Determined

Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:7 NLT

I have come to the conclusion that I really can do nothing apart from God. Any skill I have, He gave me. Any ability to learn and to be proficient, He supplied. So why would I try to tackle the wiles of the enemy on my own? What would make me think that apart from God I had any power at all to overcome an onslaught?

Scripture declares we are overcomers by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The Blood was shed at Calvary - that part's done - and here's the word of my testimony. I have set my face like a stone... determined to do His will. I will not be moved by what I see or hear or feel if it is the opposite of what I find to be the Truth of God's Word.

Prayer:

Father,
           I don't care what the facts are. I know Your Truth. Your Word declares the Truth over and above facts. As Jesus proclaimed, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come. And it is by Your Truth that we are set free. Help us to walk in these Truths. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Shake It Off

As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.” But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn’t harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god.
Acts 28:3-6 NLT

Paul was not a man easily swayed by public opinion. When he believed something, he was a man of strong conviction; just as he believed the Way of Jesus the Nazarene was sacrilege and attempted to eradicate anyone who wouldn't renounce the Way... until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.

When Paul was faced with the Truth, the presence of Jesus Himself, his beliefs were forever changed. The laws of Moses became living, breathing Words of life and he believed Christ the Messiah with all his heart, mind, soul and strength...

And nothing from that point on changed his mind or his testimony. Not persecution, death threats, beatings, or stoning. Nothing turned him from the Truth.

So here he was, fresh from a shipwreck. One he predicted, and then prophesied that they would all survive in spite of the odds. And they did. He survived all that only to be bitten by a poisonous snake. The island people passed judgment and just knew he was going to die. When he didn't, they passed judgment again that he was a god. Either way, it didn't matter. You see, Christ had spoken that Paul would deliver the Good News and Paul believed His Truth. Unwavering, not moved by public opinion; Paul did what he had done from the start of his ministry. He shook it off. Beat him and leave him for dead? He shook it off. Beaten and wrongfully imprisoned. He shook it off. Shipwrecked and snake-bit; he shook it off.

What has God told you to do? How many have told you there's no way you can do that? How many trials and tribulations have you faced? How many obstacles in your way? Shake it off...

Prayer:

Father,
           Help us to set our faces like a flint and not be deterred from what You have declared over us. Your Word is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, joint and marrow - exposing our innermost thoughts and desires. We are accountable to You, Father. Let us believe Your Word with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and live and walk accordingly. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

* Living in 3-D

At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
Hebrews 12:11 The Message Bible

Ever feel like you're living in a two-dimensional world? Your life has or appears to have length and breadth, but there's absolutely no depth to it? Talk about leaving you flat... pun intended.

What comes to your mind when you think of discipline? I used to always think of it in a negative manner, but somewhere along the way, God's Truth of it was revealed.

Think about it. The discipline of going to the gym and/or not eating fried anything is difficult but what it produces is SO worth it. You don't go into it lightly. It's hard work. It takes determination to maintain the discipline. 

Even more so, living for Christ. The Christian disciplines are hard to maintain, but God has given us His grace. I firmly believe that sometimes the trials that come along in life are put there by a loving God - to develop and establish the disciplines in our lives that He desires to see in us, so that we may become who He designed us to be.

God disciplines those He loves; that's what His Word tells us. And we are to be disciplined in the lives we live before Him. Brian Adleman nailed it with this phrase: Discipline + Determination = Destiny. Living in 3-D.

Prayer:

Father,
          Open our ears to hear our own whining so that we might then determine to discipline ourselves, and in doing that, arrive at the destiny You have ordained for us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen