enchante 4,542 Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 2nd day of our 21 day challenge Devotional Letting Go and Letting God Lead Us Forward I was packing my life into boxes, preparing to go to missions. During that season, I awoke one morning to the Holy Spirit’s voice, telling me very specifically what to give away to whom. From my beloved collection of books, clothes, computer, and even my digital piano. When it was finally time to leave for missions, all my earthly possessions which were not in my luggage, were put away in a box of around 30cm x 30cm. Through the exercise of giving everything away, the Lord stripped me bare. He was helping me to detach myself from the ‘old’ identity and past experiences --- both successes and failures. It also brought me face to face with relationships that needed mending and people whom I needed to forgive so I could move on with Him. He was bringing me onto a fresh, clean slate. When I arrived in the missions field, I had to make a conscious effort to not retrieve and use the memories as references. Instead, I had an awakened expectation that God was about to do something new. And He did not disappoint! The passage we read begins with the Lord reminding Israel of who He is. Then He reminds them of the great deliverance He had brought them in the past – the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of Egypt’s armies. Then He told them to forget all that! Why? Because He was about to do something new, something never seen before. The tenses change to the future “I am about to… I have already begun… I will make… I will create…â€. The promise is for the future that has already begun. The invitation is to “seeâ€, to look with expectation at what He has already begun to do. Reflection What past experiences still define your walk with the Lord or still shape your identity? Make a list of those things and ask Him for a fresh start. Are there past hurts you need to be released from and relationships you need to make right? Bring them before the Lord and release forgiveness from your heart. Prayer Dear Lord, help me to let go of past experiences – both my failures and successes that prevent me from moving forward with You. I open my heart to the new things You have for me in this new season. Isaiah 43:15-19 15I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.†16This is what the Lordsays— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: 18“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Galatians 2 Paul Accepted by the Apostles 1Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,2:7 That is, Gentiles just as Peter had been to the circumcised.2:7 That is, Jews; also in verses 8 and 9 8For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9James, Cephas2:9 That is, Peter; also in verses 11 and 14 and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. Paul Opposes Cephas 11When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? 15“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in2:16 Or but through the faithfulness of… justified on the basis of the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. 17“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. 19“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!â€2:21 Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 14. Come join us in the official thread! https://onehallyu.com/topic/720644-official-onehallyu-christians-thread/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzKittyKath 11,686 Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Amen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeachyKeys! 599 Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 This is so nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enchante 4,542 Posted February 5, 2019 Author Share Posted February 5, 2019 This is so nice. I’m glad you enjoyed it! I hope you’ll join us in the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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