Trust and Obey

This is a bit of a spur-of-the-moment-inspiration post.  As I was brushing my teeth tonight getting ready for bed, I started thinking of the song Trust and Obey that my mom sometimes sings.  Here are the words that I remembered.

Trust and obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey

It is such a simple song, but at that moment it carried a profound message for me right now in my life.  I have written before about some of the things that God has been teaching me through the tendonitis that I have.  I have been learning to trust god in every situation and that He always knows what is best for me.  Today as I was driving through Massachusetts on the tail end of a road trip with my family, we listened to Eric Ludy preach a sermon about people with humble hearts.  What I took away from the sermon was more a message of some of the hard things that God is and will be requiring of me if I truly want to be in full surrender to Him.  I realized that I have a fear that God will require something of me that will be really painful or hard for me to give up.  Because of my fear, I am not able to have as dynamic a relationship with Him as I would like to.

You are probably thinking, well, that is nice and all, but is there a point to this blog post?

Yes, the whole point is to trust and obey!  As I was brushing my teeth, it suddenly dawned on me that it was incredibly simple.  What God is requiring of me at the moment is trust and obedience!  I need to trust Him with every area of my life, and I need to surrender to Jesus in full obedience to Him.  I trust that God will work in me through my trust and obedience.

Is there any area of your life that you have not surrendered to Jesus?  What is it and how can you change that?  Are you following God with full-hearted obedience, or are you afraid of what He might ask you to give up?

I challenge to examine your hearts for areas where you are not trusting and obeying God.

Galatians 2:20

I was peeking ahead to the next section in my AWANA book the other day, and saw that I was going to have to memorize Galatians 2:20.  I read through the verse, and then I stopped.  I read it again.  This time I thought about the words that I was reading.  I wanted to share with you some of the thoughts that I had when I read through the verse the second time.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live"
When Christ died on the cross, He died to save the world from its sins.  As He was dying, He took the world's sin upon himself, and they died with him.  The I stands for my old sinful self.  That old sinful self no longer lives because it died with Christ when He died on the cross.

"but Christ lives in me."
Once I asked Christ to be the Lord of my life, He came to live inside of me.  If you have asked Jesus to be the Lord and savior of your life, then He is living inside of you too.

"The life I live in the body"
This, I think, is referring to what people see on the outside.  This means that what we say and do can either glorify God, or we can turn people away from Him by the way we act.

"I live by faith in the Son of God"
God is all powerful and in control!  As scary as it is, we have to realize that we have no control over our circumstances.  Each day we need to be willing to say to God, "I am living by faith in you today, grant me the strength to do that."  When we start feeling like we have our lives in control, God will usually change it up just to remind us that He is still in control.  Speaking from personal experience, when I try to take matters into my own hands, God shows me that he is still in control and that I need to trust Him and live by faith each day.

"who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Did you ever sing that song in Sunday school when you were little, "Jesus Loves Me"?  I think I sometimes need to be reminded of that song everyday.  Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to die a painful death on a cross so that I would be spared the penalty of sin.  Does that not say "I love you"?

I don't always get this much out of the verses that I read, but this one really popped out at me.  If you don't already spend time in God's Word each day, I would encourage you to do so.  You don't have to read through the Bible or anything, just pick a random verse and spend a few minutes meditating on it.  Remind yourself of it all throughout the day and ask God what He wants you to learn from it.  This is a great start in getting plugged into God's word.  (This article explains a little bit more about meditating on scripture.  http://take-it-from-kayla.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-m-word.html)

Lessons From the Book of Daniel

Today at my church, we just finished a sermon series on the book of Daniel.  (You can watch the whole sermon series online at http://www.efccl.org/sermons/ )

Personally, I felt like God really used this sermon series at a very specific time in my life.  Throughout the book, I saw God's hand on Daniel, and the kings, and the nations.  Everything that happened, whether good or bad, was orchestrated by God and was under His control.  God is full of sovereignty.  I found that a very comforting thought, and God has reminded me of His sovereignty during though times.

That was my personal lesson from the book of Daniel, but our pastor (Pastor Jay Childs) drew three final conclusions from this book that I wanted to share with you.

1.  If you want to have hope in life, you have to have a big view of God.

Is your God huge and awesome?  Can He do anything, or can He only do the small stuff?  Throughout all of scripture, God reveals himself to be an unfathomable God.  Your hope for the future will only be as big as you see God.  The bigger you see Him, the more hope you will have.  "God is large and in charge!"  (Pastor Jay Childs)

2.  If you want to be saved, reconciled to God, and escape His wrath, then you have to accept His (free) gift of salvation.

Salvation only comes through this:  "believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved."  (Acts 16:31)  Nothing but asking Jesus to come into your life to be your Lord and savior will save you, reconcile you to God, or help you to escape His wrath.  Good works alone are not enough to get you into heaven.  (If you have questions about this, you can email us at sistersinchrist.girlz@gmail.com you can also check out this link.  It might help answer some of your questions.  http://www.efccl.org/beliefs/ )

3.  If you want God's blessing on your life, you have to be a person who takes obedience seriously.

God values obedience.  If you read the Old Testament, you see that when the Israelites did not obey His commands, God punished them.  When people in the Bible obeyed, they were blessed.  Sometimes, obedience comes with an earthly cost.  Take Daniel for example.  He continued to pray to his God (because God had commanded it) even though King Darius had said that anyone who prayed to another man or god besides himself would be thrown into the den of lions.  (Daniel 6)  Daniel was thrown into the den of lions (earthly cost) but God saved him.  At the end of the chapter, King Darius decrees that everyone should worship the God of Daniel.  (A blessing for Daniel, and brings glory to God)  No matter the situation, make sure that what you are doing is in accordance with the word of God.

How big is your God?  Have you accepted God's gift of salvation?  Are you living in faithful obedience to God?  I hope that these lessons from the book of Daniel (and the rest of the Bible) will challenge you to be a person who lives for God each and every day.

What is God Teaching You?

Is there something that God has been teaching you lately?  What is it?  Is there a particular lesson that He seems to be trying to teach you?  Is He trying to impress on you a certain point or teaching?

What is my point with all of these questions?

Here's the point.  We need to be open to what God is teaching us in our lives right now.  For me personally, God has been teaching me quite a lot lately.  I don't always enjoy the lessons that I am learning, and sometimes I would much rather skip over them...  If I skip over all of the lessons that He has for me, I will also miss out on some of the blessings He has for me.  There is a benefit to God teaching you, though.  Duh, you are learning something new, but I believe that God reveals himself to us in new and different ways when He is trying to get our attention.  Even though God seems to have some hard lessons for me to learn these days, I have never felt more on fire for Him or seen His Word come to life in the ways that it is for me now.

When we are open to God's teaching and leading in our lives, then He will give us new insight into His Word and His character.  What are you learning right now?  Are you open to the teaching that God has for you?

If you would like to share what God is teaching you (we would love to hear it) you can email us at sistersinchrist.girlz@gmail.com    

HANDLING THE "WHAT IFS"

Many of us have been plagued by fretful “what if” scenarios throughout our lives.  What if I never get married?  What if my friends reject me?  What if I fail at work or school? What if I have financially difficulties?  What if I face persecution?  And the list goes on and on.

As we trust in God’s protection, we can rest confidently in the fact that the enemy cannot “have his way” with us. (see Luke 10:19 and James 4:7). Yet this doesn’t mean that God will never us to face difficulties, or that we as Christian women won’t walk through “trials of many kinds”. (See James 1:2 and Luke 2:35).

So how can we keep those “what ifs” from ruling our thoughts and emotions, turning us into fretting, paranoid, worry-warts? How do we know we’ll be able to handle difficult circumstances if and when they come?  

 In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom shares a story from her childhood when she told her father about her fear of facing hardship and suffering.

“Corrie,” he began gently. “When you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?” 

“Why, just before we get on the train,” she replied.

“Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run out ahead of him, Corrie. [When the time comes for you to suffer], you will look into your heart and find the strength you need – just in time.”

Fretting and worrying about “what ifs” shows a lack of trust in our God.  We envision all the possible trials we might face, but fail to look at them through a heavenly lens and remember the grace, strength, and victory that God offers for every challenge we must walk through. We must remember that God gives us the grace we need for specific trials right when we need it, and not before.  

Rather than worrying about what might happen in the future, we can rest securely in the knowledge that: 

1.) God can turn anything the enemy means for evil into good in our lives (see Gen 50:20 and Romans 8:28).

2.) He will not allow us to walk through trials we are not able to handle (see 1 Cor 10:13).

3.) Even when we walk through difficult circumstances, we can triumph through every challenge when we put our hope in Him (see Psalm 25:3).

Worrying about “what ifs” is not only dangerous to our spiritual lives, but it also distracts us from “being all there” for the calling God has placed upon our life today.  Elisabeth Elliot wrote, 

Worry is refusing the given.  Today’s care, not tomorrow’s, is the responsibility given to us, apportioned in the wisdom of God.  Often we neglect the thing assigned for the moment because we are preoccupied with something that is not our business just now.  How easy it is to give only half our attention to someone who needs us – friend, husband, or little child – because the other half is focused on a future worry.

Whenever you are tempted to dwell on fearful “what if” scenarios, take a moment to deliberately fill your mind with Truth.   A great way to start applying this principle is by memorizing some of the Psalms. (Some of my favorites on this subject are Psalm 27, 34, 37, 46, 91, and 112.) Whenever you are faced with the temptation to fear, those words of Truth can become vital weapons with which you chase away foreboding, anxious thoughts. The more you consistently fill your mind with Truth, the scarcer the enemy’s lies will become.  

Another great principle is to pray for someone whenever fearful thoughts attempt to enter your mind.  Praying for someone else takes your focus off yourself and your own fears, and turns you outward instead of inward.

When we truly know our God and believe Him to be exactly as His Word says He is, we have no reason to let fearful thoughts overtake our minds, because we know that in every situation, no matter how difficult, He will show Himself faithful.

This post is taken from Leslie Ludy's blog, on Set Apart Girl.  http://setapartgirl.com/leslie-ludy/blog