Our God Forever and Forever

Psalms 48:1-3,14
Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain. 2 It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Like the utmost heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King. 3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

Our God Forever and Forever

You know there are times that I look at myself probably like many of you. I see all of my weaknesses, my frailties, failures, sins and faults. If I only had eyes to see myself, I could become very discouraged and depressed. Sometimes it is not only hard for others to live with us, it is hard for us to live with ourselves and still keep our hope. We can become very discouraged with life and want to give up. We can easily reason how the world would be so much better off without us. Maybe we feel all we ever do is screw up, make mistakes and fall so short of what we hoped we would be. There are times in our lives we can feel pretty beat up, battered and condemned. So why do we continue on? Why should we still have hope?
When I read passages like this one in Psalms it helps me realize that I am not an island, but I am part of a much greater plan. That faith I have in God and Jesus Christ rises up to show me that there is a mighty God that is so great and wonderful beyond my comprehension and that this God really loves me, even the way I am. He created me. He knows my heart, my thoughts and my intentions. He has not left me alone, but He has brought me into Himself to be a part of something so magnificent and glorious. He made me a part of His City and His Presence and Being indwells me. ‘This God is my God who is with me for ever and for ever and He will guide me even to the end.’
I realize that maybe He allowed me to have so many weaknesses and flaws for a reason. Maybe it was so that I could never boast in myself, but I could only boast in Him, in His grace and sufficiency for my life. What gives me courage and hope is that I know that my God is for me, that nothing can ever separate me from His love and that the reason that I am a conqueror and an overcomer is because of the Christ that indwells me.
I know that the purpose of the enemy and of satan is to destroy that life which you and I possess. Jesus tells us that in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.” While the enemies’ purpose is to destroy us, Christ’s purpose it to build us up and to give us life abundantly. No, we may not feel worthy or deserving of that life, but He has given it to us just the same. Through Christ we can have eyes to see into Him and what we are in Him. We no longer have to focus on the mess that we have been and the inadequacies that we feel. I know that we are still struggling through so many of these issues. Our faith takes us where our present experiences have not yet been. It takes us to what God has to say about us, what His Word declares over us and promises to us. In these things we find hope, we find life and reason for being.
I love the scripture that Paul gives to us in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” Maybe that is why He chose me and that is why He chose you. In our weakness He is made strong and when people observe the marvelous things that can come forth from your life they will recognize that it is not you, but Christ in you. God knows how to take cracked pots and use them for His glory and praise. So before you and I give up and succumb to our discouragement, let us draw courage from the God of strength and life. I thank God for who I am because it makes me keep my eyes upon Him and my praise toward Him. I have to trust Him for every aspect of my life.
Yes, I see my faults, my failures and my weakness, but more importantly I see His life, His promises and His strength. These are what we are going to lay hold of. These are what will pull us out of the pit and set us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. HE IS OUR STRENGTH, OUR LIFE AND OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. HE IS OUR FAITH, OUR FORTRESS AND OUR SALVATION. HE IS THE ONE THAT GIVES ME HOPE IN THE NIGHT AND JOY IN THE MORNING. HE IS OUR GOD FOREVER AND FOREVER, HALLELUJAH AND AMEN.

Blessings,
#kent

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Enveloped in His Nature

1 John 4:7-12
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice forc our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Enveloped in His Nature

One of the things that we know about God is that His nature is Love. He may have many attributes, but all that God is, all that he does is birthed out of His nature of Love. All true and pure love comes from God, because God is a giver and He proved how large and wonderful a giver He is when Jesus, His only begotten Son, came down from the place of rulership and dominion to suffer and die a sinner’s death for us, that He might redeem us back to the Father. Never has there been a greater expression and example of love than that.
When we received Christ into our hearts and spirits we became identified with Him in every way; in His cross, in His death, in His burial, resurrection, in His life and ascension and now we have the revelation by His Spirit that indwells us and the Word of God that bears witness that we are “in” Christ. Because we are “in Him” we are to no longer live our lives through our souls (mind, will and emotion), but “through” Christ. Now Christ is in God and Has expression out of and through the Father and 1 John 4:9 says God sent His Son that we might live through Him. We have the privilege, but we also make the choice. We live “in Christ”, “out of Him” and “through Him” we are one with Him. His name and His nature become ours, because we are His. When we live out of Christ, who is God manifest, then we, in like manner possess and live out of His nature of love.
How do we recognize that love?
By the way we honor and treat one another.
1 John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” The way we walk in love toward one another exemplifies and testifies or bears witness that God is in us, because His love is manifesting through our actions and our life. It doesn’t say that it is because we tell each other that we love them. That’s good, but the proof of our love is in our actions and life with one another. Do we earnestly care for one another as expressed through our actions and honor we bestow upon one another?
John tells us here something that should convict each of us that are not truly walking in the love of God. 1 John 4:19-21 tells us, “We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” If we truly know God and God is in us through Christ and His Spirit then how can we still be living in offense and rejection of our brothers or sisters. It is not God’s nature to harbor these things in our hearts. That is an anti-Christ spirit and if we carry this spirit how can we say that we are His? The two natures don’t line up.
If we are going to truly call ourselves believers and disciples of Jesus then His nature had better be showing up in and through our lives. That nature of love.
A quick reminder of what God’s love is from 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.”
If love never fails then how can we, as His expression of love in the earth, fail to love and forgive one another?
I see so much of this throughout families and the body of Christ where people have taken up offense, feuds and walk in rejection and unforgiveness of one another. What scripture did we get that out of and how can we justify, by the Word of God, that manner of behavior? Where is the love of God in that? We can justify to ourselves if we want, but according to God’s Word that we just shared I would say that we are deceived, because Christ died for that brother or sister you rejected, just like He died for you and He loves them, just like He loves you. It doesn’t meant they may have done everything right or they may not have acted out of love, but what does that have to do with you and me, if we say that we are “in love”?
God is telling us to get over our pettiness. You and I lost our rights at the cross and the only right we have is to be who He wants to be in us, “love”. Maybe it is time for a lot of us to either step up into who we are called to be or step off, because the love of God is not in you if you continue to walk in rejection, hate and unforgiveness. Sorry, that’s not God and those walking and living there are not of God, not because I said it, but because His Word says it.
What is our nature? Are we enveloped in His love?

Blessings,
kent