 Psalm 34:14 “Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.” ~CSB
You pull up to the grocery store. You park your car. As you get out of your car a man walks up to you angry. He yells at you claiming that you deliberately parked in a space where he was intending to park. He says you saw his intentions but you parked there anyway. In actuality, you did not see him and this is all a mistake. At this point, this man does nothing physical, but he is in your face and appearing confrontational. What do you do? Maybe the Lord heard someone praying for this man’s anger and God decides to allow this angry man to cross paths with one of His precious children. One of His children who has shown obedience and great spiritual strength in their walk in Christ. That chosen child is you. Now with this perspective I ask again, what do you do? Well, there may be many things you want to do under your own power. But this is a time where we allow God to take over and allow His healing power in blessings to do its work. This type of Christian behavior may be hard at first so let’s take a look at our situation first. We have a confrontation in front of us. A man arguing over a parking space. The evil one has influenced this man to create actions that will take away our obedience to God. It will take away our peace and the enemy hopes that by doing this, our actions in response will stand in the way of allowing God to do a great work in us. A great work in healing and blessing; not only for who is in our path; but also for us, in Jesus’ name. What we must do is ‘turn away’ from our feelings of participating in confrontation. We must ‘turn away’ from our feelings of embarrassment, hurt and anger. ‘Turn away and do what is good…’ God gives us an ‘out’ in Philippians 4:7 when He says that His peace will surpass any understanding we may have of a situation in front of us. In other words, we may not know what God is about to do through us when we stand in obedience to His Word in ‘any’ circumstance. The peace we have is knowing that God will use us to do the right thing, say the right thing and ‘be’ the righteous one in the room. This is where miracles happen. When we allow His peace to take over our thoughts and actions, He will guard our hearts and minds in His Son’s name. Although that situation above may be a hard one to work with, (should we ever be faced with it), we must prepare ourselves because the enemy is good for throwing weak spiritual minded people at us, because he wants us to fail as Christians. But fear not! ‘Seek God’s peace and pursue it!’ In that we can never go wrong. May God bless and protect you as you walk your journey in the name of Jesus. Amen
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 Ephesians 4:32 “And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” ~CSB
These days when I think about forgiveness, I think about my second oldest daughter. Alysa was around ten years old when her mother and I divorced. Looking back on that time I was not the best father to her and her sister. What I didn’t know was the damage caused by my character and my actions. My alcohol addiction was still in its growing stages, but it was mature enough to affect how I treated her. First of all being in the military, I was not home a lot. But when I was, I did not spend a lot of quality time with Alysa. At that time, I considered my time off, ‘my time’. But that was far from the truth. Because of who I was then, I damaged the relationship between me and my daughter. In time I learned how much damage had been done. One of my mistakes happened after the divorce with Alysa’s mother. As far as my ‘weekends’ with her, I allowed my ten year old daughter to decide if she wanted to spend the weekend with me or not. She did not so I did not push the issue. I should have because that resulted in me not being there as a father to her in her younger years. Years later, because of my lack of stepping in, I received a phone call from her stating that she did not want to talk to me anymore. Fortunately this was a time when I was building a strong relationship with God. He led me to not give up, but to not be ‘pushy’ either. I shortened my calls with Alysa to once a month. Several months later we were able to have a breakthrough. God answered both our prayers and she allowed me to have a long and enlightening conversation with her. As a result of that conversation, Alysa forgave me. I could tell in her voice that she was still hurting. I could tell that she really did not want to forgive me at that time, but she did it anyway. It took awhile but we became closer. Today I can still tell its hard for her sometimes because she is stuck with the memories. Memories I was too inebriated to remember. But she fights everyday to remain righteous in her forgiveness of my past actions toward her. It is this power she demonstrates everyday in her relationship with me as her father that keeps me strong in my daily living as a servant to the kingdom. As far as forgiveness goes, once we receive it from those we hurt, we now must do better. We may not be able to change what we did, but we can make sure we show and live genuine love to all our brothers and sisters in Christ just as God created us to do. I 'love' because God loved me first. I continue to love those who hurt me because God taught me that, through my daughter's "...compassion and kindness..." Joshua 2:9; 12-13 “...I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us… 12 …Now please swear to me by the Lord that you will also show kindness to my father’s family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death.” ~CSB
Rahab was a woman who was a prostitute. She had a history that people around her may have talked about in front of her as well as behind her back. Although in life we may take the wrong paths, God will still use us when we recognize who He is. In the second chapter of Joshua, Joshua sent two spies into the land God promised them. This land was ruled by a king who did not want to give up this land so easily. The spies met Rahab and she hid them in her home. She recognized them as God’s people. She saw God’s presence in them. So much so that when the King sent his men to apprehend the spies, Rahab covered for them. She not only kept the spies safe in her home, she sent the king’s men on a ‘wild goose chase’. Sending them in a pursuit in the wrong direction. This took courage on Rahab’s part to give false information to a sitting king. She risked her life because she was more afraid of God than the king. In her plea to the spies she acknowledged that everyone knew who they were. They all knew that God was with them and the land she lived in would be conquered by them. She simply asked that when they come and take the city, can they spare her family and all attached to them. The spies did just that. So, what does this mean to us? It doesn’t matter what we think we may be guilty of in our lives. We must understand that we serve a God that loves us. He has forgiven us no matter our past. This holds true as long as we embrace what we know about God and what we do with His love for us. Rahab wanted the men to succeed with God’s plan and wanted to do her part in that plan. And because of her actions, God blessed Rahab in spite of her past. Not only did He allow for her and her family to be saved that day, He also made Rahab an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Give your life to Christ and begin your journey to redemption and purpose. God loves you and His power is great enough to turn your ‘mess’ into His ‘message’ for your life. Amen  Galatians 5:16 “I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.” ~CSB
In this world, 'rules' can be seen posted everywhere. As we grow in this world we learn to follow these rules. We do this because we want to get along or patronize the establishments where these rules are posted. For example, when we are about to ride a roller coaster and the rules tell us to keep our hands ‘inside’, we do this so that we do not risk injury to ourselves. If we go to a restaurant and the rules state, ‘Shirt and Shoes Required’, we follow these rules because we want to experience the meal that will be provided to us. Walking in the Spirit and following the same rules spiritually takes the same effort. As the text says above, walking by the spirit is excellent practice for taming our flesh and its desires. So let’s get some help from the Word of God as He gives us a chance in doing the righteous thing. We are going to move down a few verses in this same chapter of Galatians. Verses 22 and 23 have the blueprint for us to walk by. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As we walk and practice making decisions leaning on our spiritual frame of mind, we must embrace these fruits. Here, we must search ourselves and figure out which fruits are giving us a hard time. If we find ourselves having problems with our ‘patience’, then we need to spend some time strengthening ourselves in this area. If it is our ‘self-control’ we are weak in, take the time to work that spiritual muscle out. And if we find that we need to be more kind and gentle, look up scriptures in the Bible that can heal, help and guide you to be the strongest Christian you can be in all the Fruits of the Spirit. When we do this, we will find that it becomes easier to disregard the desires of the flesh. Adapt that concept of ‘starving the flesh and feeding the spirit’. This practice will contribute to a stronger healthier stride in our walk in Christ. May God continue to give you everything you need on this journey in Jesus’ name. Amen |
Authors Billy & YolandaThis is the place where we share our heart through God's Word in faith that will inspire and empower you to live in peace. Archives
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