I'm Laying it Down for the Joy of the Lord!!

Have you ever been carrying something so heavy by yourself that you felt like if you carried it one more step, your arms were going to give out and you were going to literally fall out? Isn’t that how some of us are in the spirit? We’ve been walking around with old anger and bitterness or desires for someone to get their lives together or whatever it is, for so long that we are on the brink of death. You’re so tired and heavy that you don’t even realize it’s changed you. We get mini breakthroughs or have an emotional response at church and think we’re all better, only to have the heaviness return a few hours, days, or months later. It happens to the best of us. There’s no title that exempts us from struggles but there’s a God that releases us.

I know some of y’all think I am pure crazy because I use myself as examples for most of my blogs. But God has encouraged me to be transparent so that someone else can see beyond reputation and name and find release. I recently went through a dry season. I wasn’t depressed but I was heavy. You wouldn’t even have known if you weren’t looking at me with spiritual eyes. It seemed like whenever I praised, it turned into travail, a crying out instead of praise. I kept getting word from God about breaking through but I would think it didn’t really apply or I had already done it. But the truth of the matter was that I had made the struggle my friend. I had welcomed it into my spirit so much so that I didn’t recognize it.

Well, my friends, I am here to tell you that God is a good God. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.” (MSG) I made a decision that I was ready to come out of my dry season. I went through a fast and asked certain things of God and He answered. I got free and I mean FREE! I felt the breaking and I won’t go back.

I say all of this for one reason, it’s time to move forward! We’re not staying in bondage anymore. “I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong” By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward – to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” (Phil. 3: 12-14, MSG) God has something greater in store for you! Job’s “friend” Bildad didn’t even mean to be encouraging when he told Job “Where you began will seem unimportant, because your future will be so successful.” (Job 8:7, NCV)

We’re coming out and going forward. We are no longer going to be confined by the weights of this world. We are going to walk in the freedom that God has for us. We are going to put all those bags away!  In the words of Erykah Badu, “Bag lady, let it go!” Does the Lord live in you? If the answer is yes, then you are free! That’s what the Word says! “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Cor. 3:17) Ask the Lord to set you free and EXPECT Him to do it…you will see results!

Be blessed…AMEN!

Freedom for the journey...

I remember when I was a kid, summer was the best time! There was no school and our days were filled with outside adventures, friends, and fun. We might go to summer camp or look forward to Vacation Bible School and the annual church picnic. In most cases, even if you had a rough upbringing, summer still offered a break from all that came with the school year. It was a carefree time, wasn’t it?! Today, I want everyone to think about that feeling. It was relaxing and fun and healing from a long year. It was freedom! I believe God wants us to enjoy our lives like that today.

Too often, we let the cares of this world and the business of life drain us of that joyful freedom we naturally had as children.  It’s time to take it back and walk in it! And there’s only one source for that freedom – the Lord. God wants us to be free but a lot of times, we walk around struggling in bondage when all we have to do is ask for it! Psalm 118:5 says “In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free.” Is anybody tired of being tired? Aren’t you ready to wake up in the morning with a joy in your spirit and a smile on your face? Ask God to set you free and He will do it!

A couple of months ago, I got so overwhelmed with life. I was tired, frustrated and a little bitter about some of the curveballs that life had thrown at me. Some of it was the devil and some of it was of my own causing. You may remember because my blog entries were a little rough during that period. (Sorry!) But I went away by myself – no children, no husband, no friends and I got in God’s face. I didn’t want to come back the same! I wanted my joy back. But it was my responsibility to meet God and acknowledge where I got off track so I could get it together. That’s why I love Psalm 51. It speaks to facing yourself and your issues.  It was written by David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba but you can easily insert your issue whether it’s lack of obedience, a bad attitude, selfishness or whatever.  “Oh give me back my joy again; you have broken me – now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me…Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.”  (Psalm 51: 7-10, 12 NLT)

Sometimes circumstances and experiences have accumulated and taken our joy and freedom but a lot of times, we have given it away. I encourage you today to lay all of your burdens and weights down and ask God to set you free again. Don’t allow all the lists and responsibilities you have to overwhelm you to the point that you lose your joy. This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! You are alive where many others are not. Even more, you serve a God that is willing and able to restore you! Imagine those that don’t know Him! Don’t allow anything to keep you from that. Get in God’s presence and you will find fullness of joy. You will find rest and refreshing! You will find freedom.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. AMEN (Jude 1:24-25, NKJV)

Limitless Love

I just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young and I was forever changed. I don’t think I have ever read a book that opened my mind more to who God is outside of the Bible. It challenged me to rethink how I define God and my relationship with Him. I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit was at the center of the writing. As I came away from the book, I realized how much I limit God. I think we all do. We tend to categorize Him based on what we think He can do for us in a certain situation. If it’s just me, please ignore what I’m saying. But I think we have put God in a box. This isn’t a new concept but one that bears examination.

 I’m not going to tell the plot of the book but as I read, I looked at my life and saw the key to experiencing all that God wants to show us. We can’t look at God as an experience that’s based on the right song or preacher. It’s all about relationship. Think back to your early childhood and the person that you were the closest to that raised you, maybe it was your mama or daddy, and maybe it was your grandmother. We trusted them to take care of us and could often see that they would sacrifice everything to get us what we needed. We loved them with a pure love that wasn’t tainted by the world’s influence and expectations as we often are as adults. I believe that kind of love and relationship is what God is calling us back to. Just think about it, didn’t you think that person could do anything? Imagine if you gave God that type of love…I mean, after all He made the ultimate sacrifice.

I really needed a scripture that could capture what how our relationship with God can be if we will take the limits off. I found it in Ephesians 3. Paul is writing to the Ephesian church from jail and he is telling them about God’s plan for His people and Jesus’s role. His words say it all.

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!” (Ephesians 3: 14-21 MSG)

If you are at a point in your life where you seem to be standing still, stuck in a hard place or situation, I encourage you to look at your relationship with God. Are you still in love with Him? Have you let the cares of the world and your circumstances, dull your zeal for Him? God is a big God and nothing is impossible with Him but above all that He is love. Everything that He does comes back to His love for us. Allow His love to wash over you and cleanse you. Go before Him and ask that He refresh you and give you a fresh fire! Take Him out of the box of our human limitations. He is willing and able go beyond your wildest dreams.

It's all about the process!

Do you ever sit and just think about who God is? I mean, He is the great I AM so he can be all things to all people but do you ever think about who He is to you. He has been different things to me at different times in my life. He’s been a keeper, a deliverer, a healer. He’s been a provider and a redeemer and the best kind of comforter and friend. He’s quite simply God. He’s whatever you need Him to be. I think one of the greatest aspects of God that often goes unnoticed is that of teacher which He exhibited beautifully through Jesus. If we can catch on to what He's trying to teach us in life, the journey will become much smoother.

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the emotions of our life that we fail to see the lessons. It’s hard when you’re in a valley situation to see the set of stairs that will lead you out. Sometimes all you can see are the walls. God has been showing me a lot lately about recognizing the process in the midst of the circumstance. Think about this…maybe you’ve been praying and praying for a job and you can’t seem to get one. However, you’ve been on lots of interviews and your resume is tight. You’ve networked and made lots of contacts. Then after a year of searching, the perfect job comes your way with everything that you’ve been looking for and you get it after what seems to be the best interview of your life. Is it possible that all of those interviews that you went on,  the many hours of finetuning your resume, and meeting all of those contacts were preparation for the blessing? It's all about the process!

When we read 2 Timothy 3:16 – 17, it’s usually when someone asks us what scripture is. But when I looked at it this morning in the NLT, it spoke to me about using the Word of God to recognize the process in the valley. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” If that isn’t a process, I don’t know what is. Instead of getting stuck in your hard place, use the Word to start climbing out of it. Look at the situation that you might be in and see what God could be trying to teach you and search the Word for your next step. It's all about the process!

We’ve all read or heard of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8…”For everything there is a season…” They are beautiful and meaningful verses that remind us that there is a time and place for everything. One of the verses probably applies to just about any situation that we can ever face. However,  I encourage you to read the entire chapter. There is one verse that stood out to me when thinking about this journey that we are on. “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecc. 3:11, NLT)  Don’t get caught up in where you are, trying to figure out why you are there. You can’t see God’s entire thought process for your life. The Bible says in more than one place that His thoughts are higher than ours.  God has a plan and it’s for your good.  Instead of worrying about what’s next, look for the good in the present. Instead of crying about the past, rejoice that God has given you a future. Instead of seeing the dry bones in your valley, ask God to breathe new life into them.  Instead of seeing the pain, I encourage you to look for the lesson. There’s gold at the end of the fire!

Be blessed.