Wake Up

I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM to the sound of the alarm clock on my iPad. I rolled over and through my blurred vision, inched my finger over and pressed the green button on the screen. On this green button in medium-sized, black letters was the word “Snooze”. Once the sound ceased I rolled back over and continued sleeping. This series of events happened 2 more times until I finally decided not to press the snooze button again. I’m sure right now you know the feeling of being woke up by your alarm clock and just as it was with me, the snooze button becomes your best friend.

Well, just as much as the snooze button can become your best friend, it can also become your worst enemy causing you to be late for work, an appointment, or other important event in your life. How many times has this happened to you? You overslept, allowing the snooze button to appease your sleep, and were late or even missed that event you needed to get to?

In our spiritual life there is a “snooze” button called complacency. If we allow it complacency can cause us to miss our appointed time for that which God wants to bring us into. Our “comfort” will cause us to stay where we shouldn’t when we know that we should be “waking up” to whatever it is God wants to do in our lives.

Today, shake yourself from complacency. Tell your spirit to wake up and to not get too comfortable! God is always moving and we have to be awake in order to move with him. Have you ever been involved in a situation where you fell asleep and someone pulled a prank on you while you were sleeping. Possibly the always classic permanent marker mustache or even the old shaving cream in the hand trick. Nevertheless, it happened because you were sleeping and your sleeping brought the trick. I’m not saying you should stay awake and never sleep but I am saying that we have to be alert. Not only for what God is doing but because the devil is “seeking someone to devour”!

Wake up! Be ready! God is moving! Pray the following prayer and charge your spirit and your mind to wake up.

Prayer:
Dear God, I repent of complacency. I’m sorry that I’ve allowed my comfort to miss you and what you want to do in my life. Help me to keep my spirit alert and keep my mind aware of you and also the enemy. Help me to give you my all, follow you, and be awake to move when you move, I love you and thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

We all remember the song that we all sang as kids and even our kids sing it still today. “Yes, Jesus loves me for the bible tells me so” were the words to probably the most famous kids’ song in church. But have you ever really stopped to think about it? Jesus does love us and his word does tell us so. In fact the bible asks us this one question in Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of God?”. The answer is found in the words that follow…nothing. NO THING.

God loves us and Jesus loves us. His love never ends. We just need to become as little kids and find ourselves singing that song again with no pre-conceived ideas. I remember being a kid and singing that song with total abandon at the top of my lungs, not caring who heard me. Now I’m not saying that you should walk into Walmart and right in the middle of the frozen foods just start having a worship service. What I am saying is that we should return to innocence where our view of God is of Him as father and keeper instead of tyrant and dictator whose standing over us with his hammer of judgement. Grant it, just as we were punished as children by our earthly father, God has His ways of bringing discipline into our lives. The cold hard truth is that He loves us so much and longs to see us smile and be happy.

So yes, Jesus does love me and the bible tells me so.

Meditating On God by Justin Whittington

Have you ever wondered why your mind thinks of the most random things at seemingly the most random times? Have you ever been thinking about something good and then all of a sudden the most horrific, terrible thought comes to your mind? Truth is, our minds are constantly working and thinking. In fact, right now your mind is probably going through a million things at once. The bible clearly tells us that we are in a battle for our souls. I believe this battle starts, takes place, and ends in the mind. Our minds are the computer of our bodies. Our minds process all sorts of information. Notice I said that our minds PROCESS information. However, it’s up to us to determine what we will allow our mind to RETAIN & RECALL. Our minds process good thoughts and good information and also bad thoughts and bad information. It’s up to us whether or not we allow our minds to either retain and recall the good things or the bad things.

The Bible instructs us to be transformed by renewing our minds. (Romans 12:2) This happens when we allow God’s Holy Spirit to replace our bad thoughts with good thoughts. God uses your good memories and thoughts to remind you of his goodness and his ability. There might have been a challenge you faced before that God helped you through and in the middle of another challenge God will use that past memory to remind you that he is able to help you again. Philipians 4:8 tells us to fix our minds on things that are pure, and honorable, and right, and lovely, and admirable, and to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. So many times we can find ourselves focusing on the wrong things that in turn create wrong thinking.

If we’re going to win the battle of our thoughts and our minds we have to meditate on God. Thinking and dwelling on the devil and his schemes and attacks and thinking on other negative things will only breed fear. It’s been said before that Fear works with the devil like Faith works with God. The devil is crafty and he wants our attention to be focused on wrong thinking which takes our focus off of God and his goodness. God wants to give peace and give life. The enemy wants to give fear and bring death. It’s up to us whether or not we allow the Holy Spirit to bring peace to our minds in Christ Jesus. Isaiah 26:3 tells us that God will keep in perfect peace all who trust in HIM and all whose thoughts are fixed on HIM.

Fix your thoughts on him today and every day. Allow your mind to meditate on God and to think about his goodness. You might be asking, “How do I meditate on God?” The answer is simple. God speaks to us and encourages us through his word (the Bible). Psalm 1 says that blessed is the man who does not walk in the way of the ungodly and does not hang out with sin but his delight in the word of the Lord and on his word he meditates day and night. In order to have a mind at peace you have to meditate on God’s word. Whatever you feed is what will grow. Feed your flesh and your sinful nature grows and your wrong thinking grows. Feed your spirit with God’s word and your spirit grows and right thinking grows.

God loves us and wants us to think on him. He wants us to prosper. That same passage in Psalm 1 goes on to tell us that when we meditate on God’s word we become like trees planted by the river of living water. Our leaves do not wither and whatever we do will prosper. If you long to have a mind focused and centered on him, pray the following prayer and believe in your heart that what you pray God is able to do it for you.

Prayer:

Dear God, I ask you to renew my mind. I ask that your Holy Spirit help me to think on you and meditate on your word. Clear my mind of mental clutter and bad thoughts and information. Give me your grace to be able to recall good thoughts and meditate on good memories which remind me of your goodness and ability. I consecrate my mind to you. I ask that you would cover my mind with your Holy Spirit. Remove any thoughts of fear and anxiety and bring peace and joy to my mind. In Jesus name, Amen.

Change Of Heart by Justin Whittington

“I’ve had a change of heart.” This is a phrase we’ve heard before but what does it really mean? Often times when we speak of issues of the heart we somehow tend to think that we are talking about the literal blood-pumping muscle just behind our chest. Not exactly. Issues of the heart center around the secret places of your soul. Those places that only someone who is able to see everything could know. Psalm 139:12 says that to God the night shines as bright as day and darkness and light are the same to him. How unbelievable! Just when we thought we had hidden all those secret issues and secret thoughts and emotions we find that God sees them all. This revelation leads me to my next question. Have you ever said “I’ve had a change of heart” but didn’t mean it?

At the start of each new year most every person feels empowered and encouraged by a new year. Enough so that they begin to post to their facebook statuses and declare to the world their New Year’s resolutions. “I’m gonna lose this much weight!”. “I’m gonna save more money!”. “I’m gonna stop smoking!”. Many of these aren’t bad things. The only problem is the only thing holding up many of these resolutions are emotions. Don’t get me wrong emotions and energy are great to have. God wants us to express those things. However, our resolutions and declarations will only last if those deepest places of our hearts are on board with our emotions.

When we pursue God he wants everything to be in pursuit of him, not just our emotions. Matthew 15:8 speaks of individuals who pursue with their lips and their emotions when it says “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”. This simply means that often times we find ourselves only committing to God with our mouths while holding back the secret places of our souls where you guessed it, secret sins, secret hurts, and secret deeds live.

We must be willing to lay down our “secrets” and follow God. We must be willing to have a true heart change where our emotions are followed by our willingness to lay down our will for his. He knows the thoughts and the intents of our hearts (Psalm 94:11) and sees everything we hide. Give him your secrets and he’ll give you his. Trust me when I say that his secrets are incredible. If you want to have a true heart change pray this prayer and believe in your heart that what you pray he is able to do.

Prayer:

God, help me to give you my secrets. Help me to let go of secret fears, secret thoughts, secret sins and follow you. I trust that you are able to cause me to have a true heart change. Send your Holy Spirit to help me to not just say I will follow actually, whole-heartedly will follow you. I love you and I thank you for giving me the courage to stand outside of my secrets and into your truth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.