Month: September 2020

…You are not your own, for you have been bought with a price…

             I Corinthians 6:19-20

  Every Sunday for years, these are the words I saw carved into the wall behind the platform at church.  I lived much of my life with a mindset far removed from that message.  Even though I faithfully attended church with my family every Sunday, participated in youth groups and other Christian activities, somehow all that knowledge about God had never penetrated my heart.  

I was twenty-eight years old when my husband and I moved to another state and I started attending church with a new friend.  It was there I finally heard, understood, and responded to the message that Jesus had died for me so that I could be forgiven for my sin and have a personal relationship with Him.  Death on the cross was the price He paid to save me.  I realized Jesus loves me and He wants to be Lord of my life! That is when I committed my life to Him and began a life-long journey of knowing, loving, and following Him.

            At first, even after making a personal commitment and inviting Jesus to be Lord of my life, I was still living as though I had to earn God’s love. I added more Christian activities — attended a weekly Bible study, taught children’s Sunday School, sang in the choir. As I grew in my knowledge of God, I even incorporated somewhat regular “quiet times” and began leading a women’s Bible study. 

            Several years passed before I finally began to truly understand that God loves us unconditionally, not based on our Christian activities and trying harder to please Him. He was willing to die so that we could have a relationship with Him.  He desires to be Lord of our lives.  He wants to live His life through us. He wants us to be His hands and feet, going where He wants us to go and serving where He wants us to serve.  His Holy Spirit indwells every follower of Jesus and equips us for what He calls us to do.

            Perhaps we think negatively of this master/servant relationship, having to give up our freedom, our rights, the things we think we need to make us happy.  But actually, it is only as we surrender ourselves completely to God that we can experience the joy and fulfillment, the abundant life He intends for us.  Anything else we seek may offer temporary pleasure, but nothing else will completely satisfy us and give the deep joy and peace as we experience in loving relationship to Him. 

              It is easy to just go through the routine of living day after day, responding to the urgent situations that demand our attention, being drawn to all kinds of activities, without ever stopping to ask God what He would choose to do with our life. I pray that God will draw us closer to Himself and give us the desire expressed by this song:  “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.  Take my hands…my feet…my voice…my lips…my silver and my gold…my intellect…my will…my heart…my love.”  The last verse ends with “Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.” 

PERSONAL REFLECTION

Read again I Corinthians 6:19-20 You are not your own, for you have been bought with a price…

Is Jesus truly Lord of your life, or are you just going through all the right motions of being a Christian?

If you are still living life as if it is your own, you can ask God to change your heart and make you willing to live completely for Him. I encourage you to spend time alone with Him each day acknowledging that you are not your own.  Ask Him how He wants to live His life through you today.  Jesus bought you with the price of His own life.

Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 

Put on the full armor of God…

                                                                Ephesians 6:11-13

I memorized this Scripture about the armor of God as a child during Vacation Bible School many years ago. On a flannelgraph board, we saw colorful pictures of a soldier wearing a belt of truth, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and shoes of the gospel of peace   But it is only years later as an adult  I have come to a deeper understanding of spiritual warfare, the spiritual life-and-death importance of being prepared for spiritual battle. 

The Scriptures tell us we have an enemy who is out to destroy us.  Who is the enemy?  It is Satan, the devil.  1 Peter 5:8 says: “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”   God has clearly warned of the enemy’s intent.  Do you take the warning seriously?  Do I? 

In the Garden of Eden, Satan tempted Eve to disobey God’s clear command not to eat from the tree of life.  He is still very much at work with his forces of darkness attempting to destroy us emotionally and spiritually.  His temptations are altered to meet our own vulnerable areas. What can we do about it?  How can we remain strong?

Ephesians 6:11-13 gives us the battle plan to fight the enemy, God’s provision of spiritual armor for the spiritual battle:

            Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

              The first piece of armor is TRUTH.  We need to know God, know what His Word says about who He is, what He has done for us, and who we are as those who have received His gift of salvation through faith in Jesus.  The next piece is RIGHTEOUSNESS.    We must be cleansed of sin and be born again in order to be in a right relationship with God. It is necessary to understand the gospel of PEACE, the good news that we are no longer separated from God because of our sin.  We need to be prepared to take the good news to others wherever we go.  FAITH in God is the shield that will protect us from the fiery darts (the temptations) Satan throws.  We need the solid foundation of SALVATION, to recognize we have been saved from sin to live for God. The WORD OF GOD is the one offensive weapon.  We need to know God’s Word, to have His Word hidden in our hearts.  When Jesus was being tempted by Satan, He was able to firmly respond, “It is written….”  He added nothing, just spoke the Word of God.  We must be able to do the same.  Finally, we are to pray and “be on the alert.”

            Years ago, I was reading these verses on spiritual warfare and asked God to help me understand it better.  What finally became clear to me is that Jesus Himself is the full armor. He is truth, He is righteousness, He is peace, faith is a gift He has given, He is our salvation, He is the Word of God.  I am to “put on Christ” (Romans 13:14).  I am to acknowledge that I am in Him and He is in me.  He has made Himself and His power completely available to fight the spiritual battles and the temptations that will inevitably come.  But the choice is mine, moment-by-moment, to be in Him and claim His protection, or to set Him aside and listen to the lies of the enemy and respond to the inviting temptations Satan places before me.

            Entire books have been written on the subject of spiritual warfare.  God’s Word clearly warns us of the battle and provides all the protection we will need.  I encourage you, as I remind myself, to take very seriously the battle we are in, to consciously put on Christ each day, to pray, be on the alert, and be strong in the Lord. 

I just read these words from the Jesus Calling devotional book, September 18th: “You inhabit a fallen, disjointed world, where things are constantly unraveling around the edges. Only a vibrant relationship with Me can keep you from coming unraveled too.”

Yes, even in the midst of this current worldwide pandemic, where life as we knew it has changed so dramatically, we can be strong in the Lord! We can keep our focus on the Lord who is the same yesterday, today and forever. He will never leave us. He is our strength to endure anything we are going through.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

Satan is very crafty.  He knows your weakest areas.  Do you?  Have you identified the areas where he is most likely to attack?  What are they?

We must prepare ourselves daily by putting on the armor, “putting on Christ.”  Review the parts of the armor. Ask God to make each one a reality that you can understand in a meaningful way.  Write down what you learn about each piece of the armor.

            Truth

            Righteousness

            Peace

            Faith

            Salvation

            Word of God

Know the Truth.  Refuse to listen to the lies of Satan!

Pray and ask God for opportunities to share God’s truth with others who are struggling.  We all need God’s truth to stand firm in our faith.

… present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:1

In the Old Testament, we read God’s commandments to the people of Israel about how they were to offer animals as a sacrifice for forgiveness of sin and to express their worship to Him.  The animals were to be without blemish or defect.

In the New Testament, Hebrews 9:14, we learn that Jesus is the Lamb of God who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, crucified on the cross, to pay the penalty for the sins of the world.  Now, instead of offering animal sacrifices, God asks us to respond to Him in worship by offering ourselves in complete surrender to Him — to know Him, love Him, and follow Him in obedience to His Word. 

So how do we “present our bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice?”  It is not a one-time-once-for-all response.  Here are some thoughts about what we can offer Him daily:

Our best time of the day to spend with Him, making Him our highest priority

Our worship for who He is and what He has done for us

Our surrender, trust, obedience, complete dependence on Him

Our mind, will and emotions

Our abilities, strengths and gifts, and even our weaknesses

Our loved ones

Our possessions

Our past, our present, our future

I’m sharing a few lines from “A Prayer for First Thing in the Morning” by the author Asheritah Ciuciu. I received permission to quote a few lines if I include the link to her website:  onethingalone.com.

“Thank you that Your compassion is renewed every morning.  Great is Your faithfulness and Your steadfast love, O Lord!…. Holy Spirit, come and hover over my mind like You hovered over the waters at creation and speak order out of the chaos! Help me to cease striving and trust that you will give me all I need today to do the work You’ve given me to do…. Everything I am is Yours.”

I especially love the idea of asking the Holy Spirit to bring order out of chaos in my mind. I’m sure we all struggle with distracting thoughts as we spend quiet time with the Lord in prayer. We can specifically pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us in how to worship, how to seek Him with our whole heart, and how to pray for others.

And here is one more prayer of surrender from Sheila Walsh in her book Honestly. I want to have this attitude each day! “Lord, I stand before You with open hands.  Whatever you place in them I will welcome.  Whatever you take away I will gladly let go”

PERSONAL REFLECTION

Ask God to reveal any area of your life you are not surrendering to Him.

Praise Him for His sacrifice that has accomplished for you what you could never accomplish for yourself.  In obedience, you can respond to Him by “presenting yourself as a living sacrifice.”

Consider writing your own prayer of gratitude and surrender to God.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

In last week’s post (August 31st), I shared the encouragement that God has a plan for our lives. This week I pray you will be encouraged that He is at work in us to complete that plan!

Years ago, my daughter and her family were able to move into a rental home that God provided for them.  Making the house ready before they moved in was a huge task!  Walls, floors, carpets, appliances all needed to be thoroughly cleaned.  We spent many hours over several days making it ready to move in.  The house was transformed!

We learn from Scripture that our lives need to be transformed.  Romans 3:23 tells us that we all have sinned and we all fall short of God’s holiness.  Isaiah 53:6 says All we, like sheep, have strayed away.  We have left God’s paths to follow our own.    The good news is that God loves us and is working in our lives to accomplish the transformation.  Jesus gave His life on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of the world.  For those who have received that gift of salvation and forgiveness, we have been born again. Our spirit that was dead because of sin is given new life. Our sins have been removed “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103: 12).  We are wrapped in Christ’s robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). 

That is how God sees us in Christ, but He continues His work in us to make our daily life match that inward reality.  When we receive His gift of salvation, God also gives us His Holy Spirit to live in us.  His Spirit gives us wisdom and understanding, the desire and the ability to live the way God calls us to live.  We enter a lifelong process called sanctification, being transformed into His image, which will continue until the day Jesus returns, or until we see Him face to face in heaven.

Our part in that process is to acknowledge our sin, receive His gift of salvation, choose His lordship in our life, growing closer to Him in a personal relationship, confessing when we sin, turning back to Him when we have wandered.  We can’t make ourselves right with God on our own by simply trying harder or doing good works.   

What does a transformed life look like? His will for us is to know Him, love Him with our whole heart, to seek His will, listen to Him through prayer and through His Word, and obey through the power of His Spirit in us. He wants us to trust Him with every part of our life, yielding ourselves and everything we have to Him.

Read Philippians 1:6 again and be encouraged!

 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

Take some time to think about what Jesus did for you at the cross.  He died to pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world – for you and for me!  He was raised from the dead and promises we also will be raised from the dead to eternal life with Him.  Write out a prayer of thanksgiving to Him.

How can you cooperate with Him in the work He is doing in your life right now?  Is there anything that needs to be confessed?  Any area of your life that you are holding back from Him?

What steps can you take to follow Him more closely in obedience to His will?