Embrace the Within no. 201

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”(Matthew 5:4 CSB).

People are not easy to love because sometimes they suffer a loss that seems too much for them to carry. People begin to live a life filled with bitterness and sadness because they have lost something important to them on this side of eternity and they have lost their hope and confidence. People are filled with bitterness and sadness because they do not allow themselves to see the goodness in life and the abundant joy and peace God promises us now and in the world to come. People are sad because they have nothing and no one in which to put their faith. Faith is an action. Hope is my confidence. Courage is choosing to change. And there is no reason for those of us that have faith in Him to find sadness and mourning as our constant state because He will comfort us. Is there a greater comfort than having faith and confidence in Him?

People are not easy to love because they are hurt by other people. Sometimes this hurt is intentional and sometimes it is merely a part of life. There are many natural and unnatural causes of mourning.

“Wait for the Lord;

be strong, and let your heart be courageous.

Wait for the Lord” (Psalms 27:14 CSB).

God is there. He doesn’t go anywhere. He sent the Spirit to abide within us as we walk this side of eternity. And the Spirit is there to be our comforter in times of mourning. The Spirit is there to bring you and I peace. He has a plan for us to rely on Him. And sometimes we need to be reminded that He is our source of comfort and peace. I can get so caught up in the comfort that is around me. I can get complacent in my living and I can feel that I no longer need God to bring me comfort or joy or peace or life. I can get so used to how things are going that I can bury myself in the comfort of this world rather than the comfort with which He provides.

I can also find the opposite side of that coin and find no peace or comfort or joy or life. I can spend my time in sorrow for the things I lose in life. I can be sad about the ways I have been treated and mourn the loss of friendship. I can be sad about the death of someone I loved and mourn the loss of their life. I can be sad about losing a job and mourn the loss of income and status. I can choose to be sad about a lot of things and live a life in pain and sorrow. Or I can choose the comfort that He provides through His grace and mercy and love. I just need to choose.

I can’t live a life in mourning with the Spirit working inside me. I will bear the fruit that discerns what sort of tree I am, “In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17 CSB). I am promised that the Spirit will abide in me and that through the Spirit I will see its fruit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things” Galatians 5:22-23 CSB). What does my fruit say about me?

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

Embrace the Within no. 198

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for the kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Matthew 5:3 CSB).

Poor in spirit does not mean we have a spirit that is lacking in anything BUT arrogance. No one really explained that to me when I was growing up and that makes a lot of difference in reading this opening passage to the Sermon on the Mount. I mean how can someone be spiritually prosperous or blessed if their spirit is somehow lacking or impoverished? This opening line links back to this line in Isaiah, “For the high and exalted One He who inhabits eternity, Whose name is Holy says this, ‘I dwell on the high and holy place, But also with the contrite and humble in spirit In order to revive the spirit of the humble And to revive the heart of the contrite [overcome with sorrow for sin]’” (Isaiah 57:15 AMP). My sorrow over my sin makes my heart and spirit poor and contrite. I have to really feel bad about sinning. And not just from the starting point of being sorry that my sin is going to cause me eternal harm. I have to be sorry that my sin is messing up my relationship with Him. Being sorry means that I am going to do something to try and fix the problem.

People talk all the time about being sorry and then they continue to do the same wrong things. And that isn’t sorrow. That isn’t repentance. And that isn’t changing. That is not going to get my relationship with God into a better place so that He can revive my heart. A lot of the time the problem with my walk with the Lord is my heart. I let my heart and my feelings and what I want and how I want things to get in the way of my relationships with not only others BUT with Him as well.

And that makes it difficult for me to love and truly difficult to be loved. And here it is right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. I need to have a spirit of service. I need to have a spirit that wants to be reconciled. I need to have a spirit that wants to be better. Not just a spirit that is sorry.

God promises to comfort me if I have a spirit of reconciliation. Again, in Isaiah God promises, “'For all these things My hand has made, So all these things came into being [by and for Me],’ declares the Lord . ‘But to this one I will look [graciously], To him who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who [reverently] trembles at My word and honors My commands’” (Isaiah 66:2 AMP). He will look graciously on those with contrite spirit that tremble at His word and honor His commands. So, here is the spirit of reconciliation shown as someone that respects the authority of God and trembles with the humility and reverence that God deserves and follows obediently His commands.

And Jesus lays out simply the commands later on, “He said to him, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands’” (Matthew 22:37-40 CSB). And how do I do those things? Well, again Jesus lays that out in simple terms, “'Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it’” (Luke 9:23-24 CSB).

I pray that I have a contrite spirit today that trembles in obedience. I pray that my spirit seeks to reconcile my sorrow in obedience. I pray that my actions show a spirit that is seeking reconciliation and relationship with Him. I pray that through this spirit I can show my love to God and others and that this spirit transforms me into someone that can be more easily loved as well.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH