Tag: Faith

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Mustard and Mountains

Beloved Sisters,

Mustard and mountains make for a great success story!

Are you desperately pining about why things do not go the way you want? Are you doubtful that your life is not prosperous because…and because…? Where is your Happy and Prosperous New Year?

Perhaps yesterday introduced a barrage of worries—a needed job, a sick child, a lost key. Or was it today that your project was rejected, a promise was broken, or the rent was increased. Have you yet to see your life brim full of all the expectations you had created since childhood—a dream house, a dream vacation, a dream husband? As I walk alongside you, listening and bearing some of your fearful load, I am reminded of a little lesson that Jesus taught His anxious, doubtful followers. He said, in Matthew 17:20, For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Do you hear what Jesus is saying? He is comparing the fears and frustrations of our day to a mountain. He must have been looking at a certain mountain at the time he said this: you will say to this mountain. His human eyes were probably observing the peaks, the crags, and the many, many rocks, while His divine love was peering through the souls of those around Him. What a lesson for us—coming from the only One fully man and fully God!

His lesson is, also, rather simple: Every day we face a mountain. The peaks are too high for us to climb, the crags are so dangerous, and the rocks may fall on us. And so, how do we get around the mountain that prevents us from a prosperous day? We place our faith in Him.

This is easier said than done, as this Christian woman who writes to you has, more than once, attempted to scale the mountain solo! Setting my goals on reaching those peaks, without asking Jesus to take me there, made the journey of my day longer as I continued to fall back. Without prayer to Him for wisdom, those crags ripped through my ambitions. Without depending on my Sovereign God, the rocks crushed every hope for success. The mountain left me breathless and overcome with discouragement.

But Jesus gives us a great solution with a tiny example—the mustard seed—and He compares faith in Him to that one little seed. You see, having faith in Christ Jesus is the seed from which our prosperity germinates, grows and thrives. With faith, everything we do, say, hear, think should be for His glory and praise. With faith in Christ Jesus, we are praying to Him for your success that is within the will of God.

When we have faith in Christ Jesus, we approach every action with trust that God is sovereign over the action from beginning to end. Our faith may be small for the largest of tasks ahead, yet faith in Christ Jesus will permit us to prosper, even if we fail by the world’s standards, even if we do not get what we had hoped to get—in this world.

Faith is placing our trust on what God wants for us. We can move those mountains when we look at them with Jesus. Better still, we shall walk with Jesus among the faithful–for all eternity. (Hebrews 11)

Allow me to share with you one of my favorite psalms, one that allows me to climb every mountain of the day. It is Psalm 121.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.
Oh, what beautiful mountains to behold this New Year—with Jesus!

With Love in Him,
Mimi

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Radical Freedom

Sister,

“Choose Freedom!”  I said to my fifteen-month-old daughter Annabelle as she once again reached out to play with the computer cords.  I had already begun training her not to grab the cords in the house, as they can be dangerous if pulled and yanked.  She looked back at me slyly as her chubby fingers barely grazed the cords.  “No Annabelle,” I said to her quietly.  She continued to stare me down while carefully caressing the cords.  I could see her little mind wrestling between her perceived freedom of touching and grabbing everything she desired, and the real freedom of obeying her mom.

Aren’t we all like this?  We truly think that freedom is doing whatever we want when we want.  But in fact, that is anarchy and chaos.  If everyone does what is right in their own eyes, societal orders collapse and individual freedoms soon follow.

So, how can we choose freedom?  Freedom implies that we are a slave to something.  One thing all of humanity has in common is that we are a slave to sin.  No matter what country you are from, no matter who your parents are, no matter what age or maturity level you have obtained, you are a slave to sin.  The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 6:23a).  Annabelle knew she was not allowed to touch the cords, yet she was compelled to touch them because she is a sinner.  Me too!  I know I should be patient with her and my husband but how quickly I choose impatience and anger.  The Bible also says that the wages, or cost of this sin (disobedience to God), is death.  DEATH.  Death is no joking matter.  Scripture describes death as a real place, hell.  Hell is where God pours his wrath down on sinners.  There is fire, gnashing of teeth, and separation from all that is good and right, God.  We are a slave to THIS!  THIS sin that God will punish in eternal hell.  Stop and sit on this fact for a bit.  The longer you think about how completely hopeless, painful, and abhorrent God’s wrath in hell is, the sweeter the freedom of Christ will be to you.

The rest of Romans 6:23 says, “But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”  He died for us when we were still sinners (Rom 5:8).  When believer’s eyes are opened to the utter slavery of their sin and the freedom that came through faith in Christ, our joy abounds!  We have been set free from the ultimate penalty of sin and have the ultimate freedom of heaven!  I can hear you now, “but I still sin!”  “I still want to touch the cords!”  “I am still impatient!”  Yes, we still have our moments of desiring perceived freedom, but real freedom is walking in the righteousness that Christ has already given us.

So sweet sister, no matter where you are in life, there is freedom for you.  If you have not yet put your trust in Jesus, you can have the freedom from the ultimate penalty of sin.  Trust that He paid the price for your sin by dying on the cross and rising again!  He took on your filthy sin and put His righteousness on you instead!  What an amazing gift of freedom!  And fellow sister in Christ, you are free to walk in His righteousness!  Your righteousness is not based on what you do or don’t do.  Your freedom does not rely on your good or bad works, it relies on Christ alone!  So be radically free!  This gospel is for you!  There is freedom in obeying Christ!

~Colleen