Calling God To Mind

SCRIPTURE: LAMENTATIONS 3:19-26

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”

OBSERVATION:

I just had a conversation with my kids about how tough it is to get yucky and negative thoughts out of our mind. It may be a reoccuring nightmare or just negative thoughts, maybe it’s bad memories or the hard time your are currently facing, whether it is based on reality or simply “borrowing trouble” these thoughts are difficult to overcome. Impossible without God in our lives.

I am convinced that most if not all of our battles in life are first won in our minds. We choose to press in or to retreat in our minds. We find hope or lose it in our minds. We remember God’s promises or ignore them in our minds.

APPLICATION:

Winning the battle is not forgetting our struggle or never feeling downcast. It is calling to mind the person of God - the loving, compassionate, faithful, good, and saving God who is enough. It is speaking His character to ourselves in the midst of our struggle. It is waiting on Him. It is giving your spirit a voice not just your mind and your emotions.

PRAYER:

Father, thank you for your mercies which are new every morning. Help me to not simply mentally rehearse my circumstances, but to call to mind who you are and who you have been to me. Help me to propheticly speak your person and presence into my circumstances and life. You are good and faithful Lord, thank you for this reminder this morning. If ever I needed it it is now. In Jesus’s name - AMEN!

VALUE COMES FROM THE GIVER, NOT THE GIFT

SCRIPTURE: Ezekial 16:13-16

“‘You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect,’ declares the Sovereign LORD.

‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. Such things should not happen, nor should they ever occur.’”

OBSERVATION:

It is an amazing thing how this happens - not to mention how often this happens. Ezekial is painting a picture of the relationship between God and His people. God finds us, or we approach God, beaten up by circumnstances and life. God cleans us up, heals our wounds, place value in us, gifts us with abilities and influence. We get so wrapped up and consumed with the gift that we ignore the giver. We become deceived and belive that it is the gifts that impart value rather than the giver of the gift confirming the value he has given us thru gifting us.

APPLICATION:

God makes all things beautiful in His time - yes, even us. When I see beauty in my life I want it to cause me to trust in God and not in myself. I want it to inspire praise and worship to the one who gives me value and gifted me beauty (character, influence, family, finances, etc.). I don’t want to trust in the beauty but in the one who makes me beautiful.

PRAYER:

Father, thank you that you are doing a thing of beauty in my life. You have gifted me with health and relationships. You have given me a purpose and the talents to walk that purpose out. You have blessed me with so much. I remember who I am with and without you. I choose to give remain in you, the One who makes me beautiful and established my worth. Thank you for all the things you have done and all the you have poured into my life. In Jesus Name, AMEN!