Thursday, February 16, 2006

Prompted to share...

I confess I have not been doing my quiet time in the morning for the last three days. I have been finding other things to occupy my time...This morning I struggled for about 15 minutes thinking I wanted to do something else other than sit down and be quiet with God. Well, God won out! I read and spent some time praying, and I am so glad I did! It's ironic that the days I resist so much I receive the most relevant message to my life on the very day I decide to obey the Spirit's prompting.
I pray this blesses someone as much as it did me...

From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
http://www.rbc.org/utmost/

"Arise from the dead..." Ephesians 5:14
When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” God does not give us overcoming life-He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, "Arise from the dead . . . ," we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand, "Stretch out your hand" (Matthew 12:13). As soon as the man did so, his hand was healed. But he had to take the initiative. If we will take the initiative to overcome, we will find that we have the inspiration of God, because He immediately gives us the power of life.

Then I continued to read the study in James and got more!

1Why do you fight and argue with each other? Isn't it because you are full of selfish desires that fight to control your body? 2You want something you don't have, and you will do anything to get it. You will even kill! But you still cannot get what you want, and you won't get it by fighting and arguing. You should pray for it. 3Yet even when you do pray, your prayers are not answered, because you pray just for selfish reasons.
4You people aren't faithful to God! Don't you know that if you love the world, you are God's enemies? And if you decide to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5Do you doubt the Scriptures that say, "God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us"? 6In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scriptures say, "God opposes everyone
who is proud,
but he is kind to everyone
who is humble."
7Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you. 8Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you people who can't make up your mind. 9Be sad and sorry and weep. Stop laughing and start crying. Be gloomy instead of glad. 10Be humble in the Lord's presence, and he will honor you.

I know what God was saying to me through this...I hope that He reveals something to you as well...
Have a wonderful day!







1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing those scriptures. I particularly was challenged by the James passage. Being a friend of the world certainly is a miserable thing where peace cannot be found. How stupid it is for a believer to turn from God and seek what the world has to offer. The only place that true peace and comfort come from is from the Lord as we are in fellowship with him and seek things above and not the things on this earth (as Paul says in Colossians 3). Hope all is well with you.

    Love,
    Dad

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