Life is about learning to maintain God’s Shalom (peace) in the midst of Chaos…
It’s about learning what our anchor is in the midst of confusion… and the absolute importance of keeping our focus on Jesus!
It also necessitates our learning through our life’s experiences to trust God and to obey His instructions with ALL our heart, and NOT leaning on our own understanding!
Else we sink!
Do you believe?
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Greater is HE who is in us than he who is in the world! Strong words if we believe them . . . true words if we know Him. Meaning takes hold only when we know that He is in us; and His presence is the power of God to change us. The accuser may whisper, cast countless doubts and lead us down blind alleys, but if we know that we are in Christ and He is in us, then hope lives in our hearts. Come to me, Jesus said, and I will give you . . . rest . . . peace . . . forgiveness . . . living water to drink . . . living bread to eat. Let’s run to Jesus – whatever our situation may be today – and find true hope. We are filled with hope because He is greater and He is in us. For the Glory of Christ, Charles Morris
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There is just no easy way for us to learn to die and to let go of our will, our ambitions, and our desires; and relinquish all to God; and therein is the challenge that we all must sooner of later face in life!
This is the only way we can learn of the trustworthiness of God, and His total and complete influence and control over every detail of our life.
We can see ample examples of this in God’s word, as we study the examples of how God worked in the lives of others; but our applying these principals in the middle of our real life situations is quite another thing.
The story comes to mind of the man climbing this mountain, without ropes, but only using his hands and a bag of resin. It is called Rock Climbing and it is a very strenuous and demanding sport.
As it happened this guy slipped and having crabbed at the last minute on to a branch that was protruding from the rock, he found himself literally hanging between life and death; and he yelled out at the top of his voice… “Is there anyone up there?”
God answered:
“Yes, I’m here!”
“Can you help me?”
the man yelled…
God says: “Yes”
“What must I do?”
says the man.
To which God says: “Let go!”
The man then says: “Is there anyone else up there?”
Does this scenario sound anything similar to anything you are facing in life today, or have had to face in the past?
If not, rest assured that you will have your opportunity to see exactly what your foundation in life happens to be, whether in Jesus Christ, and total reliance upon His Word, to obey; or you will revert to other resources, and/or people; and you will look to your flesh.
This is inevitable for all of us, and besides God has promised us in His Word that this would happen.
Hebrews 12:25-29 (The Message)
25-27So don’t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn’t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings?
His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he’s told us this quite plainly—he’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.
28-29Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be?
Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander.
He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!
We must understand this that our lives are a setup, and even though we think all that is going on is dumb luck and happenstance, the Bible teaches differently.
For every Born-again child of God, who has decided to live in covenant relationship with God, what we are going through right now, and what we will experience tomorrow, and all our yesterday experiences and trials, all of it is for one reason, and that is to test us, to build us up; and to train us for God’s service, and for eternity.
Whether you know it or not, when you were born-again you gave God permission to impact your life; and to put you to the test; and as the saying goes… “No pain, no gain!”
We each have two choices when faced with problems and life situations… we can follow our understanding and revert to our way of doing things; OR we can follow God, and put our complete and absolute faith and trust in the trustworthiness of His Word!
The only problem is we don’t know that He can be trusted, and that He will support us, until we let go; and so we are all in the situation where along with the guy in the above story, God is saying to us: “Let Go,” and we are somewhere in between, and either we are willing to let go; or we are looking for other alternatives… and therein is the test.
Shalom,
Skip Barland
SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 