Don't Give Up

There is a temptation that strikes at times when we slip-up. It's an aftershock of having given in to a previous temptation and sinned. The aftershock temptation goes something like this: 'Now I've gone and blown it. I've failed. What a trainwreck I've caused!' And then conclude, 'I may as well give up since I've stopped living righteously. It doesn't matter anymore', plunging ourselves into a worse condition. This is an attitude of self-serving arrogance. What we're really saying is, 'Since I won't take this to God, I'll just live to satisfy myself.'


I think it's easy to get sucked into this type of temptation and is a bad idea to toy with these sorts of thoughts. Why were we so unhappy about the fall in the first place? Were we trying to please God or ourselves? Throwing off the righteousness of God, having a pity-party or going around blungeoning ourselves doesn't please God.


One of our Christian brothers whom you may know, Philip, reminded me a little over a week ago, "..without faith, it is impossible to please God." It is a quote taken from Hebrews 11:6. Here's the rest of it: "because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."


The choices we make matter. The best thing we can do is to trust God's Word and earnestly seek Him. Let us run, ASAP, to the Lord in humility and confess whatever sin was commited against Him. Then, our relationship with Him may be restored as He shelters and upholds us. And our strength is renewed.




May we go about singing and shouting things of excellence, like these words from Psalms 73:28 that David wrote:

"But as for me, God's presence is my good. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, so I can tell about all You do."

Psalm 112

I have been meditating the last few days on this Psalm. God is speaking a lot to me through it, and I thought it may be something that others could be inspired by. It describes the life of the one who fears Him, and who greatly delights in His Word.

Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who greatly delights in His commandments.
His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever
Light arises in the darkness for the upright;
He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.
It is well with the man who is gracious and lends;
He will maintain his cause in judgment.
For he will never be shaken;
The righteous will be remembered forever.

He will not fear evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is upheld, he will not fear,
Until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.
He has given freely to the poor,
His righteousness endures forever;
His horn will be exalted in honor.

The wicked will see it and be vexed,
He will gnash his teeth and melt away;
The desire of the wicked will perish.

How Far Will You Let Me Go?

This morning I was listening to a song by Misty Edwards called, Always on His Mind. Some of the lyrics are: "With my whole heart I'll love You, With my mind and my strength too, Waste my life searching for You..." My favorite part of the song is, "How far will You let me go? How abandoned will You let me be?" I want this attitude to be in me, I want to live my life to discover how far into knowing God He will allow me to go and how fully abandoned to Him He will let me be.

So often the Christians of our times are asking, "How close to sin will You let me go? How much like the world will You let me be?" What a waste of our lives! I want to guard against this (often) subtle attitude in myself and encourage everyone to do the same.

I once heard a prophesy that I haven't been able to get off my mind since: that God wants to make the Christians of our day like the woman in Matthew 26:7-13. This woman took an alabaster vial of perfume (worth about a year's wages) and anointed Jesus with it. She was criticized by those who saw her for wasting her resources.

I want to see the whole church worldwide gain a reputation for giving their lives sacrificially like this woman. I want to live so wholly in love with Jesus that people would say of me, "Look how she's wasting her life on God." Let's pray this week as we're fasting and going through The Treasure Principle that we would begin to gain a vision for eternity that would leave us asking God, "How far will You let me go? How abandoned will You let me be?"