HEART MATTERS

“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”  Ephesians 4:7

Have you ever done something really kind for someone only to later have that same person wrong you in some sort of manner?  Stings doesn’t it?  Normally when this happens we become incensed with that person.  The first thing our mind goes to is that time (or all those times) when we afforded them a special kind of grace so to speak.  We may have felt like they didn’t deserve it and yet we treated them to something special.  We may have thought “I’m going to probably regret this…” but we continued on in our friendship with them.  And even though that apology they gave really seemed insincere at the time, we chose to forgive them anyway.  When something questionable occurred, we chose to give them the benefit of the doubt, although the waving red flags were blinding us.  Overall, we chose to be “the bigger person”, in turn making them a recipient of our grace.  This “gift of grace” we’ve given them can be ever present with us even if it’s neatly tucked away in our subconsciousness.  Therefore when the offense happens, our minds can quickly remember all the good we did and why we never deserved to be so wronged.  As a result we can’t believe this person had the audacity to go there with us.  So our response is usually something like, “how could you!” or the “the nerve!” Every time this happened to me I had a special way of expressing my grief.  It wouldn’t take long for me to say “(such and such) completely stepped on my grace!”

One day I made this comment to a friend about someone else.  (I know I shouldn’t have.  I’m working on having more discretion.  But in this moment I went there and there I was mouthing off about how this person once again “stepped on my grace”.)  Immediately I felt that stick of conviction the Holy Spirit will sometimes ever so gently jab us with.  So when my conversation ended I began to pray about it to see why I felt convicted. As I examined myself, I knew the conviction wasn’t about me speaking about it to my good friend.  Normally anything I share with someone else, I’ve already spoken about it with the person involved. No, I knew this had to do with my phraseology-that sentence I so loved to use-“stepped on my grace.”  I started to realize maybe I had no right to say such a thing.  Although I thought it was a clever way to express what I felt maybe my wording was not so appropriate after all.

Continue reading Gifts That Flow From Grace →

Heart Matters

“Therefore , my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 15:58

I can’t think of many people who actually like being uncomfortable.  Most of us are always working to ensure our comfort-through our finances, our health, and our environment.  In fact some are so consumed with their own comfort they obsess over it  by trying to control every single detail of their life. I have to admit I’m a lover of comfort.  For me that translates mainly into living in a nice environment and being able to do what I plan to do each day.  As such, there was a time in my life whenever someone asked me to do something for them, the first thing I thought about was how it was going to inconvenience me.  I rarely said no, but the more the request took away from my comfort, the more I resented serving (and the more I complained).

Comfort is such a natural desire that it’s understandable that most wouldn’t stop for a second to think of guarding their hearts against it.  And yet the quest for comfort is like one of those subtle little foxes that sneak in under the radar and rob us of something very valuable.  Our preoccupation with the reasonable expectation of living comfortably ends up confining and enslaving us.  It’s an insatiable desire of sorts-its obtainable, however, once we have a certain measure of comfort, we either spend all our time fighting to keep it or endeavoring to reach an even greater level of comfort. People work hard all their lives so that they can retire comfortably.

However the areas of our greatest needs are the areas that can present the greatest threat to us.  The things we believe we deserve are the things we can become fixated with obtaining.  The things we feel we need are the things that can cause us to compromise our values to attain. Our comfort is important to us and rightfully so, but if we’re not careful, securing our comfort can cause us to sacrifice our call.  Therefore even this reasonable desire for comfort must be taken captive to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  HE alone can keep both our needs and our wants in perfect balance.  And He’s the only One who can make sure that our own comfort never precedes our call in HIM.  Continue reading Uncomfortable For CHRIST →

HEART MATTERS

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:10

I believe it takes some time for a new believer to accept that God has a call on their lives. It takes a while for us to embrace the idea that God has an incredible purpose that He’s specifically designed for us to accomplish.  We enter into our relationship with Christ and we are instantly changed but the environment around us remains the same.  We continue to wake up and go to work; come home and cook dinner; spend time with the kids; unwind, watch some t.v.; and prepare to begin the process all over again the next day.  We continue to do life accepting the repetitive and sometimes mundane activities that afford us the ability to live comfortably. We have enough on our plates to keep us busy and as such we are easily distracted from things of eternal value.   As believers, deep down we know we should be serving the Lord in some way, we just don’t know how to “make it happen” and/or find the time to do so.  As such we find ourselves feeling spiritually stuck.  We attend church and perhaps we find time for our daily devotions, but overall we feel like spiritual failures.  In a sense we’re actually grateful for all the busyness of our daily activities because they distract us from how defeated we really feel.

Thankfully The Lord is above all!  He’s above our foolishness, our naivete, our carnality, our self-centeredness, and our sinfulness. He’s above our lackadaisical/lazy attitudes. He is above our shortsightedness and all of our weaknesses. Thankfully God’s doesn’t allow anything to go to waste! So what does He do about our insensitivity towards our real purpose and our willingness to ignore our opportunities to serve HIM?  HE meets us right where we are! Continue reading The Prepared Path →

HEART MATTERS

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55: 9

It wasn’t until I read the book of Isaiah that I fully understood the Sovereignty of God.  I think up until that time, although I had been a believer for many years, I thought that the difficult places of my life were either the result of chance or perhaps the consequences of my sin.  We all have them-those ongoing struggles that persist year after year with seemingly no end in sight.  Those areas of our lives where we just can’t understand why God hasn’t answered our prayers even though we have been praying the same prayer year in and year out.  We all have those places that causes us to feel weak, weary, and desperate for deliverance.  Like a kid strapped in his car seat against his will “we want out!”  At times we feel like we can’t stand another moment of that difficult person, that unbearable circumstance, or that dire situation.  We refuse to accept the dysfunction, the brokenness, the disease, the addiction, or the illness.  And yet whatever it is we’re dealing with it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.  Unwanted as it may be, it continues to be a part of our life’s journey.  Some days it’s bearable, but others, it’s just downright cruel.  Those are the dark days when we feel as though we are being beaten, broken, and under an oppression that clouds every space of our being.  We cry out to God knowing He hears our prayers and yet He allows the painful thorn to remain.

For a while we subconsciously reason that God must not know about this.  He had to have let this slip through the back door because there is no way He would allow something so difficult in our lives. Surely such a good God would not want us living with something that can be so devastating.  Continue reading The Cleansing Cup →