Joy a Power Struggle

Joy A Power Struggle

     Not long ago I shared a story of my husband bathing me in prayer to free my heart and mind from addiction and debilitating depression. It was powerful and God has done a good work in me through his prayer. Although I have been set free the temptation to give in is sometimes so alluring that it takes it all nearly out of me to not give up. Now when I refers to giving up I liken that to one mental gesture. Several years ago my husband and I both quite smoking. Because of the power of my husbands prayer over me I no longer crave it. Yet, just this morning while battling PSD attack the first thing I though of was giving up and throwing in the towel meaning I should just start smoking and forget about life. As quick as that thought entered my mind so did another. "If you do you declare with your actions that my power is not sufficient for you and you undermine my victory in your life". Wow!

  Thank God for his faithfulness to my heart. No, I was not going to give up. I believe God is getting at something much much bigger. I have been wrestling with the joy found in grief for over a year now. I have battled and trampled my heart and even beaten it down to silence its cries so that I could move forward in this life. But, its joy that I fall so short of. I am often frustrated with Paul because I am not understanding with complete clarity what he was talking about. But, thus far I understand this much.

Joy, is not a feeling it is an action of the will born out of a holy belief that what you are going through is working in you an eternal glory that cannot be put out. Joy, is not based off of circumstances, friends, community, or even family. It is a muscle thats stead fast in its resolve and conviction that everything that God permits is good for me.
Joy, is not glee, or gittiness, it is found in the deep caverns of suffering and is harvested by the soul and brings you into perfect union with Christ, our Father and his heart. That is joy

   Joy is what we give up when we cave in to temptations, and attractions of the flesh. Joy is what we slay when we entertain thoughts that are contradictory to His will. What joy can be found in giving up.

  Weather your temptation is smoking like me, or leaving a church for what might happen, or because we are offended, or going to others to seek validation of our worth, our walk with God, our righteousness. Every time we dip into temptation we bury joy.

You are my refudge and my sheild I put my hope in your word. Psalms 119:114

Unwavering

Unwavering

   The times are drastically changing and the everyone is noticing it. From the believer, to the world its as though the atmosphere groans and the hearts of people grow darker then ever and you can smell the sulfur of satan and his dominion.

   It's been in the last three years that I have seen so much in your face wickedness. The reasons I am writing this particular post is because the way we reach the world must change. It's so desensitized confused and it backs disfunction and punishes the just. I see it in our churches where the children of the Godly become lovers of the world and bring hate and malice to strike out at Christ and where he is worshiped. I am watching the young teens accuse there Godly parents of abuse because they will not let them bring perversion into their home be ravaged by CPS because a mother stood her ground and now is at risk with her other children. In my job I witness the rejection people face from families, and a system designed help fail over and over again.

  What is it going to look like in 10 years in our churches in ministries in youth programs, in men and women's ministries? I cannot help but be pretty sure that what will be packing our hospitals of hope is the moms and dads of those who have rejected Christ, who have chosen to love the world. Or it will be the ones that have lost there songs from being ravaged by satan and his dominion. So what will our ministries look like? How we offer hope and healing to a world dripping with evil?

   I think we have to be experiencing God more tangibly then we are experiencing any circumstance we face. I think we have to set aside fears and inhibitions and become radical followers of Jesus Christ fierce freedom fighters with the courage of lions and the genteelness of humming birds. Its more important now then ever that we be drinking and eating the word and giving thanks to Jesus Christ for what is coming. For though we have begun to see signs of the end it will get worse and God promises that the place we are going there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more evil.