Enter into the Joy of the Lord

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21).

These are words that we yearn to hear one day. Not only are these words spoken to Christ's servants who are ready to leave this world to be with Him, but they are also spoken for those who still serve Him in this world. They are not spoken to those who have been recognized by men for their good needs, but for those who have been recognized by God for what their heart has given. These encouraging words are for those who serve others in His name selflessly. They are for those who share His love wherever it is needed without seeking recognition. He says that the least in His kingdom on earth is among the greatest in heaven (Luke 9:48).

These words spoken in Matthew are also for those who quietly stand strong in His strength no matter what comes their way. Whatever suffering I quietly face–whatever I do in His name without notice, I will serve Him without the need of earthly recognition. My suffering or circumstance will spur me to serve, and His joy will come, not as a reward of what I have done, but as a reward of my heart given away in spite of my own pain.

If I serve Him faithfully here on earth, then I do enter into a fuller spiritual life of His joy. It is one where earthly recognition of service means nothing, but His recognition means everything. This world may never recognize my service for Him, but He knows, and He rewards, not with earthly fame or riches, but with the incredible gift of His joy. It is His joy that brings peace when facing pain. It is His joy that no one can steal from me. There is nothing on earth that offers His joy. “Enter thou into the joy of the Lord” takes on a whole new meaning. His Joy is real for me on earth.

3 John 2

“Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (NASV). “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers” (KJV)

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In 1979 I was told I had cancer. I discovered this verse in 3 John 2. Paul may have been speaking to Gaius, but, at this moment, the words were spoken for me. When I read these words, God spoke directly to my fearful heart. The Lord placed my name after “beloved”. I was His beloved. He wished for me to thrive and be in health! My mind focused completely on these words, and I decided they were His promise for me! He wanted me well! I read the second half of the verse, “even as thy soul prospers”. When my soul thrives and prospers, His promise is for healing for whatever my need. When I seek His truth in His Word with all my being, my soul thrives out of love for Him, and in return I prosper and discover His health. With spiritual growth, I can believe in God’s healing even when I haven’t experienced it......because with a prospering soul, God bestows greater faith to believe. With greater faith I also realize that His ways are best, and the healing my mind envisions might not be the same as His. But His promise for me is always for my spiritual best. I can trust Him with all my heart, mind, and soul.

If you are struggling with illness, latch on to this verse and let it take root in your spirit. Study it. Get into the Word of God, and discover more treasure of its promise of your life. Seek. Pray. Grow. You will realize that with spiritual growth comes your own promise of healing. God is faithful.

ALL IS WELL IN HIM

Guard your mind against doubt and fear. Bar the windows and doors of your souls against them. The enemy is the thief who comes to steal and destroy your faith. Create a fortress in your mind that allows no access.

You have been given great gifts of peace, joy, and love. These gifts can be stolen away by doubt and fear. Anchor peace, joy and love in your spirit, and face each day with praise for God's faithfulness. Laugh at the enemy's lies...for that is what they are. Lies. You will discover that God's anchor holds strong.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). Unswervingly profess your hope. Speak it until the healing balm of His presence protects you from the lies that bring fear. Repeat that “all is well” until the wound in your spirit is healed. He is faithful.

All is well in Him.

ALLOW ME

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it” (Isaiah 30:15).


In repentance and rest is His salvation. In quietness and trust is His strength. But we would have none of it? It is the last part of this verse that hits hard this morning. He offers us His strength in the midst of our struggle. He offers rest and salvation from its fear. Why then will we have none of it? Because we want to be in control. That's why. But it is when our control is lost, and He becomes Master, that we discover peace.


“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength,” He speaks. “Trust me to lead you safely through your doubt, your pain, your struggle. Have you ever considered that what you face is really meant to answer what you have requested of me? I am in control, and to struggle against me is in vain. Give me your concerns, your questions, your doubts, your pain, your limitations. Give them all to me, and allow me to have them completely. The moment you allow me to have them, I began a work to bring healing, harmony, and health into your life. I will allow no more pain than is necessary to bring about an answer and a cure to whatever you face. I love you, and all I do will be done as gently as possible. Trust me. Allow me to solve what you were never meant to solve.”

My Sanctuary

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart” (Psalm 91:4, NIV).

The Lord is my sanctuary–a place of safe retreat. He is my refuge from my own self. I can retreat from others into myself, but I can never hide from myself–from my own failures, my sins, my weaknesses, my fears, and my own limitations. I find that within myself there is no relief. When I am suddenly overwhelmed with reminders of who I have been, He comes and reminds me of who He is. I discover that He is my constant and unchanging sanctuary. He hides me under His wings until I forget my limitations, and my failures and fear. Tenderly he covers me until release from my own sense of failure begins to fill my spirit. He keeps me safely hidden from myself until the freedom of His Spirit fills my heart, and the relief of His grace brings great joy. In that moment of joy, praise comes, and His strength to conquer inhabits all of me. His faithfulness has become my shield and my rampart. I am safe and free in His love.

Choose to Let the Pain Go

Have you been hurt or rejected by another person? Does your heart feel cold and hard when you remember what they have done? Or does your hurt fill your days incessantly with pain? Unforgiveness is a terrible cancer. It eats at your spiritual health and ultimately destroys your relationship with God. God has given us a free will to choose or reject Him. We also have a free will to either forgive or not to forgive. Forgiveness is a choice. It is a decision that does not always come in the beginning with the human emotion and feeling that you expect to accompany it.


“Do not judge,” Jesus instructs, “and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). Isn’t the inability to forgive really judgment of that person? They may have hurt you horribly, but that does not give you a license to judge. It does not give you a license to withhold forgiveness. “It's not fair,” you cry out, and what you might hear, if your heart is really listening, is Jesus' whisper of “it was not fair for me either.”


When you are devastated by someone, you have a choice what to do with the hurt and the bitterness. If you allow that hurt to define who you are, the emotional pain can imprison you. You are in bondage to your pain. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” Paul writes (2 Corinthians 3:17). God does not want you in bondage to your pain. His Spirit wants to free you from it. He loves you, and He knows that your pain will destroy you. He wants to take your pain, but when unforgiveness is involved, just pleading with Him to take your pain will not accomplish anything. You must make a conscious decision to forgive the source of your pain. Is it easy? No. But the results will one day liberate you. With that decision to daily forgive, one day you will know freedom from the torture. You will know freedom and healing.


A year ago parents of a murdered girl spoke of forgiving her murderer. They talked freely about letting the anger go, and wanting to be free of the burden of being victims. They wanted to move forward and not “go to prison with him”. They knew they needed to let go of their pain, and surrender the burden of wanting to get even. They had the freedom to choose either bitterness or forgiveness. With Christ's power they were able to choose forgiveness.


Are you tired of your hurt, and your pain? Choose to let it it go. Choose to forgive. The feelings will come, and He “will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you, and will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

Help Me, Lord

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NLT).

Lord, it is a wonderful thing to belong to you, to know you intimately, and have the opportunity to always seek your heart. But with that amazing relationship comes a great responsibility from which I must never shrink. Each step I take is observed. Each word I speak is heard. Each moment of my life touches another. Things that I may do that are not guided by you, may not only hurt others, but hurt your ability to work in their lives. Help me to always walk very carefully, to seek your will, and always follow your desires instead of my own. I have been bought with the greatest price, and there is never any time in my life that I am free from that great responsibility. Help me, Lord. I want to receive your power to walk in your will so that each person I know sees only you, and never me. I must always remember that it is not only in the large things that your grace is known. It is in the little everyday moments that your grace impacts others. Today I give you all my smaller and my greater moments. I give you my life so that you may turn my limitations and my failures into your greatest work. Use me in the lives of other people, Lord, and may I always be a faithful witness of your love until my time on earth is done.

TAKE TIME

I seem to always discover a treasure about my Mama. She passed away a year ago today. Somehow, after she was gone, I ended up with her workbook from a discipleship class she was in many years ago. It has been incredible to read in her own handwriting about her faith and love for God. Just two weeks ago I looked at it again and discovered something I had never seen before....a remark she had made about my life. In fact, it was something I had never known she thought about me, and reading it in her own handwriting brought me such joy. It was if she was speaking right to me.

How many times do we hesitate sharing our feelings with those we care about? What makes us hesitate? Are we afraid we will be judged? Are we afraid that we will not live up to their expectations? Are we concerned our words will hurt them? Are we even afraid they will not care about out thoughts? Our human mind creates all kinds of scenarios, but in the very end, those scenarios mean very little. What matters is telling those we love how we feel, and just allowing God to take care of what must needs to be taken care of.

When Mama praised me, it was special. What I read that day in her workbook, I would have loved to have known while she was living. If I had known she felt about me in that way, we could have shared our hearts in ways that might have made us so much more closer. There are also many things I would love to tell her now, and I can't. Even though she was here for a lifetime, that lifetime became too short. She passed into eternity with the God she loved.

“People are like the grass,” Isaiah wrote. “Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:6b-8, NLT). Life is but a vapor in God's cosmos of time. Take every opportunity to tell those in your life how much you love them. The opportunities will not always be there. The only thing that lasts is God's incredible love, and His Word which endures until the end of time.

Now Dwell on That

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you” Isaiah 26:3 NIV).

Never dwell on your fear, your illness, your worry. Dwell on God's faithfulness. Think more of Him, and less of what you face in this life. He is the Great Physician, your healer. Dwell on that. He is your strength. Dwell on that. He is your rock no matter what comes against you. Dwell on that. He is your power to overcome adversity. Dwell on that. He is all you need at any moment. Dwell on that.

Even His most faithful children often do not claim healing for every part of their lives. Claim healing of your body, of your mind, and of your spirit. Love Him continually, and focus on Him always. Where your mind focuses, your heart follows. Allow Him to be what you can't be. Allow Him to handle what you can't handle. And then no weapon that comes against you will harm you.You will know perfect peace no matter what. 

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV). Now dwell on that.

God's Love Lasts

God is love, and only what is done in His love lasts. My life on earth is like a flower that grows and fades away. For a time it blooms, and then it is gone. But what I have done in His love will never fade away. The recognition of man will die with man, but God’s love given through my frailty will remain forever. If His love is not the reason for my action, then my action makes no difference in a hurting world. If His love is not the force behind all that I am, and all that I do, then nothing I do in His name lasts. He must be more than my reason. He must be the greatest love of my life.

Consider how an encouraging simple word of love can change a life, while the words of a powerful man may fall on fallow ground. Whatever I do in this life must be inspired and filled with His love or it is vain. It is nothing. So much of what we do in His name is done because of what we consider necessity and not born of His love.

Today I ask Him to fill me with His love for all that He desires of me, and I ask Him to turn me away from all that I do in His name that is not inspired by His love. The greatest force is His love in my life. If I do not love completely with His love, then “I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (I Corinthians 13:1). Making a lot of useless noise accomplishes nothing, but His love in my life always rings true.

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