I wanna change...but i'm in too deep!?!

People cope with things in different ways. As a huge fan of the show intervention, we see the tragedy of people who turn to things from heroin to alcohol to inhaling canned air to escape the world. When I watch these people, and see their pain, I just want to tell them that they are good enough to be set apart, to sell out to Christ, because he is waiting for them to come to Him, and Christ is faithful and is never going to leave. 

To someone struggling with any kind of sin, addiction, turmoil, anything...you are not alone. There is not a person on this earth that doesn't go through what you are going through. I have 4 things to say to you:

1. We are ALL born with sinful tendencies. 

 

Eph 2:1-3 says: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^{a]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 

There is not a one of us who hasn't lived a life without who aren't sinners.  However, 

2. God set us free from sinful nature:

Romans 7:23-8:2 states

²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin

 ¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,^{a]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} ²because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

3. God WILL give you new desires

Eph 4:22-24 says that "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

4. God will help you withstand temptation

This is probably the most important part. 1 Cor 10:13 says that God isn't gonna give us anything we can't handle. There are always gonna be temptations, Satan lurks, trying to make us fall but the Bible says o temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

So there it is, right there from God. What are we waiting for? There is no more time for excuses, there is a loving good God who wants you to put off your old self and turn to Him. No matter what we may be struggling with...God is faithful, God is true, God is love, and he will never fail you.

Keep on Keepin On..

Being sold out for Christ is not easy. What I have found that the deeper I get in the Word, the closer we get to God, when we get comfortable is when I have found Satan sneaks up on us and BAM we slip and fall. Its gonna happen, we can be strolling along on our spiritual walk, and there's that small crack in the side walk, that small patch of ice that causes us to slip and fall, and bam... there we are...on the ground trying to figure out how to get up.

I have been dealing with this a lot lately. Jesus demands perfection, yet it is impossible because we are human, that however doesn't mean we shouldn't try. My problem has been when I fail, I let the guilt of my failure get in the way of my closeness with God. 

Its funny isn't it? We ask for forgiveness for our sin,  God forgives it, our sin has been paid for..and yet Satan is still getting something out of you by playing the guilt card. I struggle with not feeling deserving of the blessings and things that God has given me, yet God tells me, Chels, you are forgiven...keep on keepin on. John 1:9 says: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. So  whatever your patch of ice is,  get up, ask for forgiveness, be genuine, and don't give up, keep on keepin on. God loves you..

Self Worth vs God's Worth

MESSAGE FROM REBECCA: SELF-WORTH VS. GOD-WORTH

PLEASE SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!We Want to Hear from YOU! Email Us @ rebeccastjames@rsjames.com

REBECCA’S MESSAGE:

LIVE IN GOD’S ECONOMY…YOU’RE PRICELESS!We live in a culture that speaks the sermon of selfishness all the time. It places so much emphasis on self-help, self-worth, self-this, self-that. Because many people spend much of their time trying to please others, they’re uncomfortable in their own skin and don’t know who they are. Unfortunately, they derive their sense of worth based on what they do or don’t do for others. It’s all based on a false and conditional love. We can get so wrapped up in our selfishness that we can’t see beyond ourselves to find our worth in God—who we are in Him.Several years ago I embarked on a five-week long life-changing experience in Switzerland. I needed spiritual, emotional, and physical recuperation, and I found it at L’Abri (which means shelter), a community study center where Christians and non-Christians can seek honest answers about God and His purposes for their lives. It was there that the Lord spoke to me of my God-worth to the point that it was replacing my self-worth. Before this experience I don’t think I had ever really discovered the sense of wholeness in God that I felt there.One of the things I had to confront in my life was the issue of perfectionism. When you are a perfectionist you tend to either push yourself all the time to be better, or you are in failure mode and about to give up, believing that you’ll never succeed. My tendency was to live with a sense that God was disappointed in me—that I was not good enough. Through study and prayer and time alone with Him, the Lord assured me that I am loved and secure. I know that I’m His princess, accepted and cherished.If you’ve read The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, or have seen the movies, you’re familiar with the creature Gollum and his obsession with “my precious,” the ring. He was willing to do anything to keep it, and then went to great lengths in an attempt to reclaim it. Ultimately, his selfish fascination with the treasure cost him his life. Unlike Gollum, God’s love for us is purely selfless because He was willing to give up what’s most important to Him—His only Son—to redeem you. He cherishes you as His precious creation. The apostle Paul put it this way:“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him” (Romans 5:6-8, The Message).How much time do you spend in the morning each morning thinking about how others will perceive you based on what you look like today? How could you spend some of that time contemplating your worth in God’s eyes? Look in the mirror and realize how precious you are to Him. RebeccaStart every day with a special message, like the one above, from Rebecca—it’s an excerpt from her latest book, “Pure” which has just made the Top 10 Christian books nationally—join the journey with her of 90 days of purity in body, mind, and spirit!