Day 212

The Word as a Weapon!! (Repost)

God’s Word as a Weapon!  We have to dig into His word so that we can know it and use it like Jesus did when He was tempted.  

In Hebrews 4:12 it says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Alive.  Active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword! 
This is God’s word!

 

His Word can be used as a weapon!  Jesus used God’s word to refute Satan’s temptations.  How well do I know God’s word?  I’m working on it!  

“When you memorize Scripture, it’s like carrying your own oxygen tanks.”  ~Ann Voskamp

 

This week our memory verse is John 15:4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

In this verse Jesus says the word REMAIN four times!  One verse…and He mentions the word REMAIN four times!  I’m thinking this is an important point He is trying to make.   

Remain--- Abide---Not to depart---Don’t Leave!  That is a Daily Choice!!!

Now read this same verse in The Message version:  “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.”

I see it like this:  God tends the vine.  I am that vine and God is like the farmer.  He cuts off every branch of me that isn’t producing fruit.  He prunes the branches that are producing fruit so they can produce even more fruit.  Apart from Jesus I can do nothing.  I’m a dead branch.  But if I remain in Jesus then JOY is found and He is glorified by my fruit bearing!

 
Be a fruit bearer!   

“God doesn’t call us to comfortable.  He calls us to authority and to bear fruit – and that’s not always comfortable.”  ~ Mandisa

   

Jesus is the Word of God living in me.  I need to know His word so that when temptations come…and they will…I’m prepared.  I’ll be able to put on the Armor of God and fight in God’s strength. 

Ephesians 6: 14-17 says: “ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Just this past weekend, my pastor was talking about how to resist the enemy and how to stand firm by using the Word of God. I love how timely this message was.  We need to know the truth because Satan is a liar.  (Always freaks me out to write his name.) We need to make right decisions by guarding our hearts with the breastplate of righteousness.  God’s word brings peace in the middle of our struggle.  We need to have faith in God no matter what.  

Our weapon is the Word of God.  We need to remember that God is on our side, He believes in us, He loves us, and our enemy has no mercy…none.    

Lysa TerKeurst states in chapter 4 of her book, “What Happens When Women Say Yes To God,” that Satan’s very name means “one who separates. He wants to separate you from God’s best by offering what seems “very good” from a worldly perspective.  He wants you to deny Christ’s power in you. He wants to distract you from God’s radical purpose for you.”  I don’t want that.  Jesus was able to stay focused by keeping His eyes on God and quoting God’s Word.

 

So, remain in Jesus so that we can produce more fruit! Know God’s Word by digging into it…because it is our most powerful weapon!  And finally wear the armor of God!  AMAZING!

 

“Never — NOT ONCE — have I ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn’t make any real difference.  Not a single time.”  ~ Beth Moore

Day 211

Day 210

Day 209

Day 208

Day 207 - Painting with my Mini

"A Smooth Sea Never Made a
SKILLFUL

Sailor."

Day 206

Day 205

"God knew that LOVE is to suffer
so God made a 

M O T H E R 

He needed someone who knows
that in every

H A R D   P L A C E
is exactly where you
EXTEND GRACE
Someone willing to keep loving

when it makes no sense

Because that's what

L O V E   D O E S
Someone who knows that
life is not an emergency

BUT A GIFT

Someone who knows that

umbilical cords can be cut

BUT HEART STRINGS NEVER CAN

so God made a 

MOTHER"
~Ann Voskamp

Running on Empty --- Proverbs 31 OBS Blog Hop Day

It’s the middle of summer and I feel like I am running on empty.  Ever feel that way?  The pace of summer is supposed to relax me but these past couple of days…I feel tired and done.  Right now- I don’t believe my life is telling the story of God’s grace.  Oh, I know His grace is all around me…He gives me grace D A I L Y.  But…am I giving grace to others?  No…not really because I am empty…drained…exhausted.  In fact, I told my kids that it would be an early bedtime last night because Mommy was done...that Mommy was on empty…that I had nothing more to give and we needed to just go to bed. <Insert Mommy guilt>

I need to be filled up.  I want to be filled but I keep going through the motions of my day to day activities.  Depending on my own strength is draining me and causing me to say, “I have nothing more to give!”  When really…I do. 

The other day, my daughter had a trail ride and as I stood in a big open field and looked out at God’s creation…I thought of peace.  That peaceful feeling of standing out there on a cool July morning is what reminded me to bring it to Him.  He is all around me and it’s like He said, “Do you trust me?  We are in this together.  I am with you and you are enough.  Trust Me with them.  Trust Me with you.  I see it all and I love you.  Bloom right where you are…don’t worry about anything else.  Surrender your guilt to Me and remember My promises.  Be thankful and trust.”

I feel like I always come to Him when I am empty and have nothing more to give – when I should always be full.  But I’m not- He finds me exhausted and desperate…He draws me near and reminds me that He is always with me.

His mercy and grace are freely given to me.

“My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long.” ~Psalm 71:8

It’s an easy choice but seems to always be my last choice.  Choose to see Him all around and this choice lifts me up out of my storm.  I don’t have to be standing in a field to hear Him.  I can hear Him in my kitchen with chaos around me…if I choose to listen.  

“This is easy to say but hard to do in the heat of the moment. But take heart! The Holy Spirit is our Steady Comforter and our Ready Reminder. We don’t have to do this in our own strength. We simply let Jesus’ name fall from our lips, and the Holy Spirit will give us the comfort we need and remind us how to react.”
~Lysa TerKeurst

Bloom where I am…dig my roots down and rise with Him above my own storm.

A choice that seems so easy…in Him I can give so much more.  It’s His grace that can transform my hardness into His holiness.  It’s His grace that brings me back to knowing that without Him, I fall apart - because He is the one that just wants my heart.  It’s in knowing that with Him…I can give more grace and love to those around me.  And fill them up as He fills me.  

In Him I can rise because I don’t need to be more or do more…I just need Him.

  

To be the Mommy that I want to be…I need to trust Him, be fueled by Him and grow with Him.

 

The secret to growing is facing the Light – Jesus – face Him and grow. And through this, my kids will see their Mommy needing Him.  That’s an example I hope they will live their lives by…needing Jesus.