Tag: God

The Freedom of Forgiveness

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“Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.” Matthew 6:12 MSG

Forgiveness sets you free to live the adventure that God has for you.

And it allows you to be free from how others impact you.

Forgiveness is a relationship word that begins with our relationship with God and then with our relationships with others.

And at its heart, forgiveness means to let go.

It is daily to keep us right with God and right with others.

Taking stock, taking responsibility.

Receiving grace, giving grace.

Living forgiven, living forgiving.

Everyday.

Jesus lived like this and then said, “follow me.”

What do you need to ask for forgiveness for?

Who do you need to forgive today?

In Awe

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“So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth.”

-Ephesians 3:14-15, The Passion Translation

When you realize how much He loves you.

When you receive the truth that He knows you, loves you and has chosen you.

When you know that nothing separates you from Him, not even your own sin.

When you enter into His arms and allow Him to embrace you.

You can’t help but fall to your knees in awe.

Who is God?

The perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on earth.

Who are you?

His beloved child, invited into an eternal relationship with Him beginning now.

One Step At A Time

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This quote is from Abraham Lincoln

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”     ‭‭

2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

How do you walk in faith?

One step at a time.

Perseverance and determination is needed.

Don’t give up.

Take another step.

Your Heavenly Father is cheering you on.

He is proud of you.

My friend, may you take one step of faith at a time into every new area that love takes you. 

Pause the Panic

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“This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.”
Matthew‬ ‭6:7 MSG

What is causing you to panic right now?

Panic is defined as sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety.

All kinds of things can cause panic to rise within you and when it does, I am going to ask you to pause.

To wait before you react.

To take a moment to take a deep breath in and out.

To pray and ask God for His perspective.

He is your Father and He knows you.

He knows what is happening and why it’s causing you panic.  

He also knows how to lead you down the right path, not just the first one that presents itself.

He knows how to calm your heart and clear your mind.

When you go to God with your panic, He will give you the wisdom and guidance you need to deal with it.

Pause the panic and pray.  

Even if all you can manage is “help”.

Surrender All

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“Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.”    Psalm 62:5 NLT

All that I am…

Daughter, wife, mother, friend, dreamer, detailer, realist, writer, speaker, cook, cleaner, pastor, inspirer, frail, my own worst critic, stubborn, strong, passionate, fearful, faithful, wonder-full, beauty-full, worry-full, redeemed, restored.

Rest…

Hush anxious thoughts. Put down the to-do list. Quiet fear. Close the door. Rest in abandon. Embrace peace. Breathe silence. Cease to think, worry, or wonder. Just be.

Before God…

Not before bills. Not before responsibilities. Not before failures and faults nor achievements or success. Before God the Creator, Provider, Peace Maker, Redeemer, Savior, Lord, Father. Sovereign, Merciful, Strong, and Gentle. Powerful, Passionate, and Purposeful.

For my hope…

Tender expectations of possibility. Easily bruised. Unrealistic. Fantastic. Wonderful. Amazing. Hope.

Is in Him…

Wrapped in the arms of grace surrounding the soul. Hope not in temporal things but in the eternal One God in three expressions- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Hope not in temporal circumstances but in the embodiment of LOVE itself.  

With You

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God IS with you.

He is the creator of the universe and He is with you.

Present tense.

He does not reside in the past although He will heal it.

He is not waiting to show up for you tomorrow.

He is here with you.

Now.

Right where you are.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Matthew 1:23 NIV

Jesus is the gift of God with us and the miracle of the present Presence.

God is with you and He desires to have a conversation with you all day long.

May you be filled with the presence of the present God through Jesus today.

Trust God

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3:5-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Whatever today brings, I want to remind you to trust God in it.

Trust that He has your present provided for. Jesus will give you what you need when you need it to deal with what is happening right now.

Trust that He will heal your past. There is no sin stronger than the blood of Jesus and there is no hurt His love can’t heal.

Trust that He has your future in the palm of His hand. Jesus is preparing a place for you and preparing you for the place. Stressing about it helps no one. Rest in Him and wait.

Take a deep breath and fix your eyes on Jesus. 

Trust Jesus.

How You See

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Perspective is powerful.

Jesus said how you see the world around you, impacts you:

“Your eyes are windows into your body.  If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!”‭‭

Matthew‬ ‭6:22-23‬ ‭MSG‬‬

How you look at the world around you impacts how you experience the world within you.

Do you see the world and the people in it with wonder and delight or in fear and distrust?

Have you “pulled the blinds” and given up?

If so, you are in a dark place.

Jesus came for you.

He came to unleash heaven’s light and love in you.

He came to heal the hurts and tend the wounds that fester distrust and fear.

He came to restore wonder.

He came to restore you.

Prayer

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“The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.”
‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭2:1-2 ‭MSG‬‬

Prayer doesn’t have to be eloquent to be powerful.

It doesn’t have to be lengthy to have consequence.

You don’t have to get the words right for God to hear you.

You just need to do it.

Pray.

Every way you know-how, for everyone you know.

It isn’t a test to pass or a class to take, it is prayer.

There is no wrong way to pray, just talk to God.

The power of prayer is that it connects you with a powerful God who loves you so much that He took care of all that hinders you from connecting to Him. Every fear, doubt, stumble, mistake, misstep or mindset that separates you from God, Jesus took on the cross.

Jesus experienced every judgment, every unjustice, neglect or wrong done to you by others.

This is how you can be unhindered in prayer for others and honest in prayer for yourself. He died to give you permission to talk freely with the Holy One.

Let no excuse stop you today from talking to and listening to Him today.

Believe Anyway

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I want to encourage you today that no matter how dark the situation is, believe that God can do something in it anyway.

I want to challenge you to dare to trust Him in the desert – there is a promised land and you are on your way to it.

My prayer for you is that like Abraham you will decide to live today not based on what you can’t do but on what God can do through you.

God freely gives you His power to sustain you to walk, to love, to care and to be fully alive even when you may feel mostly dead inside.

“Abraham was first named ‘father’ and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.

When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭4:17-18‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Long before Abraham saw the fruit of the promise, he believed God anyway. Though everything in his life seemed to indicate otherwise, he lived his life, every day, not looking at the impossibility of the promise but in the possibility of God.

I am sure that there were times that Abraham barely believed. I know that there were days that he was only holding on to a bare thread of hope…but he held on.

Hold on, my friend, you may only have a thread of hope, but in Christ, that thread is stronger than what you face and will hold against that which you fear.