Deal Breakers

Psalms 18:1-3 “I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”

When we are not willing to let everything in our life revolve around God – This awful cycle begins to take place in our life.

We find that Trouble often brings on the need for temptation. Once we have given in to temptation we find ourselves disappointed that we are not stronger.

Once we become disappointed we often get discouraged with our own behavior that someone else may or may not know about.

After a period of disappointment over not being able to overcome temptation that was brought on by trouble in our lives – we give in to discouragement and begin to think that this is all there is to life!

Discouragement in a situation or temptation always brings us to think that we are a failure in this life – which ALWAYS brings us back to trouble and we start this cycle all over again with the next temptation that comes along in life!

Do you KNOW what or who your enemy is? Does this sound like your cycle? The ‘enemy’ is ANYTHING THAT KEEPS YOU FROM GOD! People let these issues keep them from God every single day!

God’s Promise is that we can bypass this kind of cycle when we make Him LORD OF OUR LIFE and begin to live that way each and every day!

Is it hard? YES – Does it take practice? YES – Do we fall sometimes even though we KNOW the right way? YES! That is why getting together and gaining strength is so important! GROWTH must take place in our lives!

None of us are perfect – but BECAUSE we serve a PERFECT GOD who brought us forgiveness, love, mercy, grace and so much more in JESUS CHRIST – when we center ourselves on Him – we work toward the goal of living like Him and transforming ourselves to what God WANTS us to be! Romans 12:2 –“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

When was the last time you felt TRANSFORMED by God? Can you remember? – Then more than likely you are somewhere in the cycle of feeling like a failure.

Here is the GOOD NEWS! You can make that change today and get off this cycle FOR GOOD! You can begin to look to God in your life every single day and become what He says you are!

Romans 12:2 tells us that once we are saved and become His child; we develop this ‘discernment’ and when we are tested by troubles and temptations we CAN OVERCOME by renewing our mind in Christ and living that out in a daily way.

Are we examining our hearts to find out if we are doing that? Not really. We would rather pay attention to others and let them know where they should be on the cycle of LIFE!

God has written His Love Letter to each of us individually so that we can use it to LIVE right here on this earth…Not so we can use it to beat others over the head with! It is personal and loving and can reach into the very heart of us to help us if we are willing.

People are so beat up in this life - Living on the very edge because they are filled up with discouragement and failure.

I spent many years living in defeat and failure and insecurity – not believing that I was who God made me to be. When I began to examine the Scripture and study and memorize Scripture – God began to speak into my heart and SHOW ME HOW TO LIVE!...by His Word. It has been an amazing journey and I would not change a thing because my relationship with JESUS is the most wonderful part of me! The ‘trouble’ I have experienced along the way has helped me in helping others overcome!

Are we thinking like this? Maybe it is time that we did!

Let’s CHANGE OUR LIFE CYCLE today!

David wrote Psalms 18 to the LORD when he had been rescued from his enemies. What has God rescued you from? Do we recognize what God is doing for us?

Ways to ‘Change your LIFE Cycle’…

©     Changing Trouble into trouble – Wait a minute…I thought you said God would…YES we will still have trouble – but when God is our center – we don’t focus on the trouble! It is amazing really – how God transforms the believer! When He is ACTIVE in the center of us - TROUBLE becomes so small that we are not even focusing on it! God is magnified instead of the trouble! (Psalms 69:30)

©     Change Temptation into FAITH – When we get to a place in our lives that God is the center and we are focusing on Him – our temptations fade away in the face of FAITH in God to remove them! When was the last time we asked God to remove temptation from before us and walked in faith that He would? When we are seeking God – temptation can’t be in the same space! (1 Corinthians 10:13)  We can endure temptation when we are living by Faith in God! Where are we living today?

©     Change disappointment into JOY! When we are focusing on God in our lives and we move away from magnifying trouble and we step in Faith instead of temptation – disappointment has no friends and turns into JOY! Don’t we need some JOY today? (Psalm 19:8) When we are hiding God’s Word in our hearts and living it out – we are FILLED with Joy!

©     Change discouragement into encouragement in the Lord! He IS our encouragement! We just aren’t looking where we should look! God did EVERYTHING for us – so that we would not be separated from Him! When we begin to recognize it – we really are amazed! Every day we should be looking for encouragement in this life! It ONLY comes from one place! – GOD. (Romans 15:4) Don’t we need some encouragement today?

©     Change failure into success! When we are not walking in this cycle but rather LIVING out what God intended we find that our lives are pointed in the direction of SUCCESS! This does not mean monetary success – it means that we are letting God control WHATEVER is going on in our lives so that it ultimately gives Him glory! Someone else will see what God is doing for us and they will desire the same thing and we can help them get off the cycle of pain shown above! Don’t you want to help someone else today move closer to God? That is what He intended our lives to do! (Joshua 1:8)

My question is – Are we moving out of the realm of trouble, temptation, disappointment, discouragement and failure and MOVING INTO the realm of focus on God – transforming, faith, joy, encouragement and success?

You want your life to change? You want your focus to be on something other than your problems? You want a fresh start?

GET MOTIVATED in the LORD today! Don’t wait!

Where Are You In My Weakness God?

2 Corinthians 12:9 ~ “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Definition of GRACE ~ The Power of God to do for us what we CANNOT do ourselves.

We could never do anything to deserve the GRACE of God – it is freely given from God.

Have you ever had the thought that you were weak? Not able to overcome something of this world?

Guess what? Paul felt the same way!

God intends that in our weakest moment we are seeking Him for POWER that will get us through that weak moment. He doesn’t want us to WORK THROUGH IT ON OUR OWN! Instead God wants us to depend on Him to get us through!

Ephesians 6:10 says “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” – This verse doesn’t say anything about being strong on our own WITHOUT God! The design of God is that humanity would look to Him and reach out for strength when all else fails!

God’s GRACE is a gift to the believer because it is by that GRACE that we set about to make changes in our lives to reflect the Lord. We realize what God has done for us and we begin to weigh that GRACE in the face of that thing that makes us weak in this life…when we see we can’t get through the temptation without relying on God’s GRACE – we love it all the more and realize it is such a GIFT!

Do you use the GRACE of God to get through troubles and temptations in this life?

·        The illness that can’t be cured

·        The accident that happened and changed my life

·        The lack of money when I need it most

·        The children that won’t do right – even though I have taught them

·        The alcohol that I want to give up

·        The pills that I want to quit taking to dull the pain of life

·        The enjoyment from doing something I know I should not do

·        The seeing something I want and can’t have

The GROWING believer seeks to make changes in their lives and replace these troubles and temptations by looking at God and never taking our eyes off of Him.

You see, the trouble and temptation do NOT go away – our vision becomes clearer concerning where we need to be looking! This is the gift of GRACE at work in our lives!

©     GRACE strengthens us in our weakness in this life. We begin to develop Christian Character when we are depending on God in ALL situations in this life! God will use our troubles and temptations and ability to overcome them to build bridges to other people! His GRACE is alive! When we give our weakness to God – we are learning to become Christ-Centered! Our belief enriches our faith! Hebrews 11:33-35 says “who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.”

©     GRACE suffices in the storms we face! The word ‘suffice’ or ‘sufficient’ means enough. God gives us just what we need to come through the storms of life and KNOW HE IS ENOUGH! Philippians 1:20 says “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” – God gives us ENOUGH COURAGE to make it through the storms! Jesus was God’s gift to us to support us, to strengthen us and to be our security when all else fails! His GRACE helps us see these great Biblical Truths!

©     GRACE seasons the believer to see that we never LOSE ANYTHING even in troubles and temptations! 2 Thessalonians 1:3 says “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers,^[a] as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.” – God takes our GROWTH in HIM and uses it in our daily lives so that others can see His POWER working in us! When we are growing in the Lord we realize that the growth is more important that the trouble or temptation. We realize that God has given us a gift in the knowledge we are growing with! We realize that the Promises of God are true!

God is EL SHADDAI – God ALMIGHTY – one that is sufficient! God has the ability to cover all the weak spots in us! We have to let Him and BELIEVE Him in order for His Power to be at work in us!

God’s GRACE rests over or upon us like a tent or tabernacle. We begin to really understand this when we LET GOD TAKE OVER in our troubles and temptations!

We find that Paul openly admitted that he was weak in some areas and that made his testimony that much more powerful!

When was the last time that we admitted we are weak and in need of God? When was the last time when we got real with each other and let God soften our hearts.

In order to feel the POWER OF GOD upon/over us we have to admit what we are weak in and get filled up on HIS POWER.

God’s response to Paul’s prayer is so tender and loving. God has no condemnation or judgment toward His children! He WANTS us to understand that His GRACE is sufficient in all our troubles and temptations!

What LOVE this is! Do you know that LOVE tonight? Admit to God the troubles and temptations you have and let Him cover you like a tabernacle or tent! Let Him take the burden and replace it with love and joy and peace!

He doesn’t need us to be perfect – He did that! He needs us to admit to Him what we can’t do and let Him DO IT!

God’s GRACE is really amazing!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.