Thought Storms

Sometimes I’ll have like these little thought storms…and a lot of times-these thoughts storms turn into a message.  I’ve learned this is how God speaks to me…giving me messages for myself…for others…for later.

Tonight’s thought storm started like this:

I was praying specifically for some situations that need healing and restoration.

And then I started thinking about how amazing prayer is…that I can come before an almighty God…not trembling or afraid but with a humble heart of repentance…not having to do any sort of ritual or go to a certain type of place…not having to ‘fix’ myself first…and I can ask Him ANYTHING.

And then I started thinking about how we can even ask Him to heal us from and restore things that WE broke.  Mistakes that we made…places where WE messed everything up by ignoring Him and what His word says.  His heart was breaking as we rejected His truth and deliberately did things our way and yet He can look past that, with loving and merciful eyes…pick us up in His arms, and put us back together.

And then I started thinking about how so often we don’t even come to Him with these broken things..sometimes we never do and sometimes we wait until it’s absolutely destroyed us (or we’ve destroyed ourselves).

Then I started thinking about sometimes when we talk about what’s going on with us we can sound so hopeless.  I get it…I’ve been there.  That place where you are battling a situation that seems to have way more wins logged than you do.  Where it actually feels like you have been defeated and there really looks like there is zero percent hope.  Key word: FEELS.  It FEELS that way.  Say it again: it. FEELS. that. way.

If you believe in Jesus…and God is the God of your life, then you have hope in EVERY SINGLE SITUATION.  Why?  Because our hope does not rely on anything in this world!  We have to start looking at every situation and saying even if it doesn’t FEEL like there is hope anywhere inside this, I KNOW that it’s there, because of Jesus.  We have to start realizing that God is bigger than our problems.  We have to STOP magnifying our problems!  If you are complaining then you had better make sure that you follow the Psalmist’s example and follow that complaint with a ‘BUT God’ statement.

Example:  “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  Psalm 73:26

When we lose our hope we start acting defeated.  You know that hymn “victory in Jesus”?  That isn’t just some church-y song that your grandma sang, it’s REAL.  There is actual, AVAILABLE victory..IN JESUS.  And we have to start living and TALKING and believing like it.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

” But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”  I Cor 15:57

**VERY IMPORTANT NOTE**

Victory is THROUGH Jesus…victory and Jesus cannot be separated..the only way to have victory over this world and over death is THROUGH Jesus.

If we focus on the swirling mess around us, we are putting limits on a limit-less God.  We are essentially saying that God can’t handle it when honestly we can’t handle it WITHOUT God.  These thoughts plant doubt in our hearts and what is that doing to our faith?!  It’s making holes in our faith bucket…and we cannot afford any holes in that bucket if we are wanting an effective prayer life.  *See Matthew 11:22-24

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”  James 1:6

 

The main thing is that God is limitless.  He is immeasurable.  He is more than capable.  He is more than willing.  He is good.  He is merciful.  He is faithful and true.  Focus on that, not your problem.  Magnify that, not your situation.  God can’t be put in a box…because He just wouldn’t fit 🙂

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”  Eph 3:20 NIV

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”  Romans 11:33

“‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”  Jeremiah 32:17