Tag Archives: jesus

Making Room for Jesus–Question #4

QUESTION #4:
Do we get impatient and irritated? Do little things vex and annoy? Or are we sweet, calm and unruffled under all circumstances?

Maybe today’s post isn’t as heavy as unforgiveness or jealousy to you, but we are more likely to have this type of obstacle in our everyday lives. Anger doesn’t necessarily come everyday, but being annoyed can be a repeat offender. This question isn’t meant to put pressure on us to be perfect or to display a false kind of “sweet”, but it is to challenge us to rid ourselves of these qualities. If we find ourselves becoming impatient and flustered, we aren’t operating in joy, love and peace, thus we aren’t yoked with the kingdom of God.

Stephen chimed in this morning with a visual illustration for this question. He described the irritations and annoyances as things bumping into us like something knocking into a cup full of water. Whatever is truly inside that cup is going to come out when it is bumped. When we catch ourselves being agitated and then see the ugliness of our reactions, it’s revealing what is really in us. This happens so that we can see the true state of our heart and we are given the opportunity to have God fill our hearts with a different response. So the next time you’re “bumped” with an annoying situation and your heart overflows with a nasty response, invite the Lord to fill you up with His love to overflow.

APPLICATION:

1.Notice what makes you impatient and make note of these things. Ask yourself what about the situation irritates you.

2.Then ask what you can do differently in the situations that bother you. Sometimes we need to draw clear boundaries in relationships or often we need to ask for forgiveness. (See post on December 1st for walking out prayers of forgiveness to God, self, and others)

3. Pray for perfect love to come into situations. As you make room for love, self-seeking, anxiousness, irritation, and lack of restraint will leave.

SCRIPTURES:

Hebrews 6:15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

Matthew 5:43-44, 46 You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

1 Corinthians 13:1 Love is patient, Love is kind…

Making Room for Jesus- Question #3

QUESTION #3:
Is there any feeling of jealousy? When another is preferred before us, does it make us envious and uncomfortable? Do we get jealous of those who can pray, speak and do things better than we can?

Ouch!! ::screams:: Sorry, that was just the question pricking my soul ;) Ok really though, this one can speak to the depths of all of our hearts. I feel an area that has at times become a mastered skill is that of comparison. Anyone reciprocate? This can look like feelings of inadequacy or pride as we compare ourselves, but the root often is jealousy. “Why did they get the promotion?”. “Why are they getting to do that before me?”. “How come they get to do (fill in the blank)?” All of these envious places in our hearts steal faith from us that God created us perfectly in His image and gives us all things we need in His timing. He didn’t create us to be like another and have what they have when they have it.

Often, I believe that a jealous heart has an offense against God that somehow believes He’s withholding good from us. The truth is that He “so loved the world that He GAVE His only son…” He wouldn’t give us free gifts like eternal salvation through His son, health and wholeness and His Holy Spirit if He were in the art of robbing us. The truth is, while we’re caught up in jealously for other “things, titles, relationships, money, etc.. God is wildly jealous over us and wants us to be satisfied in Him. Just because we may not have everything that we want, doesn’t mean that we don’t have all that we need. If we still feel that we don’t have what we need, then it indicates we can afford to make more room in our hearts for Jesus.

Jesus wants to fill your heart with His affirmation and identity over you so that you’re content in Him. Your success is not being held back by another’s success. Ready for jealousy to leave?

APPLICATION:

1. Acknowledge areas of jealousy. Write them down and speak them out loud to God. Ex. “God, I’m jealous that he/she if gifted in ____”. “God you see how much my heart yearns to have what he/she has”.
2. Repent (confess, renounce, and release forgiveness) for any feelings of jealousy and envy.
3. Write down 3 things that are positive and truthful statements about who you are. If you aren’t sure or lack confidence to write 3, ask someone close to you who loves you and celebrates you.
4. Find 2-3 scriptures about your unique identity as a child of God and speak them out loud over yourself.

SCRIPTURES:

James 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice

Proverbs 6:34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

Exodus 34:14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God)

Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Romans 13:13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Lostness (Part 3 of 3)

The Lostness Around Us

My husband and I just returned from a walk around the block before I started writing this. On our walk, we discovered a small lost kitten that was hiding in someone’s yard. Now anyone who knows me well enough knows that I don’t like cats, but I can’t resist feeling compassionate when the cat was in this lost state. The second time around the block, the cat lay really low as if trying to blend in with the grass. This cat had no collar and seemingly was without hope. Then we turn the corner and spot one of our neighbor’s dogs running around in the street. This sight is not too uncommon as the dog’s name is “Smokey” and escapes out the front door as my neighbors take smoke breaks ;-) As I’m typing this I can hear a little girl yelling, “SMOKEY!!!!” outside my window. While this dog has a home, it’s continually in a state of being overlooked and running around as if lost. 

Today’s blog concludes the topic of lostness by addressing the lostness around us. Monday I referenced how in recent missions meetings, that it had been discussed that being lost was the absolute worse condition to die. That some would die poor and in disease, but could still leave this earth to spend eternity with the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit. Lostness is the most important thing on God’s heart and the greatest hinderance from His kingdom coming further in power to overthrow darkness and sickness. He “desires that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance”, according to 2 Peter 3:9. We must be like Jesus and “be about His Father’s business”. How do we see and hear like Jesus? Especially in the midst of our busy lives?

Let’s face it, is easy to overlook opportunities to be compassionate. Lostness surrounds us, yet we must have ears to hear, eyes to see, and a mouth to speak the right words and act rightly. This is where we must look to Jesus. He said in John 14:10,”Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” If the Son was fully dependent on the Father to be moved in all acts of righteousness, how dependent should we be? Jesus wasn’t just able to perform great miracles of healing the sick, raising the dead, and bringing salvation forth solely because He was the Son of God. He rested in His Father’s love and direction and yoked Himself to be obedient to the Spirit within Him. Likewise, we must rely on the Spirit to see lostness around us. 

Just as the cat tried to blend into it’s surroundings this evening, the co-worker in the office next to you might try to hide the abuse at home from you. When we feel lostness in our own lives, we tend to retreat and become immobile. This is where the fear of the enemy can paralyze us. When someone is separated from right standing with God, they tend to be at a stand still. They aren’t necessarily moving towards or away from Him. They are lost. This is where the truth of the word of God can come into action through our lives.

I addressed in Part 2 of his blog that we must filled and be continually filled with Holy Spirit in order to overcome the lostness in our own lives. This infilling enables us to see the lost around us. According to the Joshua Project, a non-profit that deal with unreached people groups around the world, 40% are still considered unreached. This doesn’t mean that the other 60% necessarily knows Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. It just means that they have had adequate exposure to the gospel. This is scary if you consider that most of the United States would be termed “Christian” culture. Yet even here and in every city, there are people facing lostness and hurting. 

Of course it may seem easy for me, a missionary, to be so passionate to write about reaching the lost around us, but it’s not easy or convenient no matter your occupation. However, if we are a child of God, a joint heir with Jesus, we must fall in love with Their heart and it directly beats for people. 

I return to the quote I put on the 1st entry; “We know what it is to lose health and wealth and reputation, but what is the loss of all things compared with the loss of the soul?”-D. L. Moody.  With this, I challenge you to hear the whisper I heard a few days ago. To press into what Holy Spirit would be saying for this hour. He cares about the lostness in each of us. He cares about those who are separated from hIm eternally. We must let the pain of our own lostness drive us to be filled, so that we are “found” and that we might reach others with His great love. “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17)

God wants to continue to save the lostness in each of us. May we lose our lives in the shadow of the cross of Jesus to find everlasting life in Him. May all of our broken hearts caused by great loss be ever filled with the indwelling of Holy Spirit and may the lost come to know Him fully.

Lostness (Part 2 of 3)

The Lostness Within Us

Monday night I decided that I needed to unwind and watch a movie. My husband graciously suggested I watch “Love Comes Softly” while he cooked dinner for me. We had purchased this movie some months ago on sale at Mardel’s. It seemed right up my alley just from the title. I quickly scanned the description on the back and read how many minutes the movie was, 88, perfect! I popped in the DVD and sat down. 5 minutes into it, not the ending, but 5 minutes in I’m crying. This young couple is pioneering new land in “the West” and came upon their new settlement together. Mixed emotions fill them as they argue and celebrate. Then my husband, Stephen enters the room and asks me a question about our food, so I pause the movie and regain my composure. Then I say ,”If the husband dies, I’m turning this off!” Well within two minutes “tragedy” hits and I lose it! I’m not ruining the story for you because what I had overlooked on the cover was the explanation that “tragedy” hits this young couple and she meets someone else! So much for a relaxing family movie!
Why am I sharing this silly story? Because I’ve been praying and preparing my heart this week to speak on lostness and while this was a movie, my heart was in far too sensitive of a place to handle that storyline (especially as a newlywed who is to embark on new territory myself as a missionary). Loss that we feel in our individual lives can leave us with a lot of pain. Pain that is not dealt with properly can become toxic emotions that hurt us and those around us. When we suffer loss, we are grieving and reeling and it effects all that surrounds us. Ever loss we incur creates new emotions and belief systems that form how we act and react.
There is a precious family I know who lost two of their three daughters in tragic events. The oldest daughter, who was married, died in the same car accident their youngest daughter survived. When the policeman came to their house and informed them of the news, the father yelled, “JESUS IS STILL LORD!”!!! His immediate reaction in a moment of trauma was to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus over the situation. He didn’t think that through, but it was a result of years of a solid dependency in Christ through the far smaller “losses”. This response and testimony shook me. This family later on lost their middle daughter because she had a seizure in her sleep while away at school. I met this family a couple of years after both of these incidents and was so loved and accepted by them. I couldn’t believe how steadfast they were and how graciously they opened their home and discipled young adults. This was a family who learned to allow Jesus to heal them, fill them, and flow through their lives even when pain occurred.
There are real psychological and physicolgocial things that occur in a moment when you lose something. Even if it is as simple as misplacing an item like your phone or your wallet. The “fight or flight” mode that our bodies rush into immediately cause us to deplete certain hormones in our bodies. Amplify the response by losing sight of your child in a crowd or losing a large research paper as it suddenly disappears into the oblivion of your computer, and your body reacts strongly. When we experience loss, our bodies need to refuel and recharge. This is why it is so important to turn to the Lord in our suffering. Loss in our lives will always create a need to be filled and God desires that we be filled with the right things.
Heaven’s perspective on lostness starts in creation when God, the Father lost continual fellowship with man. Then He gave His son so that we wouldn’t be lost. The Son sacrificed His blameless life so that we wouldn’t be lost. The Holy Spirit was then poured out so that we could be filled and continually filled while on this earth. This “infilling” of the Spirit is to bring us to revelation of who the Father and the Son are and empower us to be victorious in this life. This does not mean that death and destruction won’t effect our lives, but it does mean in the face of loss, we can overcome and be filled. When we have hurt over a loss, that gives us an opportunity to know how great His love really is. Jesus said in John 4:23-24 says, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” This was affirmation that one day, we as lost people would know truth to worship God fully by. This is why worshipping Him can be so powerful! We can get lost in worshipping Him and receiving His love and restoration of all things lost.
 
Lostness strips away the superficiality of life so that you can truly find fulfillment in the fullness of God. I do not mean that God causes these losses in our lives, but we live in a fallen and broken world in which we are all really lost without Him. Until one recognizes their lostness, they can’t properly depend on His Lordship and embrace His fullness.
My prayer for you today would be that you would see the lostness in your life as an opportunity to turn to Jesus. That if you know you aren’t right with Him, you’d see a hope to the separation you feel from the love of God. If you are living for Him, I pray that through the hurt of the loss in your life that you could experience the fullness of how great His love really is.
If you didn’t read Part 1 of “Lostness” and my testimony, please scroll down. Friday will be on the Lostness around us.

Lostness (Part 1 of 3)

“We know what it is to lose health and wealth and reputation, but what is the loss of all things compared with the loss of the soul?” D. L. Moody
 
The other morning as I was being, you know super spiritual and curling my hair ;-), I was pondering a sad reality of a loss I suffered this past year. The pain of this loss has hit me in waves at times, but on this particular morning there was a full realization that the way things were will never be the same ever again. It was different than other relational losses I’ve encountered and somewhere in my mind I hadn’t realized the finality of the situation. As my thoughts settled in that morning, I began thinking about lostness. 
 
You see, I lost my cousin, Tess who was also my best friend to cancer when we were both 14 years old. I have felt the loss of a close friend before. I remember being in the first couple of months of my Freshman year of High School walking through the halls with a gaping wounded heart. I felt numb and the ability to cope let alone thrive was beyond me. I would sit in Algebra class and try to retain at least one principle of it’s foreign language ( X=Y+?!!!!!). This gap in my heart, this loss of close love drew me to the Cross in one way or another. It wasn’t immediate, but the wounds in my heart called out to be filled. As I went through this time, I began to value life differently. I wanted to live my life in such a way that people would be changed positively my life. I watched how my cousin had suffered for 7 years in her body, but she did so with joy and made a positive impact in many lives. I knew I could either satisfy myself in the desires of a typical teenager, or maybe, just maybe God had the fulfillment that I was needing. I had already prayed a “prayer of salvation” as a 6th grader and faithfully attending FCA. This may or may not have been because of the good looking older male athletes that were there each Wednesday morning ;-) but nonetheless, I came and desired the realness of God, but knew something still was missing. I ended up having beautiful encounter with the Spirit of God about two years later at 16 years old and made Jesus Christ the Lord of my life. I became a daughter of the Most High God and was exposed to His marvelous light and felt not just “saved” but a relationship! For me, this was the greatest restoration of the lostness in my heart from losing Tess.
 
When I was pondering lostness and my own scenario, I thought about how much it really hurts to suffer loss. No matter the situation, loss hurts. My thoughts were stopped as I felt Holy Spirit whisper to my heart that morning, “Imagine how broken I am over those who are still lost and don’t know me.” I broke. Not that my loss of relationships, health and other occurrences aren’t valid or aren’t losses. They are and they matter deeply to the heart of God. I just believe in this particular moment, God wanted to bring healing to my heart from this particular incident by showing me a higher perspective. In speaking this to my heart, I was able to connect the sorrow of lostness I was feeling to a glimpse of His heart for those lost in darkness and separated from Him.
 
Luke 19:10 says,”the Son of Man (Jesus) has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” The word lost here means perishing, destroyed fully or cut off entirely. When Jesus was sent to this earth, He came to bring those who were lost, without hope and completely living in darkness to the Father. He was to restore what had been stolen from God’s original intent for us and redeem us from death, Hell and destruction. You can’t “sort of” be found or “saved”. You are either a child of God with a surrendered life to Jesus, or you are lost and perishing outside of the intent of God for your life. The whole purpose of why Jesus came was lostness. If as Christians we are His followers, we should walk in the steps of Jesus and bring salvation to those who are lost.
In a recent missionary training, the topic of lostness came up from our Director of Africa Missions. He mentioned that the worst possible condition that anyone could die in was lostness. There will be those who die hungry. Those who will die naked or in disease. Yet there is no worse way to die than by being separated eternally from the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 
This week, I want to challenge you to ponder lostness. Today’s entry is just an introduction to this topic, but I pray that as the week unfolds you’ll receive healing in your lives and impact those around you.
Wednesday’s topic will be on lostness in us and Friday’s will be on the lostness around us.

Powerful Easter production at Victory in Tulsa #Risen #Jesus #Easter #newlife