Not For Self

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.  Philippians 3:12-14

Say we are out for dinner with friends and spill coffee on our white shirt, we spend the rest of the evening wearing our stain, trying to cover it up.

The same goes for our sins, often we walk around with the stain of sin because we aren't leaning into His strength to be done with it. God let's us walk out our shame, stain, because if we do not go through these seasons where we realize we messed up we will continue to sin, to repeat the same mistakes and poor choices.

Do not lose hope. We are never alone on our journey. Jesus will be walking with us thru the forest and the desert - yet making us carry the burden until He has changed us. If you can keep walking with Jesus while wearing your stain and still hold His hand and still talk to Him and still believe that when the process is over, when the season is over, He is going to change you then you will in fact have humbled yourself and understood that it was never about you but about your changing in His time.

And when God changes us we come out as a different person. Born again. And by His grace we know longer remember who or what we were.   We are not identified by the names people called us. Our identity is found in God: we know who we are in Christ. 

We survive our earthly prisons, seasons of great joy and great strife, blessings and losses by 

God's arms reaching for us;

Jesus' arms carrying us;

Holy Spirit's arms leading us.    

He will see us through no matter how dark;

He will make a way tho we are lost; 

He will heal us every broken piece; 

He will shelter us by His grace;

He will sustain us providing all we need;

He will reconcile us when torn apart;

He will teach us for His ways are true;

He will correct us as a loving Father corrects a child;

He will redeem us even as we tray from Him;

He will see us through sinners saved by grace. 

We must share, speak, God's word; God's love; God's grace; God's forgiveness; EVERY MOMENT OF OUR LIVES WITH EVERYONE IN OUR LIVES whether family, friends, strangers, enemies, for it only takes someone to experience one God moment to change a life forever.

We must not only be mentally spiritual we must also be physically spiritual. Our bodies must be healthy and functional for if our bodies are impaired/incapacitated, then our spirit is impaired/incapacitated. NO SUGAR, eat plant based live food, not frozen cooked packaged or boxed food. 

It's God's conviction that changes us and tells us He is all we have been searching for. The Lord makes our ladder (future) greater than our former (past) - stand on His promise to you - do not waiver in your faith to what God is going to do for you: to what God is DOING for you. 

Every choice; every sin; every success; every mistake; every failure; every accomplishment; every regret; every defeat; every experience - God allows. He allows us to live all these situations and everything we have done in our lives to position us to truly be highly effective in other lives. We are rescued to rescue. When we come through as survivors in Jesus we tell people "you can make it" and not because of something we read in a book - we lived this "thing" called life. It's our conviction in God. It's our testimony of His grace. It's our creed to live like Jesus. It is to form who we are and who we are to become.

That's why God has placed us to be here today and tomorrow for others - not for self. To count it all as loss is the greatest gift of freedom and abundance because god's grace is abundance. Jesus love is abundance. Holy Spirit's presence is abundance. 

He makes a way not only through storms but He makes a way before we even are aware of the storms ahead.