Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 4: Sin's Effect on Our Capacity for God

Now that we have looked at sin’s beginnings, and the truth laid out in God’s Word about sin we need to talk about how sin affects our capacity to know and believe God. Obviously, sin is all around us. We are human and frequently fail to resist temptation, or find ourselves giving in to the sin nature in the form of anger, envy, gossip, or even over indulgence. Does the occasional sin keep us from this great capacity that Oswald was talking about?

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The first thing we have to acknowledge as truth is that we have sin in us as long as we walk in the flesh. While we obtain salvation and are fully redeemed when we believe in Jesus we don’t automatically stop sinning. Won’t it be nice one day when sin no longer appeals to us: the lure of things that only momentarily satisfy, and the pull of wrong thinking? The key is to not allow sin to reign in us. Look at the following Scriptures.

“5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”

— 1 John 1:5-10 (NASB 1995)

“1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.”

— Romans 6:1-7 (NASB 1995)

Image by Rob van der Meijden from Pixabay

If we have given our lives to Jesus sin no longer has ownership over us. We are no longer slaves to sin. That being said, it is a daily choice to live a sinless life. In fact, sometimes it is an hour by hour or even a moment by moment choice. As we saw above in 1 John 1:9 we have a pathway to deal with our sins. When we fall, we confess, and Jesus who is faithful and just will forgive us. What a blessing.

Sin affects our capacity to know and understand God in the following ways:

1 - It keeps us in the dark. Look back at 1 John 1 again. Sin, when regularly allowed to have sway in our lives puts a veil over our ability to know God’s truth and dig deeper into His layers. We will find ourselves stumbling in the dark because we are not making use of the light He has given us.

2 - It prevents us from having full fellowship with God. It is in this intimate fellowship that we really begin to understand this Almighty Being who created us and loves us. When we walk in the light and we keep short accounts of our sin by confessing to Jesus, we start to engage in a relationship that is so much more than just believing words written in a book. It becomes vital, essential and real.

3 - It warps our thinking. We will look at this more in the future, but for now we know that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might by done away. In order to live a victorious life we must bring our thinking into line with the truth we find in His word. In addition, we must allow the Holy Spirit to have sway in our thinking so that we are living according to Him rather than our flesh.

Next month we will begin our descent into the depths of wrong thinking and how that affects our great capacity for God.

As always thank you for following along as we journey deeper into the layers that are God!

Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 3: The Truth About Sin

I think most of us would agree that we are living in dark times. Yes, the light of God is still present, but if we believe God’s Word we know hard times are coming and the darkness will reach all across the world. The cause of this darkness revolves around the existence of sin in the world and the desire of Satan to destroy. There will come a time when God will pull His protective hand away from this world and Satan and his evil will reign, but only for a time.

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The world, since the fall, has been guilty of propagating the lies of Satan. Today the word “sin” is no longer politically correct. Children no longer learn about sin and its ramifications. Now parents are raising their children with the “benefits” of learning, not only academic, but psychological. We tell our children to embrace their emotions and teach them to “work through” those feelings and thoughts, hopefully with the end result of becoming a mature adult who embraces all people and treats everyone with kindness and respect.

I do not downplay what these parents are doing, but even with all the proper training, a child can still experience influences that will change his/her thinking and behavior that a parent has no control over. What does the Bible say about sin?

“9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?”

— Jeremiah 17:9 (NASB 1995)

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The Bible tells us the heart is deceitful, and desperately sick. Those are pretty harsh words. It doesn’t say that only the hearts of bad people are deceitful, it is referring to all of our hearts. A heart, even a kind one, can be turned to stone by the difficult circumstances of life. Jeremiah even asks, “Who can understand it?” The Bible and its author reminds us why the heart is deceitful and sick, and we can follow the trail back to Genesis.

We know what happened there, as we reviewed a few weeks ago Sin’s Beginning. Sin entered into the world at that point and has been the bane of man’s existence ever since. Mankind turned away from the omnipotent, loving God and turned inward in an attempt to fill the hole that sin left behind. Murder, lust, envy, stealing, lying, cheating, adultery, the list is long, are all an attempt to fill that which only God can fill.

God’s Word is clear on sin. Let’s take a look.

“18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

— Romans 1:18-23 (NASB 1995)

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In the account of Adam and Eve’s sin we see these words fulfilled, “…their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools…” Satan is a master of deception, and we buy into it allowing our foolish hearts to be darkened. The darker we become in our understanding of God and His truth, the more foolish we become

“10 As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17 And the path of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””

— Romans 3:10 -18 (NASB 1995)

These words are not popular. We want to believe we are good by our own merit. We also want to believe that we can work our way to God, or whatever afterlife image we believe. We don’t want to be accountable to someone else, particularly a being we are trying to run away from. However, that does not delete the reality of who God is, what sin is and what God has done for us through His son, Jesus Christ.

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“21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ”

— Romans 3:21-23 (NASB 1995)

We all fall short. End of story. We cannot measure up to the glory of this enduring, eternal, perfect God. We are exactly what the text says, sinners. We all stand condemned due to the original sin.

“8 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

— Romans 5:18-21 (NASB 1995)

“23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 6:23 (NASB 1995)

Image by Christopher Keough from Pixabay

I wonder if this is how we appear to God before being washed in the blood of Jesus…?

At this point we may be feeling rather hopeless. If we are all sinners, and the wages of sin is death, are we not all condemned to die? Read on.

“9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

— Romans 10:9-13 (NASB 1995)

There are two things from this last passage that I want to point out. The first is the if - then truth. If we confess with our mouths, Jesus as Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, (then) we will be saved. The confession is essential. It is a statement that we are placing ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus. There are many who call themselves “Christian”, but they have not confessed the Lordship of Christ.

Belief is the the next ingredient in this first if - then truth. We have to believe what happened over 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. Jesus died on a cross and then three days later God raised Him from the dead. There are many doctrinal points we can quibble over, (though I prefer to just believe what the Scriptures say), but if we do not believe He died and rose again we cannot call ourselves Christians.

The second thing I wanted to point out from this passage is the Scriptural truth stated, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” I have heard people say they are disappointed in God, because He let them down in one way or another. We can be disappointed in people, circumstances, life, but there is no reason to be disappointed in God. He loves us without reservation, He knows us like no other, and only He is completely trustworthy.

Next month we will look at how sin keeps us from realizing our great capacity for God.

Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 2: Sin's Beginning

Last month we started a deeper dive into this quote from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest.

“We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin——we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience...We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him...we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our ‘arguments...and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5)——we have to do it.””

— My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers - November 18

I discussed what it might mean for us to have a great capacity for God. You can see that post here. This week we are going to start looking at the three things keeping us from experiencing this great capacity for God. The first of these deterrents is sin. Let’s do a quick Biblical review of sin’s origins.

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Once again, we are taken to the beginning. In the book of Genesis we see the story of the creation of the world, including all that is living from plants and animals, to fish and humans. We see that God placed Adam, the first man, and his wife, Eve in a beautiful garden called Eden. He gave them everything they needed and they could eat from any tree in the garden but one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

“15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

— Genesis 2:15-17 (NASB 1995)

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All we need to do is read the following chapter to see that Adam and Eve chose to do exactly what God told them not to do and from that tree they ate. Of course, they were manipulated by God’s enemy, Satan, who was disguised as a beautiful serpent.

“1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

— Genesis 3:1-7 (NASB 1995)

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We need to look at this passage and really understand how easily one wrong thought, one wrong choice led to the downfall of humanity. Let’s look at Satan’s tactics (and yes I have covered this before, but it is important), and look at Adam and Eve’s responses.

1 - Satan went to Eve first. We are not told where Adam was, but the serpent started with Eve. I don’t know why he approached her first. Perhaps he knew she was more easily persuaded by his charm and beauty.

2 - Satan immediately manipulates God’s words. He asks Eve, Did God say you couldn’t eat from the trees in the garden? I am assuming he already knew exactly what God had told the couple. He knew they could eat from all the trees except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

3 - Eve misquotes God. We can see in chapter 2 God told them if they ate of the tree they would surely die. He said nothing about them touching it. Eve adds the idea of physical touch also leading to death, as though that would seem more dramatic.

4 - Once again, Satan manipulates. “You surely will not die!” While we know it was not an immediate physical death, we also know eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did lead to both an eventual physical and spiritual death; just a little detail the serpent left out.

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5 - Satan turns the screw tighter. “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.” Satan offered, not only the possibility of being like God, but he caused Eve to question whether God was trustworthy. Can’t you hear her thinking, “If God really loves us, why didn’t He tell us this from the start? Why is He withholding it from us?”

6 - Eve looked and desired. Instead of turning away from Satan and looking for Adam to seek his input, she looked at the tree and saw it was desirable for food, and a delight to look at. You can see the wheels spinning in her mind. She saw that it was beautiful, then she desired it, then she remembered what Satan had just told her, it would make her wise…so she took and ate.

7 - Eve took her husband down with her. We can’t say Eve did this with any bad intentions. She may have just been very excited and perhaps the fruit tasted divine and she wanted to share it with her beloved. Whatever her reasons for including her husband in this defiance of God’s command it lead to the fall of humanity from the grace of their loving Creator.

Image by Nika Akin from Pixabay

8 - Adam and Eve immediately experience shame and want to hide. The serpent was absolutely right about one thing, their eyes would be open and they would know good and evil. It would be interesting to hear their conversation as they suddenly came to the realization they were naked and as they sought to find leaves to cover themselves.

The reason I covered this in detail is to show you the progression that all sin takes and has taken from the very beginning.

1 - Satan finds us when we are alone and vulnerable. When do the temptations come in our lives? It is always when we are struggling and discouraged, and most often when we feel no one has our back. Sin will creep in when we feel alone, sad, angry, discouraged, overwhelmed, anxious, and not enough.

2 - Satan will manipulate God’s words. How often have you heard people say, “If God is good, why is this bad thing happening?” Or, “God must not really love me, or I wouldn’t be struggling.” Or, “Where was God when this terrible thing happened?” Satan takes the truth about our God: that He is good, that He loves us, or that is with us always, and turns it on its head. “God didn’t really say….”

Image by Fathromi Ramdlon from Pixabay

3 - Satan doesn’t just manipulate God’s words, he manipulates our circumstances and the voices we hear around us to reinforce the lies he has begun to feed us. God isn’t really loving if He condemns people to hell. God isn’t really good, just look at all the terrible things going on in the world. There is no such place as hell, we will all be in heaven one day. When we die we become our spirit animals and play happily in the clouds. I am sure you can list other thoughts and ideas you have heard.

If we do not know God’s word well, or we begin to question God’s love and authority, we will begin to question the authenticity of the Bible. I know many who were raised in the the church who grew up under the teaching of God’s word who now are questioning that it was actually inspired by God, and that the men who wrote it were just interjecting their own opinions and thoughts. It is not too far a leap to give up on the truth of the Word all together when going down that path.

4 - We no longer talk about sin. The word sin is no longer politically correct, or woke. This is exactly where our enemy wants us to be. Sin has gone into hiding, covering itself with the beauty of the world’s philosophies that everyone is okay and no one is bad.

Next month we will delve deeper into what the Bible says about sin, this obstacle that keeps us from our great capacity for God. I hope you will join me.

Let me know your thoughts by leaving me a comment. I appreciate all of your feedback.

Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 1

Oswald Chamber’s devotional book My Utmost for His Highest has been one of my most used devotionals over a span of nearly three decades. The book, put together by his wife after his death at the young age of 43, gives 365 devotions taken from her notes of his sermons, talks and writings. Each devotion emphasizes a verse or two from the Scripture, and my personal habit is to read the entire chapter where the verse or verses are found. This has been a great exercise in learning more from God’s word and understanding the context of certain passages. Today I want to look at a quote from the devotional that struck me as profound and has stimulated a good deal of additional thought and study.

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“We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin——we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience...We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him...we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our ‘arguments...and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5)——we have to do it.””

— November 18th

There are three things, Oswald lists that keep us from God. I want to take the next few months of these Faith Inspiration posts to look at these in depth and talk about steps we can take to get closer to our amazing God. Before we take an in depth look at the first of these deterrents, sin, next month, I want to talk about what it means to be “designed with a great capacity for God.”

We learn in the very first book of the Old Testament that we are creations of God. Not only are we His artistic work, we are made with His image stamped on our beings.

“26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

— Genesis 1:26-27 (NASB 1995)

We also see evidence of this Creator/creation connection in the New Testament.

“10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

— Ephesians 2:10 (NASB 1995)

Image by endri yana yana from Pixabay

Just as an artist, or a craftsman puts a bit of themselves into the things they make: the pictures they paint, the statues they mold, the beautiful furniture they carve, God put a bit of Himself in each of us. It is in this imprint where our great capacity for Him lies. This image of Him we are created in enables us to know Him intimately, and to enjoy a pure and beautiful relationship with Him. This frontier is wide open, and yet we know so little. Just as many of the Israelites stood at the edge of the Promised land, but were denied access due to their stubborn sin of pride and lack of trust in God, we too stand at the edge of our great capacity to dive into the deeper layers of God, but fear, mistrust and pride keep us from jumping off the precipice.

The Psalmist also recognized our position before God. We are not His equal. We are His possession, but not a possession to be taken advantage of or abused. We are a possession He longs to come along side and care for.

“6 Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice,”

— Psalm 95:6-7 (NASB 1995)

“1 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
3 Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.”

— Psalm 100 (NASB 1995)

Sheep do not care for themselves. They are cared for by a shepherd and Christ described Himself as our Good Shepherd. It is not the fact that we are truly like sheep. We can certainly take care of ourselves. Our humanity demands that we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and do what we have to do. Unfortunately, this independent spirit limits our capacity for God, and we will talk more about that when we look at the idea of our own individuality. No, we are not sheep, but perhaps the Psalmist and our Savior are making the same point, we should be.

“11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ”

— John 10:11-15 (NASB 1995)

I believe to truly understand, as Oswald states, “our great capacity for God,” we must learn the ins and outs of humility and trust. We will look at these more fully next time as we delve into how sin keeps us from truly experiencing what that great capacity is. I hope you will follow along.

The Real Romance

My regular devotional book is My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. If you have never heard of him, he is one of those men of the past that, like David, seemed to be a man after God's own heart. The wisdom he had as a young man and his passion for Christ drove him to eventually start the Bible Training College in London. I have used this devotional book for years and it never grows old. 

Over the years, I started writing in the margin at the top of the page what various events had occurred on that particular date. It has become a way to keep track of life. I always write the year and the event that took place. For instance on September 15, 2010 it says, "Quintin Arthur Vern Christensen born." That is my grandson. On May 31st 2014 it says, "Rebecca Christensen marries Daniel Trumbull." That is when I gained a son-in-law. There are pages filled with vacation travels, birthdays and family gatherings. It is also filled with broken engagements, hospital stays, unwed pregnancies and deaths. 

It seems apropos that a devotional book that reminds us over and over to draw closer to Christ, hold a record of the very events that have caused that closeness to take place. The good events caused me to pour out my heart in thanksgiving and praise for blessing. The bad events caused me to pour out my heart in despair and grief. This correlation brings me to today's reading from the devotional and one quote in particular. 

“Without the sovereign hand of God Himself, nothing touches our lives. Do we discern His hand at work, or do we see things as mere occurrences? Get into the habit of saying, ‘Speak, Lord,’ and life will become a romance.”

— Oswald Chambers - My Utmost for His Highest - January 30th

There are several truths we can pull from this quote.

1. God is Sovereign.

“The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.”

— Psalm 103:19 (NASB)

God is all. ALL powerful. ALL present. ALL good. ALL loving. ALL knowing. How can a being like that not be sovereign. The word itself means, one who holds supreme power. I have a feeling that this word that was first noted to be used in the 13th century, does not begin to describe the sovereignty of God. 

2. Nothing touches our lives that doesn't pass through Him. 

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.’
The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.’
Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.’
Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.’
So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.”

— Job 1:6-12 (NASB)

This passage from Job is the perfect example of God's sovereignty and how He filters the events that touch our lives. 

What exactly does that mean? It means that no matter what is going on in your life, He is aware of it and He allowed it. That may seem a bit overwhelming and bring questions to your mind like, "If He's all good and all loving, why are all these bad things happening?" Quite simply, God knows you and your circumstances even better than you do. He knows what will push you towards Him or away from Him. 

If we allow ourselves the freedom of trusting Him, then we know that He's got us, no matter what is happening. If we bend to His will and sovereignty in our lives we will enter into an amazing relationship with Him. More on that in a minute. 

3. We have choices. 

“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.””

— Joshua 24:15 (NASB)

I've said this before and I will say it again. We have choices. We can decide to trust His sovereignty or not. We can accept His truth or reject it. Each of those choices we make will have an affect on how we think and how we maneuver through life. 

If you read the Old Testament at all you know that the Israelites were constantly changing their choices. One day they chose God, the next day they chose idols. On and on, over and over. When they chose God, they prospered. When they chose idols, they floundered. Our choice to believe God's sovereignty will make life more stable and peaceful. It doesn't mean life will be smooth sailing, but it does mean we will always have someone to rely on and who will give us supernatural means to deal with the hard things in life. 

If we look back at Joshua, who lead the children of Israel into the promised land, we know he had to conquer cities, and battle for every inch of land, but God was with Him and as long as they put God first and worshipped and trusted Him they were victorious. That didn't mean people didn't die, or get sick or have marital conflict or....fill in the blank. But God was there through it all. In all honesty, if I have the choice to have an all loving and all powerful being, walking with me through those dark and treacherous valleys, I'll take it. 

4. Life with Him can be a romance.

“that the Lord called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.”

— I Samuel 3:4 (NASB)

Who doesn't love romance? Even the most jaded person, if they do a little soul searching will admit, they want to be pursued and loved. Romance has to be nurtured. When you are in a romantic relationship it isn't about getting what you want, it is a beautiful dance of giving, receiving, listening and talking. We can have that with our Lord. Isn't that amazing? The all powerful, supreme being who created the universe from nothing wants to woo us and have a romance with us. 

With February starting tomorrow and Valentine's Day right around the corner, wouldn't this be a good time to reevaluate our romance with Jesus? Are we spending time with Him? Are we pursuing Him, just as He daily pursues us? Are we taking the time to converse with Him and quietly listening for His sweet whispers to our souls? Are we looking for Him in the simple and mundane things of life as well as the big and beautiful things? 

“O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

— Psalm 34:8 (NASB)