I Don't Have to Struggle

"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:

because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world."
--1 John 4:4

Aaron found himself restless many nights, tossing and turning with guilt that nobody else knew but himself. He tormented his own soul with thoughts of what others would think of him, if they only found out about his deep dark secrets. What nobody knew about Aaron was that he was a ball of anger waiting to let his fury loose on the world around him. So during the day when all saw him smiling, deep down he was hurting and his hurt was turning into anger. He was angry about life; he was anger about his job, how he never got a raise or promotion; angry about his mom not raising him; angry about not being further along than he wanted; and angry about not being honest about what he was really feeling. In fact his anger clouded his judgment and caused him to forget about how he made it through each of those hurting times. How about us?
How many of us feel the weight of the world on our shoulders and feel like we don’t have a way out? How many of us are ashamed to know that what we think or feel just doesn’t seem to quite line up with the way we were raised, our beliefs, or our faith in God? How many of us continue to lie to ourselves because we think we can handle our struggles on our own or try to solve them without God?

If we have ever felt like this at one time or another, there is hope, hope in God! The Bible records that greater is He that is us than He that is in the world. For those of us who have accepted the Lord, Jesus Christ, this text reminds us that the Holy Spirit lives within us to help us though times of hurt and pain. This passage reminds us that there isn’t anything that is too hard for the Lord and that He can overcome any fear, doubt, shame, struggle, sin, or secret that we may have. For Aaron, he had forgotten the love of God that consoled him when his mom walked out, when he was sent to live with his doting grandmother. He had forgotten the God provided for him when others lost their jobs, but his was spared. He also forgot how he finished college and started a business plan, even though the business didn’t evolve just yet.

For those of us who don’t know Him, haven’t accepted Him, or haven’t tapped into the full power of His strength and glory like Aaron, this scripture tells us that we can only overcome heartache and pain through Christ and that we cannot rely on the world’s system to heal us of any issue we may have. He that is in the world is he that has no power to deliver or set free. So many times we remain bound because we are looking to a man to do what only our supernatural God can do. God desires that we overcome every obstacle and struggle, but He consistently reminds us that there is only one way to this healing grace: Jesus Christ!

Today, if we find ourselves struggling with any weight like lies, deceit, lust, adultery, fornication, covetousness, gossip, anger, bitterness, envy, or jealousy to name a few, then we cannot hide it and expect it to go away, but we must turn to God and accept Him as the only one who can conquer our issues. Trust Him with it and learn that we just simply don’t have to struggle because He’s greater than any problem or pain we could ever have, and able to overcome them all!

REMOVE THE UNNECESSARY

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient:

all things are lawful for me,

but I will not be brought under the power of any.

--1 Corinthians 6:12

Wendy had a fixation for shopping. She usually brought things without even remembering she had purchased the items. One day she saw this diamond tennis bracelet that she just had to have. The bracelet was priced at one-thousand dollars and Wendy’s rent was due in two weeks. She figured she could make the rent money back within the two weeks and still get the bracelet; what she didn’t consider was the empty savings account she now had.

Many of us are like Wendy, where we want things, want to do things, or even want to say things that really doesn’t show any apparent harm, at least not on its surface. For instance we may want to tell a person how we really feel, the words we choose may not be vulgar or obscene, but it still may hurt the other person nonetheless. We may want to go to that after-work office party, knowing we are a recovering addict, no crime in going on the surface, but what happens when the wine comes out, can we really handle it? We can play house with someone who we’re not married to, but if he or she doesn’t marry us in the end, who’s left hurting now? We can run to every event and attend every meeting, but when we’re sick in bed, was it really worth it? We may want to jump up off a hospital bed and get back to work, but if we’re still healing does it really make sense?

The word of God tells us that it really doesn’t make sense. Here in the Book of Corinthians, God’s word points out to us that things may be lawful to us, meaning there may be no written rule against it, or nothing even standing in our way of doing it; but God quickly points out that just because it’s not spelled out in black and white, it doesn’t make it a wise thing to do or even a prudent thing to do. God wants us to use wisdom in everything that we do: He doesn’t want our good name to be muddied; He doesn’t want us to waste money; and He doesn’t want us to misuse our time. God wants us to know that while He has given us this great big world filled with all sorts of things, He doesn’t ever want us to succumb to those things, but rather to Him, and when we are fully engulfed under His power, nothing and nobody can bring us down. God wants us to have power over things and not have things lording over us, as such a mentality is out of His divine order.

Today let us consider the cost of everything: our time, our image, our finances, our health, our education, our relationships and most importantly our salvation. When we really take the time to evaluate it all and put it in His hands, God will certainly lead us to what is expedient, by simply removing the unnecessary!

THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL

Greater love hath no man than this,

that a man lay down his life for his friends.

--John 15:13

On a day like today where Judy’s receiving flowers from Tommy, where Charles is buying chocolate for Sarah, and where James is cooking for Cynthia, we can’t help but think about love. The former songwriter and artist, Whitney Houston, sang a song entitled the “The Greatest Love of All.” The words to her song moved millions across the world, but when listening to the lyrics she sang about the greatest being inside of herself. She sang about learning to love herself and depending on herself. But is that really the greatest love of all?

Maybe some of us would agree with Whitney, but how can one really love themselves if they don’t know the One who loved them first? How can one really depend on themselves when they were really created to depend on Him? On a day where many people are looking for love, searching for that true love, waiting to see how much they are loved, trying to show someone else how much they’re loved, or even attempting to see a ray of hope in someone else or maybe even within; we need not look any further, for the greatest love is God!

How do we know? Well the Bible tells us that there is no greater love than Christ laying down His life so that we might be saved and know the power of His might! See God loves us so much, that He wants to spend eternity with us; He doesn’t want a day, an hour, or even a second to go by where we are not in His presence. He wants to be in relationship with us that will never end, even in death. See here on earth, we can love until “death do us part,” but God can love us beyond death!

Much like romantic relationships, where we must first become friends with that special person, before we could ever be their lover, God is the same. How so? Well in order to really have a love relationship with God, He wants us know that He’s our friend and that we can trust Him and confide in Him. He wants us to know we can truly depend on Him. When we’re His friend first, we’ll soon see how we grow madly in love with Him, always wanting to be in His presence.

Yes, God loves us, that’s a fact! So the greatest love can only truly be inside of us when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior, who is ultimately the lover of our souls. This Valentine’s Day, let us not be so caught up in making the husband, wife, fiancé, girlfriend, boyfriend, or that someone special know that they are loved, but let us make sure that the greatest love is not only living inside of us, but that we are living out His love to one another, remaining in perfect relationship with Him!

Jesus is the greatest love of all!

And My Answer Is.....

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,

Whom shall I send and who shall go for us?

Then said I, Here am I, send me”

--Isaiah 6:8

Judith froze in place as Ralph placed a diamond ring on her finger, asking her to marry him; her mouth was open, but no answer came forth, what was her answer? Ian sat in his boardroom chair, listening to his accomplishments when his boss offered him a raise and promotion, shocked, he stood shaking his boss’ hand, but never said a word, what was his answer? Amy stood over her mother’s hospital bed, she was on life support, the doctors told her that they couldn’t do anything further for her mother; they wanted to know if they should pull the plug, heartbroken she had no idea as to what to do, how would she answer? Landon laid on his bed one evening, trying desperately to fall asleep, but couldn’t as he had so much on his mind, when he heard a still quiet voice call out to him; unsure of himself, he attempted to answer the voice, the voice he thought was God, but hesitated again, what would his answer be?

Decisions, decisions, decisions. We, as people, are constantly confronted with a daily crossroad, where a decision must be made. Do we go left or right? Should we take the job or not? Should we apply to this job or not? Do we move to this area or not? Do we eat chicken or steak? Do we take the medicine or not? Do we go to school or work? Do we marry this man or that one? Do we let this relationship go or stay? The actual questions can go on, but the real question is what is the answer?

Much like the people listed above, we want to know the answers to our questions, well so does God. God wants to know what our decision is about Him. He has asked us all at some point if we will follow after Him, if we will do what He says to do, or venture out to the places He sends us. He wants to know if we are willing workers or if we will be unwilling to work for Him. How do we know this? Well God doesn’t change and at some point we too will have a moment in our lives where we are put in the same position as Isaiah, the prophet, and like Isaiah we must have an answer.

Here in the text God simply asked Isaiah who could He send to tell the people what thus says the Lord. He wanted to know who would accept Him and spread His word throughout the land. Isaiah, hearing His voice, answered and said, “here I am, send me.” Isaiah didn’t hesitate or waver in his answer, because He had tasted and seen that the Lord was good and that whatever path He had for His life, it would work for His good.

What about us? Will we answer the call? Will we go when God says go? Will we move when He tells us to move? Will we stay when He tells us to wait? Will we trust when He tells us to trust? Will we believe when He asks us to believe? Will we doubt when He tells us not to? Will we listen when He speaks?

While there are many choices confronting us, there is one answer that is pretty clear and that is in everything we decide to do, we must first make sure we are right with Him, and in that respect our answer to whatever He wants for our lives, must be yes! When our confidence is in God, that is when we have a personal relationship with Him, we can be confident in our decision making and know, like Isaiah, that it will all work for our good, no matter what. Today, make sure your answer is yes, yes to Him.

Lose The Weight

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about

with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every

weight, and the sin which doth so easily

beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us

--Hebrews 12:1

Patty had been trying for weeks to lose a few pounds, but somehow she just couldn’t seem to shed them; she changed her diet, she went to the gym, but nothing seemed to be working fast enough. James had been working out for quite some time and fashioned himself to be a body builder; today he tried adding a few more pounds to his bench press, but couldn’t seem to handle the increase, he had to lose the weights. Angela’s heart was heavy, it felt like a ton of bricks were pressed upon her chest, after losing her only child; she wanted to lose the weight on her heart.

How about us? How many times have we tried to lose weight in our bodies, minds, or souls? How many times have we taken on more than we can handle or bit off more than we could actually chew? In those moments we know we need to rid ourselves of the weight in order to live healthily, yet we somehow manage to struggle with the process.

Similarly, we struggle daily with things that weigh us down. Life can throw some difficult curves like death, sickness, financial woes, career pitfalls, loneliness, personal disappointments, and stress. In those moments it feels like the world is hanging on our shoulders, like a dead weight hanging over our heads. These feelings, like an actual weight, are heavy and burdensome. In fact they can become the focus of our lives and block us from seeing our destiny or purpose.

The writer in Hebrews knew this and so he reminded us to lay aside the weight and the sin that sets us back. See gaining weight always slows the body down, and much like our natural bodies, weight gain in the spiritual realm causes us to make hasty decisions that ultimately sets us back on the road that God wants us to travel. While taking detours to our lives’ journey may prove to eventually lead us back to the main road, God desires that we live the life he created us to live, where His yoke is easy and where His burden is light. In other words we don’t have to be bogged down by the challenges of life or the heartaches that come with it; we just need to lay it aside. God asks us to cast ALL of our cares upon Him, that means everything that troubles or concerns us—we weren’t meant to carry the weight of this world, that’s why He sent His Son.

That’s right Christ came not only to rid us of sin, but also to ease us of the burdens we feel. Burdens, if carried long enough can literally break our backs, because our bodies just weren’t built to carry all that weight, so let us lose not only the weight, but also the sin that often accompanies it, so that we can move forward on the road God has paved just for us!

Today ask God to help you lose the weight!

Lower My Pressure

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,

about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.

We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure,

so that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.

But this happened that we might not rely

on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”

--2 Corinthians 1:8-9 (NIV)

Margie purchased a new home two months ago only to be laid off today; she was the only source of income for her household and she had no money for a rainy day, what was she to do, how were they going to make it? She thought, Lord take the pressure away. Anthony witnessed the heartless murder of his brother, the pain was unbearable, what was he to do with his anger, how was he to avenge his brother? He thought, Lord this is too much pressure. Marsha’s husband just told her he didn’t want the marriage anymore, she had been trying for years to make things right, and now her world was falling apart. She thought, Lord I can’t take the pressure. Jeremy’s pressure skyrocketed, landing him in a hospital bed for weeks, the stress of everyday meetings and demands of family life had finally caught up to him, now he was praying that he didn’t have a stroke. He thought, Lord lower my pressure.

How about us? Are we like these individuals who may find that the walls of life are caving in without any way of escape? Much like the scenarios above, we as people, come a point where we realize that life is challenging and sometimes unbearable. In fact many of us find ourselves wondering will things ever change, will a break ever come, or will we ever truly experience victory. In those moments where we feel completely helpless, God simply wants us to turn to Him.

What? God will allow us to undergo great pressure just so that we may rely on Him? Yes! How do we know this? Well it’s in His word! In this passage, Paul, the Apostle, clearly writes to the Corinthian church to let them know that this life is filled with great hardships, things that no man was ever created to endure on his own, but that every man was created to manage with God alone. In fact Paul expresses his pain in that he admits that he, himself, had even lost hope in life itself, but in that moment he didn’t give up on life, but rather realized he suffered just so that he wouldn’t rely on himself, but on God, Himself!

In other words, God will allow us to get to points and moments of despair in our lives, where we feel completely helpless, but that’s only to show that we really have a need that can only be filled by God. That’s right God created us with an automatic void so that we can turn to Him in our weakest moments.

The wonderful thing about God is that we don’t have to stay in a state of despair and all He is looking for is a heart of humility, one who doesn’t mind surrendering and realizing that God is the only one who can release the pressures of life. When we come to the place where we recognize God as the pressure-regulator, then we will find that life really isn’t all that hard, because we don’t have to do it ourselves, we need only to call on Him.

Today simply ask God to lower the pressure, and He will, He’s just waiting on us!

It Can't Be That Easy

“Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you”

1 Peter 5:7

Marcia wanted desperately to learn how to swim so she took a starter course. In class her instructor told her to put on her life vest and hold onto her floating device to float. Afraid to drown, she never put her foot in what was only three feet of water. Jeff had really bad allergies; his doctor prescribed some medicine for him, but he never took it, thinking his “home remedy” would soothe his symptoms, but they only got worse. His medicine was within arms reach, but he never took it. Jennifer had been struggling financially for weeks. Her mother told her that all she had to do was ask and she would send her the money right away, but she never reached for the phone.

How many of us do the same thing with God? How many of us lack because of pride, can’t move forward because of fear, or can’t get healed because of stubbornness and self-righteous thinking? We ask God to help us out of situations yet when He gives us the formula, we struggle with letting go and allowing Him to control the situation. In other words we get a little uncomfortable with entrusting our most prized possessions, our deepest fears, and our most heartfelt desires to the Lord, because we simply can’t see how things will turn out. Thinking this way never helps, as we eventually come to a place where we realize, we can’t do anything in our own strength and have to give it to God.

Today’s text instructs us to cast ALL of our cares upon God, that means He wants us to release the burdens, the struggles, the desires, the hopes, the dreams, the visions, and any other thing that may concern us to Him. Why? Because He cares for each of us and is concerned about each of our feelings, heartaches, joys, and pains. As easy as this may sound, it’s a struggle for many of us to do. Why? Because we think we have all the answers and we know how to resolve all of our issues and solve all of our problems, but truth is we don’t and what may have once seemed easy to the human eye is really complicated, but not too complicated for God, as there is nothing too hard for Him.

So many times we tell ourselves, “it just can’t be that easy” to just place everything into God’s hands, but really it is; it requires putting our faith, hope, and trust in Him—that’s the part which makes it seem not so easy, but that feeling will subside if we believe He has our best interest and that He cares for us. So before we think twice about taking matters into our own hands because we think we can, let’s remember there’s an easier way, God’s way. Turn it over to Him!