Category Archives: spiritual heart

Laying Hold of Victory – Living a life of Faith (Prayer 1)

Posted on by
Reply

Victory over Fear, Unbelief, Anxiety, Worry, People Pleasing

(Originally Written October 4, 2023 for WOW — Women on Wednesdays Ministry)

Father,

I come to you as your beloved daughter that you have adopted into Your family knowing that by Your Spirit, I can call out to you as my “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:14-15) I know I can trust You because I know that You love me, and there is nothing that can separate me from that love.  There is no fear of death or fear in life because I know you are always with me.  There is no spiritual power- no angel, or demon that can tear me apart from You and Your love.  Nothing in the present or the future can divide me away from You.  No powers, no height or depth, or anything in all of creation can isolate me away from Your love, God, that is in Jesus Christ my Lord. (Romans 8:37-39) I can rest in this confidence!

I am assured that God is working in all things that I face now or in the future. God is working for my good and His glory because I love Him and am called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

It is Your precious and perfect love for me, Your will to good for me, that casts out all fear that comes against me. (1 John 4:18) I am not subject to anxiety or worry because I know you are my Rock, my Fortress, and My Deliverer! You are the God I take refuge in. (Psalm 18:2)   When the enemy comes in like a flood you raise up a standard against him. (Isaiah 59:19) He will not win!  You are victorious! And You have given me victory over fear, unbelief, anxiety, worry, and people pleasing because I love you and I keep your commands.  I am born of God, and I overcome the world. You have given me faith.  I believe in You, Jesus the Son of God. (1 John 5:3-5)

When fear tries to attack my mind, I call out to you God because you are my Help! (Psalm 18:6) When anxiety and worry try to drown me in their torrent, You reach down from on high and pull me out! (Psalm 18:16) When unbelief speaks lies in my ears, I will praise You alone my God because you establish a stronghold against my enemies and you silence the voice of my foe, the liar, Satan! You alone will I serve and worship with my whole heart and you alone will I long to serve, fear of man, people pleasing, has no hold on me!  (Luke 4:8)

I fix my mind and my eyes on you alone God.  I will not follow any voice of torment because I know Your voice, God, and follow You alone! You are my Good Shepherd.  You take care of me and love me greatly!  I am trusting that though the thief wants to steal, kill, and destroy, You have come to give me abundant and full life! (John 10:4-5, 10) I submit myself to You alone! I depend on You alone! I obey You alone! I am assured that I can rest in Your care and Your love! (Psalm 23)

In the precious name of Jesus, I pray!

Amen

Verse to commit to memory:

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”

Isaiah 26:3-4 NIV

 Click below for more information on WOW:

https://www.wowjcmo.com/

The Romans Challenge: Overflow!

Posted on by
Reply 
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We were not created to dwell in anxiety, fear, and depression!

Long ago, in the Garden of Eden, mankind was created to dwell connected to God. We were made to be His image bearers, reflecting all that He is to our world. When sin entered, that connection was broken and that image was shattered. However, Jesus came!

Jesus came to set us free from sin and to enable us to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives the moment we receive the New Life Jesus came to give us! The Holy Spirit empowers us to live according to our original design as “image bearers” of God.

Our God is a God of Peace. Our God is a God of joy. Our God is a God of hope! By the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, we can be filled to overflowing with His peace, joy, and hope! Yet so many of us do not live our lives this way…

I know this from experience. For years, I lived as a Christian full of anxiety, fear, and depression… I tried in my own power, using man’s ways, to fix the way I felt. All of these attempts ended in failure. Until, I determined that I needed to truly surrender EVERY area of my life to God. I decided that I would pursue Him above all things, and live my life focused on Him!

How is this even possible? By the power of the Holy Spirit! By faith in God and His Word, i.e. trusting in Him!

I was living my life focused on me. I was very me-centered! God made us to live our lives focused on Him. Our thoughts are to be focused on Him and His Word. Our speech is to reflect that focus — speaking His truth and His life regarding ourselves, our circumstances, our families, etc. Our actions will fall into line as our focus is laser focused on God and His Word!

Here is the truth of what we all need… We need to live our lives with this motto: Less of me…More of Him! When we overflow with the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will experience what we were created to be all along: People who dwell with hope— a confident expectation of good; People who trust Him — believe that God said it, I believe it, that settles it; People who live with joy, — an emotion that is excited by the expectation of good; People who live with peace — freedom from disturbance or agitation.

Holy Spirit we ask You to fill us up til we overflow with You!

The Romans Challenge: Living Sacrifice

Posted on by
Reply 
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If we are in relationship with Jesus, there will be evidence. We will be changed! When we look at all that Jesus did for us on the cross and see how great the mercy of God is towards us, we see what a wonderful and giving God we have. The only response is for us to give back to Him all that we have, our lives. This is our “spiritual worship.” (ESV). How do we give ourselves to God as we should? He wants EVERYTHING! He wants us to love Him with all that we are (entirely, totally, and completely).

The sacrifices in the Old Testament were laid upon an altar and burned completely. They were offered up completely to God. We are to live our lives that way. Everything about us is His – our time, our money, our entertainment, our jobs, our homes, our cars, our family, our clothing, our choices of food and drink, etc. It is ALL His!

How does this work practically in our world we live in today? We are to live our lives not as the world patterns it, but as God has told us we need to live in His Word! We are to continue to be “transformed” in our hearts and our lives. This comes as we allow God to renew our minds (our way we think and act) by coming to His Word over and over throughout our day.

You and I were meant to display God to the world around us. We are to be distinctly different. This only occurs as we allow God to change us and we become more and more like Him every moment of every day. As we know Him more, we will love Him more. As we love Him more, we will obey Him more. As we obey Him and live as He desires, we will be like Him. Living like this requires surrender to Him and His ways!

May we live our lives as “a living sacrifice.” Set apart for Him and His Glory!

The Romans Challenge: Salvation’s Certainty

Posted on by
Reply 
“As the Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”” 
Romans 10:11 NIV

The world is full of get rich quick schemes and self-improvement plans. It seems like the role of “life coach” is a booming prospect in a lot of circles. We, as humans, like to think we have found the answers to improve our lives and make us happy and rich. But time and time again, our plans fail…

There is only one way for us to truly be changed. There is only one way to find contentment and peace. This is found in a relationship with God. You and I were created for relationship with Him. We will not find what we are looking for chasing the latest fads and schemes.

The problem that causes all the discontentedness and disconnection in our lives, isn’t our lack of self realization. It is SIN and it is living according to our selfishness. Simply put, we need a Savior.

Jesus knew exactly what we needed when He came to provide the way for salvation. What is broken in us can be made new when we confess Jesus as Lord of our lives (turn our lives over to Him), and when we believe that He truly is our Risen Savior. God’s promise of New Life in Christ is certain. If we believe and if we call on Him, we will be saved. We are assured that we “will not be put to shame.”

God’s plan to renovate our spiritual hearts and to make us new are not some fantasy we chase. God’s promise of eternal life is certain. We won’t be disappointed or disgraced in the end. Plans for life change that fall outside of the truth of Scripture will always fall short. Because “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Thank You God that You have provided all we need for us to have Your New Life that You offer us! Thank You for the certainty of salvation. We know You promises are true. What You say You will do. When we come to You and believe we won’t be disappointed. We “will not be put to shame.”

The Romans Challenge: The Addictive Nature of Sin

Posted on by
Reply 
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

A few years ago, I was trapped in a sinful thought pattern. It was destroying me. I couldn’t understand what I was doing and I was doing the very thing that I did not want to do. I had absolutely no peace inside of my mind.

During that time, God led me to a Bible study group where I met a woman who I told my struggles to. I asked her if my thought pattern was sin, even though it was clearly listed in the Bible as sin. She asked me why I thought it was not a sin. Then I said words that have been etched in my mind ever since: “Because I cannot control it.”

Make no mistake about it… Sin is a taskmaster! Sin controls us. It is addictive in nature. Addiction/ Sin will rule over you. Whether it is a chemical addiction, an addiction to lust, an addiction to worrisome thoughts, an addiction to food, an addiction to your phone, etc… our choices to run to the sin over and over and over proves it’s addictive nature. I wholeheartedly agree with Paul when trapped in sin, “what I hate I do.”

BUT Jesus!

Jesus has the power to break the chains of addiction! He can set us free from sin! I can testify that Jesus has set me free and I now dwell with peace in my mind and in my heart.

The first step to freedom was for me to recognize that sin had a grip on me or as Paul writes, “it is sin living in me that does it.” When we see what the problem is — SIN — we are in a very good place! Because Jesus has provided the solution for sin — repentance. 

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We are assured that He will cleanse us from sin, and Holy Spirit will empower us to live free! Praise God!

The Romans Challenge: Holy, Righteous, and Good

Posted on by
Reply 
“So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Law ( God’s commandments) are not the problem. Sin is!

God gave the Law to the Jewish people so they could get an understanding of His character. God also gave the Law so sin could be revealed. The Law was intended to point out to all of us how much we need a Savior.

For example the Ten Commandments:

These are good moral laws that we should abide by, but have we?

If we have broken just one, we have become a lawbreaker. We have sinned.

The problem is not the Law, that is “holy, righteous, and good.” The problem is us. We are all sinners desperately in need of a Savior, and our Good God has provided for that need — Jesus!

Thank You Father for sending Jesus! What we could not do on our own, You did for us. Long ago You gave us Your Law so that we could understand how much we need You to give us a new heart — a heart that desires to obey You! Thank You for Your gift of salvation that changes everything in our lives and helps us to walk after Your Way!

The Romans Challenge: Dead to Sin!

Posted on by
Reply 
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬

(Today we start Romans 6)

Baptism symbolizes a very important fact in the life of a follower of Jesus. We follow Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. Our old sinful life that we all lived before Christ is to die. It is “buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised form the dead… we too may live a new life.” Being “dead to sin” enables us to live the “new life” that God has given us.

If I were physically dead — at the funeral home, lying in a casket — it would be impossible for me to sit up and eat a donut that you may bring and pass before my nose and my mouth (even the cream filled ones…). I will not take a bite. I am dead to that donut. Our enemy will bring temptation to sin into our lives, but through Jesus we do not have to take a bite. We can live our lives dead to sin!

How can this be? I have this nature, a sinful one, that desires to do things that are wrong all the time… We cannot forget that WE HAVE NEW LIFE! This life is the Holy Spirit living in us. He comes as our Helper to help us to say “no” to the temptations. He comes as the Power to enable us to live our lives “dead to sin.”

We can live free of the patterns of sin that we have been chained to i.e. addictions, bad habits, sinful thought patterns, etc. We don’t have to “live in it any longer.”

As a Christian, it is one thing to slip up and say a hateful thing, do a sinful action, or make a wrong choice, chose to do a sinful act…God has given us a remedy for such a scenario…

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It is a whole other thing to embrace our sinful choice, sit down for coffee with it, and indulge in it day in and day out… that is not being dead to it… That is preferring the sinful choice over obedience to God and His word. It is loving God less and our sin more… In this case, we are not dead to sin, we have chosen to let it grow, fester, and consume our lives.

Thank you God that You have provided all that we need to die to sin! We cannot die to sin on our own. The Holy Spirit is very willing to fill us with His life so that there is no room for sinful patterns to grow. God has given us His Word so we can keep our way pure. (Psalm 119:9) As we read His Word, live according to what the Word says, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness, “we too may live a new life” that is dead to sin!

The Romans Challenge: Reconciled!

Posted on by
Reply 
“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reconciled- “Brought into friendship from a state of disagreement or enmity” (Webster’s 1828)

Today is Romans 5!

We were created for connection to God! Relationship is connection. Back in the Garden of Eden, God’s intent for mankind was to have relationship. When Adam and Eve chose to sin, separation from God came. This separation is all we have really known and understood in our lives. It is the norm. But God desires for us to experience something radically different than that. He wants us to be united to Him in a close and intimate relationship!

This is why Jesus came. His death, burial and resurrection provides the way for us to experience His salvation from sin. When we accept Him as our Savior, we are justified by His blood. His blood cleanses us from the sin that has separated us from God. Then we experience the most beautiful thing — reconciliation. We are brought back into the relationship that God originally desired for us to have way back at the beginning, in the Garden of Eden.

This relationship we now have with God is closely connected to Him. He gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. We now live our lives literally walking and talking with God.

We go from being enemies of God, pursuing sin, to a friend of God, pursuing Him and His righteousness! We can now live our lives reconciled to God!

The Romans Challenge: A Sign and A Seal

Posted on by
Reply 
“And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Today is Romans 4.

My husband and I started dating in the Spring of 92. We married after a whirlwind romance that occurred in what we fondly call our “Summer of Love.” (We married after 8 months, in January) I was 21 and he was 19.

It was during this time that Rich decided he wanted to seal the deal on our relationship and display that we were “a thing.” So as we were driving across an overpass not far from the campus house I lived in, he flipped his High School Senior ring up on the dashboard of the car and said, “Here you go! Put this on. It should keep the other boys from flirting with you.” Being 21 and having been in college for three years. I thought it was a little to “High Schoolish” for me, but I didn’t want to scare him off. (He was soooo cute!). So I put it on!

My heart was already his! We had a relationship. That ring was a sign and a seal!

For the Jewish people, Circumcision was meant to be just that! God wanted a nation that was His. This nation was to display Him, His glory, to the world around it. Circumcision was meant to be a sign and seal that the Jewish people were in a committed relationship with God. It wasn’t what made them righteous, or in right standing with Him. Righteousness only comes through faith! Not our deeds.

I could have wore that ring around back in 92 with my heart far from loving Rich. I could have hung out with him out of obligation or to get a free meal. Wearing it would have been hollow.

The circumcision that the Jewish people thought made them something special was only a hollow act if their hearts were not God’s.

They had the law. They followed the rules. But they weren’t obeying out of a heart that was connected to God through faith. They didn’t have the relationship!

The Romans Challenge: Conscious of Our Sin

Posted on by
Reply 
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Today is Romans 3.

One of the most impactful exercises I have ever done is taking the time to complete a “Spiritual Inventory” list. It is a check list of sins that are listed in the Scripture. Prayerfully considering the condition of my spiritual heart is of upmost importance.

I believe it is healthy for us to come to God with the same prayer that David did on a regular basis:

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Sin numbs us. Our enemy would love for us to live unaware of the sin in our lives. He would love for us to blame all of our problems on others and our circumstances. He is aware that once we see the truth, we have a sin problem, we are close to freedom. Because it is the truth that sets us free from the chains of sin!

Romans 3 has a list that describes where we all are without God. It concludes that the Law of God, makes us “conscious of our sin.”

Knowing that we have a problem with sin is good! Then God can show us the answer for our sin problem, Jesus.

Even in the life of a believer, sin that we embrace separates us from that close and intimate relationship that God desires for us to have with Him. It clogs up the communication lines. It keeps us at a distance from Him.

Jesus has provided all that we need to deal with our sin problem. Once we become conscious of our sin all we need to do is go to Him in prayer. He promises us this: 

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Law served its purpose. It helped us to understand that we need Jesus! Jesus said that He didn’t abolish the law, or set it aside. He fulfilled it. What Jesus did on the cross is enough to deal with the sin in our lives.

Thank you Jesus!