USHERRAY'S MIRROR: CHAPTER 9 LET GO OF THE PAST

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<div class="Section1">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
encourage people to let go of their past, but never to run from it. The only
way to gain victory over the pain of our past is to let God walk us back
through that doorway of pain and into victory. No one can achieve victory for
us; we have to work out our own salvation. Paul explained this truth in his
letter to the Philippian church, saying:</span>

</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 4.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Therefore, my dear ones . . . work out (cultivate, carry out to the
goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and
trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience,
watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend
God and discredit the name of Christ).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 1.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while
effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and
desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and
delight. (Philippians 2:12, 13)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We have to let God take us through things, and let Him work in us so our
mess becomes our message. Difficult things that we have endured in our past
prepare us for God's blessings in our future. Even Jesus had a time of training
for His future. Hebrews 5:8-9 says, "Although He was a Son, He learned</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page93"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[active, special] obedience through what He suffered and, [His completed
experience] making Him perfectly [equipped], He became the Author and Source of
eternal salvation to all those who give heed and obey Him."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 5.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There was a period in the life of Jesus in which we are told nothing
about what was happening to Him. During this time we know that He was growing.
We too have times of growth that we may not be able to talk about to anyone. It
is an intimate time of growth that we must endure. There may be things going on
inside of us that we do not understand. But when we finally arrive at the place
God wants to bring us, we will see how our past prepared us for what God wanted
for us all along.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I like the story about the couple who went into an antique shop one day
and found a beautiful teacup sitting on a shelf. They took it off the shelf, so
they could look at it more closely, and said, "We really want to buy this
gorgeous cup."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.7pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All of
the sudden, the teacup began to talk, saying, "I wasn't always like this.
There was a time when I was just a cold, hard, colorless lump of clay. One day
my master picked me up and said, I could do something with this.' Then he
started to pat me, and roll me, and change my shape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I said, 'What are you doing? That hurts. I don't know if I want to
look like this! Stop!' But he said, 'Not yet.'</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; margin-right: 19.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page94"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Then he put me on a wheel
and began to spin me around and around and around, until I screamed, 'Let me
off, I am getting dizzy!' 'Not yet,' he said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Then
he shaped me into a cup and put me in a hot oven. I cried, 'Let me out! It's
hot in here, I am suffocating.' But he just looked at me through that little
glass window and smiled and said, 'Not yet.'"When he took me out, I
thought his work on me was over, but then he started to paint me. I couldn't
believe what he did next. He put me back into the oven, and I said, 'You have
to believe me, I can't stand this! Please let me out!' But he said, 'Not yet.'</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.85pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Finally, he took me out of the oven and set me up on a shelf where
I thought he had forgotten me. Then one day he took me off the shelf and held
me before a mirror. I couldn't believe my eyes, I had become a beautiful teacup
that everyone wants to buy."</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Submit To The Potter's Hands</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 1.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God has an awesome plan for our lives, and sometimes He starts changing
things so fast that we feel dizzy and disoriented, like a lump of clay on a
potter's wheel. But we have to trust that He is working out what is best for us
(see Romans 8:28). We need to just go with the flow and let Him make us into
something beautiful. Isaiah understood this process when he wrote, "You
have hidden Your face from us . . . Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; we are</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%; margin-right: 8.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page95"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the clay, and You our Potter, and we all are the work of Your hand"
(Isaiah 64:7-8).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To live a victorious Christian life, we have to be willing to let go of
the past, die to self, forgive those who have hurt us, and let God take us on
to the place of promised blessings that He has prepared for us. No one can
promise that everything we want to be different in our lives will be changed
into what we want it to be. Some things may never change the way we want them
to, but God can change us so much that we will not care.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our
comfort has to be in Christ. We need to forget about what others think about
us, or what people have done to us in the past. We are to keep our attention on
what God wants to do in us, and with us, and for us now. Paul wrote, "For
in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28) .Letting go of
the past involves looking to the future in a new way. In Galatians 2:20, Paul
offers us a promise that we, who need to let go of past hurts, can now confess:
"I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion];
it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life
I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and
complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for
me."</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We need to learn to be satisfied by being in God's will. The more we
focus on who we are in Christ, the less it matters who we were in the past, or
even what</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 4.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page96"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">has happened to us. Paul said, "I count everything as loss compared
to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness,
the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord
and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him
[of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and
clearly]" (Philippians 3:8).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He added,
"[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may
progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving
and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and
more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power out
flowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may
so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His
likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] that if possible I may attain to the
[spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead
[even while in the body]" (Philippians 3:10-11).There are deep places to
discover in God, and there are deep places in us that only God can fill. We
need to understand the power of God's resurrection, power that can lift us out
from among the dead even while we live in the body. Just as the eagle rests its
wings on the currents of the air to lift itself above the clouds, Christ will
lift us above the storms of our lives.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page97"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We may have a goal to move toward perfection, but we will never arrive
at that state until Jesus comes again. We are to accept ourselves, love
ourselves, and enjoy the journey because we know God is working on our future
all of the time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Press On To What Lies Ahead</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Paul went on to write:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not that
I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I
press on to lay hold of (grasp)and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus
(the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider,
brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it
is my one aspiration]-.forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to
what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly]
prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward" (Philippians
3:12-14, emphasis mine).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 1.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you have been miserable because of the things that have happened in
your past, I encourage you to do as I did and your focus in a new direction.
Determine to be what God wants you to be, to have what God wants you to have,
and to receive what Jesus died to give you. When you are ready for change, say,
"I am not going to live in bondage anymore. I am not going to live in a
box, comparing myself to others, and trying to be what they say I should be. I
cannot do anything about what I have done in the past, but I</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 104%; margin-right: 26.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page98"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 104%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">can do something about my future. I am going to enjoy my life and have
what Jesus died for me to have. I am going to let go of the past, and go on
pursuing God from this day forth."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.5pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It takes
maturity to let go of the past, but a mature Christian receives the fullness of
God's blessings. You can forget old failures, old disappointments, and old
relationships that did not work out. Instead, you can discover the new mercies
that God is ready to give you every day because of the covenant He made with
you when you put your trust in His Son Jesus Christ to save you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">King
David searched for relatives of his predecessor King Saul because he wanted to
bless them, simply because he had a covenant relationship with Saul's son
Jonathan. In 2 Samuel 9 is the story of how David found Jonathan's crippled
son, Mephibosheth, and brought him into the royal palace where he could take
care of him. Mephibosheth did not do anything to deserve this protection and
provision, except that he had a relationship to one who had a covenant with
David.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is a
picture of why God cares for us. He blesses us because, as believers, we have a
relationship with His Son. We do not deserve to be blessed. We do not earn
blessings. We may even be crippled emotionally from some incident in our past.
But God picks us up and restores us to our rightful place in His kingdom of
peace.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page99"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God is not waiting for us to do all the right things before He blesses
us. In fact, the most anointed prayer we can ever pray is, "Lord, help
me." We cannot reach perfection apart from God. We must be totally
dependent on Him to keep His promises in our lives. We are only called to be
"believers"; otherwise, we would be called "achievers."The
disciples asked Jesus, "What are we to do, that we may [habitually] be
working the works of God? [What are we to do to carry out what God
requires?]" (John 6:28).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus replied, "This is the work (service) that God asks of you:
that you believe in the One Whom He has sent[that you cleave to, trust, rely
on, and have faith in His Messenger]" (v 29). Verses 1-12 of Psalm 51
offers a powerful prayer for us to pray: have mercy upon me, O God, according
to Your steadfast love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and
loving-kindness blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly]
from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!
For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever
before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in
Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your
judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was
sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful]. Behold, You desire truth in the inner
being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page100"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and
I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness and
be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from
my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.7pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; margin-right: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering,and
steadfast spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence and take not
Your Holy Spirit from me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%; margin-right: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing
spirit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If we simply ask God, He will deliver us from the pain of our past
mistakes and create in us a steadfast spirit. But while we do not have to do
anything to receive God's deliverance, we can miss out on blessings if we run
away from our problems without letting God bring us through them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.7pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Moses
looked for the easy way out of his problems after he had stepped out of God's
timing. He had killed an Egyptian, and there had been a witness to the murder,
so he ran into the wilderness to hide. Before God called Moses to go forward to
the promised land, He told Moses to go back to Egypt (see Exodus 3:1-10),
saying, "Because I have most assuredly seen the abuse and oppression of My
people in Egypt and have heard their sighing and groaning, I have come down to
rescue them. So, now</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%; margin-right: 63.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page101"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">come! I will send you back to
Egypt [as My messenger]" (Acts 7:34).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God was
sending Moses back to the people who had "denied (disowned and
rejected)" him (Acts 7:35). His own people had mocked him, saying,
"Who made you our ruler (referee) and judge?" (see Exodus 2:14).
Moses probably was not excited about going back to face his problems in Egypt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.7pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God does
not always call us to go back physically to a place we have been. But if, for
example, we have a difficult time submitting to a boss with a certain
personality, God may call us to continue working with someone who has the same
personality until we master the situation in a godly way. God does not want us
to be on the run; He wants us to confront our fears and frustrations in order
to find peace in Him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 1.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1 Kings 19, Elijah was running away when God told him to go back and
finish what God had told him to do. When Jonah ran from his problems, he wound
up in a whale's belly. When God delivered him from the whale, He told him to go
back to Nineveh and deliver His message to the people there (see Jonah,
chapters 1-3).If we try to solve our own problems without waiting on God, we
can make bigger messes. Sarah did this when she convinced her husband Abraham
to have a child with her handmaid Hagar rather than waiting for the child
promised them by God (see Genesis 16). Hagar eventually ran away because of the
way Sarah was treating her, but the</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; margin-right: 6.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page102"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Angel of the Lord told her, "Go back to your mistress and [humbly]
submit to her control" (v. 9). He promised to bless her obedience by
giving her many descendants (see v. 10).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 104%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 104%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God may
be telling you to go back to the place of your frustration and pain, and allow
Him to walk you through that doorway and into victorious living. Do not run
from His invitation to emotional healing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.5pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ways People Run from Their Problems</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is common for people to run from their problems, because they do not
want to take responsibility for their actions. Most people look for the easy
way out, instead of looking for the right choice. Some people physically run
away from their problems, going from marriage to marriage, or job to job. Some
people mentally run away from their problems through the abuse of drugs and
alcohol. But problems do not disappear by avoiding them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.85pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 5.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every choice we make brings results. If we choose never to clean house,
eventually everything in it will deteriorate. If we choose not to go to the
grocery store, sooner or later we will not have any food to eat. The problem is
that we want to make wrong choices and get right results, but that does not
work. We always reap what we sow (see Galatians 6:7-8). If we choose to do what
is right, we will consequently break the cycle of problems that come against
us. Some people run from problems by making excuses.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 6.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page103"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When God tries to confront them with something, they make an excuse,
saying, "Well, I am acting like this because I am tired." Or, "I
act this way because I have been mistreated all my life." An excuse is a
reason stuffed with a lie. The problem with excuses is that as long as we hold
on to them, we will not see change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus told the story of a man who planned a great supper and invited
many guests to come (see Luke 14:16-24), but one by one they made excuses for
why they could not come. The first one said he was too busy with a piece of
land that he had just bought. Another gave the excuse of buying oxen that
needed to be examined, and another said he could not come because he had just
got married. So the man invited all the poor, disabled, blind, and lame people
in the streets and filled his house with people willing to be blessed. Those
with excuses never tasted the great supper that had been prepared for them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.15pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 11.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another way people run from problems is by blaming others for everything
that is wrong. Adam blamed Eve for eating the forbidden fruit; he even blamed
God for giving him the woman, while Eve blamed the serpent for misleading her
(see Genesis 3). The Israelites blamed Moses for their misery in the wilderness
and begged to go back to their place of bondage in Egypt (see Exodus 14:10-12).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
remember when I tried to blame everybody else for my problems. Everything was
Dave's fault, or the</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%; margin-right: 24.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page104"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fault of my upbringing. I had to
see that I was my only real problem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus
said, "Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in
your brother's eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber
that is in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:3).I enjoy a tremendous amount of
freedom now, but it came through facing the truth about myself. God pointed out
that I had a bad attitude, and my problems would not be solved until I changed.
It hurt to change, but I had to face what God had revealed to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.85pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 1.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We will only get free by hearing the truth and doing what we hear God
tell us to do. For example, if God tells you that you have a problem with
jealousy, you will continue to miss out on blessings until you deal with it.
You will have to start rejoicing when good things happen to other people.
Whatever it is that holds you in bondage will have to be confronted with the
truth before you can move on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">People also run from their problems by staying too busy. We can even get
so busy doing church work that we do not take time to hear from God. I was in
full-time ministry, helping people solve their problems, when God spoke to me
and said, "Joyce you are so busy doing things for Me that you never spend
any time with Me." I had to take an honest look at my time and stop doing
many things that were not bearing fruit. Staying busy was helping me</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page105"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">avoid
issues I needed to deal with.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%; margin-right: 31.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Paul prayed that we, the Church, would learn to sense what is vital:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 4.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend
to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love
may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive
discernment],</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So that
you may surely learn to sense what is vital,and approve and prize what is excellent
and of real value, recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the
moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and
blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may
approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble].
(Philippians 1:9,10)We need to know what to say yes to and what to turn down. I
have had to learn how to say no, because I want to make every day count that I
have left in this life. Many times what looks good is the enemy of the better
thing that is coming.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 5.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For example, God told one woman I know that she needed to stop spending
so much time helping other people instead of spending time with her own child.
We need to know what God wants us to do with our time, and we learn what He
wants by spending time with Him in prayer. If hearing from God is difficult for
you, I encourage you to read my book titled <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How</i></b></span></div>
</div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></i></b>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-right: 5.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page106"></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to Hear from God. </span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In it I
share many ways that God<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b>communicates with us, and how it
always lines up with His Word and leads us to peace.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.15pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Procrastination
is another common way to run from problems. We make excuses, blame others, and
say we are too busy, and so we put off doing something God has told us to do.
We think we will do it later, but later never comes. We "delay or turn a
deaf ear," just as Isaiah warned in chapter 1, verse 23.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.7pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%; margin-right: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Haggai 1:2-7 shows what becomes of those who put off what God has told
them to do:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; margin-right: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say, The time is not yet come
that the Lord's house should be rebuilt [although Cyrus had ordered it done
eighteen years before].</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 110%; margin-right: 39.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 4.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this
house [of the Lord] lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
Consider your ways and set your mind on what has come to you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 104%; margin-right: 4.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 104%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not
have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves,
but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 104%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page107"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">them to
put them in a bag with holes in it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-right: 23.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and
present conduct)and how you have fared.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.2pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We have
to motivate ourselves to do what God tells us to do,when He tells us to do it.
Solomon wrote, "He who observes the wind [and waits for all conditions to
be favorable] will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap"
(Ecclesiastes 11:4).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.7pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 1.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you look at your circumstances, you will put off doing what God is
telling you to do. It can even seem like the worst time to do whatever God says
to do, but there is an anointing on "now," if God has told you to
act.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 103%; margin-right: 19.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 103%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is not good to spend our time running from problems. We need to slow
down, discern what is vital, accept responsibility for our actions, and if need
be simply say, "I was wrong, and I am sorry." We must not let
procrastination rob us of God's blessings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.7pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 1.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 102%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If we want to enjoy God's best for our lives, we must stop making excuses,
stop blaming others, and stop being too busy to do what God says to do. He may
tell us to give, help, pray, forgive, apologize, or something else. But
whatever it may be, we need to learn to be "now people" who hear God
and act quickly when He speaks to us.</span></div>

USHERRAY'S MIRROR

Monday, 24 October 2016

CHAPTER 9 LET GO OF THE PAST

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