Little reminders for my little heart.

• Lasting love is not rooted in emotions; it is rooted in truth.
• Let scripture be rooted in your heart, consistently pouring out of your mouth.
• Seek after Jesus daily, He is your satisfaction.
• Whatever you do, do it in a manner that is glorifying to God.
• Every second of every day remember to rest in Jesus.
• Pray for a heart of patience and understanding.
• Do not worry, nor be anxious, trust in your God. 
• Pray for His strength to carry you through all things, remember that you can do nothing apart from Him.
• Do not awaken love until it is time.
• Gods timing is always perfect.
• You are secure in Christ. 
• Your heart is known well by God.

Delighting Gods heart.

God is incomprehensible, to search the depths of Him is impossible, the very thing a mere mortal cannot do. Yet I long to know more about Him and I turn to scripture to lead me to the many truths that is He.

What does the Lord take pleasure in?

·      Faith in Jesus’ salvation – Hebrews 11:6

If you have been saved by faith, then you have been given the free gift of grace. Therefore, the Lord delights in you, He takes pleasure in seeing the faith that you have, the faith that He has given you by the blood of His son!

·      Revealing Himself to the Lost – Galatians 1:16

When the Lord revealed Himself to Saul, scripture says that He took pleasure, or delight in doing so! If you are in-Christ the Lord took pleasure in revealing Himself to you! It pleases Him to give the dead new life, to make the blind see, to reconcile Himself to His wayward children!

·      The fullness of God dwelling in His son Jesus Christ – Colossians 1:19

When Jesus was sent to save the sins of many, the fullness of God Himself was dwelling in Jesus’ earthly body. It pleased God to dwell in Jesus, to live out a perfect life, and to die on a cross to become propitiation for the sins of His faithless bride, then to rise again in all His glory and to come back one day to restore all things to Himself. The fullness of God in Jesus to have all these things take place pleases the Lord, He is delighting in the glory of Himself!

It’s beautiful to see what delights my Saviors heart!

Although the scriptures above are only a few that speak of what pleases the Lord, more is to come.

Stay tuned. 

“To please God… to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness… to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son- it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” - C.S Lewis

Joy in Eucharisteo.

In this life that is so very broken I have been unearthing the true significance of joy. I am seeking for Jesus and in the journey of this, finding true joy in Him. I often wonder what it would look like to live a life of unceasing joy, even in the midst of a broken world. My thoughts then sway towards the concept of Eucharisteo.

Eucharisteo. Which in Greek means these three words below.

Charis – Grace.

Chara – Joy.

Eucharisteo- Thanksgiving.

Grace. Joy. Thanksgiving.

Three marks of Jesus.

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Jesus, who is about to be murdered for the sins of His beloveds gave thanks! Knowing that He himself, The Son of God would be tortured, beaten, mocked and hung on a cross, He gave thanks. Jesus knew that He would face suffering by taking on the sins of men and the wrath of God on a cross, yet before He does any of that, knowingly He gives thanks!

How often do we give thanks in the midst of our suffering? Do we only give thanks to God when life is performing the way we'd like it to? Do we thank Him because He is deserving of all thanks in all circumstances, or do we give thanks in the circumstances we see fit? Thankfulness happens when we see Jesus as enough, not when He has given us enough in life.

Thankfulness flows from a heart of Joy. A heart of joy flows from a heart that is pursuing Jesus. A heart that is pursuing Jesus is a heart that has been given grace by Jesus Himself, all for His namesake. True joy is in thanksgiving, it is in grace, it is in Christ, and this all takes place in a broken world with broken people that are being made new in Christ.

"The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be - unbelievably - possible!" - Ann Voskamp

Joy vs. Pride

I am off on an adventure; I am discovering joy, being fully alive where I am in the moment, yet fully desiring more of the Lord in my contentment.

Throughout this endeavor, I am finding that the further I attempt to explore the concept of being abundantly satisfied in Christ, joy in Christ plays a role in this, a very great role. 

Pride also plays a part in the script.

Pride is many things; it is belief that you deserve something. Pride is brought on by self and it strips you of joy. A prideful heart crushes joy and leaves no room for thanksgiving. A prideful man is rarely a grateful one, for he thinks he deserves more than what he has, when in fact he deserve the profound contrary- death.

We have this sense of entitlement, of things we believe we ought to have, things due to us. But praise be to God that he does not give us what we deserve, instead He gives us grace, undeserving, blissful, indescribable grace.

Exchange your pride for thanksgiving and worship. Lay all things at the feet of Jesus, open up your hands and ask Him to give you more of Him, not more things that will soon vanish like vapor, but more of Him!

He satisfies and brings forth joy with Himself, for He is the satisfier of all desires and needs.

Proverbs 11:2

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. 1John  2:16 For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life--is not from the Father but is from the world.

Joy vs. Complaints

Complaints, they are the cries of unbelief and distrust in a Holy and good God.

Our complaints denotes doubt, it purges us of thankfulness, and rids us of joy.

I’ve noticed in myself the complaining that derives from my heart. An ugly heart, all at the root of its being is my lack of thankfulness, it's sin. In the garden Adam and Eve thought they needed more, they were unthankful for what God had already given them, so they disobeyed. And I disobey and complain because I think that I deserve better, more than what I have been given. I complain because I believe that things are not measuring up, or people are not measuring up, or life in general is just not measuring up. I complain due of the pride that grips my heart, because I believe that things need to go my way.

Complaining is ungodly, it is being ungrateful and it reveals the amount of dissatisfaction that our hearts holds, it shows that we are lacking in our joy in Christ. Christ has given us everything we need in Him; there is no need to complain in any circumstance. If you have Jesus, you have everything!

Look towards Jesus, love Jesus, pursue after Jesus and the grumbles will soon dissolve, your heart will be overwhelmed with more of Him, fully satisfied, full of joy, all for His glory.

Philippians 2:14-16

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

This endeavor of joy.

A venture that is inwardly moving, spiraling in the gravities of my tangled mind. A constant, central focus on Christ, and the notion of joy He places in the depths of this heart.

I am recognizing the joy in thanks, that being thankful brings forth joy. Being thankful in the times of mess, unrighteous anger, unexpected times, and every day life.

Be thankful with an unceasing thanksgiving. Trade the ugliness of me for more of Him, along with an offering of thanks, regardless of the circumstance.

Giving thanks is an action, an action that must be completed with a willing heart. Although joy will subside and an unthankful heart takes hold, joy is deeper than feelings; its saying “Yes!” to whatever God has graciously given in life, and being thankful despite the ugly that is brought on by a sinful nature.

You receive joy in Christ when you offer up thanksgiving to Him who is deserving of all thanksgiving. Exchange your fleshly desires for a heart of gratefulness and joy.

I challenge you to embark on this journey with me, see how a heart of joyous thanksgiving transforms a heart of ungodly ungratefulness.

“I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:18

Remind me.

Lord, remind me that my emotions do not change you, that you remain faithful and true.

Despite my feelings, You remain good with grace deeper than the ocean blue.

Remind me Lord of Your truth, that I am sealed forever.

 Guaranteed with an inheritance, eternally Yours, fettered.

Lord, remind me that I am free in Christ, although I may feel enslaved,

that I have been given freedom by your blood and a Spirit to obey.

Lord, remind me that I am not my own, that I lay my life down.

The very same way you did years ago, along with the thorns of a crown.

Lord, remind me that all things are perishable, that things will not last,

that only you are everlasting, future, present and past.

Lord, remind me that I am of worth, holy and blameless in Your sight.

Although I may feel ashamed, You have declared me right.

Lord, again remind me of Your unconditional love, that I am viewed as a treasured jewel,

and Lord press upon my heart an unceasing love for you.

Lord, remind me of Your glory, the immeasurable riches of your grace,

that You are holy and set apart, and the reason I run this race.

Fear of The Lord.

For the past two years I have pondered the notion of fearing the Lord. I have continued in my faith questioning myself, asking if I fully fear the Lord. My answer would be “No” every single time. 'Til one day it clicked.

 It started with recognizing that my fear of God must be shaped by my love of God.

What is fearing the Lord?

“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil…” Proverbs 8:13

Fearing the Lord is hating what God hates out of your love for Him. It is recognizing that God is better than any sin on this earth and out of reverence, respect and at the core of it all, love, we want God more than we want our autonomy.

The more that I understand the fear of the Lord the more my daily life is transformed. The sins I would usually commit that I thought were little (such as the white lies to save face) were suddenly seen as huge in my life. I started feeling conviction in areas that I had not before. The Lord was sanctifying me by showing me how holy He is compared to my flesh and that every sin that I once thought was small was huge compared to His holiness.

 

And in the midst of all of my sin (even my little white lies) it showed that I did not fear the Lord, but instead feared man. At the core of my lying I recognized that I wanted myself to look good to people and became fearful that if I told someone that I had slept in til noon or that I hadn’t read the bible that day that I would look bad, so instead I would lie. In Proverbs 12:22 it says that “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” This includes even the little white lies. 

The more I meditated on the holiness of God the more my once little sins grew into gigantic sins that I could not continue doing out of my love and fear for the Lord. 

When you fear...

“The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied…” Proverbs 19:23

Fearing the Lord has been a process, one that I continue to meditate on and pray about. It has brought about more reverence and love in my relationship with the Lord and I am being renewed and satisfied daily. Fearing God has allowed me to set aside any pride, fear of man, or desire of autonomy in my life and rest in the goodness of His holiness and love despite my sin.

I am aware that I am not even beginning to touch the depths of what fearing the Lord entails, but I am excited to continue to dig deep in The Word and continue to gain knowledge of His holiness and how it  continually leads to fearing a holy and righteous God.

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.