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Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Practice His Presence


 
  “Prayer is nothing else than a sense of God’s presence” (Brother Lawrence).
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
 
In the midst of crisis or change, Christ is with me. In the midst of the storm, He is my safe harbor. He keeps me from the breakers that would crush me. But He is more than just my refuge. He is my strength to not only endure, but to overcome. I can never fear change when He never changes. He is the one great constant in my life–the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). As I give Him my fearful heart, His peace calms my distracted mind (Philippians 4:6-7). Abiding in Him, He claims my thoughts and I discover that I, too, can be strong. I can be steadfast and unchanging. I can know His peace that carries me through the hardships of life.
 
The presence of the Holy Spirit in my life must be practiced. I need to seek Him daily in prayer until His presence becomes like a good habit. He becomes unconsciously rendered. I unconsciously learn to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He is just “there” at the moment I need Him. He is just “there” in moments of sudden fear when, without Him, my world would crumble. But practicing His presence has brought His immediate peace in that moment. My heart has prayed unconsciously and He has heard its cry.
 
“The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words” (Romans 8:26, NLT). I don’t know always know how to give Him my suffering and fear, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for me. He prays my heart’s cry when I am unable to mentally render a thought. It is in a moment like this that I understand His peace. I have practiced His presence until He is always with me–unconsciously and consciously. I may go through my busy day with no problem, and my conscious mind is busy with my schedule and my list. Suddenly I hear something that shatters my world, and the Holy Spirit immediately arises from within to calm my mind and heart. Practicing His presence has brought His peace.
 
Do you have that sense of God's presence? He is right there with you speaking peace in the midst of your storm, but you may not realize it. If you will pray and practice His presence each day, He will go with you consciously and unconsciously through the days of your life rendering peace for the hardships, and joy for the times you need encouragement. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7, NIV). You are never alone. Pray. Practice His presence, and you will realize the peace of His presence.

Monday, August 1, 2016

Give Honestly

“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent” (1 Chronicles 29:17a, NIV).

Do I ever look at the gifts of my heart, and ask if they are given with integrity? Whatever I give–whether love, friendship, compassion, time, a listening ear, advice–must be given willingly. They must be given with honest intent. There is no hidden agenda. There is no subterfuge. There is no mask.They are given because of His love and His work in my own heart. What I give away should not be given to make me feel better about myself. Anything I give should come from His love which recognizes the need in someone else is greater than my own could ever be. I give because of His love in me.

This life in Jesus is not about me. Whatever I give or do in His name should come from what He creates within my life, and never from any fabrication. He will constantly test my heart to see if it is filled with integrity and honesty. If I draw close to Him, He will draw close to me (James 4:8a), and His presence will reveal the intentions of my heart. I will be stripped before Him. Nothing will be hidden. In that moment, I will know if He is pleased with me or not.

I know, my God, that you always test my heart. I know that you always yearn for what I do or give in your name to be born of honesty and integrity. Lord God, I want what I give to come from a heart that has been purified by you. Forgive me for anything I have ever given that has come from other motives than what you desire. Always create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew your steadfast spirit within me. Then I will be refined by your love. I will be made new and what I give away will come from a heart that is honest and true.

Surrender to Succeed


Do I really want to be successful in living the life He desires for me? If I really am serious there are some things that are necessary—things that I need to strengthen in my life and things I need to cast out. I must be disciplined. “Strip down, start running—and never quit!” the writer to Hebrews declares, “ No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” (Hebrews 12:2-3, MSG).

I want to make a difference in the lives of other people. I want others to discover the love of Christ that will change their lives. But I must allow Him to be successful in my life before I can be successful in helping others. The secret of any success I find is His success in me. It is how He succeeds in me, and what He is able to accomplish in and through me. I only discover success through surrender of my will to His will for my life. I only discover His power when I realize that my power is not really able to achieve anything.

Just think about it! Power to conquer my failures! Power to conquer my demons! Power to rise above my own doubts and fears! In His power there is no failure. There is power to silence the voices that speak defeat. There is the ability to rise above my doubts and fears. But I must surrender and “strip down, start running, and never quit.” I must live very close to Him until He lives completely in me. I must persevere and live in His will until I receive His promise of success (Hebrews 10:35-36). That success will then be perfect, because it will be His success.

Success may come in lives brought into His Kingdom or lives that are healed or lives that are changed. But it also comes in ways the world does not consider success. Success is at its greatest in sacrifice and obedience. Because it is at the moment I  sacrifice my will, and obediently follow His will that success is found. It is at the moment of death to my own desires that the victory of His sacrifice on the cross becomes alive in me.

The world does not see success in surrender. The world judges according to its own desires, but God judges with a heart that gave His son for me. The Lord understands the power in surrender. Success is a daily labor of setting my own desires aside, and allowing Him to work in my life. He must plant himself in my life, and prune me until I bear fruit. When I surrender to His daily lessons, I will bear the fruit of success.

So what is success to me? It is His purpose instead of my own—His life instead of mine. The secret to my success is surrender of my own plans, my own desires, my own purpose, my own ideas and needs. Surrendering to Him is a promise of success which is better than any I might imagine. Success is Christ alive in me instead of me! I will keep my eyes on Jesus, and learn how He finished His own race. I will persevere in spite of all odds. When I waver, I will remember how Jesus faced obstacles that I never shall have to face. I will remember how He laid down His life, so I might be set free from sin and failure. I will remember how He held on for His ultimate reward. Am I ready to surrender to succeed? Are you?

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Peace



“Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Revelation 3:20).
 
Consider His priceless words. He stands and knocks at the door to your heart. He invites you to a life which you cannot comprehend with the human mind. It is a life of peace and trust in His abundant faithfulness–a life of spiritual joy. His invitation promises to carry you beyond your avenue of analytical thought to one of rest that no matter what happens you are safe in His grace. This invitation offers respite from the hectic pace of this world. “Be still and know that I am God” takes on a whole new meaning. When you get to the place that you don’t struggle anymore, you can find peace in just knowing He is God, and He is in control. "Come to me,” He whispers in your tempest, “and I will give you rest."
 
Do you long to relinquish your terrible struggle–your pain, but you resist that which promises release? You try to keep things in control, but find out that you can't. Letting go of your struggle to control what you can't control opens your heart to His promise of peace. Letting go admits you don't have the answer. Letting go means you put your trust in what can't be seen—the constant and abiding truth that He will take care of you. Even when you shut the door of your heart to His knock, He never stops knocking.  Even when you turn from His promise of peace, He never turns away. Even when He finds your heart all closed and barred behind your fortress of pain, He continues on with His constant offer of peace. “Let go, and let me,” He whispers.
 
The harder you struggle the stronger His constant knock. The harder you resist the greater your pain. Suddenly the exhaustion of your battle is too much. Suddenly you can no longer bar that door. Suddenly, surrender is your only option. It is your only hope. You must let go and believe. When you open the door and let go of all you have tried to handle alone, His peace which has waited patiently on the other side of that door is now yours. No more war inside your heart. No more need to know any answers. You are free in Him, and free of fear from the hard issues that life has brought. There will always be issues, but you will be free from their ability to control your life. Fear which has defined your life has ended. You realize that God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and a sound mind (1 Timothy 1:7). Letting go has brought the peace your heart has struggled so hard to find.


Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Be Still and Know


 
“Rest and know that I am God,” He speaks to my whirling mind. “Be still and at peace knowing that you are held completely safe in my hand” (Psalm 46:10).
 
If I will be still, and dwell upon Him instead of my problem or worry, I will be filled with His faithful presence instead of consumed with fear or with something I cannot handle (Isaiah 26:3). In my worrisome state, I am constantly filled with a fear that causes one of two things. That fear will either drive me to self-destructing despair where I retreat from life, or it will cause me to try to change circumstances or myself without letting God direct me or heal me. I try to fix circumstances within my own strength, and heal myself without completely surrendering to Him.  And that never works. The peace for which I desperately yearn is out of my grasp because I try to make happen what I perceive I need.
 
“My hand is not shortened that it cannot save” He reminds me again (Isaiah 59:1). My attempts to save myself are useless. In fact, they get in the way of His ability to help me. Without surrender to His saving hand, I will sink into the depths of my own despair. My rescuer is with me so why do I fight His attempts to pull me safely to shore? What I perceive to be my safety has become my own destruction.  This boat of my own making is sinking, and I will sink with it if I do not grasp His hand and allow Him to pull me out of it.
 
Often the struggles of life overwhelm my heart and I feel like the psalmist who wrote "all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” (Psalm 42:7). But the same psalmist also wrote, “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings."(Psalm 40:2). Consider the wonder of that truth! He is my safety for He rescues me from the pit. He is my security because He sets my feet upon His rock‒solid foundation. He is my guide in all things because He directs the way that I go.
 
This is a beautiful picture of what He wishes to do in me—to save me from that which destroys my heart and to impart trust in His faithfulness. Allowing Him to guide me is the proof that I have grown and trusted in Him. I will allow Him to direct my steps. I will not question. I will trust, and give all my worries and fears to Him. I will be still and rest in Him—knowing that He alone is my deliverer and my peace (Philippians 4:6-7).

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

A New Attitude


The way you think determines how you feel. You can have a positive attitude that gives you an optimistic outlook on life or you can have a negative attitude that continually keeps you buried under a pile of emotional rubble. If you are a negative person you seek for something to be wrong, but if you are a positive person you find something positive in your circumstances. A positive attitude speaks hope and life. If you want to live a joyful and abundant life―one that spills over with spontaneous faith, you must work to have a positive attitude.
 
Thinking correctly is essential to living a joyful and victorious life in Christ. “Brothers and sisters,” Paul declared, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8, NIV). If you will keep your mind focused on God's truth―on whatever is godly, uplifting, and joyful, you will learn to have a positive attitude. To develop an optimistic spirit, you must be changed in the attitude of your mind (Ephesians 4:23).
 
Taking responsibility for your own thinking is the first essential step. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV). It is impossible to stop the fiery darts that the enemy throws at your mind, but you can learn to make those thoughts become obedient to what the Word teaches. It is possible to have the power to bring them under the control of the Holy Spirit. When your mind is focused on Him, and not where your runaway thoughts might lead you, you rest in His peace (Isaiah 26:3).
 
There is no way you can control or determine circumstances, but you can learn to control what happens in your mind as a result. When you work to take your negative thoughts captive, you change the way that you think. Not only are you able to say, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13), but you can believe without a doubt that He will give you His strength. When facing your circumstances with faith that comes from a mind that has been transformed, you can live life with a positive and joyful attitude―able to determine God's good pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2).
 
If you will think right, you will feel right. Cultivate your mind! Plow it up and rethink the way you have always thought. Don't dwell on the negative anymore. Allow the Word to transform your way of thinking. Determine to believe that Jesus Christ is greater in you than any negativity that rises in your mind. It is never impossible to be changed in the attitude of your mind. When you surrender control and allow the Holy Spirit to change you from the inside out, you get rid of that negative attitude. You learn to rethink who you are! When your mind is transformed by His Spirit, everything becomes new and possibilities are endless.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Hold On


 
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (James 1:2-4, NLT).   

            Do you struggle to hold on and just want to quit? Don’t give up! The testing of your faith produces great joy. It also develops perseverance. These verses say that if you allow perseverance to work in your life you will be “perfect and complete” and not lack anything you need to face hard times. That is a powerful thought. There is a work going on inside you, and it can only be completed through commitment and perseverance. Spiritual growth discovered through perseverance during times of hardship has the power to create a joy that nothing can shake. When you have fought to learn His lesson and have won, there is no joy like the joy of victory. Patient endurance is what you need, and if you press on to do His will, then you will receive what He has promised (Hebrews 10:36).
 
            The Lord’s will is for greater faith to spring up in the midst of suffering. It is your decision whether the lesson is learned.  The Lord uses trials and suffering to inspire spiritual growth. “These have come,” Peter imparts, “so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (I Peter 1:7, NIV). The testing of your faith is meant to give you the ability to persevere.  It is your decision whether you allow His refining fire to purify and strengthen your life.
 
            “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face,” Paul writes. “All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, MSG). God knows your limit and will never allow more than you can handle. His grace is more than sufficient, and He will provide the strength to stand. You can either stay adrift in fear, or you can allow God to anchor you in His truth. Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you can’t see (Hebrews 11:1). It comes by hearing and knowing and understanding the Word of God (Romans 10:17). With the Word anchored in your spirit, you press on through the hardship of life in order to believe in that which you can’t touch or see.
 
            “Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31, NLT). You can soar above the trials of life. You can run and not be weary. Hold on. Don’t quit. Allow perseverance to complete its work so that you will be mature and not lacking anything in your spiritual life (James 1:4). Joy then becomes something not built on circumstances, but on a faith that has been perfected through the fires of life, and forged to be strong and lasting.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Enough



When I am weak, He is strong. When I am exhausted, He is my power to carry on. When I am overwhelmed, He is peace to calm my mind. When a voice inside my head cries, “you must get it right and be perfect,” He sees my potential instead of my failure. When I grieve the one that is slowly fading from my sight, He carries me through the pain of loss. When I ache for one more chance to not make the same mistake, He grants my request. Each time that He says, “My grace is all you need,” I lean more on Him. Each time that He says, “My power works best in weakness”, I rejoice that in my weakness His power is revealed—changing and shaping my life (2 Corinthians 12:9). It is when I know that I can’t that I realize He is enough.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Not About Me



“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:2-4, NIV).

Is my life one of promise? Do I offer hope? Do I encourage others when they are unable to encourage themselves? Am I sensitive to someone's pain, or do I unconsciously throw fuel on the fire of their pain by casual words that have not been inspired by God? Do I put the needs of others before my own or do I find a way to “just do enough”? In my words or actions, I speak either encouragement or defeat to another person. I speak life or death to another heart.

As much as each one of us might like it to be, His life in us is not about what we want or how we might prosper. It is all about what He desires for us to sacrificially become for the sake of someone else. His desire is for me to love others as He loves me‒to tenderly and compassionately give my life away expecting nothing in return. Freely He gave. Freely I should give. He desires for me to encourage and speak life where there has been death, and to bless those who are down-trodden and hurting with the healing presence of Jesus Christ.

What is my life? I pray that He makes my life one that is not about me. I pray that I always see with His eyes, hear with His ears, and understand with His Spirit in order to help someone else realize their potential in Him. I pray that I put another life before my own. I pray that I always love and encourage with His grace and truth. I pray that I never let go of believing in His promise for someone else. I pray that my life becomes broken and spilled out as He was broken and spilled out for me. I want no masks that veil my heart. Revival of heart never holds back. It is always seen in loving action. May I bring Him joy by encouraging with the love and grace He has brought to me.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Greater Faith



“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17, NIV).

Faith is found through “hearing” the Word of God spiritually. Faith grows in my life through studying the Word and applying it in every moment. The Word covers all situations that arise, and clarifies each decision that I need to make. Without faith arising from hearing and applying His Word, I will falter in my walk. Without it filling and empowering my life, I will ultimately fail.

I pray daily to spiritually “hear” and understand what He imparts through His Word. He is trustworthy, and I must be “faith-worthy” to read His book, and seek His purpose. Faith is the greatest requirement to see His hand move. To have greater faith I need to pray and have that close communion with Him. In that time with Him I learn that I can truly trust Him in every moment and every struggle. I learn that because I trust Him my faith brings forth His work in my life. I can step out in faith knowing that He will provide all that is needed.

Faith is my weapon to overcome all that might come against me in this life. It is power to accomplish His will, and in doing so, learn that He is constant and trustworthy. "Faith without works is dead," James writes. I must reach out in His name to fuel my faith. As I step out in faith, I realize my helplessness, and I turn to Him for power to accomplish what I cannot. When He is my strength, I receive greater faith to believe, and my faith will grow.

Faith is His gift to me. My work for Him is my gift to Him. I know that once I have done His will, I will receive His promise (Hebrews 10:35-36). Greater faith believes without question, and the promise becomes real in my mind and my heart. My faith is greatest when I remain in His Word.

-Lynn Hampton Lacher


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Your Attitude Determines Your Life

      Your attitude is paramount to your future. It plays a crucial role in shaping your life, your relationships, your health, your circums...