Hope Fulfilled

 

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

—Proverbs 13:12, NKJV

 

 

All of us have expectations in life. Some expectations are spoken and some aren’t. Whether spoken or not—conscious or subconscious, our expectations form our lives. An expectation is described as a strong anticipation, and it can be either positive or negative. Hope is a resilient and positive expectation of good. 

 

We need hope and the life it brings. It is critical to be sure the hopes we have are from God. If our hopes are not from God, we set ourselves up for despair and a sickened heart. But when godly hopes are realized, we are like a tree of life bringing forth its fruit in its season. We shall not fail. What we do shall prosper (Psalm 1:3).

 

We are either positive in our outlook or negative. Some people expect to never have enough money, to always fail, to have problems, or never be well. And some of these same people declare that they are believing God for their promise. But a negative outlook keeps them from exercising their faith to believe. Your views of life, of God, and of yourself are always found in your expectations. And your expectations will either kill your faith or encourage it. You cannot believe the promises of God at the same time you are expecting a life of failure and defeat. 

 

If faith is the substance of hope (Hebrews 11:1) and hope is a strong anticipation of something good, then it is impossible to believe the truth of God’s promises when you live with negative expectations. If your expectations in life are negative, faith has no fertile soil to take root in your heart and grow. The way you think about yourself determines who you are (Proverbs 23:7). It determines your attitude and what you expect in life. A negative outlook is death to faith. A positive outlook is the heart of Holy Spirit-filled faith.

 

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matthew 12:34b-35, NKJV).

 

What you speak comes out of the abundance of your heart—either that which offers no hope or that which gives life. When you are negative in your expectations, your heart overflows with things that speak fear and despair. You have pictured the worst scenario in your heart. And that picture is your focus. You have set yourself up for a sickened heart. But when you are positive and believing God, you are full of hope and good expectations. You see a picture of your promise in your heart. You are focusing on God’s best scenario and trusting in His perfect peace. You have prepared your heart to receive. And when hope is fulfilled, you are strengthened in your faith.

 

Hopeful expectations from God are powerful when the Word is believed in your heart. Without knowing who you are in Christ—without agreeing and identifying with the truths that God's Word declares are yours—you cannot have hope in the promises Christ has given you. Christ has given you victory. You realize His victory when you believe His truth is your truth. It is no longer truth on the outside waiting to be received. It is truth on the inside changing your life.

 

Come against the negative expectations that steal, kill, and destroy your faith (John 10:10). Be renewed in your attitude by the Word (Ephesians 4:23). Put on the hope Christ gives (Ephesians 4:24). Let it flourish in your heart and change your attitude (Proverbs 13:12). The hope Christ places in your heart gives abundant life (John 10:10). 

 

The hope of those who know Jesus is filled with gladness (Proverbs 10:28)! When you believe that Christ is the fulfillment—the completion—the beginning and the end of everything you need or shall ever need, you know you have received life! His promises are yours, and they are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20)!

 

© 2024 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/02/hope-fulfilled.html

 

 

 

Take His Word into Your Heart

 

 

God’s Word is truth, but it does not produce its truth in our lives if we don’t sow it in our hearts and guard it against the cares of the world and the lies of the enemy. 

 

Out of your heart comes life or death, blessing or curse. The belief you sow in your heart is what you will reap. It is what will bear fruit in your life. If you sow darkness and death in your heart, you reap its results. If you sow God’s light and life in your heart, you reap its results. Your attitude in life is how you think in your heart, and as you believe in your heart that is who you are. If you sow the incorruptible seed of God’s Word in your heart and guard it from the cares of the world and the deceit of the enemy, it will produce God’s truth in your life. And His truth will be who you are.

 

Just as in the natural world, an apple seed can only produce an apple, the seed of God’s Word ultimately produces its own kind. You sow His Word of peace, you will reap peace. You sow His Word of forgiveness, and you will reap forgiveness. You sow His Word of healing, you will reap healing. However, there is time involved in seed, time, and harvest. Often, when we don’t physically see God’s promise, we assume His Word is not working in us. Yet, if we guard His Word in our hearts, diligently remind, and encourage ourselves, we will eventually reap its truth.

 

We don’t need to make excuses for God’s Word. We don’t need to weaken its truth when we don’t physically see or experience what it has promised. The truth of God’s Word is received in your heart by faith. Faith is the ability to see something with your heart that cannot be seen with your physical eyes. Faith believes the truth of the Word and sows its truth into your heart. Faith conceives in your heart what God’s Word has promised you. Has a specific Word spoken to your heart? Is that Word a vision in your heart? Do your words speak life to His promise or speak death to His promise taking root in your heart?

 

“Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

 

The truth in 1 Peter 2:24 says that I was healed by the wounds Jesus took for me. I knew this Word, and I thought I truly believed it. But when I battled sickness for several months, I faced the fact that I didn't believe it.

 

“I don’t feel healed,” I said. “I know I have this sickness. I’ve been told I will have this illness for the rest of my life.”  

 

I identified with my sickness instead of agreeing with what the Word said was true about me. Then a friend gave me Proverbs 4:20-23, and I chose God’s truth for my life. There was nothing that I could do but put His truth in my heart and believe it. I chose to see myself prospering in health. I chose to believe it even when I couldn’t physically see or experience it. I chose to see my healing as truth. I still choose to see this Word as truth in my life even when I don’t physically see and experience it. It is God’s truth and it is uncompromising in what it promises. In life, I will always have experiences that come against God’s truth, but I believe in Him. I am who Jesus says I am whether I physically see or feel it.  

 

Proverbs 4:20-23 reads:

 

“My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.

Keep your heart with all diligence

For out of it spring the issues of life.”

 

This Word is either truth or it’s not truth. What this instructs me to do and the result of that instruction is either true or not true. The Word of God is truth but it is only truth for me when I choose to take it into my heart as my truth. When we plant the incorruptible seed of God’s Word in our hearts and protect it from the cares of the world and the lies of the enemy, we find it is life to us. We see its truth in our hearts by faith. We have a vision of its truth in our lives. It is health to all our flesh because the Word says it is health to all our flesh.  

 

Believing the Word of God is life-changing. When we believe the Word, we conform to the truth it says about us. We agree with what it says about us. We don’t water the Word down because we don’t “see” its results in our lives. We believe it by faith. Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood that it was her faith that made her well. He told the centurion his servant was healed because as he believed for his servant, it was done. Jesus told the two blind men that according to their faith, it would be done unto them.

 

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God in your heart. Faith doesn’t need to see. Faith believes. It takes the Word at its own infinite value and believes in the evidence of things not seen. 

 

The Christian life is lived by faith. We don’t have to see with our physical eyes to believe. We believe in our hearts that God’s Word gives life. We don’t produce God’s truth in our lives. The Word of Truth reproduces itself. What is sown is reaped. We can’t “will” God’s truth to happen. Our efforts profit us nothing. Our part is to believe by faith in God’s Word. We give our complete attention to the Word and focus on it instead of everything around us. We renew our minds again and again with God’s truth. We draw His Word into the midst of our hearts. And during the whole journey from seed to time to harvest, His Word is found as truth no matter what the world or anyone says. Spirit, soul, and body are made whole by the truth of God’s Word.

 

God has promised you something in His Word. The cares of the world have tried to kill your faith. The enemy has come against it with lie after lie trying to steal it from your heart. Your own heart has condemned you and told you that you don’t deserve such incredible love from God. But God is greater than your heart.

 

Have you guarded His Word in your heart?  Have you reminded yourself of God’s truth again and again until the way you think and your attitude changes? Do you see the vision the Word of God paints in your heart?  If you allow your thoughts to paint a negative picture, you will not see in your heart what the Word has promised you. If you allow His Word to paint a picture of God’s truth on the inside of your heart, you will believe. And as you think in your heart, that is who you are. When you sow the truths of your life in Christ into your heart, you reap your life conforming to His.

 

Give undivided attention to God’s Word. It is the absolute truth and power of God to change your life. Take it into your heart. Mediate on it and allow the Holy Spirit to paint a picture of its truth inside of you. Guard the Word sown in your heart with all diligence because out of your heart spring the issues of your life. 

 

© 2024 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/02/take-his-word-into-your-heart.html

 

 

The Cares of This World

 

 

Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

—Mark 4:18-19

 

There is always something to choke the Word of God from producing fruit in us. We can “hear” a Word from God in our hearts to encourage our faith, but then we allow the cares of the world to block its truth from coming to life in us. Real faith is of the heart, and a heart feeding on the cares and desires of the world will not be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. It will not be strong in faith.

 

Many sincere believers ask why they struggle in life—why their marriages aren’t good, why their kids are messed up, why they are sick and have no peace. There is none of the abundant life Jesus promised. Could the “cares” and “desires” of the world have hardened their hearts to the things of God? Their hearts are not hungry for the Word. They don’t take the time to pray and meditate on the Word. Thankfulness is foreign to them because they haven’t taken the time to meditate on God’s blessings. They are just too busy.

 

What is the cost of the cares and desires of the world choking out God’s Word in our hearts? We live desperate lives filled with anxiety, fear, doubt, and bitterness. We become resigned to the way things are instead of believing by faith that what God says is true. The enemy uses the cares of the world—its distractions and its desires— to steal, kill, and destroy God’s Word from ever producing its truth in us.

 

The greatest distraction in our lives today is technology. It has changed our lives. We have the internet, social media, television, streaming services, email, and smartphones with apps that offer unlimited choices. Technology can bless our lives, but it can also hurt our relationships with others and with God. It can isolate us from His Word and keep it from producing fruit in us. We don’t have to let technology steal our time, relationships, and hearts. We can determine to use it to fill ourselves daily with the Word of God and the revelation of the Holy Spirit. We can use it to benefit our faith instead of allowing it to steal our faith. 

 

Whatever distracts us from God—whatever we use to keep us from His Word and our relationship with Him—comes against our faith. But our faith is strengthened when the Word is sown in our hearts and guarded from the distractions the world creates. The incorruptible seed of His  Word ultimately produces fruit in our lives. We reap the benefits of His truth. 

 

God is always speaking to us. Many don’t hear Him because they are not tuned in to Him. They are tuned into other things. Distractions have pulled them away from their first love. From the very moment God created us, we have been His first love. He revealed His love for us in our creation, and then when sin had destroyed the beauty of our relationship with Him, He revealed His love again when we were recreated in Christ. So, why is God not our first love?

 

The cares of the world choke God’s Word from producing its truth in us. Let’s not allow the cares of the world and its desires to choke our hearts and our faith. Let’s love to be with our Creator as much as He loves to be with us. 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/02/the-cares-of-this-world.html

 

 

 

His Way or Our Way

 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

—John 14:6

 

 

Have you ever come to a place where you realize that your way just doesn’t work? If we are honest, I think we can admit we all have. We search for answers and whatever else we need and come up short. Then we finally get to the point where we just give out. 

 

“Why do you make life so hard?” Jesus says. “Your search to find answers and help for whatever you need begins and ends with me. I am the only Way.”

 

We know that not choosing the Lord’s way is just foolishness, but we often end up going our way instead of His even when we don’t mean to. It is because we live in this fleshly body and a fallen world that shrewdly deludes us with options that appear to be good but aren’t.

 

It is easy to recognize the side of our flesh that is so obvious—the side of blatant outright sin. However, there are sides of the flesh that are not so apparent. Some things trigger our flesh to respond in ways that subtly pull us away from the Lord’s way. 

 

One is when we become everyone’s problem solver. I understand this subtleness of the flesh in my own life. Growing up I discovered that I easily could see solutions to problems. I could see the steps to bring organization out of chaos. When something needed a resolution, I came up with a solution that I thought benefited everyone involved. However, this ability developed in my earlier years into perfectionism. I begin putting demands on myself to do things perfectly at home, at church, and in my relationships with other people. I always had an unspoken pressure to do things right. Knowing I could “rightly” get something done, I pushed on ahead. Others, instead of being inspired to help, became dependent on me. I found myself frustrated with them and with myself.  

 

One day I heard the Holy Spirit. “You are not the way,” He said. “You are not the truth or the life. I am. You aren’t supposed to fix everything. You aren’t supposed to make everything just right. Trust me instead of yourself.”  It was a wake-up call that is a lifetime decision I consciously must make every day. 

 

When you make people dependent upon you, you become their solution and it hinders them from seeking God for themselves. When you have a mindset of “I am the only one who can do this,” you rely on yourself to the point you end up burning out in frustration. When you believe your way is the only way and you are the one to be sure it gets done correctly, you start getting anxious with people when they don’t measure up to your expectations. You expect something from them that you haven’t taken the time to share with them. They haven’t learned any skills to help. You have been too busy doing things for them.

 

Another subtle trigger to the flesh is the “agenda” which consumes you. An agenda, which becomes your obsession, is greater in your life than anything else. It is your whole focus. Your perspective regarding situations and relationships is determined by your agenda. You cannot objectively see from someone else’s viewpoint. The ability to make fair and just decisions is totally skewed.

 

You may also have been inspired by God to do something specific. The flesh can rise up against you when you attempt to accomplish it in your own wisdom and timing. When your flesh determines the way to bring forth God’s work, you end up instructing God instead of Him instructing you. 

 

God’s grace is for us. But God’s grace is not for us in what we direct and control. Grace is received in humility. God cannot bless pride. When we take control, we follow our version of His way instead of following Him.

 

Being in control is a convenient way to get things done quickly. Things might appear really good because you see good results, but the truth is when you are in control, you are only proceeding in your own way. The devil has his mark all over your efforts. He will let you taste success for a while, but that success will not last.

 

“It is the Spirit who gives life,” Jesus said. “The flesh profits nothing. The Words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

 

We won’t experience the peace and joy God has for us when our flesh gets in the way. Our way is death, and the things we attempt to do our way won’t produce fruit. God’s work is alive. He is the truth, the way, and the life. Anything we receive from Him can only be fruitful. But that is only true if we carry out His purpose under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. 

 

When the Lord says that His Words are spirit and life, this is our wake-up call to take notice. Our part is to totally surrender and listen to Him. In surrendering to Him, we keep our relationship with Him alive and fresh. When we walk in His Spirit, those triggers to our flesh become obvious. Our hearts become open to His way and to the Spirit’s leading. When we walk in the Spirit, we receive the joy and peace of the Lord. We receive His very best and His power to keep the flesh from rising to control us.

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/02/his-way-or-our-way.html

 

 

 

Our Spiritual Union with Christ

 

 

 

^“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).

 

 

Paul said he wanted to experience Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings conforming him to His death.

 

In this verse, Paul mentioned knowing Christ before he mentioned knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection. Every part of the Christian life is impacted by knowing Jesus in an intimate, practical way. Paul didn’t stop with just knowing Christ. He wanted to know the power that flowed from His resurrection, too. We should have a personal relationship with the Lord that releases His power into our lives and the lives of those we encounter.

 

Paul went beyond just knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection. Paul also wanted to know the “fellowship of His sufferings.” He didn’t desire to suffer, and neither do we. But suffering will come. Everyone in this fallen world will suffer. Some suffering comes naturally, and then there is the persecution every godly person will suffer (2 Timothy 3:12). When we suffer, God provides His supernatural comfort. The comfort we experience in our suffering is the close fellowship with Jesus to which Paul referred. God’s comfort is so sweet that suffering for the sake of Jesus seems like nothing in comparison. Paul wrote in Romans 8:18: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” 

 

In Philippians 3:8, Paul also wrote, “I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

 

Paul had given up everything that he might “know” Christ. 

 

The Greek word used for “know” in Philippians 3:10 is “ginisko.” This was a word that implied the sexual union between a husband and wife. Paul did not just want to know about Jesus. He wanted to know Him and experience Him on the most intimate and personal level. Knowing Christ is not just knowing about Him. It is knowing Him deeply and personally. This relationship of “knowing Jesus” reveals to us the intimate spiritual union we have with Christ in the new birth (Romans 6:4) and the resurrection power of those who believe (Ephesians 1:19).

 

The suffering we experience by our allegiance to Christ could never be the depth of suffering Jesus experienced for our sake on the cross. Paul’s desire was for the results of Christ’s suffering to transform the depth of his life. While suffering for Christ may result in loss of life, it seems that what Paul meant here was death to the life we live in the flesh. This death to our flesh is experienced through faith in the truths of our spiritual union in Christ (Romans 6:11, 17-18). 

 

In Romans 12:2, Paul stated that we are not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed through the renewing of our minds. We are to be conformed to the death of Christ. How are we conformed to His death?

 

“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:11).

 

We are to “reckon” (count, estimate, calculate) ourselves dead to sin and all its effects upon us in the same way that Christ is dead to sin and all its effects upon Him.  

 

Many people focus on the death to sin that is mentioned in Romans 6:11 and leave out the part about being made alive to God in Christ. It is assumed by some people if they will only make themselves die to sin, then a new life in Christ will follow spontaneously. That doesn’t happen. We have no power to crucify our own flesh. We can’t bring forth life from death in ourselves. Only from Christ’s death for us comes new life and the power to deny sin and fulfill the Law of Christ. We only have the power to deny sin with Christ’s resurrection power within us. If we had had the power to wash away our own sin, we wouldn’t have needed Jesus. Some believers are so obsessed with dying to themselves instead of knowing who they are in Jesus, they miss the transformation He is trying to bring in their lives. They miss the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit trying to convict and empower them to repent and trust the resurrection power of God to accomplish what only He can accomplish. 

 

God doesn’t need dead people trying to live for Him. They end up giving up. God needs people who have risen from the dead spiritually. They persevere and don’t give up. People who want to experience the power of God over their flesh seek knowledge of the Son of God and the new life He has given them. 

 

The way to be crucified with Christ and experience His new life is to focus on knowing our spiritual union with Him. Ruminating over and over on the things in our lives that we have no power to overcome instead of meditating on who we are in Christ, will not empower us with God’s power. According to the instruction in Romans 6:11, we are to “reckon“ or to “count” on the truth that our “old man” is dead and “count” on the truth that our “new man” is alive with Christ. We can “count” on the truth that the “new man” we have become in our born-again spirit desires only to live a holy life that pleases the Father. 

 

Without growing in the knowledge of the new person we have become in salvation, we won’t conform to the image God has of us. The Holy Spirit is the one who outwardly changes us in our flesh into people who reflect who we are inwardly in our spirits. We purposely choose to know Christ as Paul did, intimately and personally. We deny and turn from anything—any thought—any sin—any lie— that comes against our knowledge of Christ. We deny these with the resurrection power of His new life within us. 

 

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24).

 

 

When you know who you are in Christ through being renewed and transformed by His truth, you can put on the new person God has created you to be in righteousness and holiness. 

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/02/our-spirtual-union-with-christ.html

 

 

 

In Him

 

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

—John 16:33

 

Jesus said we would have tribulation in this world. He did not say He was the one bringing it. Jesus said He was the one who had overcome it—and that in Him we would have peace. Jesus also made the incredible statement that in the midst of tribulation, we were to be of good cheer.

The world has joy and happiness which is directly proportional to its circumstances. Bad circumstances produce sadness and fear, while good circumstances produce joy and peace. Our peace and joy are not dependent on the things of this world, but, instead, on the love of God revealed to us in Jesus. Jesus is the author of our peace. And it is only “in Him” that we will experience it.

Being “in Him” is having an intimate relationship with the triune God. Having a close relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is necessary to experience Jesus’ peace that has overcome tribulation. Only in a relationship with God can we experience His heart of love for us.  

 

The Father provides comforting security and perspective. He created us for Himself, and He is the guardian of our souls. The Holy Spirit is the revealer of comfort and perspective. He shows us the Father’s heart. He shares the insight and mind of the Father and the words of Christ. Insight, wisdom, and truth are opened to us when we ask. Right out of the heart of God comes His unconditional love that died for us. Jesus is where the love of God is proven to us. It is where we are validated and approved. In the Word, we also see Jesus being human like us. We may love our families but Jesus loves them more than we ever could. He was the One who deliberately laid down His life for all of us. No other love compares to His. In Jesus, we can find unwavering peace and confidence because His sacrifice has already accomplished everything. 

 

It is Jesus who gives us peace with the Father. Our relationship with Him is where we sit with the very Prince of peace. When we are in this place “in Him”, we are in peace. No other place offers us this kind of intimacy.

 

Jesus overcame the world. However, we see unrest, aggression, hatred, and sin. We see fallen man, separated from God, and hostile to the things of God. When we believers operate in love, peace, and truth, we will experience this kind of hostility because Satan sees our very existence as a threat. Satan knows we have the victory and tries to deceive our understanding. Hostility may not be conquered in the world, but Jesus has conquered hostility inside of us. 

 

Every hostile thing that separated us from God was nailed straight to the cross. The charge of sin against us—its tormenting shame, fear, and self-condemnation—was crucified, dead, and buried with Jesus. You can be of good cheer. You are risen in new life. Jesus has overcome your world.

 

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).  This verse offers a comforting truth. Since Christ has justified us—validated and proven us righteous to the Father, we, therefore, have peace with God.

 

The more I have grown through the years in my knowledge of the Lord, the more I find myself rushing back to the relationship where I receive comfort, perspective, truth, wisdom, insight, and love. There is no better place we can go to receive heavenly help and counseling and to be reminded of what is ours in Christ.

 

In this world, we will have trouble, but intimacy in a relationship with the Lord is where we stay in peace. Intimacy is where we find grace extending peace each and every time. 

 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

 

We just need to open our hearts to receive.

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/02/in-him.html

 

Your Heart

The heart is the center of who we are. It is from the heart that we believe and are saved. With the heart, we either live in fear or live in faith. With the heart, we choose to walk in the Spirit or in the flesh. 

 

The heart can either be hardened to the Lord, or it can be transformed by the love of God. We must guard our hearts from the world’s influence. We must protect our hearts from our fluctuating feelings and emotions. By faith, we must plant God’s Word in our hearts and guard it from the lies of the enemy and deceit of this world. Only the child of God whose heart remains sensitive to the Lord will hear Him and walk in faith. 

 

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life”

(Proverbs 4:23). A sensitive heart to the Lord must be guarded and protected or it will become hardened again. 

 

How can you know that your heart is sensitive to the Lord and you are hearing Him? 

 

Your heart will know joy when you are in God’s Word.

*The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart (Psalm 19:8).

 

Your heart will hunger to seek and know Him.

*When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8).

 

Your heart will trust Him and praise Him.

*The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him (Psalm 28:7).

 

Your life will reproduce the health of your heart.

*A sound heart is life to the body (Proverbs 14:30).

 

You will be growing in the knowledge of God.

*Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).

 

You are no longer enamored with the temporary things of this world. 

*For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21).

 

Your words, your attitude, and your actions will be good and speak life.

*A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things” (Matthew 12:35).

 

Without keeping your heart sensitive to the Lord, you will not hear Him. Your heart will know fear and not rest in His perfect love. Without hearing Him, faith will not come. 

 

Your future is in your heart. Will your heart reveal the blessings of the Lord, or will it reveal the deceitfulness of this world?

 

As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man (Proverbs 27:19).

 

Your heart reflects who you are.

 _____________ 

Thank you, Barry Bennett.

www.lynnlacher/2024/02/your-heart.html

  

 

 

God's Rest

 

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

—Hebrews 4:1

 

Today’s verse speaks of entering a place called God’s rest through faith. If we are to enter God’s rest, we must know what it is. 

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:2-3).

“God’s rest” was how He responded to the completion of His perfect work. He called His creation “good”, and He called His ultimate creation of man, “very good”. God’s rest is His reaction to His finished creation. 

In Genesis 2:3 God “sanctified” the seventh day. It was “made holy.” This is the first time “made holy” is referred to in the Word. It is an important fact that God made His rest holy. There is a connection between rest and holiness.  

 

Spiritual rest is the result of knowing God has made us holy through the redemptive and finished work of Jesus. If you want to live a holy life, you start by believing Jesus alone is the One who made you holy. 

God’s work was to “speak” His creation into existence. Just like the old creation came into existence by God’s Word, the new creation is conceived in the incorruptible seed of His Word. If God’s work was to speak life to His creation, then our work is to believe what He has said. 

After the feeding of the five thousand, the disciples asked Jesus, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

In Matthew 17:15 God said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.” (Matthew 17:5).

God instructed us to hear Jesus because the same God who spoke us into creation speaks through His Son.

Jesus spoke: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live”(John 5:24-25).

 

How do we go from death to life? By hearing God’s Word and believing it in our hearts. 

 

Hebrews 1:2-3 speaks of Jesus, after purging our sins, He sits down on His Father's right hand. He rested from His work for the redemption of man just like His Father rested from His work of speaking mankind into existence. Jesus sat down because the purging of our sins and our sanctification was completed.

The finished redemptive work of Jesus comes to live in the spirit of each born-again believer. In our born-again spirits, we are at peace with God. Don’t you want to experience this peace controlling your life? To enter His rest of peace of mind and heart, we must believe the new creation He has made us. We believe by faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word. We renew our minds with God’s Word until its seed of truth is conceived in our hearts. 

God’s rest is not ceasing from work. We, too, must work. It is our work to be renewed in our minds by His truth. It is our work to create fertile soil in our hearts for His incorruptible seed. It is our work to guard the seed of the Word planted by faith in our hearts. It is His work that brings the seed to fullness of life in us. Spiritual growth is believing what He has given us and allowing it to transform our lives into God’s image of us.

God rested from creating the old. Jesus rested from creating the new. We have the promise of entering the rest of God. 

Hebrews 4:1 says not to let fear keep us from entering God’s rest. To me, His rest is a place in Him where even though fear comes against us, it cannot control us. It is a place where the enemy may try to control us, yet we fight with the peace of God Jesus won for us. While I will never be perfect in my flesh, His rest is a place where I work out the incredible gift of the salvation I have received in Him. It is a place where I choose to walk in the Spirit, and the flesh is defeated by Him. It is a place where I have the power to choose His life over death, His blessing over curse, and where all His spiritual fruit flows without hindrance.

The intricate beauty and purposes of God’s Word are always being revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Thank you for allowing me to share today. But don’t take what I say at face value. God has His revelation for you in His Word. The Holy Spirit may reveal to you a different perspective on a Scripture from someone else. If it is His revelation of God’s truth, your revelation of truth will be confirmed throughout other Scriptures and will not compromise the surrounding content of the text or other Scriptures. 

The power of the spoken Word of God brought you into existence, and the power of the spoken Word in your life will continue to speak life to you. We are growing in God this year at our church! Grow in Him! Get in God's Word!

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/02/gods-rest.html