The Challenge of Balance: Doing vs.Trust

All day I have been wrestling with these two scriptures. I had to make a picture to represent the Dilemma. There’s such a difficult Balancing Act of expecting God to do everything for us, and putting into practice Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask, Seek, Knock”.

However for those of us who try make everything happen ourselves, the go-getters, those who see a problem and want to fix it on our own, there is a direct conflict and sometimes torment if we do not allow ourselves to Rest and Trust.

As I was meditating on Romans 8:28 something jumped out for the first time in my life today. It says and GOD WILL WORK, not me, but God will work. In our microwave society we want everything done instantly. We always forget that there are multiple things at work for one issue that we are facing.

We want the verse to say, and God will instantly make everything happen just the way we want, when we want it. 😂

But the verse says that God will work. He’s doing so many things behind the scenes that we have no idea about. He’s working on all of those things on YOUR behalf without you even having to try to figure out all of the solutions yourself. What an incredible revelation!

You mean even though we feel like the world rests on our shoulders, that God has the world in the palm of his hands? And He is working out all the solutions for our GOOD?

WOW, if that doesn’t take a load off, I don’t know what will.

Now, if you only read verse 28 of Romans 8 you are missing out on the key of how to make this happen. This doesn’t happen just instantly. Verses 5-9 says,

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mind set on what the spirit desires. The Mind governed by the flesh is death, but the MIND GOVERNED by the Spirit is LIFE & PEACE. The Mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. However you are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God lives inside of you.”

Doing the asking, seeking and knocking is something that we do with our physical body. Let’s say that we need to sell our house and buy another one. You can’t just pray for that to happen all by itself. There are physical things you have to do in order for that to happen. As much as I wish, we aren’t Mary Poppins snapping her fingers and everything magically comes into place. It takes effort and work. These are actions to achieve a purpose.

But trusting takes place in our spirit and our soul (mind, will & emotions). If our mind, will and emotions are not connected to the Spirit of God and subjected to the spirit of God, it opens the door to worry, fear and anxiety.

It’s time to stop focusing only on the problem and turn our gaze on the One who is working behind the scenes to fix the problem. He alone will break off the heaviness that we were not created to carry. Let’s learn to live life in the balance.That’s where life and peace exist.

#LiveLifeOutLoudForGod #trust #faith #romans828 #matthew7

The Mental Battle is Real – So is its Victory

It’s time to no longer allow the enemy to take bits of truth and turn it into a twisted daggar.

This last year has been mentally challenging for many of us. But! We with the power of the Holy Spirit working through us can break through those strongholds that are twisting our mind into a frenzie!

Those areas that take a piece of truth and mix it with an assumption, add in some hurt, dissapointment, anger and resentment and you get a fortress in your mind the enemy has built walls around.

Keeping that fortress may allow you a time of self pity, which can feel justified at first, but it will always hurt more. Self pity is the lock and chain around the fortress. We must be willing to acknowledge self pity is wrong and that it is justifying our sinful response instead of acknowledging God’s ability to set us free.

The weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood]. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ,being ready to punish every act of disobedience, when your own obedience [as a church] is complete. – 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2Corinthians10:4-6&version=AMP

The only things that can break that is the truth of the word of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, repenting of holding on to those lying thoughts as truth and a determination to stop mulling over those painful thoughts after we receive forgiveness.

The next step is putting into action a plan for a new course. Finally seeing it through. You can get help all you want after that. But if the first steps are not taken it won’t do a lick of good. Conquer the battle in the mind first.

This is my testimony this week. I pray it helps you on your own journey of freedom.