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September 2018

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Are My Words Acceptable

Are My Words Acceptable
Psalm 19:14 (KJV)
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
Colossians 4:6 (NIV)
6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Matthew 15:11  (NIV)
11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
Colossians 3:8-10 (NIV)
8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Ephesians 4:29 (NIV)
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Last week during my quiet time I came across: Psalm 19:14 (KJV)
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
I have read this scripture many times before, but for some reason the Holy Spirit really helped me to tune in and pay attention to what I was reading on that day.
I was definitely convicted when I read this passage of scripture.

Maybe I felt this way because I know that my words are not always acceptable to God. I realize that I should think before I speak, but I must ashamedly confess that I fall short of this goal at times.

I have noticed that when fatigue sets in due to a long day, or when there have been some unforeseen stresses that have creeped into my day, my attitude and my words can become very short at times, and unintentionally harsh.
I don’t know your struggle. It may be that you are guilty of gossiping, or every now and then you slip a swear or curse word into your conversation. Some of you may struggle with telling the truth, and lying has become a convenient habit for you. It may be that you can’t resist saying negative things or that you are great at making promises but never keep them. Whatever sinful thing you are guilty of committing with your tongue, just know that it does not in any way bring God honor, nor is it acceptable to Him.

Whatever your struggle, I encourage you to take a personal and honest assessment of yourself. From this day forward before you speak, why not ask yourself: will what I am about to say be pleasing and acceptable to God? The Litmus Test is; if you could not say it with God standing beside you, then maybe you should not say it at all. Believe it or not, He is standing right beside you and He does hear every word you say.

Remember God is holy and because we are His children and we carry His name, we must do our best to choose our words wisely, and we must live in a way that will represent Him well before others.

We are His ambassadors and because we are, our character must reflect that of His. We are human and we will not always get it right. We will fall short from time to time, but through prayer and studying God’s word, we will grow closer and closer to Him. The reward of being in His presence is that we start to reflect His character. Through this process, a divine transformation starts to take place. Our desires start to change, and our choice of words will also began to change, and all of this is God at work in our lives.

Praise God for His amazing power to change us from head to toe. With His help we really can change our words, so that they are more pleasing and acceptable to Him. Will you choose to honor Him with your words today? I hope so! It is certainly my goal!

Below I have listed a few scriptures and from these we can see what God’s word has to say about our words.

James 3:9-10 (NIV)
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
Psalm 141:3 (NIV)
3 Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips

 
 
 

Strengthen Your Spiritual Muscles

Strengthen Your Spiritual Muscles

1 Corinthians 9:27  (NLT)
27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
Hebrews 6:1  (NLT)
6 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.
Ephesians 6:10-18  (NLT)
1A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we[a] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.[b] 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.[c] 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.[d]
 2 Peter 1:5-8  (NLT)
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:8-11  (NLT)
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.[a]For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

As most of you know, a little over a year and a half ago I suffered injuries from a really bad fall. I am still in physical therapy but praise God I can walk now without the aid of a cane. Now that my legs are much stronger and the nerves in my back seem to be a bit quieter, things are looking better.

I now realize, how being immobile for so long has weakened the rest of my body. The muscles in my upper back and arms are much weaker than they should be. Therefore my doctor is putting me back into physical therapy to strengthen my upper body as well. Nothing like a great fall to tear your body apart.

I was not excited about more physical therapy but thrilled that God has blessed me to be able to receive the treatments that I need.

Yesterday as I was leaving the doctor’s office, thoughts started to pop into my head regarding our spiritual muscles. Just as our physical muscles can become weak due to the lack of conditioning them, the same thing can happen to our spiritual muscles.

All muscles whether physical or spiritual, become weak if they are not consistently being used. All we have to do is go for a few days without reading our bibles or forget to pray for a day or so, and our muscles start to weaken. We can miss one Sunday at church, and before we know it, a month has gone by, since we stepped inside a worship service. This is the same thing that happens when we miss a day or two at the gym. I think we all can relate to that.

All of a sudden we start to miss our weekly Bible Study, and shortly after, we are alienating ourselves from other Christian sisters and brothers. The very ones who are there to give us emotional and spiritual encouragement, and to support us through difficult times.

I want to encourage you to take a moment, to really evaluate the strength of your spiritual muscles. When is the last time that you spent a good hour alone with God, or when is the last time that you memorized scriptures or meditated on a passage of scripture to give yourself strength for your journey? All of these things build spiritual muscles. Are you spiritually weak?

When we are strong spiritually, (which is only by God’s power working through us) we are not so easily thrown off balance when the enemy throws a blow. Notice I didn’t say if he throws a blow, but when, because it is inevitable. You see when we are spiritually fit, we may rock from the blow, but we won’t fall over in despair.

When God is our focus, we draw strength from being in His presence. He equips us spiritually and emotionally for the journey that he has purposed for us.

Don’t allow your spiritual muscles to become flabby. When we don’t exercise our physical bodies we become flabby and the same thing happens spiritually. So let’s take a look at what it means to be spiritually flabby. To be spiritually flabby is to be:

F-Faithless in God’s ability to bring you through situations or in His ability to change your circumstances.
L– Lazy when it comes to studying God’s word.
A– Accepting of the enemy’s lies instead of God’s truth.
B– Bankrupt spiritually.
B– Being busy with one thing or the other is more important than spending quality time in God’s presence.
Y– Yield less to God. His will is second, third or fourth on your list, but not your first priority.

On the other hand, you can choose to have spiritual muscles.  This is what it looks like to be spiritually fit:

M– Moving towards God instead of away from God pleases you.
U– Using your gifts and talents to honor God.
S– Strengthened by God’s Power at work through you.
C -Careful to always give God the glory for any accomplishments in your life.
L -Loves to study God’s word and you joyfully make time to do so.
E– Elects to do God’s will. (Dying to self is the key here).
S– Serves God by serving others.

 Joshua 24:15  (NLT)
15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”