Our story is all about the changing power of God’s great love which He lavishes on us. But since only His children are aware of His Love, the world does not recognize us. Say this verse by heart with me today:
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1Jn 3:1 NIV
Those three enemies do not like the idea that we are New Creations in Christ. The devil does not want to lose a puppet. The world does not want to lose a servant. And that old self, she doesn’t want to lose the ability to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, however she wants. But since we are now children of God, those three enemies shouldn’t get a say in what happens in our life. Only God should have authority over us. Only God should influence what we believe. Only God should determine how we act and the quality of our lives. Only God should…but even though we are dead to sin and alive to God’s great Love, sin continues to fool us. Children are still susceptible to the lies and coercion of those three enemies. So what is the cure? Coming back to basics.
Our story begins with God because our story is only possible because of God’s Love. Whenever we find ourselves struggling in life, we must stop and run back into the arms of God, and allow Him to remind us of His great Love that He lavishes on us. Lavishes. Again how I love that word! If we are sincere about stopping and turning, and returning, to Him and being open to this great Love, we will feel overwhelmed by it. It will consume us. It will help us recognize the lies so the devil cannot deceive us. It will help us distinguish between the world’s fallen ways and God’s immaculate ways, so we will follow God rather than man. It will help us be aware of when we are regressing to our old ways, so we will delete the thoughts that try to get us to act that old way. God will lavish us with His Love, our part is to come to Him, stay connected to Him, and abide in Him…then we let God deal with those enemies while we simply bask in His great Love.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
September: 35- Mt 16:24; 36- Isa 53:6; 37- Ps 23:1-6
October: 38- Heb 4:12; 39- Jn 15:5
40- Jas 5:16
41- 1Jn 3:1
<>< Peace, Diane
