The Holy Spirit makes us more aware of our lack of holiness to stimulate us to deeper yearning and striving for holiness. But Satan will attempt to use the Holy Spirit’s work to discourage us.
Jesus saw the best in people at their worst. He met them in their messes, in their realities, in their most desperate moments. He loved them and believed in them when there was nothing lovable or admirable about them. You.
The Enemy does his best work in the darkness of our ignorance and speculation. He hammers away with what-ifs in the workshop of thoughts we are too afraid to face.
How are you defining the truth of who you are? By whose standards? What subtle lies has the serpent been weaving into your understanding of God’s intentions for you? How have they been corrupting your identity? What is that corruption costing you? Peace? Joy? The ability to connect with others who need you to be there for them? The ability to hear from God about His direction for your life?
If you think you have to swap unworthy for worthy, you will bang your forehead against a self-created wall for the rest of your life, and you’ll never get any closer to your goal. But once you realize that God’s acceptance overrules your unworthiness, you can instantly find peace.
The world of what-ifs is a black hole, and it will suck your joy, peace, and hope into its vortex if you venture near its vicinity.
What is the fear of God, then? It is being terrified of ever being outside of His protection.
The only thing we ever have to be afraid of is that we would ever live one moment of one day outside the protection of the One who can command the wind and the waves to be still.
It’s resolving to live with the mind-set that declares, My joy is not determined by what happens to me but by what Christ is doing in me and through me.
I will not let the discouragement of what I’m going through make me forget the benefits of belonging to the God who has been so good to me. He has saved me, blessed me, forgiven me, restored me, satisfied me, healed me, crowned me, and renewed me.
Satan’s main job isn’t temptation. It’s accusation.
The less I can depend on circumstances to define my identity, the more I must look to the Lord to reinforce His thoughts concerning me and to impress them into my heart until I respond as if it’s second nature:.
We constantly analyze and summarize each other. We compare people to our standards – spoken or unspoken – to see how they measure up. Then we accept them or reject them; we praise them or criticize them; we revere them or ridicule them. We all secretly administer exams in the university of our own opinions.
Is it possible that when we’re not getting the affirmation or confirmation we desire, it’s because God doesn’t want our faith to rest in affirmation we can feel? In these times could it be that He’s at work on a deeper level, teaching us to rely on His character rather than our performance?
I hear the things God has spoken about me, and I want so badly to believe them. I want to believe that I’m filled with the Spirit, as He says I am. But if I’m filled with the Spirit, why am I so often led by my selfishness? Why are my motives constantly compromised by socially acceptable expressions of envy and subtle manifestations of greed? If what God says about me is right, why can’t I live the way I claim to believe?
God is your very present help in times of trouble, and each one of your days has been ordained.5.
In the yard my actions didn’t reflect God’s love. But they didn’t weaken it or make it go away, either. Because it’s not a love based on what I do. It’s a love based on what Jesus has done.
When we allow our thoughts to go unchecked, a steady drip of lies cements the wrong patterns within our minds, building a Berlin Wall of bad beliefs.
Whatever the what-if is, as quickly as I can, I must assess the nature of the fear. What, specifically, am I so afraid of?
Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.