Let Go, Let God – A Mindful of Christ Encouraging Word - Purity 1188

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo is a view of the sun surrounded by clouds in a pleasant blue sky that has— that comes to us from yours truly as I took this quick pic from my car while sitting in my— well, from my car while sitting in my car yesterday at the end of the workday. The first day of November was a wild weather day in the 518 yesterday as several of of the northern area saw a light dusting of snow. Yep, even though I didn't say the dreaded S-word 2 days ago, uh, 2 days prior on the blog, the prophecy, even though I said I didn't want to see it until December, came to pass. I don't watch the weather, so I don't know if it was expected or not, but when I wrote about not wanting snow a couple of days ago, uh, maybe that was the Holy Spirit giving me a heads up. I don't know, but in the 518, you have to expect the unexpected and deal with the weather that we get. Of course, we are not always prepared to face unexpected trials, or when situations that are going bad naturally get worse. In my walk, I see people overcome addictions and problems, and I also see people who suffer and don't seem to learn from it. This morning I received some not-so-surprising news that caused me alarm and concern. It's not so surprising when people who are not doing what they should get worse and their precarious situations get more precarious because of their failure to act and do what's right. While doing nothing is always an option, it's usually not the best option, and if you take that option continually problems tend to get worse. So, I was thrown off my normal routine this morning to express my concern and offer advice to do what's right— again. And quite frankly, the process has drained me. So, I am choosing to do nothing— I am choosing to do nothing— in terms of writing any more than this admission this morning. And I'm once again going to share from my friend in the UK, Lauren Rosskilly's blog, on mindfulinchrist.net, whose word for Wednesday, yesterday, is once again oddly appropriate for my current situation. So I thank Lauren for her faithfulness to the body of Christ as we turn to her encouraging words reminding us to let go and let God. Lauren writes, and she shares Proverbs 3:5 from the English Standard Version, which says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding." And this is Lauren's writing: This well-known verse is easy to remember, but how do you actively apply this to your life? We can know in our minds that we are to trust the Lord, But do you fully trust him in your heart of hearts? I mean, in every part of your life? Sometimes we as humans want to understand and find sense or logic in a situation. I know I can be prone to do this, to this too. But there are things that we won't ever understand as much as we try to. Perhaps you've been waiting for an answer to prayer for, for years or decades. Perhaps you are waiting for healing, or perhaps the suffering in your life or the world around you is beyond your comprehension and understanding. Or perhaps there is a situation or even a person you are trying to be in control of. Yes, you have responsibilities, but you do not have to take everything on yourself. Whatever it is that you are currently battling, maybe the Lord is telling you to let it go. Just wait, sit with him, and trust him. Maybe you're not meant to know the answers either, either now or ever whilst you're on this earth. God is the one thing in this universe that never changes and is consistent, including his love and plans for you. So whatever is bugging you, whatever it is you need to let go of You need to let go of it, give it to the Lord, and trust that he's got not only this world but you in his hands. Joyce Meyer's famous words, "Let go, let God," is helpful here. But how do you, how do you let go? This is when the Serenity Prayer comes in handy. Here is the concise version: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Pray it, repeat it, meditate on it. And this verse— whatever it is you are struggling to understand right now, give it to God and trust him with it. What do you need to let go of and trust God with today? And that's the end quote of, uh, Lauren's writing. And I respond, what indeed? The Lord knows, and I surrender it all to him. So thank you, Lauren. Um, to receive more, uh, encouragement from Lauren Ross Killey, to be encouraged and to find courses in Lauren's books like Christian-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Breaking Chains, and Indestructible Faith that can help you to overcome your hurts, habits, and hang-ups, go to mindfulofchrist.net. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse— verses come to us from the section on blame shifting, and today's verses from that resource are Matthew 7:1-5 from the New King James Version. The Word of God says, judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye,' and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Today's verses fall under the third and final point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on blame shifting, and that third point is: Do not judge others while you fail to acknowledge your own sin. Today's verses, again, oddly appropriate, remind us not to judge others as we will be judged by the measure we judge them with. So sorry, this is, uh, this is so sorry, this is not do not judge like many other, uh, many out there misuse it. Jesus is, Jesus is telling us not to be so self-righteous to judge others by a high standard when we have issues in our own lives. Sure, some people aren't doing what is right and they are suffering for it. That makes us angry and makes us want to tell them what for. But we don't always do things right ourselves, and all the time either. Um, thus Jesus's advice to take out the log in our own eye before dealing with the speck in our neighbor's. This is a call to personal responsibility and sanctification. Jesus is in essence telling us to be concerned with our own sins before attempting to help people with with theirs. Jesus is telling us to not be a busybody with others before we get busy cleaning up our own act. Essentially, he is calling us to be compassionate. By convicting us of our own sins, Jesus is trying to elicit a loving response to our neighbor, which is not always easy. So before we start pointing out the sin in others and blame them for all the wrong things they do and suffer, um, we should pause and reflect on the things we fail to do perfectly so we can share the truth in love and help them rather than just chastising and judging them. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where we share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors like Lauren Ross Gillie. But today we're also sharing from A.W. Pink and the Arthur Pink Anthology, which is a collection of A.W. Pink's tracts brought together in one book and dispersed here on the blog for your encouragement. As always, we share the information for educational purposes and encourage you to purchase A.W. Pink's books for your own private study and to support his work. It's, it's, this one, this particular resource is available out there online for free as a PDF on many sites, but Printed copies of collections of A.W. Pink's books are available to purchase wherever Christian books are sold. And today the Arthur Pink Anthology moves on to the second tract, like it's Arthur Pink Anthology 2, and it's entitled Another Gospel. And this one's a long tract, so we're breaking it up into 5 parts, and we're sharing part 1 of Another Gospel. Um, on mtforchrist.org today at the end of today's blog post. So if you want to know about another gospel, or the— or read what A.W. Pink has to warn you about another gospel, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that first part of that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship and You know, doing what is right according to the Word of God. And it's not always easy for us to do what's right, and making other people do what's right is impossible. You know, it's funny because I really didn't know what Loren Ross Killey's Word for Wednesday yesterday had to say, but I felt I I was, you know, a little bit spent from going around and around trying to convince someone to do what's right in their life and to, you know, get out of the mess they're in by taking action and doing something positive and, you know, setting a course for the future. But I can't make them do it. And I don't know if they will do it. But they're in my life and I care about them and I will have to wait and see and sort of let go and let God on this one, even though I'd rather not. I can't, you know, and that's my ministry. Well, you know, I run a recovery, I lead a recovery growth group And I can tell people 9 times to Sunday how good the Lord is and how they should have a relationship with him and live according to his word, but I can't make them do it. I can't make them give up their sin. I can't make them do anything. All I can do is, is deal with the log in my own eye and encourage them to, uh, to deal with the log, and that's in their eye too. Enough or nothing. It's not a speck. Um, maybe I have the speck and they have the log, but either way, like, I'm still dealing with my log or speck or whatever. And, um, that's, that's the thing. And then I have to stay close to the Lord and take care of my own business. We can't control anyone. We can't make people believe. We can't make them repent. We can't set them free from demons. We can't help them deal with Well, we can encourage them to deal with their flesh, but they're going to have to choose to do it. And they're going to have to live their lives and deal with the consequences. And sometimes doing nothing is a big— there's big consequences to doing nothing. So I beg you to take action in your life and follow the Lord and and start following His way. Because when you do that, things— you may suffer for a season, but man, you have great peace when you do everything God's way. You know, you just, you know, there's no guilt or condemnation, there's no shame or really second-guessing when you're doing things the Lord's way. You can at least have peace in knowing you're doing that. Even if you don't get the results you expect. So we encourage you to follow the Lord. On the blog, we offer our, our discipleship teachings, basically for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, to help you grow in your faith, to know who you are in Christ, and to experience your freedom by preparing you for the steps to freedom in Christ. It's a prayerful repentance process where you commit yourself to the Lord, renounce your sins and any attachments of this world, and, you know, break all the ties that bind and set you free from demons. Um, and, uh, so we offer that on the, uh, on the blog or the podcast and the, uh, our YouTube channel, and encourage those who need freedom, need peace, to, uh, you know, consider listening to those those tracts, checking out those books that are all based on the Word of God and written by Dr. Neil Anderson, and applying your faith to your life. You know, do something was, you know, an ongoing theme that our ministry— because generally doing nothing is, is not the answer. So we encourage you to, uh, to follow the Lord and to help others around you and to to know him. You know, that's our mission, to show people what we know and to do what the Lord tells us to do. Anyway, I have to go to work, so we're gonna, we're gonna pray, and then we're gonna, we're gonna trust in the Lord and follow up. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all the people you bring in our lives, even the ones that cause us concern. And, um, make us, make us wonder and want to judge them and, um, or make us want to control them. But Lord, you're the one in control, not us. And we know that your plan for everything is good. And we just pray for anyone who's listening or reading the, uh, the messages today, uh, that they'd be encouraged that, uh, you're with them, Lord, and that you would come alongside them, their prayer requests and their walk of faith. We're just— we just need your help. We need to let go and let you, God, do, do what you need to do. And we need to trust you. And while we can do all we can in our own power, we know that your will be done ultimately. And, um, we just wait, wait on it. And we wait for you to do things, uh, Lord, to move us in the way we should go. So we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and move our steps into the things you would have us do. And, um, Lord, we just pray for, for, uh, for you to help us, uh, to best represent you here on the earth today. Help us do a good job. Help us take care of, um, what we need to take care of, and help us to love one another. Because we need your help. And, uh, Lord, we love you, we thank you, we praise you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.