I always hear Christians use the wording, “invite Jesus into your heart/life.” Matthew 22:1-14 puts a whole new spin on that…

“Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.” (This was specifically the Jews who did/would reject Jesus as Savior)

“So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. (These are those who accept Jesus as savior, even non-Jews)

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.””

Matthew 22:1-2, 8-14 NIV

So here is the thing…we aren’t the ones inviting. God invites US into the Kingdom of God, into HIS abundant life. We think that we invite Him to come into our lives, but really, we are being invited to come into His and take part in what HE has for us. He has set the banquet of salvation before us and provided the wedding clothes (Jesus) for us. We are ALL called (invited). The chosen part comes in us actually putting on the wedding clothes to be admitted to the wedding feast. Many follow the crowd to the feast but never put on the clothes required to enter and take part in the feast.

Don’t invite God into the lacking life you are living. Answer His invitation to come into His abundant life and remember to put on your wedding clothes!

I am not naturally a good griever, if there is such a thing. I am extremely emotional and get far too attached to things in life. I am sentimental. Losing someone is never easy. We become intertwined with others along our path as we walk out the call God has given us. When these people leave our lives, it’s uncomfortable to let go and untwine ourselves. Sometimes it makes sense to us why the person died, while other times, it’s contrary to everything we believed and hoped for.

The solace I have found is from 2 Cor 4 and 5.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV

The Bible prepares us with the fact that our bodies fail us and waste away. We know that we cannot focus on or hold onto things tied to this earth, such as a person’s bodily presence.

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

2 Corinthians 5:1-5 NIV

“For we live by faith, not by sight.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

2 Corinthians 5:7, 16-17 NIV

As Christians and those who love other Christians, we know that we will see our loved ones once again in Heaven. We know that our time on earth is but a blip in our eternity, some blips shorter than others. We existed before we were known on this earth (“”Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”” Jeremiah 1:5 NIV ) and we will exist after we leave this earth. When a Christian dies it’s really more of a home going than anything. We were all placed here by God on a mission to reach the world. When we die knowing God we get to go home!! How wonderful! Yes, it’s difficult for those of us still on the mission having to do it without our loved one, BUT we are not left alone. We have God’s grace and purpose still working for us and we know that one day, we too, will get to go home. I choose to look on the unseen and live the remainder of my life by faith. I choose to not look at others as I see them and become attached to them in their earthly bodies but to see them as the spirit being they are that is tied to Heaven. In this decision, I can move past the hurt and the void that is left to accomplish the rest of the mission God has given me before I too am called home.

When you find a truth, it changes everything. When you were unaware and believing a lie, you only had that lie to base your life on, on which to base your thoughts, emotions and actions. But once you discover the lie and find the truth… it changes EVERYTHING!

God is a good God. He is a loving God. He is a complete God with no ability to not come through, to not take you from your beginning to your end. He is the author and finisher of our faith.

That said, Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The lie that says there is much to be anxious about, the lie that says God doesn’t hear us, the lie that says we are all alone and that life will never get better gets CRUSHED in the truth of who God is! We can come to Him and petition Him to move in the bounds of His Word on our behalf, to come through on His promises for EVERY need we have. We can come with thanksgiving because we KNOW who He is and that His Word does not return void, that we can thank Him even before we see the need met because we KNOW that the need is already met in His timing. THEN, we can receive His peace that GUARDS our hearts and minds from every distraction from His truth, from everything that would challenge our fervency in our petition.

Before Saul became Paul, he was a pretty big deal. He was born a Jew, giving him particular status as well as having Roman citizenship, something that was highly coveted. He studied under a very famous rabbi of the time. He was a high ranking Pharisee. You can imagine that after being Big Deal Saul- the Christian Slayer and Arrester, becoming Paul- the Christian Grace Preacher was no easy feat. Taking a deeper look at any of his writings, one can see that he was in a catch 22 a lot of the time. He had to use his clout but not abuse it. He had to prove he was worthy to preach this grace message to Jew and gentile and also prove that he was no better than the next man, a sinner saved by grace just the same. God had a way to accomplish this character in him. God always equips us for what He has called us to do and be.

“or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NIV

God gave Paul a “thorn in his flesh” to remind him that he needed that grace he was preaching just as much as those to which he was preaching.

This has always seemed extreme to me. Why torture the poor man as he is doing what you asked?! The truth is, God always speaks to and deals with the preacher before he can use that person to bring that same message to others. Gods response to Paul’s request to remove the thorn was never, “Deal with it.” Instead, it was always, “Rely on My grace. It IS sufficient.” God wasn’t going to remove the thorn, but He sure did give him an out. His grace to handle the thorn. Not punishment as it would seem, but discipline and a constant reminder and teacher of His grace and love.

Are you relying on God’s grace to sustain you?

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to DEMOLISH STRONGHOLDS. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NIV

There are so many BIG things in this passage! There is so much clarity about what life and situations are really about. These verses are proof that the spiritual realm is so much more real than the tangible, five senses world that we live in.

There are earthly weapons. Those weapons can do some damage. However, the true Christian has a different weapon, a spiritual and unseen weapon. This weapon is SO much more powerful than anything this earth has to offer. While earthly weapons can damage the body and the world we can sense, spiritual weapons (the name and authority and power of Christ and our perception and knowledge (truth) of reality) have the ability to DEMOLISH, not just merely injure or knock down the very strongholds of the true enemy we face, the strongholds our enemy tries to set up in our minds.

With this spiritual awareness and power, the Christian can OBLITERATE every argument and pretension that the enemy would present against the truth of God and our true reality. With this weapon, the spiritual awareness of what Christ did on the cross and in His resurrection and the power and authority it gives, the Christian can TAKE captive EVERY thought and MAKE it OBEDIENT to Christ and His Word. The Christian gets to have Spirit over mind (mind over matter). The Christian doesn’t have to fall victim to his circumstance or the patterns of thought and ideals that the world so vehemently pushes.

The enemy of our souls knows that what damage he can do to our bodies is not lasting. He knows that where the real battle is waged is in the mind of the believer. If the enemy can get a believer to doubt who he is in God and the power that he holds by being in Christ, the enemy can set up a stronghold. The enemy knows that if he can get a believer to question things he KNOWS about God, then he has a foothold.

So… when the enemy comes a knocking, take advantage of it! Take the thoughts he would try to plant captive and MAKE them obedient to Christ. Turn the enemies thoughts around on him! Win that battle by demolishing every stronghold the enemy would try to set up, and do it consistently. You have the divine power to do it. Never doubt that!

“You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.’ ”

Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the HEAD of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.” AS they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

2 Chronicles 20:17, 19-22 NIV

Prior to this verse, the people of God come against some impossible odds of victory. The FIRST thing they do is consult God, not sulk and cry and moan and worry. God tells them to go out there weaponless and completely outnumbered with certain death imminent in the natural and simply watch Him work. What is their response?! Praise!!! Not once did they question Him. They simply believed Him.

THROUGH their praise and as a response to their praise and full faith in God to be and do exactly what He said He’d do, God defeated their enemies entirely on His own, without a finger being lifted in battle by the Israelites.

If we really believe God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do, I believe we would be praising Him BEFORE we see the “evidence” of such. That’s what these people did! They knew what He said was a sure thing and it gave them courage to do the unimaginable!

Go do the unimaginable today in the courage of the Lord!

Does your life look a lot like mine right now? Does it feel like strong winds, earthquakes and fires? Have you questioned where God is at in all the mess you see in your life and others lives and in this world? I have.

A lot of times, we want Him to show up in the biggest of ways in the midst of our biggest of trials and situations. Every now and then, He does. Most of the time, though, He doesn’t.

When we have a bunch of “noise” going on in our lives (minds) and have the enemy swirling round about us with all kinds of strong winds of doubt and there are earthquakes of situations that rattle and even demolish the very ground we’ve been standing on, when there are fiery trials that threaten to burn us right up, we must find a way to get quiet before God so we can hear His “still small voice.” Does it really matter how we get Him so long as we do get Him and the guidance and comfort and support and deliverance He brings in His very being and presence? Isn’t the goal of this life and eternity just to be close to Him, THE One, the one true God, our good, good Father?

Let’s make the decision and effort today to remove ourselves from the “noise” of life even if just for five minutes to climb all the way up in His lap and be loved by Him, to be close enough to hear what He has to say about our lives and the moment of it we are living in. Let’s trust that He alone knows how to come and what needs done and that His love for us is really all we need to not only survive, but thrive.

“And then there was a strong wind, but God wasn’t in the wind.

And after the wind, an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake.

Following the earthquake was a fire, but God wasn’t in the fire.

But after the fire, there came a still small voice.

And that’s where He was found.”

1 Kings 19:11-12

I saw a post on Facebook by a friend about how God has used a crazy situation in her and her husband’s lives to catapult them into where He has them to be. It made me think.

So many times we encounter difficult situations, even impossible ones. They are unexpected and abrupt. These become crises. Crises, by definition, are deciding points, forks in the road. At these points we have several options, but two main ones. Follow God or follow our emotions.

Our emotions will cause us to think and act irrationally and react in as crazy a manor as the situation itself was. Following God, we will remain calm in the storm. We will maintain our hope. We will see light in the darkness. We will have an opportunity to witness a miracle!

Most of the times that I have seen great growth or been “catapulted to where God wants me,” it has been in the middle of or directly after a huge storm or difficulty in my life. I think I was able to see growth in these times because I decided to seek out and obey God rather than rely on my own understanding and emotions.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”

Proverbs 3:5-8 NIV