What the devil meant for bad..God used for good!
Have you ever looked back on a time in your life where you knew the devil was on your back? Maybe you're in it right now?
When the darkness around you is closing in and you can't see the hope you once did...when the thought of giving up on God creeps in...when your marriage doesn't seem worth it anymore...when you get the "if you can't beat 'em join 'em mentality because you can't handle the pressure to "fit in" any longer...when you think about giving in to the immoral thoughts you have REMEMBER that God can absolutely use these situations for good! There's NOTHING He cannot do! He has the power to change ANY situation and pull you up and out of it and restore you!
Some God sent friends and I were recently talking about how God has done this exact thing for us. And quite frankly it's not something you always share with others. Our pride sometimes keeps us from wanting to share with others the fact that we had divorce papers sitting on the counter, 0 dollars in the bank and tons more that we owed the credit card company, we were completely unfulfilled in life and had been in such a dark place that no one knew about. If you've been there and God has restored your marriage I encourage you to testify. If God has equipped you to find your way to financial freedom tell somebody! People need to know their situation can be saved when they're drowning in the sea of lost hope! My friends and I talked about how we had been in places of disobedience from God and had turned our backs on Him, and God turned our situation around and gave us another chance to be brought back into the fold.
You see, we are His SHEEP. We've all heard that time and time again..but really think about it. A sheep cannot "know" the full plans the Sheppard has. Obedience is the only way to stay on the path with the Sheppard. We must CHOOSE to follow Him. He may guide us, but ultimately we pick up our feet and make a choice to walk where He is leading us. But as sheep (and we) do from time to time...we stray. We begin to order our own steps because surely God has messed up or we have gotten so far behind we can't even see Him anymore. And instead of running back to Him we lean on our own understanding and think we have enough power in our own strength to walk through life sheppard-less. Little do we know...We don't even have the strength to take our eyes off of Him!!! When we are at an uncomfortable distance the Sheppard feels that sense of disconnection. And when we choose to walk away He comes after us! He doesn't care if you walked away because you allowed yourself to be distracted..He doesn't care if you purposefully chose to defiantly turn away. He doesn't care. Cause you are His and He just wants you back!
So you understand how the sheep thing works...God loves us. He is the founder of "no man left behind." He truly wants us in constant communion with Him.
Here's a verse we love to quote as Christians.
This is a great verse! My life can be summed up here in a sense because He truly has worked and woven the details together in my life! There's no doubt. Even in the midst of me failing Him he continued to turn my situations around for His glory! Satan has thrown so many things at me and my family that should have statistically broken us apart...BUT God was fighting our battles!!!
This verse isn't a bandaid though. It says that in all things God works for the good of those that LOVE Him! To love Him is to obey Him. (If you're in our Fusion Sunday School study you remember the circles we went around in this past Sunday) We talked about do we love God because obeying Him draws us to love or do we obey cause we love...it's a "what came first the chicken or the egg type of thing" .. But loving God the way He defines love is obeying Him. Jesus said if you love me then you'll KEEP my commandments. So knowing that..we can say this verse goes as follows : In all things God work for the good of those that "keep His commendments" who have been called according to His purpose.
To love Him is to obey Him. Obeying Him is choosing to deny yourself. You cannot serves two masters. We can either serve God or serve ourselves. We cannot do both. If you want God to weave it all together for your good..LOVE HIM AND IF YOU LOVE HIM YOU WILL OBEY HIM. You will forgive, you will humble yourself, you will deny yourself the things YOU want or don't want and choose the things He has spelled out for us. In choosing righteousness you have formed a weapon in your battle.
My iron friend sent me this a few days ago and it is my point to you in a nutshell :
I challenge you to CHOOSE God in the hardest times of your life and watch His mighty hand restore and do more than you ever dreamed of! If you have been through this and know exactly what I am talking about I encourage you to share your testimony. We overcome by the blood of The Lamb and the word of our testimony. There is power in the name of Jesus! Share what He has done for you and let it be known that what Satan meant for bad, God used for good and we are living proof of it!
With love -
Jamie Lee
When the darkness around you is closing in and you can't see the hope you once did...when the thought of giving up on God creeps in...when your marriage doesn't seem worth it anymore...when you get the "if you can't beat 'em join 'em mentality because you can't handle the pressure to "fit in" any longer...when you think about giving in to the immoral thoughts you have REMEMBER that God can absolutely use these situations for good! There's NOTHING He cannot do! He has the power to change ANY situation and pull you up and out of it and restore you!
Some God sent friends and I were recently talking about how God has done this exact thing for us. And quite frankly it's not something you always share with others. Our pride sometimes keeps us from wanting to share with others the fact that we had divorce papers sitting on the counter, 0 dollars in the bank and tons more that we owed the credit card company, we were completely unfulfilled in life and had been in such a dark place that no one knew about. If you've been there and God has restored your marriage I encourage you to testify. If God has equipped you to find your way to financial freedom tell somebody! People need to know their situation can be saved when they're drowning in the sea of lost hope! My friends and I talked about how we had been in places of disobedience from God and had turned our backs on Him, and God turned our situation around and gave us another chance to be brought back into the fold.
You see, we are His SHEEP. We've all heard that time and time again..but really think about it. A sheep cannot "know" the full plans the Sheppard has. Obedience is the only way to stay on the path with the Sheppard. We must CHOOSE to follow Him. He may guide us, but ultimately we pick up our feet and make a choice to walk where He is leading us. But as sheep (and we) do from time to time...we stray. We begin to order our own steps because surely God has messed up or we have gotten so far behind we can't even see Him anymore. And instead of running back to Him we lean on our own understanding and think we have enough power in our own strength to walk through life sheppard-less. Little do we know...We don't even have the strength to take our eyes off of Him!!! When we are at an uncomfortable distance the Sheppard feels that sense of disconnection. And when we choose to walk away He comes after us! He doesn't care if you walked away because you allowed yourself to be distracted..He doesn't care if you purposefully chose to defiantly turn away. He doesn't care. Cause you are His and He just wants you back!
So you understand how the sheep thing works...God loves us. He is the founder of "no man left behind." He truly wants us in constant communion with Him.
Here's a verse we love to quote as Christians.
This verse isn't a bandaid though. It says that in all things God works for the good of those that LOVE Him! To love Him is to obey Him. (If you're in our Fusion Sunday School study you remember the circles we went around in this past Sunday) We talked about do we love God because obeying Him draws us to love or do we obey cause we love...it's a "what came first the chicken or the egg type of thing" .. But loving God the way He defines love is obeying Him. Jesus said if you love me then you'll KEEP my commandments. So knowing that..we can say this verse goes as follows : In all things God work for the good of those that "keep His commendments" who have been called according to His purpose.
To love Him is to obey Him. Obeying Him is choosing to deny yourself. You cannot serves two masters. We can either serve God or serve ourselves. We cannot do both. If you want God to weave it all together for your good..LOVE HIM AND IF YOU LOVE HIM YOU WILL OBEY HIM. You will forgive, you will humble yourself, you will deny yourself the things YOU want or don't want and choose the things He has spelled out for us. In choosing righteousness you have formed a weapon in your battle.
My iron friend sent me this a few days ago and it is my point to you in a nutshell :
God has showed up in my bible study this am, girl. I have to share. 2nd Corinthians 6:7. Look it up real quick. The verses prior Paul is saying, hey! Crappy things have happened to me and it's been really hard but I've kept the virtues of purity (sincerity, no corruption), knowledge, patience, and kindness. I've done it all through the means of Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech and the power of God. And I've had to use weapons of righteousness in my right andleft hands. This is AMAZING to me. During the hardest times we have faced we literally fought the enemy using the weapon of righteousness. Staying in the word, being kind, speaking faith, choosing to love the ppl who hate us, not believing his lie all because we were actually wielding a weapon that is NAMED as a weapon in the Bible. Didn't know that in the spirit we were fighting with principalities (I am picturing a fight scene from star wars) because we chose, through thepower of God, to be faithful to him and be righteous. How amazing is that??? That sometimes when life gets hard and we want to quit, if we could just understand that by continuing to walk it out and not give up you are actually in a battle. And holding your own. There is nothing that can defeat us when God has already won. So if we could just fight a little longer we are gonna see that victory!Isn't it amazing that when we CHOOSE God and to choose Him is to love Him is to obey Him...but when we choose to put our foot forward behind the Sheppard He gives us the strength and everything we need to continue on. Even though you may be in the darkest times KEEP PRESSING ON!!! Don't believe the lies Satan tells you because I am here to tell you that God is bigger, HE DOES HAVE A PLAN, AND IT IS EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY MORE than you could ever imagine! If you are in the lions den God CAN AND WILL shut the mouth of those lions! He may not pull you out of the den immediately, but CHOOSING to trust Him and to hold onto what you know from His word will allow you to endure and escape without being eaten alive. You may have some scratches...there may be consequences that you still have to pay, but God already has a plan set in motion for that too.
I challenge you to CHOOSE God in the hardest times of your life and watch His mighty hand restore and do more than you ever dreamed of! If you have been through this and know exactly what I am talking about I encourage you to share your testimony. We overcome by the blood of The Lamb and the word of our testimony. There is power in the name of Jesus! Share what He has done for you and let it be known that what Satan meant for bad, God used for good and we are living proof of it!
With love -
Jamie Lee
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