Anxious Thoughts and Dr. Seuss...

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; --1Peter 1:13


To My Beloved Daughters in Him,

I love this verse...it is so helpful for me when my thoughts become anxious to picture what Peter was conveying  here. Gird up the loins of your mind...WHAT???   Long robes were worn by men in the days that 1 Peter was written.  Now you really can't get anywhere fast with a long robe.  Your legs just cannot stretch as far as you would like them, to get up any speed at all and the prospect of tripping increases dramatically.  The picture is of a robed man tucking his skirt under his belt so he could run.  What it means in terms of your mind is to simply pull your thoughts together.  Pull up the loose ends of your thinking and recenter them on what is important.  Christ. Discipline your mind and return your focus to the right place.  The hope that is ours in Him. Be sober.  Think on the right things and rest your hope fully on the promises in His Word. We as believers, girls, live in the present and act in the present based on the future hope we have in Him. We live in the expectation of His return.  The verse that comes to mind here is  Hebrews 12:1-2.


"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Put aside every weight...all those things that encumber and take our focus off our Lord and His power, sovereignty, mercy and grace..and on to those things that are of the world and unimportant in the light of His return.  There is such simplicity in being a follower of Jesus and walking the path that He  has laid out for us.  When we gird up the loins of our minds, lay aside the weights and look up, the things of this world truly do fade away.  His glory and His grace remain and our focus once again is in proper perspective.  Our actions and decisions are again governed by our future Hope.

Read about Abraham in Hebrews 11:8-16.  He exemplified living in the light of a future hope so well.  Abraham's eyes looked to the heavenly city and all his decisions were made in light of the promises God had given him.

Thinking soberly is thinking calmly...it is being self-controlled.  It is not letting thoughts that are not helpful get the best of you.  By God's grace, I do not suffer from anxiety much, but when I do I hate it!! Worry is really the opposite of girding up the loins or loose ends of your mind.  I picture a Dr. Seuss character with all kinds of strings flowing from his head and as he moves about they get longer as his worry increases.  Eventually they get caught on things and he is pulled in different directions and eventually pulled apart.

The only antidote for worry is to immerse yourself in the word of God.  Our flesh in the midst of difficulty tends toward carnality.  We give up and give in and in our hearts we say, "Oh, what's the use."  Resist the temptations of your flesh and choose instead in the midst of your difficulty to think rightly...to renew your mind with His word.   When you find yourself having anxious thoughts...the opposite of really thinking...having thoughts that just go round and round...find a verse or two and recite it and as you recite it, meditate on it.  It may take time to combat, but God's word will have its effect.  It will guard your mind and His peace will begin to fill it.  There is nothing like it...nothing. It will bring you into His presence and even in your darkest times fill you with His joy and His assurance.

Colossians 3:2-4  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.


Love
Mom

God Shining in our Hearts...

To My Beloved Daughters in Him

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.--2nd Corinthians 4:6

THE GLORY OF OUR GOD SHONE IN JESUS CHRIST!  And you and I as believers, have this treasure (Jesus Christ) in our earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.  

We are His children, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. We have been given the Spirit of adoption by whom we can cry out Abba, Father!  The term "Abba" is an informal Aramaic term that conveys a sense of intimacy.   Like the English term "Papa" or "Daddy" it connotes tenderness, dependence and a relationship free from  anxiety or fear.  So we may be and are:

"hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—  always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So then death is working in us, but life in you.--2nd Corinthians 4:8-12

I love that last line..."So then death is working in us, but life in you."  As we pour out our life for Jesus...as we who believe lose our own lives for His sake, we work life...eternal life with Jesus in the hearts of others!   And His grace, then, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.  

Therefore (emphasis mine) we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,  while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.--2nd Corinthians 4:16-18

May we experience the greatness of God in our lives as we devote ourselves wholly to Him.  Praying the following prayer from Ephesians for each one of us today...


"that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,  to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."--Ephesians 3:16-21


Ending with the song the Lord has had on my heart all week entitled Lord I Need You by Chris Tomlin.  

Verse 1:
Lord I come, I confess
Bowing here I find my rest
Without You I fall apart
You're the one that guides my heart

Chorus:
Lord, I need You, oh I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

Verse 2:
Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are
And where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me
Yes where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me

Bridge:
So teach my song to rise to You
When temptation comes my way
And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You
Jesus You're my hope and stay
And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You
Jesus You're my hope and stay

The Worthy Walk - Step 1: Humility

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.--Ephesians 4:1-2

To My Beloved Daughters in Him:

It was noted in the previous study that the first three chapters of Ephesians were about doctrine and the last three about duty...or the first three describe our position in Christ and the last three our practice.  Paul begins Chapter 4 of Ephesians by beseeching us to walk worthy of the calling with which we were called.  Here in verse two and three he enumerates the 5 characteristics of the worthy walk...with the goal being endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  That is the goal...unity.  The center of Christian unity is in the heart.   It is not in a set of rules...it is not outward.  In verse 2 Paul gives us 5 attitudes of the heart which bring about peace in the body and bind believers together.

The first step toward a worthy walk and unity is a lowliness or a humility of spirit.  We who have been exalted and blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places are to walk with "all lowliness"....in total humility. Scripture tells us we are to be clothed with humility.  John MacArthur says that we have a  "high calling but a low walk.  

Humility is the foundational characteristic of the worthy walk and encompasses the others.  Without a lowliness of spirit there would be no meekness, no long-suffering, no forbearance and therefore, no unity.  Humility is the opposite of pride.  It is thinking of others and putting them first.   It is considering them more important than yourself.  

Humility is also being self aware.   It is seeing and knowing who you are and who your God is!  It is looking at Him in all His majesty and grace and falling down on your face before Him in gratitude over what He has accomplished on your behalf!  Pride is self deceit...humility takes an honest look at sin and confesses it to God as just that..sin.  Humility gazes on God's greatness and majesty and is painfully aware of its own insufficiency and helplessness.  Without humility even salvation is not possible.  The Bible tells us that unless we become like a little child we can by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.--1 John 2:6

Christ walked in humility.  He describes Himself as meek and lowly in heart...a place to find rest for our souls.  We are to walk as He walked. 

Our Lord made himself of no reputation and took the form of a bondservant and came in the likeness of one of His creatures and humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  He did nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but esteemed US!!! as better than Himself.  He died for us when we were yet His enemies so that we could be delivered from both the power and the penalty of sin. This is the mind that we are to have!   

Being humble is esteeming yourself as unimportant....a low priority.  Uh oh...I do not know about you but THIS is not the way I think.  My mind and heart usually go to me...it is only by the power of His Spirit dwelling in me that I can think of anyone else.  A humble person KNOWS his life is not about him but is about his God working His will in and through him.  He has no personal ambition except that which his God desires.  He does not get personally offended...he does not get angry on his own behalf.  He steps aside and allows his God to work even in offenses and perhaps, especially in offenses against him.   A humble person knows he is nothing and deserves nothing....he is grateful for what his God has done and lives with a thankful servant's heart of love and compassion toward those around him. 

Humility brings peace but pride promotes strife.  James 4 tells us that wars and fights come from our desires to have what WE want....not what the other person may desire and most decidedly not what God wants.  Pride is selfish, breaks the peace and loves not.  Beloved, humility puts aside self and loves AND love is the bond of perfection.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;  bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.--Colossians 3:12-17

The Day of Death Better than the Day of One's Birth....

A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. --Ecclesiastes 7:1

I have been thinking about the second part of this verse a lot over the past two days.  Kinda morbid, I know...  I am, however, glad I did.  I loved the truth of the perspective it brought me. Most of us have family who rejoiced over our birth and will have friends and family who will grieve when we leave this world.  From a worldy perspective then, funerals are sad and "birth" days are to be celebrated.

Through the lens of belief, however, things look quite different.  In reality the day of our birth brings us into a world filled with sin, trouble, futility, and uncertainty; while the day of our death brings a permanent end to all our struggles in the flesh and an eternity with Christ.  No longer do we strive against sin but can now rest eternally in the arms of our heavenly Father.  Through death we enter into His presence...into the joy of our Lord. A believer in Jesus dies with assurance and certainty of his destination.  Absent from the body is present with the Lord. We awake in His likeness.  Truly our exit from this world then is a greater kindness than our entering it...the day of our death is preferable to the day of our birth.

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.--Psalm 17:5

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.--2 Corinthians 5:1

So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.  For we walk by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.--2 Corinthians 5:6-8

 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.  For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.--Philippians 1:21-23


Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”--Revelation 14:13