The Lord Jesus Christ Has the Key

Revelations 3:7-8(NLT)

“7 This is the message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open. 8 “I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close.”

I spoke to an old friend this week and she was going through some pretty rough times with her family.  She said to me, "I can't trust anyone around me. I don't have nobody!" For many born-again believers today, their world seems shaky and unstable. They are feeling insecure because there’s so much uncertainty all around us. Some folks that have declared their love for the Lord for years are now starting to doubt His love all together. The institutions we have relied on for support are breaking down, and their corruption is on blast for everyone to see. Pandemic notwithstanding, everything seems out of place, and many Christians are losing focus and faith. We must not be deceived by what the devil is trying to do. Instead, we must remember and forever stand on the reality that our hope is in Christ, not in human beings.

This period has been especially taxing for some that haven’t been around their loved ones and are feeling lonely and secluded. The emotional toll on their relationships has been devastating in many ways, and some relationships have been irreparably damaged. God knows all that's happening to us. In the passage of Revelations 3:7-8(NLT), He declared that only He holds our tomorrows, and only He has the power to open and close the doors that are important to our lives.

Many people do not believe this. Challenging times often reveal whether we truly trust God and will choose to follow Him no matter how things look, or if we will abandon our faith as soon as things get tough. We have leaned far too heavily on worldly systems. This has caused many people’s faith muscle to become saggy and flaccid. God created us in such a way that the core of our being is strengthened by faith, and when our faith is small, the circumstances of our lives begin to mirror our refusal to walk in Christ with authority and boldness.

There can be no doubt that we are witnessing spiritual warfare in an unprecedented fashion. And it is affecting many aspects of our lives, but God didn’t hide this from us. In His Word, He has told us exactly what we’d encounter in the world, and He also told us exactly who our real enemy is. He teaches us in Ephesians 6:12(NLT),  “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

In order to stand firm against spiritual warfare in the earth, God tells us to put on every spiritual weapon He has provided. His spiritual weapons are fail-proof, and through them we can continue to walk in the victory of Jesus Christ, even when there’s chaos and confusion all around us. 1John 4:4(NLT) declares, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”

We cannot have faith and fear at the same time. We must make a choice. James 1:6(NLT) warns that when we ask God for His blessings, we must “be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.” Don’t let satan convince you that the world has something to give you. In the world, there is only heartache and misery, but in Christ there is joy everlasting. He is the door, and he has given us the key to it. Don’t look for the key anywhere else, not in the world, not in a man, or any other person. Anchor your faith in Christ, so that the core of your being is fortified in him. Then, you will be confident in your ability to withstand any challenge through his strength and power.  ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“The Lord Jesus Christ Has the Key”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

 

Answer Me Lord, I Need Your Help!

 Psalm 86:1-7 (NLT)

“1 Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help. 2 Protect me, for I am devoted to you. Save me, for I serve you and trust you. You are my God. 3 Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly. 4 Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you. 5 O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. 6 Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord; hear my urgent cry. 7 I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble, and you will answer me.”

We wouldn’t expect anything but the truth from our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. He is the living Word of God. He always taught the disciples the truth, because he taught them exactly who he is, what he came to do, and what he expects from us. He also made it clear that in life on earth, you and I can expect to go through trials and tribulations. The psalmist cried out to God for help in Psalm 86. 

Thousands of years later this beautiful record of his prayer is just as relevant today for all of us as it was for him when he first prayed it. God does not cause trials and tribulations to occur. They are birthed from the kingdom of darkness; and we know that satan is the ruler of that dark world. Trials and tribulations are concocted by the devil to attack us in our most vulnerable places. The devil does this to diminish our trust in God, and to hinder our relationship with Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.

As believers, we know what the enemy means for bad, God will use for our good. God tells us in Romans 8:28 that HE will cause ALL things to work together for our good. As we are going through a wilderness experience and dealing with troubles and tribulations, we must remember Romans 8:28. This is extremely important because of the emotional and mental exhaustion we sometimes go through. It is during these times that we feel the broadness of the weakness that the enemy has attacked. We might have never considered it before. We might not have known ourselves to be as weak in a certain area as the pain of the attack reveals, but God allows us to see the truth of the weakness so that we allow His strength to make it strong. 

A trial or tribulation will always make us respond. The devil will try to make us respond in fear, because fear increases his kingdom. God will always require us to respond in faith! So, trials and tribulations will either drive us toward God or away from God. The choice is up to us.

Psalm 91:1 (NLT) tells us, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Very often, our weakness reveals the place we tried to hide from God, or it reveals the place we refused to let His love in. Tribulation will expose these weak places, and it will also expose an opportunity to run to God, cling closer to Him, and find rest in His shelter. Hardships have the uncanny ability to do this, they force our junk to the surface. We can then examine it, repent, release it, and let God handle it. 

No matter what we’re facing, we must trust and believe that God is going to see us through. God tells us in 2Corinthians 12:9 that His strength works best in our weakness. We can’t give up during times of great challenge and difficulty. We can’t quit. Trouble should drive us closer to Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an opportunity to see God greater, as He strengthens us through the trial and tribulation, gives us the victory and receives the glory He so deserves.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

 “Answer Me Lord, I Need Your Help”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Tell God What You Need

Philippians 4:6(NLT), "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." 

When something is too simple we find it easier and more realistic to not trust it.  But in this verse  our Heavenly Father tells us not to worry about ANYTHING! That includes relationships.  It includes finances, health, or any  circumstance that would cause us to stress. Even when it’s right down to the wire, and we don’t know how we’re going to make it another day, our Heavenly Father tells us to give it all to Him in prayer. 

2Corinthians 13:5 (NIV) tells us, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?” 

Faith is real and we'll know if we have it when we're faced with situations that call on upon us to activate it.  It's one of the spiritual blessings that was made possible through our Lord and Savior. When it comes to exercising our faith, it is not enough for a person to simply say they have faith. Our confession must be backed up with action. James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Just as positive actions and good works enforces our faith, worry and anxiety enforce our fear. 

I definitely know a thing or two about anxiety. I was recently reminded of when I first encountered it. I was a little girl and my father used to pick us up from my grandmother's house to drive us home. My father was notorious for driving fast. Everyone knew he was a fearless driver, but I was not inclined to recognize his fearless prowess behind the wheel. But what I do remember is the gut wrenching fear that would engulf me as soon as I knew my father was going to pick me up and drive me home. It took twelve minutes to get home from my grandmother's house and that is exactly how long I would remain in fear and anxiety from his driving.

Anxiety is defined as our body’s natural response to the stresses of life. It is a feeling of fear about what might happen. By its very definition, we know that anxiety is on the opposite side of faith.  Accepting the gift of salvation requires that we make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives. He’s the head, and this is a role that cannot be shared or divided; it must be fully occupied by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

He tells us as much in Matthew 6:24. In this verse, Jesus said no person can serve two masters, we will either hate one and love the other or vice versa. Jesus has given us a foundational truth about how God has created human beings. All of us will serve a master, and we each must make a choice about who and what will govern our lives. The ambivalence argument won’t hold water. There’s no in-between stuff with God. We’re either all in with Him through Christ or not. This is a choice all of us must make. 

One of the ways that we demonstrate our faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ is with our emotions. God has told us to take authority over our emotions through prayer, faith, and gratitude. Our Heavenly Father is very patient with us throughout our lives, and He loves us very much, and this is why our faith is so important to Him. Anxiety is a natural response to stressful situations. For a lot of us, it’s the go-to response, but God has commanded us to be governed by the Spirit of Christ within. This means that despite of what our body is telling us to feel, we continue to confess our faith in the promises of God and choose to allow our actions to follow our faith and not our fear.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Tell God What You Need”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Demolish All that Comes From the World

 Philippians 4:8 (NLT)

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

This verse in Philippians 4:8 promotes God’s standard for how we are to steward our hearts and minds; He tells us what they should contain. Consider for a few minutes why Heavenly Father would instruct us regarding our thought life. He’s a God of purpose, and He doesn’t say or do anything just for the sake of saying or doing it. Everything He does has necessity and purpose. So, we have no other choice but to know that if He took the time to instruct us on the matter of our thoughts, then our thought-life is important to Him. Our mind is where we create our reality.

It’s where we dream and make things happen in life. Our thoughts influence everything we do, and they ultimately control our actions. So, considering the impact our thoughts have on our lives, it is no secret why it’s important to God that we put on the mind of Jesus Christ and think like him.

Thoughts are like seeds. Once you plant them, and water them through thinking them again and again, those seeds will produce a harvest. The mind is a powerful tool, and that’s why Heavenly Father tells us to think on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. He wants the absolute best for us, and our acceptance of all the good things in life begins by thinking Godly thoughts. 

Proverbs 23:7(NKJV) tells us, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” When we think the same thoughts repeatedly, and think them with emotion and feeling, this leaves an incredible imprint on our consciousness. These thoughts take on a form, and Proverbs 23:7 says that this form becomes a part of who we are. It becomes an actual part of our hearts, impacting our decisions and choices. And not only this, these same thoughts begin to create and draw circumstances and people that support them. If it’s negative thoughts, life will mirror back negativity. If they are positive thoughts, life will mirror the positive. In this way, we decide what comes back to us by the very nature of what we put into the atmosphere. And it is all rooted and gets its beginning from our thoughts.

God tells us through the Apostle Paul in 2Corinthians 10:5 to demolish the unprincipled, ungodly, and vain thinking that comes from the world. Those in the world believe themselves to outsmart everyone, but really they are caught up in a vicious negative cycle of vanity, darkness, and destruction. That’s not for God’s people. Through the powerful tools that God has provided, we are commanded by Him to tear down the lies that are started by the world in order to blind people from seeing the light of God’s truth.

We start with ourselves by capturing every thought we think. We then must hold it up to examine whether it can be shaped and molded according to the mind of Christ. If it can’t, it’s outta here. Jesus Christ must always be on our minds, and when our thoughts line up with his, we will be a magnet for all the good things God wants us to have.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Demolish All that Comes From the World”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.