Tag Archives: Enjoy God

The battle for authority

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Who has authority in your life? Are you in charge? Or does God have real authority over your problems and struggles? Or maybe someone else pulls the strings that make you feel like a marionette puppet.

 

Maybe you’ve asked for the Holy Spirit to fill your life. You’ve asked him to give you the eyes of Jesus so you can really notice the people around you and around the world. That sensitivity both empowers us through the Holy Spirit and sometimes can overwhelm us if we step away from the Spirit and try to do things on our own.  I think it is a daily battle for the best and strongest of us. Maybe it’s harder for the strongest of faith, because we start to believe that if we have strong faith it should be strong enough for every trial. But it occurs to me that while faith expressing itself through love IS the only thing that counts (Galatians 5:6) it is not just the faith, but the source and OBJECT of our faith that wins the battle. Scripture reminds us that God himself fights at our side. He has our back and he fights within us too if we let the Spirit do his part.

 

As for me, it’s often a daily battle because I so easily slip into the mode that says, “I’ve got this; I can do this on my own.” Or I see all the needs around me and begin thinking it’s my job to fix them all. Not so. Ask the Spirit, “what, if anything do you want me to do? The Spirit doesn’t call us to fix every need. Not every conversation is meant to be a gospel presentation. The Spirit also shows us how to be happy in the Lord, how to relax, how to “Let go and let God.” CS Lewis explains: “We must give our lives for others, but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy our Lord and, in him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, the birds’ song and the frosty sunrise.” (CS Lewise, The Collected Letters)

 

I ask that Jesus remind you to let the joy of the Spirit wash over your mind (and mine) with the truth of how very much he loves you, how perfectly worthy and pleasing you are in his sight, because he sees the glory of God in your redeemed spirit. Jesus said, “ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” And BECAUSE that same authority lives in your heart through the person of the Holy Spirit, THAT is precisely the authority that reigns over fear, anxiety, despair, loneliness, guilt, and everything else the enemy throws in our face every day. It is our faith in THAT authority that makes us more than overcomers when we FEEL overwhelmed. It is THAT authority that allows us to be hard pressed but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but NOT destroyed. It’s his authority that overcomes the so called authorities of this world.
Be blessed under and in the authority of Jesus Christ in your every battle and every joy.

 

 

Enter into God’s rest

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“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:9-11

 

I think perhaps most everyone is familiar with the idea of the Sabbath, a day set aside to rest from our work and to enjoy God. The idea of the Sabbath-rest has been taken literally for thousands of years. Jesus scolded some of the pharisees for their legalistic ways, acting holy but refusing to help or heal someone on the Sabbath, because they considered it ‘work.’

 

But the true emphasis, according to God’s own Word, is not simply resting by sitting back and taking in a ballgame on TV. The Focus is on entering God’s rest. It is about entering and enjoying His presence. Think of a friend who has taken a break from work and invites you to enter his rest. What do you do? Go over to his house and drag him to some work project? No, you rest with Him. You enjoy each other’s company.

 

The Sabbath-rest is not just for one special day each week. God asks us to enter His rest each day. And not just to take a break from our chores and vocation. But to rest from our constant striving…striving toward self-centered goals, for seeking to please Him more by our works than by our worship, striving to be accepted when he says, “Child, you are mine; I love you already.”

 

Stop striving and enter into God’s rest as often as you want and need each day, not just on Sunday. Rest for a moment or for a season. Let your work reflect who you already are, In Christ, and who He is in you. Enjoy Him more today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have your cake and eat it too

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All the talk in yesterday’s post about bread and cake got me thinking about that old saying, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” But of course, if you have a cake you can then eat it, though you won’t have your cake anymore… Except on your tummy and thighs. 🙂 I think ye olde saying is better read, “You can’t eat your cake and have it too.” Once eaten, it is gone. Wordsmiths out there may say you can HALVE your cake and eat it too, leaving half the cake in your possession. But that is another story.

 

But is it possible to eat your cake and have it too? And what might the bible have to say about such a delicious idea? We already know that the Word is our daily bread, but how about cake?  We have to be careful when referencing scripture to defend our stance. Like the story of this bride-to-be:

 

The young bride to be was increasingly terrified about her upcoming marriage. To calm her nerves, she decided to have a Bible verse which had always brought her comfort (1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; for perfect love casts out fear”) engraved on her wedding cake. So she called the caterer and all arrangements were made.

 

About a week before the wedding, she received a call from the catering company. “Is this really the verse you want on your cake?” they asked. Yes, she confirmed, it was the one she wanted, and after a few more questions they said they would decorate the cake as requested.

 

The wedding day came, and everything was beautiful … until the reception, when the bride walked in to find the cake emblazoned with John 4:18: “For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.”

 

See what I mean? Context is everything! Except for the many references to unleavened cake, I’m not aware of bible references to the equivalent to the Thayer Chocolate Birthday Cake. Still, Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste.” Psalm 34:8 encourages us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” So perhaps it is safe to surmise that God’s Word, while not always palatable to our worldly taste buds is never the less desired by our spirit.

 

If this Word were considered to be cake, shouldn’t we want to eat it more? And could we eat it and still have it? If it were always replenishable, yes. In fact, it is. It is never diminished. So if we regard the Word as cake as well as bread, we can eat our cake AND still have it too! In any case, eat well and enjoy the goodness of God in your life!

 

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)