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My Jesus, My Enough

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“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.” ~Cavett Robert

“This is an important test of faith. This is where you persevere even when you don’t feel like you can go another step, because Jesus is your enough. He knows. He made you. Remember when you feel the urge to give up, look his way. Remember Calvary. Remember… heaven watches… you don’t always know it but you’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1)… breathless, awaiting your next move… your right response. Each word, each thought, each right intention carried out is a step of victory. You choose. Will you choose to let go of your baggage so you can hold on to God’s plan for your life? Can you trust it will be worth it? Can you let go of your dreams so God can give you something better than you can even imagine? Can you love God enough to lay back in his arms, in infantile trust and let him hold you?

In heaven you will receive your reward. Don’t sell yourself short. Keep in the race! Keep storing up treasures in heaven. Feel the beads of sweat on your soul? Feel the tears on your face? God sees everything that touches you. God sees every weary step of faith and the rhythm of your pounding heart.

Can you hear the applause of heaven yet? You are running your race. Don’t look at those around you and compare. Focus. Even though your feet slip and your body feels exhausted, hold out for your second wind… the wind of God’s Holy Spirit.

Just when you feel you may give in, this is the moment you let go of what hinders… this is the moment… you find you have wings for “those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). Now go ahead (figuratively)… take that leap… the wind of the Holy Spirit will support you if you lean hard into it. Wings of faith fan your faith. Spread your wings open wide across this desert sky.” ~Tammy Bovee

Whatever faces you today… you have a choice… to redirect your focus heavenward… to persevere… to strengthen your character! Are you willing? Will you trust Jesus to prove himself faithful to be your enough.

May God encourage you today… as you press on, you will find God stretching you and reaching you into new depths of your life you never thought possible. In the process… you are becoming that person you always hoped you could “…mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4b).

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Letting Go of the World to Hold on to God

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man at sunrise“…the peace I (Jesus) give is a gift the world cannot give.” John 14:27 (NLT)

It’s better than a life insurance policy. It’s stronger than a Hefty garbage bag. It tastes better than your favorite dessert yet has no calories. It surrounds you like a fluffy down comforter. God’s peace. It cannot be bought or sold with the world’s currency. It can be yours even when you’re living on a shoestring, about to take a transcontinental flight, or facing a firing squad at work.

There have been moments… when you’ve felt peace. A seaside sunset washing over the water-smoothed sands, painting the sky with a hush of colors so vivid you couldn’t speak. Maybe for you it was walking through a garden at sunrise as the first daylight chased the mist and the dew clung to the flowers. Maybe you felt peace as you walked one night through the forest on a mountain roadway, and looked up through a clearing at the dark sky. You saw stars so brilliant it felt like you could grab them if you stood on your tiptoes and reached far enough. Or maybe it was holding that little baby, those tired eyes looking up at you, drinking love from your face– that tiny mouth suckling the bottle– those soft watery eyes slowly shutting– as that little precious baby bundle lay resting… in your arms.

Isaiah 40:11 snapshots God as he “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.” This is the place of peace, near to God’s heart.

What is threatening to undo you? Name it right now. Speak it aloud. Whisper it… to Jesus. Psalm 34:18 says “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted…”

Have you ever focused the lens of a camera? What happens with a camera lens also happens with your heart. God gives you the ability to focus the lens of your heart. Though the problem seems enormous, is it bigger than God? Or does the problem look so big because your heart is focusing on it?

Right now, God is here—Comforter, Creator, eternal. He sees you. He knows your pain. He feels it. He also felt the blows of the nails that went into his Son Jesus’ hands. Yet he loved you so much that he gave his son so he could be close to you. James 4:8 says “come near to God and he will come near to you.” God longs to be closer to you than the trial you are facing. He desires to hold you, to gather you in his arms and comfort you with a peace so real that it blurs the problems into the background.

Peace comes from knowing the One who paints each brilliant sunrise and sunset, lights the starry skies, creates babies with the desire to rest in their parents’ arms. Yet peace is more than that. It is being held in a love relationship with God, the Creator, whose love is everlasting and whose hope is real.

Are you weary, bewildered? Do you wonder how long this trial will last? Are you hope-sick for answers that just won’t come?

God offers his peace, a peace the world cannot take away. Why? Because this kind of peace doesn’t come from the world, it comes directly from the Source, God himself. Today he says to your heart, “so do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 NIV