Walk Boldly With Jesus

We Act Differently

Acts 16:22-28 “ The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.  But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten for calling a demon out of a woman.  You see, this demon used her to tell the future.  Her owners made a great deal of money from her fortune telling and they weren’t happy when Paul cast out this demon.  Because of this they were stripped and beaten with rods. After that they were thrown in prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.  He took this assignment very seriously so he took them into the inner cell and fastened their fee in the stocks.  The next part of the verse is where it gets strange.  It was not strange to get stripped or beaten back in those days.  It was also not strange to get thrown in jail.  If you did not follow the laws you got thrown in jail.  But what came next was strange.  The verse says, about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  

I wasn’t alive when this took place but I gotta think that was different.  I don’t know a single person who would decide to sing after being stripped and beaten with rods and then thrown into prison with my feet in the stocks.  I can see the praying part.  I might be praying for relief of my pain, maybe for some food, I might be praying for my freedom, and I might even being praying for revenge.  I am thinking if I was just beaten I might not be feeling very good about the ones who sentenced me to this punishment.  I may be asking God to hurt them, or to pay them back for all they did to me.  I know this isn’t the Christian thing to do, I am just trying to be honest about what I may or may not do if I were in this circumstance.  What would you do? What would you do if you were just beaten and thrown into jail?  Would you start singing?  Would you be praying?  What would you be praying for?  

The verse doesn’t say what Paul and Silas were praying for and it doesn’t say which hymns they were singing.  When I picture this scene I picture them praising God with their hymns.  The reason I think this is what they were doing is because while they were singing there was a violent earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison, and at once the door opened and the chains came loose.  This is what happens when we are able to praise God in the difficult times.  Praising God when things are good does not make us different.  Even people who are not Christians can celebrate when times are good.  It’s easy to be happy and to be grateful when all is going our way.  That doesn’t set us apart.  I believe that God loves it any time we praise Him.  When we take the time to praise Him I think that makes him very happy.  It shows Him that we appreciate Him and everything He does for us.  It shows God we are grateful.  

I believe when we can find to courage and the trust to praise God in the bad times, praise God when most people would look at the situation and not see anything to praise, that is when our biggest break throughs can happen.  Paul and Silas had every right to sit in that cell and have a pity party. They could have thought about how unfair their situation was.  They could have been mad at God.  They were there spreading the Good News of the Gospel.  They cast out a demon in Jesus’ name, and what did they get for their faithfulness?  They were bruised and beaten and thrown into jail.  By all accounts, according to the ways o this world, they had every right to be mad and to through a pity party.  But they didn’t.  They prayed and sang hymns.  They acted differently and people noticed.  In the verse it says the other prisoners were listening to them.  The other prisoners noticed they were doing something different.  I am sure they were confused as to why these men seemed to be happy about being in jail.  I don’t think Paul and Silas were happy they were in jail.  I do think they were filled with a joy of the Lord that can’t be explained.  I think they were happy because they knew God would be there for them.  They were content to follow what God told them to do and accept the consequences that came along with that.  They knew God would take care of them because he always had in the past.  

When the earthquake happened in this verse and the doors opened most people probably would have run out.  I feel as though I would have seen that as a work of God and I may have left.  It seems like God answered their prayers by breaking them out of jail, and yet they didn’t leave.  This is another way in which they acted differently.  Not only did they not run away, but even when they were released, the refused to go without an escort.  This is an example of how different life can be when you trust God with everything and when you learn to listen to the Holy Spirit.  If you look at their actions the whole time they were in jail they never seemed to doubt that God was going to take care of them.  They never seem to act like they are scared for their future.  They seemed very confident there was a plan and they were happy to wait and see what it was.  Because they did not leave, because they were singing when others would have been complaining because of their actions, the jailor fell at Paul’s & Silas’ feet and ask what he needed to do to be saved and he and is whole house were baptized that night.  

I feel the Holy Spirit really wants me to get across to you that Christians should act differently.  People are watching us, just as the other prisoners were watching Paul and Silas.  How are we reacting to disappointments?  How are we dealing with the troubles in our lives?  Are we reaching out and asking God for help?  Are we praising God, even in the difficult times because we know He will take care of us?  Are we complaining a lot and getting upset with God because He is not answering our prayers the way we think He should, or in the timing we think is right?  People are always watching others and for Christians there is an extra layer or scrutiny.  God wants us to share His love and His peace with the rest of the world.  We want others to look at us and want to do whatever they can do to have what we have.  And I don’t mean wealth and material things, I mean the peace and love of Jesus in our hearts.  There is a song written by Peter Scholtes called “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love.”  This line is also part of the chorus.  We want to strive to the lives that are talked about in this song.  The lyrics are:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord

And we pray that our unity will one day be restored

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love

We will work with each other, we will work side by side

And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love

Would you react differently to situations if you knew other’s were watching?  Did you know you are Christ’s representative in this world?  God is counting on us to show other’s how amazing it is to be a believer.  How amazing it is to live in God’s love and peace.  God is counting on us to show others Christians act differently.  We rely on Him and we trust that He has a plan.  We praise Him all the time, not just when we feel like it and not just in the good times.  We don’t have to rush out of the jail when the doors open we can demand what is just and right because God is taking care of all the details.  We don’t have to be afraid and defeated because we know the ending to the story.  We know God has already won our salvation for us.  We know, no matter what happens we are on the winning side and that means we can act differently.

Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing.  We are sorry we don’t praise you more for all the things you do for us.  Lord, help us to learn to praise you when we are going through tough times, before we see the way out, before we see the miracle.  We want to trust you enough to be able to know the miracle is coming and therefore praise before we see it. We don’t want to have to see to believe.  We believe Lord, help our unbelief.  Help us also to act differently.  Help us to not conform to the ways of the world but be transformed by your ways.  Help us be a worthy example to all those who are watching.  Help us to reflect your love and peace back to all who look upon us.  Thank you Lord, we are so grateful.  You are the resurrection and the Life. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s guest is Crystal.  She is a friend of Andrea, who was on here a few months ago talking about her experience with anxiety.  Crystal is giving her witness about the incredible journey she has been on. She has had a lot of struggles over the years and has overcome some pretty big obstacles to get to where she is today.  God is using all Crystal has been through for good, as he does will all of us.  God is so great!  He takes the bad things that happen to us and uses them for good and for the building of His Kingdom.  I know you are all going to love hearing her witness.  I look forward to sharing it with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Oh, How I Love Your Law!

Psalm 119:97-104 “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders,  for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.

I am not sure if you are familiar with Psalm 119.  I wasn’t before my prayer group last Thursday.  Psalm 119 is a long psalm and the New International Version has a footnote that says “This psalm is an acrostic poem, the stanzas of which begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet; moreover, the verses of each stanza begin with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet.”  My Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition has a footnote that says, “This great hymn of praise for the Torah, the Law of God, is typical of the best Jewish piety after the Exile.  In this psalm several verses make up the different stanzas.  Each of these stanzas is praising God and talking about how wonderful his laws are.  They are talking about how great we are when we follow these laws.  While I was reading them I felt they all have a similar message, and they use various words to convey this message.  I chose this stanza because it stood out to me when I was reading thought the Psalm.  

I am not sure why it stood out to me other than I really love the first line.  “Oh, how I love your law!”  I do love the Lord’s law.  The Lord’s law provides us comfort because it instructs us and gives us limits.  God’s law is like the guard rails on the highway.  You can drive along on the highway at faster speeds and you don’t have to worry about driving off the road if there are guardrails to keep you safe.  God’s laws are like these guard rails.  They also remind me of the bumpers I used to use with my kids when we went bowling.  Ok, I used them for myself sometimes too.  Did you know when you go bowling their is a setting where you can put bumpers up?  What this means is that these metal rails cover the gutters so that you can’t get a gutter ball.  This is great when going with young kids because it can be really frustrating to go bowling and have your ball always end up in the gutter before it makes it down the lane.  These bumpers protect that from happening.  

Life is like this sometimes.  We can go through times in our lives where it can be really hard to stay in our lane.  Times when it seems no matter how hard we try we keep ending up in the gutter.  These are the times when we can rely on God to be our bumper.  We can turn to God and ask Him for help.  We can remember His laws and rely on them to keep us on the straight and narrow.  God will always answer when we ask.  If you are struggling right now, ask God for help!

The next few lines says, “I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.”  I wish this were true.  I wish I meditated on God’s laws all day long, or even just on His word all day long.  Unfortunately I get sidetracked often.  I get caught up in the things for this world and forget about these things.  Sometimes I don’t forget about God’s laws, and yet I don’t follow them because they contradict what the world is saying.  It can be really hard to live in this world and to live by God’s laws at times.  This world is in such contrast with God wants us to do.  They seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum and if we do as God is calling us to do then we don’t always fit into this world.  We seem weird and different.  This doesn’t always feel good, but this is how it was meant to be.  God called us and set us apart.  This means when we look at the world we should be able to look around and see who is Christian and who in not. We should look different.  Do we?  

I like when this verse says, “Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. i have more insight than all my teachers for I meditate on your statutes.”  There are many places in the Bible where it talks about how much wiser those that know God’s commands are.  If we want to be wise we need to change our minds.  I have been hearing a lot lately that we need a renewal of the mind.  I can see that now.  The reason we may feel weird when we are following the Lord’s ways are because are minds are thinking like everyone else in this world.  Our minds have conformed to those around us, to the world that we live in.  What if we could have a renewal of our mind?  What if we could start thinking more like Jesus did?  How is this even possible?  If we turn to scripture we can see how this would be possible.  We start reading the Lord’s word every day.  We start meditating not only on his Word, but also on His laws and how God is wanting us to live.  

In case you do not listen to Father Mike’s Bible in a Year Podcast I want to tell you, next year, starting in January, Father Mike is doing a new podcast called Catechism of the Catholic Church in a year.  If you are not Catholic this may not appeal to you.  However, if you are Catholic, this is going to be awesome.  Father Mike will take the whole Catechism, which is all the laws of our faith and he will break it down to small chunks and will help us figure out what it means.  This next year through the help of Father Mike, we will be able to do just what this verse is saying.  We will be able to meditate on God’s law every single day in a way most of us have not done before.  I urge you to listen to this podcast next year.  It is only 20 minutes or so a day and yet the impact on your life could be life changing.  

Today’s verse ends with, “ I have more understanding than the elders,  for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.”  This is similar to the beginning of the verse.  This verse is saying the same thing in several different ways so we understand how important it is.  I really like in this verse when it says, “I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.  Can you say this?  I know I can’t.  I wish I could.  I wish I could say I have kept my feet from every evil path and yet I know I haven’t.  I know there are things I have done that God would not approve of.  It then says, “I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.”  We need to understand God’s precepts if we expect to be able to avoid the wrong path.  I don’t know if we can even say we hate ever wrong path right now.  If we do not have a renewal of our mind yet then some of the wrong paths may appeal to us because the world is telling us it is right and it is good to do those things.  

If we want the words in this verse to be true for us then we need to work at it.  Holiness is not easy.  If we want a renewal of our minds we need to fill our minds with all things God.  If you spend a lot of time around something or someone you will start to act like that person.  If we want to act more like God we need to immerse ourselves in Him.  Read His word, spend time talking with Him, spend time listening to Him.  The things of this world are so loud and they surround us all the time.  If we want to surround ourselves with God we need to be very intentional.  What can you do today to spend a little more time with God and a little less time with the things of this world? For me, I am going to try to change one of my habits.  Currently whenever I have a few minutes of down time, I look at my phone and check my emails, check Facebook, or play a game.  Instead of picking up my phone, I am going to try to take that few minutes and pray, or sit quietly with the Lord.  How about you, what can you do?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to love your laws, we want your word to be sweeter than honey to us.  Help us Lord, give us a renewal of our mind so we can follow your precepts and gain wisdom.  Help us be smarter than those we meet because we know your laws and we follow them.  Lord, help us to be ok with being different because we follow your laws.  Help us to strive for this because you created us to be set apart.  Help us to feel loved and accepted by you all the time. Help us to not crave that love and acceptance from others, but to always turn to you for it.  Lord, you are amazing!  You are our joy, you are our life, you are Emmanuel, God with us.  We are so grateful for all you do.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Stay Focused on His Word

Colossians 1:21-23 “You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.”

This verse illustrates exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross.  He sacrificed himself for us while we were still sinners.  It’s one thing to put yourself on the line for someone who is innocent and did nothing wrong.  However, that is not the case with us.  We were a people who seemed to turn away from God every time things got difficult.  We were thankful when something miraculous happened, like when God led the Israelites out of Egypt.  When they were safely on the other side of the Red Sea, they were rejoicing and praising God.  Then, it wasn’t long before they started complaining about something.  God’s people were constantly turning away from Him and yet He still sent His son to  save us.  I love how this verse says, “But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence.”  

Jesus definitely gave himself completely at the cross.  There was nothing left for Him to give.  Then it says He brought us over to God’s side.  This wasn’t an easy thing to do.  God is a just God.  He has banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden.  They broke the closeness we had with the Father and He wanted it back.  He knew that required a sacrifice and so He gave his only son.  Imagine how hard that must have been for God to watch His son go through all of that.  I was just wondering if he ever questioned it?  If He ever thought, “They are not worth this great of a sacrifice.  They do not love me enough, or they do not deserve this?”  I honestly don’t think He did. God loves us and he created us His likeness and image.  I do think He shakes His head and is even disappointed with us often, but I don’t think He ever thought we weren’t worth saving, which is truly incredible to me.  

The verse says He put our lives together, whole and holy in His presence.  I love that, whole and holy.  How many of us long to feel whole and holy?  Holiness is something we should all be striving for.  A sense of wholeness is something I think we all long for and yet we don’t always feel it.  In this verse Paul is saying that Jesus dying on a cross makes us whole and holy when we are in His presence.  I wonder if that means when we are feeling empty, or when we feel like something is missing, we are not in His presence?  I wonder this because the very next line  in the verse says, “You don’t walk away from a gift like that!”  We have a choice in all of this.  Yes, Jesus died for our sins, but that doesn’t mean we automatically get to go to heaven.  We still get to choose if we want to spend eternity with God or not.  God gave us free will because He knew that if we were made to love Him, if we had too, then that is not real love.  Real love has to be freely given.  

The next line in the verse tells us how we can do this.  “You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted.”  Although this states what we need to do pretty simply, it is not always easy.  There is a difference between simple and easy.  It is simple to know how to lose weight.  If you eat less calories than you burn each day, you will lose weight.  Does that mean it is easy, no.  It can be hard to figure out how to eat less calories.  This verse tells us to stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust.  We all know that trust can be a very difficult to things to have.  I think trust is easier for some than others and I am not sure why.  I don’t know if it depends on our past.  If we have generally been around trustworthy people then it might be easier for us to trust.  However, if we have been surrounded by people who continually let us down, it might be harder to trust.  I think St. Paul is helping us with this when he goes on to say, “constantly tuned into the Message, careful not be distracted or diverted.”  

St. Paul is telling us if we want to stay grounded and steady to that bond of trust we need to be tuned into God’s word.  Reading His word daily is a great way to stay tuned into the Message.  It is a great way to increase your trust in the Lord.  Reading the Word of the Lord will help increase your trust in the same way someone showing up for you again and again will increase your trust in them.  The more you read the Word of the Lord, the more you learn about who He is and how He shows up for His people.  There are so many amazing stories in the Bible.  I feel I have learned so much in these last two years just from listening to Father Mike do the Bible in a Year podcast.  I know I mention that podcast a lot and it is because it has truly been life changing.  I have read the Bible before, and I have done Bible studies before.  However, to have a small section read to me each day and then have it explained to me in a way that is easy to understand has been amazing.  I feel as though I really know the characters in the Bible. I feel as though they are part of my family.  

The last part of that is the part I have talked about a few times this week and one I really struggle with.  I am not struggling with staying in His Word because of doing these episodes and because of listening to Father Mike.  However the last part of that sentence says, “careful not to be distracted or diverted.”  This is a tall order in today’s society.  There are so many distractions in the world.  You don’t have to go out looking for distractions, they come finding you these days.  Even if you are good and don’t turn the tv on, your phone or your computer can be a distraction.  Sometimes while I am trying to concentrate on prayer time or writing these episodes my phone will light up with a message.  Sometimes I can ignore it and sometimes I stop to read the message.  If I stop to read it, sometimes I can then get sucked down a rabbit hole.  For instance, if the message asked a question then I get distracted answering that questions and maybe I need to look something up online and then I see a website and get distracted with that website and then I forget to answer the question for 20 minutes while I am on the website and then I forget I am in the middle of writing something.  

It is easy to be distracted and if we want to be whole and holy it is our job to try to limit those distractions and to remain in His Word.  One way to do this is to put your phone on silent during your prayer time or your work time.  Another way is to change the notifications settings on our phone so we aren’t being interrupted every time someone texts us.  Remaining in His Word can be different for each of us.  Maybe you want to read the Bible in the morning when you get up, maybe you read it on you lunch break, or before you go to bed.  It doesn’t matter when you read His Word, it just matters that you are reading His word.  Even if you are just reading the one verse from this podcast and thinking about it throughout the day. God is not asking for a huge time commitment.  He is just asking for us to keep His Word in the forefront of our minds.  If we can do this then we will stay whole and holy because we will be filled with His Word and our focus will remain on Him because we are not distracted with things of this world.  This seems simple and yet it is not easy.  Even though it is not easy, we can do it.  In case no one has told you this lately, YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS! Actually you can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens you. (Philippians 4:13)

Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we love you and we ask you to help us to stay focused on you.  Help us to limit our distractions and to study your world ever day.  Help us to stay grounded and steady in the bond of trust.  Some of us really struggle with trust Lord, help us change that.  Help us to see that you are trustworthy and you won’t let us down. Help us to know that we can do all things with you.  Lord, some of us are really struggling with distractions and we ask you to help us with this.  Lord you are amazing.  You are the Word of Life, and the Lamb of God. You are the just one and we are so grateful for all you do.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Deny Yourself

Luke 9:23 “ Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Those words, “Deny themselves and take up their cross daily” have been rolling around in my brain for about a week now.  I know I have talked about this before and I probably will continue to talk about it because I know I am not the only person who struggles with this.  I struggle with denying myself.  Actually sometimes I am really good at it.  Sometimes I make up my mind to do something and I do it well.  For instance, I used to participate in this thing called the last 90 days.  This is when you would live intentionally for the last 90 days of the year.  Usually we all decide on January 1st each new year we are going to live better.  We are going to eat better, exercise more, pray more, be nicer, and so many other things that we have forgotten about 10 days into the year.  However, the last 90 days of the year, or at least the last 45 or so, we tend to eat more and exercise less.  In these last 90 days of the year, we have Halloween, where most of us eat too much candy, then we have Thanksgiving where we tend to eat too much in general, and then the Christmas season lasts pretty much the whole month of December between work, family and friend parties.  Many of us tend not to worry too much about how much we are eating or exercising because we are going to get back on track at the beginning of the new year.  Is this how you enter the new year?  The last 90 days challenge was meant to challenge us to live the last 90 days with the same intention that we want to the live at the beginning of the new year.  Plus, how great would it be to go into the new year with the momentum of having just lived 90 days really well?

The last 90 days is not the purpose of this episode, I was just explaining to you how I can do really well sometimes.  I have fasted once a week before for several months, I have had times when I said the rosary every day.  I have had times when I attended mass everyday.  I guess I don’t always struggle with denying myself, but currently the struggle is real.  I do seem to struggle frequently with denying myself and taking up my cross.  I don’t even know how it happens?  It seems like I and doing great, eating right, exercising, and waking up for prayer time in the mornings and then something happens.  It doesn’t have to even be something big.  Something happens and I start sleeping through prayer time, or eating junk food whenever I want it, or skipping my exercise and then one things leads to another and I end up where I am right now.  I end up in a place where I don’t think twice about having a cookie, just because I want it.  Or, even worse, I do think twice and I have it anyway.  I sit and watch TV even though their are other things I know the Lord is calling me to do just because I really want to see what happens in my show.  Does this happen to you?  Maybe your thing isn’t TV and its not food, but do you have something that you know you should be denying yourself from and yet you aren’t?  

The verse above is from the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition Bible.  This is the version I tend to use most often as it is the newest version of the Bible that I just bought.  However, sometimes I really like to read the Message translation or other translations to see how they differ.  I usually use the website biblegateway.com to look up the bible verses.   I really like the message translation of this verse.  The message translation usually doesn’t just have one verse, it has several verses grouped together.  Here is the Message translation of Luke 9:23-27, “Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.”

I like the message translation because it puts it in terms we can relate to today.  It has a way of explaining the Bible in layman’s terms for lack of a better explanation.  First the verse starts by saying if we want to come with Jesus, we need to let Him lead us, we are not in the driver’s seat.  How many of us needed to hear that today?  Be honest, did you need that gentle reminder that God is in the driver’s seat? It’s ok, we all forget this at times.  Thankfully we have a forgiving God that gently reminds us when we forget.  Next it says, don’t run from suffering, embrace it.  That doesn’t sound fun.  I don’t think any one of us wants to embrace suffering.  However, so much growth can come from suffering.  We can grow in our faith so much more when we embrace struggling.  Struggling is a part of life, it is never easy to struggle, however, it gets easier when we embrace it and stop fighting it.  Steven Furtick from Elevation Church said in his sermon this week that he has been able to find the most peace in a situation when he has allowed God to explain everything later.  We don’t usually know why we have to go through a struggle while we are going through it and yet most of the time, further down the road, we understand what the struggle was for.  

Next it says, “Follow me and I’ll show you how.  Self-help is no help at all.” If we follow God, He will show us the way.  We are never alone on this journey.  And yet, how many times have we tried to do it all ourselves.  I don’t think God is saying we should never do anything to help ourselves.  I think He is saying we don’t have to do it All ourselves.  We don’t have to do it without Him.  Invite Him in, lean on Him, and He will help, He will show us how.  Here is where we get to the part I am struggling with right now.  “Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.”  Why is self-sacrifice is so hard?  Why is it so important?  It says right in this verse why it is so important.  It is the way, God’s way.  Jesus was the best example of self-sacrifice we could ever ask for.  So was Mary.  She didn’t even hesitate before she said yes to the sacrifice of having Jesus.  It was not a popular decision. She didn’t gain any friends by saying yes.  She was almost disowned by Joseph because she was pregnant before they were married.  She knew it wouldn’t be easy and yet she said yes.  Actually, she didn’t even take the time to think about whether it would be easy or not.  God asked her to do something and she said yes, without hesitation.  

When is the last time God asked you to do something and you said yes without hesitation?  When have you said yes to God without at least pausing and seeing how easy or hard it would be for you?  We have some great examples in the Bible of people who were great at self-sacrifice.  Daniel opted to get thrown in the lion’s den instead of agreeing to stop praying.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego opted to be thrown in a fiery furnace instead of bowing down to a golden statue.  There are countless examples in the Bible of what people would sacrifice and yet I struggle to deny myself a cookie?  I struggle to get up and pray in the morning when Daniel fought for his right to pray 5 times a day.  I know my struggle is not the same as theirs.  I am using their ability sacrifice as a model we can all look up to.  I think we down play the significance of our struggle to sacrifice.  I know I do.  I tell myself God doesn’t really care if I eat this cookie.  It is not doing anyone harm.  This could be true.  I don’t think God cares in general if we eat cookies.  I do think He cares if we eat cookies, if we promised ourselves we wouldn’t.  I do think he cares if we eat so many cookies that we make ourselves sick.  I also don’t think God generally minds if we sleep in.  I do think He minds if we sleep in when we made an appointment with Him to show up and pray.  I do think He minds when we spend all day in bed to a point where we are not taking car of ourselves.  

Does this make sense?  Can you see the difference?  Self-sacrifice is important.  We are not meant to have every little thing that we want.  We are not meant to want things of this world more than we want to be with God.  Another line in this verse that is so good is, “What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?”  This is something for us all to ponder.  If self-sacrifice is the way to find ourselves, what does that mean if we aren’t doing it?  What good does it do if we spend this whole life eating what we want, doing what we want, with no thought as to how it is affecting God or how it is affecting our soul?  What good does it do if we get everything we want here on this world and yet lose the one thing that is most important our heavenly Father and our eternal life with Him in heaven.  Would you trade all of that for the choices you are making right now?  Would it help us struggle less if we realized that was the choice we were making?  I am not saying we can’t enjoy life on earth.  It says in John 10:10 “I came that they may have life and have it to the full.”  God wants us to enjoy and live a full life.  That doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.  Just like we love our children and want them to enjoy life and yet you have to have rules so they can enjoy life.  The same is true with us.  Self-sacrifice is the way.  Give it a try this week.  What can you sacrifice in order to spend more time with the Lord, or to show God how much He means to you?  If we want to follow Christ we must deny ourselves.  How can you do this, what is one small way you can deny yourself this week?  I am going to stop watching my TV show.  How are about you?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we ask for your help to show us how to deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow you.  We want to follow you Lord, show us how.  Lord help us to be strong like so many that came before us.  Help us to have the courage to give up the things we are putting before you.  Help us to see those things as the false gods that they are.  Help us to put you first and to love you more than anything.  You are so amazing Lord.  You are the Lamb of Lambs and the Light of the World.  We are truly grateful for all you do for us and we are sorry if our actions don’t always show it.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

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The Law of the Lord is Refreshing

Psalm 19:8 “The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple.”

This is an interesting verse.  The law of the Lord is perfect, that is pretty easy to understand.  The Lord is never wrong.  God didn’t make any mistakes when He was making the world.  God still doesn’t make any mistakes. God’s law is perfect.  However, the second part, refreshing to the soul… this could be a little harder to understand.  How is God’s law refreshing to the soul? Let me explain how I see the law of the Lord refreshing.   Do you ever feel like this world has gone crazy?  Do you ever look around and wonder what happened to this world we live?  I know I do.  Sometimes this world doesn’t make any sense to me.  Especially when I hear about the awful things people do to one another. Some people act as if they have their own set of rules in their head and they don’t share those rules with anyone.  You just watch the things you do and wonder what the heck is going on.  

People justify awful behavior by coming up with excuses that also don’t make any sense.  They say things like, “He did it to me first, or she started it.”  When we continue to act in an unkind manner to others just because someone did it to us, that is not ok.  That is not how we were meant to live. However, if we are following the law of the Lord it can be refreshing because the law of the Lord is perfect and because we know what to expect.  There is order in the chaos when people know what to expect and if they have a certain set of rules to follow.  When there aren’t any rules, there is no order, just chaos.  

God’s perfect law is refreshing because it is familiar.  It is refreshing because it makes sense.  It's like coming home after a crazy day.  When we look to the world for answers it is confusing and we just get frustrated.  However, when we look to God for the answers we get a sense of peace that is refreshing.  We don’t have to question what is going on or why we thing the things we think.  If we are unclear on any of that we can turn to God’s word and all our the answers can be found in our sacred scripture.  

The next line in the verse says The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple.  We can trust the Lord and His laws.  They won’t let us down.  They won’t lead us down a path that will get us lost.  The same can’t be said of the world.  If you follow the wisdom of the world it may lead you down a path you don’t want to be on.  You may get lost in a sea of confusion.  You wonder why there are so many contradictions.  Why sometimes it is ok to do something and other times it is not ok.  Or why it is ok for some people to do something but not ok for others to do it.   If you try to make sense of the world you only end up being more confused and often times sad or angry.  

However, the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, you don’t have to question it.  When it says it gives wisdom to the simple it is saying it gives instruction.  You don’t have to wonder what is right and what is wrong with God.  He lays it out very clearly in the Bible.  In the Old testament you will find the 10 commandments that God gave to Moses for us all to follow.  Then in the new Testament you will find even more instruction in Matthew 22:36-40, where it says, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  I find comfort just reading those words from Jesus.  I definitely find it refreshing that all I have to do is love God and love my neighbor.  

Doesn’t God’s law seem to be so simple compared to what the world is telling us we need to do?  The world is telling us we need to have a certain car, wear a certain label on our clothes, have a certain job, shop at a certain store, etc.  The world is constantly telling us what we need to do.  There are so many commercials that tell us what to buy.  There are reality TV shows that tell us how we should live.  The world wants to tell us how we can live, who we can love, what we can and can’t believe spiritually, and so on.  In North America alone companies spent almost $300 billion dollars on advertising.  Advertising to tell us what we should be thinking, buying and doing.  

This is why I find it so refreshing to turn back to God and look to Him for the answers instead of looking to the world for those answers.  It is so simple, maybe not always easy, but so simple to look to the decrees of our Lord to get our wisdom.  I know it is not always easy to love our neighbors.  There are some pretty awful people out there and sometimes those awful people can be living in your house, or can be a part of your family.  God never promised us easy.  Even when it is hard, you can love your neighbor.  God is always there to help.  He is also there to help if you are struggling to love Him.  To some of you that may sound crazy.  To others you know exactly what I mean.  Loving God can be hard if you haven’t ever really known true love before.  If you have had a really hard past you might have walled up your heart to protect yourself.  That is ok.  Tell God, ask Him to help you take that brick wall down and let Him in.  Tell Him what you need and He is happy to give it to you.  God loves you and He really wants you to love Him too.  Turn to Him and His Word for the answers to your questions.  If you have not started reading the Bible daily, give it a try.  I really feel you will find it refreshing, just as this verse says.  You definitely won’t be disappointed you did.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord this world seems to be getting more and more crazy.  We are thankful we have your law to guide us.  We are thankful that your decrees are trustworthy and they provide us wisdom.  Lord, help us to turn to you.  Help us to find refreshment in your laws.  Help us to see how your laws are a welcome change to the craziness of the world.  Help us to love you with all of our heart mind and soul and to love our neighbors too!  Lord you are truly amazing and we love you.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow our guest will be Debra again.  Debra was on podcast two weeks ago talking about how God helped her through the most difficult time in her life.  She is back again to tell about an amazing encounter she had with the Holy Spirit.  I love that she is coming on again to talk about this because sometimes we experience supernatural occurrences with the Holy Spirit and we are afraid to talk about them because we don’t think anyone would believe us.  I am grateful this is a community where we can safely talk about our God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit without fear of judgement.  I am so grateful to have you all along this journey with me.  I look forward to sharing her witness with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Two Way Communication With God

Ephesians 3:17-19 “ and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

At my prayer group, we put together a book mark each month from the words of prophecies that are recorded throughout the month.  We have a discernment team of four people who go through all the words given and decide what they think Jesus was calling us to that month, what was His proclamation, what was His promise, and what was His directive.  We then put these together on a bookmark for all of our members.  It is our way to remember what it was that God had to say to us that month.  I thought today I would share out latest one with you.  Here is what it says:

“Do not fear to come to me. I am your God; I am your joy, your hope, your greatest love. Draw nearer to me every moment and watch the heavens light up with love. You are my child. I love you and I will destroy anything that keeps you from loving me more. I am renewing and healing your heart once more and forever, for my love for you will never ever stop. Bathe yourselves in the river flowing from the throne of God. Let yourselves be carried away in the current and do not be afraid, for I am your God and I love you. Don’t just lean or rest your head on me, throw yourself and all your cares on me.”

Isn’t that amazing?  There are so many things I love about that message from our Lord.  First He starts off telling us not to fear coming closer to Him because He is our God.  You might wonder why He needs to say that.  Why would someone be afraid to come closer to God?  I think this happens more often than we think.  People are afraid to come close to God because they are afraid to get hurt.  Maybe they have a past that is full of pain and mistrust and they are afraid to trust God because they worry He will let them down like so many have in the past.  There are others that are afraid to come close to God because they feel unworthy.  They are afraid God won’t love them because they don’t love them self.  God knows all of this and starts our right away telling us to be afraid.  

Next He says He is our joy, our hope, and our greatest love.  This is so important.  If we come closer to God we can find the things that we are looking for.  We are all looking for joy hope and love.  These can all be found in our heavenly Father.  He is longing to give us all of these things.  He is just waiting for us to come closer and to rely on Him, to lean into Him.  

Then it says, to draw nearer to Him every moment and watch the heavens light up with love.  That is a beautiful visual.  Can you imagine what it would look like when heaven lights up with love?  I just imagine bright white lights everyone.  Almost like fireflies filling all the skies, everywhere you look.  Also, fireworks, and they are all white just bursting in the sky and filling it with light.  It makes me smile to think God would be so happy just because we draw nearer to Him with each new moment.  

This month’s word from our Lord goes on to say that we are His children.  He loves us and will destroy anything that keeps us from loving Him more.  Isn’t that an awesome promise from our heavenly Father?  He will destroy whatever is getting in the way of us loving Him.  What is getting in the way of is loving Him more?  What things are we allowing to come between us and God?  Turn them over to the Lord.  Ask Him to destroy those things so you can focus on Him so you can love God more and more.

Next the word says, I am renewing and healing your heart once more and forever, for my love for you will never ever stop.  How amazing is that?  God is renewing and healing our hearts once more and forever.  How many of us need our hearts renewed and healed?  How many of us are tired of the heartache of this world?  How many of us need our hearts healed from all the pain this world has caused?  How many of us really need to hear today that God’s love will never ever stop?

The verse ends with, bathe yourselves in the river flowing from the throne of God. Let yourselves be carried away in the current and do not be afraid, for I am your God and I love you. Don’t just lean or rest your head on me, throw yourself and all your cares on me.”  This is another amazing visual.  Can’t you just picture being carried away in the current of God’s river?  There is a song by Jason Gray called “I’m Gonna Let It Go,” and in this song he has a line that says, “Being carried in the current of your love, when I lean into Your arms, You’re enough.”  I always loved that line in the song.  If you are someone who tends to worry a lot that is a great song to listen to.  It makes me smile just to think of bathing in the current of God’s love.  Can you just picture God’s love washing over you like a river?  The very last line is one that I think we should all make sure we hear today.  God is telling us, don’t just lean on me, don’t just rest your head on my shoulder, throw yourself and all your cares on me.

In other words, don’t be half in and half out.  Don’t kinda rely on God. Don’t tell Him you are turning your worries over to Him, but then continue to try to fix them yourself. Be all in.  Throw all your cares on God and let Him fix them.  Turn to Him and love Him with your whole heart.  Rely on Him and trust Him with everything, not just those things you feel safe handing over.  God is calling us to come close to Him, He is telling us not to be afraid because He is our God and He loves us.  He will never let you down!  

Wasn’t that an amazing word from God this month?  Did you know God wants to talk to you like that as well?  Did you know you can sit and ask the Lord to talk with you? I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again because it has been really powerful practice for me.  If you want to hear the Lord talk to you, all you need to do is sit and listen.  Let  God know you are available to listen and He will talk.  However, if you are like me, and you struggle to sit still and listen you an try a journaling exercise.  I sit down and I write a letter to God.  I usually address it Dear Dad, or Hi Dad.  Although when I first started I felt that was too informal and so I started with Dear Father.  You can address the letter however you like.  Then you write in this letter anything you want to talk to God about for the day.  Whatever you would say to Him if you were having a conversation with Him, because you are.  When you are done with that letter, you can ask God to answer your letter back through your pen.  Then you start a second letter and address it to yourself.  I usually start if off with My Dearest Daughter, but you can begin the letter in any way that you want to.  Then you write whatever comes to your mind.  The trick is to not sensor the letter, not judge the thoughts and question if they are from God.  You asked Him to answer you and when we ask He answers.  Just start writing, without judgement, or too much thought whatever comes into your mind.  

This has been a really awesome way for me to grow closer to God.  If you have longed for a back and forth conversation from God this will be life changing for you.  Some of you listening may already hear from God just by sitting in silence and listening.  If this is you, I still encourage you to give the letter writing a try.  See if it is any different.  I learned this exercise from Fran Groin at The Life Purpose Institute where I earned my spiritual coaching certificate.  I hope everyone listening will give this a try.  At first it may seem strange, but it gets easier and having these letters from your heavenly Father to go back and read is so great.  Remember this word the Lord gave us when you read your letters.  God loves us and so when you write nice things know that is How He truly feels about you.  God is calling us to come closer to Him, let’s answer that call.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for your amazing words you gave to the prayer group.  We thank you for loving so well and so completely.  We thank you for finding ways to show us how much you love us and want us to throw ourselves onto you.  Lord, we ask you to help us do this.  We ask you to help us to come to you and to bathe ourselves in the river of your love.  Lord we ask you to help us grow closer to you.  We ask that you show us how you want us to do that and then give us the strength or will power to do it.  Lord, I ask that you help everyone listening to this episode try the journal exercise.  I ask you to give them the courage to try something new and I ask that you make it fruitful for them.  Lord, we love you so much and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Distractions, are they from the Devil?

Romans 7:15 “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

I really like this verse.  It may be one of my favorite verses.  I feel as though I may have used it so often in these devotionals you all may have it memorized by now.  I use it so often because I find it so applicable in my life.  I am constantly finding myself distracted and doing something I don’t want to be doing.  I have big dreams.  I know God wants to use me for big things, and I have said yes to all God wants to use me for.  I have said yes to all the things.  And yet, I can’t be available to do those things if I am filling my time with all these other things that He hasn’t asked me to do.  God did not ask me to watch 2 hours of TV today.  Actually, He tried to get me to turn the TV off by reminding me of my other tasks waiting for me.  I am now up pretty late at night doing the episode because I watched TV earlier even though this episode wasn’t done yet.  I also needed to type something up for my prayer group and now it won’t get done until tomorrow because I watched TV.  

I am not saying watching TV is bad.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with watching some TV.  However, when I know I have other things I need to do and I don’t get to them because I watched TV, that is frustrating for me.  It is frustrating to me because I know it is something I struggle with.  I always tell myself this time will be different and this time I will just watch one episode and then I don’t.  It is never different.  You would think after all these years of being me, I would know me by now.  If I watch one episode I will watch another.  It is very difficult for me to turn the TV off once it is on.  I know this and yet it is still a struggle.  I know I am better off if I don’t turn it on.  If I could just make it through those quick 10 minutes of awkwardness when I am easting in silence because I didn’t turn the TV on, then I know the rest of my day will be better.  And yet, I turn it on.  WHY??

Maybe your distraction isn’t TV.  Maybe you don’t relate to not being able to turn the TV off.  Great, then what is your thing?  We all have something that distracts us from our prayer time, our work and our family.  Maybe your thing is online shopping.  Once you start looking for something online you get lost in time and four hours later, you are still shopping.  Maybe it is reading a book.  You get so engrossed in you book you forget about everything else you said you would do.  What about games on your phone, or social media?  How much time are you spending on those and what are you not doing in order to have time to be on your phone?  We all have some weakness that sucks up our time if we are not careful.  The other day when I was searching for the Screwtape letter for an episode earlier this week, the one called, no condemnation, I came upon this letter.  I have not been able to shake what is says.  It has stuck with me the rest of this week so I will share it with you.  Don’t worry, I am not going to go through all the letters, although you really should read them all, they are amazing.  

For those of you who did not listen to the episode earlier this week, let me explain what I am talking about.  The Screwtape Letters is a book written by C. S. Lewis.  The premise of the Screwtape Letters is a series of Letters from an Uncle, Screwtape, to his nephew Wormwood.  Wormwood is a junior demon and his uncle is a high level demon.  The nephew writes to his uncle about his “patient” i.e. the man who’s soul he is trying to win for the devil and the book is comprised of his uncle’s replies.  It can be a bit confusing because when they talk about the enemy in this letter they are talking about God.  When they talk about the father below they are talking about satan.  The book discloses tactics the enemy uses to win our souls for Satan.  Here is an excerpt from Letter XII:

“As this condition becomes more fully established, you will be gradually freed from the tiresome business of providing Pleasures as temptations. As the uneasiness and his reluctance to face it cut him off more and more from all real happiness, and as habit renders the pleasures of vanity and excitement and flippancy at once less pleasant and harder to forgo (for that is what habit fortunately does to a pleasure) you will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention. You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes, but in conversations with those he cares nothing about on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room. All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so that at last he may say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here, “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked”. The Christians describe the Enemy as one “without whom Nothing is strong”. And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off.

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,

Your affectionate uncle

SCREWTAPE”

This is so sad to me and yet it is something so many of us fall into.  We can waste years of our lives doing nothing if we are not careful.  Today it is so easy to get sucking into hours of TV.  There are no commercials, you don’t have to hit any buttons, you just sit on the couch and the TV keeps playing episode after episode.  It can also be so easy to get sucked into playing on our phones, surfing the internet on our computers, reading a book, whatever it is that is keeping you distracting from your real purpose in life.  I wonder how many people have failed to live up to their potential because of distractions.  Les Brown said, “The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”  Or, maybe they were just too distracted by other things to accomplish their dreams?  

Let’s not make the same mistakes.  Let’s live more intentionally.  Let’s put down our phones, get off our computers, get off the couch, turn off the TV, put the book down and spend some time with the Lord.  Listen to what the Lord wants you to do and then do it.  Not after you finish wasting all your time, do it now, before another day goes by.  We don’t know how many days we are going to get.  Each one is a gift.  What are we doing with that gift?  How are we spending the days of our life?  How much of this precious time God has given us are we going to allow the enemy to steal from us?  How much time are we going to surrender to mindless distractions just because the enemy has convinced us we want to.  When you stop yourself from engaging in your usual distractions it will be hard at first.  Your mind will try to talk you into it and tell you it is not a big deal.  Fight the urge to listen.  Remember what it says in the letter.  I will leave you with the last few lines of the letter because they are the ones I can’t seem to shake this week.  “But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,” Don’t go down that gentle slope.  Pay attention to what you are doing and live more intentionally.  Don’t let the enemy trick you anymore. Fight back!  Distractions are from the enemy.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to fight the distractions.  Help us to know, even though we feel powerless against the pull of the distraction, we aren’t.  You are right there giving us all the power we need.  All we need to do is acknowledge you are filling us with the power and then use that power to walk away from the distraction.  Lord, this is so hard, please continue to strengthen our resolve each and every day.  Help us to fight these temptations, help us to recognize they are straight from the devil and to reject them.  Lord you are amazing.  You are the Light of the world and the our Savior.  You are the Lord God Almighty.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Fix Your Eyes On Jesus

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

This verse is an important one.  It is something I think we forget more than we remember.  At least I know I forget this often.  I do know I am saved because Jesus died on a cross from my sins.  I know I am not saved because of my own actions.  I know there are no works that I could do to save myself because Jesus already paid the ultimate sacrifice.  I know all of this and yet sometimes I still try to do it all myself.  Sometimes I try to fix things myself.  Instead of immediately turning to the Lord when things get tough, I try to fix them myself.  I do all that is humanly possible to do and then when that doesn’t work, I turn to the Lord.  Do you know why it doesn’t work when we try to do things on our own?  Because we were trying to do it on our own.  We can’t do anything on our own and why would be want to when we have a heavenly Father that wants to do it with us?  

This morning’s devotional was about this same message. The daily devotional I am reading this year is called “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young.  I am really enjoying this one because the devotionals are not super long and they are written as if they are a direct message to you from Jesus.  It’s great to get a personal message from Jesus each morning.  I’m going to read you the message from this morning because I think it illustrates this verse well.  

"I want you to experience the riches of your salvation: the joy of being loved constantly and perfectly. You make a practice of judging yourself, based on how you look or behave or feel. If you like what you see in the mirror, you feel a bit more worthy of my love. When things are going smoothly and your performance seems adequate, you find it easier to believe you are my beloved child. When you feel discouraged, you tend to look inward so you can correct whatever is wrong.  Instead of trying to “fix” yourself, fix your gaze on me the lover of your soul. Rather than using your energy to judge yourself, redirect it to praising Me.  Remember that I see you clothed in My righteousness, radiant in My perfect Love.”

This gives some great examples I think we can all relate to.  It is easier for us to feel loved when we like what we see in the mirror or when we feel we are doing a good job.  It is easier to think we are God’s beloved child when we are attending church, showing up for our prayer time and helping others.  However, what about when we aren’t? What about when we are snoozing through prayer time and missing church on Sunday?  What about when we are not being kind and loving, but we are being irritable and grumpy?  Do we still know we are God’s beloved child?  Do we still believe we are loved?  Or, do we struggle to believe it because we haven’t earned his love or earned our spot as His beloved child.  

I can’t answer that for you, but for me I know I struggle with feeling like I have to earn it.  The thing that bugs me the most is that I don’t even know I am doing it.  If you ask me if I have to earn God’s love, I would say, “No.”  I truly know I am loved no matter what.  However, if you look at my actions they say something else.  Why is that?  It is so frustrating when you know something on one level and yet your actions reveal that you might not know or accept it on all levels.  This I am sure is a trick from the enemy.  As it mentioned in the letter from Wormwood in the Tuesday episode, the enemy wants to keep our brains in a fog.  He wants to keep us from thinking clearly and asking too many questions.  We need to resist this fog.  We need to try to live as intentionally as we can.  We can so easily go throughout our day on auto pilot.  We do the things we did yesterday, every day is similar and we aren’t even really thinking about what we are doing.  We are just doing what we always do.  However, what if what we always do isn’t the best for us?  What if we could do better if we lived more intentionally?  

In this message from the daily devotional Jesus is calling us back to Him.  He is calling us to stop trying fix ourselves and instead fix our eyes on Him. Hebrews 3:1 says, "Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.”  We need to stop turning our gaze inward and fix our gaze on Jesus.  Look towards Him and then never take your eyes off of him!  I love where it says in the devotional, “Rather than using your energy to judge yourself, redirect it to praising Me.”  That is such a great piece of advice.  Judging ourselves does take so much energy.  Praising God will uplift your spirits also.  I love to praise God, I always feel so loved afterwards.  

Psalm 34:5 says, “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”  When we are looking to God we are radiant.  We don’t feel ashamed, we feel as though we are God’s children because we know we are.  I love when God gives us the answers to the questions we are asking.  If we want to know how we can experience the riches of our salvation and the joy of being loved constantly and perfectly we need to fix our eyes on Jesus and to redirect our energy to praise.  Imagine if you could feel the joy of being loved constantly and perfectly?  You can, just turn your gaze to Jesus and praise Him.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful that you gave the ultimate sacrifice for us.  We know we don’t have to earn it and yet we still try.  Help us to stop that Lord.  Help us to accept your love and acceptance that is freely given.  Help us to know in our innermost being you love us no matter what and we don’t have to do anything to save ourselves.  Your grace has already saved us.  Help us accept your grace Lord and use it to praise you!  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  You are the best and we are so grateful for you.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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