So then faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Brothers and sisters
My mentor taught me early on
‘trying’ is not trusting. Trusting
is…. well, trusting! We are
created with a mind, emotions and a will. We have a body, soul and spirit, being
created in the image of the Holy God. We know we are to walk by faith and yet
we so easily live, pray and work in our own strength. The flesh is in control.
To walk by faith is always a faith-choice of our will. It is trusting God with
all we do not understand, trusting Him for each trial, each success.
When we choose instead to
live by our own understanding, (living by our ‘feelings’) we are allowing our
flesh to rule our mind, emotions and will. Either we are filled with God’s
Spirit and He is in control or our flesh reigns. A scary thought. No peace, no
joy, no strength! Our experience will either ratify or repudiate Truth. What we
believe does not change Truth. Bottom line: we are called to walk by faith. Faith
comes by the Word of God. No other option. We must be in His word and the New
Year is such a great time to add this discipline if you have not already
established it.
What I love about God’s Word
is that it explains and gives understanding in regards to the Truth, the Truth of who we are and gives us answers to life's difficulties that we will all face. It reveals how to walk by faith and please God, while enabling us to receive all that is our in Christ. It will also faithfully and deeply reveal who God is while filling us with reverence for Him who loves us perfectly.
I have struggled this last
few months with thoughts that trip me emotionally, inviting me to insist on
understanding while it makes living in the flesh comfortable. It just ‘feels right’.
But the opposite is true resulting in
guilt, fear, anxiety, unbelief and a myriad of other well-established methods
of attack by our enemy, making us unfruitful and ineffectual. My greatest need
today and every day is to saturate my mind with His Word to keep sane. When I
focus on circumstances, how easily the enemy can shift me into neutral. I begin
to reason from man to God, forgetting Truth reasons from God to man. All our
efforts at ‘trying’ and struggling and failing or settling for second best, are
born on the slippery slope of the flesh, that is unwilling to wait on God. We
are not embracing the Truth of our position, possessions, or privileges that are already ours in Christ. Once we see that which is ours, we will
begin to appropriate these Truths, choosing to die to our flesh daily and thereby
receive by faith, all God has already provided in Christ.
Too often I reason from what
I know I am…. powerless, selfish, critical, unkind, judgmental, foolish and
easily discouraged, unfaithful, unbelieving and easily led astray. I feel badly
about myself. Unloveable. It takes years to really get to know ourselves, and during
this time struggle, our failure leads us to Him. The Holy spirit uses it all.
It is meant to lead us into a succession of not only getting to know our
failures, but to know His provision and love and forgiveness. My feet are
dancing now! And by faith, we are able
to prove His faithfulness and grow in the intimate ‘knowing’ of our Savior. The
more we find Jesus in our sorrows and in our desires; the more we are drawn to
Him. There is no sweeter place to be.
We must see that our
acceptance with God is not defined by what we decide it will be, but God’s
basis must be our basis for acceptance. J.N. Darby has
said,
“God’s basis
must be our basis for acceptance. There is no other. We are “accepted in the
beloved” (Ephesians 1:6) Our Father is fully satisfied with His beloved Son on our
behalf, and there is no reason for us not to be. Our satisfaction can only
spring from and rest in, His satisfaction. It is from God to us, not from us to
God. When the Holy Spirit reasons with man, He does not reason from what man is
for God, but from what God is to man.”
Souls reason from what we are in ourselves as to whether God
can accept us. God cannot accept you this way because you are looking for
righteousness in yourself as a ground of acceptance. You will not get peace this
way.
How often when trouble comes
we immediately begin figuring out how we can fix it or change it. Panic sets in
and we don’t even hear ourselves fretting. When I struggle with God’s acceptance of me, (even though I
would not call it that), and I am not living as one He delights in, one loved
by the Great God, His acceptance of me has not changed, my faith is weak at
best and my joy is gone.
Sometimes we just do not
want to call sin, sin! Unbelief is sin. Insisting on understanding the ‘why’ of
our struggle, is sin. Living in fear is sin. Refusing to take up your cross and
deny yourself and follow the crucified Savior is sin. Instead of waiting for
the LORD to meet my needs, as I operate in the flesh, is sin and I miss the
blessing of waiting on Him. Refusing His timing, His answers, yes, tis sin. We
have one life to live for His glory. Let’s make a difference in 2014 by putting
Jesus as our first love and let’s make the business of growing in our knowing
of Him our top priority, no matter the cost or what anyone thinks.
What better way to start the
year than to surrender in faith to the Truth that God accepts you and delights
in you. Ask God to make you aware of reasoning from man to God, instead of
reasoning from God to man. There is no cause for God to show us love and mercy,
to give us joy and rest and hope, it’s who He is.
Our enemy would love to keep
us down and unaware of what we have in Christ! Let this year 2014, be one of
being in His Word. His Word lives and gives wisdom and insight and a living
hope and it will free you from trying to change yourself. It will change you.
Trust Him. Ask Him to give you a love for His Word. Apply it to your life.
Memorize His Word. Pray His Word.
Psalm 119 is all about His
word, though labeled by many different words: precepts, commands, law,
commandments, statutes, testimonies, judgments, and may be more. Read Psalm 119
and mark everywhere it refers to His word. Then write down what it says His
Word will do in you! You will have your socks blessed off. Make the following
your prayer! It states the results of being in His Word!
For this reason
we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask
that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in
every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all
might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with
joy; giving thanks to the Father who has
qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
Colossians 1:9-12
God of all
glory and power, great are your Purposes, great is Your plan. Thank You for
Your living Word and for making it available to us. I think and pray for my
brothers and sisters around the world that would love to have a copy of Your
Word but do not. Help them stand strong and miraculously provide them with a
copy of the Word of God. We thank You for accepting us in Your Son Jesus. You
are a great God. We rejoice that our acceptance is entirely because of Your Son’s
life and death and resurrection. He is the same yesterday today and forever.
Hallelujah.
A blessed 2014
az
