Healing (Physical-Emotional): When the body breaks down, it rightly cries out for our attention. Displaying a tremendous heart of compassion, Jesus healed everyone brought before Him. He didn’t just do it once. He did it on every recorded occasion. This shows us our Father’s heart as well: No matter how or why we get sick, God wants us healed! Because Jesus is the same today as He was yesterday, you can count on it that He is just as ready and willing to heal us now as He was then.
The Lord also wants to heal us from the inside out. Both Solomon and Jesus declare that the important issues of life flow out from the depths of our hearts. Practically all of us carry stuff from our past which can spill over and influence, even control, the new life that Jesus wants to give us. Emotions that overwhelm us in the present (like fear, anxiety, hurt feelings, anger, depression, etc.) are things God wants to free us from. Go for this glorious liberty!
The secret of letting go dawned in me slowly. Do you, too, have a two-fisted approach to life? When stuff happens that makes you angry or anxious, do you grab it with your spiritual hands and hold in a death grip? Oh, I know it feels like anxiety and anger are the ones gripping us, but the reverse is the case. Emotionally and spiritually speaking, nothing can stick to us unless we are the ones doing the holding. I won’t blame…
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Confidence – who needs it? We all do! And plenty of it. Like popcorn with salt, everything goes better with confidence. But where do we go to get it? In The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews as Maria is the spokesperson for popular culture when she sings: “I have confidence in confidence alone, and as you can see, I have confidence in me!” That’s what we want to be – optimistic people brimming with self-confidence. But before we all join in and sing a chorus or two, let’s stop to consider…
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Ever wonder why it’s so hard to feel God’s delight in you? How can God possibly delight in any of us? Some days it takes a lot of faith just to believe that He can love and forgive us. But that He actually delights in us, rejoices over us, has passionate affections for us, and is constantly devoted to us—this really seems too much to ask! First, let us identity the enemy’s strategy: he and his kingdom have been continuously at…
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TIME TO RING THE GONG ON FEELINGS? Don’t you wish you could banish some of your feelings as easily as banging on the gong banished unwanted performers from the Gong Show stage? What good are the crummy ones anyway? Where do they come from? And why do the ones we hate stick to us like glue, while the ones we love drift so easily away? These were the mysteries of the interior…
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