These past few weeks have been full a ton of changes in my life, and God is always so loving and faithful, and through it all I have grown and learned so much, just continuing to fully tune into God's heart and learn to rest and abide in Him. :)
Well, the big news is that I found out almost three weeks ago I was accepted to Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry! I can't even fully explain how excited I am as I have felt this in my heart for about a year to go there.
Basically for the past few weeks, I have been searching for a job, figuring out housing stuff in Redding next year, and thus, really realizing how much I need God to be my Provider and not just other people's Provider. It is great to hear the testimonies of other people, but I want to know, can I be a testimony of God's provision? The answer is of course: YES!
But I'm getting a head of myself....:)
God's been speaking these words over me like crazy these past few weeks: "Rest, peace, abide, Shalom." It's really wonderful God speaks exactly what we need to hear. But He is also teaching me how to partner with His voice, to speak those words to my situations in life, like how Jesus spoke "peace" and literally calmed the storm.
When Jesus calmed the storm, He wasn't laboring to do it. He was abiding in His Father's heart and in a heavenly atmosphere. Abiding is the opposite of striving. Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you."
Not to use the cheesy dictionary tactic, but you got to admit it's helpful!
Not to use the cheesy dictionary tactic, but you got to admit it's helpful!
The word "abide" means: to remain; continue; stay, dwell; reside, to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship; to wait, to remain steadfast and faithful
Selah (could mediate on those words for a good while...)
The word "strive" means: To exert much effort or energy; endeavor; to struggle or fight forcefully; contend with, to exert oneself vigorously; try hard
(yuck)
Abiding in Jesus is the only way to have what He has, which is all the fullness of God. Good news! He says this in John 15:
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he (E)bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
We work when we do not know...
God is for us and on our side, (the opposite is we approach Him with doubt He wants to help us)
We are royalty, (the opposite iswe act like beggars)
He enjoys our presence, (the opposite is we make our conversations with Him short, to the point, uncertain)
God LOVES US, (the opposite is work to gain love... the love He has already lavished on us! 1 John 3:1)
In essence, we work and we strive for things in life when we don't know God loves us and has made us, from the beginning of creation, His Son's and Daughters who don't have to beg and borrow from their Daddy, but have totally full access to everything He has through Jesus. It makes Him really happy when we let him get this into our hearts and heads!
We also end up in "striving mode" when we don't full realize that when we receive Jesus, believe in what He accomplished through his death and resurrection, we are righteousness (in a perfectly right relationship with God) through grace and not by a checklist. That is such good news! God is soooooo goooood! It's all by grace! That should put us at total rest, that God has already done everything we need to live a life in the fullness of Him. (Check out Col. 2:9 NLT, Eph. 3:14-21; Ephesians 2:9) :)
These thoughts may sound a little scrambled -- they went a different direction than I thought. I hope this was encouraging to all who read it! :)
Love, Lauren
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