Friday, February 21, 2014

Spring just around the corner



Just after the cold hard freeze we all had there are hopes of Spring in our hearts.  Hopes of new life.  We think I want to be new and fresh and full of life.  I want to be full of hope that Jesus brings.  We are told...




Become the loving, kind, thoughtful, forgiving, compassionate person you want to be with. You can't? That is the beginning of faith. Let Jesus live His life through you. Lean into Him and rest in His finished work.   We think I cannot be this kind of person.  It is a start to realize this and to lean into the Fathers
arms not to let Him fix you but to be loved.  Love begets love.

Let all bitterness go from you. When you think of your hardship and how it came to you guard your heart says Rick Thomas. We can trust God with our struggles but do we trust Him with how they came about?

When you find yourself anxious and worried cast your cares on Him for He cares for you. Tell yourself the gospel. That Jesus said, "it is finished". Look to the cross and the finished work He did in forgiving you, loving you and giving you life.

These very hardships are the things He is allowing in your life to bring you into dependence on Him and not yourself. It is in the disappointments that what you are relying on and trusting in will be revealed, Rick Thomas paraphrased by me.  So do not despise your brokenness, Scotty Smith says. See it as a means of Gods grace to you. His way of working faith and trust in Him in your very life. He is bringing dry bones to faith and life. He is restoring the years the locus have eaten. He is redeeming, making all wrong things right in His time and in His way. Trust Him.

Keep your eyes focused on Him and what He has done and even yes what He has given you. You have an inheritance as a child of the King. Enjoy your gifts and give them back to Him in loving service to others. It is natural for us to want to give the love that has been so lavishly given to us.

God is amazing. Worship Him today and don't think of the undone things or the ways you have failed. Repent and confess quickly. Jack Miller said for every one look at your sin take 10 looks to Christ. You are forgiven. You are loved and adored. Live in the joy of the little child that trust His "Daddy" with everything. Enjoy life but when you are sad know it is ok. He is living in and with you and He feels and experiences that sadness with you.

I talked to my doctor this morning. I was on too much medication. I had not cut back. He is decreasing one while putting me on a new one. He said the reason I am sedated is because I am better. That he has to decrease my medication slowly so as not to relapse. To be patient and keep the course I will be off it soon.

But what I see is that God used all that for me to learn and be with Him. To learn to love better. To show me patience and perseverance and hope. I am growing and so are you. God is doing amazing things in us so keep the faith dear friend. God meets us right where we are and delights to do so.  I praise God for the death He has brought in my life, the unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, hatred to life of confessing my sin to love and forgiveness and compassion, tenderness, and gentleness by His mercy and grace.  These are things I could not do left to my own resources.  I am learning to love the way He has loved me and when I blow it confess it and lean into Him again as my righteousness.  Learning to press into Him and left Him live this life I can't live on my own but Him through me.  Learning to fix my eyes on His wonder and beauty and trust He will bring about His goodness and love in me to others.  This life of faith that says, "It is Finished".  I have already accomplished my work in you now go and live out of the finished work I did on the cross.



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