Devotional

Unlimited Love

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:15:00 GMT

When we look at God’s covenant love we must not forget to include First Corinthians 13:4-8:

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

“Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away” (NKJV).If we do not exhibit this God-kind of attitude, then we must re-examine our commitment to walk in love. The qualities of God’s love in this passage answer the question of what love truly looks like. In light of His love, reconsider our own love walk and let God’s love grow in us.

In the Greek language there are four words that define love. The first is the God-kind of love: “agape.” The second is “phileo” which is brotherly or friendly love. There is a sharp contrast between the two. One is born of the Spirit; the other is born of emotion. Where natural phileo love has its limits; agape is unlimited love. God’s love born in our hearts stands strong even in times when our emotions have a reason to quit loving.

Many who experience failed love have a fear of giving themselves to others. They fear being ignored or rejected. Rather than becoming vulnerable with others, they interact with people in various ways. They may try to control, dominate, intimidate, or manipulate others.

When weak people like this surround us, our love can overcome and compensate for their lack. We can see through their tactics and realize that the real issue is their fear and insecurity. When we walk in “agape” love it distinguishes us from ordinary people.

Proverbs 10:12 tells us that love does not get involved in strife. Instead, love conceals the weakness and sin of others. “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.”

Notice what Proverbs chapter 17 says about love: “He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends” (v. 9). Verse 17 says, “A friend loves at all times....”

One of the most outstanding attributes of agape love is that this love stands and does not fail or quit. Agape is one of the fruit of the spirit.

The following questions will help us determine whether or not God’s love is working in us. When we are squeezed by problems or people what comes out? Is it the love of God or anger and fear? Are we intolerant of people? How do we display our love?

Everyone gets rubbed the wrong way by people, but not everyone draws on the love of God that is deposited within them for such occasions. Too often, excuses are used to justify rude or angry reactions. Only after we become honest with ourselves can we fully grasp the way others already see us.

How's your love life?

The most powerful force in existence is the God-kind of love. It is more powerful than anything known in both this realm and in the realm of the spirit. It is one of the greatest proofs that Jesus is alive in you. If you cannot say you exhibit this kind of attitude in your life then re-examine your commitment to talk in love. There are two kinds of love: "agape" love and "phileo" love (which is friendly or brotherly love). There is a sharp contrast between the two. One is born of the Spirit; the other is born of emotions. Where natural phileo love has its limits, agape is unlimited love. God's love born in you will stand strong even when your emotions have every reason to quit loving.

Love Makes Life Meaningful

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:15:00 GMT

We can tap into the deep, rich reservoir of God’s love residing within us even when people rub us the wrong way. Love is a force much more powerful than human emotion.

The God-kind of love is the most powerful force in existence. It’s even more powerful than any force known in the physical realm.

First John 4:8 tells us that God is love. This love has been imitated, misunderstood, and misrepresented. Yet God’s love is the most powerful and important part of every true Christian’s life. In fact, it’s so important that if we are not growing in the God-kind of love, we are not really growing at all.

On the other hand, if we have made a life of love our goal, it makes every other aspect of life meaningful. Life becomes filled with the hope and the enjoyment God has always intended.

The God-kind of love touches every level of human existence: spirit, soul, and body. It is the most important ingredient in making our faith, prayer, or any other ac tivity fulfilling—whether it’s a natural or spiritual interest.

This kind of love is the foundation for the covenant God made with every Christian. The God-kind of love is beyond anything the natural mind could ever think or create. This new kind of love is born and developed in the recreated human spirit. This love is evidence that Jesus is alive in us.

Knowledge alone has many limitations. Feelings and reasoning are undependable. But there are no limits in God’s totally reliable love. First Corinthians 8:1 says:

“Mere knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and goodwill and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow [to his full stature]” (AMP).
The word agape is the Greek word for the God-kind of love. Agape is God in action—His love demonstrated through the ones He loves, toward those who need His love.

Agape love denotes an overwhelming generosity and undefeatable goodwill that always seeks the highest good of the other person — no matter what he does. It is a self-giving love that gives freely without asking anything in return. It is a love based on choice and decision rather than feeling and emotion. Agape describes the unconditional love of God for every individual.

This God-kind of love acts quite different from natural, human love. For instance, to feel loved, some people tend to be performance-oriented. Others think they must do something to deserve love. That kind of love is purely human or natural love.

People who love with this natural type of love are governed by their emotions. Their love for others continually changes. Natural love is filled with conditions. This love says: “If you do something for me or give me the right thing, then I will continue to love you, otherwise you won’t get my love.”

In contrast, when we choose to release God’s love, then we act based on the decision we have made. It doesn’t matter whether anyone responds or not, we have decided to be a person of love.

How's your love life?

Surrounded by Love

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:14:00 GMT

Always remember, the focus of the New Testament is not on our love for God as much as it is on our coming to know the love He has for us. His love in us will drive out fear and every fear-fed issue in our lives. Consider the various things in life that are driven and fed by fear:

· Anger can be rooted in the fear that we won’t get our way without intimidation.

· Procrastination is rooted in the fear of not doing something well.

· Shyness is based in a fear of people.

· The need to control people is rooted in fear and insecurity.

· Doubt originates in us fear that God’s Word is not going to work for us.These are some of the issues that will change when we receive a deep revelation regarding the truth that we are one whom God loves. Believing the love God has for us liberates us from the need to force our way through a situation. God can take care of the issues we have strained to control. He will flush out the destructive work fear has wrought in our souls that keeps our emotions tied up. Then He will show us how to live freely — from our hearts where His love reigns.

Looking back to where it all started in the Garden of Eden, we can see that as a result of sin, Adam’s first response was fear. God’s answer to that fear was love, as manifested through the last Adam, Jesus. God’s grace in sending His Son to redeem us is a revelation of His love. We are surrounded by His love and grace which have the power to overcome sin, and all that sin has done to destroy mankind over the centuries.

Psalm 5:12 says, “For you bless the godly, O Lord; you surround them with your shield of love” (NLT). The Good News Translation says, “You bless those who obey you, Lord; your love protects them like a shield.”

When we believe the love God has for us, the shield is up and we are surrounded with love and protection. Declare it out loud: “You, Lord, have surrounded me with the shield of Your love!”

The Apostle John believed in the love God had for him. John died as an old man — the only original apostle of Jesus to live out his life. Whereas all the other eleven apostles of Jesus were martyred, John was exiled to a life of hard labor on the Isle of Patmos. There he wrote the Book of Revelation. Later he was released from Patmos and lived out his life in Ephesus. The Bishop of the Church of Ephesus in 190 AD writes of the Apostle John, who “fell asleep at Ephesus.”

This great Apostle of Love discovered the simple and sustaining ability to live life as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” We can discover the same life-changing truth. Determine to grow up in the knowledge of the God-kind of love. Allow a spiritual foundation to be built on the same truth this old apostle discovered back when he was a young disciple of the Messiah: we are disciples whom Jesus loves.

How's your love life?

You Qualify for Love

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:13:00 GMT

Typically, the way people love one another is very different from God’s love. Natural love is conditional. A person usually has to meet someone’s expectations in order to be loved. Then later the recipient of natural love needs to requalify — and requalify again. In fact, in order to be loved by some people, a person needs to requalify almost daily!

The New Covenant has freed us from our own limited understanding of love and has revealed love on an entirely new level. Even the Old Testament was limited in its emphasis on love. The Law given to Moses focused on how people must love God. It pointed to people’s obedience to God as the qualifier for receiving His love. On the other hand, the New Covenant provides the revelation of God’s love for us — a love that has no limits.

We will never love God with all our hearts until we have received His love for us.

First John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” Notice this verse from The Message: “We, though, are going to love — love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.”

The actual text leaves out the word Him. This difference is slight, yet the rich meaning deepens: We love because God first loved us. Our ability to love without requiring people to first qualify for our love comes only by receiving the love God has for us.

John, the Apostle of Love, sheds light on how we can grow up in our own walk with God by receiving His love.

“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:16-19 NKJV).Our choice to abide or to stay in God’s love fills us with confidence, boldness, and a fearlessness that can come no other way. We find a new depth of inner strength to face and to beat all opposition, because we now have the supernatural power that agape love generates. The power of the God-kind of love surges through us and flushes out fear. We need not fear failure, people, or disease. First, because we are loved, and second, because we are empowered by His love.

We can stand tall in the face of Satan’s threats when we believe there is nothing that will separate us from God’s love and the resources of His Kingdom. And it is our Heavenly Father’s good pleasure to give us His Kingdom (see Luke 12:32).

How's your love life?

You Are Loved Unconditionally

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:13:00 GMT

There was something very different about the Apostle John. He was the youngest of all of Jesus’ disciples, but a quality lay deep within John that set him apart from all the other disciples. We can see that difference at the Last Supper and again at the foot of the Cross as Jesus hung in agony. It was even displayed after the resurrection of Jesus.

In each of these instances, John is referred to as the disciple “whom Jesus loved.” Even more revealing is the fact that John wrote this about himself. John described himself as “the one whom Jesus loved.”

On the surface this could sound like arrogance, yet it actually points to something very powerful. At the crux of this is a revelation that John had about himself: Jesus loved him!

Throughout John’s Gospel, and the epistles he later wrote, are found the Bible’s deepest insights into God’s love for us, as well as how to live in this divine love. John gives us more truth regarding God’s love than any other writer of the New Testament. His insight originated in a deep, abiding knowledge of God’s love for him personally.

Four times the Apostle John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John wasn’t saying that he was the only disciple Jesus loved but that he knew he was loved by Jesus. It was a love John had come to believe in without reservation.

This God-kind of love is the Greek word agape ─ a unique word in the Greek text of the New Testament. Agape is a word that was nearly absent from Greek writing before the time of Jesus. It was only during Jesus’ ministry that this word became a picture of God’s love.

Of course, the God-kind of love is the highest love that exists. Agape knows no limits or boundaries as to how wide, deep, high, or far it will go to demonstrate love. Agape will sacrifice itself for the sake of the person so deeply loved. This love has no strings attached. It is not looking for what it can take from a relationship, but rather for what it can give. Agape so values the object loved that nothing will turn it away.

The message of the entire New Covenant centers around this simple fact: God’s love for us is unconditional. This means we don’t have to try to qualify for His love. We already qualify to receive it! We have no conditions to meet, and there is no pressure on us to measure up. Our Heavenly Father loves us just as we are, and there is nothing that can separate us from His love.

The Apostle Paul made this amazing statement about the God-kind of love:

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 NKJV).

Nothing can separate us from God’s unconditional love!

How's your love life?

Win the Prize

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:11:00 GMT

What we constantly think about is a sign of what we love. King David said, “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).

David loved God’s Word. That’s why he thought about it day and night. It’s not that he had nothing better to do. He was the King of Israel and his day was occupied with the business of the kingdom. Yet, notice benefits he received from spending time in God’s Word: “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation” (Psalms 119:99).

When we begin a consistent routine of meditating the Word of God, light will shine on our path and we will receive understanding on how to walk in what God is revealing to us.

In order to master our thoughts, we must make demands on ourselves. We have to become our own taskmasters. We become more demanding on ourselves than anyone would dare. No one could require as much as we required of ourselves.

In First Corinthians 9:24-25 the Apostle Paul compares the discipline of the Christian life to that of an athlete:

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (NAS).Athletes who want to win a race don’t have discipline imposed upon them; they enforce their own discipline. Others may indulge in a variety of pleasures, but the athlete disciplines and restrains himself. Lance Armstrong’s autobiography, It’s Not About the Bike, reveals the discipline he imposed upon himself. In order to compete at the highest level he rode his bike at least six hours daily through rain, sleet, or freeze temperatures. It took tremendous self-discipline.

Notice Paul said those who compete, exercise self-control “in all things.” Not only does the athlete eat a very controlled diet, but he also denies himself of many commonplace activities to prepare for the race. Regrettably, the self-imposed discipline of athletes often surpasses the discipline of many Christians.

Pastor Ezell, the man who trained us in ministry, was the most disciplined man we have ever known. The godly principles that governed his life marked our lives so deeply that we have adopted most of these principles as our own. We were very young believers when we worked for him. While being trained under Pastor Ezell, we were often confused by the undisciplined and self-indulgent lifestyle of some members of the church. But he always put us back on track by calmly reciting an adage that he lived by: “Others may, but I may not.” This self-imposed discipline that he demonstrated taught us the importance of personal restraint at a very early time in our Christian lives.

If we expect to win the prize at the end of the race of life, then we must keep our focus on the Word of God. It’s not our job to judge what others do, or don’t do. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit. If we really want to honest about it, keeping ourselves on track with God’s plan for our individual lives is a fulltime job.

Transforming Your Self-Image

Have you ever been to an amusement park that had those funny shaped mirrors? There are mirrors that make you look really tall and thin. Others that make you look short and wide. There is also a mirror that makes you wide in the middle while your legs and neck look skinny. Words spoken by significant people in your life - friends, spouse, parents, teachers or employers - can affect you like the amusement park mirrors. You can change distorted images by simply getting an accurate mirror that reflects the true you.

Change Your Self Image

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:11:00 GMT

We can change distorted images by simply looking into an accurate mirror that reflects our true image. James 1:23-25 says,
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

“But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does” (NAS).
If changing a distorted image only required hearing God’s Word, then everyone in church would be transformed into the image of Jesus. However, James gives three important ingredients that contribute to our change. He said we must look intently into the Word, abide in the Word, and be a doer of the Word.

The person who takes a casual attitude at God’s Word is destined to forget what he has seen and, as a result, fails to be transformed.

First, to prevent an inattentive attitude we must look intently into God’s Word. To look intently means we look with purpose and persistence. Second, James tells us to abide or remain in the Word until it permeates our being. And finally, we must act on what we have seen. Without corresponding actions our convictions and good intentions are of little value.

The Apostle Paul also uses the illustration of a mirror to describe the transforming effect the Word has on distorted thoughts. Second Corinthians 3:18 says:
“And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another…” (AMP).
From this verse we see that God’s Word functions the same way our mirrors do: they reflect our image. And if you look anything like I do when I get up in the morning, you have your work cut out for you!

When we look into the mirror, the many things we see that need change motivate us into action! We fix our hair, put on makeup, change our clothes and do whatever’s necessary until the image in the mirror is transformed.

The worst thing we can do is to look into the mirror and decide it is hopeless and walk away unchanged.

God’s Word is like a mirror, revealing the things that need to be changed in our lives. We make a grave mistake when we casually look into the mirror of God’s Word and walk away before we’re transformed. We must abide in the Word and do whatever is required until the image in the mirror is changed into God’s very own image.

But be forewarned: One look will not bring about a transformation! Instead, as we continue to look into the mirror, little by little, we will be transformed from glory to glory.

Transforming Your Self-Image

Conditioned To Fail

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:11:00 GMT

When a young elephant is added to the circus, a heavy chain is fastened around the animal’s leg. Then a long stake, which is connected to the chain, is driven deep into the ground to prevent the animal from breaking loose and wandering away. The young, energetic elephant constantly tugs on the chain trying to escape. But, after failing to break free from yanking on the chain day after day, he eventually gives up trying.

However, when the elephant becomes an adult, a rope is tied around his leg that is attached to a short stake that is pushed into the ground. The elephant could easily break the rope if he hadn’t been “conditioned” as a young elephant to believe the restraint on his leg is more powerful than he.

Many Christians have become conditioned to believe that they are powerless to break free from distorted thinking. However, we can escape wrong thoughts if we’ll put them through a process of renewal. Much like renovating a building, old thought patterns must be torn down first, and then replaced with new thoughts. The Apostle Paul instructs us how to do this:

“…Lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24 NAS).

Just like with any renovation, it is a process that takes time, but it’s not impossible! God has supplied us with the equipment we need to complete this renovation process. Second Timothy 3:16 says:

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the faith and correcting error, for resetting the direction of a man’s life and training him in good living. The scriptures are the comprehensive equipment of the man of God, and fit him fully for all branches of his work” (Phillips).

God’s Word is able to reset the course of our lives regardless of the nature of our distorted thoughts — whether they relate to our health, our finances, our employment, or our relationships.

Begin to search the Bible for scriptures that specifically address the problem and write them down on a 3” X 5” card or a sticky note. Each time our thoughts drift off course, we can read the scriptures on the card and meditate on them throughout the day. Soon the distorted thoughts will be replaced with God’s thoughts.

Then while lying in bed, before we drift off to sleep at night, recall the verses mentally. Don’t go to sleep until at least one scripture is brought to mind. We may have to get out of bed to look at our card, but eventually with enough practice they will flow out of our hearts with ease. This is more than a memorization program — it’s the living Word of God remolding us from within.

In the morning, before we get out of bed, bring this scripture to mind again. If we practice this regularly, the scriptures will become rooted and established in our hearts and that’s when our lives will begin to change dramatically!

Transforming Your Self-Image

Power Of Attorney

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:09:00 GMT

When a police officer captures a thief, he is read his Miranda rights and then he is taken into custody. Wrong thoughts are thieves that must be captured or they will steal our God-given inheritance.

The moment we recognize a thought that steals the promise of God, we must arrest it and put a stop to it. We can quietly say out loud, “Wrong thought, you have no right in my mind. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit so you are trespassing on God’s property. I command you to cease your actions against me and I render you powerless from this moment forward!”

After a thief has been arrested, he receives a judgment from a court of law. Similarly, Jesus gave us Power of Attorney to use His name so we will enforce what God promises. Jesus said, “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13 NKJV).

What’s more, Jesus gave this commission to the church:

“And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18 NAS).

Jesus has given the church — that’s you and me — legal authority to use His name to cast out every demonic thought, argument, or reasoning that steals the inheritance God has promised — whether it relates to our finances, our family, our employment, or our health.

We must boldly declare that the kingdom of darkness no longer has a right to our minds; that our days of distorted thinking are over! Notice what happens when we make declarations from God’s Word:

“You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; and light will shine on your ways” (Job 22:28 NAS).

When we consistently speak the promises of God out loud, we make decrees in the spirit realm, and they will be established. That doesn’t necessarily mean we will feel any different, or the circumstances will change immediately. But adopt the attitude that says, “If God said it, then that settles it!”

The final action taken against a thief by a court of law is to sentence him. And that’s what we must do with thoughts that steal God’s promises. We must sentence our thoughts to a rehabilitation program in God’s Word that will transform them!

We can ask the Holy Spirit to alert us the moment a wrong thought enters our minds, and then put a stop to it. Jesus called the Holy Spirit our Helper. His ministry is to help us whenever we need it! Far too many Christians fail to take advantage of this wonderful, God-given gift of the Holy Spirit.

When the Helper alerts us to wrong thoughts, begin to rehabilitate them with the Word of God. The word rehabilitate means, “to restore, renovate, return to normalcy, refurbish, make whole again, reconstruct, rebuild and recondition.”

When we consistently follow these steps it won’t take very long before we gain control over the destructive thoughts that have bombarded our minds for so long.

Transforming Your Self-Image

Stolen Inheritance

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:09:00 GMT

At some point in time, we have all had to deal with some kind of distorted thinking. This distorted thinking may have come after damaging words were spoken by a significant person in our lives, or perhaps by a past failure. Either way, when we allow the opinions of others or our experiences to determine the way we see ourselves, a distorted image develops.

The danger comes when distorted thoughts begin to build a stronghold in our minds. But regardless of the source of the stronghold and how long it’s been there, God’s weapons can destroy them. Second Corinthians 10:4-5 says,

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (NKJV).
The meaning of the Greek word for stronghold is very interesting. Not only is it a fortress as we might imagine, but according to Thayer’s definition it is “an argument or reasoning used by one endeavoring to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent.”

That’s exactly what happens when distorted thoughts become a stronghold in our minds. They rationalize why God hasn’t done what He promised for us. A stronghold says, “God may work miracles for others, but not for me.”

God’s Word is the only power that can overthrow and destroy every stronghold built in our minds.

Second Corinthians 10:4-5 assures us that God’s weapons are mightier than any stronghold of the enemy. It doesn’t matter the nature of the stronghold, or how long it’s been there, God has promised that when we use His weapons, they will be destroyed!

It is one thing to know God’s weapons have the power to destroy strongholds, but knowing how to destroy those strongholds is valuable information. Strongholds of the mind are destroyed when we follow Paul’s instructions to “take every thought captive.”

The idea of taking a thought captive can sound very elusive and mysterious, but it’s really very simple! We capture a thought the same way a thief is captured. In reality, wrong thoughts are thieves that come to steal God’s promise of peace, health, favor, joy, and prosperity.

The first step we must take to capture a thief is to identify wrong thoughts. If you are a new believer and you aren’t familiar with the will of God, there is a simple, yet foolproof way to determine whether a thought is from God or not. Simply ask, “Does this thought bring peace and life, or is it upsetting and destructive?” Notice how Jesus identified a thief:

“The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10 NKJV).
When thoughts produce a response that steals, kills, or destroys then we can be certain they come from the kingdom of darkness. On the other hand, if thoughts bring life, peace, and joy then they’re from God.

Begin to identify wrong thoughts and stop them from stealing your God-given inheritance!

Transforming Your Self-Image

Feeling Squeezed?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:09:00 GMT

There are specific things we must do if we expect to live in all that God has planned for us. None of God’s promises come to us automatically. But when we become “doers of the Word” like James instructs us, we will begin to experience the transformation God has promised.

Notice what Romans 12:2 from the J.B. Phillips translation says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within.”

We are the subject of this verse. That means we either let the world squeeze us into its mold, or we let God remold us. We are the deciding factor. No one can mold the way we think unless we allow it. We have authority over our own thoughts, no one else does. Notice what Jesus said regarding what we allow or forbid in our lives:

“Believe me, whatever you forbid upon earth will be what is forbidden in Heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be what is permitted in Heaven” (Matthew 18:18 Phillips).
We can change our future by making the decision to forbid wrong thoughts to dominate our minds, once and for all. Then we can allow God to remold our thinking as we meditate on His Word.

The kingdom of darkness will try to squeeze us into the world’s mold with thoughts that declare: “You’re a failure. You’ve always been a failure and you always will be. You will never amount to anything. You will never change, so why bother.” If we listen to these thoughts we will begin to believe what they say.

But whose report will we believe? Will we believe the report of Almighty God Who promises favor, health, protection, and wealth? Or will we believe the report of the world and their forecast for disaster? It’s our decision. We cannot allow the destructive influence of the world to determine the way we think, because the way we think controls the course of our lives. Instead, we can choose to believe what the Lord says and experience a new way of living!

We don’t have to allow the opinions of others to stop us from having the career or education we desire. Instead, we can believe what the Apostle Paul said: “…I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13 NLT), and “…we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16 NLT).

We don’t have to allow the destructive words of our parents to paralyze us the rest of our lives. The Bible says: “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 4-5 NLT).

The Apostle Paul gave us instructions on how to begin thinking differently:

“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8 NLT).Each morning when we wake up we can choose to think about what is right, honorable, true, pure and lovely. When we meditate on these things we light our path for a better life.

Transforming Your Self-Image

Distorted Self-Image

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:08:00 GMT

Have you ever been to an amusement park that had those crazy mirrors that make you look funny? There are mirrors that make us look really tall and thin. Others that make us look short and wide. There is also a mirror that makes us wide in the middle while our legs and neck look tall and skinny.

The words that are spoken to us by significant people in our lives ─ by friends, a spouse, parents, teachers, or an employer can have the same affect on us as the mirrors at the amusement park. When we allow the opinions of others to determine the way we see ourselves, the image we develop can become distorted in the same way the amusement park mirrors distort our bodies ─ and the more warped the mirror the more distorted the image.

We may have a difficult time seeing ourselves the way God sees us because the mirrors that have reflected our images have been distorted. Our parents may have said we would never amount to anything. Our teachers may have said we don’t have what it takes to go to college. Our employer may have said we aren’t qualified for a promotion. The doctor may have said it was terminal.

If we have only looked into distorted mirrors all of our lives, we will believe the distorted images the mirrors reflect.

The world’s answer to this sense of inadequacy is to develop a healthy self-image. But their concept of a self-image differs greatly from God’s original intention for mankind. Any time we measure ourselves by the world’s standard we will fall short of God’s glorious plan.

If the world is influencing and molding our thoughts we will become just as confused as they are. For example, in the ‘80’s the world promoted the concept of “I’m OK, You’re OK.” Then, in the ’90’s they decided we were all dysfunctional. We can’t listen to the world’s concepts or we will become just as confused as they are!

But according to Genesis 1:26, we have been created in the image and likeness of God; therefore, we must begin to see ourselves the way God sees us. To merely build what the world terms a healthy self-image is to fall short of God’s divine purpose and could possibly cause us to miss our God-given destiny.

Although we may have heard what God has planned for our lives, if we don’t believe it then we won’t obey it. James 1:22-23 says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was” (NKJV).

James tells us that God’s Word is like a mirror reflecting our true image. If we continue to pay attention to what the mirror says about us, we’ll soon be transformed into the image in the mirror. We are able to laugh at the distorted mirrors at an amusement park because we have accurate mirrors at home that reveal our true image. God’s Word is the accurate mirror that reflects our true image, so we can laugh at the distorted image that has kept us from being who God says we can be!

Transforming Your Self-Image

Insignificant and Inadequate

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:08:00 GMT

We cannot separate what we think from how we live. Right thinking will always produce right living. Wrong thinking will always send us in the wrong direction.

Notice what the scriptures say about our thoughts, “A good man’s mind is filled with honest thoughts” (Proverbs 12:5 AMP). In contrast Proverbs 15:26 says: “The thoughts of the wicked are shamefully vile and exceedingly offensive to the Lord” (AMP).

Which of these two verses more accurately depicts our thought lives? Can the Lord rely on our thoughts? Are they honest or are they shameful and offensive to Him? The Lord asked me this question: “Do your thoughts glorify God, or horrify God?” Ask yourself the same question.

The Scriptures make it clear that our thoughts are responsible for shaping our actions. In fact, our thoughts and imaginations will eventually direct our actions — whether godly or ungodly.

When Moses sent twelve men to the land of Canaan as spies, ten returned reporting, “We became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33).

In reality, the spies could not have possibly known how they looked to their enemy without asking them. And a conversation with the residents of Jericho would have exposed the identity of the spies and would have resulted in their execution.

However, their report does reveal how they viewed themselves: as insignificant and inadequate. They saw themselves as nothing more than insects to be crushed under their enemies’ feet. But God didn’t see them that way.

Not only were the spies limited by their thinking, but they infected everyone who believed their report with the same hopeless attitude. It didn’t take long before everyone believed that Israel was incapable of possessing what God had already promised them — except for two men. As a result, every person who believed the distorted report of the ten spies died in the wilderness except Joshua and Caleb.

It was Israel’s thinking — not the will of God — that determined their destiny. They were robbed of the promise of God because they chose to believe the wrong report.

We are waging a war over who will govern our thoughts. And whoever controls our thoughts controls our destiny. The choices we make will determine the outcome!

What was the difference between the ten spies and Joshua and Caleb? All twelve spies saw the same land, the same fruit, and the same giants. But instead of focusing on the giants, Joshua and Caleb kept their eyes on what God had promised.

When we refuse to believe anything that contradicts God’s Word, regardless of the giants we face, then what God has promised us will come to pass in our lives just like it did for Joshua and Caleb. However, if we don’t purposely take charge of our thoughts, we will be influenced by the negative reports of the world just like the children of Israel were influenced by the negative report of the ten spies.

The ten spies refused to believe God’s report. Now the question is presented to us: Will we believe the report of the Lord?

Transforming Your Self-Image

Troubled Thoughts

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:07:00 GMT

If we want to experience the plan of God for our lives we must learn to master our thoughts. Far too often, we allow what others think about us to form our perspective instead of what God says. Our thoughts have a direct impact on the way we see ourselves. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a man thinks within himself, so he is.”

This means someone with impossible thinking can only produce impossible living. And if we think small it will cause us to live far below what God has planned. When we feel limited in what we can do, our thinking will confine us to those boundaries, but God is limitless. He wants to raise us to a new level of thinking and that will raise us to a higher degree of living!

Our daily challenge is to train ourselves to think from God’s perspective — not our own. God sees us in the light of what Jesus has done for us, not based on our own achievements, education, or outward appearance. Notice the strong words Jesus spoke to Peter when he looked from the wrong perspective: “Out of My way, Satan! You stand right in my path, Peter, when you look at things from man’s point of view and not God’s” (Matthew 16:23 Phillips).We can stand in God’s way when we look at things from our own, limited perspective. Instead of hindering God’s plan we want to cooperate with Him in every way possible.

The Lord revealed His perspective to the prophet Samuel while choosing a king for Israel. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV).There is a vast difference between the way God looks at a person and the way we typically form an opinion. When the people chose a king, they chose a tall, handsome man in appearance. But the Lord chose a man with the heart of God.

We only see what a person looks like externally — their nose, eyes, hair, weight and typically form our opinion accordingly. Instead, God sees us for who we really are — in the light of what Jesus has accomplished for us, not what we’ve accomplished ourselves.

Jesus exposed the attitude of human nature when He said, “You judge according to the flesh…” (John 8:15 NKJV).

We will begin to think like God when we conform our thoughts to His Word. Notice Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you] (AMP).The ways of the world are superficial. However, when we conform our thoughts to God’s Word we will begin to think like God. We must learn to master our thoughts.

Transforming Your Self-Image

Have You Been A Victim?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:59:00 GMT

We can learn to let peace rule inwardly when trouble breaks loose outwardly. That is what Joseph did when he was betrayed by everyone he trusted. If anyone had the right to shout “victim,” Joseph did. But in spite of all the cruelty and injustice he endured, Joseph never allowed it to affect his heart.

At the tender age of seventeen, Joseph had a dream that he believed was God-given even though he didn’t fully understand it. When he shared the dream with his brothers, they hated him so much that they wanted to kill him. Then Judah, Joseph’s brother, decided there was no advantage in killing him when they could sell him as a slave. After being sold, Joseph ended up in Egypt with Potiphar as his new master.

Joseph’s peaceful spirit motivated Potiphar to put Joseph in charge of all his business and personal affairs. As a result “things ran smoothly and flourished.” Until Mrs. Potiphar decided an affair with Joseph would solve her boredom. But it didn’t settle well with her when Joseph rejected her so she claimed that he attacked her ─ a claim that sent Joseph to prison. Even in prison, everything under Joseph’s peaceful guardianship prospered.

Finally the day came when Joseph stood before Pharaoh as the wisest man on earth. Joseph didn’t go from prison to prime minister overnight — it took a lifetime of guarding his heart and refusing to return evil for evil. The rewards were well worth the wait! The dream God gave Joseph might have been aborted if he hadn’t chosen to let peace rule in his heart.

Too many people choose instant gratification rather than waiting for God’s manifestation.

By choosing to yield to the flesh we may abort God’s plan for our lives. Had Joseph yielded to unforgiveness and strife, his heart might not have been quiet and peaceful enough to hear the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream. We must be quiet and peaceful inside to hear from God.

Eventually Joseph’s brothers traveled to Egypt to buy grain during a famine. Instead of repaying them for the evil they had done, he spoke these words from a peaceful spirit: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:4-5).

Joseph didn’t have a special ability that protected him from hurt. He had feelings and emotions just like we do. He had to deny his flesh the privilege of repaying those who offended him. He was heartbroken each day he was separated from his father, but he chose to dwell on the plan of God and not his aching heart.

Second Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them” (TLB). The word perfect in this verse doesn’t refer to performance. It refers not only to one whose heart is committed; but surprisingly to one whose heart is peaceful and quiet.

Choose to live with a peaceful, quiet heart — the one for whom the Lord is searching. As we let peace guard our hearts and rule like an umpire in every situation, we will enjoy undisturbed companionship with God. And we will give Him the opportunity to do what He desires most — show Himself strong on our behalf.

The power of peace, protection, and direction

God's peace, as the Bible describes it, is a life-changing force given two vital assignments related to your heart. It is assigned to guard your heart and a second assignment is to act as an umpire - helping you to make the right decision in challenging situations. So how do you get, and keep this gift of peace from God? By obtaining it and letting it do what God created it to do is the most important thing anyone can ever do for the sake of his or her heart.