IT IS NOT OUR PUSH, BUT IN OUR POSITION....
LET LOVE TAKE HOLD OF YOU.
THIS IS AN ACCOUNT OF GODS WORK IN MY HEART
THESE LAST WEEKS AND DAYS...
thank you my sweet Elizabeth.
let love take hold of you...
Our hearts and minds are Gods problem, even His joy!. He is the one who renews our minds, changes our hearts and keeps us safe in His presence... it is work, training ourselves to think the things of God. To think on things that are praiseworthy and beautiful as well as encouraging and truth. Remembering our new nature in Christ. The beauty and reality of being a new creation...born again. We are the Fathers loved child.
Although these things are true the flesh remains with us. Our condemning thoughts of false guilt and shame are against our wonderfully made creative mind of Christ. It is a process to being filled with the word, truth and peace of Christ in your mind and heart. These things are ours for the asking.
Friends and family are important,
Fellowship and advice from those few you trust
Gods word is important
Rest... spiritual and physical are important.
Meditation of our minds and hearts are important.
Prayer, I enjoy journaling along side my prayers.
Work is important for a healthy mind and body.
The enemy is real. He is out to kill, steal and make us ineffective for the kingdom. God is so much bigger than any trial we may have... it is a battle of our minds.
THE SPIRIT IS OUR HELPER!
No one has pure thoughts all of the time. So claim what is truth and let it change you. Reject what is not. Live out of the abundance of the wealth and glory of Christ in you. We can learn to press into the things that bring us joy and delight. These are the things God so delights in Himself in you.
I struggled with losing hope in these last days. I prayed for a rescue, asking for peace and joy. I prayed for others, my family and those I love. The meds have kept me in a state of life that has been too hard for me. I know I am blessed in so many ways but yet I am well enough to know I am not well. So much better, but at the same time realizing... I could not do anything to change myself or my circumstances. I couldn't see Gods purpose in my life as I gave it all to Him.
This time of difficulty did pass. God does not let us stay in the wilderness forever. That is where hopelessness collides with our new nature. It is a testing of our faith. He is stretching us beyond what we can do to see the goodness and faithfulness of God our Father.
It is not through pushing that we find purpose and life. We can't push hard enough, long enough.
Not many writers write much about feeling defeated. We are told what we should do. When you cannot do what your heart longs for you to do...you may just not long for it at all. These were the times all I could do was say the words, Jesus, Abba.
God is moving me into a new direction. It is Christ in me the hope of glory. Letting go of self, letting go of my expectations and what I do as a christian was hard. Life went on and I kept my responsibilities as a wife and mother of grown children. My grandchildren are always a part of my life. But I saw control and lack of faith in God keeping those I love. My heart broke. I surrendered. Among these I also gave God the gifts I had been blessed by and hopefully blessed others to. I prayed often Lord just show me how to live. Christ held onto me from the ground up.
Living life apart from Jesus, was not my plan. Him living His life in and through me was. I had prayed for His strength, mind, surrender, heart. The morning I woke and saw this beautiful truth of Christ in me, I saw life differently. Jesus does live this righteousness that is mine. He lives in my heart. I saw how hard I had pushed in the life I had been living. There was a freedom. I am still learning what this mystery Paul spoke of means and how it is lived out. It is such a precious gift when the things we know in our head become a part of our heart and life.
When you are in a hard place, sometimes all you can do is just be. Waiting on God is not fun...You just cannot rush Gods work.
I still have ups and downs. We all do if we are honest. It is this life in a fallen world...Be honest. How about you?
The sweetness of His presences and the very touch of His love somehow makes it all worth while. I think, this is so precious, it can last me a lifetime, but I forget.
Suffering can cause us to focus on ourselves and our pain.
The waters get deep again
I need Him to grab hold of my hand...again
His kindness and mercy and faithfulness are there again.
I wondered... why I am still struggling after all these years. We may not know in this life, the many ways God is glorified in our suffering. The cross is our reminder of this. God in His mercy has given us Himself, a peace.
I have struggled with the life I did not want. Being mentally ill was the last life I thought I would have. It is not the life I dreamed of. I have come to a place of surrendering my hopes of being well. Finding Jesus in the midst of the voices is what has been the hardest thing of all. Finding Jesus is never easy. I would wonder, what in my head was real and what was not was the issue. Jesus voice is as a gentle breeze. Denying the voices that sucked me in was just too much for me. I broke. I failed. My faith did not hold me but His faithfulness did.
I see that when I gave up on me, is exactly the time when He began to step in. It was not easy. There was no quick fix. He patiently began freeing me of the shackles of a life of being overly responsible to loving others right where they are. He brought me to Himself in ways of gentle beauty I never knew.
These things are well kept in His loving heart. I don't have to understand, these things to be so. Gods character and my identity will never change. I don't have to know what He is doing and why we all suffer. Somethings I have learned to leave to my "Lord".
As He wrapped His loving, faithful arms around me. I was reminded of this greater love in a song sent to me by my daughter. I began to position myself inside of love. It is not in my pushing that brings me to God but in my position. Shift our awareness from the fears, from the lies, of that unloved place. Focus our attention to the one who walks on water. Who delights in us before time. Who loves us beyond any love we can ever begin to imagine.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full into His wonderful face.
And the things of this world will grow strangely deem.
In the light of His glory and grace...
