4.3.19 RECAP

Good Morning Sisters, 

This week's study was on Chapter 10, “No Parking at Any Time.”

The full video of the study which covers the entire, hour message for those who couldn't attend is available on youtube: https://youtu.be/ZnfiEUPevVc

The written recap is below:

Are you holding onto past hurts? Are you having trouble moving past your pain and tempted to give up on life?

Have you parked your life at the point of your disappointment?

God created us to be always moving forward. The apostle Paul is a great example of someone who kept going no matter how difficult life became. Paul was sent by God to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but he experienced a lot of opposition.  He was shipwrecked, bitten by a snake, thrown into prison and abandoned by friends. He also experienced what he called a “thorn in the flesh.”  Paul is our role model for perseverance. He never gave up. Had he parked at the point of his pain, we would be missing two-thirds of the New Testament that God used him to write.  If you park at the point of your pain, the rest of the world will miss out on what God wants to do through you.

Have you allowed disappointment to prevent you from moving forward?

Disappointment can be used by both God and the enemy.  

How many of you are perfectionists? Are you disappointed in others? In yourself? Do you get disappointed when things don’t go as expected? When things are not falling into place like you planned?

Disappointment is used by both God and the enemy.

Philemon 1:6 says “Our faith is effective when we acknowledge everything good.”

God uses disappointment to develop our faith.

Satan uses it to cause us to park at the point of our pain.  

Where does disappointment come from?

(from Lysa Terkeurst)

Read Genesis 2:5-7, 15-17, 22-25.

Adam and Eve had no one’s opinion to contend with but God’s. Perfection was all around them. They were complete, lacking in nothing. They were surrounded by good fruit. The enemy came in and made them doubt God and question His word. He made them think that God was holding out on them. His first words to them were “you must not” (law). God’s first words were “you are free” (grace). We serve a God of freedom, not restriction. When God tells us not to do something it’s for our protection. Many time what we perceive as rejection is God’s protection. It’s all in how we choose to interpret it.

Are we interpreting it through our lens of pain?

There was only one tree out of all of the trees in the garden that they were told not to eat from. God did this not to withhold anything from them but to protect them.

When they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil their eyes were opened. The human heart was never designed to know the knowledge of good and evil. It is too heavy a weight to bear. God never intended us to open up to evil. Once their eyes were opened they realized they were naked. Not just physically naked, but emotionally and spiritually naked. They had never felt the weight of guilt and shame before.

God asked then 2 questions when he found them:

1. Where are you? Of course, God knew where they were physically, but where were their minds?

They were hiding and afraid. Ever wake up in a funk? With the weight of the world on you? The world multiplies your funk. Where is your mind? Perhaps you need to get off of FB and get your face in HIS book because this is where hope is found. We steer where we stare. We will move in the direction of our focus.

Social media is all about comparisons. Comparison is the thief of joy. Instead of comparing yourself to others whose race you were not created to run, spend that time discovering who you are...the unique YOU God made you to be.

We live in a society that is creating fear and anxiety in our lives.  It’s not what is happening to you that’s causing your anxiety. It’s HOW you are THINKING about it. King David said that the greatest war we will ever fight is WITHIN..THE WAR WITHIN. The war to overcome fear and anxiety. David understood that God is watching over him and he kept this truth in the forefront of his mind. God has 24 hour surveillance over you. God is watching how others are treating you.

We are all going to feel anxious at times but we should not be parking our minds there. We’re not supposed to live on anxiety boulevard. So many people are living with this pervasive sense of fear, doom and gloom.

Don’t let what you see and hear dominate your whole life. Being dominated by your senses leads to death.

We must spend some time each day in the Word...renewing your mind means to exchange your thoughts and words with Gods. It’s not a one time event. It’s a lifetime process. Your spiritual mindset affects how you feel.

Remember the progression of life? Exposure-Thoughts-Feelings-Actions-Habits-Destiny. If you don’t like how you’re feeling ask yourself “what have I been thinking about”? What have you exposed yourself to that’s making you feel this way?

Why are you anxious?

Check your intake levels.  What are you exposing yourself to? How full are you of what? We must guard our ear and eye gates. We live in the age of media...TV, computers, video games.  Our lives are being lived on line and on screen. Who controls the media that you are watching and listening to? The Prince of the Power of the Air. Media is hardwiring the way you think. How can we have peace if we don’t make a place for it? The frantic pace of our lives affect the peace of our soul. How do you strengthen your soul? Slow down, get quiet and pray. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Your strength is in God, not yourself. Jesus willingly became weak so we could be strong.

What we don’t take in is just as fatal as what we do take in. Are you on a spiritual starvation diet?  

You gotta get your intake levels up.

What if you kept a “thought life” journal of what you let in? Let the Holy Spirit show you what you are taking in. Who are you hanging out with? Some of those people are draining your faith.

Are the Apps on your phone empty calories? Are you filling yourself up with empty calories leaving you weak for the battle?

2) Who told you that you were naked? Who are you listening to? Did someone tell you a lie about yourself that you believed and now that lie has become a label...it has become your identity.  

Are you still carrying that lie? Who told you that lie?

We must let God’s Word become the story of our lives...not other people’s words.

When Adam and Eve were “banished” from the garden the enemy wants us to interpret that as punishment from God. Banished in Hebrew “means “sent out”.  God didn’t send them out of the garden to punish them. He sent them out of the garden to PROTECT them. They were safe to eat from the Garden of Life when they were in a perfect state. If God had left them there and they ate from the Tree of Life they would have remained in that fallen state eternally. Sending them out of the garden was an act of great mercy, not cruelty.

We know perfection exists and that’s where disappointment comes from

Why didn’t God strip this desire for perfection from our hearts? So we would seek Him.

Rev. 21:3-6, 22:3.

We started out in the perfection of Eden and now live in this very imperfect, fallen world. As Christians we know how perfect Heaven is. How do we as spirit beings reconcile that? We are living in anxiety from the first Eden (they were naked and afraid).

Lysa says we’re living BETWEEN TWO GARDENS.

While living in this world (the middle garden) we must stop expecting things to be perfect. We are not perfect and our circumstances will NEVER be perfect here. The only perfection in our lives is Jesus’ perfect love for us.

The Garden of Gethsemane represents the middle garden...the world we now live in. The Garden of Gethsemane was to show us how Jesus handled the hard times.

Mark 14:32-34... “They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Have you ever been overwhelmed by sorrow?

Ever been hanging on by a thread? When we’ve lost our way and forgotten who we are are we often have to stand on someone else’s faith...a place where we can be reminded that our God is good and He is

faithful.  (Lysa found that her husband of over 20 years had been unfaithful...shattered her heart...toughest thing she’s ever walked through, has had a difficult 3 yrs)

Mark 14:33-35 “And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be struck with terror and amazement and deeply troubled and depressed. And He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sad (overwhelmed with grief) so that it almost kills Me! Remain here and keep awake and be watching.And going a little farther, He fell on the ground and kept praying that if it were possible the [fatal] hour might pass from Him.”

Hebrews 2:14-18. Jesus knows what it’s like to be human, to be betrayed and heartbroken. God wanted Jesus to be a faithful High Priest to us. He knows how we feel. He understands heartache. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is overwhelmed with grief. What did He do?

Kept moving forward. Kept praying. Stayed close to God. Mark 14:36 says “He exchanged His will for God’s will.”

So often we like to make the script for God. Are you making suggestions to God? Quit holding God to your version of good. Lay down all of your suggestions. Let God be God. Trade your will for His will.

What did God do for Lysa? God gave her husband a brand new heart. God wasn’t about changing his behavior, God wanted to change his heart.

Lysa said that she knew that God took take the broken pieces of a life and make it whole, but she didn’t have pieces...she only had dust.  What can God do with dust? A LOT! He made man from the dust of the ground. When you get into God’s Word and it gets into you He will pick up your dust and breathe life into it!  Dust not signify an end...it is the BEGINNING OF A NEW THING!

Isaiah 43:19 ”For I am about to do something new. See I have already begun. Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

When failure comes, moving forward isn’t always easy, but it is what God has called us to do. Job loss, divorce, death of a loved one, sickness, injustice, uncertainty and confusion can stop us in our tracks if we let them. We must keep putting one foot in front of the other.  Those steps may seem like small but they add up to a lot of progress. It’s easy to quit and give up, but takes a lot of courage to keep moving forward in the midst of personal pain.

2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

As God’s beloved daughter, you are a NEW CREATURE. All of the old things have passed away and all things are made new. Accept that truth found in God’s Word as your new normal and refuse to park at the point of your pain.

Genesis 11 and 12 is the story of Abraham’s faith and his refusal to give up on God’s Promise to him.

Did you know that God had called Abraham’s father Terah, to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to the land of Canaan? Although Terah started on this journey he did not finish it, so God later asked Abraham to go instead. Canaan was the Promised Land that God wanted to give his children, but he needed someone to work through. Terah left his home town as God had told him to do but did not go as far as Canaan...he settled in a town called Haran. Had he obeyed God perhaps God would have made the covenant with him instead of with Abraham. How many people does God call to do something great before He finds someone who will go all the way through with Him for victory? Terah settled for God’s best in his life. Don’t let that happen to you. God has a good plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11).

Although Abraham’s faith was tested, he passed his tests and was part of the ancestral lineage of Jesus Christ.

The things that have hurt you may have delayed it, but they cannot stop it as long as you won’t stop.  Don’t stop moving forward.

It took a total of 25 years for the promise of God to Abraham to be fulfilled. The promise was that Abraham would become the father of many nations through his own son. After 15 years of waiting for the promise, God visited him again and assured him that the promise would be fulfilled in due time. It took another 10 years after the reassurance for Sarah to give birth to Isaac.

Are you facing a time of testing right now and are tempted to give up?

You are a child of God and you have what it takes to experience victory because God is on your side!

Face your Problems.

David did. David ran toward Goliath.

We often want to leap over our problems or a way to go around them so we don’t have to deal with them, but that never produces good results. God doesn’t want us to avoid our problems He wants to us find the courage to go through them. We must trust go and go all the way with Him. We don’t want to stop in Haran and park when life is difficult.

God’s Promises of Healing and Restoration

Don’t get stuck in a moment of time. Don’t shrink back in fear. Don’t park at the point of your pain.

God promises to heal and restore us, and we have our part in it. Paul tells us in Hebrews 10:38 not to draw back and shrink in fear.

No matter what happens to us, life goes on, and we can either go with it or stay behind, imprisoned in our pain and bitterness. Every step of faith you take is another step toward wholeness and healing.

What did the apostle Peter tell the man who had been bedridden for eight years? (Acts 9:33-34).

He said to him “Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole. Get up and make your bed.” He had been knocked down by life and never gotten up. Peter told him it was time to get up. Jesus encountered a man who had been lying down for 38 years, waiting for a miracle. Jesus told him to get up, pick up his bed (sleeping pad), and walk (John 5:5-8).

Jesus told him to do the impossible.

NOTHING God asks us to do is too hard if we draw on His strength to enable us to do it.

Is it too late for you?

It is NEVER too late for God to heal and restore anyone. It is never too late to dust off your dreams and start moving forward.

New beginnings and fresh starts are His speciality!

RUTH is a great story of a woman who refused to park at the point of her pain.  Kent and I relate to this story well. As we lost everything in 2008 and had a decision to make. It’s been over 11 years and the seed that was planted has been building strong roots and is is now poking its head above ground.  

A woman who had lost everything and refused to believe that it was too late for a new beginning! Her husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law all died, and she was left with a decision to either press forward with her mother-in-law who was very poor or to go back to her own country where she had previously worshipped idols. The two of them pressed forward and she eventually married a very wealthy man named Boaz. Ruth became the great grandmother of David and is named as one of the five women in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew chapter 1).

The decision Ruth made to press forward rather than giving up positioned her for greatness.

I believe YOU are positioned for greatness. Make the decision right now to move past the pain and enjoy the great life that God has planned for you!

Love,

Sherry :-)