Posted on

Spiritually B A L A N C E D Part 2 of 8

B A L A N C E D

Be open to the Holy Spirit

Acknowledge that you’re a sinner

Lament for your sins

Allow God to work in your life

Nourish yourself with God’s Word

Commune with God

Exercise faith in God

Draw strength from God

Keeping our lives balanced can be a challenge whether it is physically or spiritually.  And the next part in our series for a balanced life is no exception.

Acknowledge that you’re a sinner

It can be difficult to truly acknowledge we are a sinner.  We might be able to say it but to really understand what it means is a totally different story.  So the question would be, what does it mean to acknowledge that we are a sinner?  And how can we know that we are a sinner?

Start with…

The first way to know whether or not we are a sinner is to start by looking at other people,  right?  Wrong!!!  But isn’t that what we do a lot of times?  We look at ourselves as better than those people so we must not be that bad.  So we don’t see ourselves as we truly are.  But we are not any better than the next person.  We can look at the most horrific sin out there and think how horrible but that could be us because we have all been born with sinful flesh.  We are no better than anyone else.  “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Romans 3:23.

Now you might be saying but I haven’t murdered anyone or committed adultery.  That may be true but in God’s eyes, sin is sin.  Sin separates us from God.  And remember to hate someone in God’s eyes is classified as murder and what you think in your heart can be adultery.  “…Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” Matthew 5:28.  It is about what is in our hearts and minds.

Begin by…

Where we need to begin is at the cross.  We need to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and what He has done for us.  The more we focus on Him we see ourselves as we truly are and that is what brings us to the point of acknowledging that we are a sinner.  We cannot realize our need until we come to the point of seeing ourselves as we truly are.  Jesus said, “…For without Me ye can do nothing” John 15:5.  We can’t even see our wretchedness or our worth without coming to the cross.

When we focus on others we look at ourselves as “rich, and increased with goods, and having need of nothing;” and we don’t recognize the fact that we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” Revelation 3:17.  But when we behold Christ we see our need.  And as we behold Him we can recognize our sinfulness and our need for a Savior.  And that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags but His righteousness is complete.  We need to ask Jesus to come into our lives and let His righteousness live out in our lives.

Dear Father,

We need You to even realize our sinfulness.  But I am so grateful to You that as we come to the cross and realize how sinful we are, the cross also shows us how much we are worth.  Thank You for the love and worth that You have shown to us.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Come to the cross today and every day for the rest of your life!  Jesus loves you with unfailing love and is waiting for You.

Love you all!

If you are someone that already comes to the cross each day what blessing has it been for you?

If you have not yet read part 1 in this series check it out here:  Spiritually B A L A N C E D Part 1 of 8

 

Posted on

Spiritually B A L A N C E D Part 1 of 8

I talked about having balance in our lives both spiritually and physically.   Now I am starting a series in both areas.  I pray that each one will be a blessing to you as we all grow.

Balanced!

In any of our lives, it can be difficult to have balance but it is crucial that we do what we can to create balance in our lives.  In this series on being balanced in our spiritual lives I will be covering these areas.

Be open to the Holy Spirit

Acknowledge that you’re a sinner

Lament for your sins

Allow God to work in your life

Nourish yourself with God’s Word

Commune with God

Exercise faith in God

Draw strength from God

In part one I will be focusing on Be open to the Holy Spirit.

Be open

After Jesus died for our sins and went back to heaven He sent us the great gift of the Holy Spirit.  And we cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit.  Christ works in our lives through the Holy Spirit and as Jesus said, “…Without me ye can do nothing…” John 15:5.

It is the Holy Spirit that draws our hearts and does the work within our hearts.  We wouldn’t even know anything about God and His love for us if the Spirit didn’t draw us.  He may impress others to share their testimonies, pray with us, or even share some truths from the Bible.  I call this seed planting.  But Jesus makes those seeds grow through the power for he Holy Spirit.

God never forces anyone.  He draws but it is up to us to be open to His drawing.  I believe every one of us, if we are honest with ourselves, can think of a time that we felt the drawing of the Spirit.  And there are times we listen and other times we don’t.  I can think of different times in my life that I didn’t listen to that “…still small voice” 1 Kings 19:13.  He comes to us so gently.  It starts with Him every time.

Think of someone, it may have been you, who grew up not even knowing anything about God and who He is.  God is drawing their hearts through the Holy Spirit.  They don’t know what it is but at times they listen to that still small voice.  I recall my mom telling me about getting the impression that she should or shouldn’t do a particular thing as she was growing up even though she didn’t really know anything about God.  Now that she is a Christian she can look back in her life and see when those times were and what the Lord was trying to save her from.

I have given my heart

Once we have been drawn and learned about Jesus and what He has done for us and we accept Him, He continues to speak to our heart through the Holy Spirit.  Is it an audible voice?  At times it may be but for me mostly it has not been audible.  It is really hard to explain what it is but for those that have experienced it they know what I am talking about.  You might call it an impression.

For me, I always like to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to my heart through God’s Word.  As I read His Word the Spirit impresses me with those things that need to change in my life.  He has also spoken to me through individuals around me.  Sometimes when the Lord uses people we tend to not listen.  It can be a little more difficult but we need to be open to what others share with us.  Go before the Lord in prayer and ask the Lord if He is using the person to show you something.  If we are honest in our hearts we will know if it is from God or not.

What I love

What I really love about God is how caring He is.  He cares about everything in our lives and sends the Spirit to speak to us about the every day mundane things as well.  You would think that He would only care about the big things but not God He is interested in every part of our lives.  He wants to teach us that we can trust Him.  We don’t have to worry about anything that is going on around us.  He has our back.  And everything that happens will work together for our good, even though we can’t see it at the time.

What I realize is how much I really need to write down the things the Lord speaks to me about and whether or not I listened.  It would be good to be able to look back and see those things.

I remember one time when I was grocery shopping.  We all have our particular stores we go to and what we buy at each of those stores.  Well, this particular day I had an item that I wanted to get that I always bought at a particular store because it was less expensive.  I went to two other stores before I was going to the store where I would get that item.  At each of the previous stores I walked passed the very item and a little voice said, “Buy them here”.  But I was determined to get them at the store where it was less expensive.  You have probably figured this out already.  When I got to the store where I wanted to buy it, they were out.  It definitely would have made my life easier if I just would have listened.  But what amazes me about this story the most is that God cares about it.  He wants to help us with everything.  And it starts with listening to that still small voice.

Test the spirits

We do need to realize that there is more than one kind of spirit.  We need to be sure to test the spirits, whether they are of God.  Now obviously it wouldn’t matter to God if I buy a particular item at one store or another He is just trying to make my life easier.  But there are other things that do matter.  We need t always test the spirit by the Word of God.  Because there are evil spirits as well that can speak to us and people do mistaken it of the Holy Spirit.  But if we stay in God’s Word and test everything by His Word we will be safe.

This is why it is so important to spend time each day in God’s Word and in prayer.  We need to have knowledge that will help us discern the spirits throughout the day.  If we have hidden God’s Word within our hearts we will have the discernment that we need.

Dear Father,

We want to have Your Spirit drawing us.  It can be hard at times with our selfish hearts to listen but it is our hearts desire.  You have promised that You will never leave us or forsake us.  We claim that promise and ask for Your Spirit to soften our icebound natures that want to take over.

I pray that the mighty energies of Your Holy Spirit with all quickening, recuperative, and transforming power, may fall like an electric shock on our palsy-stricken souls, causing every nerve to thrill with new life, and restoring us fully from our dead, earthly, sensual state to spiritual soundness.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Be opened to the Holy Spirit starting today!

Love you all!

Posted on

“Today is Your Last Day!”

Your last day!

What if you were told that today was your last day to live?  What would become the most important things in your life?  Would you do things differently?  I think for most of us the answer would be “yes”.

I think we often get so caught up in our days that we forget how important we are to others and how important others are to us.  And when someone you know or even yourself goes through some hard times or facing death, it is a wake-up call.

An acquaintance

What has really gotten me thinking?  I have some dear friends who have a relative that I am acquainted with who has gone through a tragedy.  It was something so sudden that it was a shock.  This acquaintance could have died but after much time survived.  But still, it is going to be a long road to full recovery.

I’m sure that it has given the spouse a new perspective.  I don’t know them well so I don’t know what their family life is like.  But I do know that we all tend to get caught up in life and it is things like this that make us stop and question what are the most important things in life.

And what about the children?  How has this affected them?  When you realize that you may lose a parent your perspective of them suddenly changes.  You realize how much they mean to you and how much they have done for you.  Even if there have been mistakes made you start to realize you don’t want to lose them.

Perspective

I think tragedy suddenly makes a person’s perspective change.  What are the most important things in my life?  What can I change to make things better?  If this were my last day what would I really want to be doing?

Unfortunately, we all have to work and may not have the time with our spouse, children, parents, etc. that we really want to have.  But what can we do differently?  You can reprioritize your life.  Look at what is most important.  If you really look at your day you can probably find some time wasters.  Cut all the time wasters out.

Another thing that is so important is to take care of yourself.  You can’t be there for a parent, children, friends, etc. if you are not taking care of yourself.  Make sure you are living a B A L A N C E D life.  Bedtime, Aqua, Light, Air, Nutrition, Control, Exercise, and Dependence on God.  A lot of times we think we are only hurting ourselves when we fail to take care of us.  But that is far from the truth.  When we fail to take care of ourselves it affects all the people around us.  It may not seem like it at the time but when we become sick or even die it affects everyone we know.

Change

Just stop right now and be thankful for all those friends and loved ones you have around you. And then decide to make a change.  I would suggest you put your day before the Lord and ask Him to help you reprioritize.  Plug into place all the “must” things you have to do, like go to work, if you have a job outside the home.  And then prioritize all the rest of each day.  Make sure to include God in your decisions.

Dear Father,

Today I consecrate to You.  Help me not to calculate for the months and years ahead, I know these are not mine.  I know You have given me this day.  Focus my mind to see this day as if it was my last here on earth and to work during its hours for You.  I Lay all my plans before You to be carried out or given up as Your providence shall indicate.  Help me to accept Your plans instead of my own even though their acceptance requires the abandonment of cherished projects.  Through You, mold me more and more after Your divine example and give me the peace of God, which passeth all understanding keeping my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Surrender each day to God.  Give your family an extra hug today because you never know when it may be the last one.

Love you all!

What has happened in your life that has given you a wake-up call?  Share your experience below.