Month: May 2017

I am sure that you have seen these things as well as I have.  A while back I saw a little child holding the hand of her mother.  Her mother was walking fast compared to her little legs.  Her arm was stretched as far as possible to reach her mother’s hand and she was on her tiptoes.  The mother was moving so fast it was amazing to me that the child was not airborne.  But as I looked at the face of the child there was no concern or worry.  She was totally relaxed and happy.  I have seen little children with their mother or father sliding down a slide with absolutely no fear because at the bottom mommy or daddy was there.

There have been times when I am in a grocery store and I see a child in a cart, not where they are supposed to be sitting but in the actual cart.  It is a very young child and they are hanging over the edge having no fear whatsoever.  I am cringing in fear of them falling out on their heads, which has happened to children.  But they have no fear because their parent is close by and they are so trusting.  They just trust that everything is going to be fine no matter what because mommy or daddy is there.

It makes me think of the verse that says, “…Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3 What exactly does this verse mean?  When I think of becoming as a child, I think of full trust.  A small child doesn’t worry about where their next meal is coming from, or if they are going to have a place to sleep, or if things are going to work out.  They trust that their mommy and daddy are going to take care of everything.  They also have a simple faith in God.  They have no question that God is going to answer their prayer. They pray about something and then they have no worries.  They just know that God is going to take care of things.

It seems as adults we lose that faith.  We may pray about it but then we keep right on worrying.  We keep wondering when is He ever going to get around to answering our prayer.  We have a hard time trusting.  The fact is He loves us more than we can even imagine and He wants to work things out for our good.  We only think it is working out when it goes our way but God sees the end from the beginning and He knows what is really for our good.

I have been struggling with this lately myself.  Because of financial difficulty I have had to take a job away from home.  The Lord led me to a great place to work with wonderful people as well.  I am only called in when they have extra work.  So my prayer has been, “Lord, You provide the work that You know that I need and I will leave it in Your hands to provide it.”  I even told my boss that.  They did become very busy and I was called in a lot.  I was praising the Lord for the work.  But then things slowed down.  I was trusting God and not concerned knowing more would come.  It has not happened.  I found myself struggling with giving it to Him.  I need the money but also my daughter, who has been struggling with mommy being gone, needs me.  I was thanking God for some time to spend with her.  I was thinking a day here and there off but it has been longer than that and I have to admit I have struggled.  But here is what I have learned.  I need to have the trust of a child.  I know that God will take care of my family and me.  To fret and to worry only brings unhappiness and stress that wears on me.  But as I give it to God and take advantage of the time that He has given me I can see the blessings.  What is God trying to teach me through this?  He is trying to teach me to trust Him.

Dear Father,

As each of us go through our trials and struggles that come to us help us to surrender our lives fully to You and to trust Your plan.  As we surrender everything to You give us Your peace.  Chase away the evil one that wants to discourage us and have us look at ourselves for answers.  You are the answer.  Thank You for loving us more than we can ever imagine.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Are you struggling today with trusting God with a child like faith?  I challenge you to trust Him.  It will bring you more peace than you can imagine.  We have a part to play, just like me getting a job.  But then we need to trust Him with the rest.

Love you all.

What experience have you had that when you trusted God with the faith of a child the outcome was amazing?  I would love to hear stories about our amazing God.

 

I was thinking about the trials and temptations that we have everyday.  It seems like we are playing a Red Rover game at times.  We keep getting bombarded and we are so afraid of losing out or getting hurt that we let go of our Partners hand and give in to the temptations or trials.  The blessing in this game is that we won’t get hurt because our Partner has the strength to handle it all.  All we have to do is keep holding on.  It seems so hard for us to get.

At different times in my life I have gone through financial difficulty and it seems that instead of hanging on to the hand of Jesus I let go and try to do it all on my own.  There is also the other side where there are some that keep “hanging on” but don’t do anything either.  There is a part for us to play.  If I am having financial difficulty just hanging on to Jesus and sitting back and expecting Him to supply when I don’t even have a job is presumption.  We should be actively looking for a job.  If you are someone who has a job and you have made wrong financial decisions and gotten in way over your head, asking God to take care of the problem without actively doing your part to take care of it is presumption.  As Dave Ramsey says, “Get a second job, get a third job, do whatever it takes.”  When we put forth the effort to watch how we spend our money, doing every thing we can to cut corners and take on extra work to bring in more money, then God can bless our efforts.

We tend to think, “I am just going to do what ever I want in life and when I get into trouble I am going to ask God to get me out and He will.”  We may say, “I don’t think that way, that is ridiculous.”  Yes, we may not say this but we live that way a lot of times.  And then when we do come to God for help we get angry because He doesn’t do anything about it, at least we think He doesn’t.

The blessing is that when we have done things that were wrong and we are in trouble God is a forgiving God.  And He will help us, if we surrender all to Him and keep holding His hand no matter what comes our way.

Dear Father,

Thank You for Your willingness to forgive our foolishness.  Thank You that as we hang onto Your hand that You will lead and guide us as we stay totally surrendered to You.  Thank You for Your love and patience.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

No matter what your temptation is today hand onto the hand of Jesus, staying totally surrendered to Him and He will guide you through.

Love you all.

What trial or temptation have you had where God has led you through?  Share your experience I would love to hear it.

 

It seems like this is a question of debate al around the world.  Am I perfect?  Jesus said to be as perfect as God. (See Matthew 5:48).  When we think about it, it seems really overwhelming.  Some may say it is not me that has to be perfect it is God that covers me with His perfection.  Well, there is some truth to that but He does not cover unconfessed sin.  If we are consciously sinning God is not going to cover us with His righteousness and make us perfect and holy because we can’t be unless we are in a condition for Him to cover us.  So what does He mean when He says to be perfect.

I have been sick and when we get sick we tend to say that I got sick from so and so.  When in reality is we have set up our bodies for it.  When we know someone is sick around us and may need to minister to them (like I did my son, staying in his room because he was running a fever and he wanted me close).  When we are in this position we really need to watch ourselves.  We need to be doing things that will keep our immune systems up, knowing that we are being exposed very closely to sickness.  Everywhere we go we are bombarded with sickness.  It may be at where we work, where we shop, anywhere we go.  So we have to be on guard to keep our immune systems in peak condition.  There are things we know we should never eat, drink, or do because it is very damaging to our immune systems.  If we want to do these we can know that we have a risk of our immune systems not being “perfect” and we will eventually be affected by it.  Then there are those things that are not bad in and of themselves but they can affect our immune system in a negative way.  And if there is sickness going on around us, we put ourselves at high risk to do these things.  I had a wonderful pie.  It was a good healthy pie but any kind of sweets; even healthy sweets will lower your immune system.  I knew it was a risk because just a couple of days before I had been fighting something but I did it anyway.  That night I spent the night with my son who was running a fever and because I had lowered my immune system I could not fight it completely off.  I did not get as sick as some have because I still put up a fight, but sick is sick.

You might be thinking, “What does this have to do with being perfect?”  There are things in life that we need to choose not to do because we know that they lower our spiritual immune system.  It is things that God has said for us not to do.  It will take away our taste for spiritual things.  It will take away our desire to spend time with Him.  When we do these things our lives are susceptible to sin because our spiritual immune system is compromised and we have chosen to do it contrary to God’s Word.

There are things that are not wrong in and of themselves but at times we may need to stay away from them because they are compromising our spiritual immune system.  Just like there is nothing wrong with a healthy pie, there is nothing wrong with canoeing but if we go canoeing instead of having our time with God in His Word we are compromising our spiritual immune system.  It could be anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God.  We are bombarded everyday with things that can take us down if our spiritual immune system is not healthy.

It is true that we can only be perfect with God but it is not with God being beside us or covering us with perfection.  It is God having control of our lives, which we struggle with allowing Him to do.  The fact is there is only One Person that will know that we are perfect and that is God.  If we think we are perfect, forget it, we have already lost the battle.  We just need to take one step at a time allowing the Lord to lead our lives moment by moment.  Praise God that if we fail we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.  Just like we can get our physical immune systems back in order when we fail, we can do the same with our spiritual lives.  I read something recently that I thought reflected true perfection, “Commitments are based on our control and conditions.  Total, unconditional surrender is based on God’s control.”  We need to let God have control and His perfection becomes ours.

Dear Father,

“Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my hands, and let them move At the impulse of Thy love; At the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet, and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice, and let me sing Always, only, for my King; Always, only, for my King. Take my lips, and let them be Filled with messages from Thee. Take my silver and my gold: Not a mite would I withhold; Not a mite would I withhold.  Take my will, and make it Thine, It shall be no longer mine; Take my heart, it is Thine own, It shall be Thy royal throne.  It shall be Thy royal throne.  Take my love, my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure store; Take myself, and I will be, Ever, only, all for Thee.  Ever, only, all for Thee.” *

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Surrender all to Him today and let Him have full control.

Love you all.

What do you do to build your spiritual immune system?  I would love to hear your ideas.

*The hymn, “Take My Life, And Let it Be”

 

 

“It’s too late to say good-bye,” “It’s too late to say I am sorry,” “It’s too late to say how much I love you.”  These are just a few things that can be going through our heads when we lose a loved one or friend.  We never know when our last words will be spoken to someone who we care about.

I can’t help but think about a friend whose son was in a car accident recently where one person was killed.  There can be the feeling of guilt and the question, “What could I have done different?”  There is so much sorrow.  Families are hurting and the question is asked, “Why?”  “Why did God allow this?”  Why did this have to happen to me?”  “Why?”  “Why?”  “Why?”  I think these are questions that may never be answered in any trial or hardship we go through, until we get to heaven.  But how can we find comfort and peace in all this.

The question comes, “How can anything good come out of tragedy?”  “Is the one that lost their life connected to God, were they a Christian?”  This is where I am glad that God is the judge.  We may think we know someone but do we really.  We do not know what is going on in their hearts.  What struggles they may be having and they may even be crying out to God and we don’t even know.  God knows every heart and He is the most compassionate and loving God.  The devil brings evil things.  He wants to destroy each one of us before we can give our lives to God.  But God has the last say.  He is the one that decides.  No life can end without God allowing it and He will not allow it unless that person has made a definite decision one way or another.  I praise the Lord we don’t have to decide that.  But what we do know is God can work everything out for good.

When I lost my daughter I had to lay all things in His hands.  It was not easy but as I did it He gave me the peace that is not explainable, it is beyond our understanding.  Even to this day, after 21 years, I still don’t have the answer to the why question.  But I know that someday soon, I will have the answers.  And I know that when I see the reasons I will understand and would not have changed a thing.

Through the tragedies that happen it should make us think.  “Was that grudge really worth it?”  “Is being so busy that we don’t have time to spend with those we love worth it?”  We never know, when someone we love walks out the door, that it might be our last good-bye.  We need to really evaluate our lives and decide what the most important things are.

For those that are hurting, there are no words that I can say.  The pain is real and so hard for you.  My heart and prayers are with each one.  And remember that God was present through all things.  He is with you now and His tears are flowing.  He longs to comfort you and He loves you.

Dear Father,

Such tragedy is beyond words.  I ask that you wrap Your arms around each person that needs Your comforting touch.  I pray for a peace that passeth all understanding. Draw them all close to one another as they go through this together.  I pray that all will have a forgiving spirit and a heart of understanding and that this will draw all closer together.  Help each person to feel Your love.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Love you all!!

Have you had a tragedy in your life that God has brought you through?  How did God help you?  And what advice can you give others, which want to be of help to the sorrowing?  What helped you the most?

 

 

 

Our world is changing, there is no question about it and we can’t change it.  But the concern we should have is are we changing our thoughts right along with the world.  We are so bombarded by what is around us that we tend to forget the truth.  It is easy to just go with the flow.  We hear something and we are taken in by it and suddenly before we know it we have changed our views.  My biggest concern is that even as Christians we are allowing it to change us.  When a “Christian” shares, it sounds good so we go along with it and before we know it we also have changed how we think about history.  And along with the world, without even realizing it, we have taken God out of history.

I wonder how many people in Bible times looked at the history of the Israel and wondered whether God was really a part of any of it.  The wickedness of what some of the people did and what “clubs” or “societies” they might have been a part of might have made them question whether God had led or not.

Right now I am going through and reading, with my daughter, about the pilgrims coming to America, the setting up of the Constitution and such.  I am seeing, again, how the Lord was guiding in bringing them to the New World and how the Lord had His hand in it.  This is all being taken out of the History in our world now.  And there are Christians that are doing the same.  As a Christian they say, “Well so and so was in this “society” so this could not be led of God, it was being controlled by this “society”.”  There are Christians that are taking God out of History and they don’t even realize it.  Is anyone bigger than God?  If we want to question whether God was involved with the founding of this country we better watch ourselves because we can start to question if He was able to bring a pure Word through all the wickedness of this world and the wickedness of men.  Who really is in charge?

I think that we can say we all know people who did not grow up as a Christian and maybe didn’t even know about God.  But when they were introduced to God and they gave their life to Him, they can look back and see that God was leading them through their whole life.  They can even see how “All things worked together for good” took place in their lives.

What is my point?  We need to leave God in History.  It doesn’t matter who the people were through history, how good, wicked, or what society they may have belonged to, God led.  God leads through whom ever will do His bidding.  He is the One that is leading and is over all.  He is the one that puts kings in and takes them down.  He is leading and if we take Him out what do we have.

He led Peter to walk on the stormy sea but as soon as he took His eyes off of Jesus he started to sink.  We are living in stormy times and Jesus has bid us to following Him through these times but if we take our eyes off of Jesus we will sink.  The devil doesn’t care what he gets us caught up in, he just wants to get our eyes off of Jesus so that we will sink.

Dear Father,

I praise Your name that we can know that You have led in the past history and You continue to lead.  What peace we can have if we keep our eyes on You and know that You have everything under control.  Help us to stay so closely connected with You that we will not sink in the storm of life.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Remember if we take God out of History, as a Christian, what do we have to share.  He either has led in all History or no History.  We need to be careful what we are thinking.  If this has been an area that you have not really thought about I pray that you will think seriously about it.

Love you all.

If you did not grow up as a Christian but now you have given your heart to God, how can you see that He was leading you even when you did not know Him?

 

I don’t think there are too many people who really enjoy snakes.  There are those rare breeds that just love snakes but I think they are far and few between.  There are snakes that are not harmful but I don’t really enjoy any of them.  There are snakes that are more dangerous in different parts of the world; I want to keep my distance.  If you get bit by one that is very poisonous you better have a small unit that is used to give an electrical charge to the affected area, neutralizing the snake’s venom, otherwise you will probably die.  You have to have help right away and if you are out in the jungle you will never make it to medical help.

It makes me think of our tongues.  They can be a poison.  In James 3:8 it reads, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”  When we say bitter words to someone the effect is the same as that of a poisonous snakebite.  Our venomous words will do their deadly work to the emotions of others.  “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” Proverbs 18:21.  We can destroy people with our words.  We need to be so connected with Jesus that we will be reflecting His character of love.

Some of us are the ones that have been on the receiving end of bitter words, whether it has been through our parents, a supposed friend, a spouse, children, or an enemy.  It will be more painful coming from those we thought loved us but it is all a poison and it can destroy our lives, if we allow it.  The truth is that we don’t have to allow the venom to destroy us, to kill our emotions.  But we have to neutralize the venom.  Jesus says in Matthew 5:44, “…Love you enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”  Our automatic response is to curse them.  I heard this saying that I believe is so profound, “Cursing our enemies is like drinking poison and waiting for our enemies to die!”  We are killing ourselves.  We have to have a neutralizer.  And the verse gives us the answer.  We need to love, bless and pray for them.  Are these easy to do?  No! But with the help of God we can do these things.  It is through the power of His word that can neutralize the poison.  And we need to understand and realize that we are worth the death of Jesus to God and what others think and say is not as important as what God thinks and says about us.

Dear Father,

Forgive us for our poisonous words.  Draw us close to Your heart.  It is only through our close connection with You that we can be what You would have us to be to others, whether it is never saying a poisonous word or being able to bless those who bite us with a venomous bite.  We cannot do or overcome anything without You.  We need You.  Thank You that You are always there as we call out to You.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Always treat others, as you would want to be treated.  Don’t speak words that are like venom.  And if you have received venom words neutralize the poison with the promises of God and love, bless, and pray for your enemies.  Remember none of this can be done without the power of God in our lives, so draw close to Him.

Love you all!

Have you given venomous words to someone?  How did the Lord help you in correcting it?

Have you received a venomous bit?  What have you found to be the most effective way to neutralize the poison?

 

 

What I am going to share with you seemed pretty profound to me.  I am sure it is nothing new and that others have already thought of and written about it.  But for me it was a new thought that was a blessing and I want to share it with you and I pray that it will be a blessing to you as well.

A couple of days ago as I was doing social study’s with my daughter, we read about the pilgrims coming across the great sea to the New World.  We all know the story.

As we were reading, a story from the Bible came to me, the story of the Children of Israel.  They were in bondage, as slaves in the land of Egypt.  They were not allowed to worship their God.  Therefore many lost sight of Him.  God came through Moses and brought them out of the land of bondage.  They journeyed through the desert.  It took them a very long time, many hardships, and many deaths.  Then they came to the Promised Land, Canaan.  They had to fight many battles but they had success because God was with them.  God had given them the land.  They were in a land flowing with milk and honey.  They had everything they could possibly want, most of all freedom.  But as time went by many forgot what God had really done for them.  They chose a path of idol worship, corruption, and many evil things.  God’s protection was slowly removed and they were taken captive more than one time by different countries.  And when the Savior, Jesus Christ, came they did not even recognize Him.  They rejected Him and crucified Him.

Now fast forward many years to the pilgrims.  They were in bondage in England.  They did not have the freedom to worship God because of this many lost sight of the true worship of God.  But there were those few that did not.  They sought freedom.  Eventually there was a group that was led by God to make the long and dangerous journey to the Promised Land, the New World, America.  They journeyed through the ocean waters and there were many hardships and many died in the journey and after they arrived.  They finally made it and as time passed there were battles to secure their freedom in the New World, to escape the bondage of England.  But finally this nation was separated from England and they were free.  But as time has passed, this nation has forgotten the leading of God.  Evil and corruption reign.  Slowly God is pulling His protection from this nation.  There are many that are in the captivity of sin.  Evil abounds everywhere and soon there will be an end.

This leads me to another correlation, the Christian life.  As a Christian, we have been rescued from the bondage of sin.  There have been many battles to fight along the journey and there will be many more but God is with us.  As time goes on in our journey it seems that Christians are losing their way.  There are evils that are creeping into our lives.  We may be doing things that we never thought we would ever do or go back to.  God has called us out to be a different people, to not fit into the things of this world, for He has a better place planned for us.  The question is, are we going to recognize Him when He comes?  Or are we going to reject Him just as Israel did?  We don’t have a lot of time left to decide and this time there will be no other chance, it will be over.  As we forget our past history, we forget how God has led.  We need to wake up and take notice, only the Lord can help us.  Let us not repeat history in our own lives.

There are many, I will call them conspiracy theorist, which want to take God out of history.  And this is not just worldly people; this is within the Christian community as well.  As soon as we start taking God out of history we cannot see how God has led, we only see what is being told, the conspiracy theories, because it seems to make sense.  God led the Children of Israel from Egypt and God led the pilgrims and the establishment of this country.  No matter what others may say God is still in charge and He is leading.  Stop looking at the news, the newspapers, Facebook, the web, or Christian speakers for your theories.  God’s Word is our safeguard and we are told that God is the one that is in control, He places kings and takes down kings and He is going to finish the story and we do not know what that is but we can trust Him.  Let’s just make sure that we are following the right story.

Dear Father,

Thank You that You have led us, our country, and our lives.  We can choose our own way and some of us have, this corruption has come into our country as well as our lives.  Help us to see as You see and empty the corruption out of our own lives so that we will be ready when You come.  Thank You for Your patience and Your leading not only in our lives individually but also in the history of this world.  Help us not to forget.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

As God has led us from bondage, let us live in freedom by surrendering to Him every area of our lives each day.

Love you all.

What area of your life have you seen the hand of God that helped you to know that God was there leading you, even when you may not have even known Him yet?  I have heard stories where, when someone has finally found God, they can look back on their life, even while living in a life of sin, can see His leading.  I would love to hear your story.

 

 

Who do you love, is a hard question.  It is easy to love those that love us, but what about those people who irritate us?  There are some people who just seem to have it out for us.  It doesn’t matter what you do you can never please them and it seems that their one goal in life is to make your life miserable.

The next question would be, “On the day of your funeral, as you lie there in your casket, is anything going to bother you anymore?”  You may be thinking right now, “What kind of question is that?  This lady is crazy.  Of course I am not going to care because I am dead.”

I want to propose to you that the only way we can follow God’s command to “Love our enemies”, is to be dead.  This kind of death is not a physical death but a death to self.  A death to self is a very hard death.  We may think that we are dead but just have one person cross us or say something mean about us or one of our family members, self will appear.  We could be 100% right but self still has to stay dead.

I know of only One Person who was 100% right and that was Jesus Christ.  When He walked this earth He was perfect.  He had every right to defend Himself but He never did.  He is our example.  He deserved none of the evil treatment that He received.  We are not perfect and there are times we deserve what is coming to us but we still feel it is unfair and we feel sorry for ourselves and fight against it.  He didn’t deserve any of it and He took it without complaint.  And He still loved the people who did it to Him.  He was dead to self.  For us to be dead to self we cannot do it on our own.  We need the power of God in our lives.  We need to be surrendered to Him daily, moment by moment.

We are told that we should “rejoice always”.  Why has God asked us to do this and how can we possibly do it?  “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1 2-4 The reason we can rejoice is that all these things come to our lives for a purpose.  We are like a stone that needs to have “hewers” to refine us into the image of God so that we can fit perfectly into His Kingdom.  The trials and temptations that come to us are the “hewers” that God uses to form us to fit in His Kingdom.  Only the love of God can help us to love our enemies or those that treat us unjustly.  Some of our best refiners can be our own family.  Some of our family may be hard to get a long with but through the power and grace of God we can use these circumstances to refine our characters.

There is only one way we can love as Jesus loves and that is to get to know Him.  As we get to know Him we come to realize He loves us with such love despite our shortcomings and we should do the same for others.  It is a moment-by-moment walk with His power that can keep self dead.

Dear Father,

We need you.  Thank You for the trials and temptations that you allow so that our characters can be refined.  It is not easy to rejoice in all things but I know that as we do this Your perfect work will be preformed in us.  Thank You for loving us.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Are you wondering how you can rejoice in the work the Lord is doing in your life?  It isn’t easy, I know, but I have found that as I speak words of gratefulness my attitude starts to change and I grow.  If we resist we will not grow.  Embrace God’s “hewers” and with His strength You will overcome.

Love you all!

Is there a time that God has allowed a “hewer” in your life and as you trusted Him through it, miracles happened?  I would love to hear how God has worked in your life.

 

 

When we think of idols we often think of a graven image made of wood, gold, or silver, but the reality is that it goes much deep than that.  So the question is, do you have an idol?

Here are a couple of dictionary definitions of idol:  1.  An image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.  2.  A person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.

We may look at these definitions and think, “I don’t really have that problem”, but do we.  I recently ran across a definition that hit me between the eyes.  “When we expect from things what only God can give, such as security, joy, and freedom, we turn things into idols.”  Wow!  Now to me that is profound.  How many times have we put our security in money or people, which is making them an idol?  What about expecting the things that surround us to give us joy, idol.  How do we respond if those around us don’t love us?  Is that our idol?  There is only one kind of true freedom and if we do not have freedom in Christ then we have another idol.  You may think I am crazy.

I do want to make it clear here that I am talking about a person who is of accountable age.  A child who is not to accountability yet should be able to have security, joy, freedom, and love from their parents.  We are in the place of God to them but we should be leading them to change their reliance over to God as they grow in maturity.  And I do want to make clear that this could be even a new believer.  They are young in the faith and they to need to grow in maturity and we should help them grow beyond relying on others, to putting their total reliance on God for all these things.  If we do not lead them beyond the point of relying on us we may have made their reliance on us an idol.  It can feel good and maybe even look good to others and give us glory as we look so giving and helpful to others.  But we could be keeping them from maturing.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusted in Thee.”  Isaiah 26:3 True peace, joy, freedom, and security come from having that full trust in God.  Having the trust that nothing comes into our lives that are not for our good.  And we can still have peace and joy through it all as we rely on Him.  We tend to start relying on ourselves and things instead of God.  So reality is we can become our own idol.  We think WE are going to fix this, WE are going to solve that, and WE are going to make everything happen the way WE think it should go.

God is the only one that can bring us true security, joy, freedom, and love and if we are trying to get it anywhere else or from anyone else we will be insecure, in bondage, not have a real joy or feel truly loved.

Dear Father,

We so often only think of idols as tangible but there are so many idols we can have that we have a hard time seeing.  Lord, help us to see what things that we are holding up in the place of You.  It can be good things but they are in the wrong position in our lives.  Show us and give us strength to make a change because we are weak.  Thank You for always being there for us and for having such patience with us.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Go to God He will show you if there is anything that you have put above Him.  He will give you the strength to put everything in the right position in your life.

Love you all.

Have you ever realized that you had an idol?  What brought you to the realization and how did God help you change it?