of mankind was that God wants relationship. So how can that happen?

For the Israelites, God's chosen people, God required animal sacrifices given in particular ways to remove their wrongs.
In our present day lives it may seem strange to hear about the particulars of animal sacrifices. But God had to have things done exactly, in a set order, in a set way. This shows how apart from us He is. God is holy.

God wanted to restore relationship with the Israelites (and us) so He made plans. He revealed to Moses how the everyday person can receive forgiveness and peace from God. God through Moses gave the Israelites instructions on how they could be made right with Him, even when they'd made mistakes - Blood had to be shed.

In Leviticus, God states, 'the life of the flesh is in the blood'. Blood has special purpose, it gives life to us, we are dead without it, literally and spiritually.
The thing is, you can only really get to the blood of something if it dies. Life can only come through death. Through the death of an animal (through the appropriate sacrificial ceremony), the 'life' of the blood was released so that in whichever area the people of God went wrong, life can be brought out of it instead of death.

This is how the Israelites lived, day in, day out, presenting themselves and their offerings to the priest in order to get right with God every time they did something wrong.

I don't know about you, but I think about how many times I get things wrong.
The truth is, I would be seeing the priest quite often in one day, animal in hand.

I love the fact that we have the opportunity to read about how the Israelites could get access to God. This shows how blessed we are because its difficult for us to understand as we haven't had to live like that.
We don't need to get access to God that way.

Because there was a man called Jesus. The Son of God, who is holy, pure, and just.

Jesus followed the law and fulfilled it. Jesus is the last sacrifice that we have to hold up before God.
Jesus is the; atonement, free will, peace, sin, consecration and guilt offering.

Jesus is the one sacrifice that removes all sin, past, present and future.

Jesus was not offered up by us, but by God. Jesus, an innocent, holy, pure and just man, chose to die horrendously and have his life blood shed by being crucified on a cross. So that we, in our everyday lives have the opportunity to have access to a relationship with God. Through faith in Jesus all our sins are removed, forever.

This is no small thing. This is something not experienced by those everyday Israelites.

We do not have to shed blood, we do not have to approach the Holy Place, we do not even have to go through ritual cleansing and wear special clothing.

We...... just...... come.

God is accessible whether you're at work, home, cleaning or eating. I am so grateful that I can come to God even before I've brushed my teeth or had a shower! I don't need to go through a process to be with my God. He's there! The real question is; how often do you meet with Him?

He's waiting.

Doing it all alone?

Was really challenged by this clip (watched up til 2:04); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sxaoRAZ2c8
Most people are busy, including me, and don't have a lot of time for themselves. But what is that keeps us so busy? Who has told this woman and us that we need to do all this stuff? Have we put unrealistic expectations upon ourselves about what we should achieve?
Think about the guy's response in the clip. Is there anyone else that can help bear our loads? i thought about how the man's response is probably like God's response to us when we feel overwhelmed with what's going on. He is there and willing to help. We need to talk to Him, let him know our internal discomfort and He can help us, just ask.
Be brave when doing that though because God may suggest some changes! Maybe re-prioritising some things. Are you prepared to let a few things go that are important to you if God says so? That's the real challenge. Seeking what God wants and doing it, despite how you might feel. Let me assure you that if you choose God's way, He will never let you down. He can provide the peace that surpasses all understanding.