Walking in the Word with Breast Cancer

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, - Acts 3:19-20 Repentance is a brokenness that happens when we realize we are not worthy of His mercy and grace. In the story of the prodigal son, the son returns to the father, and in shame says, "I am not worthy to be called your son."  This is the attitude of repentance. It's when we see our sin as He sees it, and we hit that rock-bottom awareness of our unworthiness. It is only then that we are truly repentant, and only then that we can understand His beautiful gift of grace. In order to find the times of refreshing that come after our repentance, we must get to the place where we allow Him to open our eyes to what He sees in our heart.  This doesn't just happen with the words "I confess I lied, I'm sorry". This happens in the heart. And it canno

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, - Acts 3:19-20 Repent appears over and over in scripture as a way to remind us this is where we should live - in repentance. Repentance literally means rethinking or a change of mind. It involves our emotions and our will, but it begins with a change in the way we think. We all sin, and we all confess. But repentance is more than just confessing our sins. It's getting to the root of the problem, confronting the lie in our belief system, and literally changing the way we think.  When we sin, we must take the time to root the lies out of our sins before we will ever get to repentance.  For example, we may tell a lie. Lying is sinful, so we confess our sin of lying. This isn't repentance, and if we stop here - at simply confessing our sins - then we will most likely be caught

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, - Acts 3:19-20 If we're being completely honest with ourselves, we could all admit our struggle with the sin-confess-repeat cycle — we try and fail, we fall and get up again, only to fall again and feel so discouraged. Paul reminds us this struggle is as old as time, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19).  How those words resonate with me!  It is from this frustration and pain that eventually we cry out to God that we want to change....and we can change with a repentant heart.  No matter how long we've been trapped in a pattern of defeat, listening to the enemy's accusations, we can change. But it isn't easy.  The problem is far too many people only invest enough for a surface level change, but that does

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:11 Although the focus of this verse may appear to be just on what Jesus did for us in His resurrection, or what is to come as He gives life to our mortal bodies, there is so much hope in this verse for today. There is a reservoir of strength that we can continually draw upon in these words.  If we really believe that God is for us, and not against us, and we really believe that what we do here, today, has eternal ramifications, then we can find the strength to shine like the sun for our King while we are here on earth.  We can find the strength to maintain a loving response in the face of adversity, to give when we have nothing left, to make Him a priority over all, to keep doing the good God calls us to do whether or not it appears as if anyone appreciate us or not. We find that s

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:11 We can go to scripture to find out exactly what God means when He tells us He will give us life through our mortal bodies. God is going to raise us from the dead at Christ's second coming and give new life to our mortal bodies.   That reality always blows my mind. This body. The one I have, is going to be given new life. That truth means God is profoundly concerned with my body - He chose this specific body for me to live in for all eternity. If He didn't, then He would let this body rot in the grave and give me a new one. But that wasn't His choice.  As much as I may want a new body, one without all the flaws I see, this is the one He picked for me. And the great Creator who created this whole beautiful universe, doesn't make mistakes in His creation. He pur

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:11 Though I could spend days answering the question do we believe Jesus was raised from the dead, it's time to shift my focus to the second question - does the spirit dwell in us?  In order for the resurrection of Jesus to do us any good we have to receive the Spirit of God into our heart.  How do we receive the Holy Spirit?  Acts 2:38 tells us how, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."  Repentance is a decision to turn away from sin and toward Jesus. It doesn't mean that we will do that perfectly in every circumstance, but if that is our desire, then our hearts are repentant. Baptism is an act of obedience to publicly proclaim your life as a followe

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:11 One doesn't need to believe in the reliability of scripture to believe in the recorded appearances of Jesus after He rose from the dead. Again, there are over 500 documented sightings in the historical documents of the time - these are documents written by impartial people who recorded events. They were not Christians, so there was no biased information in their written records - in other words, they were not proving Jesus was the Messiah, they were simply recording what people claimed.  So, if there were sightings of Jesus after His death, what are the explanations for such a thing?  The people who saw him were lying, they were crazy and hallucinating, or Jesus was resurrected from the dead. I just don't believe they were lying - 10 of the disciples were recorded in the

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:11 I've been pondering the proof that Jesus was raised from the dead since my devotion yesterday. It brings confidence to let those thoughts settle in, and use them to fight the flesh that wants to tell me it was a lie.   So, I thought I would continue to dwell here for a few days.  We know from several historical documents outside of the Bible that Jesus did, in fact, live. Historians and scholars alike do not deny these facts. The non-secular transcripts of historical record they use from that time speak of the man, Jesus. So, in order to be confident of the existence of Jesus, one does not need to believe that the Bible is the written word of God, or that it's even trustworthy. There is historical evidence that He existed in multiple documents from that day.  What

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:11 This is more than a sweet promise - this is THE promise of the Gospel. God promises clearly and to unmistakably that if His Spirit has taken up residence in your heart, he will raise your body from the dead, just like He raised Jesus from the dead. That promise is mind-blowing if you dwell on it, but it is so hard to believe for many people. It's contingent on two things - do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead and does His spirit dwell in you?  The answer to the first question - did God raise Jesus from the dead - is one that has satisfied the most intelligent minds through the centuries. There is so much evidence to prove Jesus was raised from the dead that it would be impossible to list them all in this devotion. If there is ever any doubt in your mind, do not be a

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:9-11 If we are relying on our own power, following Christ is not only hard, it's impossible. We simply cannot be loving, joyful, peaceful, patience, kind, good, faithful, gentle, or have self-control in our own power. Some may be able to tap into these attributes at different moments in our own power, but they are most often surface level and self-serving. It is impossible to consistently and authentically demonstrate all these characteristics all of the time.  The kind of love that is deep and sacrificial, the kind of joy and peace that come in the midst of a storm, the patience and goodness that overcome hurtfulness in our relationships - these are only from the Holy Spirit. We are told just a few verses before this one, Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. - Roma

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 Finally, we get to self- control. Self-control is stopping. It is literally standing in the way of our enemies from having a hold on us. There are so many things in this world fighting against us - other people, our culture, our own flesh, or even Satan himself - and they do not always fight on the battlefield. These enemies are sly and manipulative, and they can take our hearts captive without us even noticing.  Self-control is the fruit of the spirit that puts a boundary around our hearts and protects us. If we are regularly in the Word and in prayer, confessing our sin and asking the Holy Spirit to convict us and fill us, this fruit will become stronger. The Spirit will reveal our blind spots and give us conviction to resist temptation.  Self control says no to the anxious thoughts, it say

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 When I think of gentleness, I think of the song "It Is Well with My Soul."  Gentleness is an inward calmness and a peace with God. We achieve gentleness when we completely surrender to God's will and His way in our life. It is simply not achievable without the grace of Holy Spirit washing over us.  I just love the moments when I feel this sense of gentleness in my soul....when I can see the storm raging, but I know with confidence that He is at work, and my heart is at peace. This is an attribute of the Holy Spirit For which I am particularly grateful, and it is the first one I truly remember experiencing. It is that inexplicable calmness or peace when chaos swarms around me, and the confidence that He is with me and He is sovereign over everything.   In order to allow the Holy

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 Faith is believing the Word of God and acting on it no matter how we feel because God promises a good result. This is critical to the Christian life. Faith discounts how we feel and boldly acts upon the Word of God.  I am so thankful for the trials God has brought me through to increase my faith. Of the different ways that the fruit of the Spirit manifests itself, I think faith is the strongest in me. He has shown up faithful in some of the most difficult situations in my life, leaving me with an unmoving trust that our God is sovereign and His plan is best - always and in all ways.  As  a young believer, my faith was more in what He would do for me than who He is, and so God has spent a number of years teaching me and growing my understanding of faithfulness. Resting my faith in what God wou

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 When we are supernaturally filled with the fruit of patience, it's evidenced in the next two fruits - kindness and goodness.   Kindness is a tender heart and a nurturing spirit. When the Spirit fills us, our hearts become soft toward those around us, and our desire is to bring them goodness. It’s that quality of doing right by one another—that warm-heartedness softness we show to those we care about. The Greek Word for kindness in this verse is actually a word used for fine aging wine. As the wine ages, it gets sweeter over time - in the same way, the Holy Spirit makes us sweeter over time.  Kindness expressed in action is goodness.  Kindness is the burning desire to share with others all that He has done for us, and goodness is following through on that desire. Goodness is righteousness

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 Patience is probably the fruit I have struggled with the most in my life. God has chastened me and grown me so much in this area over the years, but the reality is there are still plenty of days that I want what I want when I want it. And I don't want to wait. If there is nothing pressing on my "want-er," then I can be patient....but I still struggle to put down what I want and wait for God to move far too often.   Before I saw any growth in this area of my life, I had to first understand how the fruit of the Spirit works inside of us.  The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of His Spirit working inside of us. Our fruit is our behavior - the outward manifestation of what is going on in our hearts. If our heart is fear, our fruit is going to be anxious behavior, like panic attac

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 Our God is a god of peace. The whole story of redemption, the death and resurrection of Jesus, is God's plan to bring about peace - between man and himself, and between man and man.  As the children of God, we must be peacemakers - we must seek peace within ourselves and with others in everything we do. Seeking peace within ourselves starts with seeking out the places where fear and anxiety live within our hearts. Peace is not the absence of pain and grief in our lives, it is the absence of fear and turmoil.  6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7 We are to f

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 Joy is the supernatural delight in the person, purposes, and people of God. Notice the key word 'supernatural' - this means we cannot generate our own joy, only God can. Delight is choosing to see the positive in everything. We can choose, despite our circumstances, to focus on the person of God. We delight in Him because He is good, He is faithful and loving, He is merciful and gracious. He is our Refuge, our Savior, our Father, our Teacher, our Counselor. We can also delight in His plan.  We know He has a divine purpose to everything He has allowed into our lives, and we know that it is all for our good. He loves us, so He chastens us. The first first few times past James 1:2, I didn't really understand what it meant to “consider it all joy when you encounter trials.” How could we b

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 The first fruit of the Spirit is love. To clarify, there are three different types of love referred to in scripture - eros love is the intimate love between a man and a wife, phileo love is the type of love you have for a friend love, and agape love is a sacrificial love.  Agape love is the type of love referred to in this passage. It’s the kind of love that sacrifices our own needs and wants and puts others before ourselves. It’s the kind of love that says no to our comforts and our securities so that others may feel comforted and secure. It’s the kind of love that forgives minor annoyances and deep wounds. It’s the kind of love that lets go of our prideful expectations of how others should behave or respond, and accepts people where they’re at. It’s the kind of love that lays down our judgment

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 The fruit of the Spirit is the supernatural outcome of being filled with the Spirit and is the living proof that the Spirit of God dwells in us.  We know He is alive in us when we see this fruit in our lives happen in such a way that surprises even us - when we have joy in a difficult trial, when we have peace in a heart-breaking decision, when we love the difficult person in our lives, when we show kindness in the chaos.  But there is a flip side to knowing the fruit, or the outcome, of the Spirit.  When it is absent from our life - when we're struggling to demonstrate the fruit, it should be a huge red flag to us that we have quenched or grieved the Spirit. Pay attention to your actions - it can demonstrate the activity of the Spirit in your life.  We are filled with the Spirit as soon