Discovering Our True Identity..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 Discovering Our True Identity

Dr. Charles Stanley

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Many Christians are experiencing an identity crisis. They know they’re saved, but they don’t really know what to think about themselves. Let’s take a little test. Do you consider yourself a sinner saved by grace or a saint who occasionally sins? Both statements are true, but the first one dwells on your past identity, whereas the second focuses on the Lord’s perception of you.

If you are a believer, God’s Word says that you are a saint (v. 2). But too many of us still see ourselves as the same old sinner, who’s been forgiven and patched up and yet is basically unchanged inside. But the Lord says anyone in Christ “is a new creature; the old things passed away” (2 Cor. 5:17). That’s what being born again is all about. We can never go back to the way we were.

The solution to this identity crisis is to change the way we think about ourselves. If we don’t, we’ll rely on how we feel, and Satan will bombard us with reminders of our failures and sins. He wants to keep us focused on being a sinner, because he knows that the recognition of our sainthood will lead us to live like saints. We’ll be motivated and empowered to obey God, and the Devil will lose his foothold in our lives.

Jesus didn’t come just to save you from hell; He wants to live His life through you. In Christ, you have a new identity which has replaced your old one. If you will focus on who you are now, your actions will follow, and you’ll experience the enjoyment of a victorious Christian life.

The Experience of His Peace..... Craig Denison

 

The Experience of His Peace

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

To know God is to experience God. Just as we experience aspects of one another as we grow in friendship, we experience the wonders of God as we seek to simply know him. God is calling us to a life of seeking him with all we are. He is calling us to value relationship with him above all else that we would love no other but him. May you encounter wonderful aspects of relationship with your heavenly Father this week as we wholeheartedly seek to know him with all we are.

Scripture:“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Devotional:

One of the most heavenly aspects of experiencing God is his abounding peace. Peace is not something this world can offer us. This world is run on chaos, stress, confusion, striving, and frivolous pursuits with no satisfaction. Even in this life, God offers us the peace of heaven, the peace that comes from having our hearts wrapped up in true relationship with him.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God exchanges our earthly cares and stresses for his heavenly, sustaining peace. He is such a good Father to us that he takes that which troubles our hearts, promises to take care of us down to the smallest burden, and offers us incomprehensible peace from his Spirit.

Jesus says in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” When we seek relationship with Jesus we are seeking relationship with the One who conquered death and destroyed any and every scheme of the enemy against us. To know him is to know a true Conqueror. And in knowing him our lives become wrapped up in his. Our worried and fearful hearts become wrapped up in his heart of peace.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” God longs for us to so encounter his trustworthiness that our lives are marked by his peace. He longs for us to so trust him that this world cannot rob us of the peace that comes from knowing our God will always prove himself faithful. All he has promised to do he will do. All he has said of himself he truly is. Peace comes from keeping our mind stayed on the perfect character of our heavenly Father and letting who he is be at the foundation of all we do, think, and feel.

God has heavenly peace in store for you today. The peace he offers you isn’t of this world and therefore will sustain you through any of its troubles (John 14:27). Come before your loving heavenly Father and cast your cares on him. Let your requests be made known to him. Place your trust in his trustworthiness. And receive the perfect, sustaining peace of your loving Father.

May your day today be marked by the fruit of wholehearted relationship with the God of peace.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the peace available to you in relationship with God. Allow Scripture to help you not settle for stress, burdens, and cares that aren’t your portion in Jesus.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” 1 Corinthians 14:33

2. What has been causing you stress? What’s been stealing your peace? What thoughts, people, situations, fears, or spiritual attacks do you need to bring before your loving heavenly Father?

3. “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you”(1 Peter 5:6-7). Take time to bring before God all that’s bothering you. Lay all your anxieties at his feet, choose to trust that he will take care of them and help you through them, and receive his peace that surpasses all understanding.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

Romans 8:6 says, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” We have the choice moment by moment to set our minds on the things of this world or on the things of God. When we choose to set our minds on the Spirit, we are positioning ourselves to be people marked by the fruit of his presence in our lives. When we choose the world we are only setting ourselves up for failure, anxiety, and trouble. Choose today to set your mind on the Lord in every situation. The things of this world are fleeting, but our God spans throughout the farthest reaches of eternity. May his power, faithfulness, and nearness bring you peace today.

Extended Reading: Philippians 4

Turning to God When It's Inconvenient..... JASMINE WILLIAMS

 Turning to God When It's Inconvenient

JASMINE WILLIAMS 

“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.” Jeremiah 24:7 (CSB)

You know those days when everything seems to be going pretty well? The house isn’t too much of a mess. There’s food in the fridge, and the kids have managed to get along with each other and spare you any bad attitudes.

It seems so easy to walk like Christ on those days, showing love and being slow to anger. It’s in those moments, when almost everything feels right in my world, that I can peacefully and confidently say, “God is good.”

While He’s good no matter what, most days just aren’t that smooth. It’s rare I get a day where at least one or two (or 10) things don’t test my patience and my faith. Sometimes it’s enough to make me put off joy and postpone worship. But those “I don’t feel like it” moments, fueled by life’s frustrations, can really begin to add up and take a toll on my spirit after a while.

One day it’s just missing prayer time in the morning to get the long day started. Another day, it’s neglecting to read the Bible because “I’m too stressed to focus on that.” Before long, it becomes a giant snowball of disconnection from God that I never saw coming. Does that ever happen to you?

Rough patches are real. The distractions and annoyances of life can make us want to put away God until a “more convenient” time. But I’ve learned this never really ends well. I need God when things are great, and I especially need Him when things are feeling rocky.

I can remember getting so deeply into a habit of avoiding Him when I was busy that I almost forgot I could run to Him when I was hurting. That’s when guilt can creep in. After spending so long not making Him a priority, how can I turn to Him now?

I’m really glad He doesn’t use our past apathy toward Him as a reason to turn us away in the present. I’m also glad that, when we turn to Him, He lets us know Him more. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.”

In this passage, God was showing Jeremiah the fate of two groups: the Babylonian exiles from Judah, and the people who were left in Judah or who fled to Egypt amid the attack on their land. Because of the nation’s sin and God’s punishment, both groups were experiencing challenging times — captivity, invasion and disruption to life as they had known it. The people spared from exile might have arrogantly believed that they would be blessed by remaining in Judah. However, God said that He would give the exiles “a heart to know me … because they will return to me” (Jeremiah 24:7). And He would refine them through their circumstances.

I don’t know about you, but this gives me hope!

No, I’m not perfect. No, I don’t always have my priorities in order. But I do love God, and I want to do good things! For this reason, I can trust He will give me a heart to know Him as long as I return to Him.

God takes our efforts and multiplies them for His glory. We mess up over and over, but when we return to Him with all of our hearts, He turns our failures and brokenness into pathways that lead us to Him. It can be so tempting to get bogged down by our heaviness and discouragement that we shy away from God, but He says to return to Him with everything we’ve got, and He promises to give us hearts to know Him.

Only when we embrace Him, despite our pain, stress or shame, will He use the fragments of our lives to make something beautiful. He didn’t say, “Return to Me in perfect condition.” He just said to come with all our hearts. Doing so will give us the greatest reward — hearts to know Him.

What a blessing, to know He can shift and change us even at the level of our desires! The more times we return to Him, the more those “I don’t feel like it” moments become “I have to spend time with God” moments.

Thank You, God, for promising that, if I come back to You, You’ll let me know You more deeply. Thanks for doing a work in me. Give me a heart to return to You no matter what I face. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

3 Ways to Fine-Tune Your Heart... by Lynette Kittle

 3 Ways to Fine-Tune Your Heart

by Lynette Kittle

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” - Luke 6:35

How’s your spiritual heart condition? Has it been tuning you into the things of God or has it become hardened or broken to where it’s not working properly anymore?

Like a physical heart affects the rest of your body when it’s in a weakened or broken condition, so will your spiritual heart. The well being of your entire physical body depends on your heart functioning properly, just like the state of your spiritual heart affects your relationship with God and with others.

Below are three questions to help you evaluate your present heart condition, along with three ways to bring it back in tune.

1. What words are coming out of your mouth? Luke 6:35 explains how the heart is where the words of your lips originate. If you’re speaking fear, anger, bitterness and more, it’s rooted in your heart.

If so, how do you treat it? James 5:16 directs you to confess your sins to each other and pray for each other. After confessing your sin, Proverbs 4:23 urges you to “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

When you turn your heart towards God, He will respond. Ezekiel 11:19 describes how God does this stating, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”

2. How is your prayer life? If you can’t remember the last time you sought out God to speak with Him, your heart is most likely out of tune with His will and ways.

To get back in sync with God, ask Him to “Create a pure heart within you, and to renew a steadfast spirit in you (Psalm 51:10).

3. Are you choosing God’s ways over your own? Disobedience is a sure sign of a hard heart. Zechariah 7:12 describes the symptoms of a hardened heart stating, “They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets.”

If you find yourself living in disobedience, ask God to help you to turn away from your wayward behavior. Repent from any sin you’ve been participating in and look to God’s Word to direct your steps.

Psalm 51:10 explains how when you submit to God, He will put His Spirit within you and move you to follow His decrees.

Take time to fine tune your spiritual heart because like your physical heart, your life depends upon it.

Saying "Yes" to God..... by Debbie Holloway

 Saying "Yes" to God

by Debbie Holloway

It seems like every day one hears about all kinds of troubling behavior from people who ought to know better. A family friend leaves his wife and children for his secretary. A pastor resigns from his parish after his drug addiction is discovered. A CEO is caught with his hands on company money. We see it in the news. We hear about it from friends. It invades our households. Destructive, self-centered, sin. And so often the guilty party seems completely blind to his error, or unable to fathom how he ever made such a huge mistake.

As a recent member of what most would consider the “adult” world, I have often pondered how seemingly well-adjusted, often God-fearing members of society can justify such actions in their minds. In fact, in my more panicky moments, I have had a fear of suddenly lapsing into some dreaded sin myself – like these perfectly capable people I see all around me.

After all, does my righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees? How can I claim to have more wisdom than my parents or my pastor? Do I know more about the world than my professors? Could I possibly have a better understanding of morals and truth than my government leaders? If I watch them stumble into seemingly obvious moral blunders, how could I possibly escape the same fate?

After recently confiding this dread to a loved one, I was reminded that drastic sin or extreme lifestyle choices don’t just appear out of nowhere. Adultery doesn’t just happen. Divorce doesn’t just happen. Heartless slander and libel don’t just happen. Sin must begin as a small seed, creep in, take root, and grow. We can choose to feed it …or starve it.

The hard part is that often our sin nature is just as appealing as the prompting of Holy Spirit. Far too often we know right away what the godly course of action would be. Humility. Purity. Hard work. Compassion. Faithfulness. But we still get tired, exasperated, lustful, and proud. So we start making decisions which violate our consciences. Tiny decisions that seem meaningless. But those tiny choices grow and grow. Eventually, our life becomes a messy sin explosion and we cry out, “Where did I lose control?”

The comforting part is that it’s a process. I won’t wake up one morning and all of a sudden think it’s totally OK to steal someone’s car or send nasty, gossipy emails about people I don’t like. 1 John 1:7 says that,

“If we walk in the light, as [God] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

If I say “yes” to God when he shows me how I can remain faithful to him in my lifestyle, in the little things, that will strengthen me to say “no” to life-wrecking choices.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Don’t live in fear of becoming something you hate. Just make conscious choices to be like Christ.

Further Reading

Proverbs 28:13

A Prayer for a Discontented Heart..... By: Chelsey DeMatteis

 A Prayer for a Discontented Heart

By: Chelsey DeMatteis

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. - Romans 12:12

Discontentment isn’t a feeling we freely usher in. No, discontentment, like many other negative feelings, seems to sneak in the back door of our hearts. What began as a day of simple frustrations turns into the theme for the week, which somehow snowballs into a seemingly long season of our life. If I’m being honest, I think we may be the most discontented, disappointed people I’ve seen in my generation. We’ve allowed the back door feelings to take the stage of our lives and start fighting for the throne of our hearts.

This takes me straight to Eve, in the garden, when discontentment plagued the heart of man. Satan came to Eve, questioning “Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1).

Here we have it, the inkling of discontentment shuffled in the back door of her heart, the same way it does for you and me. Something that has always struck me when reading the Bible, especially the New Testament, is how often we are reminded that tribulation and trials will occur. It’s a promise that we will endure hard things, but we won't endure them alone.

Just like Eve’s moment of discontentment, I think of Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee. He sought out Jesus, our Savior, in the middle of the night to answer the questions he was wrestling with.

What a picture that is for us. A man running to Jesus with his heart full of questions. Instead of turning to converse with the enemy, Nicodemus ran to the loving heart of our Savior. We see two beautiful, encouraging things happen here. First, Jesus met Nicodemus right where he was, and He shared the Good News, which is what we find in John 3:16.

Second, we see that the Lord is always willing to come alongside us in our seasons of struggle, discontentment, and failure. The Lord wants to heal the discontentment in our lives because a heart left unattended in this sin will turn into spiritual heart failure: dry, weary, and distant.

As we grow in learning God’s Word, we begin to see His heart more clearly. We see that He is the cure for our discontented hearts. He stands ready to guard the back door of our hearts from this sin that so easily entangles us. Though this area may be one we battle more often than we would like, we now know how we can pray when it comes.

Pray to feel the Lord’s presence where we are, trust in the truth that God is guarding our hearts, and remember that trials will come but we never endure them alone when we are in Christ.

Pray with me...

Lord,

As I walk through life’s disappointments, I pray for a hedge of protection around my heart. Discontentment sneaks in to steal and kill the joy you have in my life and I rebuke it. Help me live in the posture of readiness to stand firm against attacks and gird myself in your promised grace over my life. Help me cultivate a habit of thanksgiving, help my eyes be quick to see your grace, help my tongue be quick to praise you.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

An Unhurried Holiday..... by Karen Ehman

 An Unhurried Holiday

by Karen Ehman

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger." Luke 2:16 (NIV)

"Hurry up! We're going to be late to the choir concert!"

"Come on kids. Help me unload these groceries right now. I've got to get these cookies baked before bedtime."

"Is it 6 a.m. already? I gotta get to that door buster sale as soon as it opens so I don't miss out on the deals!"

With the holiday season upon us, the music at the mall announces that folks are dreaming of a white Christmas. That may be true. But in reality, many women are dreaming of something else white: a little more white space on our December calendars!

Pageants. Parties. Shopping trips. Baking days. Wrapping nights. At every turn there are people to see, things to do, stuff to buy. The hustle and bustle of this supposed-to-be-happy season can knock the holly-jolly right out of our holidays and replace it with hurried-up headaches instead.

As a result, our calendars become overloaded, crowding out the spiritual significance of the season.

I wonder if the participants in the original Christmas story ever dreamed that the celebration of Christ's birth would become so hassled and hurried. The shepherds? The angels? The wise men? Mary and Joseph too?

Was hurriedness present the night Jesus was born? We might think that it was not. But actually, there was hurry present that night. However, it wasn't to the mall or grocery store that people were rushing.

The shepherds were working in the fields when suddenly an ensemble of angels told them the Christ Child had been born. Luke 2:16 says they hurried off to find Him lying in a manger.

If I had been one of those shepherds, I would have been quiet and amazed once I got there. Being around a newborn baby makes me speak in a hushed tone and feel such awe as I see new life. In the presence of Jesus I wonder if those men too were settled and silent.

Maybe we could do the same today. In the midst of our holiday hustle and tasks, we could stop; leave our work. We could slow down long enough to hurry in another direction. We could put our activities on hold so we might quietly meet with our Lord. We could be settled and silent in the presence of Jesus.

As a result we just might discover an unhurried holiday: a season that will strengthen us spiritually instead of sapping our energy and joy.

How about it? Will we pause and purpose to hurry into His presence instead of rushing from task to task? Dare we linger long enough to be refreshed by the company of the One whom the holiday is really about? The tasks will wait while we do.

Here's to more "white space" this Christmas; space that creates more room in our days for meeting with Jesus!

Dear Lord, remind me daily that it's You I should rush to during the holiday hustle. Not things. Not activities. I want to seek and find only You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.