Need Rest

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

I hate how Satan always ruins my humility....ok yes, i know. All you theologians, I know I let him....because Satan can't make me do anything....yada yada. But I did everything I was supposed to, I said everything I was supposed to....Why am I still in anguish? Why am I being crucified? Christ has already done that for me....I've already been raised with Christ!

Topical Study

Many either take the sovereignty of God for granted or fail to understand it more thoroughly beyond the facts that God exists and is working to some degree in our lives. But we need to see how intimately and actively He is involved. He is more than casually involved in the operations of His creation, and this includes each of us personally and individually.

Humans can literally lose themselves in their work by devoting to it all their time and energy to the exclusion of everything else. We call these people "focused" or "single-minded," and this often leads to relationship problems. There is no telling how many marriages or friendships have been ruined by this intensity of purpose. God is deeply involved in operating His creation. Unlike a man, however, God will never "lose" Himself in what He is doing at any given moment because the capacity of His powers and the perfection of His nature prohibit such a thing. Is our concept of God "big" enough to include such a thought? Our understanding of God must be growing, otherwise our faith will be severely limited.

God expresses Himself with great diversity in both the animate and inanimate elements of creation. Nonetheless, the laws of nature operate and keep everything under control. Because we are so attuned to law, we are naturally and subtly persuaded to think that God made things and then stepped aside to let laws regulate them. Does God really need to manage or govern His creation actively?

Psalm 22:28 supplies the answer: "For the kingdom is the LORD'S, and He rules over the nations." Notice, "rules" is an active verb, and "nations" is plural! He manages, keeps under control, or directs everything according to His own purpose. God did not create then step away from what He made; He does not allow His creation to operate on its own. We are not subject to uniform, impersonal law but a sovereign God actively controlling the operations of His creation!

feeling defeated

All too often I lose sight of the meaning of the Cross. I keep putting that "veil" over my eyes and fall back into that dilluted vision that my life is my own...I feel so much like Apostle Paul --"I do the things I do not want to do, and don't do the things I do want to." And then I realize I've fallen into a spiritual coma and deceive myself by thinking I'm slave to my sin and that "nobody's perfect"....CH!

Romans 6
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?....17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I'm here for Him-Holy God. I get so caught up in living the life He gave me, I forget why He gave it to me....to glorify Him. All of these pleasures we find here on earth can't amount to the pleasure I can find glorifying Him...so why do I choose them over Him? God, help me to never lose sight of the "bigger picture".

Lord, I have said the eternal Yes.
Let me never, having put my hand to the plough, look back.
Make straight the way of the cross before me.
Give me love, that there may be no room for a wayward thought or step.