Well we moved into our new apartment in Greenville! We love it. Its all hardwood floor, 2 bed rooms, and the best parts (drum roll please): a dishwasher AND a laundry room!!! Never have I had either of those. No longer do I have to waste my Saturdays sitting at the laundry mat and no longer do I have to do dishes during my whole lunch break. PTL! Pics to come...
The title of our summer: patience and trust. Oh man, it has been super difficult. Scott has had a few great job opportunities that have presented themselves and every single one has fallen through. This has made me realize how selfish and greedy of a person I am. I know all the answers such as, everything will happen in God's perfect timing, He knows whats best for you, He's holding out for something great, He's teaching you to trust Him, etc. When life smacks you in the face for real and very tough times happen to you, the flesh gets in the way and Satan tries to reign over you. I think this is the most I have ever prayed in my life. That sounds ridiculous. We have cried out to God for clarity and direction, yet still have neither. We get the same wisdom: "you don't know the logistics behind what God is doing, but trust that He knows what's best and He has a plan for you." That is really hard to hear when we are ready for whatever or wherever the Lord wants us.
This morning I got up, turned on some Phil Whickham, and spent some time in prayer. I journaled for a long while and then decided to read the daily devotional I have: My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. This is when I realized I have been praying for an answer and have been becoming bitter toward God because He hasn't answered us the way we want Him to. Dwell on these words Chambers says:
First, he references Mt. 6:8, "Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him."
Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get the answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with god. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God's grace. Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then "in that day" your will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction. When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason--God uses these time to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.
Wow. It was evident God wanted me to hear this today. I want to pray without ceasing, but not just so God will answer my prayers the exact way I want them answered. I want His Will and I want clarity, but when I pray, I want to in order to become more intimate with Him. That is why I know I have been selfish and greedy. I am so thankful God speaks truth into our lives. He is not against us.
Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
embrace grace...divorce yourself from law
Today the sermon Pastor Steve gave at church was amazing and challenging all at once. We've been going through the book of Hebrews and the series is called Jesus Is Better. Today was called Jesus Is Better: the better Moses.
Though I've been a Christian since I was 10 years old, sometimes I still struggle with truly accepting and understanding God's grace. I still feel unworthy of accepting it. I have such a guilty conscious, so when I sin, and I know I've sinned, sometimes I feel as though I need to be more religious and make up for what I've done, rather than just repenting and accepting God's grace. I never want to feel as though I am taking advantage of His grace. There needs to always be a good balance of being broken because of your sin, but still accepting His grace. That's exactly what the sermon was about today.
Moses was sent to prepare the hearts of the Israelites before Jesus came. Hebrews 3:3 says, "For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses- as much glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself." WE are the house! So when Moses was sent to bring the Israelites the Law (10 commandments), they were already building an idol!! So why would God send Moses to set up a Law (a religious system) when He knew it would rise against the gospel? He knew they were going to build that idol before he even presented them with a set of rules to live by. He did this so we would be humbled and so He could prepare our hearts to love Christ! The Israelites made an idol before the ink on the contract wasn't even dry! They had absolutely NO hope of obeying. God knew their misbehavior was in their unhealthy hearts. The Mosaic Law showed them they are completely broken...just what we needed to be fully dependent on Christ.
The part that is easy to do with the Law is when we feel like we are doing awesome by keeping the Law, we judge others and want to close off the world to grace, which ultimately leads to self-righteousness. We begin to act like we no longer NEED Christ and His GRACE! This is what I was talking about when I stated above about being more religious rather than accepting God's grace. When we sin, we need to run to GRACE, NOT shame. We try to do more good deeds (whether we realize it or not) so we can earn our way back into a good relationship with God. If we had to work hard and do good deeds to rid ourselves of sin, we would never be accepted by Christ...life would be stressful and we would never feel able to fulfill our duty. We sin way too much even for a lifetime to work our way into heaven. We need to ACCEPT God's grace and know the Law came to break us of self-sufficiency and pride! It's so much more freeing.
When our hearts are broken by grace and not self-effort, this is when God is able to work through us and allow us to grow closer to Him. We rely on Him and not ourselves. We compare ourselves to His standards and not to the world's.
Hebrews 8:10-12 says, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
HE'S DONE IT FOR US!!! WE NO LONGER HAVE TO BE IN CHAINS...WE CAN LIVE IN FREEDOM BECAUSE OF CHRIST'S LOVE, OBEDIENCE, AND WILLINGNESS TO GO TO THE CROSS AND BEAR ALL OF OUR SINS FOR US!! HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS, BUT HE KNEW THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY FOR US TO BE ABLE TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM WITHOUT THIS HAPPENING. A PERFECT BEING HUNG ON THE CROSS FOR IMPERFECT PEOPLE. AMAZING LOVE, HOW CAN THIS BE? This is how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Embrace grace; divorce yourself from the Law.
Though I've been a Christian since I was 10 years old, sometimes I still struggle with truly accepting and understanding God's grace. I still feel unworthy of accepting it. I have such a guilty conscious, so when I sin, and I know I've sinned, sometimes I feel as though I need to be more religious and make up for what I've done, rather than just repenting and accepting God's grace. I never want to feel as though I am taking advantage of His grace. There needs to always be a good balance of being broken because of your sin, but still accepting His grace. That's exactly what the sermon was about today.
Moses was sent to prepare the hearts of the Israelites before Jesus came. Hebrews 3:3 says, "For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses- as much glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself." WE are the house! So when Moses was sent to bring the Israelites the Law (10 commandments), they were already building an idol!! So why would God send Moses to set up a Law (a religious system) when He knew it would rise against the gospel? He knew they were going to build that idol before he even presented them with a set of rules to live by. He did this so we would be humbled and so He could prepare our hearts to love Christ! The Israelites made an idol before the ink on the contract wasn't even dry! They had absolutely NO hope of obeying. God knew their misbehavior was in their unhealthy hearts. The Mosaic Law showed them they are completely broken...just what we needed to be fully dependent on Christ.
The part that is easy to do with the Law is when we feel like we are doing awesome by keeping the Law, we judge others and want to close off the world to grace, which ultimately leads to self-righteousness. We begin to act like we no longer NEED Christ and His GRACE! This is what I was talking about when I stated above about being more religious rather than accepting God's grace. When we sin, we need to run to GRACE, NOT shame. We try to do more good deeds (whether we realize it or not) so we can earn our way back into a good relationship with God. If we had to work hard and do good deeds to rid ourselves of sin, we would never be accepted by Christ...life would be stressful and we would never feel able to fulfill our duty. We sin way too much even for a lifetime to work our way into heaven. We need to ACCEPT God's grace and know the Law came to break us of self-sufficiency and pride! It's so much more freeing.
When our hearts are broken by grace and not self-effort, this is when God is able to work through us and allow us to grow closer to Him. We rely on Him and not ourselves. We compare ourselves to His standards and not to the world's.
Hebrews 8:10-12 says, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
HE'S DONE IT FOR US!!! WE NO LONGER HAVE TO BE IN CHAINS...WE CAN LIVE IN FREEDOM BECAUSE OF CHRIST'S LOVE, OBEDIENCE, AND WILLINGNESS TO GO TO THE CROSS AND BEAR ALL OF OUR SINS FOR US!! HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS, BUT HE KNEW THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY FOR US TO BE ABLE TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM WITHOUT THIS HAPPENING. A PERFECT BEING HUNG ON THE CROSS FOR IMPERFECT PEOPLE. AMAZING LOVE, HOW CAN THIS BE? This is how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Embrace grace; divorce yourself from the Law.
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inspiration,
thoughts,
truth
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