i. A faithful guide
Key Verse: 2 Tim 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
Whenever I am in doubt, I consult God’s Word as it is my guide for life provided by God’s Holy Spirit Himself. It doesn’t matter if someone is offering me the latest research or the most up-to-date trend, God’s Word has been proved to be always true throughout the centuries. Its truth is as applicable today as 2000 years ago. God does not change, nor does His truth change! May we all learn from the Bereans!
Acts 17:11 “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
God’s Word is a faithful guide that will prevent those who trust God to fall into the traps of deception! Its main message is the Good News provided by Jesus Himself.
2 Tim 3:15 “From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
It has been given to us to disclose God’s will for our lives and it reveals God’s plans to those who read it.
Amos 3:7 “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.”
God’s Word will last forever!
Mark 13:31 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
It can only be understood when approached without biases and without arrogance. Only God’s Holy Spirit, being the author of it, can make it come alive as mentioned in our prior chapter. Without His help, it will be only a book full of facts and interesting ideas.
John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
He will personalize its messages according to your needs and circumstances.
Heb 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Compare God’s Word to the love letters that you receive, received or will receive from your fiancé. You don’t keep them closed, hidden in a well locked closet. No way! You eagerly open them up and read them over and over again, sharing its content with others, its message being: “I am loved!” In times of discouragements, how uplifting these letters are! So is the Bible. It’s main message being:
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God loves you! Can you imagine that! He loves you so much that Jesus was willing to die for you! Your relationship with Him is of utmost importance!
God’s Word being our guide, we can trust it completely! Whenever I face a decision, no matter how trivial it may seem, I try to consult with God first and ask Him to guide me in my decision. Then I open my Bible wherever God leads me to and read its message. You can be assured that He will let me know what is best for me. The text I end up with always applies to my situation and God’s Spirit makes sure that I understand its message.
For example, God put into my heart the desire to apply for the position of Acting French Consultant at my Board. Our regular French consultant was pregnant and would be away from work for a while. Within a few weeks the posting came up. I prayed about it, asking God for His will. He gave me the following text:
Col 1:12 “…giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints…”
Immediately God’s Spirit made me aware that this posting was reserved for me. I wouldn’t qualify for it based on my own merits. God would qualify me for it. With God at my side, I had nothing to worry about! It was all in His hands!
Several teachers applied for the posting. Interviews were fierce. I answered all questions given, but for some reason was lacking my usual enthusiasm. I was reminded that if God wanted for me to have this posting, no one could stop Him and Col 1:12 came back to my mind. I had nothing to fear. Why was I astonished when I received a phone call two days later offering me the position? God is faithful and so is His Word!
Whenever you face a decision, come to God and ask Him for direction. Ask Him to guide you to His answer as you open His Word. Sometimes He will not make His answer obvious to you. However if you wait on Him, His response will be forthcoming. The delay may be to help you depend more on Him and to deepen your trust in Him. However, when you do receive His answer from His Word, God’s Spirit will make sure you do understand it. He is your partner and you can be certain that He will not ignore you!
Question 1: What should be your guide in life to know the difference between truth and lies?
Answer:
Question 2: When facing decisions, how could you rely on God for help?
Answer:
ii. Meditating the Scriptures
Ps 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD (this being the five first five books of the Bible, which constituted God’s Word in David’s time) and on his law he meditates day and night.”
One of the greatest pleasures I can experience is when I have the privilege to meditate on God’s Word, savoring each of His words, one at a time and realizing how much they apply to my life.
“What does meditation involve?”
It involves thinking deeply and continuously. Let me explain. Instead of reading a whole chapter in the Bible, concentrate on just one verse or one sentence. Read it word by word, stopping at each word and reflecting what it means to you and trying to apply it in your life. Naturally, you should not try to attempt this by yourself. Request the help from the author of the Bible Himself, who will gladly assist you in understanding God’s revelations.
Keep that sentence or verse in your mind throughout the day, maybe even throughout the week. Draw strength from it, especially when facing hardships. Cherish it whenever you can and ask God’s help to learn how to apply it in your daily life. Whatever words you repeat in your mind, you will retain. Growth will result thanks to God’s guidance and will transform you from the inside out. Jesus will start to shine from within you.
Phil 2:5 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…”
Jesus will become evident in our life!
Let us take an example. Let us meditate on the following verse:
Heb 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”
What does it mean to fix our eyes on someone? Where would all my focus be? Would I notice the distractions of life? Would I continue to worry about what I am concerned about? What would happen if I would concentrate solely on Jesus? Would Jesus become more real to me? Would I get to know Him more intimately?
What does it mean to be the author of faith? How is Jesus my author of faith? How has my faith even developed? Now Jesus is not only the author of my faith, He is also the perfector of my faith. What does it mean to perfect someone’s faith? How has Jesus perfected my faith? Is He still perfecting it?
Try it out. Ask God’s Holy Spirit in helping you choose a verse and meditate over it for a week. You will be amazed the impact it will have on you and it will also help you deepen your relationship with your Maker.
P. S. Jews meditate over the Scriptures by repeating a sentence over and over again, rocking their head back and forth while doing so. Here is a testimony from my dear friend Ilan Mann, born in Haifa, Israel, who through meditation accepted Jesus in his life. He had encountered a terrible car accident and doctors were not too optimistic about his outcome.
I had an anxiety attack after being told I’d be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life on Feb.18/99. I rode my wheelchair through the halls all night in this state. At 6:30 A.M. the morning shift nurses tried to calm me with valium which didn’t work. They then brought a psychologist to try to talk me down again unsuccessfully.
At 8:00 A.M. while waiting for breakfast in the dining room still shaking uncontrollably in my wheelchair, a female patient came over and asked me to repeat these words; “Dear Jesus please cover me with Your blood and give me Your peace”. I began to repeat these words like a mantra quietly to myself.
About 30 minutes later the anxiety left me completely and I felt a peace I never knew in my life. His Spirit became active in me from that moment on. His word says: James 4:8 “Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean! [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery]. Deuteronomy 4:29 “But if from there you will seek (inquire for and require as necessity) the Lord your God, you will find Him if you [truly] seek Him with all your heart [and mind] and soul and life.”
Ilan Mann
Question 3: How can one meditate over a Bible verse?
Answer:
Question 4: Have you tried it out? How have you been blessed by it?
Answer:
iii. Renewing our minds
Rom 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Only when we are “transformed by the renewing of our mind” will we “be able to test and approve what God’s will is.” In other words, we need a transformation of our mind before we can know God’s will for our life. How can we do this?
Eph 5:25-28 “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
Only by letting God’s Holy Spirit cleanse our mind “through the Word”, or in other words through the Bible! How important it is for us to read and meditate God’s Word, as it is God’s tool to shape us to His likeness and to let us know who to have faith in.
Heb 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
God’s Word speaks to us personally and helps us see the way we truly are and what we will become if we let God shaping us through it. I like to compare it to a guide or manual. How often did I have to assemble presents for my kids when they were younger. I always tried to put them together all by myself and ended up being quite frustrated and discouraged. However when I took the time to read the instruction booklet and followed its indicated steps, the toy or furniture would be put together in a breeze!
God’s Word is basically the same. It is our how-to manual of life. It isn’t important to get through the Bible by a specific time, but to let God’s Word get through to us. It brings us closer to God as we start hearing God speak to us through His Word. We will eventually be able to declare with the Psalmist:
Ps 119:105 “Your word (the Bible) is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”
Question 5: How can you renew your mind?
Answer:
Question 6: What should your purpose be to read God’s Word?
Answer:
Read the following testimonies and discover how the Bible impacts people.
àEncouragement
The Bible Reference
Another discipline is to take some minor risks in prayer-to respond to nudges of the Holy Spirit. Most of us have felt moved from time to time in prayer to make a telephone call or write a note to someone. For years I regarded those thoughts as distractions. Now I see them as possible nudges from the Lord to do something he wants done. I have often been amazed and delighted at what happens when I follow those promptings. I have often been the beneficiary of those who did.
One spring day in 1993, I was so discouraged I didn’t know how I could go on with my work. I prayed with my wife over my anguish and went outside for a long walk, hoping that the physical activity would renew my spirits. It didn’t. I walked back into the house and heard the telephone ringing; the last thing I wanted to do was pick up the telephone. I usually screen my calls by listening to the voice on the other end of the line coming through the answering machine. The voice was that of a woman who was new to the church. She was apologizing for calling at home, but felt there was something I needed to know. Against my normal impulses, I picked up the telephone. She apologized again and said, “I hope you don’t think I’m crazy, but as I was praying this morning you came to mind, along with a Bible reference I did not know. I looked it up and have no idea if it would mean anything to you, but I felt that somehow I would be disobedient to God if I didn’t give it to you.”
She apologized again and then gave me the passage. It was Hebrews 10:35-39. She apologized once more, said good-bye, and hung up. The passage read:
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Need I say that those words were meaningful to me? I have since had them written in calligraphy and framed as a memorial to God’s faithfulness to speak when I needed a word from him and to a woman’s faithfulness to risk in obedience to God, to act on a nudge. Sometimes I wonder in frustration why God doesn’t speak to me. Does God wonder in frustration why it is that he has spoken, and I haven’t listened-because I have been too busy or rationalistic or timid to obey?
Used with permission from Deepening Your Conversation With God by Ben Patterson (c)1999 Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Book House Company. All Rights Reserved, p. 148-150.
àDraws People to God
Desiring Repentance
“‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” – Joel 2:12-13
Jacob Koshy grew up in Singapore with one driving ambition: to be a success in life, to gain all the money and possessions he could. That led him into the world of drugs and gambling, and eventually he became the lord of an international smuggling network.
In 1980, he was arrested and placed in a government drug rehabilitation prison in Singapore. Jacob was a smoker, and cigarettes weren’t allowed in the center. Instead, he smuggled in tobacco and rolled it in the pages of the Gideon Bible.
One day he fell asleep while smoking. He awoke to find to find that the cigarette had burned out, and all that remained was a scrap of charred paper. He unrolled it and read what was written; “Saul, Saul Why do you persecute me?”
Jacob asked for another Bible and read the entire story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. He suddenly realized that if God could help someone like Saul, God could help him, too. There in his cell he knelt and prayed, asking Christ to come into his life and change him. He began crying and couldn’t stop. The tears of a wasted life washed away his pain, and God redeemed him. He started sharing his story with the other prisoners, and as soon as he was released he became involved in a Church. He met a Christian woman, married her, and is now a missionary in the Far East where he tells people far and wide, “Who would have believed that I could find the truth by smoking the word of God?”
The Lord desires everyone to repent from his or her sin, turn to Him and to trust and follow Him. Today in prayer, confess any sin in your life and to repent from it and to return to the Lord.
“God will take nine steps toward us, but he will not take the tenth. He will incline us to repent, but he cannot do our repenting for us.” – A.W. Tozer
God’s Word: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” – 2 Corinthians 7:10
By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2004, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN THE MINOR PROPHETS pkennedy6@yahoo.com
à God talks through the Scriptures
In Seed Form
Several years ago the Holy Spirit spoke a phrase to my heart that tremendously helped me understand this process. I was thinking about John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Knowing this verse was speaking about the truth of His Word, I was wondering why it hadn’t become reality in my life.
Most of us, if honest, would have to acknowledge that our experiences don’t always line up with the Scriptures. For example, we are more than conquerors, but we are sometimes conquered by bad attitudes, sin, unbelief or other weaknesses. We’re told we need never fear, but most Christians do.
Why doesn’t the Word work for me? I thought while meditating about this verse in John.
Because all truth comes in seed form, He so clearly spoke to my heart. What you do with the seed after it is planted will determine whether or not it bears fruit in you.
Suddenly, many other passages of Scripture made sense: the parables of the sower (see Matt. 13; Mark 4; Luke 8); the renewing of the mind (see Rom. 12:1,2); abiding in the Vine by abiding in His Word (see John 15) and others. All of these involve planting seeds and working the process.
I discovered, that day and during subsequent studies, that this process of applying God’s Word is both constructive and destructive. It is a healing scalpel and a destroying sword. It is a watering nutrient and a pruning knife. Through it God gives life to those who believe and releases judgment to those who don’t. And most importantly, I realized its work in me was a process.
Watchman Prayer by Dutch Sheets, p. 136-137.
Copyright 2000
Gospel Light/Regal Books, Ventura, CA 93003
Used by Permission
àProtection Over God’s Word
a. Smuggling Bibles Across the Rumanian Border
(This story is taken from a fantastic biography about Brother Andrew, called The Narrow Road)
It took me four hours to get across the Rumanian border. When I pulled up to the checkpoint on the other side of the Danube, I said to myself, “Well, I’m in luck. Only half a dozen cars. This will go swiftly.”
When forty minutes had passed and the first car was still being inspected, I thought, “Poor fellow, they must have something on him to take so long.”
But when that car finally left and the next inspection took half an hour too, I began to worry. Literally everything that family was carrying had to be taken out and spread on the ground. Every car in the line was put through the same routine. The fourth inspection lasted for well over an hour. The guards took the driver inside and kept him there while they removed hub caps, took his engine apart, removed seats.
“Dear Lord,” I said, as at last there was just one car ahead of me, “what am I going to do? Any serious inspection will show up those Rumanian Bibles right away.
“Lord,” I went on, “I know that no amount of cleverness on my part can get me through this border search. Dare I ask for a miracle? Let me take some of the Bibles out and leave them in the open where they will be seen. Then, Lord, I cannot possibly be depending on my own stratagems, can I? I will be depending utterly upon You.”
While the last car was going through its chilling inspection, I managed to take several Bibles from their hiding places and pile them on the seat beside me.
It was my turn. I put the little VW in low gear, inched up to the officer standing at the left side of the road, handed him my papers, and started to get out. But his knee was against the door, holding it closed. He looked at my photograph in the passport, scribbled something down, shoved the papers back under my nose, and abruptly waved me on.
Surely thirty seconds had not passed. I started the engine and inched forward. Was I supposed to pull over, out of the way, where the car could be taken apart? Was I … surely I wasn’t … I coasted forward, my foot poised above the brake. Nothing happened. I looked out the rear mirror. The guard was waving the next car to a stop, indicating to the driver that he had to get out. On I drove a few more yards. The guard was having the driver behind me open the hood of his car. And then I was too far away to doubt that indeed I had made it through that incredible checkpoint in the space of thirty seconds.
My heart was racing. Not with the excitement of the crossing, but with the excitement of having caught such a spectacular glimpse of God at work.
Open Doors, Brother Andrew with John & Elizabeth Sherrill, The Narrow Road, Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 2001, p. 226 and 227
b. Smuggling Spanish Bibles
Christin Claypool from Kirby Free Will Baptist in Detroit took a missions trip to Cuba. Wanting to smuggle Spanish Bibles to a community of Christians there, Christin wore several layers of clothing to conserve space in her suitcase for the contraband. But her odd appearance drew the attention of security agents at every airport. Christin had to open her suitcase at her departure city, then again in the Bahamas.
Arriving in Cuba, she was alarmed to again be singled out and ordered to open her suitcase. The zipper wouldn’t budge, and she could open it only about two inches. She fought with it until at length the guard impatiently took over the struggle. Despite prolonged effort, the zipper wouldn’t budge. Christin was perplexed, for it was a new suitcase and had been opened several times before. In exasperation, the guard finally shoved it toward her and told her to go on.
Arriving at her hotel, Christin looked for a knife to cut open her luggage, but when she gave the zipper a tug, it opened easily. The Bibles were distributed as intended.
Robert J. Morgan, The Red Sea Rules. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001, p. 82.
à Language of Love
Speaking in Agape all Afternoon
(This story is taken from a fantastic biography about Brother Andrew, called The Narrow Road)
And still, this was not the entire story in Rumania. For the following week I met Christians living under the same persecution, who had still kept alive something of divine hope and trust.
The circumstances were similar enough to make a really good comparison. In both instances I met with the stated leaders of established Protestant denominations in their official headquarters. In both instances there were two men present beside myself, an important element in the comparison, since suspicion of one’s fellow Christians played such a large factor in the slow wearing down of the Church.
This time, too, I noticed the numbers. On the walls of this office were three pictures. They showed the president of the country, the secretary of the national Communist Party, and the famous old artist’s conception of the Straight And Narrow Way. How, I wondered, had the government clerk described that painting?
I was worried about the president of this denominationGheorghe-the moment he stepped into the room. This frail little man was so winded from the effort of walking that it was several minutes before he could catch his breath.
When he did, we discovered a problem. Neither he nor Ion, secretary of the group, spoke a word of my languages, nor I of theirs. We sat facing each other across the barren, multinumbered room, quite unable to communicate.
Then I saw something. On Gheorghe’s desk was a well-worn Bible, the edges of the pages eaten back an eighth of an inch from constant turning. What would happen, I wondered, if we were to converse with each other via the Scriptures? I took my own Dutch Bible from my coat pocket and turned to 1 Cor. 16:20.
“All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.”
I held the Bible out and pointed to the name of the book, recognizable in any language, and to the chapter and verse number. Instantly their faces lit up.
They swiftly found the place in their own Bible, read it, and beamed at me. Then Gheorghe was thumbing the pages, looking for a reference, which he held out for me.
Proverbs 25:25: “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”
Now we were all three laughing. I turned to the epistle of Paul to Philemon.
“I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayer because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord. . . .”
It was Ion’s turn, and he didn’t have to look very far. His eyes traveled over the next lines, and he pushed the Bible to me pointing with his finger:
“For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”
Oh, we had a wonderful half hour, conversing with each other through the Bible. We laughed until the tears were in our eyes. And, when at the end of the conversation I brought out my Rumania: Bibles and shoved them across the desk and insisted with gestures and remonstrances that, yes, they were supposed to keep them and that, no (to the hand in the pocket and the raised eyebrow), there was no charge, both men embraced me again and again.
Later that day, when we finally had an interpreter and our conversation became more mundane, I made arrangements with Ion to take all the Bibles I had brought with me. He would know better than I where to place them in this hard country, and he assured me that it was better to have just one contact than several.
That night, back in my hotel, the clerk called to me.
“Say” he said, “I looked up that agape in the dictionary. There’, no language by that name. That’s just a Greek word for love.”
“That’s it,” I said. “I was speaking in it all afternoon.”
Open Doors, Brother Andrew with John & Elizabeth Sherrill, The Narrow Road, Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 2001, p. 234-236.
Assignment: Meditate over the following bible bext. Take it one sentence at a time. You can break this assignment over several days or even weeks if you wish. Remember it is not getting through the text which is important, but it is letting the text get through to you. Make sure to ask for God’s Holy Spirit’s guidance. Only He can make His word come alive to you.
Matt 6:9-13
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’”
How does the truth that you are reading relate to you right now? Talk to God based on what is revealed to you. Share your thoughts with Him and listen to His voice. For example:
“Our Father in heaven . . .”
Spend some time reflecting on the intimacy God wants with you-that of all the names that are rightfully his, he wants you to call him Father. What’s the implication of that truth? What feelings does it stir? How would your life today be different if you really related to him in that way? … Lord, sometimes I still have a hard I time believing that I can call you Father. Thank you that I don’t need to be afraid of you. You tell me that I have a privileged position in you. I really want to experience your fatherly love more deeply; I know I would live with more confidence and freedom if I did. Help me to break down the barriers….
Continue line by line through the passage, using the phrases as “triggers” to generate your own reflections, requests, and expressions of worship. Be attentive to feelings that may well up along the way; invite God to be a part of them, too. The point is to personalize the passage, keeping the truth of Scripture intact.
Some people find they focus best if they write out their thoughts as they are flowing-others do not. Do what feels best for you. If questions come up, bracket them for later study rather than getting bogged down trying to find an immediate answer.
Remember, you can’t meditate fast. Go slowly. If God is using one phrase-or even one word-to do a good work in you, stick with it. It may take several days or even more to work through the passage. Again, the goal is not to get through the Scriptures, but to get the Scriptures through you.
When you’re done, think back over the experience. What happened to you as you reflected and prayed? When was it difficult? When did it seem to flow? Was there a particular truth God seemed to be trying to impress upon you? How did you respond?”
Ortberg, John; Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling. Growth, Trying vs. Trying. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000 p. 41.
Twenty Cans of Success
1 Why should I say I can’t when the Bible says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)?
2 Why should I lack when I know that God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)?
3 Why should I fear when the Bible says God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7)?
4 Why should I lack faith to fulfill my calling, knowing that God has allotted to me a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)?
5 Why should I be weak when the Bible says that the Lord is the strength of my life and that I will display strength and take action because I know God (Psalm 27:1; Daniel 11:32)?
6 Why should I allow Satan supremacy over my life when He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)?
7 Why should I accept defeat when the Bible says that God always leads me in triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14)?
8 Why should I lack wisdom when Christ became wisdom to me from God and God gives wisdom to me generously when I ask Him for it (1 Corinthians 1:30; James 1:5)?
9 Why should I be depressed when I can recall to mind God’s lovingkindness, compassion and faithfulness, and have hope (Lamentations 3:21-23)?
10Why should I worry and fret when I can cast all my anxiety on Christ who cares for me (1 Peter 5:7)? 11 Why should I ever be in bondage knowing that there is liberty where the Spirit of the Lord is (2 Corinthians 3:17)?
12 Why should I feel condemned when the Bible says I am not condemned because I am in Christ (Romans 8:1)?
13 Why should I feel alone when Jesus said He is with me always and He will never leave me nor forsake me (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5)?
14 Why should I feel accursed or that I am the victim of bad luck when the Bible says that Christ redeemed me from the curse of the law that I might receive His Spirit (Galatians 3:13, 14)?
15 Why should I be discontented when I, like Paul, can learn to be content in all my circumstances (Philippians 4:11)?
16 Why should I feel worthless when Christ became sin on my behalf that I might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21)?
17 Why should I have a persecution complex knowing that nobody can be against me when God is for me (Romans 8:31)?
18 Why should I be confused when God is the author of peace and He gives me knowledge through his indwelling Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:33; 2:12)?
19 Why should I feel like a failure when I am a conqueror in all things through Christ (Romans 8:37)?
20Why should I let the pressures of life bother me when I can take courage knowing that Jesus has overcome the world and its tribulations (John 16:33)? Dr. Anderson, Freedom in Christ and Harvest House Publishers www.ficm.org
Part 10