MAKE A FRESH START
How Do You Think God Sees You?
If we need refreshing in the way we see ourselves, we may also need a fresh
view of
the way God sees us. God does not withhold His Love,
acceptance, and assistance from us because we fail from time to time. He
is not looking for a perfect performance--just a willing heart that is
surrendered to Him.
God gave me a good example for this many years ago. When our youngest
son, Danny, was a little boy, he wasn't very tidy. So in order to motivate
him to keep his room clean and do a few chores around the house, we created
a chart with a system of check marks and stars. Everytime he did what was
required of him, we gave him a check. After he had a certain number of
checks, we gave him a star. And after he had a certain number of stars,
we bought him a present. Sometimes he had plenty of checks and stars, and
other times he had very few.
Well, there was a bully in our neighborhood that was always taking Danny's
ball away from him and throwing it down in the sewer. Every time this bully
would aggravate Danny, he would come running into the garage screaming,
"Daddy!" My husband, Dave, would nearly tear the door off its hinges to
get outside to protect him.
One day God said to me, "What kind of parents would you be if every time
Danny came screaming into the garage because the neighborhood bully was
after him you went to his room to see how many check marks and stars he
had?
You would be pitiful parents if you only protected him when he did everything
right. And if you and Dave wouldn't do that, then why do you think I would?"
This example really opened my
eyes--it gave me a who new perspective on
how God sees us. A system of checks
and stars may work with our children, but God doesn't do that with us.
He doesn't give us a check mark for every chapter of the Bible we read
or for every time we pray or for every time we go to church. When the bully
of our soul is aggravating us, God doesn't look first to see if we've "done
all our chores." When we cry out to Him for help, He steps in and helps
us just because we are His children.
Now God does not close His eyes to sin.
If we do something wrong or we get out of line, HE will correct us. For
the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves... (Hebrews 12:6.)
However, He will also not refuse to help us when we are in trouble.
We need to get a fresh revelation of
God's salvation. Once we are saved, God sees us as a brand new creation.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says,
if any person is [engrafted] in Christ
(the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old
[previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh
and new has come! This same fresh and clean feeling that we experience
when we are born again is available to us every day of our life. Lamentations
3:22, 23 says that the Lord's mercy and loving kindness never fail and
that they are new every morning.
For a long time, I hated myself because
I couldn't be what I thought God wanted me to be. One day, I finally came
to this realization: I am no surprise or shock to God. He knew what He
was getting when He called me. All I can do is cooperate with God when
He shows me what to do. There is no way I can change myself.
That is all God expects of us--cooperation.
By submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we can retrain
our flesh to crave the right things. God will show us how to avoid sin--but
when we do sin, all we need to do is repent, receive God's forgiveness,
and go on.
Psalms 55:22
"Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and
He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
"Father, I ask You to bless my children,
friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show
them a new revelation of your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask
You to minister to their spirit at this very moment. Where there
is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self doubt,
release a renewal confidence through Your grace, In Jesus' precious name.
Amen."
When Satan is knocking at your door,
simply say,
"Jesus, could
You please get that for me?"
No matter what you may be going though,
you need to be like those blow up clowns that kids get. That have
the weighted bottom and you are supposed to box them. When you knock
them down, it pops back up, well that's the way we should be. When
I get knock down I pop right back up, and why is that because YOU are a
child of God, called by his name.
Author ~ Joyce Meyer
 
 
 
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