Changing your mindsets...

I have done it before. 

 I can do it again. 

 Then why am I having such a hard time?

 I feel like I can relate tothe passage in Romans 7. The Message version below.

  15 What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise.

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	16 So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.
	17 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!
	18 I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it.
.	19 I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.
	20 My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
	21 It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.
	22 I truly delight in God's commands,
	23 but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
	24 I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
	25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. My husband and I were talking about this just this morning.  As he posed the question, "What do you think you will say when you meet Jesus face to face for the first time?" I think I will be like Isaiah when God appeared in a vision.  I will fall on my face and just want to ask for forgiveness for all the times I blew it trusting Him for deliverance from issues.  He has shown up at other times and revealed something to me that allows me to get through it. Then in then life gets busy and I get distracted.  Temptation comes and I forget to turn around to remember what I already know to be true. I have a few issues righ now I would love to have breakthrough that just instantly changes the struggle to victory.  I think that this time God wants me to fight for my freedom.  What might that look like? I think this morning he gave me an action plan.  This one is going to take some time, some mind power and maybe some elbow grease as well. Proverbs 4:20-27 or Psalms 119:9-16  both talk about meditating on his Word...to us that is our Bible.  Proverbs talks about His Word  being in the middle of your life.  Both passages  talk about keeping the word before you and knowing it by memory. It comes with a few IF promises. The promise is IF we seek Him and lean in him and hide his word in our heart that  health will come to our bodies, find purity for our souls, and direction for our path.  Ultimately freedom will open before us. My husband concluded our conversation by saying.  You need to pray that God will change your heart and your desire for those things.  Pray that he will step in and help.  That he will give you His strength to make the changes neccesary.  He is also going to have to help me with memorizing the verses he points out. Open up my mind and make my brain like a sponge that soaks in the information making the connections that will help me to recall his Words when I am in the moment of temptation. It will be a process. It will require work and time.  I hope I am up for the challenge...wait...yes I am because... With God all things are possible.

Trying to Impress vs Pleases the Lord

Current topic: 

The Super Woman vs Abiding Woman

(for explination see previous post)

The world we live in today screams a message at us everyday: 

YOU HAVE TO STRIVE TO BE BETTER THAN YOU ARE! 

You have to be skinnier. 

You have to dress better. 

You have to own all the right "toys". 

You have to live in the right neighborhood. 

You have to make more money.

IT'S ALL ABOUT ME...IF I HAVE IT SO OTHERS WILL LIKE ME TO!!! 

 IMPRESS THEM!!

What happens if you can't do all these things?

You hear messages like...

I am not enough.

I failed.

Life isn't worth it.

It's not fair.

Super woman buys into these philosophies.  I don't think it is always intentional.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good or have nice things. 

It is when it consumes you that it becomes a problem. 

The Bible states that anything that holds more of your attention (consumes you) more than God is an idol. 

Proverbs 29:25

The fear of man brings a snare (as a lure or bait);

but he who trust in the Lord will be exalted (to be set securely on high). nasb

The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that. msg

What is the lure?

Oh if people like me I will feel better, my life will be more meaningful.

I matter to people.  People like me.

Where do we get caught??

It could be letting other people dictate you self worth.

"Do they really like me for me of just for what I can do for them?" might be a question you ask yourself.

Or  the flip side...

"I can't do that or I messed up so now they will not like me."

If you are this person sometimes you get your motivations mixed up for why you are doing something.  It is hard for you to say no because they need somebody. 

Then you get busy...which is piggybacks off yesterday post...you can't be an IS if you are a DOES.

Any of these message distracts from the real purpose for your life.

WHERE IS THE HOPE?

Proverbs says  to trust in the Lord for safety from the snares.

Trust here means have confidence in.

Confidence, in Encarta  Dictionary, illudes to the idea

 that is based on a relationship of intamacy.

It implies that there is a belief that we will be well taken care of,

and that the person in charge (God in this case) knows the plan and

 He can do something about it.  

So the proper response should be pretty easy just trust and have confidence in God...

How many of us struggle with that? 

We have to know God and according to Ephesians 5:7-11 (below)

There fore, do not be partaker with them (deeds done before you were made new by Christ)

for you were formerly darkness

but now you are light in the Lord;

walk as children of the light

(for the fruit of light consits in all goodness and righteousness and truth)

trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

once we are IN CHRIST we are new creatures. There is a new reality.  Living in the light.  When my daughter wakes up in the morning her room is dark and she just stands there in her soggy diaper crying for relief, she is still stumbling around because she has not found the center of balance yet. 
I walk in turn on the light and instantly she squints and covers her face for just a moment.  It doesn't last long because she wants to see me.  She loves the idea that I am going to pick her up, snuggle with her and then get her out of her heavy diaper.  As she gets a custom to the light she walks around, exploring her surroundings and gaining that balance.
  It  is the same way with us.  Wether we realize it our night before we come to a saving knowledge of Christ and  His sacrafice and gift..before we accept that and make Him LORD of our life we have heavy stinky baggage and we are stumbling around in the darkness trying to figure out this life.
BUT
As soon as that truth becomes a reality heart felt belief the lights come on. 
Then little by little we try to learn what pleases Him and
We try to trust Him and obey the revealed truth
That requires a little work being intentional about
Getting to know Him
Seeking out truth
Making choices to Obey what he shows us.
We need people who are also walking in the light to be on the journey with us so we can learn from them and have support when those hard trials come.

WHAT IS THE REWARD? 
If we seek Him with all our heart we will find Him. Matthew 6:33
He changes us into a new creation that has a soft heart instead of a heart of stone. Ezekiel 36:26-27
Becoming more and more like Jesus beccause we will have greater knowledge of who he is and h much he loves us. Col. 1:21-23
He will keep us safe because He is our defender, deliverer, provider, and our refuge. Pr. 29:25
Honestly the biggest reward is in the after live forever with him in the perfection and beauty of heaven.

Now you have to choose...
Who will you listen to ...
Impress Me!!!
OR
Please the Lord
Who will you choose?