Submit Yourselves

Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ~ James 4:7

Trust.  It’s all about trust.  In today’s world we are given many opportunities to submit ourselves to many different voices - our jobs, our wallets, our desires for more success, our ambitions, or even just the desire to submit to ourselves and what we may think is best for us.  Our world is geared to helping you submit to yourself and whatever those desires may look like selfish, or not.  When we submit to ourselves and our own abilities instead of God's, that's when sin and temptation tend to slowly creep into our lives ever so subtly.  All of a sudden our ambitions create a whole lot of pride; our success leads to greed; our greed leads to gluttony and on and on and on it goes before we become so selfish that we can’t seem to find the time, or effort for anyone else.  Fight the urge to put yourself first; serve others and submit your ways to God and watch the devil leave you.  We must resist the cultures’ me, me, me, self-service attitude and put others first if we truly want to find joy and happiness in life.  Humble yourself and submit your whole being, your life, your kids, your work, every part of your life to Christ and how He would have you live your life and watch the devil flee!  He must!  Be mindful of the many temptations Satan uses to entice you with.  They often come wrapped in shiny, fun, pretty little packages, but once unwrapped and opened they will have you paying dearly - so push back and resist with all your might the temptations set before you.  Call out to Christ and let Him give you the strength to resist and say NO!  Use God’s word to guard your heart, mind and spirit and memorize God’s promises so you can easily bring them to your mind when confronted with the liar and his schemes.  Remember, you must do both - resist the devil and submit to God.  You will see victory!  Be obedient and God’s grace will carry you through. ~ Amen

Eternal House

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:1

In this life, in your current and temporary body, you will experience aches, pains and fatigue.  In due time, our bodies will fail us here on earth and we will pass away.  Everyone does it.  No one is exempt.  It’s a sure part of life.  The earthly body our spirit inhabits right now will one day fail us, but as believers in Christ, our spirits will move on to their permanent house built for us by Christ himself.  This earthly body, or tent, as Paul describes it, is not our permanent home.  Night will come for my earthly body, but my spirit will move on to its permanent home with Christ and my soul will rejoice in its homecoming.  As part of the worldly creation, we were not yet able to live in the heavenly realms, but once our work here is complete and Christ calls us home, we will have our eternal address with our King.  When our bodies are gone as our temporary housing unit, our spirit still has eternal hope in our new home that no human mind can comprehend where we will spend eternity.  As I have heard it said, we are a spirit living in a temporary body, not a body with a temporary spirit.  One day we will move from this home to our forever home.  Rest assured that as followers of Christ, we will live in a glorious state with a new body surrounded by Jesus and His glory forever.  While it is important to maintain your “tent”, or “house” as best as you can, be careful not to spend so much time on the upkeep of your body that your soul deteriorates.  Make time for God and His Kingdom.  Prepare for eternity so as to make sure you are in the heavenly realms when the time comes.  We would be wise to exercise our souls for His Kingdom as much as we exercise our earthly bodies to keep them in tip top shape.  Pursue Godly living and walk by faith knowing that our future is glorious even though we cannot see it yet.  Be encouraged that there is so much more in our permanent, heavenly home. ~ Amen

Bless Abundantly

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ~ 2 Corinthians 9:8

Through God’s gift of unmerited favor, that he bestowed upon me, I should show that same generosity towards others.  We exercise our faith and trust in the Lord when we give generously knowing that God has and will meet all my needs at all times.  Maybe not all my WANTS, but all my NEEDS are met all time. When we choose to be generous, we are actively choosing to act in a way that aligns with God's character and His love.  It’s not an “I give, so God has to bless me” mentality, but rather as a way to experience the joy and fulfillment that comes from giving freely. To be spiritually blessed knowing that you are walking in accordance with God.  Christ has already proven himself to meet all our needs even unto death as the sacrificial lamb for our redemption to God.  Followers of Christ must learn to trust God in all things so that our good works and generosity will not be inhibited.  Christ’s generosity knows no bounds and as long as we are tethered to Him, our generosity will also know no limits; whether it’s with our resources, or our time.  For if we are tied to Him, who is the source, we will never run out.  God’s grace runs through many veins in our lives, but when it comes to generosity and giving, we can never out give God.  He wants to bless His followers who have big hearts and giving hands.  Too many times we hold tightly to what we believe is ours because we are afraid we won’t have enough to meet all our needs, but God would say, “try me”.  A gift can come in many different forms and different sizes and sometimes all God is asking from us is a small gift, enough to test us while still meeting the needs of a fellow human being.  We feel the crunch of the wallet and have forgotten that in God’s economy it is much better to give than to receive.  Jesus himself taught in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  Every follower of Christ has received an abundant gift of grace through the blood of Jesus and the forgiveness shown to us.  May we be as generous as what has been given to us not so that we have enough, but so that others will have enough.  Let our hearts be generous. ~ Amen

Has Made

He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11

Just when you thought things could not get any worse, tragedy strikes.  You lose your job, you lose a loved one, one of your kids gets extremely sick - you name it; all you know is this is not what you had planned for your life.  Heavy burdens and uncertainty can pave a road of doubts and fear, but if you read Ecclesiastes 3:1, you will see that everything has a God ordained time.  The truth of the matter is that God’s timing may seem way off the mark, or what He is doing is so painful you think there is no way this can be part of His plan.  The truth is He is always working from a different perspective.  A much higher perspective than we can possibly fathom.  Operating out of his sovereignty even when He allows extreme pain in our lives.  He sees the whole jigsaw puzzle of our life and the masterpiece that it will be; while we oftentimes, get stuck on one piece at a time because we can’t see the whole picture.  Our life is a wonderful mesh of many different pieces that make a priceless piece of art; a one of a kind.  Too many people walk aimlessly through life thinking this is all there may be for us, but Ecclesiastes 3:11 makes it abundantly clear that we all have a God given knowledge that there is more than what this world has to offer.  We can have tremendous hope and encouragement when we rest in the fact that eternity will be spent with our Creator and this world will be but a vivid memory.  One day we will be able to see what God was doing; how He was in control and how He will make everything right again.  God’s timing is not our timing and our job is to trust Him; to hold onto our hope and faith and believe that we will see how everything had a specific and beautiful place and time for a reason.  Everything comes together in harmony specifically designed, or allowed by God.  God sees the past, present and future and knows how to piece it together at the right time.  We need to trust God, especially in trials, as He sees what we can’t.  We need to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and trust Him to craft our lives. ~ Amen