(no subject)
So finally, time to share. First off, I would like to start by saying God is good. God is always good.
I loved loved loved the speaker at church today; he spoke a bunch of truth that I needed to hear. I needed to be reminded not to frame God by my circumstances. This world is full of confusion, the devil prowls like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. And you know, he does. He comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. Conversely, my Jesus came to give life, and at that - life in all it's fullness.
I have so much to say here....but I need to start at the beginning, that God is good and God is faithful. But we can perish by lack of knowledge and so, if we don't know that He is good, we won't know His promises and we will not know who we are and what our inheritance is in Him. One way I like to look at it is like this: God already bankrupted heaven by giving us Jesus. I have the faith to accept that and believe for my salvation; and that is all I have to do - believe. The level of belief I have for my salvation is the same belief I have for everything else. So, being utterly convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ, nothing else should be too small.
Let me never, ever try to explain why God didn't heal. I don't want to reason why He maybe didn't show up. Disappointment - I am officially done with you. Why? Because anything less than divine healing, anything less than life in all it's fullness is not what God intended. It's in His word. That is the truth. But I need to believe that. Even when I am still sick. Even when it seems like He maybe didn't show up. Faith holds on. Faith holds on in the face of what is bad and declares He is still good. It still believes for the promise...because it shall surely come. I need to look at what Jesus accomplished on the cross and never give up. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That in itself seems like a paradox, but truthfully, I better be utterly convinced of what I am believing for. I am done with double-mindedness, too.
You know something? If I don't believe, I limit God. I limit how much I will receive from Him. So I say 'God, I'm open to whatever. Show me who You are. Show me the Spirit. Everything'. I have experienced more of the holy spirit in the last 6 months than I ever have in my life. Although the past two months have been a struggle, He is becoming my new best friend. And wow. The Holy Spirit. I don't get Him a lot of the time. Maybe I don't know why He does the things He does. Yes, it looks insane to people. Holy Spirit will offend Christians. But that is a risk I think I am willing to take. Let's see where I go with that.
What I also know, is that in the last few months by being willing to be open to God, by being willing to trust Him and accept the things I don't understand, is that I have so much hope. When I opened myself to Holy Spirit, I opened myself up to the endless possibilities that are in God. He started to use people to prophesy into my life about things I'd struggled with. Disappointment was one of these things; I felt I'd been waiting for God to do something. Last summer in particular, I wrestled with the verse that says 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life'. Where, papa, where is my longing fulfilled? I prayed He would do it for a long time.
And now I am getting to see the fulfilment of that. Why? Because when I opened myself to God, He pursued me. He desired to fill my life with good things. He has given me a heart for missions. For the nations. What's more, He showed me that when I trust Him, He will work a perfect plan. And now I am heading off to South East Asia in the summer and I'm like wow. Because I look at the girl who likes to be in control, who likes to orchestrate her life so that all things work together, but in reality nothing works out. And then I look at the girl who says 'ok Papa'. The girl who says that and still tries to work things out - but thank God for His mercy. Thank God that He has grace to still allow me to have my hopes fulfilled, even when I nearly miss out. Because I nearly did.
So friends, I think that's maybe most of what I wanted to say.
God is good.
Never, ever, ever give up on His promises. To explain it all away says 'I never really expected You to show up any how'.
He is faithful.
He is faithful.
and He never condemns. let's rejoice in our righteousness-consciousness. He who the son has set free, is free indeed.
I loved loved loved the speaker at church today; he spoke a bunch of truth that I needed to hear. I needed to be reminded not to frame God by my circumstances. This world is full of confusion, the devil prowls like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. And you know, he does. He comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. Conversely, my Jesus came to give life, and at that - life in all it's fullness.
I have so much to say here....but I need to start at the beginning, that God is good and God is faithful. But we can perish by lack of knowledge and so, if we don't know that He is good, we won't know His promises and we will not know who we are and what our inheritance is in Him. One way I like to look at it is like this: God already bankrupted heaven by giving us Jesus. I have the faith to accept that and believe for my salvation; and that is all I have to do - believe. The level of belief I have for my salvation is the same belief I have for everything else. So, being utterly convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ, nothing else should be too small.
Let me never, ever try to explain why God didn't heal. I don't want to reason why He maybe didn't show up. Disappointment - I am officially done with you. Why? Because anything less than divine healing, anything less than life in all it's fullness is not what God intended. It's in His word. That is the truth. But I need to believe that. Even when I am still sick. Even when it seems like He maybe didn't show up. Faith holds on. Faith holds on in the face of what is bad and declares He is still good. It still believes for the promise...because it shall surely come. I need to look at what Jesus accomplished on the cross and never give up. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That in itself seems like a paradox, but truthfully, I better be utterly convinced of what I am believing for. I am done with double-mindedness, too.
You know something? If I don't believe, I limit God. I limit how much I will receive from Him. So I say 'God, I'm open to whatever. Show me who You are. Show me the Spirit. Everything'. I have experienced more of the holy spirit in the last 6 months than I ever have in my life. Although the past two months have been a struggle, He is becoming my new best friend. And wow. The Holy Spirit. I don't get Him a lot of the time. Maybe I don't know why He does the things He does. Yes, it looks insane to people. Holy Spirit will offend Christians. But that is a risk I think I am willing to take. Let's see where I go with that.
What I also know, is that in the last few months by being willing to be open to God, by being willing to trust Him and accept the things I don't understand, is that I have so much hope. When I opened myself to Holy Spirit, I opened myself up to the endless possibilities that are in God. He started to use people to prophesy into my life about things I'd struggled with. Disappointment was one of these things; I felt I'd been waiting for God to do something. Last summer in particular, I wrestled with the verse that says 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life'. Where, papa, where is my longing fulfilled? I prayed He would do it for a long time.
And now I am getting to see the fulfilment of that. Why? Because when I opened myself to God, He pursued me. He desired to fill my life with good things. He has given me a heart for missions. For the nations. What's more, He showed me that when I trust Him, He will work a perfect plan. And now I am heading off to South East Asia in the summer and I'm like wow. Because I look at the girl who likes to be in control, who likes to orchestrate her life so that all things work together, but in reality nothing works out. And then I look at the girl who says 'ok Papa'. The girl who says that and still tries to work things out - but thank God for His mercy. Thank God that He has grace to still allow me to have my hopes fulfilled, even when I nearly miss out. Because I nearly did.
So friends, I think that's maybe most of what I wanted to say.
God is good.
Never, ever, ever give up on His promises. To explain it all away says 'I never really expected You to show up any how'.
He is faithful.
He is faithful.
and He never condemns. let's rejoice in our righteousness-consciousness. He who the son has set free, is free indeed.