Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Memory of the Month: 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Today's reading: GENESIS 16-17 MATTHEW 5:27-48
Rejoice In Him
Mary said, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.... The Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name."
— Luke 1:46
The accuser plays mind games with us to make us worry or feel guilty. He will use everything in his power to drag us down. When we are up, the attacks come to bring us down. When we are down, well, he does all he can to keep us down. The accuser does all he can to destroy any joy we may experience.
Remember: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything, give thanks." 1 Thessalonians 5:16,17,18
The last part of verse 18 goes on to say what these three things are for:
"...for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
The will of God is exactly the opposite of the enemy's.
God wills that we choose to be full of joy all the time. The enemy would destroy all joy. The Lord provides His way for our choosing to be filled with His joy in the hardest of times. We find no joy in the circumstances of the hard times, but we can choose to find His joy and cling to it while the tough times play out.
God wills that we would choose to talk with Him constantly. The enemy will do all he can to keep this from happening. What does he use to keep you from talking to God in your life. Think about this. He uses everything. The world uses everything to keep you from talking to God about anything. This is constant. We talk to God in prayer and get up and immediately, the world flashes something 'urgent' to get your mind off of God's glory.
God wills that all of us give thanks in all things at all times. Is this a reality in your life? We all know how 'impossible' the world's mindset makes it for us to give thanks in all things. After all, how is it possible for anyone to be thankful in times of maximum pain or grief? Well, we are not to be thankful for the pain or grief. We are to be thankful that we have the king of the universe as our Lord and keeper in the middle of it all who says that He will never leave us.
I believe that in 1 Thessalonians 5:16,17,18 God tells us that He has given us a way through, not out, of the hard times. This is why it is so important to make these choices in good times.
How easy is it to not think about how great God is to us in good times? Truthfully-how much do you praise when you feel good about life. For some of us, we have chosen to praise God for all things. But for a lot of us, we waste the good times on feelings. I mean that we fail to share our joy with God and then it's over and we have missed the opportunity to give God the glory. We are too busy 'feeling good'.
If we do not praise God and rejoice in the times of 'good feelings' how can we praise God for the times when we 'feel bad'.
So we make the effort to obey God day in and day out. The joy of the Lord becomes a constant. What does the enemy do? He makes us feel guilty for good feelings. This is real. I have recently heard from a friend who feels guilt over being proud of what God is accomplishing in her life and she is not alone. Where do you think this guilt comes from?
So what can we do? We must remember what the Bible says:
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."James 1:17
When you feel pride in what God is doing in your life, this is a good and perfect gift. It is from these gifts that we can glorify God. Turn your pride to praise and your good feelings into glorious words to Him.
The enemy uses simple tricks. Guilt for pride in divine works gets our eyes on ourselves. This is a 'take the thought captive' moment. If we turn to self, we carry guilt. But, in that split second, if we turn to God,(take the guilt captive and throw it away) it turns into a time of glorifying God where God lifts us up with Him in His light.
Learning to give God the glory in quiet moments allows us to give God the glory when we get together in worship. It allows us to be as much a part of corporate worship as the worship leaders.
Choosing to be full of joy-choosing to talk to God constantly-choosing to live in thanksgiving-all of this is glorifying God and this is His will for all of us. When we live like this, it is good life from God-it can't help but feel good-so feel good about it and tell the devil to take a hike-just like Jesus did-use the word of God-all good and perfect gifts come from God.
We are gifted-by God.
...because He loves us...
Father in Heaven,
Forgive me for falling for the tricks of the enemy. All glory is Yours, now and forevermore!
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