I ran past a house this morning that had the remnants of a wedding reception on their lawn. It was a beautiful sight with the white/beige tent and the chairs covered in elegant black & tan linens. I am hoping it was a great day for everyone involved and that their memories of family and friends will last a lifetime!
I was praying that this newly married couple will treat their marriage as the covenant that it is. Many couples treat their marriage like a contract instead of a covenant. When we say our vows before God, we enter into a covenant with our spouse and with God. This is such a sacred act, yet there is another covenant we made that I believe is the most sacred covenant of all.
We come into the most holy covenant when we say “I do” to Jesus. We all know and understand that He sacrificed His life for us to enter into eternity. But He also sacrificed His life for us to have joy, health, peace, love and fruitfulness while on this earth. What is on my heart today are those who accept this gift as fire insurance from eternal hell, yet don’t really want to enter in to all of the benefits that being a child of God has to offer. Why? Most times it seems as though they realize that some effort will have to be made on their part in order to step into more fruitfulness. Sometimes something else is blocking them from understanding that they don’t have to stay where they are.
John 5:6-9 (MSG) One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?” 7 The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.” 8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.
I have to admit that nothing frustrates me much more that people who don’t want to be healed……they just want to complain and be validated in their self-pity. When we begin to really, really understand that we have access to everything in heaven while on earth and that we have all of the kingdom of heaven backing us up according to His will, nothing is impossible!
When we get reborn in Christ, we have a responsibility to feed the new creation with the Word, prayer and fellowship. You wouldn’t have a baby and then not feed it. It’s the same thing when we become a new creation in Christ. We have to feed the new creation and starve the old nature. I am wondering if there are believers out there who don’t realize that the bible has the answer to every life interfering difficulty. There is even the cure to anorexia and bulimia in proverbs! There is nothing new under the sun that isn’t answered right there in God’s word.
I am not one to recommend many books on this blog but there is one that has been helping so many people around me lately that I want to highly recommend it. The book is called:
Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health
by Caroline Leaf
