Are you walking with God?

Sometimes we forget that God’s WAY TOO GOOD to even comprehend at times! (Psalms 139:7-12) In our trials, temptations, whatever, they’re nothing with regard to what God has provided and what God will provide. He’s ALWAYS there! Why do we choose to dwell in a state of misery or anger or bitterness when we have Jesus? What are we doing?

It’s true, mourning and sorrow and depressing events and feelings do come around, and hit us so hard we don’t know how hard we’ve been hit. Sometimes this lead us toward unholy actions or thoughts. But its these times where we can absolutely count on Christ to provide and be there for us. It’s these times that lead us RIGHT to Christ, when we call out on His name in our helplessness. (Phillipians 4:6-7)

Maybe it’s not an emotional or impacting event, and you’re just feeling ‘bleh’ or ‘blah’. That attitude of ‘i don’t know’ or ‘what’s goin on’ is also considered NOTHING compared to God. If you’re feeling this complacency or distraught attitude, its alright too, Jesus promises direction (John 10:11). But what we need to do is to really depend on Him, because He’s ALWAYS there for us, even when we do stumble in our faith.

I know that recently I’ve been having this ‘blah’ attitude along with some tones of sorrow, which are accompanied with complacency and half-hearted effort to want to love God and others. It’s when I’m in a state like this, that I KNOW i need to submit(James 4:7) and really ask for guidance. I know that it might not necessarily ease the burdens and the weight of the cross, but just knowing that put all my thoughts and feelings before Christ, it’s enough.

You may ask, “How can this be enough? You’re still going through the SAME exact feelings and emotions and everyday struggles.”. Yes this may be true, but it’s the hope and trust in Christ, the promises He laid out, and what He’s already done that really give the peace that we all seek! Yes, we might not physically feel His presence or get these bubbly emotions inside of us. We might even be faced with more daunting facets of life as we put our lives in His hands. But as long as we’re walking with the Lord in our daily lives, He really is enough!(2 Corinthians 12:9)

Are you walking with Him today? Are you full on conversing with Him, instead of only responding when you feel it’s necessary? I want to encourage you to REALLY sit down, and lay it all out before Him. Don’t hold anything back and present it ALL before Him. Ask for guidance and He’ll provide it. God is faithful and you can be sure He’ll stay faithful.(Hebrews 13:5)

In Christ,
-Jono

ALL DAY

The throne of my heart.
Occupy it. Reign supreme
Kill my lust and pride and all my other things ugly things.
Wage a holy war inside me til Your overcome
Let Your kingdom come and Let Your will be done.
I was worthless. I was dead.
Foul. Nasty. Dirty.
I had no eyes to see or ears to hear that You are worthy.
But Your Spirit hit me.
It gave me new direction.
I see the deeper things.
I called it depth perception.
Now Your presence is my treasure, never ending peace.
And they can’t keep me from Your love cause it’ll never cease.
So I pray You keep me, cause I can’t keep myself.
Protect me from my sin. I know I’m bad for my health.
And I’m dieing to know You. Wake me up and let me read.
Treat Your words so if they cut me this is what I bleed.
Give me a double feature.
Give me a triple portion.
I’m coming back for seconds, thirds, fourth, more, more, more!

Running the race.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” - Hebrews 12:1.

(Condensed version after the second set of dashes, because I know this post is really lengthy haha)

Once someone becomes a believer in Christ, they have effectively signed a contract saying “Lord, change me and mold me for the better, instill Your statutes and Your will upon my heart, that I may walk with you all the days of my life, until the day that You take me Heavenward.” - Your Name Here. No longer do we rely on man’s fallible, corrupt nature to provide, but instead we look toward God’s omnipotence and holiness to provide our everyday needs.

Jesus says that His burden is light and his yoke is easy. What a great deal! This reference is taken directly from Matthew 11:28-30, and it is often mistaken for an easy way out of life’s struggles. We actually trade our worldly yokes for Christ’s yoke, and that yoke is to do His will! This means that we need to bear our crosses (Mark 8:34), and proceed onto the race track of life with Christ in mind.

It gets rough and tough at times, and to simply ditch the cross and quit running is extremely attractive at times. But we’re called to the continual dependence on God and perseverance in Christ alone.
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Now that the introduction has been made, this post seems very similar to yesterday’s, but the focus will be more on the practicalities and specifics of “running the race” in Hebrews 12:1.

The main idea is that we need to realize that ALL believers are on the same road of life, running towards God. Yes, some may be further ahead, some may be slacking it, but we’re ALL running. The road of life contains many dangers, hazards, traps, pitfalls, but by God’s grace, He provides through them all. We’re called to persevere through all these obstacles and really focus on running towards God’s holiness. God knows you, He knows your heart, and He is with you! (Isaiah 43:2). We need to personally put EVERYTHING on the line for Christ, because that’s exactly what He did for us! He’s worthy! While faith is individual, as one needs to have their own personal conviction, our faith is all about fellowship (Matthew 18:20). Why is it all about fellowship? It’s because we’re really all just part of one body, which is Christ! (Colossians 3:15).

Personifying the running image a little more, the second idea is that we don’t run alone, we run together as believers. This is known as fellowship. This is the reason for Hebrews 10:25, where it’s mandated that we don’t give up meeting with one another. While this passage is written in the context of the church, it’s important to apply this principle outside the church as well, when we’re living our everyday lives. When someone stumbles, it’s the responsibility of the others to encourage and push that person back up. When someone is hurting, the others need to pray and love on that person. The individual needs to realize that there are others around that he/she is called to love on! (Matthew 22:39). Again, while our personal faith is our own, we need to encourage, love, pray for, and ultimately lift up one another.

The next point will touch on relationships. If you’re in a relationship, the man essentially drafts for the woman, who runs right behind him. The man leads the woman, taking on the full brunt of the head wind, while the woman is called to support him. Everything in the preceding paragraph should apply here as well, where its really a mutual support. Perfection can’t be expected because we’re fallible as human creatures, but commitment to one another is absolute. Sometimes issues may crop up, and the man at times may ‘not seem to lead’. The woman at times may ‘not seem to follow’. If this is the case, and this partnership causes progress to slow in the race over a period of time, it might be wise to reconsider the relationship. However, if both parties continually yearn to seek Christ, and despite all difficulties and issues and find themselves more effective in running together, then may such a companionship continue!

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It’s getting kind of late so I’ll conclude at this time. We know that running the race is tough, as any believer can relate. No matter where you are in your walk with Christ, the moment you accepted, you’ve been put on the racetrack =)

But we need to quickly realize that we don’t run the race alone! There are others around who quite possibly, are going through the same exact thing you’re going through. If you’re going through a rough patch, it easy to argue that “Maybe its just the church” or “No one really cares about me”. Let me tell you that there ARE people around to support and be there for you! We’re called to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).

Especially if you’re in a relationship or marriage, you gotta realize that your partner is doing this for YOU, out of obedience to Christ. Again, there’s a reason you’re together. Semantics such as “He’s not leading” or “She’s not following” may be argued till we’re all blue in the face, but the fact is you two got together for a reason. If issues really do arise, it’s all about being REAL with each other and ultimately LOVING on each other. Ditch all the pride, anger, jealousy, selfishness behind. If you really do care about the other person, make it known through your action.

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And above all, if the temptation of quitting the race becomes attractive, I want to encourage you with this passage: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” - 1 Peter 1:6-7.

When faced with seemingly overwhelming trials and temptations and hardships, may the day come when our dependence and trust in God is so great that we gladly say, “I’m Good!”.

God Bless.

Get rid of that extra weight.

Sometimes when we’re just struggling with our imperfections, our iniquities, we feel so restless. This restlessness could come from anything or anyone; often we don’t even know the origin of this numb feeling. It is overwhelming at times. We don’t know how to deal with it, because we don’t even know the origin of it! And if it’s our own sin that’s messing us up, we get this bleak outlook, where we don’t even know what to do. We can do everything possible to distract us, to try to get us back on track, but in the end it’s really all futile.

It’s futile because we can’t win against ourselves. If it’s our own desires and our own persona that’s causing such feelings, we can try fighting. We can do all we want, but the end result is still the same. That extra weight, baggage, whatever, simply weighs us down. We don’t know what to do with it, because it’s already a part of us. Restlessness, iniquity, false hope, and everything along those lines enter us as a result. It’s like copious amounts of super glue applied directly to skin. When we try to rip or tear or claw off this extra gunk, in reality we hurt ourselves, because its literally stuck to us.

If we continue to let the devil apply that glue onto us, we’re only gonna get bogged down. In our desperation to detach all these negative emotions, feelings, thoughts, and even words from our hearts and minds, we often forget that God can so easily take care of it all!

Psalm 51:6-12
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

We need to remember that Christ came and died on the cross and ultimately rose to take care of sin once and for all! Remember when you first got saved? Yeah, that JOY and LOVE and [insert fruits of spirit] that you experienced is how you should be living EVERYDAY because of what He’s done. This verse is really just saying, “Lord, take care of me, get rid of all my sin, renew my spirit, give me joy in Your salvation”. And we can be sure He’ll do it!

We get so bogged down in day to day worldly activities that we unknowingly let that sinful gunk weigh us down. True, sometimes we just don’t feel it or we’re burnt out or whatever. But what we actually need to do is to find somewhere that’s private and quiet and lay everything out before God. We gotta unrestrict our feelings, thoughts, and emotions before Christ and ask Him to cleanse and purify us. It’s not just sin, but all that extra weight that we experience, Christ can so EASILY remove.
Why do we continue to live in a state of helplessness at times? The bible says that we’re MORE than conquerors (Rom 8:37) because of what He’s already done! Lets not let ourselves idle in this state of numbness and restlessness, but really ask God to take away ALL of that. We need to ask God to fill us with His spirit day by day, because we need it! And we already know He’s faithful! (Heb 13:5).

All the hardship, trials, temptations, they’re there to show us that we need Jesus. He’s faithful to take care of us and get us through them all. Forget all the baggage that this world produces, they’re nothing compared to the greatness of Jesus. Of course, we still need to bear our crosses faithfully, but there’s no reason to add more weight onto our cross! It’s okay though, even if we do, we can be sure Christ can take care of that too.

Let it be our prayer that we put on Jesus DAY BY DAY, not just a few hours on Sunday or Wednesday or Friday. Let’s ask Him to take away all our extra baggage, all that pain, hurt, sorrow, idleness, etc. EVERYTHING that isn’t of Him. Let’s ask Him to give us the WILL to walk as He walked on this earth. He’s faithful and He’s able to provide for us our very need, because He knows us!

I wanna encourage everyone with these words, to those who just can’t seem to get that same joy or passion that they once had in Christ. Maybe you just need to sit down somewhere and really fellowship and enjoy our Lord. He’s patiently waiting.

God bless.

ALL DAY