Propelling Over The Circumstances
by Bonnie Stevenson
Propelling Over The Circumstances
Gods’ love in us should flow like a fountain. It should be refreshing
to those who come in contact with it. Praise will propel you over the
circumstances. God’s love flows like a never-ending stream.
Therefore, our love can do the same towards others (John 15:13). God’s
love is cool and refreshing in that it calms the storms and brings
peace to the believer (Psalm 107:29).
We really don’t have a choice whether to love or not. We are
commanded to do so in (John 15:12) “This is My commandment, that you
love one another, just as I have loved you.” Otherwise we walk in
disobedience! New International Version
I like to compare the love walk to a stick shift car. As you shift
from one gear to another, the car goes forward in a smooth transition
and just as we shift into obedience to the love walk, which is
commanded in Gods’ Word---our life runs smoothly.
If you find you are experiencing a problem in your love walk, just get
on your knees and pray. Allow the waters of refreshing to bring
newness to your love walk. Then get up and go on from there with a
renewed vision of God’s love for you and for others.
We need to see people with eyes of liquid love; a look that melts the
hardest heart, soothes the deepest pains and confirms the worth of
life to everyone it comes in contact with. Seven times in the New
Testament, Pilate said of Jesus, “I find no fault in him.” How can we
find fault in Someone that is perfect and flawless?
Our love walk can be that way as we look at people the way Paul
mentions in the love walk in First Corinthians 13. I know none of us
are perfect in our love walk towards each other, but we certainly can
let God continue to guide us on that path.
There is no “perfect love” except in Jesus. So, if we look at others
as He looks at us, we will always be able to love. Even in Matthew
14:14, Jesus Jesus was moved with compassion on the multitudes in
spite of their mistakes, sins and failures. Likewise we need to be
this way with others. We should love everyone equally.
Because we are under construction, we can’t see what our lives will
become yet, but we are in the kingdom building business with God. Our
foundation is built on His Word.
These are some building blocks for us to think about:
Word I John 5:14-15 says “And this is the confidence which we have
before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that
we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” New International
Version
Psalm 119:11, “Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not
sin against Thee”. Establish Thy word to Thy servant, as that which
produces reverence for Thee” New International Version
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God”. New International Version.”
Love John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does
not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for
all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
New International Version
I John 4:16-17 “And we have come to know and have believed the love
which God has for us, God is love, and he one who abides in love
abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with
us, that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He
is, so also are we in this world”. New International Version
Faith Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of those who seek Him.” New International Version
Prayer James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and
pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer
of a righteous man can accomplish much.” New International Version
When you establish the Word in your heart, you will learn to walk out
the perfect love of God’s precious promises. It is then that your
prayer life will begin to be effective to the kingdom’s building
process.
Actually, I believe it would be rather difficult to build any
spiritual base or foundation without these four attributes being
linked together. If one piece is missing, the foundation will not
stand the test of time.
God’s Word is the blueprint for us in our building code. Without the
Word we would not know how, where, when or what we are to do with our
lives. The Word is the first ingredient in the beginning of the
construction process of our lives. Each person in the body of Christ
is a building block towards completion. We all fit in one way or
another-but when we are in our proper place, we are complete in God.
Jesus is the cornerstone and the foundation will never crumble. The
love of God perfected in us helps us to see other people as parts of
the construction as God’s tools and links to being complete.
Without God’s love all the living pieces would want to be in the
choicest spots of the building. Only Jesus Christ is the Chief
Cornerstone! Every other piece is placed around Him! Glory to God!
Our faith in Him is founded only by the fact that the believers have a
measure of faith given to them. (Roman 12:3)
First Corinthians 2:5 states “That your faith should not rest on the
wisdom of man,but in the power of God,: New International Version
Faith is the key factor in knowing how to trust God for direction in
learning His will for us through His Word. It is also the foundation
by which we can approach God and can expect an answer.
Faith-filled prayer based on God’s Word, is the only effective way of
touching the ears of God. As we go before His throne in complete
abandonment of our own ideas and seek only after God’s ideas, will we
be effective in prayer.
These are just some more areas of being strong like an oak tree and if
we apply them they will help us not to bend in adversity.
Have you ever seen what happens when someone puts his or her finger in
a light socket or touches an electrical wire while standing in water?
They get infused with electricity throughout their whole body. They
get jolted out of their socks.
Some people need to be jolted out of their complacency or comfort
zones. We don’t serve out of duty, it is out of delight that brings
about obedience; not based on duty.
Comfort zones cause us to be like weeping willow trees, we bend every
time something in our lives is not right. When the winds of adversity
blow we have a tendency to bend rather than stand strong in the midst
of the storm.
In our society everything is instant this and instant that. So, we
want a quick response from God too. In some people’s lives “wait” is
not their favorite word. They don’t like it because it requires
responsibility on their part to lay aside their quick prayer and
linger awhile in God’s presence.
When I first moved to California I found one of the hardest “waits”
was in traffic. You know traffic is a good measuring stick for
waiting on God.
How frustrated do you get when you have to wait for a long light or a
long line at the bank or grocery store or gas pump? Then when it
finally does clear up, the service is mediocre, the product is second
best and you still go home dissatisfied. This is how it is when we
rush our prayer time and don’t want to “wait” in God’s presence.
Many people today want to give up on their dreams and desires because
it doesn''t happen the way they thought it should. It is not our timing
but Gods timing that we need to be reminded of when we present our
desires to Him. BUT, God works on a different timetable than we do.
His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our
thoughts. Isaiah. 55:8, 9
It is my belief that we do not need to live any other way but
victoriously. Although human, I believe we can possess abundant life
(John 10:10).
Believers take heart, stand on the written, living word of God and you
will overcome the adversities of life.
Too often in our complex society we fall prey to circumstances and
situations that seem to try to pull us down and try to get us to bend
in adversity. But as children of God, we have His precious promises
to stand on. For example, Abraham believed God and found faith to
stand (Romans 4:20). Another example is the positive way David
proclaimed, “My heart is steadast, O God” Psalm 108:1 New
International Version
Here it gives an illustration that David was super-glued to God. That
is how we can be. So close to God that no one can separate us from
Him.
Satan was defeated 2000 years ago when Christ died and rose again to
give us liberty. We need to walk in that liberty. Jesus paid a great
price for us to not bend in our adversity but to stand strong like the
oak tree. He gave his life.
A very familiar passage of scripture to us that is sometimes over
looked, and has a powerful impact on us in I John 4:4, where it says,
“Greater is He that is in you, than He who is in the world.” New
International Version
Such victory there is in knowing that we do not need to be defeated.
Paul admonishes us to “Stand fast in the liberty (freedom) that Christ
has made you free and be not in bondage ever again to defeat.”
(Galatians 5:1).
Cords of love held Jesus to the cross, not nails. It was not weakness.
It was power! We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). Determine to
be victorious---He is our Victory.
So when the storms of life begin to toss you to and fro, like the
weeping willow tree, remember to water the roots of your life with
God’s Word and become strong like an oak tree.
What do you do to continue to surrender? Keep your eyes on Jesus.
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