Only Human

Some days are perfect beyond belief.  And then some days are tough, I mean, really tough.

Our love is tried.  Our patience is tried.  Our kindness is tried.  Our self control is tried.

Often times when we face these trials, we fail.  And sometimes that failure is abysmal.  We lash out.  We curse.  We indulge.  We judge.  We criticize.  We hate.  We plummet to places in our souls we forgot existed or even knew were there.

We give in to our weaknesses…whatever those weaknesses are.  We all have them.  Boy, do we have them.

Yesterday morning, I completely and utterly failed and let my weaknesses get the best of me.  And it wasn’t just a little failure.  It was an epic failure.  Because when I do things, I do them big…I’m either all in or all out…  

I won't to go into the gory details.  I will say that I was unfaithful to God and lacked both patience and self control. 

In the middle of my failure, I pulled out some bible verses I carry with me.  I read them.  Okay, if I'm going to be completely honest, I skimmed them.  I did not allow them to calm me down.  And then I blew multiple gaskets.  I was furious about the circumstance I was in and that people weren't living up to my expectations.  Yup, "my" expectations weren't being met (which is a topic in and of itself) and I was not happy about it.  

Afterwards…I was not happy with myself.  I was appalled that I allowed myself to slip back into my old ways.  I reached out for the prayer of others to help calm me.  I prayed for forgiveness. 

It’s one thing to slip up.  It’s another to let those slips define us. 

While praying, I found myself repeating the following which brought me comfort and peace…

I am not my weakness.

I am not my mistakes.

I am not  perfect.  

I am a sinner.

I am repentant.

I am forgiven.

I am made of flesh and blood.  

I am human.

I am His.

Self Serve?

One on my beliefs is that we must lose all sense of self to be true followers of Christ Jesus. (Mark 8:34-35, Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23, Proverbs 3:5-6)

Losing all sense of self...denying oneself...  

What exactly does that mean?  Losing all sense of self?  

Basically, we lose ourself when we stop obsessing over ourselves.  We stop serving ourselves.

Not focusing on ourselves seems to be a completely foreign concept in today's society.  We all appear to be so wrapped up in ourselves today.  Because, after all, it really is all about me.  Right? 

We want things now.  We carry our phones around like they are part of our bodies.  We want our calls, our texts and our emails now.  We want  everyone to "like" and "view" what we post now.  We want immediate responses.  We want the latest and greatest version of everything.  Even if it's not broke we replace perfectly good things - phones, TVs, tablets, cars, clothes, the list could go on and on...  We want it all and we want it now.

We want more.  We aren't happy with just one.  We have to have more.  We have to have bigger...better....more improved.   How many people have more than one TV in their house?  How many people wait for the latest and greatest release version of something we own?  How many people want more money so we can buy more things?  How many people have to have a certain brand of something or have things with a specific label?

We want and we want and we want...

What if we stopped pursing all of kinds of "things" and starting pursing love?

Love.  

Yes...love.

Jesus tells us to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-39).  We aren't  command us to love ourselves.  We aren't told to do whatever we can to make ourselves feel good.  We are told to love others.  


Love is an action.  

We must act.  When we act, we are idly sitting by.  So when we act are are intentionally and purposefully do something.

If we are loving others...we can't be serving ourselves at the same time.  

Basically, when we intentionally love others we intentionally serve others...we lose ourselves.

Pretty simple when you think about it.  A little harder to put it into action.

So who will you be serving?  

Will you be sitting idly by?  

Or will you chose to act and intentionally love?

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, 

then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, 

whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. 

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:15 NIV

Who's Got the Power

The Spirit of the God who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. So the God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your bodies. He will do this because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Romans 8:11 (NIRV)

The same power that rose Jesus from the grave...lives in us.  

That power lives in us.

Wow.  Unreal.  How awesome is that?!  It's completely and utterly awesome!  

But do we really believe it?  

Do we?  

I mean truly and honestly believe it?

If we did, everything would be achievable.  Every goal.  Every ambition.  Every dream.  

Peace, joy, love, compassion, patience would fill our hearts.

Doubt, fear, insecurity, shame, worry wouldn't exist.

What does that say about our faith in God?

What does that say about our trust in the promises of Christ Jesus?

We have this supernatural power inside us and yet we let the voice of the enemy rule our thoughts more often than not.  

We question our actions and decisions.  We doubt our abilities.  We fear the unknown.  We stress and worry about the littlest things.  We are so easily discouraged.

God created us to love Him.  God sent His son to die for our sins.  God had it all planned out.  He KNEW we weren't PERFECT and he sent his SON to DIE for for us ANYWAY.  And it's through Christ that we can do ANYTHING. 

It's when we trust and believe and step out in faith that we move from a dark and dreary existence into a bright and glorious life.

It's when we trust in God and go beyond ourselves that we truly start living.

We need to trust that we have the power.

So when life is getting hectic and things are weighing you down...

Remember to tell yourself...

I'VE GOT THE POWER!!!