And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (James 1:2-8).
Sometimes I feel like the person in the bolded statement above. I am not fond of instability. God has done many amazing things for me, and delivered me from so many fears and so much pain. Yet, at times, I find myself doubting the completeness of His work. Memories are funny things. They often have a way of showing us what we want to see and leaving out the rest of the story. Today I was reminded of things I have been delivered from. Then this sinking feeling came in to my mind and I started thinking these things: Did God really mean it? What if my feelings change? What if I screw it up? Am I really worthy of forgiveness and love? DAH! I despise that.
I guess that's why God says to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). The truth is, there are going to be a lot of thoughts swimming around in my head for the rest of my life. Lately, there have been even more than usual, and it's starting to get a little bit interesting. I have started to recognize the legitimacy of chucking the nasty thoughts and re-aligning myself with the unconditional love of God. Bringing every thought captive to the truth of who Jesus is and what He is about is the only way I can even cope with life in general. The Bible says that He is truth. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). If He is truth, then the only way I can really measure my perceived notions of truth is by taking them to Jesus Himself. What does He say about me? That I am His temple.. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). I am part of a royal priesthood "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9).. He calls me blessed, beloved and free. I hate the thoughts that try and steal that from me. They are death. Wherever these death thoughts come from, I don't want them. Part of having a "human condition" means that I am going to struggle with them. I can't get away from it. However, I know that God has given me the power through His Spirit living within me to seek His heart out, pray and renew my mind in His word.
God, I am so thankful for Your Word! Jeremiah 15:16 says that Gods word bring life to us:
"When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty".
This is my desire: I want to be able to know Him so well that I can discern what is aligned with Him and His truth and what is garbage from my insecurities, experiences or from the enemy. I don't want to blindly accept my thoughts as truth as soon as I think them, I want to bring them to Jesus. I know the Lord has revealed my own thoughts to me to show me the things beneath the surface that I would rather not deal with. Often thoughts are like the symptoms of a disease. If we don't deal with the symptoms we will have bigger problems in the long run.. Keeping a short account is where it's at - and lately, I have been reminded of this again and again. Insecurities are the worst, but God's love is the best! If we focus on Him - nothing can hold us down. The Bible says that nothing can separate us from the love of God - and that the love of God is powerful enough to keep us where we need to be in our thoughtlife - in Him. Jesus always went to the Father with His thoughts - and we are admonished to walk as Jesus did.
"The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did"(1 John 2:4-6).
"And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe" (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
No comments:
Post a Comment