things swirling around in my mind......

first, while i was studying today i found this in my bible in the life application notes. felt like it was definitely worth sharing.

Satan's Plan

Doubt
makes you question God's Word and His goodness

Discouragement
makes you look at your probelms rather than at God

Diversion
makes the wrong things seem attractive so that you will want them more than the right things

Defeat
makes you feel like a failure so that you don't even try

Delay
makes you put off doing something so that it never gets done

it is so interesting to me that seeing something written down like this brings it home even more. i KNOW that satan is the great deceiver. i KNOW that he will do whatever it takes to make me lose my focus on God. and yet, i let him use those 5 things to derail me over and over again. i especially struggle with discouragement, defeat and delay. so, as i read that very short list i have to ask myself "why?" why do i let him deceive me like that??? makes my word for the year seem even more perfect for me. to be intentional in not letting satan blind me from seeing truth and removing my focus from God.

second, as i was talking to my dear friend elizabeth i mentioned some things that i heard in worship sunday from our minister terry rush and she asked me to share. i've been struggling with how i've been treated or how i perceive i've been treated by different people in my life and this lesson by terry just seemed to be aimed directly at me. pierced my heart to be exact. so here are some of the points from that lesson that really struck home........

irritations and frustrations that we experience in life are part of the process of dying to self. we are all selfish though and want to avoid all of that. we resent dying for those that will not appreciate it. but we need to REJOICE!!!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith -- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire -- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you may have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
...I Peter 1:3-9

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." ...I Peter 4:12-16

ouch!! i have been spending so much time with an attitude of "i don't deserve this." i haven't been Christ-like at all!!! i need to die to self. even when others are sinning against me. Christ was the ultimate example of this. He died to himself on my behalf. He died so that i could be with God. Christ intentionally went to the cross with a purpose. my soul. my eternity.

"For if, when 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 though His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." ....Romans 5:10-11

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such oppostion from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." ....Hebrews 12:1-3

i have to learn to die to myself daily because i am other people's hope of knowing Christ. i need to empty myself of EVERYTHING but love. i need to be willing to intentionally die for a purpose.......