Month: December 2014

Enjoying All God Has Given!

/ Billie Jo / Leave a comment

Did you know that billions of dollars sit in ‘unclaimed funds’ accounts across the United States? Deposits have been made to the legal, rightful owners of monies (i.e. inheritances, refunds, settlements), but they never actually ‘get’ those monies because they don’t know it’s there!   In the spiritual sense, ‘unclaimed funds’ accounts litter the ‘Church’ and impoverish the world!  As Christians, we all have more than we are using:  let’s resolve to get more of our spiritual inheritance in the coming year.

God loves to give!  In fact, II Peter 1:3 tells us we have everything we need already!  But receiving is passive; getting requires awareness and action!

Think about it:  salvation is the start of life itself.  That Gift requires belief to activate it.  Every other spiritual gift requires active faith as well.

As the gift of a New Year languishes on our doorstep, ponder this:

“What has God given to me that I am not actively enjoying?”

Obviously, having everything we need doesn’t mean life will be perfect.  Unfairness, rejection, and evil littered the life of our Lord; it will ours as well.  Like Christ, though, we can enjoy abundant life with eternal purposes!  None of the wrong, ugly things of life can separate us from the love and power of God, though.  Emotional woundings, destructive addictions and ungodly lusts are no match for the resources we possess—when we know we have—and use it!

Knowing is the key concept.  We received all things at salvation but we ‘get’ them as we gain more knowledge about God Himself.  Answering our call to glory…to eternal significance, virtue and holy right-ness demands that we know the Truth about those things…and then do our best to live them out.  We must ‘get’ it so we can pass it on to all we encounter in our journeys of life!

The very power of God delivered us from sin—and delivered all things to us for His grand purposes! This life of faith comes with the power we need to walk out His godliness in the day-to-day—blessing others as we go.   We are saved for a purpose!  Let’s not leave unclaimed resources in our spiritual banks this coming year.  We need all we have…and so does this world.

Taking Responsibility

/ Billie Jo / Leave a comment

Deposits are made into our lives moment by moment.  What we do with those deposits is our decision…our responsibility.  Every aspect of life has the potential to produce life and blessing.  It also has equal opportunity to produce death and curses. God assigned humanity the job of caretaker of creation–and that job remains.  We are to steward all that comes into our lives with faith that God is good and has good plans and purposes for us.  Plans and purposes that conclude in victory.

This reality is especially vital to grasp when you reflect on your life and prepare a life story.  Perspective IS everything.  The legacies we inherit from our family–good and bad–are opportunities to reveal God.  We do not need to sugar-coat every hard thing in life; in fact, that is counter-productive.  However, God can be found gleaming out of the darkest points.  Determine to find His glory and your story will blaze with hope.  It will change your present and prepare the way to the future for yourself and others.

Accepting ownership of sin has power in reflection and in daily life.  Indeed, it is the key to solving all the problems in our world, but responsibility must begin with ‘me.’  Taking responsibility does not ignore the sin of others; in fact, it seeks God on behalf of that sin as well.  It is broken-hearted awareness for the natural rebellion of all–and whole-hearted passion for the rightness of God.   God told Cain to rule over sin; we do that by accepting responsibility for the problem of sin in our own lives and living to give God glory for His work.   The curse has been set aside by Jesus, for Jesus.    We are to work out what God has put into us through Christ.

When we take responsibility for that work in our own lives, the residual effect brings life into others’ hard stuff.  If God entrusts tough realities and harsh legacies to us, we can consider them invitations to seek Him for fuller revelation.  Those situations become windows for us to see and reveal the glory of God.  When we revere Him above the hard stuff, we unpack treasures for all around us!  Embrace the privilege.

For a fuller look at this topic, consider reading Whose Problem Is It?

To gain a deeper understanding of how God completes the picture beautifully, visit Glory Glimpse:  Knowing God By Name – Omega