Treasuring God's Word To You

But for some reason, many of us live in such a way where we allow absolute garbage into our lives and expect an output of peace, joy, prosperity, and happiness to be the result.

Whatever your situation is in life, it’s because of decisions that were made that produced a predictable outcome.

Now, many of us had some very bad things happen to us- things that were not our fault nor could we change. Fallen people did evil things that produced an evil result. I get it.

I grew up in a welfare home surrounded by drugs, alcohol, partying, and very irresponsible behavior, so much of my younger life was spent modeling what I saw lived out in front of me.

However, Jesus can and will bring healing to all of those things if you let him. It’s your choice- continue to live in defeat, or chose His victory as yours and truly live again.

One of the ways we do that is what we allow our minds to focus on.

I’ll leave you with a very personal illustration from my life-

I had a graduate-level course on this at one point in my life. Someone who was a very close friend proved not to be such a close friend and betrayed me in the worst ways possible. For months all I could do is think of ways to get even- to cause double the pain to that person as I felt, to make them suffer for what they did to me.

I wanted Old Testament-level retribution- Fire, Brimstone, everlasting torment. I woke up thinking of new ways to hurt this person, and if I could fall asleep at night, it was thinking of what they might be doing right now and how I could mess with it.

I was on my 4th night with only a couple of hours of sleep. Exhausted, spent, all the bile built up in my heart had finally run out for now and I asked Father- to please let me sleep.

Silence.

I asked again-

Silence.

A third time I prayed

Silence.

Frustrated, I cried out to my Father and begged him to answer me.

A scripture came to mind (a little paraphrased)- Matthew 6:15

“If you do not forgive others their sins against you neither will your Father forgive yours”

And then I heard God’s voice- “If you will not act like my son, who forgave the men who beat him, mocked him, spit on him, and crucified him, then don’t call me your Father”

The things I had been pondering in my heart had separated me from the Father, and HE was calling me on the carpet.

That’s why what you ponder in your heart is so important.

Our faith is not about behavioral modification- you have 12-step programs for that. It’s about inner transformation. It’s about putting to death our old nature and allowing the new nature to take over.

What you meditate on in your heart shows how effective that inner transformation has become in your life.

That’s why when you receive a word from God, or THE Word of God, it is to be the thing that feeds you, motivate you, and draws you closer to the Father and HIS plan for your life.

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