Tag: Holy Spirit

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The Ultimate Power Keeper

Dear sisters,

My husband Barrett and I both stared open mouthed at our MacBook boxes. Our ambitions and hopes of joining the marvelous Mac world laid before us in pristine white boxes with the simple MacBook graphic displayed on the front. Barrett was drooling over the promise of quick access to all programs, graphics, artistic displays of all that the computer holds, photo booth, and popup apps. We slowly took out the smooth white laptop and marveled at the look and feel of the tool-toy. Yet, all our hopes would not come to fruition without one thing…pressing the power button. Once I found it (it looked completely different than I expected), the beauty and power of the Mac world opened up to me with a musical tah-dah! I have not been the same since.

Although this analogy is a bit silly and cheesy, it helps my simple mind to begin to grasp the power of God. The power of God is the ability and strength He can bring to pass whatever He pleases, whatever His infinite wisdom directs, and whatever His pure, infinite will demands. His power gives life and action to all the perfections of His Divine nature. He promised in the garden that He would crush Satan’s head. Without His power, that could never happen. Without His power, the Red Sea would never have been crossed, Sarah would never have had Isaac, the giant would not have been defeated, the promise of all His covenants would never be fulfilled, the Church would never last, and our sins would never be forgiven. Wow.

We have all made promises to people that have not come to pass because we didn’t have the power to complete them. Circumstances, events, or timing have kept us from fulfilling something we vowed to complete. But God’s power does not have limits like we do. He spoke…and the World was created. He rules in heaven with no need of man-made thrones, glories, or counsel. We have no power except what God has given us. In fact, He even gave the Holy Spirit to empower us to do things we can’t do in and of ourselves. We can’t claim any power that we may exhibit…even our lifting, running, and parenting power comes from God. God explained to Job His power when He asked Job a series of questions concerning creation in Job 38. Like Job, we should be speechless and humbled when faced with God’s power to do all His holy will. He has all power over creation, preservation, government, judgment, and Satan and his demons.

We have a choice then, sister: do we tremble at this power and run from it while we can? Or do we adore this God who is the ultimate power keeper? One who will never abuse power but uses it for good…our good and His glory! He used it to raise Jesus from the grave so our sins are forgiven for all time! Yes! He has the power to do this! And He did!

To return to the cheesy illustration above: Don’t just look at the MacBook box. Don’t just admire its feel, look, and abilities. Realize the real beauty comes in pressing the odd-looking power button which doesn’t look like all the others you have seen before. Like me, you will find that you will never be the same again.

Yours in Christ,

Colleen

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Created For Counsel

Dear sister,

So often when the dark clouds of life’s storms come rolling in along with what seems like a torrent of difficult circumstances, our hearts become cold like getting caught in a down pour of rain. We often choose to run and hide away as though that will make it all go away. Sometimes, we walk around so numb from the chill in our hearts that we walk through life as though we were just a ghost, or at least we look like one.

So which is it sister? Which way do you tackle the problems of life? Do you hide away all alone? Or do you walk through them emotionless? Maybe you like them, after all they do bring a sense of drama to a somewhat hum drum life. Besides, you have been told what a great problem solver you are! Could it be you have convinced yourself “once a victim always a victim”? You may have become so identified with the problems that you sincerely cannot see yourself any other way. Possibly pride has entered the picture and you are going to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps by golly and just keep going” even if it’s in the wrong direction!

These are some of the reasons most people shy away (or run) from the idea of receiving counsel. Did you know that we were created to be counseled? It’s true! In Genesis 3: 2 we learn that God had told the man and the woman ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ I would say that’s pretty direct counsel!

God Himself counsels and His counsel is always good. Here are a few of my favorite verses regarding the counsel of God.

“With God are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding.” Job 12:13

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you”. Psalm 32:8

“The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.” Psalm 33:11

God has blessed us with His counsel in His Word, the Bible. We were created to be counseled. He created our hearts and only He knows our hearts. The Scripture tells us that out of our hearts spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23), so it makes sense that our hearts take the first hit if you will when life becomes hard. When our hearts are heavy from the burdens of this life God gives us counsel.

Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor and when He ascended into heaven at Pentecost His Holy Spirit which He promised (John 16) remained to comfort us and guide us (counsel) in the Truth of God’s word. Even those with faith as big as mountains need God’s counsel. Job is a powerful example of this. It helps us even when we know the word of God well, to receive counsel from another who also knows the word of God and believes in its final authority in life.

If you are struggling sister and you are confused about what to do, or how to respond to life’s undulating circumstances consider the counsel of the Lord. Consider opening your heart to another believer who is strong in the Lord and is trustworthy with the Word of God. If you are at a place where you don’t have someone to talk to seek out a biblical counselor in your area by going to www.biblicalcounseling.com.

I want to leave you with one last verse from the Psalms that speaks to the counsel of God.

“I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices..” Psalm 16:7-9a

Because of His Grace,
Susan

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Shush!

Dear Sisters,

I know it all. At least I like to think I do. As you can imagine, I often find myself needing to apologize. I loathe apologizing! So, when I read a devotion about an obscure verse in Proverbs advocating an approach that did not involve apologizing for my verbal errors, you can be sure I paid attention.

“If you have been foolish in exalting yourself or if you have plotted evil, put your hand on your mouth.” Proverbs 30:32

Dr. Gil Stieglitz points out, ”God’s inspired words — through Agur the son of Jakeh — gives us a very interesting solution to the problem of bragging about yourself or foolish self-promotion. He doesn’t say what one would think would be said — that you should apologize and admit you were guilty. Because if you did you would still be drawing attention to yourself…. The solution is to just stop talking. Put a hand over your mouth. Let the conversation go on without you. Let someone else determine the topic. Most likely they will not pick you as the topic. This will allow you to blend into the group and or to allow conversations about people and things that brings balance to the conversation.”

When I have stopped to think back over my conversations with others through the day, I often blush wondering how I could have thought some of my comments wise. At times in the midst of my silly diatribes, I have tried to bumble my way through an apology, searching for appropriate words, missing the opportunity and the mark. How much better it would be (though in many ways, harder) to just fade into the background, silent.

Something else is implied in the verse—yes, I may at times speak without wisdom and need to still my tongue; but first, I have to recognize the Holy Spirit is telling me to, “Shush!” Dear Sisters, until I reach the point of only speaking wisely, I pray I may always feel the nudge of the Spirit to close my mouth so I may not further myself when I should have only been singing His praises.

Running with you,

Rebecca

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Fired Up

Dear sister,

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I was SOOO angry!!! I am a red-headed Irish blooded creature that is prone to anger…plus I was provoked…and hungry and tired. I got over it quickly, it’s in my nature to simply explode and go, so it’s no big deal. It’s not like I let the sun go down on my anger. I have every excuse in my own written book to explain away anger. Don’t you? After all, the Lord made us emotional beings to feel things…so anger is ok, right?

Well, kind of. The Lord did give us anger as an emotion and sign of something going on in our hearts. Righteous (or right) anger is a passionate response to evil and things that oppose God’s glory and the real good of mankind. It is right to be passionate about the death of children, war, murder, disobedience, and people being taken advantage of. Jesus was angry at His Father’s house being made into a Wal-Mart. He was angry when death took his friend Lazarus too early. He was angry at the sin of the religious people of the day who thought looking righteous made them righteous. I have to admit, my anger is usually not this kind of anger. It has a totally different focus.

My anger comes when I’m not getting what I want or think I deserve. I get angry when my husband is not doing the housework my way, when my little girl is not obeying in the right way, right away, with the right attitude. Or she freaks out at the playground and grocery store. I get angry when I’m late and when I am inconvenienced. Pretty much, when people are not fulfilling my desires, I flare up. Yes, I have a passionate emotional response for sure, but as you can see, my passion is directed at ME and MY desires and not for the Lord’s glory and others good. Man, is that ugly!

Richard Baxter writes that anger is without reason and against reason. It’s a temporary madness and drunk like state. I’ve been there, have you? As believers, our passionate hearts should be reigned in by the Holy Spirit, not let loose like the Tasmanian Devil! The Lord promised that He will never give us more than we can bear and He also says there is a way out of every temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). One of the best ways to avoid sinful anger, is to avoid sinful anger. Walk away, take a deep breath, eat something, take a nap, or go to another room. Pray for the Lord to give you self-control and patience. If you are prone to sinful anger, have a friend keep you accountable.

We don’t just want our behavior to change, we first desire our hearts to change. Seek repentance of your sinful anger, ask for forgiveness from the Lord and the one you’ve sinned against. Oh sweet sister, Christ died for our sinful anger. He rose again to give us freedom from the curse of sinful anger! There is hope for life away from sinful anger! It’s in Christ! We need to seek His glory, not our own! We need to want His desires, not our own! As our hearts turn to Christ, our anger will morph into Godly anger, to uphold His glory and be passionate about others good, not our own. Dear sister, what is your passion toward? Yourself or the things of the Lord?

Your sister in Christ,
Colleen

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Run, Sister, Run!!!!

My Dearest Sister,
 
​Have you ever felt like you were running through life as if it were a race? You are constantly sprinting toward the next goal, always focused on the task at hand. Sometimes though, you start to get tired and it seems like the race will never end. Each breath you take is labored and your legs are becoming weak. Finally, when you feel you can’t go another step, you stop running and collapse in a heap on the pavement, trying to catch your breath. You may be asking yourself what is wrong with you, why is this so difficult? You had felt perfectly capable of your ability to run the race just a few minutes ago. The air was crisp, and you were prepared for the challenge at hand – or so you thought. Instead, you feel defeated, like everything has been all messed up, and you’re not sure how to get up and keep running the race.

​If you can relate at all to this situation, I have a scripture that I would like to share with you. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul writes to the church at Corinth, describing life as like a race. We are all running and most of us want first place. However, there is a catch to doing well in this race. In verses 25-27 Paul says “And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things…. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” According to this passage, temperance – another word for self-control – is key to finishing well in this race of life. If we don’t have any discipline in our lives, not only is the opportunity to get first place gone, but we may as well consider ourselves disqualified altogether. Ouch! Unfortunately for you and I, self-control is one of those things that just doesn’t come naturally to most people. Our sinful human natures are all about gratifying the self and seeking pleasure in the moment. For the Christian though, having self-control means that the self is denied and worldly pleasures are given up to pursue something much greater. It means not thinking, saying, and doing things that are displeasing to God and actively thinking, saying, and doing the things that are pleasing to Him. Basically, being spiritually disciplined means following the rules that God has laid out for us, because it is not ourselves but He who knows what is best for us. It all sounds pretty basic in theory, but – as I’m sure we both know from personal experience – it is much harder to put into practice.

​As I am reading Paul’s words about self-control, I have a picture in my mind of a professional marathon runner. If they are serious about their profession, they usually have a set of rules they follow consisting of things they should not do and things they should do. These athletes eat healthy diets and drink lots of water. They adhere to rigorous workout schedules and seek the advice of a personal trainer. They abstain things that are harmful to their performance such as sweets, fatty foods, and alcohol; They take what they do seriously and their eye is always on the prize. If marathon runners didn’t practice discipline and self-control in every area of their life, when it came time for a race they would become easily tired and finish at the back of the pack – or worse, not finish at all. Well, it is very much the same for a Christian. To run the spiritual race well, we must ingest the Word of God (Psalms 119:10-11) and thirst for the things that, like water, are good and pure (Phillipians 4:8). We have our very own personal trainer, the Holy Spirit, who helps us when we don’t know how and gives us the encouragement we need to keep running (Romans 8:26). We are to abstain from sin, which hinders our spiritual performance and exercise daily what we learn through practice (James 1:21-22). It is about having temperance “in all things,” in every area of our lives. And if we practice good spiritual discipline, when it comes time for the race, we will be able to run without getting tired; our legs will have power and our hearts will be strong because we have sought God and He has prepared us. We will not “run with uncertainty” as Paul says, but with purpose, always keeping our eyes on the goal. It is only with the self-control of a disciplined spiritual runner that we will finish the race well.

​Unlike a marathon runner though, the prize we run for is not a gold medal that after a while will just be a memento of the past collecting dust on a shelf. As Paul says in verse 25, “Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.” I get very excited when I think about what that crown means. It’s not just a prize or a pretty keepsake; it’s a crown reserved for royalty, for the adopted children of the King of Kings. That crown is for heirs to a kingdom, joint heirs with Christ, just as it says in Romans 8:17. How often though, do we act like heirs to the kingdom of God? Does our life show that we are disciplined runners who practice self-control through the power of the Holy Spirit within us? Is our eye on the prize, constantly reminding us that we are children of a Mighty Lord? Or are we slacking when it comes to our spiritual diet and exercise program? Sister, hear me when I say that we need to be mindful of the prize at hand. We need to run with certainty and purpose, for not only are other people watching, but that crown is not something to be lost because we failed to take the race seriously. So run, dear sister! Run with discipline and purpose for that glorious and imperishable prize. Run like a daughter of the King of Kings. I will see you at the finish line!
 
​Your loving sister in Christ,
​~ Lauren