When my husband and I adopted our first child as well as the two who followed, well-meaning folks often declared, “How blessed are your children to have you as parents!”
I replied, “Not them. Me. They are God’s blessings to me.” And I meant it.
He calls all who are in Christ — who embrace Jesus as Savior — blessed. It’s another aspect of your true identity in Christ.
Mary’s Story
Mary, the mother of Jesus, embraced this name. In the gospel of Luke, she humbly boasts, “From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name” Luke 1:48,49, NIV.
Do you embrace your blessedness? The word “bless” means to speak well of someone. Mary’s song in Luke praises God’s choice to exalt the humble and to diminish the proud. It’s the great reversal. The strong shall be weak, and the weak become strong.
The apostle Paul confirms your blessedness.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. Ephesians 1:3
God blesses believers. He has given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Every means every. . .even when you feel “less than.” You cannot get more blessing. You have it all. How does knowing you are blessed now change your attitude about yourself? about God?
Life Is a Battle
Financial struggles, tough emotions like fear, anger, and depression, illness, grief, confusion — these challenges wage war in our mind, body, and soul. Yet God’s blessings prepare us for success in battle with the forces of evil who also are part of the heavenly realms (that is, the unseen spiritual world).
So we need not feel “less than,” for God has armed us with every blessing we need to win. Among the fiercest battleground: the mind. The apostle Paul says,
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2
Don’t Forget!
God knows we need to remember our blessedness when the Satan dupes us with lies, which may have a kernel of truth.
A while back, I stupidly locked my keys in my minivan. My self-talk turned toxic and tangled: “Stupid, stupid, stupid. Lucy, you are stupid.” Forgetful, yes. Stupid, nope. Yet Satan insisted I am and tried to get me to agree with him and spiral downward into a pit of pessimistic thinking.
Who should I believe? Satan or God? Who should you believe?
Get Your Hope On
The Lord wants you to know hope, to live hope. Listen to these amazing words of blessing for you.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life. (James 1:12(
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (Luke 6:21)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God. Matthew 5:6-8
Whatever you call it, change is tough. . .usually.
Let’s dip our toes into the topic of change and all our crazy emotions for the next few weeks and find out how to do change good.
We’ll look at the change of :
~ a financial setback or windfall.
~ kids marching off to college and Kindergarten.
~ crazy new health condition.
~ moving.
~ a new baby or grand baby.
~ leaving a church and attending a new one.
~ losing a loved one to death.
And we’ll see what God has to say about it and — this is big with me — HOW to apply biblical truth to our specific situations.
Won’t you join me?
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Fly free of today’s guilt. Yesterday’s mistakes. Last week’s mess-ups!
You are made for heaven. This is not your home. Read that again, this is not your home.
God knows Satan wants to take you down while He lifts you up up up. Just as he lifted up Jesus on a cross in love. Jesus died for your sins and mine on that horrific day.
Do you know how much God loves you? Have you opened the gift of salvation?
The Struggle
Like the apostle Paul we struggle. We Christians still make ugly choices (i.e., sin) all the time.
In my pride, I want to pretend I’m better than that. The truth is, I screw up. You screw up. The bible calls it our sin nature.
Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:20-25, NIV, emphasis mine)
We were born in Adam; when you and I became believers in the one true God, we got a new identity in Christ. We are now in Christ. As crazy as it sounds, we are saints in God’s eyes. Ephesians 1:3
Sinning saints.
Sinning saints. . .this is who we are in Christ until the rapture or God takes us home. What’s a sinning saint to do?
Repentance is one of God’s many gifts to us. It’s restoration and peace and joy and hope sweet hope. I had thought is was a real drag. Right up there with, , ,
bouncing a check
getting a call from the school principal
having a root canal
How wrong could I be?
Repentance Is Happiness
Repentance is happiness. Tweet that! Seriously. It’s a U-turn in your thinking. When you decide to turn from your selfish desires and seek God, you experience peace and contentment. Repenting of a wrong is motivating. It motivates you to change.
Not because you have to. Because you want to.
You sense the Holy Spirit flowing through you like a river. Truly and wonderfully amazing.
Let’s Chat
Why might repentance be happiness? Please leave a comment. 🙂
Today debuts “A Minute of Hope with Lucy,” my short hope-filled weekend videos.
I’d love to do a video on a topic close to your heart. Leave your idea in Comments. Scroll to the very bottom of this post and you’ll see “Leave a Reply.”
By the way on Tuesday I’m running a wonderful — and thought provoking — blog post by Bob Kellemen on the downside of psychology. You’re going to love it or hate it. On Thursday, I announce the winner of my June giveaway. There’s still time to enter. Bop here to get in on the fun.
A quick intro, just in case we haven’t met: I am a child on the One True God,
wife and mom of 3, a certified biblical counselor, seminary graduate,
dark chocoholic, cat lover, and I’ve earned a black belt in Karate
(which just means. . .I fight like a girl, if I must.)
For the next few weeks I’m rerunning my readers’ FAVORITE posts and a few of my personal winners.
Enjoy. ~ Lucy
Friends are water to the soul. They lift you up and nourish you. Which is better for your overall well-being? In-real-life (IRL) friends or online friends? Or does it matter?
A scare-your-pants-off article in Newsweek hints that online friendships can be bad for you. Why? Spending time online — and thus sites like Facebook — may rewire your brain, resulting in loneliness, depression, even psychosis. Is this true?
Are online friendships bad for your health? Put another way, should you close your Facebook account? Today?
Ah, no.
Here is the view of another journalist who also looked at the scary research and takes a common-sense approach to spending time online.
What God Says
More important, what does God say about friendships?
Listen to this:
One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)
and this:
The righteous choose their friends carefully,
but the way of the wicked leads them astray. (Proverbs 12:26)
and this verse too:
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God —I say this to your shame. (1 Corinthians 15:33,34)
By the way, there is no biblical command to avoid online friends. . .for good reason.
Choose Friends Wisely
The meaning of these bible verses is clear: Spend your time with friends who are becoming more and more like Christ. You and I tend to model the words, actions, and thinking of the people we hang with. Of course, it’s all right — even good — to be in the company of sinners. Jesus was. This brief passage shows him breaking bread with messy people.
Like Jesus, when you and I have friends who do not love Jesus, our purpose needs to be this: putting their most important need first, that is, knowing Christ.
Nothing beats a hug from a reach-out-and-touch friend in good times and in tough times, and ((((hug))))) typed in a Facebook status is nice but not the same. Agree?
Also, in the bible, we hear this instruction: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:24,25).
The upshot: Make and keep Christian girlfriends.
Online Friends
Check out these stories of my kids’ assertion that my Facebook friend aren’t real friendsAND how I met an online girlfriend in person and why it was meaningful to me. Hugs, tears, and more hugs, more tears. . .and my husband’s Cheshire cat smile.
Friends, please stop by my Facebook page and share your thoughts on friendship and Facebook.
What influence has Facebook and other “friend” sites has on your IRL (in real life) friendships?
When my husband and I adopted our first child as well as the two who followed, well-meaning folks often declared, “How blessed are your children to have you as parents!”
