LARGER THAN LIFE LIVING Devotional TAKING MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS If you are a take charge, get her done, check off the list person, you will know exactly what is meant and probably have regrettably taken matters into your own hands on more than one occasion. One of my weaknesses that God has patiently worked with me on is being hasty. I totally can identify with your desire to deal with it and move on but in going through God uses these “opportunities” to help us grow including a mourning process. There will come a time to stop mourning, learn from the experience, wash our face and move on. Reading in Isaiah 30 where one of my favorite verses in the Bible is nestled in the middle. “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.” Then, at the end of that verse I shockingly wake up out of my utopia! “BUT YOU WOULD HAVE NONE OF IT.” This spurred me to read the WHOLE chapter and not just settle down at verse 15. What was going on that Israel, God’s people WOULDN’T want some repentance, rest, salvation, quietness, trust and strength? Let’s say they were having their challenges as they always had throughout the Old Testament and instead of doing it God’s way they resorted to relying on self once again to hastily get them out of confronting enemies and going through extreme hardship. Although they had experienced the supernatural salvation and provision of the Lord, they got so impatient and hasty that they were willing to return to Egypt and rely on their military might to save them. THE PLACE THEY WERE ENSLAVED AND IN BONDAGE previously. OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH, do you relate? I do. It’s a quick fix or so I think to go back. So listen to this. They rushed into plans that were not Spirit led and connected themselves with alliances that were useless which always leads us to a dead end of shame and disgrace. God was shouting out with His whole being that He wanted to be gracious and compassionate towards them but they chose rebellion, lying to themselves (ever tried to reason it out) and they were unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. Are you there today thinking that you are sick and tired of waiting on the Lord? It got SO bad that they basically said, “stop the visions and prophecies.” They didn’t want to be confronted by God or what He had to say on matters anymore. IF I am honest, I’ve been there myself wanting to walk away from it all! THAT is the place that the enemy wants to get us to. ALL throughout God’s Word He desires to be good to us but in the thick of the battle we get weary and sometimes EVEN when we really haven’t been fighting that long. We’re anything but patient, enduring and persevering. It is incredibly dangerous to get to the point where we give up on God. Let us be assured that He is not a man that He would lie and promises to never leave us, forsake us and that NOTHING, even our decisions to rely on our own understanding can remove us from His love and desire to complete a good work in us. Hey, He even says that it is His goodness that leads us to repentance and if ever there was an example of His goodness it was time and time again with the Israelites and their right out rebellion EVEN having experienced the supernatural deliverance and provision of the Lord time and time again. There is hope for us! Ephesians 1 and 3 are packed with prayers that we can personalize and pray over ourselves and others. (1) Give thanks to God for your life or the life of the person that you are concerned. (2) Pray for a spirit of wisdom, revelation and knowledge (What God’s Word has to say about such situations). (3) Pray that the eyes of understanding be enlightened and once again you or the person being prayed for would rekindled the hope of their calling and know the riches of the inheritance in Christ. (Who He says we are and KNOW what He says we have). (4) Pray for the working of His mighty power. (5) Pray for our inward man to be strengthened. (Mind, body, soul and spirit). (6) Pray that Christ would dwell in our hearts and their hearts by faith. (Take as our own what God promises through a love for Him and His Word). (7) Pray to love God, Others and even YOURSELF! Be grounded in love. (8) Pray to be filled with the fullness of God. (Till there is no room for the lies that we tell ourselves). Today, slow down, don’t be hasty. Is there anything that you and I need to repent (ask God’s forgiveness, forgive self and turn away from) of? Is my frustration because I’m trying to demise my own plan? Rest! Wait! Therein lies our salvation. Be quiet (get away from making alliances with people that are not good for us and returning to our personal Egypt: places and people that enslave and place us in bondage). Trust that God is good and will work these things out for our good and we don’t have to strive with useless, destructive patterns and plans. Stop right there! Let’s don’t take matters into our own hands. Later in chapter 30 of Isaiah He promises that blessed are those that wait on Him and that He’ll be behind us whispering, “This is the way, walk in it.” As with the Israelites, when they exercised repentance, rest, quietness and trust, the goodness of the Lord showed up and out for them and it will for us! He is good, He is compassionate and gracious. We are on our way to Larger Than Life Living! Living Large, Tina
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:17:44 +0000
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