Peter lied to Jesus and denied knowing him. What did Jesus do to Peter? Jesus died for him, conquered the grave and rose from the dead, then came looking for him. You’d think Jesus would mention Peter’s denial of him, but he didn’t. He met him where he was and affirmed his calling. Jesus will do the same for you.
If you feel like you’ve grown distant from God in your heart, I can assure you, God has not grown distant toward you. God’s affection for you is not affected by yours for him.
I pray you have a fruitful and fulfilling walk with the Lord. You are called to follow Jesus as his disciple. It’s pretty simple, a disciple is someone who follows a teacher and applies their teachings. Jesus said following his teachings (yoke) is easy, and his burden is light. Yoke and burden are euphemisms for his teachings and the requirements of those teachings. He said it this way…
Whether you realize it or not, you have spent a lifetime working on your self-portrait. This is not an external painting, it’s an image of yourself in your heart. You have constructed a detailed picture of who you believe you are that drives every belief, thought, emotion, and choice you will ever make.
Every time you have a decision to make, you look at your self-portrait. That internal image reminds you of who you are. This is not a conscious process. This is a subconscious process that happens in your heart without thinking about it. What you see in your self-portrait may or may not reflect the truth.
Ultimately that self-portrait in your heart should look like Jesus, but you painted over that image with pain, fear, failure, and sin. The good news is, the original image remains!
God has the utmost respect for you. He has a high sense of value for you. You are worth his own life. You are worthy of being treated with dignity and respect because of the kind of being you are (crowned with glory and honor).
Being made in God’s image doesn’t mean you look like him; it means you are a being that’s worthy to be in his class. You are not a worm. You are a valuable creature, born of God’s image, carrying his presence everywhere you go.
What if you believed that about yourself?
What if you believed that about others?
The world’s systems can fall apart in a matter of days. The things we trust in and depend on can go away overnight. Then what? What do you do if you lose everything? Answer: Remember the Lord and forget not his benefits. God sees ahead and makes provision, our job is to stay receptive to him so we’ll follow his leading into provision.
It may take a while, you may have some difficult days or even years. You may have to work a job you don’t like for a while. You might lose your pension/retirement. But the Lord is with you and is able to do exceedingly above all you can ask or think.
Be wise, plan, save, invest, but remember those things are not your provision, they are simply tools to manage the Lord’s provision.
The reason we don’t cling to God and allow him to lead us through adversity into extravagant blessing is we forget about his benefits and lean to our own strength in the process. We become afraid or get mad at God that we’re going through a difficulty and close off our hearts to his spirit, and constrict his blessings from flowing in our lives. It’s the principle of the sower and the seed from Mark 4, the receptivity of your heart to God’s word determines the degree of his kingdom you’ll experience in this earth. (more on that topic here)
You have the responsibility to believe and co-labor with God. BUT!! REMEMBER!! You are not limited to your ability. You are not limited to what’s in your hands. You have God’s faith working in you and he is able to believe in a way you can’t imagine. But that doesn’t absolve you from believing, it’s a collaboration, so don’t forget his benefits.
You know you are supposed to pray for people who have hurt you, but sometimes it's hard, especially if that person is still in your life. We're encouraged to forgive and move on, but forgiving the person who caused so much pain is not easy.
You might be in a position where that person, or possibly faith leaders in your life are pressuring you to forgive. I want to show you how to genuinely find forgiveness in your heart and get to a place where you can pray for and bless that person.
Before we get into how to pray for and bless those who have abused you, let's establish a few key points. Remind yourself of these truths as you process through forgiveness, into praying for and blessing your abuser.
When I think of God, I think of a loving, powerful, forgiving father, I am aware that He is good and only good! I love what Clint says, "God created a whole planet for two people." He wants us to be a family and to live in paradise together.
We messed up that part of the equation through sin and unbelief, but God still makes a way where there is no way. He sent Jesus to fix all our shortcomings and heal his original plan of having a family.
When God chose a woman to be the one to give birth, that was no mistake. He knew the tenderness of a woman would have the perfect calming voice when needed. He knew her creative hands could help with taking care of her children and keep life fun! He knew her heart would instantly be filled with a never-ending love the moment she laid eyes on her child. He just knew women would be the best to do all the things needed to birth, to raise, to love, and be the Mom!
Nothing “outside” of you has the authority to tell you who you are. You have given your life to God, he “owns” you, and he alone has the authority to define what and who you are.
So what does he say?
God says you are at peace with him by faith in Christ, and he says you’re in right-standing with him the same way. He defines the terms, and he enforces the rules. Righteousness is by faith, not works.
Also remember that God has placed his spirit in you, and his kingdom is in you, so essentially God is in you. If God determines your identity, he does it from the inside, not through external circumstances in your life.
Righteousness is not by works, holiness is not by works, and identity is not by works, it’s all given to you in Christ. Your actions do not define you. Nothing anyone does to you, defines you. Not even your DNA defines you.
Unfortunately, we can go through things in this life that are so traumatic we allow them to define us because they’re so overwhelming. What do we do in traumatic situations?
Have you ever heard the idea that you can't know God's ways because they're higher than our ways? It's usually applied when a difficult or confusing thing happens. Well, you don't have to be confused, you can know His ways.
God was actually angry at the Israelites in the wilderness for not knowing His ways. God expects you to know His ways. God has shown us His ways, and His spirit continually teaches you His ways. Click for more.
Did you know you can hear from God anytime you want? God is never silent! We may be more focused on the physical world’s circumstances and ignore His voice, but he is without a doubt speaking. If you can’t hear him in your heart in prayer, you can go to his written word and listen to Him. Whether He said it 3000 years ago or 3 seconds ago, His logos can give you life.
In this message, I walk you through the first chapter of Colossians and show you how to read in such a way that His word will come alive in you. The key is this, can you look at His written logos and appreciate what’s there.
