Power Filled Positive Thinking-Chapter 13c- 7 Garments of Your New Life in Christ -Will you wear them today?

In Christ, we are new creations, raised out of the dust and ashes of our spiritual death into new life. God breathed into Adam the breath of life. In Christ, God has breathed into us the Holy Spirit—who indwells us, guides us, and provides for us the security of His covenant promise to us. Furthermore, God has clothed us with the righteousness of Christ. Yet, this earthly journey leaves us surrounded by all the allurements of our old addictions to self-exaltation, our allurements to counterfeit pleasures, our anger, our greed, our pride, and our sin filled nature. Too often we cling tight to those old garments. We don’t want to release them because we might possibly want to wear them again. After all, those were the garments that made us feel better about ourselves. We had worn those garments to attempt to ward off the depression, lifelessness and sorrow of our own depraved hearts. It comes down to whether I really believe and trust in the promises of God. Do I really know that in Christ, this new life is an abundant life? Do I really trust in God’s Sovereignty? Do I really believe that His plans for me are the best plans—the ones that will guide me into fullness of joy? Do I see the trials of this pilgrimage journey as stepping stones to greater love, joy, hope, faith and glory? Do I truly believe that Christ won the victory over sin and death for me? Most important of all, do I really believe that God loves me with a perfect, unconditional, everlasting covenant love? When we get dressed for the day, we choose our clothing from the closet so as to look our best, to be appropriate for the task at hand, and to display to the world our position in life.

If I really believe that God is Sovereign, loves me with a perfect love, and has clothed me with newness of life; then, I will adorn those new garments in response to every situation of life. I will choose those garments which best display who I am in Christ.

So what are these new garments of this new life in Christ?

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Power-filled Positive Thinking—Chapter 13 b –The Power to Overcome

Too often, we underestimate who we are in Christ. We continue to struggle through this world attempting to battle in our own strength because we don’t realize that we are new creatures, born into Christ’s righteousness.

As we grow in our knowledge of our new positions in Christ, given to us by God’s grace; then we become ever more aware that sin does not have dominion over us. Our old addictions are replaced by a new love and a new joy that is more powerful than the allurement of the old addiction to sin. The counterfeit joy promised by the old desires becomes replaced by the true joy found in our relationship with God. True, genuine, selfless love becomes the motivating force that provides the power to lay aside the old and truly walk forth in this newness of life.

Isaiah 60: (AMP): 1 Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!”

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Power filled Positive Thinking—Chapter 13A New Creation

It was late in 2008 that I finally laid down the fairy tale dream that Prince Charming would come to rescue me one day. It had been my dream and the driving force that lead me down a very crooked road of broken hearts. My greatest desire had been to find someone who would love me and by such validate my worth as a woman. Oh, yes as a Christian; I knew that God was most important. After all, had he not said if I seek Him first, he would give me the desires of my heart? So, I was angry with God that day as I shouted, “Why must you always break my heart? Why God can’t you give me this one thing?” At first, there seemed a long silence; as my anger grew—then I heard a soft whisper, “My dear child, do you not see? I have given you all of me. I have died that you might have life. I have taken upon myself all your sorrow. It is you who has broken my heart because you don’t see, I am enough.”

That day, I realized what a broken and messed up heart I have—the darkness that lurks within. I suddenly realized how self-centered and self-exalting my heart really was. My great thorn in the flesh which had brought me to my knees over and over again was that feeling of being a failure based on my inability to find a husband who would love me and adore me. No accomplishment as mother, nurse practitioner, or friend could fill that gap and Satan knew just where to stab me with his blades of lies.

We all have our own areas of brokenness. Each of us have our own personal thorn in the flesh. For some it may be pride, for some it may be lust, for some it may be fear, for some it may be anger; but, for certain for all there is something dark, hidden in the recesses of our hearts.

We all are born with

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Power Filled Positive Thinking—Chapter 12 C—

Living our lives with a servant’s spirit or with the heart of a servant is not what natural man desires. Our hearts tend to desire self-exaltation rather than to bow down to serve others. Often, our acts of random kindness are laden with a self-centered desire to have others praise us or love us in return which turns our acts of service into self-exalting acts rather than acts of a servant’s heart.

original photo courtesy of Jim Peregoy

Christ came to serve and throughout his ministry he did that through teaching, giving, healing, loving and listening. Ultimately, he took upon His shoulders all my sin. As we grow in our relationship with God, our hearts grow deeper in love with our Savior. As we seek to know Him more, we become more awed by the magnificent beauty of His humble, servant’s heart of love toward us.

In response, our hearts grow; much like the Grinch whose “heart grew three times that day as He saw the outpouring of grace, love and joy that the people of who Ville had in the midst of loss.”

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Power-filled Positive Thinking 12B –Birth of a Servant’s Heart

Over the past 11 chapters of this book, we have looked at the positions that we hold because we are in Christ. Those positions have included that we are the Beloved, Blessed, Redeemed and Chosen Children of God—heirs of Royalty, declared as Saints. Now we come to the truth that in Christ we are servants to God and to others. A servant is one who lays aside one’s own selfish desires to attend to the needs, dreams, and desires of another. To have a servant’s heart demands that we step out of our own comfort zone to be willing to sacrifice our time, energies, and love to see another reach their goals and dreams. This is not a simple task that one can perform from a heart that is seeking self-recognition.

Rather the only way that our eyes can open widely enough to see another’s heart is through genuine love. Love that sees the needs and desires of the beloved as greater than one’s own is necessary to be able to genuinely have a servant’s heart. We are asked as followers of Christ to have that kind of heart—the one that is willing to serve; yet, our own self exalting, selfish hearts tend to want to seek our own comfort first. Then, enters love. We may at first find that we are willing servants to whomever we love—like a dear friend, a spouse, or perhaps best illustrated in the love we may have for a child. We become willing to sacrifice everything so that our beloved might have joy, hope, and happiness.

Our love rises to a higher plane and suddenly we begin to see the glimpse of what it is to love like Christ loved us. Though, perhaps still imperfect; our heart begins to grow a little larger through that act of kindness. We find that through that sacrifice we begin to know the joy of watching our beloved succeed and we begin to grow in that love. As our heart stretches and grows it becomes able to feel the depth and the breadth of God’s love fill it a little further. As we become more Christ-like; we begin to realize that our own joy and love is fulfilled by sacrificially serving others. We don’t do it to receive joy; but, rather joy is an end result that arrives unexpectedly. Let us take a moment to look at some scriptures concerning our having a servant’s heart and the servant heart of Christ for us.

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