Tag Archives: draw near to God

If Only…

  By Rachel | July 13, 2012 - 11:55 pm | Thoughts for the Day
10 Comments

Glowing Content

Contentment call be illusive.

Clung to momentarily only to be replaced by longings for what we do not have.

And it is all around us.  If you turn on the TV- you are immediately informed through commercials about all the things you desperately need and your life is “not quite complete” without.

We deserve it.

Treat yourself.

HGTV shows dream homes and home makeovers that can make us long for granite counter tops and well organized spaces, fenced in backyards and well manicured lawns with beautiful flowers.

Every time we go shopping we are inundated with temptations- we are targeted.  Salespeople research and plan to place things in our path that we will be tempted to impulsively pick up.

It is easy to make excuses, to rationalize why we need the things we have, or buy, or the things we want to possess.

But once you have them, are you ever disappointed?  That dress that you just had to have doesn’t seem to satisfy after the purchase is made.  Sometimes those things that we thought we needed sit unused till we find them in the back of some closet with the tag still on.

All of this buying and upgrading and wanting and consuming can leave us in a perpetual state of discontent.

1 Timothy 6:6-10

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Consequences of Discontentment

  • Selfishness
  • Blinds Us to the Pressing Needs of Those Around Us
  • Steals our Joy
  • Distracts us
  • Causes us to focus our attention AWAY from God

James 4:1-10

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The only thing that satisfies is God.  We chase after so many other things- and always the result is the same.  Nothing satisfies- it is meaningless- a chase after the wind.

Rest

Stop running- rest in God.

Stop longing for things that will never satisfy- whatever it may be for you- let it go.

Daily we must cling to God- dig deep in His Word- seek Him in prayer- and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His Glory and Grace. 

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.

Oh Lord, it is so easy to get lost in the illusion that “getting” will make us happy.  But only You satisfy. We want to stop running after material things and earthly pleasures.  Instead Lord may we burn with the passion to know You more.  To dwell in Your presence and rest at Your feet. May we seek to honor You in our thoughts, desires, and how we spend our time and money.  We submit ourselves to your leading God.  Convict us as we draw near to You.  In Your Precious Son’s Name (Jesus) we pray, Amen.

 

 

 

Cornerstone Confessions

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Dare to Dig In

  By Rachel | July 11, 2012 - 6:32 pm | Thoughts for the Day
15 Comments

Digging in the Garden

My hubby got home last night and I reluctantly admitted to him, I haven’t run yet today.  For some reason, I just wasn’t motivated- I was having a hard time getting my will power up to just get in there and do it.

He suggested that I run after we put our son down and he would hang out with our daughter until her bedtime.  I went in the bedroom to change clothes- but I ended up at the computer instead!

My hubby poked his head in about 10 minutes later.  He didn’t say anything; he didn’t need to.

I changed clothes quickly and got on the treadmill.  I was standing there waiting for the belt to speed up before I got on, and I thought- I don’t want to do this!

But I did it anyway- why?

  • I thought about how good I would feel when it was over.
  • I remembered that I want to have a healthy body and take care of myself.
  • Running relieves stress.
  • Running helps me sleep.
  • Running is a time I pray and seek God.

I tried to focus on all the positive things- and just willed myself to do it.  It was the discipline of doing what I know is good for me, even when my thoughts are not encouraging the right action.

I knew that the next day I would regret NOT running.

When I was coming up toward the end of my time on the treadmill, I started thinking about our relationship with God and obedience.

Obeying God is an act of our will.

It doesn’t always feel good.  It is not easy.

It requires FAITH.

We don’t necessarily see the immediate results of our obedience- no instant gratification.

But we invest (spend time in His Word, in prayer, in fellowship) because we believe that spending our time seeking God is worth whatever sacrifices we are called to make.

There is a reason why this habit is so hard to establish and keep.  Because spending time daily with God is the most effective way for us to fight the sin in our life.

We recognize sin for what it is much quicker when we have God’s Word in our hearts and on our minds.  We are not fooled by nice “packaging” or convincing arguments.  We see through it.

  • Apathy
  • Rationalization
  • Procrastination

They are Satan’s most effective tools in keeping us entrapped by habitual sins.

We rationalize away our need to deal with any sins in our life- grace covers all our sins after all.

We procrastinate, oh, I will deal with that tomorrow- I just can’t handle another thing today.

We let our hearts become hardened (apathy) toward the sin in our life.  We can’t even hear God speaking in our lives and hearts because we have allowed sin to reside there and we are enslaved to it.

Only those who obey believe…You are disobedient, you are trying to keep some part of your life under your own control. That is what is preventing you from listening to Christ and believing in his grace. You cannot hear Christ because you are willfully disobedient. Somewhere in your heart you are refusing to listen to his call. Your difficulty is your sins…Tear yourself away from all other attachments, and follow him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer    The Cost of Discipleship

We cannot serve two masters- we choose- consciously or not- each day- to live by the flesh or by the spirit. To submit to God or to submit to the temptations/pleasures of the flesh.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it this way:

Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe. Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe? No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus.

Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? If so, you must not be surprised that you have not received the Holy Spirit, that prayer is difficult, or that your request for faith remains unanswered…If you dismiss the word of God’s command, you will not receive his word of grace.

How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him? The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.

What sins do you need to openly call out in your own life today?

1 Corinthians 10:11-13 (so much richer in the context- read the whole chapter)

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 15:58

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Let’s Pray.

Lord, it is easy for us to begin to use our sins to beat ourselves up when we feel the weight of conviction upon us.  Remind us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that we have been set free from the law of sin and death by the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Grant us courage as we call out those areas of sin in our lives.  As we acknowledge our hardened hearts and secret sins Lord, come heal us through the power of your Holy Spirit.  Create in us a clean heart, renew a steadfast spirit within us.  God I pray that we would  submit every area of our life to your control.  Convict us of any ways we are rationalizing, procrastinating, or have let our hearts become hardened toward you.  Free us for joyful obedience through Jesus Christ our Lord. In His Name we pray, Amen.

 

 

 

Language of Love

  By Rachel | June 29, 2012 - 11:51 am | Thoughts for the Day
7 Comments

Red tulips closeup

As I have grown closer to the Lord over these past several months- I have discovered a new struggle within myself.  How do I transform the words that I speak to reflect the reality of what God is doing in me?

Many of the things I used to say just aren’t true anymore.

Are you a habitual talker?  Some responses come out before you really think through the implications of what you are saying?  What those words might be communicating to the hearer?

I have developed habits in how I interact with people.  Now that God is working in me- sometimes I want to say something different, express how God is changing me- but I find myself stuck in the old word patterns.

So much has been made new, my thinking, what I say, my identity- God has begun an overhaul- long overdue.

Sometimes I don’t know how to express what God is doing in me- how I am changing.

Thank God that we not only have His Holy Spirit but also His Word to help us share and express to others the joy of seeing our lives transformed by the Lord.

Pride so easily seeps into my conversations- puffed up importance in what I have to say or offer- my advice or wisdom. I continually look back on conversations and cringe- wishing I would not have said that- or why didn’t I just ask a question or listen?

One of my prayers has been to seek humility and to only boast in the Lord.

Here are some of the passages that I have been meditating on.

Psalm 44:8: In God we make our boast all day long,and we will praise your name forever.

Jeremiah 9:23-25 (makes me think of Romans 2:17-29)

23 This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
    or the strong boast of their strength
    or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

25 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

Romans 5:1-8

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,who has been given to us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 Corinthians 4:7-For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

If we live in the reality of what God has done, we remember “the only thing we brought to our salvation was the sin that made it necessary” (Pastor Dan). Then humility will be a natural posture.

When we do something worthy of praise- we won’t be seeking a pat on the back from human beings-and when people do notice and praise us- we will deflect that praise to God.  That is why we exist- to glorify His Name.  Every gift that we have is from Him.

The greatest protection against pride is a conscious effort to ascribe anything positive in our life to the presence of God within us.  Without Him we are nothing.  He is our Creator, our Redeemer, and His Strength empowers us to do good works.

We can live in the language of love- an outpouring of grateful praise to our King- if only we endeavor to keep our gaze upon the origin of all good gifts.

In his book Humility : The Beauty of Holiness, Andrew Murray talks about how our interactions with others are transformed as we seek humility before God.

“True humility comes when, in the light of God, we have seen ourselves to be nothing, have consented to part with and cast away self, to let God be all. The soul that has done this, and can say, “So have I lost myself in finding Thee,” no longer compares itself with others. It has given up forever every thought of self in God’s presence; it meets its fellow men as one who is nothing, and seeks nothing for itself; it is a servant of God, and for His sake a servant of all…the humble man looks upon every child of God, even the feeblest and unworthiest, and honors him and prefers him in honor as the son of a King…the humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before Him. He can bear to hear others praised and himself forgotten, because in God’s presence he has learned to say with Paul, “I am nothing.”

I read that passage and it inspires and convicts me.  And immediately it makes me thankful too.  I don’t have to do this work.  All I am called to do is be willing.  Present myself before God daily and say, “Lord, here I am, work in me. Transform me through the presence of your Holy Spirit. I am yours.”

Humility

We have to daily submit ourselves before Him.  Humbly acknowledge that we are nothing without Him.  Empty vessels unable to fill ourselves with any real substance- sin can trick us into thinking that we are satisfied, but deep down we feel that gnawing hunger- and we know true fullness when we allow God to pour His love into us.

No one on this earth owes me anything.  I choose to live in obedience to God- I serve not expecting anything in return- I give extravagantly of all my gifts and serve with joy.  But all these thing are done through the power of God working in me- His presence transforming me.  I can’t do it by human effort.

I tried that for so long- and that’s when we begin to feel bitter, like the world owes us something for the work we have done.  We are not “entitled” to anything in this life.  All is grace.  ALL is grace.

And I guess that’s what I have been learning- my language will change as the reality of God continues to seep into me- as God renews my mind and transforms me.  I begin to see through His eyes.

God, we have lived in this world so long without really seeking you with our whole hearts.  Lies of this world have seeped in and mixed with your Truth.  We need the conviction of your Holy Spirit and your Word to begin to walk fully in your Truth.  Grant us wisdom and discernment to see when we are motivated by pride and worldly cares rather than working out of obedience and humility.  May we submit ourselves fully to you- allowing you to set our priorities and use our gifts for your glory and yours alone.  Through your power and grace at work in us Lord let it be so.  In Jesus Name, Amen.