Power, love & self-discipline

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

Sometimes it is easy to recall verses like the one above, but it is much harder to live by them. We develop a way of living and it is hard to let go of. Our way of interacting with the world develops into a pattern that is familiar and safe, although, these habits often hinder us and don't allow us to reach our potential. Due to our fallen, sinful nature our patterns and way of thinking may limit us at times and may not be of God. However, Romans 6:4 says that via salvation we are able to live a new life.  Our new life means that we are to be alert and self controlled. Alert to when our old patterns of thought or fear or anger or ... are surfacing (1 Peter 5:8). Then, self-control to not dwell on it or give into it.

Ephesians 4:15 encourages us to speak the Truth in love. This even applies to how we deal with ourselves. If God wants us to encourage each other with truth in love, then wouldn't He want us to do that for ourselves as well. We often beat ourselves up mentally for not being able to obey God perfectly, but He knows that we are human and fallen, and He knows when we are making an honest effort to obey Him.

Plan of Action James 1:22 & James 1:25: To pray about our thought patterns.
Read More: Galatians 5:22-23
Prayer: Heavenly Father, please make me aware of my patterns of thinking and living that are not from you. Help me to be aware so that I can change these things in time.

Anchored!

Hebrews 6:18-20

^" God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."

As long as we stay connected to our anchor we won't go anywhere, however we are always free to let go of the anchor at any time. That is part of His love for us that we can choose to let go and not follow Him at any time. Sometimes it is a diliberate choice other times we may not realize we are drifting away.

Our connection can be lost sometimes without our even realizing we are letting go. How do we cut off our connection? We stop praying, reading His Word, stop going to church, stop meeting with other believers. Usually it starts slowly. When we see this happening to people around us reach out to them and try to reconnect them to the Anchor, because the current of sin is strong and will drag us further away than we had planned to go. We can help reconnect others by showing interest in them, being generous, not judging them, offering to pray for them and talking to them.

Our connection to the Lord is a bond of love. The Anchor is God's love for us and when we obey Him then He is faithful to fulfill His part. Keep running to Him and He will guide your steps.

Prayer: Jesus help me to pray about the difficulties I am having so that we can stay connected.

Read More: Hebrews 12:1

Plan of Action James 1:22 & James 1:25: Return to God.

Fallen short...

I am signed up for e-mails from Max Lucado and I received this today. I thought it was worth sharing.

"Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

 

Worry is falling short on faith. Impatience is falling short on kindness. The critical spirit falls short on love.

 So, how often do you sin, hmm… in an hour? For the sake of discussion, let’s say ten times an hour. Ten sins an hour, times sixteen waking hours, times 365 days a year, times the average life span of 74 years. I’m rounding the total off to 4,300,000 sins per person! How do you plan to pay God for your 4.3 million sin increments? You’re swimming in an ocean of debt.

But God pardons the zillion sins of selfish humanity. He forgives sixty million sin-filled days. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by the grace of Jesus Christ."