Day 15: Drawing Closer to God (Good vs Pefect)

It is a question that comes up sometimes in counseling of my clients. Why would God make us with weaknesses? I woke early this morning and tossed and turned in bed hoping to get back to sleep but ended up thinking about this question. My early morning thinking is by far the clearest and often God gives me such clarity on things in those early morning hours when I don't yet want to crawl out of bed. I rejoice in the Lord for this time of clarity on perfection and weakness. I, myself, have always just thought of humans as imperfect and we are but only because we have our sinful nature that has been passed down to each of us from Adam and Eve. But, this took me back to when God created Adam and Eve and the whole of creation. His comment about what he created wasn't it is perfect; he said "it is good". My answer to the question really remains the same as what I have been instructing my clients. God created a "good" creation that was designed to be in relationship with him. To have this relationship, we have connect to him through our spirit's because God is a spiritual being. Adam and Eve had that connection from the start. They had all of their needs met and any weaknesses they had were overcome solely because they were dependent on God. But they wanted their independence and our sinful nature had begun. Our sin keeps us from connecting spirit to spirit with our holy God. However, God knew even as he was creating Adam and Eve of what was to come and already had a plan in place to send his son to us, that we may regain the connection to his spirit and be back in real relationship with him. Jesus was the perfect man. This is possible because like Adam and Eve before the fall into sin, he was connected and relying on his Father. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, therefore he had the connection from the womb and on into our fallen world. It is through Jesus that we can regain the connection and allow the Holy Spirit to overcome our weaknesses, enhance our strengths and fulfill all our needs.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 327

I have read some books about listening but the one I am reading now is about listening to the Word of God. The book is called Expository Listening by Ken Ramey. In the first chapter, he discusses how we are by nature not good listeners. It is because of the Fall and Sin that we don’t have the ability to hear God and obey him. Thankfully, we who believe in Jesus have the power of the Holy Spirit within us who will illuminate the Word of God for us and give us understanding and the power to obey God’s Word. This all makes perfect sense because of my study on temperament and how our soul is connected to our spirit but there is a wall up called sin that needs to be broken down with the inviting of Jesus into your heart. He will take a sledge hammer and break the wall down. But those bricks of sin will keep coming back and piling up so we have to call on the Holy Spirit to clean away those bricks of sin to allow our soul to truly connect with our spirit which is the way to connect to the Spirit of God.

Here is a section from the book:

We are all born without this key component (listening) that allows us to hear God’s Word. It’s as if we have been wired with an AM receiver, but God is broadcasting on FM. Without the indwelling and illuminating presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, all we are able to pick up is static.

 

Lord, help us to dial into your FM channel today and all our days to come. With you all things are possible. Amen.

Psalm 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 257

As children of God, we have been given the Holy Spirit to reside within us. We have the power to make wise choices and overcome all the temptations of this world. If you are not daily feeding your soul with God’s Living Word or praying to the Lord thankfully for all your needs; it is like a light with a faulty switch and a light bulb almost burned out. It will flicker on and off and can eventually if not fixed or the light bulb changed take you into darkness. We have to turn to the light switch (Holy Spirit) daily and turn on the switch through prayer. Those faulty connections and burning out light bulbs (sins and temperament weaknesses) can’t be fixed on their own. It takes you to get in the Word of God and study, learn and grow in your knowledge about Jesus. We won’t get the perfect light staying on without flickers this side of heaven because we are not perfect but we are in the process of being perfected. It takes effort like getting up in the morning but with your effort and commitment comes growth and rewards. You may not see the growth or rewards immediately like when you are trying to lose weight. It is a process that will give you that growth and those rewards over time. Start today and become a light repairman and work on making the connection to the light.  

2Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 250

Our greatest gift of love to others is being connected with God through the Holy Spirit. Our connection with the Holy Spirit allows us to be transformed and made new each day. We can be loving, joyful, filled with peace, patience in all circumstances, kind to all, good in all we do, faithful to God, gentle in our words and actions and have the self-control to conquer. All of these fruits are possible with the Holy Spirit and our love for God will be the greatest gift of love we can give others, that they may know him. Are you what you say you are or do your actions and behaviors conflict with your message? To get it right, we have to have the attitude, behaviors, actions and words. Ask the Holy Spirit each day to help you be the person that is an example of God’s love.

Acts 28: 20 It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 284

This weekend I had the opportunity to connect with my father-in-law. They had driven down in my brother-in-law's new GrandAm so hubbie and son wanted to go for a ride. We opted to drive to church in two cars so my father-in-law got to go with me and my daughter. I have to say I did not look at it as an opportunity to connect but more negatively like I have to be in conversation with this man for a 20 minute drive. I have never really had this situation come up before when my hubbie wasn't there to steer the conversation. How do you connect with someone when you know they aren't interested in your stuff and you aren't interested in there stuff? I ended up starting by digging, digging for something that we could connect with beside the weather, the road conditions and other trivial conversations. I asked him if he could tell us about Nathan as a kid. I found a connection through the past! They used to go hiking. Now that was something we had in common. I was feeling good about how the conversation was going and the thought came to me to ask about how often he was able to read the bible. There was Satan on one of my shoulders telling me that might not be the best converstaion to get in and there was the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, "Don't be afraid". So, I pushed Satan off my shoulder, took a deep breath and asked him how often he had a chance to read the bible. It was an answer that I am sure a lot of people would say..."not as often as I probably should". He said reading always puts him to sleep after 20 mintues or so. I suggested he try a read the bible in a year plan because it breaks up the reading and he could do the reading in that 20 minutes each day. I told him how much I learned from reading the bible in this way. I was very happy the holy spirit had helped me by giving me the courage to speak up to someone about God. You never know what your words and actions will bring. I am not going to say I am there yet but I am working on being able to be fearless for the Lord. Baby steps....

1 Peter 4:11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 180

Last night I was attempting to load some photos from my camera of the latest designs in God's Good Gifts faithbooking workshop series but I was having some trouble. It wasn't showing my camera in the drop down to select where to get the photos from. I tried closing and turning off the camera a couple of times without any success. "Bedtime" I heard from above, so I left without successfully figuring out the problem. As I got into bed, I asked my hubbie if he could take a look at my computer in the morning because I couldn't get my photos onto the computer. The first thing out of his mouth was, "did you check to make sure it's plugged into the computer. Oh no! I knew immediately that that was the problem. I have done this before but had forgotten until now. This makes me think of how people may think they are connecting with the Lord by going to church every Sunday but do they walk through the rest of their week truly feeling connected. Jesus said "remain in me and I will remain in you." Connection to our savior is meant to be a constant, not a one-hour a week kind of thing. The Lord has a camera of photos to share with us but we have to be connected to him to receive the photos. Are you making the connection to the Lord everyday, every moment?
John 15: 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

God's Good Gifts-Freedom in Christ Design Sample #1

To Be Still and Listen to the Lord

My new letter of the month pin is with the letter "C". I have been contemplating lots of things that seem to start with a "C" so it seemed to be where the Lord is leading me. I have been reading another book by John C Maxwell called Everyone Communicates, Few Connect. I got it from the library and about half way through I knew I needed to buy a copy to have to go back to again and again. Connection has been one of my worries over the last couple of years since I learned from a personality test that my personality is actually labeled as "idealist healer" and only about 1% of the entire population of the world has this personality type. My therapist at the time said this may be why I feel like I am not making connections to people because a large majority of people fall into 2 of the more predominant personality types in the population. Don't ask me to remember what they are. Google Myers-Brigg to do your own personality test and get the scoop on yourself. Or maybe not! Since this was reavealed to me, I have struggled with it even more but I came to the realization some time last week while I was in bed trying to get back to sleep that my supposed lack of connection is my perception. Our perceptions of ourselves compared to what others perceptions are of us are usually drastically off! So, I decided I needed to let go of my perceptions of how my connections are to people and just focus on some of the things that John Maxwell brings up in his book, one of the biggest being to stop thinking about yourself and think of others and what they need and want. So "Connections" is one of my remember-to-focus-on-things this month, hence the "C" pin. "C" also will remind me of Christ and all that he has done for me. It will also be a reminder to focus on 'caring' for others. The "C" is a huge reminder to be 'courageous', let go of my fears and be 'confident' in the person I am that God 'created'.

Make your own "C" for your mirror, walls or a pin like me and see how awesome having a little reminder is.
I have to tell you that my "A" pin got forgoten this Sunday by mistake but as we were going through the sermon which was about adultery and divorce our pastor brought up the book The Scarlet Letter, I think my face must have gone beet red as I realized that NOT wearing my pin that day was totally a "God" thing so I wouldn't get really funny looks.