For He Has Called You Out of Darkness

For He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.

My friend’s brother and his wife had two wonderful children when they were young. They decided to adopt a child from another country. This child had lived in poor conditions in an orphanage without much love and care. The child had issues, both physical and emotional. But she thrived under their care. Her life changed when she was adopted by this couple. They went on to adopt half a dozen more children from other countries. They are my age and I can’t imagine doing this. Our children are grown and raised. But they are caring for and literally redeeming the lives of these children who didn’t have much chance where they were. The couple has literally taken these children out of their dark situations and brought them into a life of carefree childhoods and joyous love.

God wants you to know that He has called you out of darkness. But more than that. He has an exchange system for you. He hasn’t brought you out of your darkness to live in your own light. Things aren’t just better for you – you now live in His Wonderful Light! You are chosen by Him. He came on the scene of your life and called you out. He said, “She is mine. He is mine.” He cares for you and He has literally redeemed your soul. He wants you to know that He would choose you again and again. 

God also wants you to know that because you are chosen and because you live in His light, you have purpose to fulfill. This purpose is beyond your raising, above your troubles, beyond your sins. God looks at your life and He sees the real you. You may still be looking at the old you, but you are not bound by your mistakes nor the mistakes of others. His purpose includes destroying the works of the evil one that were pronounced over you. He has given you a new heart to fulfill His purpose. He knows everything about your present situation and yet He can use it all for His glory as well as your good. He is such a generous and benevolent Father that He will recreate your life in redemptive glory so that you can move on from the betrayal, the bitterness, the humiliation and the pain. You are being remade, you are new! In Christ’s family you are being brought out of every single dark situation and are learning to walk in the light of His joyous love.

Oh beloved, it’s time to run to the Open Grave and see that the stone has been rolled away. You are free in the family of God to enjoy your life. You have divine blessings in place for you. Reach for them. You have a divine destiny to fulfill, go for it. You may feel tethered to your past, but God says it is gone. Let go of the turmoil and reach for His hand. Your life is not the same and you never have to return to the orphanage of your former life. You have a new name – you are a servant of the Most High God, you are a child of Faith, you are a living breathing picture of God’s grace, mercy and favor.

Walk in God’s Truth today and walk away from the lies. You are free, you have purpose and you have favor and blessings. Let God take you where you cannot go on your own and find in Him real peace and great joy as you live in the light of the Truth – God loves you and He’s for you and that’s all that matters as your adoption is secure forever by the Faithful God.

I Peter 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,[a] a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Psalm 57:2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill His purpose for me.

Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Romans 8:15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.”

Galatians 4:7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are His child, God has made you His heir.

Are You Trying to Fit or Be Fit?

This new year is so fresh and promising. It’s a good time to think about priorities and purpose. The slate is clean in a way, so there’s room for expansion, improvement and rearranging of the things we thought were so important in 2013. If you’ve been looking for something now is the time to put God in on those ideas. In fact, you may have been trying to get God to agree with your ideas. It’s a great time to drop all your good ideas at His feet and see if He wants to do something different, and thus better with your life.

I have a friend who’s been looking for a small wheel to put on the front of a little cart. She has looked and look but can’t find the right size. I spied a pair of wheels at a thrift shop the other day and thought surely they were small enough to fit. But after sending her the picture, she gave me the size and even though these were quite small, they were still too large for the job.

She’s been looking a long time. I guess she could just go ahead and put a different size wheel on it. But it would never be right. She could make it work in a way, but she’d always know it was not going to do what it was intended to do.

We’re all looking for the right fit. Either in spouses, jobs, marriages, ministry or friendships. We want to know we’re fulfilling some purpose with our lives. We also want intimacy. That closeness that lets us be free to discuss our problems, air our dirty laundry and seek for assistance. Intimacy doesn’t go tell tales. It holds onto those things spoken and the farthest they go is to the throne of grace. People live their entire lives doing a job that doesn’t fit them. Sometimes it’s for money, other times for prestige. 

Occasionally they are just put there because someone wanted them there, even though the fit is terrible. When things don’t fit right, eventually it will show up. I’m married to a biker so I know first hand that things must go together just right. He doesn’t make it up as he goes. He consults the service manual and always makes sure the parts and tires and accessories are made for the bike he has. He doesn’t take that bike and try to turn it into something it’s not.

Most struggles with position, authority, fulfillment, success, and fitting into the right place in this world comes from trying to do things our way and asking God to put His seal of approval on our decisions. My friend has decided to wait until she finds the right wheel. She’s not going to settle for something less than a perfect fit. We don’t have to settle for our own way either.

Today is a good day to start letting God call your shots, fulfill your calling. He will put you in the right place and make the right fit if you will trust Him. Trust often involves a shake up. Trust lets God remove what isn’t the right fit. Trust also requires patience, for you must be willing to wait on God to set things right. You may have always known God wanted to use you but you’ve been riding around on a bad fit. It’s been rocky, jumpy and unfulfilled. Now’s as good a time as any to repent of doing your own thing, even if it’s good, and watch as He gives you the best instead.

Oh beloved, you can trust the Lord to make things right for you. It’s wonderful when God is working in your life. He will give you more than just a good fit. With God, you will have the purpose, peace, patience and intimacy you’ve been looking for. With God you will know you are where you should be. With God fitting you where you should be, where you were destined to be, others will be blessed as well. He knows your problems and your needs. He is more than able to put you where He wants you spiritually and to supply the physical needs to keep you there. He also knows all about the things that concern you. He’s well aware that you’ve been rejected, walked away from, and had the rug pulled out from under you. But beloved, you are still alive and that’s because Christ has made a way for your landing to be right into His arms. God’s promises are like the service manual for a motorcycle – each promise gives you detailed instructions on how to live, how to thrive and how to remain faithful to Him through it all.

God loves you and He’s for you, so you can trust Him, no matter what, to make your life fit His plans and thus be blessed beyond measure all the days of your life.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

I Thessalonians 4:1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.

2 Corinthians 5:15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Trust God and Let Go!

Watching Stella yesterday it’s amazing how much she’s grown and changed. She’s become a genuine toddler and definitely coming into the two year old stage of getting into everything and saying no a lot! She’s learning to take risks and venture out and try things she’s not familiar with.

Yesterday her mother was sitting her at the top of the slide. Then mother went down to the bottom of the slide to urge Stella to let go and slide. Stella sat there and hung on tightly. Finally, she let go! The look on her face was priceless as she slid. There was a wide eyed look of “what’s going to happen?” followed at the bottom with a look of pure delight, when momma caught her! She giggled and ran around to the ladder to do it again!  Each time there was a little hesitation, a little uncertainty and then reward as momma was always there waiting to catch her and keep her safe.

Stella wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but she still wanted to slide! The first time she was most unsure, but after her mother caught her, every time she slid she got braver and braver. She knew and trusted that her mother would be there for her. If she hadn’t let go, her momma would have still been there. But Stella would have missed the thrill at the end of the ride!

Oh beloved, is God speaking new horizons to you? Is He asking you to launch out where you’ve never gone before? Maybe He’s calling you to a deeper walk with Him. He’s wooing you to come closer and seek His face. He could be asking you to lay aside some other things for more time with him.  It might be that He is calling you to service for Him, whether into the mission field or another ministry. He can be trusted! Where He sends you He will keep you. Where He keeps you He will reward you.  Let Go and enjoy the life God is calling you to.  Nothing He ever asks you to give up will ever replace the comfort of knowing you are right where God wants you.  Yes there are risks; yes there are things you must leave behind, but oh beloved! It’s worth it! For in the end it will be God you stand before and hear, “Well done…”  All those friends you think you have to leave behind? They need the Lord too! You may very well become the instrument God uses to lead others to Himself. Regardless of the unknown things ahead, God goes before you and He loves you! Oh how He loves you!

Let Him lead you and guide you all the way to heaven, for there’s no other way to live a life of pure joy than to let Him have first place. He loves you always and you can count on Him to be there for you and that’s worth following His plans!

Jeremiah 10:23 I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.

Isaiah 30:21 Your own ears will hear Him.  Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.

Mark 8:35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

Philippians 2:13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.

Have you Struggled with Your Value Lately?

When Danny and I met, he often wore a suede jacket with leather fringe. I really liked that jacket, but Danny loved it. He had bought it on a trip to Mexico. After a while he hardly ever wore it, so it was relegated to the back of the closet.  We’d been married probably 10 years when I decided to put that old coat in a yard sale. Someone scooped it up right away. 

After Danny got home that evening I shared with him what all I had sold.  When I mentioned the leather jacket he was unhappy.  I guess because he hadn’t worn it in a long time I just didn’t think it meant anything to him.  I was frantic that I had gotten rid of it. I remembered that guys in commercials got hot under the collar when the old fraternity jacket or bowling shirt was thrown away.  Fortunately for both of us I was friends with the purchaser.  I called her and asked if she would mind selling me back the jacket, which she did.  That old coat is long gone now, but that day I was able to restore something of value to my husband.

We are quick to check out the value of things. We watch antiques shows on television, hoping to spy something that we too might have hidden away in a closet. Sometimes we cringe as we hear the value man has placed on an old piece of history. Who does the deciding anyway? What makes one picture so valuable and another totally valueless? 

Ever look at yourself and feel that you are worthless? Maybe you were told that one time and it has stuck with you all these years.  Someone may have told you that you were priceless and yet in the end, they dropped you like so much junk. You still feel it, you may still believe it, as you hear the words casually said at the time. Feelings have a way of creating our world. Instead of rising above it, we often bend beneath it. After all, you may think,  if they think I’m no good, of no value or rubbish, then it must be true.  We live with a lie because we allowed someone else to devalue us. 

Oh beloved, God says to you this morning, you are of incredible value! You are a one of a kind, priceless jewel to the Lord! When God looks at you He sees something special that no one else may see. He calls you by name! You are His! There may be labels on you that try to put you down but God’s labels cover it all – Redeemed, Precious, Beloved.  Rejoice with Him this morning that your worth is determined by God and not by man. Those who count will know this and those who don’t know it don’t count. Run to His Word and find all the magnificent things God thinks about you.  Even if you are struggling with labels you want to remove, give those things to God and let Him remove them for you! He is able to make all things new, including you! Oh how He loves you, beyond your wildest imagination! And oh how He is with you, making you more than you were and all that you can be in Him! Now that’s worth praising His Name!

Romans 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 43:4 … you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake He made Christ to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become endued with the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].

Psalm 107:2  Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary.

Romans 9:25 As He says also in Hosea, "I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED.'"