Blog: Glimmers in the Fog by Kim Stiver

How to Hear the Voice of God Part 1

5/23/2019

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Note: This is part one of two-part series. Originally published last year, this newly-expanded message is now offered as an enhanced podcast and includes an all-new five-day devotional guide at the end of this post. As the most requested topic from my readers and class members, learning to hear God's voice is crucial to grow closer to Him, share His love more effectively with others, and follow His plan.

How to Hear the Voice of God; Eight Ways He Speaks

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Jesus said His sheep will know His voice. For years, that foundational truth frustrated me. Despite the fact that I made a decision to follow Christ at the age of seven, it would take me another 20 years or so to get to the point where I could unequivocally say I had heard God’s voice. Now maybe I am just a slow learner, or stubborn, or lacked the belief that He actually wanted to speak to me, but most of my spiritual efforts in my twenties were spent vacillating between trying to hear God and figuring out what in the world was wrong with me that I couldn’t. So if you’ve ever wondered what God’s voice actually sounds like, or if you’ve reached the desperation point in your quest to listen for the “still, small voice,” be encouraged that He does want to respond to you.

My A-ha moment came when I realized this: His voice may not come to me in the way I imagined it would, nor would it be what I expected. And that right there was my biggest problem for two decades. I was looking for God to communicate with me in a certain way, and it wasn’t until I began to do four critical things did He begin to slowly whisper truth to my spirit. First, I had to lay aside my preconceived notions, expectations, and desires. I had to realize that God does not fit in the box I designed for Him in my mind. Second, I had to come to grips with my unbelief. Yes, I loved God, but I had tucked away some serious doubts in my heart. It was time I jumped all-in to trust Him with my life — in every area. Third, I had to learn to listen. My prayer life had been entirely about me talking to God. Being still for me was like asking a five-year-old not to fidget when she has to pee, which is related to the fourth thing I had to learn. I had to train myself to wait … patiently. Corrie Ten Boom, an author and Holocaust survivor, once said, “If you want to hear God’s voice clearly and you are uncertain, then remain in His presence until He changes this uncertainty. Often much can happen during this waiting for the Lord.” I’ve now learned that sometimes I need to wait a long time (even days or weeks) and press into Him before He speaks, but the beautiful thing is that the waiting has now become a peaceful time of learning to trust.

So if our expectations about God’s voice can hinder us from hearing Him, how does He speak? How will we know if it’s Him? Thankfully, that roadmap is clear, but we have to prepare for the journey. AW Tozer said, “God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear.” And I would add, He also speaks to those who are purely motivated to draw close to Him for the sake of knowing Him better for who He is, versus being motivated simply to hear His voice. God doesn’t have the patience for us when we desire the glamorous. If we envision ourselves hearing His voice like Charlton Heston did in The Ten Commandments, or if we long for something big and dramatic so we can feel important, the Spirit of God will not speak. God wants us to desire Him. He wants us to seek Him for who He is and love Him with 100% of our being… just because. God is about the relationship with us, first and foremost, not the plan.

There are many, many ways God can speak to us, but here are eight of the most common ones.

1. The Word speaks loud and clear. We must start with — and become deeply grounded in — the primary voice He speaks with: The Bible. And there are no shortcuts on this. Period. You will never hear Him clearly and profoundly through other means if you don’t first learn to hear Him through Scripture. When we saturate our hearts and minds in the Word, we learn to hear what His voice sounds like. To identify God’s voice, you must first learn to see your identity as being in Christ, and that is accomplished by absorbing Scripture. When you go into God’s Word, expect to meet up with Jesus. You’re not reading for reading’s sake. Instead, you’re training yourself for an encounter with the living God. This was one of my biggest mistakes. I wanted to jump right to hearing God independent of any other means. I both underestimated and ignored the Bible in terms of being an intensely personal, relevant voice to my heart. A serious error on my part, because I didn’t realize the truth of Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Because the Word is alive, it searches your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, making it possible for Scripture to be miraculously and specifically customized just for you and what’s going on in your life… right now. God speaks most commonly through His Word, and if you believe that fact, approach it with that expectation, and be patient, you will not be disappointed.

2. Thoughts that are not yours may be God’s. Sometimes God speaks by planting a specific thought in our minds. This happens to me in prayer, but only when I’m actively listening and being still. If I’m talking incessantly and without a conscious desire to be interrupted, then the Holy Spirit cannot get a word in edgewise because my mind is drowning everything else out. You’ll probably find this to be true as well. If you adopt a heart posture of being humble and interruptible, God will talk to you throughout your day and invade your thoughts more and more. When He does give you a thought, it may suddenly come out of the blue or it may be a gentle tugging at your heart that builds in intensity. It is almost always something you would not naturally think of or be inclined to notice or do on your own (I Corinthians 2:14). And how do you confirm that it is indeed God giving you the thought? I’m going to cover that next week in part 2 of this message, but the short answer to that question is to ask yourself if the unexpected thought lines up with Scripture. If there is anything about it that contradicts the Bible, then it is not from Him.

3. A deep-seated, inexplicable “knowing” can overcome you. There are times when the Holy Spirit may saturate you with an overwhelming peace about a decision or an unwavering conviction about a situation with an outcome that would otherwise be completely unknowable to you. This has very rarely happened to me, but when it does, the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit’s presence and assurance is almost palpable, as well as being the polar opposite of what I should be feeling (or what my mind tells me to feel) at the time. The Bible frequently speaks about the eyes of the heart, and how only the Holy Spirit can cause us to see God’s truth and experience His grace.

4. All creation sings His praise and sometimes we can hear it. When we have the ears to truly be still and listen, we can see and hear God in nature every day. Whether in the awe-inspiring power of a storm or the serenity of a mountain lake, if we take the time to pause and invite God to reveal Himself, He’ll show up every time. The inspiration may not be directional or specific in nature, but the sweet trill of bird’s song or the sheer vastness of the ocean can speak to us of God’s sovereignty, attention to detail, creativity, and so much more. In Luke 12, we find Jesus telling the disciples to consider creation… the lilies, the birds and the grass. God takes care of them in ways that blow our minds. Next time you are outside in some glorious place, pull out your phone and use a Bible app to read Psalm 29.

5. Divinely directed dreams and visions still happen today. Acts 2:14-21 makes it clear that God speaks in this manner and will do so with increasing intensity in the last days. This has only happened to me perhaps twice in my lifetime, but I know other believers have experienced this more often. Dreams and visions are God’s version of virtual reality. With life-like splendor, He may stir your creativity, motivate you, warn you, or invite you into spiritual warfare through your dreams or a vision. Because of the intensity of this kind of communication from God, you may be left feeling a little shaken or awed, as was Moses when He saw the burning bush. But, take comfort that God is with you and run to the Word to test what you experienced and seek God in prayer for final clarity or direction.

6. God plants ideas and changes our minds… a lot. Don’t ever underestimate a change of heart, a new thought process, or a sudden burst of innovation or creativity. Over and over in Scripture, God directly intervenes in human behavior and stirs a sudden heart change or perspective shift — all without the person’s awareness. So the next time you realize that your attitude (or someone else’s) has improved or your desires have shifted to become more Christlike, take a moment and thank God for speaking into your life. Psalm 37:4 promises us that if we delight ourselves in God, which means we find our source of joy and meaning in loving Him, that He will put into our hearts His desires (and slowly remove ours). If you want to know God’s direction, then pursue knowing Him above all else, and His voice will ring loud and clear in your life.

7. There is the (slim) outside possibility of an “outside” voice. What I mean by that, is the Bible makes it clear that God has been known to speak audibly to people. In other words, a real bonafide voice that your natural ears can physically hear coming from outside your own head. So because the Word indicates it can happen, the option remains on the table. That being said, I’ve only met one person who’s experienced this, and most Biblical scholars believe that it is very rare due to the Holy Spirit’s presence within believers since the resurrection. Before Christ, the primary way to hear from God was through a supernatural, physical experience, such as a pillar of fire, a burning bush, an audible voice, an angel, etc. But with the gift of the Holy Spirit, God himself has taken up residence inside believers. We all love reading about the physical appearances of God, especially in the Old Testament, but instead of longing for that to happen to us, we should instead praise Him that Jesus is now with us, speaking into our lives 24/7.

8. God may use others to carry His messages. I saved this one for last because it’s the trickiest one to get right. God may deliver a word for you through someone else. It is very common to sense the Holy Spirit whispering to your heart to listen to something specific during a sermon, a blog or podcast, or even while reading a book. I can’t tell you how many times God has spoken to me by grabbing my attention during someone else’s message. As always, though, you want to line up whatever you hear with Scripture to make sure it’s truly from God. Where it gets a little trickier, is when God personally delivers a message just for you — and only you — to someone else. It does happen, but you should be even more hyper-vigilant about vetting that message through the Word and through your own personal prayer time. Never assume that the other person heard God correctly — even if the other person is someone you look up to in the faith.

Next week, I will address this last method more fully, alongside the hallmarks, or key characteristics, of God’s voice. But as you move through the next several days, begin looking and listening more than ever for subtle hints of His voice. A whisper of “I love you,” may gently caress your heart through a warm spring breeze or an incredible sunset. A nudge of direction may suddenly come to you as you wait before God in your quiet time. The important thing is to get alone with Him, commit to spending time with Him, and then working to still your busy mind to listen. He longs to speak to you even more than you long to hear from Him.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Five-Day Devotional Guide: For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Day 1 - Read Isaiah 55:8-9. In what ways is God nudging you to better prepare to hear His voice? (See the 2nd paragraph of the blog post.)
Day 2 - Read Jeremiah 33:3, John 9:31 and Romans 10:17. Which of the eight ways have you personally experienced? Take some time to recall them and journal about the experience. Which one do long to experience more of and why?
Day 3 - Go outside in your backyard, to a park, or anywhere that inspires you. Read Psalm 29 out loud from several different versions in the Bible in a place where you can be alone with Him. Then, take the time to praise Him for each of the ways He speaks in that passage.
Day 4 - Read 1 Chronicles 16:11, Lamentations 3:25, and Matthew 6:6. In what ways is God leading you to spend more time in His presence this coming week? Book each one like an appointment on your calendar.
Day 5 - Read Hebrews 4:16. What specific things would you like Him to speak to you about? Using a concordance or search engine, look for verses in the Bible that pertain to your longings to hear His voice.

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Prayer: The Ladder to Heaven

5/22/2019

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Sometimes the topics that come to my mind for the Glimmers blog overwhelm me. They are often far too big for me to even scratch the surface of their spiritual impact within a mere 10 or 15 minutes. But just when I am about to abandon one of these enormous ideas, the Holy Spirit nudges me more insistently to make the attempt. That’s when I usually venture into Matthew Henry’s whole Bible commentary, the unabridged version, for a deep dive into theology accompanied by a prayer for accuracy and understanding. With a type size that would make a contracts lawyer jealous and more pages than the Bible itself, I also ask God to help me get in and get out of the commentary in less than an hour or two.

Today’s topic sent me into Henry’s vast knowledge base, not once, but twice. And though I’ve been thinking about it for several weeks now, I still feel woefully unprepared to talk about it. The reason I’m sharing these feelings of inadequacy is because it’s so important to know that mystery of prayer, its power, its potential, its role in God’s sovereignty, and how it actually changes things cannot be fully understood by anyone. Anyone. Scholars, missionaries, pastors, great authors, and even scientists throughout the ages have all offered incredible theories, but the truth is that we cannot fully explain or comprehend prayer any more than we can fully grasp God Himself.

Prayer is the aroma of heaven itself (Revelation 5:8), the expression of God at work in us (2 Chronicles 7:14), a shield of protection (Matthew 26:41), and the mechanism by which God not only draws us closer to Him (Romans 8:26), but also releases His power here on earth (James 5:16-18). Just as the Word of God is Jesus (John 1:1), so prayer is God’s very hand stirring among the hearts of His children. It is an enigma that I am both mesmerized by and also long to have more of throughout my day. After all, scripture commands that we pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), so the closer we can move toward fulfilling that request, the more we will know and experience God.

The germination of this message about prayer all started with a vision I had in the middle of the night several weeks ago. I can count on one hand the number of times God has reached out to me in this manner, so my first reaction was to dismiss it as my imagination, which is particularly overactive in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. But the next morning, during my usual quiet time, the Holy Spirit kept bringing it to my attention over and over. So, after spending time praying, reading and re-reading the Bible passage associated with my vision, I was off to the big fat Bible commentary to explore what the scholar had to say about it.

The vision had come in the middle of the night. I was lying on my back staring at the tongue and groove ceiling above my bed, which was illuminated only by the faint light of a clock radio. Quite suddenly, I noticed something that I had never considered before. The low eave of the dormer, which I had hit my head on numerous times — either getting into or getting out of the bed — was close enough for me touch it, yet it reached all the way to the soaring rafters of our cathedral ceiling. There was no way for me to ever reach the top, but I could indeed touch a part of the ceiling with my fingertips. As I pondered this, which admittedly seems more amazing at 2 a.m. than it does now, the story of Jacob from Genesis 28:10-17 flooded my thoughts in mind-blowing detail. Scriptures coming to my mind are common, especially the ones I’ve memorized and relied on for many years. But Old Testament stories like this one haven’t been on the forefront of my thoughts since perhaps my fourth-grade summer in vacation Bible school. Yet, there it was: Jacob’s ladder in full color.

In case you’re not familiar with this story, I will quickly summarize it. Isaac told his son Jacob to go far from home and seek his bride in the land of his forefathers. Alone and afraid of his vindictive brother Esau, Jacob stopped for the night to get some rest outside under the stars. We pick up the story here, in verse 12. “As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and He said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions — to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you’.”

Like I am sure Jacob was, I lay there awestruck as I thought about the almighty God giving his children a heavenly bridge to connect with Him. For just a brief moment, God gave Jacob a glimpse into the glorious happenings all around him — things he would’ve never seen with human eyes. For weeks leading up to this vision of Jacob’s ladder, I had been seeking God in prayer and asking Him to help me understand His perspective on some troubling and puzzling things happening around me. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” So my belief was telling me that God is at work on my behalf. But my personal experiences were telling me that what I view as good is very different than what God sees as good. At the core of my mental wrestling match was John 15:16, which says in part, “Whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you.” But we all know asking God for a candy apple red Ferrari is not what Jesus meant by that statement. Most of us readily accept that God wants us to ask for what is truly good, not what we desire. But what about asking for healing from a serious illness or deliverance from an addiction? Sometimes we pray for those “good” things and they don’t happen. How can those things not be included in God’s definition of good?

So what does Jacob’s ladder have to do with any of this? I also wondered that until I consulted with Mr. Henry on the subject and then re-read the passage from Genesis again. The ladder from heaven gave Jacob a clear glimpse of God’s perspective on the troubling situation, but it also affirmed God’s plan for Jacob’s future. Jacob would not only survive this temporary trial, but he would also be a vehicle for God to bless the entire earth. This occurs through the coming of the Messiah, who was a descendant of Jacob. Jesus would become the bridge from heaven to earth for all of humankind.

After witnessing the heavenly spectacle Jacob exclaims, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” And with his faith bolstered in God’s promises, he then makes a vow in verse 20 to trust God for not only protection on his journey and his future, but even the tiniest of everyday necessities, such as food and clothing. In essence, he was committing to God that he would not worry about anything, no matter how small. He promised to trust God to determine what was good for his life, versus making his own plans. To seal his vow, he built a memorial pillar on the site and committed to giving God a tenth of all that he would gain from that point forward.

Suddenly I realized that I had been asking the wrong question all along. There is no need to ask God to help me understand what is truly good. If I knew all that was truly good before He brought it to me, then I would not need to have faith. To ask God to tell me what is good ahead of time is like asking Him to reveal the future to me. Instead, just like Jacob, I have a ladder to heaven right now. We all do. We can’t actually climb it until He calls us home, but just like my ceiling, we have a low eave that we can touch and gain immediate access to the heavens. It’s called prayer. Jesus is the bridge for our prayers. Through His Spirit, our requests — whether flawed or on target — are transformed before the throne of God as a pleasing aroma. The more we pray and see how God answers, the more the Holy Spirit trains our ears and eyes to discern what is truly good. It is nothing we can do for ourselves. It is the miraculous, transformative work of God.

Romans 8:26-27 explains what happens when we pray: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

I still don’t understand why some prayers take many years, or even a lifetime, to be answered, but I am now beginning to understand — just a tiny bit — that what I think or comprehend is entirely irrelevant. My mind is only a tiny grain of sand on the vast beach of God’s brilliance, power, and love. I’ve realized that my cravings to know anything other than God Himself are all rooted in a desire to please myself, in order to be more comfortable or to avoid waiting on His plan to unfold. It comes down to trusting the Holy Spirit to reveal what I need to know when God wants me to know it. And not a second before.

As I contemplated all of this and wondered if I could possibly capture it into words, God whispered to me, “I will never disappoint you, but your own expectations about Me will. Stop your wondering… allow your mind to stop spinning. Rest now. Rather than trying to guess what I will do, find freedom and rest in the simple enjoyment of expecting Me to do great things. You don’t need to know what they are. You only need to get to know Me more.”

Like Jacob, I have been given a glorious hope and a future through Jesus. And so have you. He is your ladder to heaven. And no matter what the situation around you looks like — good, bad, or downright ugly — when you gaze up at Him your vision will slowly begin to change.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Day 1 - Oswald Chambers once said of prayer, “We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer.” How have you seen prayer nourish the work of Jesus in you? Read Ephesians 3:20-21 and ask the Holy Spirit to help you catch a glimpse of what God might want to do in your life through the power of Jesus at work in your heart. Journal about what that might mean for you and how it should impact your prayer time.
Day 2 - Read James 1:17. How have you doubted God’s desire to give you good gifts? Pray and ask God to help you recall a time when you didn’t realize something that felt uncomfortable at the time was actually a good gift from your Heavenly Father.
Day 3 - Read Psalm 42:1-2. Has there ever been a time when you longed for a gift from God more than you longed for Him? Confess that to God and ask Him to fill your heart and mind with His presence.
Day 4 - Read 2 Corinthians 3:17. What freedom do you need today through the power of Jesus? Like a ladder to heaven, how does prayer help you get closer to that freedom?
Day 5 - Read 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. In what ways are you called to be a fragrance to others on behalf of Jesus? What role does prayer play in being a pleasing aroma?

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How to Get back on Track After a Big Setback

5/14/2019

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Get back on track after a spiritual setback

How to get back on track spiritually after a big setback

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I have been failing miserably for months now to do something important. A comforting habit I have conquered in the past through the power of the Holy Spirit, has come roaring back into my life during a time of being emotionally unsettled. As you may have heard me say before, most of my weekly messages are about what I am in the process of learning myself from the Holy Spirit. The key word in that last statement is “process,” as opposed to a word like “accomplishment.” That’s why I hope everyone who listens to or reads my blog knows that I am walking alongside you in this journey of faith, not reaching back to you with instructions from some pedestal of achievement. The only expert in our weekly conversations together is the Word, who is alive and speaking to us through His Spirit. I just try to get out of the way when God pours letters and sentences into my fingertips on the keyboard and out through the microphone. And believe me when I tell you that I struggle with being in His way… often.

And this is one of those times. Every moment in life is a teachable one when I let God be involved, but the Holy Spirit has been whispering to me for months now that I am not yielded to Him into a specific area of my life. I used to seek Him in that place, but now I have shut Him out again. I closed the door and clung to the dark comfort of an indulgence rather than learning to find a deeper, more satisfying comfort in Jesus. Have you ever done that? Reverted to an old, but an enticingly familiar habit, desire, activity, over-indulgence, or attitude? And when disappointment in ourselves arrives, shame and guilt eventually follow, which almost always results in further setback. And before we know it, we can be even more shackled to our mistakes and enslaved to selfish desires than we were when Jesus first came to get us. That’s because our natural state of existence is conditioned to repeat whatever makes us feel good with the least amount of mental or physical effort possible. If you are intrigued by the science behind this phenomenon, I wrote an in-depth blog post about this topic, which you can read here.

So how do we get back to where we want to be? How do we turn around when we’ve been letting our minds, bodies, habits, choices, or emotions dwell in — or even linger on the outskirts of — darker places? Once we get immersed into something we shouldn’t be — whether it’s as internal as a harmful way of thinking or as outward as the practice of materialism, how do we find the motivation to get out of the quagmire and set our muddy feet on the Rock of Jesus? When we desire for the mud to be magically washed away the moment we decide to give something over to God, how do we find the perseverance and patience to let the gradual healing of restoration take place?

The answers are found in Scripture, as they always are. In our quick-fix society, we just don’t like the often laborious and time-consuming solution that it offers. We want the grace, love, and forgiveness of being yoked with Jesus, but we’d rather not feel the weight of obedience to Him. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Our Savior walked in the land of temptation while He was at His weakest physically, so He doesn’t make that statement lightly. He knows firsthand how weak our flesh is. Jesus submitted His flesh to the ultimate torture and death, to make it so we can live victoriously in ours. So the first step in returning to wholeness from an area of defeat is to renew your understanding of — and gratitude for — the power that dwells within you. You are not owned by your passions, desires, or cravings. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” God did a miraculous work for us so that we could work to glorify Him through the power of His Spirit. This is the essence of our partnership with God and the key to our growth. John Piper said, “Grace does not replace effort in the Christian life, but empowers it.” When you focus on Christ as your source of strength, versus your own, you can take the next step of restoration.

As I was planning for this message, I struggled with whether or not to tell you what my particular setback is, because I didn’t want you to focus on it. I want you to fill in the blank with your own type of struggle. But if you’ve come this far in our journey today, then you’ve probably done that by now. You’ve realized that the Word of God applies to any mistake, sin, or habit you could possibly be dealing with. My struggle right now is finding comfort in food, when I should be seeking it from God. But the principles from the Word apply to anything that we desire more than we desire God. Through a reliance on Him, He expects us to control every aspect of our daily lives. Whether it’s bridling our tongues from gossip or anger or managing our finances to be generous. Our thought lives are to be free of worry or lust, and our bodies are called to holiness in every thing we do with them or put into them. Even our time should all be yielded to His direction.

Whatever you are tempted by or ensnared by right now, God will reveal a way of escape, custom tailored just for you, if you are ready to leave the mud puddle behind. There’s a battle plan outlined in scripture for every believer, but the specific tactical maneuvers will vary based on how God made you. What works for me may not be what works for you. But when we earnestly seek Him through the Word, in prayer, memorizing scriptures against our strongholds, and lifting our hearts to praise Him, according to Psalm 40, He is faithful to provide the resources, wisdom, and help we need. James 1:5 promises, “ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” When we’re open to receiving His wisdom, it may show up in a myriad of forms, but it will always be consistent with scripture.

If you’re ready to return… if your heart is ready to surrender your cravings and desires and allow Jesus to replace them with His, then you can begin the journey by doing two critical things: prepare to defend your temple, which is your mind and body, and put on the armor of God. Lysa TerKeurst said, “God made us to crave — to desire eagerly, want greatly, and long for Him. But Satan wants to do everything possible to replace our craving for God with something else.” When you’re ready for restoration, Satan is going to pull out all the stops against you.

In preparing to defend your temple for God, the Bible gives us endless amounts of encouragement with clear direction. Begin by asking God to examine your heart according to Psalm 139:23. Get to the root of why you have been doing or thinking things you shouldn’t be. What need are you really trying to fulfill? Journal about it and seek God in prayer and in your quiet time with a scripture-heavy devotional aimed your particular issue. Your longing for something other than what God wants is never about the thing itself. It will always point to a deeper need. Ask Jesus to help you seek Him for that need and change your desires.

Also, make physical preparations in your life to reduce your temptation. Do everything you can to make your environment conducive to seeking God and not your bad habit. Finally, make yourself accountable for your decision to return to wholeness. Whether it’s your spouse, a friend, a counselor, or a Bible study group, make your weakness and your intent known. A supportive partner in the journey with whom you can be vulnerable and who is not struggling in the same area that you are is very important. Just be careful of legalism and give yourself the grace to make mistakes along the way back. God doesn’t want your perfection, He’s asking for your heart. He wants you to worship Him, not the thing you have been stumbling over or even the rules you set in place surrounding it.

Next, as you go into battle, put on the armor of God from Ephesians 6. Verse 12 warns us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Take the time to read and study about the armor of God. Ask God to give you a battle plan using His armor to tackle every nitty-gritty aspect of your setback. Don’t wait until the whole plan is revealed, either. Take action immediately and then patiently wait on God to give you one step at a time. Remember, God knows what you’re capable of now and in the future. And those two versions of you are radically different. So don’t resist the Holy Spirit if what He leads you to do seems small at first. He’s looking for consistency in your obedience over a significant period of time. The more incremental and sustained your changes are, the greater the likelihood of your long-term success.

If you’re currently in the middle of a setback like me, then there’s probably a tiny part of you that is tempted to rationalize lingering in the mud puddle a little longer, after all, Jesus will be faithful to forgive you every time. But Love puts a check in your spirit when you think like that doesn’t He? The Holy Spirit whispers to you the truth of Romans 6. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions… present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” God’s grace and love for us are endless, but we cannot claim to truly know Him if our own love doesn’t compel us to obey and honor Him.

You may not be in a place of setback right now, but you could be there again — in a heartbeat — given the right circumstances and emotional responses. And thinking otherwise is exactly the trap that Satan wants to lure us into time and time again. It’s exactly what Proverbs 16:18 warns us about. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” That verse isn’t only aimed at non-believers — it’s a warning from God to His precious children. And the verse right before it tells us how to avoid the fall in the first place: “The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; whoever guards his way preserves his life.” We have to honor the guardrails that will keep us on the road toward Him. Every opportunity from God to draw closer to Him through obedience is also a prime opportunity for evil. Using the most insidious of strategies, Satan will attempt to use our own confidence… our own growth in Jesus… against us. Notice, of course, that I used the word attempt. You and I are not guaranteed to fail again. In fact, through the power of Christ within us, we are guaranteed to succeed eventually if we obey. (1 Corinthians 10:13) And it’s that hope that gets us off Satan’s merry-go-round of shame and guilt, and puts us back on solid ground again. We may find ourselves standing in an old territory or on a new battlefield, but we can begin walking toward God’s promised land again, no matter how far away we are.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Make a battle plan! Read the passage from Ephesians 6 about the armor of God. Write down each piece of armor on its own sheet of paper. For the next 6 days, take one piece of armor each day and answer these questions on the sheet of paper during your quiet time with God.

What do you think this piece of armor represents? (You might find the notes in a study Bible like this one to be helpful. If you don't own a digital or print study Bible, you can try this one online or on your mobile device for free for 30 days.)
How do you think God wants you to use this piece of armor in your life? What can it do for you with regard to your struggles?
What is He leading you to do to become more adept in battle with this piece? How can you learn to use it better? What spiritual disciplines is the Holy Spirit leading you to do more of or become more proficient at doing? (meditation, memorization, tithing, fasting, prayer, worship, accountability to others, serving others, etc.)
In the middle of a battle, what specifically is God telling you to do this with this piece of armor? How will you activate it? Be specific. Think about your triggers and brainstorm ways to defeat them with the Word, prayer, and alternative, healthier activities. You may have to alter your routine to avoid even healthy/neutral things/activities for a season to reduce your triggers and temptations. Even little changes to your lifestyle can mitigate the effects of powerful triggers. Rejoice that you will be able to return to them someday once you've returned to spiritual wholeness.

How to get back on track after a spiritual setback

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The Surprising Truth about Spiritual Laziness

5/7/2019

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The Surprising Truth About Spiritual Laziness and What You Can Do About It

The Truth About Spiritual Laziness and What to Do About It

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On the surface, spiritual laziness looks like not getting up early enough to pray and read your Bible, but it really goes much, much deeper than that. When I searched the Internet on this topic, the vast majority of articles and blog posts focused on the disciplines of quiet time, going to church, and serving others. And all of those things are critically important. But from my personal experience, those disciplines and commitments are almost impossible to stick with unless the root of spiritual laziness is dug up and destroyed. Not praying regularly, reading the Bible daily, and committing to regular fellowship with other believers are usually symptoms of something buried much deeper in our souls. It’s kind of like trying to losing weight. You won’t stick with a diet until your heart, mind, and soul are aligned and motivated to do so. You may persevere for a while based on sheer willpower and stubbornness, but it won’t become a lifestyle until the spiritual battle is won within the deepest parts of your being.

So what is spiritual laziness if it’s not the failure to regularly implement the classic Christian activities and routines? To discover this answer, we can turn to the Biblical analogy of trees and fruit, which is used more than a hundred times throughout scripture. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” In this verse, we discover that trust in God — a deep, abiding, unwavering, uncompromising trust — is the key to a fruitful life. That means that not trusting in God for anything and everything — i.e., worrying, trying to control outcomes, not submitting to God’s sovereignty — is at its core true spiritual laziness. Therefore, all of those wonderful and incredibly vital habits I mentioned earlier are the fruit of being spiritually active, but they are not the tree itself. The tree described in Jeremiah is fruitful because it’s rooted in the trust of the Lord, day and night, season after season, storm after storm.

If you feel slapped in the face right now, please know that I am right there with you. If I were to reveal my list of weaknesses, laziness has never been in my top 10. If anything, I am at times too energetic and too driven. A former boss of mine once said to me, “Your level of energy and dedication to your work makes your co-workers nervous.” And she didn’t entirely mean it as a compliment, and now many years later I have come to understand why. I’ve also realized that what shows up in my work habits is just as spiritually-connected as what comes out in my sacred disciplines for the Lord. Outwardly I appear to have it all together. My actions indicate a preponderance of fruitful behaviors and activities, but they only mask a deep, soul-level weakness — an overwhelming need to perform, to do, to achieve — all because I have unrecognized or unacknowledged trust issues with God. This is why being busy with the tasks of proper spirituality or duties of religion has in the past left me feeling drained, empty, and disconnected from God. But until recently I never realized that laziness had anything to do with it.

If this still doesn’t make sense to you, bear with me a moment more. The connection between laziness and mistrust is simply this: striving to trust God for everything takes great effort, put forth on a continual and consistent basis. And not just for a few weeks or months. Trust grows in layers throughout your lifetime. One decision or trial at a time. That means trusting Him even when we walk through long seasons of waiting, difficulties, or disappointments. When we don’t trust the Lord, it bubbles out into our lives in the form of busyness, trying to control situations or others, legalism, worrying, anxiety, escapism, the pursuit of accolades, or wealth, grumbling and complaining, and a whole host of other manifestations. Eugene Peterson, the editor of The Message version of the Bible puts it this way: “Sloth is most often evidenced in busyness … in frantic running around, trying to be everything to everyone, and then having no time to listen or pray, no time to become the person who is doing these things.”

A recent mental health article in the New York Times illustrates Peterson's point beautifully. “Laziness: it isn’t a characteristic usually associated with the anxious. If anything, people tend to view the anxious as more active and motivated than normal, because they are more haunted by the specter of failure. And yet long experience has taught me that it is laziness ... that is the foremost enemy of the anxiety sufferer, for laziness prevents him from countering the very patterns of thought that make him anxious in the first place.”

You may not be a worrier. Anxiety may be the last thing you resort to when times get tough. But if you struggle with anger or a need for control, then you also likely struggle with trusting God when difficult people or disturbing situations come into your life. While the article in the NY Times was written without any spiritual connotations or recommendations, it gets to the heart of the matter: every person has a choice to make when confronted with the daily decisions of life. We can make the effort to trust in God, let go of our own desires, and implement His divine recommendations for a healthy, fruitful life, or we can slide down the path of least mental resistance into our comfortable, but usually very detrimental, bad habits. This is why Paul says our faith is like running a race. He doesn’t say it’s like sitting in a meadow on a sunny day having a picnic. Our participation and consistent effort are required. Hebrews 12:1-2a says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder, and perfecter of our faith.”

One of the best parables of the Bible encourages us to risk everything we hold dear in order to walk closely with God. Our reputations, our lifestyles, our fears, and even our bodies are to be placed in His hands willingly. In Matthew 25:14-30 we read about the parable of the talents, which tells the story of a wealthy business owner who gives three employees each a sum of money and asks them to take care of it for him while he is away on a trip. Two of them immediately invested the money so that it would earn interest. The third one was fearful of what would happen if he made a mistake, so he simply buried the money for safekeeping. When the owner returned, this is what happened: “But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?” And then the passage closes with this warning: “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

In commenting on this parable, Oswald Chambers said, “The person who is lazy naturally is always captious (i.e., sully or a whining). ‘I haven’t had a decent chance,’ and the one who is lazy spiritually is captious with God. Lazy people always strike out on an independent line.” Of course, our definition of independence is different today than it was back then (circa 1900). Today we typically use the word independence in a much more positive fashion than Chambers intended. His implication is that lazy believers chart their course separately from God’s recommended path. Therefore when it comes to spiritual matters, they can all too easily use the excuse of independence — or what they believe to be our unique situation — to justify laziness, rebellion, or fear.

Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to be utterly dependent on Him. As Chambers says in his writings, we should never forget that our ability to trust in God and to serve Him with boldness — despite the risks to ourselves — is not measured by what we are capable of or what we desire to do. Instead, our abilities should be grounded in the promises of God never to fail us, leave us, or ask us to do something that He cannot achieve through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. In fact, the greatest miracles of life come when we are at our weakest and trust God to perform His work within us for the benefit of others and His glory. 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 says, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” So this verse implies that the weaker or more fearful you may be of what God has asked you to do, the greater the opportunity for Him to work miracles and display His glory.

Theologically, all of this may sound like solid truth to you, but if you’re still wondering what it all means for the day-to-day living and walking with Jesus, perhaps the following words will help you turn these spiritual implications into daily actions. As with most Biblical truth, there is great irony in God’s command to trust Him in Proverbs 3:5-6, which says simply: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” This verse contains two actions for us to follow: trust and submit. We must participate in the process. To bear fruit like the tree, we must remain planted by the streams of living water. Yet to keep ourselves out of spiritual laziness and make the efforts required of this command, we must simultaneously learn to simply rest. Yes, you read that right. To overcome laziness, we have to learn to be still. When we build Sabbath margin into our daily lives — not just on Sunday — we will have the time to breathe, think clearly, and engage our complete being — mind, body, and soul — in the pursuit of Jesus. The tree grows because it is beside the river of life. We will only grow in Christ when we take the time to drink of His strength and learn of His wisdom. So while I said at the beginning of this message that prayer, Bible study, meditation, and worship are the fruits of trust, they also become the building blocks of greater and greater trust as we faithfully apply them. But we’ll never see them appear as long as we allow busyness to proliferate in our lives and numb us to the real laziness of our hearts.

When we allow laziness to dominate our decisions and motivations, we only end up serving a false god, and not the true King of Glory. Laziness, or not trusting God, like any other sin feels good for a season. Other than busyness, it often shows up in the forms of escapism, like mindless TV watching, endless social media surfing, or a myriad of physical indulgences and coping mechanisms, but when we look it square in the eye and call it for what it is, we realize it’s all about trusting the unseen God to do what He says He will do. Today, I would ask you, fellow traveler, where are you planted? Are you putting only a few roots down near the river of life, while allowing others to seek comfort in the tainted soils of self-reliance or personal comfort? If so, ask God to help you find them again, dig them up, and transplant them into His unending goodness and strength. It won’t happen overnight, but when you wake each morning, His mercies will be new and waiting to sustain you through the process.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Day 1 - Describe in your own the words the difference between striving to perform for God (i.e. doing something out of duty or to achieve) and participating in God’s work in your life. Read Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 2:14-26. Why do you think you are sometimes motivated toward busyness or performance? What is God leading you to change? How? Write them out as a prayer to Him.
Day 2 - Read Lamentations 3:22-23. In what ways are you experiencing God’s mercies today or have in the past? How are they new or different to you now than they were yesterday? If you’re in a place of struggle right now, ask God to help you recognize and receive His mercies.
Day 3 - Read the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. How are you similar to the good servants? In what ways are you like the fearful servant? Journal about why you think that is, and what the Holy Spirit is revealing in your heart.
Day 4 - Take some time to be still before the Lord today. Begin by reading Proverbs 3:5-6 and then meditating on it. Ask God to interrupt you at any moment with what He wants to whisper to your heart. For more about practicing stillness and what it means, check out this blog post.
Day 5 - Spend some time reflecting on your schedule and your commitments at work, home, church, in your community, and other volunteering roles. Read Luke 10:38-42. Go to God in prayer and ask Him to reveal areas where you are too busy. If you have time, read this short blog post “Busyness is Not a Badge of Honor.”

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Why You Can't Destroy God's Plan for Your Life

5/1/2019

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Why You Can't Destroy God's Plan for Your Life

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When we’re born, God’s plan for us is like a newly constructed wall of a house. Envisioned and intricately designed to glorify Him long before we are conceived in the womb, His plan is strong, smooth, and completely clear of any dings, marks, or ridges. Like an unaltered wall, its beauty is defined by its simplicity, flawlessness, and indisputable purpose in life. And then… we mess it up. Our mistakes start immediately, if not innocently. After all, who can blame a three-year-old for not admiring such a blank canvas and believing that a red magic marker wouldn’t improve it in some way? But then, as we grow, the dents, dings, and marks appear everywhere, eventually leaving permanent scars deep into the studs behind the exterior veneer of the drywall.

This analogy recently hit home with me as I thought about how much I will miss my house. My husband and I are in the process of relocating to another state, and it has been difficult to release some aspects of our current living situation. Although we have always tried to receive God’s blessings with open hands — as opposed to hanging on to them so tightly that they become more important than hanging onto Him — it is still difficult to think about moving on and opening our hearts to the next steps of His plan. It may sound silly or perhaps trivial, but there are two walls in my house I am really going to miss, each for different reasons.

One wall is in our guest bedroom, which is covered floor to ceiling with reclaimed wood from the original 1930s camp that used to stand on our property. What makes it so beautiful are all the marks and scars of nature’s wrath, coupled with the visible reminders of a bygone era. The other wall is likewise remarkable because of its imperfections… and its surprising location. It’s in the bathroom across the hall. While I never would’ve imagined that I could both admire and miss a bathroom, I will miss this one because it reminds me of the beauty God can bring out of mistakes. Initially, the bathroom’s walls were intended to be plain and smooth. We had planned for the decorative highlight of the room to be the colorful tile in the shower. But due to some severe painting blunders, our plans for its appearance would either have to change or we would have to start all over with some copious amounts of sanding, spackling, sanding again, and then primer. But instead of trying to remove our mistakes, we opted to add a new layer of texture using a technique we learned years before to cover up a similar error in our previous house. As a result, more visitors in our home have admired and commented about our guest bath than our living room or kitchen. One of the smallest rooms in our house makes the most significant impression because of the unique beauty that arose out of the ashes of error. And it reminds me that when we yield the paintbrush to the superior Painter, any ding on our lives can be redeemed.

While it may seem odd to find so much spiritual analogy from a bathroom wall of all things, it’s not the slightest bit strange to God. After all, who are we to Him? Psalm 113:4-8 says, "The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.” A bathroom might appear to be one of the lowliest rooms in your house second only to the closets, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one of the most important. What we often see as the lowliest areas of our lives… the most unremarkable or even most tragic parts of our story, are the very canvases on which God intends to display His glory.

As I think back on the original mistake, which led us to alter our plans for that wall, I can remember my utter discouragement. Time crunches and stress have a way of magnifying our regrets and the pain from our mistakes. Because we were building our home on a tight budget, we had opted to do all the interior painting ourselves. Our sweet friends flooded us with generosity, helping us do some painting and landscaping. Like an old fashioned barn raising, our house was only finished through the hard work and kindness of others, and none too soon considering members of our west coast family would be coming to visit in a few short weeks after the drywall was finished. So it was in a state of pressure that we realized our mistake and that the bathroom would have to be done all over again or redeemed in some other way. While it seems trivial now, I can remember feeling completely overwhelmed at the thought of re-doing the wall treatments in that room. At the time, I never could’ve realized how that mistake could be transformed not only into something uniquely beautiful, but also a treasured memory of God’s hand in our lives.

All of this doesn’t mean that the new texture on the walls was perfect. In fact, its haphazard nature is what makes it so attractive and different from what most people would expect for a bathroom. Even more fun for me is that I can still recall where the mistakes are and immediately find the seams of the texture treatment. While the casual onlooker only notices the overall effect, I not only see but have also come to admire, the subtle remains of the work in progress. And this is often like the progression of God’s handiwork in our lives. We can still see the trail left behind by our tears or the scars remaining by our past sins, but God masterfully blends them into His plan to enhance its appeal so that others may view our lives and be drawn to Him. When He gives us a makeover or adds a new texture to our souls, He leaves behind evidence so we know the end result is for His glory and nothing that we can take credit for. Otherwise, we would all walk around displaying the arrogance of our accomplishments and the conceit of our own personal growth.

The apostle Paul knew a great deal about God’s makeovers and texturizing skills. Before his encounter with the risen Christ, Paul had well-laid, highly practical plans in place for his life. Steeped in knowledge with the training and expertise to build a lucrative and successful career as a religious zealot with Roman citizenship, he had it made. His passions were endorsed by the religious elite, culturally accepted, and protected by the mighty Roman Empire. By today’s standards, he was on his way to the top in terms of power, prestige, and prosperity. And he loved his work. But God had a plan for Paul that would be implemented at any cost. No amount of alteration or expense would be spared. And although Paul had done everything possible — both unknowingly and intentionally — to thwart God’s purposes for His life, the love of Jesus was generous enough to come to the rescue.

So many of us have made such serious mistakes in our lives that we think we’ve ruined God’s plan. We believe we’ve gone too far… one too many times. Deep in a pit of self-loathing, we look up and can’t see any sunlight. We know we deserve to be in the bottom of the pit, yet what we don’t see — or won’t allow ourselves to see — is the ladder out of it. Besides, we tell ourselves, if we did get out of this pit or find our way back from this ridiculous detour, people would see our stupidity, our sins, or our weaknesses all over us. We will be forever marred as fallen, or unlovable, or greedy, or whatever other dent or ding we left on God’s wall. Even worse, some of us have an affliction or flaw that will always be visible and might interfere with what others would expect us to achieve for God or to behave in a specific manner. But like the wall in my house, God always has a plan to use all of you. Not just a part of you. Not the most appealing aspect of your character. Not only your best skills or notable talents. He will use Every. Single. Part.

Hear this truth from Titus 3:3-7, my fellow mistake-maker: “Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But, when God our Savior revealed His kindness and love, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of His grace, he made us right in His sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”

Despite all of the miraculous work, clearly administered by God and not Paul, the temptation to become proud of his transformation and subsequent accomplishments, lingered throughout Paul’s life. Here’s how he says it in the Message version of 2 Corinthians 12:6-12:
“If I had a mind to brag a little, I could probably do it without looking ridiculous, and I’d still be speaking plain truth all the way. But I’ll spare you. I don’t want anyone imagining me as anything other than the fool you’d encounter if you saw me on the street or heard me talk. Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then He told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size — abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.”

Our mistakes, sins, distractions, and misguided dreams may alter or delay God’s plans for our lives, but they can never destroy its existence. There’s nothing we can do to remove the Divine Architect’s design for our lives, which is built upon His unending love. Not our intentions. Not our skills, nor our strengths. No, scripture tells us it’s built upon our weaknesses. The path we end up on may not look like anything we thought it would be, but when we find our way back to Him… when we turn over our willful stubbornness and come to Him with a repentant heart, He will always take our messes and turn them into His glory. It may take a while. In fact, it may take a long time. It may be uncomfortable. Things might even seem to get worse before they get better. But Jesus whispers to our souls during the entire process. He promises to stay with us through the transformation. And He guarantees that His way is better than our own. Romans 8:37 assures us that we are more than conquerors — over anything — through the power of Jesus.

One day, we will be flawless before our Savior. One day, everything that happens here will all be worth it. Open your heart to hear what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:22-24: “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for He who calls you is faithful.” We may not always be comfortable in the process of becoming holy, but we can always rest in God’s wisdom to take us down the right path, His promise to complete the work, and His abiding presence in the journey.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. This is a recent addition to the blog, so if you like having the questions and readings offered in this format, please let me know by commenting below or in social media.
Day 1 - Read Psalm 139:13-16 and Jeremiah 1:5 at least two times, slowly. Pray and ask God to speak to your heart about any area of your life where you are struggling with believing that He loves you regardless of your previous decisions and actions. Ask Him to reveal to you areas of unconfessed sin and what He wants you to do next. Re-read the scriptures one more time and then write down what you sense the Holy Spirit whispering to your heart.
Day 2 - Jesus asks us to be vessels for Him to work and shine through our lives. He doesn’t ask to do His work for Him… that’s the job of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Read Romans 8:26 and Philippians 4:13. Ask God to reveal to you any areas where you are trying do the work for Him, versus letting Him work through you. Write down any thoughts that come to you.
Day 3 - Read Romans 8:15 and then ask God in prayer to reveal to you any ways in which you are a slave to something and therefore preventing His plans from coming to fruition in your life. Write down your reflections.
Day 4 - Listen to the song Flawless by the band MercyMe or read the lyrics. What do you need to surrender at the foot of the cross today? What do you finally need to lay down and walk away from knowing that God loves you, has forgiven you, and wants you to be free of?
Day 5 - The book of Jude contains only 461 words, making it one of the shortest in the Bible, yet it closes with one of the most poignant and moving assurances of God’s redemptive work and our final destiny in Jesus. Read Jude 1:24-25 and then ask the Holy Spirit to come and assure you of the work God is doing in your life.

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Glimmers in the Fog

How to Hear the Voice of God Part 1

Prayer: The Ladder to Heaven

How to Get back on Track After a Big Setback

The Surprising Truth about Spiritual Laziness

Why You Can't Destroy God's Plan for Your Life

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