Friday, May 14, 2010

Don't Give Up Your Life

by Donna L. Watkins

How much of God is truly in us when we say we love God but find cause to not forgive another? We are each capable to doing such things and worse ... but for the grace of God. We all make choices and some people are prayed for, while others are not, so they live and operate totally in darkness. What do you expect from darkness other than dark works? We cannot afford not to forgive anybody of anything because it destroys us. We are judged in the same manner that we judge somebody else and we are left unforgiven when we do not forgive (Luke 6:37).

© 2009 Donna L. Watkins - Close Up of Moss in Forest
Jesus told us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:37-39). We can't love others with our flesh. We need the power of God, a perspective of who we are in Him filled with His mercy and grace in our lives, and to love Him with all of our heart is to count His sacrifice of Jesus for us worthy enough to not discount it by having unforgiveness toward another.

We were created to love and serve others. We can't walk around saying we love God if we are not loving others. I John 4:20 says, "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen."

Nobody is determined, tenacious and tough enough to love somebody without the love of God in them. We can appear like we love them, but in reality you will know whether it is sincere by the fruit it bears. Outside of God, we cannot bear fruit for long. The fruits of the spirit are not easy in any way, but God never asks us to do anything we are not able to do, so He offers us Christ and the Holy Spirit as the Helper. We are the branches ... Jesus is the Vine. If we allow His pruning in our lives and lean into it, we will bear much fruit and feel so fruitful we won't be able to stop the overflowing joy and peace we gain from it. That is worth seeking.

A lot of fruit comes with a lot of pruning and that season of cold which is needed for trees to bear fruit. That season is bleak as winter, but we can't avoid the wintery wilderness times in our lives, so we may as well do what it takes to make them short. As we age with unprocessed hurts and wounds, they begin to weigh us down with depression and disease and despair. Do we really want to die that way? The generation of the Israelites that walked out of bondage in Egypt, walked into their own bondage of speaking against the promises of God.

They died in the wilderness. It was their choice. Don't make it your choice! Don't think that your stubborn and stiff-necked ways will produce anything more than what you are getting now. Pour yourself onto the altar of God and let Him burn away all the wood, hay and stubble and bring forth a heart of pure gold.

Find the promises that God gave you in the Bible and speak them over your life and over your day and over your sleep. You can speak words of life or words of death. God told Israel in Deuteronomy 30:19, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." It not only changes your life but it will bring blessings into your children's lives also.

Jesus said, "It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63). Think on and speak the words of blessings, not curses. Negative talk is filled with curses and negative expectations. Why not hope for all that God has for you! Don't leave the inheritance that Christ died to give you in the vault. Let go of the dead stuff and you'll find new life and victory! Don't be overcome with the devil's schemes ... rise up in Christ with His Word and be an overcomer!

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© 2010 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission from TheNatureInUs.com. The link to use is: www.TheNatureInUs.com.

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