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August 19, 2015 by Laura Diehl 4 Comments

How Do I Know What Decision to Make?

God says perseverance is a sign of maturity. Sometimes that perseverance means to stick it out where we are, and sometimes it means we need to inconvenience ourselves to shift our position. So how do we know what to do in this type of circumstance?

How Do I Know What Decision to Make_-6

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” James 1:4. The next verse answers the question on how to know what to do. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” Pray for God’s wisdom and His guidance. He will show you if things are going to settle down soon so you can stay where you are, or if there are some steps you can take to move you where you need to be to get away from those distractions. He knows exactly where you need to be, and when you need to be there; and He is not going to be upset with you for asking Him for directions.

As Christians, we love to quote James 1:5, claiming God promises to give us wisdom. Some of God’s promises are unconditional. In other words, we don’t have to do anything on our end for God to follow through. However, James 1:5 is not one of those promises, and yet it is very rare to hear Christians claiming God promises to give us wisdom with His conditions attached.

Verse six reads, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts ship being tossedis like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

Raise your hand if that describes you at times. I am raising mine! The condition to receiving the true wisdom of God is to believe and not doubt that God is giving you direction, and follow through with it. Take that step of faith, (or stand your ground in faith if God is telling you to stay put).

I am reading Enjoying Where You Are on the Way to Where You are Going by Joyce Meyers. Here is what she has to say about this scripture. “Double mindedness is confusing, yet decision-making can be simple…indecision and double mindedness not only bring confusion and complication, but, as James noted, they also bring condemnation.”

In other words, we should not believe something in our hearts, and then allow our minds to talk us out of it. Make a decision, and move forward. Don’t get caught in the trap of indecisiveness.

I like how the Philips translation words it. “But he must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts as to whether he really wants God’s help or not. The man who trusts God, but with inward reservations, is like a wave of the sea, carried forward by the wind one moment and driven back the next.” We have to truly want God’s help, and then act on that inner voice of the Holy Spirit, without doubting.

confusedWe need to stop living in fear of making the wrong decision, which causes us to be paralyzed and not move forward. That is exactly what James was saying, when he talked about being double minded and unstable.

God is faithful. If you are truly seeking His will, go ahead and take a step of faith in obedience to what you believe you are hearing. If it is the wrong step, He will lovingly change your direction, getting you on the path He has for you.

In the natural, let’s say you have a child who is looking for something, and you know where it is. When he asks you, you will direct him to it. If he misunderstood you, and starts heading in the opposite direction, you wouldn’t just think, “Oh well! Too bad he didn’t hear me,” and let him keep wandering. You would get his attention and make sure he understands, sending him in the right direction.

God is a good and perfect Father. If you want His perfect wisdom, He will give it to you, just for the asking, as long as you are asking in sincere faith without doubting as to whether or not you really want His help, or doubting your ability to receive it.

The results of not believing God will give you the wisdom you are asking for can be found in verse eight. “That sort of man cannot hope to receive anything from God, and the life of a man of divided loyalty will reveal instability at every turn.”

I am sure this is not the result you or I want to have. So let’s 20150811_093249believe when we ask God for wisdom and direction, He gives it to us, and will make sure we hear Him clearly. And then let’s be sure we take a step of faith, trusting He will continue to guide us if we take a wrong step. After all, He is not only just a good Father, but a perfect Father!

Filed Under: Gems from the Crown, Vision - Past, Present, Future

August 12, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

Yes, It IS About Me

As Christians, we hear quite often, “It’s not about you. It’s all about Him.” We even lift our hands as we sing worship songs that indicate this. I may be stirring up a Christian bee’s nest, but I don’t fully believe that. Let me tell you why.

 Yes, It IS About Me

God refers to us as the following:

  • We are His children (and He is our Abba, Father)
  • We are His sheep
  • We are His friends
  • We are the Bride of His Son

If it is all about Him, and not about us,

  • Why did Jesus tell us He was leaving so the Holy Spirit Cross_in_sunsetcould come and live inside each one of us?
  • Why did God make a covenant with us, putting Himself on both sides of it so that we can’t get out of it?
  • Why didn’t God just leave us in sin after Adam and Eve disobeyed Him?
  • Why did Jesus say He came to seek and save those who were lost?
  • Why does God encourage us through Paul to run the race and finish well?
  • Why did Jesus say He was going to prepare a place for us to live with Him forever?
  • Why are we told what signs to look for to let us know Jesus’ return is getting close?
  • Why bother sending the Holy Spirit at all, to lead and guide us into all truth?

Why? Because God is a personal God, who wants a personal, intimate relationship with each one of us.

In God’s eyes, life here on earth is about you, and it is about me!

Yes, we walk by faith, and not by sight. Yes, we are not to live our lives based on feelings. But the ability to have feelings and emotions came from God. When you hear someone say, “It’s not about you. It’s about Him,” how does that make you feel? Do you feel closer to God? Probably not.

When a daughter wants her daddy’s attention, how would she feel if he tells her, “It doesn’t matter what you want. It isn’t about you; it’s about me and what I want. Leave me alone!”?

If a person contacts his or her best friend to ask them to hang out, is it normal for that friend to say, “It doesn’t matter what you want. It’s not about you and what you want to do.”?

MandMweddingcroppedWould a groom tell his new wife on their honeymoon, “This marriage isn’t about you. It’s all about me and what I want out of it!”?

Of course not!

Then why do we think our relationship with God is all about Him and none of it is about us?

If it’s not about you, who did Jesus come to die for? Why did God give us the written Word to teach us how to live in a way that brings us His blessings? Why do we seek Him to find out what gifts He has placed in us and what He created us to do and be while living on this earth?

God wants us to come to him with our fears, our anxieties, our burdens, our sicknesses, our loneliness, and any other negative thoughts and feelings we have, so that He can exchange them for His peace, joy, health, mercy, compassion, and unconditional extravagant love!

Now that I think about it, that actually sounds like a pretty one-sided relationship. This exchange makes it sound like it is almost all about you and me!

But it isn’t just about you or me. And it isn’t just about Him. It is all about the relationship. It is all about “we” and “us.”

This understanding is not something that inflates our ego20150224_164348c2 and makes us strut with pride. Instead, it is something very humbling, which causes us to want to love Him deeply in return, to worship Him and live our lives for Him.

wedding rings cAnd so, we discover it is all about being caught up in a circle of love. The more we receive His love, the more we want to return it, which opens the door for us to receive even more from Him, which causes us to be even more in love with Him, and on it goes.

Yes, it IS about me, and you, AND God. Aren’t you thankful for that?

 

Filed Under: Gems from the Crown, Idenity

August 7, 2015 by Laura Diehl 2 Comments

Power!

powerSatan is our enemy. He is very evil, and he and his buddies (called demons) can make plenty of bad things happen. There are some people who think God and Satan on are the same level of power; that God is the “good guy” and Satan is the “bad guy”.

But the fact is, God actually created Satan originally as an angel named Lucifer. Lucifer rebelled against God and thought he was so beautiful and so great, that he should be worshiped instead of God. So God had no choice but to instantly throw him out of heaven and take away his angel name (Isaiah chapter 14).

Now if Satan is only a rebellious angel created by God and was thrown out of heaven by God, who is more powerful, Satan, or God? God is, of course! But Satan doesn’t want you to know that, and he tries to fool people (especially kids) into thinking he has just as much power as God. But always remember, God is much MUCH MUCH stronger than Satan will ever be!scooby

And since God lives inside of you, God’s power is in you to defeat the power of Satan that comes against you. When God’s enemy comes against you with something scary or bad, just tell Satan and his demons they have to “Go in the name of Jesus!” and they have to run away!

Filed Under: Kidz Korner

August 5, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

How Important is a Sense of Community?

I recently had the need to “run away.” I had a lot on my plate and also had some things that were weighing heavily on my heart. The busyness of day-to-day life compounded things, until I found myself completely overwhelmed.

how important is community

We couldn’t afford for me to go stay at a hotel to get away for a few days. As I asked God to show me how to get some time away, which I so desperately needed, I realized my mom was heading to Ohio to visit my sister, leaving her place unoccupied for a week. So I packed my things and went to stay there for several days of quietness, prayer, reading, writing, reflection…you get the idea.

Every morning, I would go out for a long walk around the mobile home subdivision she lives in. The last morning as I was walking, someone drove past me with a huge smile and a big wave, and I smiled and waved back. My thought was, “You have no clue who I am, so why are you so excited to see me?”

I realized it was because the driver probably believed that if I was out walking in this subdivision, I lived there. She had the unconscious thought, “You must be one of us, you are part of our community” and therefore offered the joyful greeting from her car.

I had a Mini Cooper for five years. (Yes, sweet!) I loved that car! As Chicago and Indianapolis 060the owner of a Mini, whenever you pass someone else driving a Mini, you wave at them. It’s a big deal to be the owner of such a car, and a community is built around it. Dave and I did several Mini Cooper rallies, where we would meet up with dozens or even hundreds of other Mini owners, and all drive somewhere together. At one of these rallies we even got to drive on the Indy 500 track!

It’s the same thing with Harley Davidson. One of my sons is a Harley technician, and in the summer once a month they have a rally, where hundreds of Harley owners come from all around to hang out together. If you own a 20150803_170745Harley, you are automatically part of their community.

I looked up the word community, and here is one of the definitions: a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals (Oxford Dictionaries).

Community gives us a sense of belonging. We all have a need, a craving, to know we belong somewhere.

The Body of Christ should be our greatest sense of community. It should be a place where we feel in fellowship with others, as a result of the commonality of our relationship and love for Jesus.

But do we? Unfortunately, many people do not. They have the commonality, but not the fellowship of community.

Why is that? Could it be that we have unwittingly reverted back to the way of the Pharisees that Jesus called hypocrites? Are we so busy being the Holy Spirit to those around us who profess Jesus as their Savior, making sure they do and don’t do what He has convicted us of, that it is a bunch of rules and regulations, instead of relationship?

The other day, I was talking to someone in my parents’ generation who began to share with me her frustration at the lack of young people in her church. I told her that I think it is because we have tried to teach our kids about the rules of religion, instead of the gift of relationship. Rules without relationship breeds rebellion.

When someone first comes to know Jesus in a real way, telling God they want to live for Him instead of themselves and inviting Him into their lives, we are all happy and excited for them (as we should be)! But then we immediately start telling them what they should and should not do, to be able to remain as part of our church community, under the label of being a Christian. If they don’t follow our rules fast enough, they start feeling uncomfortable, and end up leaving.

Flip_FlopsI am not talking about things in the Bible God outright calls sin and wants us to come away from to avoid our own destruction. I am talking about things like not wearing flip-flops to church. Yes, I actually had a conversation with someone on this very subject. Her argument was that a person would not wear something as casual as flip-flops to visit a dignitary, and since God is so much greater, He should be honored in the same way. Therefore, we need to dress up (which includes no flip-flops) for church.

Things like abstaining from all alcohol (which my husband and I do, not because we think it is a sin, but it is just our personal choice) or getting certain body piercings or a tattoo are other common areas of “how can you call yourself a Christian and do that?” type of subjects. We even had a friend many years ago who had this attitude about home schooling, laying a guilt trip on any Christian who sent their children to government (public) schools!

Here’s a thought. How about if we focus on relationships instead of rules? Yes, I know there is a need for accountability, teaching, instruction, and correction. But the black-and-white (and red lettering) Word of God is the measuring stick for that. Our own convictions in areas that do not make or break a person’s relationship with God should not become unwritten rules of the community of the Body of Christ, causing broken fellowship and division.

curling 2Many years ago, my husband and I were members of our local curling club (a sport played on ice). I felt like I had better fellowship and sense of community and belonging there in the clubhouse (drinking my soda) than I did in my church at times. I was accepted and welcomed just the way I was. No one was trying to conform me into their own image of who they thought I should be as a curler, like I felt was happening to me in the church as a Christian. How sad is that? Fortunately, I was strong enough to recognize how dangerous the pull of that was, so it did not cause me to give up on being part of the Church.

But many people don’t have that insight, and decide that the acceptance of community in the world is so much better than the acceptance of community (or lack of it) in the church. That is not what Christ intended, and I am sure it grieves Him greatly.

Everyone needs to belong to a group who will accept them the way they are. I cannot change a person’s heart. I cannot change a person’s motive. I cannot change a person’s convictions. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, and He does it quite well. As a matter of fact, that is His specialty.

What I can do is love someone into the Kingdom, and then continue to love them the way they are, while the Holy Spirit does the internal work. It does no good to get someone to conform on the outside, with no change on the inside.

People should not have to go outside the church and into the world to have that craving of belonging to a community to be filled. Let’s be determined to make sure our churches are a true place of community, where people know they are wanted and belong, for the simple fact that we are all “living in the same subdivision”. We are all in relationship with God through the covenant blood of Jesus Christ. That is what makes us part of His community; plain and simple.

Filed Under: Gems from the Crown, Idenity

July 29, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

Seven Ways to Shift From Fear to Faith (Part 2)

We know fear does not come from God. And yet we all go through trials and difficulties that can cause us to fight fear.

Seven Ways to Shift from Fear to Faith Part 2

The greatest trial of my life came with the death of our oldest daughter. In part one, I shared the first five of seven things that pulled me out of that place of dark confusion and back into a place of faith in the Living God and His plans for my life. (Click here to read part one.)

6. Don’t try to hide from your fears or pretend they aren’t there.

God wants you to bring all your feelings to Him, even the ones you wish you didn’t have. You may be wondering, He knows these things already. Why should I have to tell Him how I am feeling? Because you need to admit those things so you can give them to God and let Him work with you at being set free. Fear and anxiety come from the enemy of your soul. When you take these feelings to God, it is a way of affirming your trust in Him, regardless of how you feel. If you do this persistently, those tormenting feelings of fear will eventually lose their hold on you, and you will find your feelings lining up with faith.

7. Claim the promises of God, not based on how you feel, but based on the truth of what God says.

I have chosen to believe Romans 8:18, untitledwhich tells me the sufferings of this present time cannot be compared with the glory that will be revealed in me. And I have written in the margin of one of my Bibles that I am not waiting for the glory of heaven, but I am looking for the power of His glory to be revealed in me while I am still here on this earth!

How about the promise of Jesus telling us He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5)? That is not a promise based on conditions. It is set and firm, no matter what we choose to do or not do. He is our constant companion and source of everything we need during this time. The question is not “Where is God?” The question is “Where am I?” I can walk out on Him very easily, and many of us do. We ignore Him, as though He is no longer with us. That is never the case. Guess who moved away? (Hint: it’s not God.)

What fears are you carrying right now? Are they things God would have you carry? Let me answer that for you. No, they are not. So are you willing to lay them down at the feet of Jesus, who is sitting on His throne as King, and leave them there so you can move forward in freedom?

There is freedom in surrender. I have experienced that in my life over and over again. It is like we are digging through the garbage, trying to survive, when God wants to hand us a steak. But we won’t take it because we don’t want to give up the garbage. Crazy, isn’t it? But that is what we do when we refuse to allow God to take something like our fears from us. He always replaces it with something better. If you say yes and hand over those fears, God can move in and begin to turn things around for you. (Hmm…that makes me think of another promise you can claim in Romans 8:28.)

There are some things we need to give to God for Him to do, but there are also things we can do ourselves. Right now you can speak to the mountain of fear in your life. Tell the lies behind that fear that you are going to believe the truth: God’s perfect love for you casts out all fear! (1 John 4:18)

20150819_172027I refuse to remain focused on the pain of my loss. I am determined to go forward, focused on who and what I still have. I have given God the shattered pieces of my life and am watching Him not only fix it, but make it into something even more beautiful than it was before. Only a God who specializes in miracles can do that!

I also refuse to live in fear of the “what ifs” of more loss. If that happens, I know that I know that I know God will give me the grace I need to get through it. Why waste my time on the darkness of fearing what will probably never happen? I would much rather live my life full of light and hope of a better tomorrow. You and I both are blessed with so much that has not been taken from us.

Fear and faith require the same emotion, which is belief in the unknown.

Which “unknown” are you going to believe in and act on? I recommend faith.

What promise in the Word of God are you standing on in faith? I would love to have you share it with me in the comments below.

 

Note: This was adapted from Laura’s book When Tragedy Strikes which will be available in bookstores everywhere early 2016. Click here for more information.

 

Filed Under: Gems from the Crown, Vision - Past, Present, Future

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