July
11, 2014
My Devotion
My Heart
Finally…Whatever.
Teresa Jenkins
Rejoice
in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be
evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:1-7
Confession:
For years I have complained, whined, and begrudged a lot of things and
circumstances in my life. 95% of all this has occurred internally.
Yes I do make some of my complaints verbally to some of my trusted friends and
husband…but for the most part they are just those thoughts in the head battling
it out for attention with those other raging battles of self-concept and guilt
that have always been there.
The
other day I heard someone quote “The only way to hold on to God’s blessings is
with an open hand.” Another quote I came across, “The only way to be
truly free is to completely die to self and become a slave to Christ.”
Both sound very contradictory and very hard to actually do. I have
experienced some things in my life that make these statements very true.
When God has blessed me with whatever that is, if I took His blessing and
wrapped my hand around it in a tight grip and held on to that blessing as
fiercely as I could…two things happened, I killed the blessing and made it a
curse and I locked the door to God blessing me more.
Grabbing
on to something or someone and holding on with all our might is a natural human
response. We instinctively hold on to what we think we want or
need. Sometimes God blesses us with something just to see if that
blessing is more important to us than He is…not for Him to see, but to show us
where our priorities really are. Some people say nothing good ever lasts
anyway so why not hold on to blessings for as long as you can?
I
think we do not realize that even though good comes and goes, it does keep
coming to us but if we are so determined to hold on to the good of yesterday we
miss the good and even better that God has for us. On the other hand if
we are so caught up in the bad that comes to us, the trials, the circumstances,
the betrayals, the stuff that breaks our hearts and spirits we will definitely
miss the blessings of God, and here lies the unexpected blessings we may never
see because we get so wrapped up in the disappointment and hurt of the trying
times.
Colossians
1:21 tells us, Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your
minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by
Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without
blemish and free from accusation.
Now
salvation is eternal, but we can still alienate ourselves from God’s blessings
by continuing in our selfish human behavior. But wait, we are human, how
else can we possibly behave otherwise? Through our salvation experience
we have been reconciled presented holy in His sight. Philippians 2:12
tells us that we must continue to work out our salvation with fear and
trembling, which means not that we are to be afraid we will lose our salvation,
but that it’s going to take work and sometimes a lot of work. Christianity
is not a destination, it’s a process, a continual growing process that we must
work at and on. This is not a job for the faint-hearted, but it is also
never ever done alone…Philippians 2:13 says this, For it is God who works
in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.
God
is right there with you working in you and for you and if you look around He
has also made available some other people to come into your life to help you
through the tests and trials and victories you experience. God never
said, He would reconcile us to Himself through His Son and then send us out
alone. No, He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He also has
surrounded us with people. Paul’s life is full of people he was
constantly acknowledging and thanking for their partnering with him in the
faith to carry out the news of Jesus. God has also placed good and
faithful people in your life to do the same, but because we may not be
evangelists, preachers, or other similar type servants of God, we don’t really
look at the people in our lives like that.
Here
is what we must actively do every day, we must always work out whatever is in
us that keeps us from God’s presence, from His blessings that are just waiting
to be poured out on us, we have to open our hands and open our hearts ready to
receive His goodness as well as let them go to make room for more. So
that through whatever life may throw at us through the good and the bad, we can
claim the blessings both the obvious ones and the ones hidden in secret places
and the darkness of our trials. Do you know how to do this? Don’t
fret God has some suggestions; here are a few.
Since,
then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where
Christ is seated at the right and of God. Set your minds on things above,
not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with
Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory. Put to death, whatever belongs to your
earthly nature…You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once
lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things…and put on the
new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator. Colossians 3:1-5, 7, 8, 10.
Finally,
…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever your have learned or
received or heard from me, (Paul), put it into practice. And the God of
peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9.
Always
study and practice what you have learned. God has already saved you from
all the horrors of this life and what you could have become as well of eternal
separation from Him, but there is a reason that upon that salvation He didn’t
instantly take you to heaven, His plan and your purpose is still being
processed, so press on in Jesus name, doing what you do, in your job, in your
play, in your family, in your daily lives let the plan of God come out in you
and the flood-gates from Heaven will open with more than you could possibly
imagine much less hold.
In
HIS Time
Teresa
