May 19th

May 19th  

David understood life the way we do, messy, stressful, painful, hard, but he also understood the Lord. Look at what he wrote when he needed to repent and be reconnected to the Lord

Psalm 51:10-12 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

He begged God for the Holy Spirit to change him from the inside out. Then he asked for restoration. He asked for the joy of his salvation to be renewed.

We have this opportunity. When we are in the middle of a stressful time, we only need to reach for Him and ask Him to give us that joy again. He is faithful to do that, even when we don’t feel like it. He will grant us a willing spirit. -And, as we have learned, the benefits of that go beyond the spiritual peace and include effects on our physical brains, which makes us better able to handle future stresses. God designed us to benefit from hard times in order to make us able to handle them better. Read Romans 5:3-5 which details what hard times produce in us. We are what science calls “antifragile.” The more we experience hard times, the stronger we are and this is especially true when we are Christ followers, spending time with Him.

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

When we face hard times, we can reap benefits from those times even when we are still in the middle of it with no visible solution yet.

2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

So what do we do?

We can take our thoughts captive.

We surrender ourselves to Him

We watch Him redeem our thoughts, our mind and our life.

God has designed our brains to work better when we focus on Him. When we do that He redeems us right in the middle of our situation. This is not a fancy ideological theory that sound good but doesn’t apply to the practical. This is a real solid truth that reveals itself in our physical lives if we begin to practice it!

Look at it this way: You either take your thoughts captive, or they will hold you captive. Which would you prefer???

This week as we face each day let us talk to the Lord about what we will face and ask Him to give us His perspective and then focus on that so that we are better able to handle what comes at us. Let’s begin the practice of allowing our minds to be renewed!

Jesus, thank you for the opportunity to let you redeem me and my circumstances whether they were my fault or not. Thank you for your grace and mercy. Thank you for your amazing love and plan for me. Help me to take captive my thoughts and surrender them to you so that you can redeem me and completely change my life. Thank you for your patience with me.