Friday, February 8, 2013 -- Fault Lines Of The Heart -- Life Lines To God's Power
Friday February 8, 2013
As we turn in a new direction towards healing and life, we have to somehow confront both the power of self and the power of Satan in our lives. We’ve learned how to blame and so it’s often relatively easy to see Satan’s involvement and agree to cut his influence out of our lives. The harder work for most of us is surrendering our personal power and control. If we’re honest, we really struggle to completely lay down control as we’ve known it and surrender to a new higher power. We just don’t believe God loves us more than we love ourselves. We’ve decided what taking care of us looks like and as long as God is willing to do that for us, we’ll go along with His plan. However, when God leads us by another way – and He surely will because He’s the only one who actually knows love and life and freedom – then we refuse and take back control. Why? We don’t believe in a power and a love greater than our own. God’s attributes are evident and yet our belief system says we know better.
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. (James 1:20-22 NLT)
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. (James 1:20-22 NLT) The root of our problem is in our belief system. In our hearts we tell ourselves that if God truly loved us He should have spared us from the troubles that overcame us and He didn’t. How could He love us and let us experience pain and injustice? How can we trust Him? Initially, we have to surrender to the fact that God’s ways are higher than our ways and may be beyond our ability to understand.
It is God’s desire to restore us to a relationship with Him that is satisfying and life giving. Until we free those sections of our heart that are locked in hatred and victimization, we have no space for real relationship. There is no sanity as long as we live in hatred and resentment. God says so. Our feelings may disagree but God is right and our feelings are wrong. To come to believe is to agree with God and ask Him to help us find a way to live His way even though it makes no sense at all to us. We choose to be teachable. We allow God to show us new ways to behave because we accept His promise as true: No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:39 NLT) The choice to wholeheartedly believe and live in God’s love, regardless of our feelings, restores us to sanity. God’s power is infinitely greater than the evil of Satan and the arrogance of self. Will we choose to believe this truth today and surrender to the God who loves us unconditionally and whose love frees us from every other power?
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