Breaking the Cycle: Who will you choose?

In my last two posts I have talked about breaking the cycle.  As I said, I am surrounded by cycle-breakers and I love it.  God blesses those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6, Proverbs 8:17.)

One particular young man has been steadily breaking chains throughout his entire adult life, but recently, I've watched him come to a decision he hasn't made as easily as the others.

This man was born into a world without a father who cared for him.  His mother had eight kids with a few different men, and so he was raised by his mother and step-father with two other step-siblings and a mixture of family members moving in and out of the house.

As a young boy this man had a dream to grow up and be a preacher some day, but as the emptiness of a broken home set in, he soon lost this vision to drugs, alcohol, and women.  Throughout high school he was rarely out of the principals office.  He dabbled in gangs, skipped most classes, and even became a rapper of terribly degrading music.  Anyone who knew him then said he would be in jail before graduation.

Fortunately for him the grace of God stepped in, as it does for all of us at some point or another.  It was the fall he turned seventeen that this young man made his first big choice towards breaking the sinful cycles in his family and in his own life.  At a student-lead bible study, he gave his life to Christ on his knees in prayer with a fellow Christian male.

For the next two years he made choice after choice--all reflecting the grace of God he had washed his life with.  Nothing was slowing him down.  Each day he woke up in an atmosphere of smoke, profanity, and hatred, and yet he prayed his way through the attacks of Satan.  I even watched him conquer loosing special people in his life, some of which went to be eternally with Christ, others who are now spending eternity in hell.  Throughout these times, he grew closer to God, grieving with a counselor and studying the Word for guidance.

So for the past five years this man has chosen God over and over again, but this time I wonder what he will choose.  We've all prayed, poured into, and helped out as much as God's spirit will allow us too.  We all hope and want the best for him.  We want him to choose God one more time, once and for all, to give this heavy burden over to him.

You see, there was one area of his life, he hasn't let go of yet.  One area he refuses to lay at Christ's feet.  This is often the hardest area for all of us to lay down, probably because of its high level of importance. This area that I am referring to is dating.  Relationships.

Over six months now, I have watched him fight with God, telling him that he will get married to who he wants when he wants, no matter what.  I've watched him do this a million times, and every time God wins.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to get different results.  Well, that's what he's doing.  He has controlled relationship after relationship, rebelling against God's model to trust and obey the timing and placing of all he has planned.  And this time seems to be his last choice.

In Romans, the bible talks about Gods amazing grace, how he gives and he gives and he gives, but ultimately there comes a choice where we choose infinitely who we will serve, and when we choose ourselves for the last time, God gives us over to our flesh.  That's the point where this man is at.  Years of cycle-breaking potentially washed down the drain.  What will he do?  What will I do, besides watch and pray?

Rise up cycle breakers.
How will you choose?

Joshua 24:15

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:
but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Are you a cycle-breaker?  Send your story to divinedating.org@gmail.com for a chance to be featured on a post.

Baggage

God has really laid it on my heart to share this video with you all.  I haven't seen it in a few years, but last night it was laid strongly on my mind.  I really pray that you watch this and think about the baggage in your own life.  Where did come from?  How did it start?  Are you still carrying it?

I hope you sincerely feel the weight of the baggage we carry around.  Soetimes these pains, hurts, and failures get so stored up that they come out as anger.  Other times they are released when we do physical harm to ourselves.  And sometimes we take this baggage to other people and ask them to fix it.  Often times it is a boyfriend or a girlfriend who we try let heal us.  

The truth is, all of these attempts at healing and breaking free from the baggage are failed.  Although it may seem right at the time, we do in turn, end up picking up even more baggage. 

So today I want you to do something for yourself.  I want you to sit down and make a list of all the "bags" you've picked up.  Start with the biggest, deepest hurt in your life.  Where did that come from?  What other bags did it lead to?  Write them down specifically.

Then, I want you to take each bag individually and pray through it with your savior.  If it was pain from the words of your parents, ask God to give you the grace to forgive  them.  If it was being bullied in elementary school, pray for those bullies (Matthew 6:44) and let Jesus take away the bondage you have to them.

Work your way through the whole list, giving each specific bag to God.  Allow him to heal you and make you whole again through this process.  There are two rules to this activity.

1.  After you give the bag to God, you can't pick it back up.  

Satan will try to give it back to you undoubtedly, but this is when you are to be on guard and pray against it.  Pray that God would remind you that he has it under control.  It's not yours anymore.  (Philippians 4:6, 1 Peter 5:7)  Let go.

2.  You cannot skip bags.

As badly as I want you to be free to dance in grace, I don't want you to do this at all if you aren't going to lay down every single bag.  If you skip one, it is most likely because it is the hardest one to let go of.  The cut is so deep it has defined you.  You skip over it because letting go is too painful.  Well guess what, that isn't going to heal anyone.  

Jesus said, "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

His life, Jesus said.  Not just a few things here and there, but everything.  You see, the call to follow Jesus requires your everything.  He never once calls for pieces of our obedience or faithfulness.  No, the Lord commands our all if we are to truly experience freedom in him.

So don't skip that bag.  Take a long extended amount of time to be with God and work through that tough bag.  It will make all the difference.

I Will Wait for You: A Poem

A friend of mine shared this with me yesterday, I thought it was very powerful and full of the truth of the Word of God.  Hope this encourages you today. :) God Bless

God's Love for You

You want to know how special you are in the eyes of Christ?

He desires for you to be his bridegroom! His wife. His lover, his spouse. He wants nothing more than to be one with you and have communion and fellowship with you every single day of your life. He thinks your gorgeous. “All beautiful you are my darling; there is no flaw in you.” Song of Songs 4:7

“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” 1 Corinthians 11:2

He is enthralled with your beauty! Psalms 45:11

He has a purpose for you as an individual child of God and he will love you forever. Psalm 139:8

He made you so perfectly that it’s wonderfully scary. He sees no flaw in you. Psalm 139:14

He made you in his image! Genesis 1:26

I could go on and on with the snippets of bible verses proclaiming God’s love for you, but you’re not going to fully grasp the depth of his love unless you study it for yourself. Look at the entire salvation story, cover to cover, for yourself and see what you take away from it.

Great and powerful God who rules over everything—he created you intricately, fantastically, and phenomenally. He created you to be part of a community with him. To be with HIM. Then we failed. We screwed up and chose our sinful, selfish desires over his. You know what his first response was?

Grace. I hate that you did that my child, but I forgive you. I love you and so I will only punish you, not destroy you. For the next 2000 years we constantly hurt God, failed him, turned away from the good he provided us with, and turned towards evil and destruction. Every single time God was faithful and loving and compassionate. He always forgave instantly. Continuously pouring out his love and mercy on a people who deserved death and torture.

Finally one day God himself humbled himself so much that he came to our rotten planet because he knew it was the only way he could fix our relationship with him. He knew that it was going to take an act like that to win our love back for himself. So not only did he come to Earth and live a full life here, but he served and he served and he loved and he served. The God of the universe washed feet, made friends with outcasts, and helped people in need. As if that wasn’t enough, he was spat on, stoned, whipped, cursed, rejected, accused, and finally—our selfishness and bitterness drove him to a harsh death. The crazy thing is he didn’t mind it. He desperately wanted our love so bad that he was willing to die for us. He set things right so we could have the opportunity to live a life with him in love forever and for all eternity.

Today he is still begging you for your attention. He wants to be the one who captivates your heart. He wants to be the one you share everything with, the one that makes you smile and get warm on the inside. He wants to be your mate, your bridegroom, your lover, your best friend, your master, your shepard, your teacher—he loves you THAT much.

Yet we constantly reject him.

Study the bible for yourself. Let me know what you find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps

Understanding God's Grace

During my quiet time with God earlier, I decided to study Proverbs 31 again, which is the chapter often labeled "Characteristics of a Nobel Wife." This chapter contains 31 verses of what a godly wife should look like. As I am reading however, I was reminded that the key to becoming this wife of noble character, is not to copy everything she does by buying a farm and learning to sew. Rather, it comes from knowing and understanding God more as a woman.

The woman in Proverbs 31 is a hard worker, she is a provider and nourisher for her family, she gives to the poor, fears the Lord, is wise, and is always joyful with no worries. Now if we try to be this woman in our own strength, we all know we will fail miserably simply because it is not natural to be that pleasant all the time.

However, if we depend on God to help us get there, we will most definitely succeed. You see this woman is generous to the poor because she understands God's grace in her own life. She knows that she is but a sinful woman whom God undeserving casted grace on in order that she may fall deeper in love with him. She is a provider and nourisher for her family not because her family is perfect and there are no arguments or disagreements, but because she understands the love of Christ and what he did for her--therefore she extends that love to the people around her.

And my favorite part...this woman is not constantly joyful due to Prozac pills or the mastering of "faking it." I believe that this woman could "Laugh at the days to come" (verse 25,) because she understands God's sovereignty and therefore she has casted all of her worries and struggles on him. (1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 6:34)

When we understand that God is sovereign, meaning he has everything under control and he has a wonderful plan laid out for each of us, despite what we think, want, or worry about--then we can come into a life with a beautiful spirit. When we stop trying to control and change and plan every detail about our friends, family, and future, then we can rest and find peace and joy in the one who already has it under control.

When we understand that we are sinful creatures who are destined a life in hell, yet amazingly forgiven by a God who owes us NOTHING--then we can extend grace and love to those around us.

When we understand that GOD HIMSELF came down from heaven in order to live a perfect life and suffer a horrifying death, SO THAT WE MIGHT LIVE--then we understand mercy and grace and servanthood. Mark 10:45 says for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. If the king of kings is humble enough to serve lowly human beings like us, why would we think we were above serving people on the same level as us, like our friends and family?

To sum it up, the truth of everything is found in the holy Bible. If you want to have better relationships, seek God. If you want to be a wife of noble character, seek God. God has displayed his love for us in this: Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8.) The story of this amazing love and grace is found in the Word of God. Get in it and be transformed (Romans 12:2.)

Come Awake

Galatians 5:13 "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love."

1 Corinthians 15:33 "Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God--I say this to your shame."

I know some of you reading this have dealt with addiction, struggles, brokenness, pain--some of this you brought on yourself out of rebellion, for others of you it was due to circumstances beyond your control. Despite what causes your grief and shame, God has a plan for you. He loves you even if this cold world hasn't showed you that. Even if you have been running from him--he still cares. He still loves you. He never left you, you left him. So turn around and reach up for him, so he can assure you he never left.

Pour your heart out to him and he will pour his heart out to you. So often we as girls turn to guys to fill the void in our hearts. We think a man can be our savior and so we give ourselves to our boyfriends and our husbands, and in the end they let us down, we let ourselves down, and we let God down. Put your hope, your trust, your love, your life--into something eternal, something that will never let you down. Something that will give you everlasting joy.

It doesn't matter what you've done or what you've been through. Christ died to give you a greater purpose for your life.

Romans 8:28 "For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

...and when the oceans rage I don't have to be afraid, because your love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:8