Open Hands

Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
    you who have done great things. Who is like you, God? 

Though you have made me see troubles,
    many and bitter, you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. Psalm 71:19-20

Beloved Brothers and Sisters,

This is my prayer for you this week:

You, who love us perfectly, I bow and give you praise. I lift up my brothers and sisters asking You to fill hearts with an overflow of love for Your testimonies, until their hearts stand in awe of Your word. Administer to each one wisdom and peace and comfort, directing their steps in Your love and truth. For those who suffer… give them faith and endurance and even more give ‘joy’.. You know what each one is suffering. Let them be living proof You are God and You are good. Affirm Your power in them and through them. Thank You that You alone can take our messes and even our sins and turn them for good, to serve Your will and purposes. How great You are! In Your great name I pray Jesus, amen.

Have faith that in the midst of our processing, we are progressing, no matter how it ‘feels’. Feelings make a great caboose but a lousy engine. We walk by faith not feelings. A hungry heart that is thirsting after the LORD is a good thing and will usher you into blessing.

C.S. Lewis wrote to a friend, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

When believers are being turned upside-down and inside out, discouragement waits on the doorstep. The enemy seems to sense when we are close to the end of a trial and fears our faith will be further strengthened, and he does not like it. The greatest pressure to give up or give in, is when Victory is right around the corner. He thwarts by blaming, guilt-ing, shaming, mixed with self-pity, and fear.

We must walk this path in faith, for the simple reason we must be brought to a place of total dependence on Jesus. It is not Jesus plus something, no, He is to be everything. Until He is all we have, we will not realize He is all we need. We need to live a ‘hands open’ life. The thing we rely on is often what we grasp.  It is much less painful to have something removed from our hands if our hand lay open, surrendered. If you are grasping something (self-involved) it is very painful to remove anything and tears the flesh. Open hands, of faith, bring our God pleasure. The open hands that refuse to grasp, choosing to remain open and extended in suffering, are in a gesture to receive from the heavenly Father his benefits. But how can He place gifts in hands already full?

Hold all things loosely. Especially the ‘stuff’ of this world. How does one measure one’s riches? Begin by removing everything you can purchase. What is left is how rich you are…        Are you rich?

Our old sin nature may masquerade as religious, but does not usually appear deceitful, arrogant, un- improvable, incurable or incorrigible- but it is. There is no remedy, except what God graciously provided….’crucifixion’- death with the Lord Jesus Christ and risen with Him. A new nature lives in us by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit indwells “and He leads us into experiences of desolation here in order that we may not only see how little we know Him as the source of all joy, but in order that we may turn to Him and find not only relief, but full resources in Himself. It is only in solitude that we come to realize this." -J.B.S.

Troubles do not naturally benefit us anymore than it removes signs of aging, but God’s word takes issue with the natural. My feet are dancing. I will be benefitted.

All this is for your benefit (suffering)… Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.              II Corinthians 4:15a, 16-18

 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. II Corinthians 3:18

The battle is the Lord’s!  In courage open clenched fists, open your hands by faith and allow God to take what needs to go and leave what He chooses to let remain. Trust Him. He never lets go of you through the fire or storm.

Heavenly Father, You who watch me faithfully. LORD, teach me to live open-handed and open-hearted and single minded before You. You, who were pleased to crush your own Son, do what ever You need to do in me, to create the likeness of Jesus in me. Cleanse, quicken, guide, heal, renew, prune me until You see the reflection of Your Son in my words, my attitude and my open hands. Thank you LORD for opening your hands to receive the nails that set me free. Holy God, I am in awe, praying in the Name above all names, Jesus. Amen

You know the way that I take and when You have tried me I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10

Thank You Father,

az

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