A Confession for the Mouth

I Peter 3:10-12 is a very small portion of scripture, but it is power packed. Part of it is actually a rewrite of a section in the Book of Wisdom, Proverbs. I was riding down the road recently with a good friend of mine, and I told her that I had taken this section of the Word and personalized it to use it for a confession. I believe that one of the most significant areas of our lives is what we choose to allow to come out of our mouths. If life and death are in the power of the tongue, then everything that we speak creates; it forms. It is important that we watch the words that we speak because our words do matter, and we will give an account for them. Many times, I have asked God to forgive me for words that I spoke that I shouldn't have, words that did not build up and encourage. We will even answer for every idle word; words that carry no weight and are ineffective. Matt. 12:36 says, "and I say to you , that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment." OUCH! As I sit here typing this, conviction is falling on me. I had to say, "God, please forgive me of every careless word that I have used." Recently, I have noticed so many carelessly doing this; not realizing what negative outcome that they are creating for their future. Some people believe that curse words are only a few mostly four-lettered words, but that is not so. Any words that do not build, bless, and bring life... are tearing down, cursing, and killing. We all have been so guilty of this. "Jesus, Please forgive us & help us to teach & train our tongues to bless, build, and bring life into every person that we come across and into every situation of our lives, and help us to quickly realize when we are falling into this trap." Stop right now and read I Peter 3:10-12. There is a whole bible right here on my blog. Go to the right-hand margin of this page & scroll down a bit. ... Now that you have read it, can you see where our words are vitally important. We need to stop being so reckless with them.  Here is the declaration that I made from this passage of scripture; I pray that it helps you.

I choose this day, (date______________,) to refrain my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile. I choose not to use my words recklessly or tear others down with them, but only to build others and speak life into every situation. I choose not to lie, deceive, gossip, slander, speak against, or pass judgment on my neighbor because I am determined to love life and see good days. I will seek peace and pursue it with everyone. Jesus, I ask that your eyes would be upon me because I am in right standing with you, and I ask that your ears would be attentive to my prayers because I make a conscience decision to do what is right in your eyes. I refuse to do any evil works, and I ask that you help my spirit man to be strong and to overcome any evil desires of my flesh. I choose to guard myself from sinning with my mouth this day.

A Ray of Sunshine

We have so many opportunities in life to become offended & walk in unforgiveness, but truthfully not one of them is worth what we have to trade in to remain in that unforgiving state. It's not worth our joy, love, or peace of mind that is required as an exchange. Forgiveness is not only necessary to our spiritual health, but also to our emotional and physical well-being. That is why the enemy so often uses it as a tool to steal from us, kill us, and destroy us and our victorious walk with Christ. Have you ever made the statement, "I just can't forgive them!" or "They hurt me so bad that I'll never be able to trust anyone ever again!"  Really? If you have ever said those words, upon saying them, I would imagine that you weren't thinking of just how bad you yourself have hurt others. When we are hurt, we feel the pain so intensely, however, when we hurt others we don't usually feel the pain that they feel. Sometimes, people can become so callous towards others that they feel a certain enjoyment in hurting them. We may even have felt that those we have wounded need to get over it. I have even heard some pride themselves in hurting others as if they were anointed by God to dish it out. If this is an attitude that you have ever struggled with, it could change if you suddenly find yourselves standing in the shoes of the one who is hurting. God has not called us to go around in life knocking chips off of people's shoulders, but rather to walk in love at all costs. I am reminded of the scripture in PS. 34:14 that says, "Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it." You may even be someone who purposes within yourself to pursue living in peace with others, but that doesn't always mean that they have the same warm cozy feelings towards you. However, Rms. 12:18 states, "...so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." Wow, this means that  no matter how much you may try to show love to love someone and be at peace with them, if they don't return the same to you, you yourself are still expected as a child of God to be at peace with them. It is our responsibility, with everything in us to do this, and with the love of Christ within us we can.  Hebrews 12:14a tells us to, "Pursue peace with all men...." It can be an incredible emotional struggle when we determine to do this, yet are not received. Notice, however, God didn't promise in this scripture that others would always have an attitude of peace back towards us, but He just commands us to live in peace with others, regardless of their response towards us. It is our responsibility to do this. You may say,..."but Tamra, you don't know how I've tried and it still won't work...there's no hope!!!" Well, you might be right, but I do think I have some understanding of your situation. Be encouraged, though, there is a ray of sunshine in your desperation. It's forgiveness. Sometimes forgiveness is very easy, but other times it can be one of the hardest of tasks especially if it is someone that you must repeatedly forgive. Forgiveness is a choice; a conscience decision that you choose to make. When we choose to forgive, our feelings may not always readily line up with that decision. I have found it to be very helpful to verbally say outloud, "I choose to forgive_____ of doing _____; I make the choice right now to forgive them for that. "Every time that you experience even the smallest of hurt over something, just say it, and when the devil comes to play the ole' tape recorder back to you again & again as he likes to do, just make that decision & say it again. Eventually, he'll leave you alone in that area, but don't get too comfy because I promise you he'll be trying to figure out another area of attack! I have had times when the enemy would remind me over and over again what someone did or said that hurt me, and every time I would say that I forgave them over and over if it was necessary, until my feelings lined up with what I was saying; and eventually they did. Honestly, some people do not care that they hurt, slander, or pass judgment on others. I'm sure that it has always been such a way of life for them that they don't even realize just how they affect others. If you are refusing to forgive, you are not hurting them because they probably really don't care how it affected you anyway. They're are just living life doing their thing while you're hurting. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and choose to forgive them and release them. If you won't forgive them, you have built a prison in your mind for them, but guess who's in prison with them??? You are!!! That's no life for a Child of God! One of the best cures for us when we are hurt and struggling to forgive someone, is to think about a time when we went stupid and did something to hurt someone. We've all done things that we have desperately wished that we could have the opportunity to do differently. The Bible plainly states that if we will not forgive those who have not hurt us, He will not forgive us. The reason for it...I believe it is because we all are as guilty as the next person when it comes to this area. If we inspect our lives and can't find those who we have wronged, then it's time for us to take off those rose-colored glasses so we can see ourselves as we really are. We are all guilty, and thank God for His forgiveness toward us. The most important reason that it's worth giving forgiveness to those who have wronged us is that we need it because we also have wronged others! Jesus Christ died for us and forgave us of our sins, therefore, we are bound in covenant with Him, and He is asking us to forgive. Making the decision to forgive until our feelings line up with that decision, will set us free! Unforgiveness is just another tactic of the devil to steal the good life from us. Refuse to let him do it! Love your enemies! Pray for them, do good to them, bless them, and when the wrong you again and again, continue these steps again and again. Aren't you grateful that Jesus forgave you? I have went many times to people when I knew that I hurt them or did them wrong and asked for forgiveness because my heart convicted me. For those who were forgiving and received it, it felt so wonderful to hear, "I forgive you." Likewise, I have had people who have wronged or hurt me come and humbly ask for forgiveness, and as I gave it, I'm sure that it felt wonderful for them to hear that from me as well. It feels so good to walk in forgiveness & get the heavy weight of unforgiveness off of your back. For those who refuse that they have done any wrong when they know that they are guilty, just let God deal with the situation...He has His ways. For you, release them, so that God will deal with them. What we are not willing to give to the Lord He cannot take and fix. For those of you who did hurt others, but you did not intentionally purpose to hurt them, yet they will not receive that... give it to God and take your hands off of it. He is bigger than any of our problems! Just walk in love, and let Him take care of the big stuff. When we try to fix something when others are wrongfully hanging on to unforgiveness, it just magnifies the situation. What God expects of us is to walk in unconditional love and common respect towards all regardless of our circumstances, and when we experience hurt, to not make it bigger than what it really is. If we all would magnify God more than our problems, our problems would get much smaller.

"You Don't Fit In"

Today, I would like to share with you the dangers of Fitting in. It sounds like a topic that is needed predominantly for kids, but this isn't so. Many more adults than you could imagine struggle with the desire to fit in and be accepted by certain people. I remember many years ago at a certain point in my life, a place where I was at in my spiritual walk with Christ that I will always cherish. The way that God used me on a daily basis; outside of the church, just in every day life, at work, out to eat, etc..., meant something precious to me. God would always out of nowhere ask me to do special things for people, give me a particular specific word to speak to them, or to go talk to people about Him. It would be such a strong heart-pounding burden upon me that I would just do it. God would even use me to lead people to the Lord right there in the back room of the beauty salon where I worked at. A minister friend that I worked with at that time recognized this and said to me,  "Tamra, God asks you to do these things because He can trust you with them." I know that this was true looking back at some of the conversations that God and I would have together. Even though I had to fight reason and fear to obey God, the outcome was always worth it. Moving forward just a bit, I remember being at church one day & observing a group of friends having fun. Now a couple of these ladies would tell me all the time how they respected & looked up to me, but when it was time to run around together and do "fun stuff," I wasn't their choice, and I had always been o.k.with that because I was always a more serious minded person anyway. This particular day however, was a trap of the enemy that I would not recognize for what it was until many years later. I'm sorry to say that I took the bait & was trapped! I still remember that day so vividly. Everyone looked so happy; their faces beaming with joy, laughing and playing. The words, "You don't fit in" ran through my mind. I began to agree that I didn't. I didn't have buddies that I did fun stuff with all the time. I began to long for that, & from that day on I began to pursue "fitting in" with people. After all, what was wrong with that, they were Christians; church people?  I began to spend more and more time having good clean fun with people without noticing that it was taking away from my time with God. Please know that I am not in any way speaking against Christian fellowship with each other. I understand & know that this is vital & necessary to our walk as Christians, but this was different. I did fellowship with others before this day, however, my level of "fellowship" greatly increased, and in reality, it was really more a matter of my heart that was out of balance. How could I have looked at this fellowship that I had with Christ & longed to trade it in for something else? How could I have thought for a single moment that I was somehow missing something in life? How could hanging out & being accepted by people look better than the times that I was experiencing with God? I didn't realize the trade that I was making. You see, the devil is a liar & the truth is not in him; he is a master at deceiving...not to give him an ounce of glory, though! It was a trap to deter me from continuing down the path that I was on. If only I had seen it for what it really was. I spent a lot of time just fitting in to what the people around me were or expected me to be. Making them happy with me; pleasing them. Then, a few years ago, I was by myself and the Lord revealed something great to me; something I desperately needed to hear. I realized for the first time that I had accomplished what I pursued...I finally "fit in" with those that I desired to fit in with, but  no longer did I "fit in" with God... Not like I once did. I was changed, and it was not a change that I was proud of either. I got what I sought after, and it was not really what it appeared to be and surely not what I wanted either. It felt good to my flesh, but agonizing to my Spirit. No longer did I have the regular assignments spoken into my ears by God; not anywhere on the same level. Sure, I could go visit a sick person or do many good deeds, etc...which we should do anyway, but it wasn't the same as walking through a parking lot and having God point out a perfect stranger to you and whisper in your ear so clearly, "Go tell that person that I love them; go tell them about me." You see, its the smallest of things like this that keep churches everywhere full of people having more religion than relationship; and you have to be on guard all the more when you hold positions in a church. I don't care how you cut it, if you are spending more time taking care of your "position" in church than just relating to God for no reason at all....it's religious! If you're studying or praying to get a message for the class you teach or the sermon you preach, you must be on guard to not substitute that as time spent in relationship with God. To have depth in our relationship with Christ, we must spend much time with Him that brings no motive with it, but rather just ourselves. I don't want to fit in with people anymore. If you tell me that I should be like everyone else...I won't even listen to you. I am not a cookie cut from a Christian cookie cutter, and neither are you! I choose only to allow Christ to tell me who I am, and delegate to me what He has called me to do. I choose to fit in with Him even if I am the odd ball with man. We can trust that we are on the right path when it is He that is leading us. If we, as the Body of Christ would truly begin to operate out of what God has appointed us to do through relationship with Him, there's no doubt that we would see miracles, signs and wonders all the time. If  our churches are not operating out of this, I believe that it is a relationship problem. If we don't have this happen in our personal lives as individuals, it surely won't happen in our church services either. I pray that as I have written this, that it speaks to you; that it changes something within you. Our power is in our relationship to the One True Living God, Jesus Christ, and in Him determine to fit.

A Good God

God is a good at all times; very faithful indeed! He is our rock, our shield, & our ever present help in times of trouble. He is our keeper; and in times when we don't know where to turn, He is our refuge; our shelter from the storms; our strong tower. When we are afraid, He is our hiding place. Without Him, we can do nothing; we are without hope; wondering aimlessly about without really living life. In God, we find favor with Him and man. He makes a way for us where there seems to be no way. He girds our mind with a garrison protecting us from the wiles of the devil. No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper. Because of His protection over us, we will walk through the fire and not be burned. He makes us to become like the purest gold. We are His possession! He took our sins, sickness, and  poverty to the cross, and because He bore them, we are delivered from them. We got the great exchange! Every place we put our foot is ours, and everything our hands touch prospers because we belong to the one true Almighty God. Hide us in the cleft of the rock, & let us experience Your Glory, O Lord. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Bible says,  "Whosoever will, let him come." He is saying...if you will just make the decision to come...come on; I'm here waiting on you. He doesn't care what you have done or how far you have went. He will not prefer any one over another. He just says...come. Luke 19:10 even says, " For the Son of Man  has come to seek and save that which was lost." If you don't know Jesus Christ in a personal relationship, He is seeking you today. Don't turn such a good God as this away. Refuse to listen to the devil when he tells you all the reasons why God won't save you. You wouldn't take a liars word on something now would you? Well, don't take satan's word either because he is the father of lies and the truth is not in him. God will save you if you will call upon Him. If you hear reminders of all the bad you have done running through your mind, that is a trick of the devil to deter you from surrendering your life to Jesus Christ. Don't listen to it! Just take a chance on Jesus this one time; you will not be sorry, and He will not fail you. Make the choice today to turn your life over to His leading. The Word of God tells us in Jn. 6:37b, "...And the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out." If you feel a tugging on you on the inside right now, just begin to invite Him into your heart and life this minute. If you don't know what to pray, here is a prayer to help you. Say this out loud. If you confess it with your mouth, and mean this with your heart, you will be saved...it is that simple! Dear Lord Jesus, I recognize that I am a sinner, lost and without you. By faith, I ask you to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart and life and save me now. I no longer want to live my life on my terms, but I surrender it to you. I surrender my heart, soul, and body to you, Lord Jesus, this day; right now. Please fill me with your precious Holy Ghost and baptize me in your spirit. Please deliver me from every bondage and set me free. I choose right now to live in freedom as I live for you. I receive salvation by the sacrifice of the Blood that you shed on the cross for me. Thank you for this gift of Salvation that I have received right now. Amen!   Congratulations...If you prayed that prayer, you just made a conscience decision to live for Jesus Christ so pray that He would send you to a solid Bible believing church. Get involved, be baptized, and with Him dwelling within you, change the world around you! Don't let the devil talk you out of what you just did because you are saved by faith. Faith is believing in what doesn't appear to be. If you ask by faith, just trusting Him, He promises not to turn you away. Now, go tell someone what Jesus just did for you!

Your Fiery Furnace

I'm thinking of the story in Daniel Chapter 3 of the three Hebrew children and how the king was enraged with anger when he heard that they would not fall down and worship his gods at the sound of the music. He ordered them to be brought to him, and as they came to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, threatened Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego with an ultimatum in order to force them to fall down and worship his gods when the music sounded, or be thrown into a burning fiery furnace. I love their reply to the king. On first name basis and without even referring to him as king, they basically said in a polite way...We don't have to answer to you because our God will deliver us, but if He doesn't...we still won't serve your gods! Now that is what you call holy boldness! The king however was enraged and ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than it usually was. The Word says that the three Hebrew children were bound with their clothes on, taken up, and dropped into the midst, which is the central interior part of the flaming furnace. Being that the flame was exceedingly hot, flames leaped up out of the furnace and killed those men who threw them in, yet King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and quickly rose to his feet asking his counselors, "Didn't we throw three men in the fire?"  When they said, "Yes, O King,"  Nebuchadnezzar replied by telling them that now there are four men in the middle of the fire, and they are walking around without any hurt; the form of the fourth one is like the Son of God. Well, the king quickly brought the three out and had a whole different attitude towards them, also. He called them servants of the Most High God at that point, and made a new decree honoring the one true God! Their attitude in this story is what strikes me the most. They were saying...we trust our God to deliver us no matter how the circumstances look, but if He doesn't, we'll serve Him anyway!!! I truly believe that this is the very reason why they experienced deliverance. They had an attitude of complete faith! They were settled to serve God not only in the good, but also in the bad. They knew in whom they trusted, and they believed He was who He said He was. Whatever we trust God to be to us, He will be. Notice that when they stood up to the king, God still allowed them to be cast into the furnace. He could have stopped them from being thrown in at all, but He didn't, and what glory He got out of that situation! I believe that many times when we go through fiery trials, we are right where God wants us. He is with us, and His purpose is to get glory out of our bad circumstances. We just have to talk to the devil a bit, and let him know that God will deliver us, but if for some reason He doesn't, we're still gonna serve Him anyway! Let the devil know that you ain't gonna turn and serve him out of fear. Oh, no...I don't think so!!! God is much bigger than any situation that looks impossible in our lives; He is more than enough! He is Jehovah- Nissi, The Lord our Victory who redeems our life from the pit. His Word says, "He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." The key phrase here is, "according to the power that works in us." We see the meaning of this phrase lived in action through this story in the Book of Daniel. This word power spoke of here dwells within every born-again Christian, and is activated by faith. God honors faith, which is complete trust in His ability. I don't trust myself one single bit, however I know that God is my deliverer; He is able! If you have a fiery trial in your life today, surrender to God no matter what your circumstances look like, and when you're thrown further into the midst of it, it cannot harm you because He is with you; He is faithful. He will show up, and prove that we are His!