Everyday MattersThere's a reason for everyday.
Despite the bad and the good, everyday matters. |
3/1/2021 Holy Spirit FillingMonday Matters-March 1, 2021
Everyday Drunk What does mean to be righteous? Well, it means we are in right standing with God and that means we know who we are in Him…. loved, redeemed, not a mistake. Greater self-effort and determination will never liberate you. Shifting your focus will. This means letting God lead you and not your flesh. Again, in the Bible, Ephesians 5, tells us not to be drunk with wine but instead to be drunk with the Holy Spirit. When a person is drunk on alcohol, they feel, think and act differently. I’ve been there, done that. But the exact same is true when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we feel think and act differently. The Christian life is not the result of trying to act like a Christian; that’s only frustrating. The secret is developing our relationship with God empowered by the Holy Spirit. As God's Spirit fills us, we better understand who God really is. Our lives are changed from the inside out and good behavior is the end product…everyday.
0 Comments
2/22/2021 Holy SpiritMonday Matters-February 22, 2021
Everyday His Home in Us Life is hard. The earth experience is hard. It is not our home. Hard stuff for us all is stuff like forgiving those who never apologize or a health report that is terminal. Yet we can live free because the moment we receive Christ we are filled with the Holy Spirit with the potential to live a life of victory over fear, and struggles like forgiving others. This potential is released by faith as we surrender control of over our lives. Look at 2 Timothy 1:14…. the Holy Spirit makes His home in us and will lead by peace and wisdom as He speaks to our hearts. In the Old Testament (in Ezekiel), God’s promised the day would come when He would give people a new heart and put His Sprit within them. Under the old covenant, the Holy Spirit only came upon people for special purposes, but He did not live inside them as He does when we know Him personally. Amazing. I’m in for His control in my life, are you…everyday? 2/15/2021 God Delights in YouMonday Matters-February 15, 2021
Everyday Journey In life’s journey we all want to be known and loved and Jesus knows us better than anyone and still loves us. I remember teaching Zephaniah 3:17 and God’s main point is the constant, never ending love He wants us to know and experience. He delights in us as His child. He knows us, our pain, the ache from the loved lost, the cancer that came, anxiety attacks you may have along with depression, the lie that spread— He knew before I knew. HE IS here, waiting to make creative, redemptive use of what has happened. He is always on the move. He isn’t wasting time thinking about all the trouble He has with us or how awful we feel about where we are with ourselves and our troubles. God is not mad at you. He grieves for wrong choices or things done to us but He loves us madly and deeply everyday. 2/8/2021 God RedeemsMonday Matters-February 8, 2021
Everyday Rachel & Leah I’ve always felt so bad for Leah from the Old Testament because Jacob loved Rachel best, she was the more attractive sister but he’s tricked into marrying Leah first. Oh, the insignificance Leah must have felt based on her looks. It’s a battle which girls face from the earliest of ages—the message that beauty is what the world tells you it is—instead of what God says it is. In the Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones I am drawn to the story of Leah. She thought no one wanted her, only to find that God indeed loved her. He gave her the ultimate fairytale come true story: He made her a princess—one of her children’s, children’s children would be a prince; the Prince of Heaven and Earth. The final redemption for eternity is Jesus who came from the lineage of Leah. The fairy tale really does come true. The Hero comes back for His lost treasure; the Prince comes back for the one He loves. And “the ending of our Story is Joy …everyday. 2/1/2021 God walks with you in CancerMonday Matters-February 1, 2020
Everyday Just Say IT “My husband has cancer” I wrote that in the subject line of an email announcement that I sent to over 100 family and friends in 2010. My brother responded, “Wow, Deb that’s powerfully blunt to write in the subject line.” I know. It helps for me to face what I fear. If I can’t talk about the cancer or even it say then it has control over me. Many times Satan uses fear to immobilize us. Philippians 1:28 tells us not to be intimidated by our adversaries but stand with confidence and fearlessness because it’s a clear sign to the enemy of his doom, but sure evidence of our deliverance from God. Satan knows that the only way he can overcome a believer is through deception and intimidation. It is okay if you’re shaking on the inside and feel afraid just don’t let it move you to let go and give up. Stand firm on the truth of God. My husband is cancer-free but no matter what happened I knew I would not be crippled by fear…everyday. 1/25/2021 God walks with you in CancerMonday Matters-January 25, 2021
Everyday Just Say IT “My husband has cancer” I wrote that in the subject line of an email announcement that I sent to over 100 family and friends in 2010. My brother responded, “Wow, Deb that’s powerfully blunt to write in the subject line.” I know. It helps for me to face what I fear. If I can’t talk about the cancer or even it say then it has control over me. Many times Satan uses fear to immobilize us. Philippians 1:28 tells us not to be intimidated by our adversaries but stand with confidence and fearlessness because it’s a clear sign to the enemy of his doom, but sure evidence of our deliverance from God. Satan knows that the only way he can overcome a believer is through deception and intimidation. It is okay if you’re shaking on the inside and feel afraid just don’t let it move you to let go and give up. Stand firm on the truth of God. My husband is cancer-free but no matter what happened I knew I would not be crippled by fear…everyday. 1/18/2021 Making Connections with OthersMonday Matters-January 18, 2021
Everyday Best Friends “We’re best friends now!” that’s my “go-to” line when I’ve connected with someone in a significant way. I take a “selfie” with the person too and get their information to stay connected. Gigi and I are best friends now too. I met her at a retreat and like all people she had to story to tell. Gigi shared her wild child past living in Brazil and as I listened to her I found what is true with so many others, we make harmful choices when we live in darkness and hopelessness. I know that there’s hope no matter who we are and what we’ve been through and that’s what pulled Gigi out of her pit. There was hope, there was Jesus who knew and knows and loves her as she is. Our past does not have to define our future. Our best friends are those who know that the hope is there and His name is Jesus…everyday. 1/11/2021 Only God Knows A HeartMonday Matters-January 11, 2021
Everyday My Heart Take comfort in knowing only God knows your heart yet I know it stings when someone judges you harshly because they can’t see your heart. The human heart is arrogant, and often cares for itself above all, prone to judge others, prone to make demands of others. The heart is also needy and incomplete with holes that can only be repaired by God’s perfect love. Where’s the healing for it all? Jesus. He is it, His Word which is both justice and mercy. First, we must deeply understand and truly own our brokenness. 1 John 1:8 people, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The Bible doesn’t call us to judge others but it calls us to always be mindful and humbly recognize our own weakness. Whatever righteousness we possess was given to us by the victory of Christ’s death and resurrection. God is grieved when we use the Bible on others as a weapon. Humility. Ask God to give you the grace to love others as He does…everyday. 1/4/2021 Let Go & Let GodMonday Matters-January 4, 2021
Everyday Roll-it Up My nephew playing D1 hockey and enrolled in a tough Ivy League School need encouragement. So, each week I’d encourage him with scripture and help with how to apply and persevere. Proverbs Week was good like with Proverbs 16:3; "Roll up your works upon the Lord, commit and trust them wholly to Him; and He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and so shall your plans be established and succeed." Here's what I told him I pictured with the verse. I lay a sleeping bag out on the floor and I put all the things that are weighing me, frustrating me, and making me anxious or depressed. I lay down my issues and then I roll up the sleeping and put it on the shoulders of Jesus. And as I really do this, I mean really surrender, He begins to put in my heart & head the purpose and the plan He has for me. He gives me grace and strength to "let go" so that my thoughts become agreeable to His will. God’s way works as long as I let Him in…everyday. 12/28/2020 Comfort in GrievingMonday Matters-December 28, 2020
Everyday Hope Ahead Life is hard. An unexpected death of someone you love is hard. Yep. I’m a Christian because I am convinced that only in Jesus Himself is there any adequate, calming useful, clear explanation of any of life’s tragedies. When a friend loses the life of a loved one, what can we offer? I’ve found simply sitting beside them to grieve the loss, the shortness of life or perhaps how it all feels unfair, is best. But surely our Savior has earned the right to say to us, at the open graves of our loves, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” The Savior who has been there and back safely, who died and rose again and now can fully assure us. To say a loved, one died because of some sin in our lives is not only unrealistic, distorted thinking for a Christian, in whom “the light of the world” lives, but is an insult to the forgiving heart of the Father. Love others as He does. Share the hope…everyday. |
Archives
August 2020
Categories
All
|