Redeeming Love #2-Resigned
Ask God to prepare our hearts to receive a transforming work which He most likely wants to do through his Word in our hearts today. Nothing is too difficult for Him to change. Believe and receive His transforming power.
On to the next section of excerpts from A Path to Redeeming Love. It's lengthy. You may want to print off these points for reflection.
Rivers writes-"Resignation means giving in to something unpleasant that one can't change. We encounter resigned people every day. We see the hopelessness in their eyes and hear it in their voices."
She shares how after having an abortion she felt this way and when she had three miscarriages she felt she deserved to lose these children because of what she had done.
"Resignation can smother hope, breed depression, and strip away joy. Resignation can become surrender to captivity...It's embracing this idea: 'This is the way things are. Nothing is going to get better. It's my fault.' It's not always our choices that lead to resignation. At times it can happen because of what is done to us, and it masks itself as a matter of survival...But do we have to bear life? Wouldn't we rather live it?"
Rivers shows us there can be ugly fruit from resignation, but God offers alternatives! These 8 points she makes include some power verses we should implant in our hearts and minds, they will help set us free.
Hoping in God
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12
"Hope is a gift that God gives us even in the direst circumstances, a whisper inside us that says. 'This is not all there is.'...When we hope in people we will be disappointed. When we put our hope in ourselves - our own competence, talents, reputations, or charisma-we will be disappointed...When we put our hope in God we find certainty."
Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.
4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.
5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. Psalm 146:3-6 NLT
Fear of the Unknown
"Resignation builds on fear and fear keeps us trapped...Fear is a constant companion for some of us...When we lie down at night, it overwhelms our minds with worries about all the things that could go wrong...A surprising number of verses in the Bible address fear, and many of them command us, 'Fear not!'...Nothing is a mystery for God." Read Isaiah 46:9-10 NLT
Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me.
10 Only I can tell you the future before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.
No Way Out
"Resignation, taken to the extreme, brings us to despair...Despair comes when our last hope is gone and we don't see a way out of our circumstances. Sometimes it comes when we're overwhelmed by regret over a bad decision. Sometimes it comes as a result of abuse we experienced or a wrong done to us."
The stories of the lives of Job and David are examples of men faced with despair. David penned these words from Psalm 69:1-3
Save me, God, For the waters have threatened my life.
2 I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.
3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
"Even Jesus, while on the cross, uttered this heartrending expression of despair: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Matthew 27:46..Whether we can see it or not, there is always a prick of light."
The Possibility of Change
"On our own, it's almost impossible to make lasting changes that affect the core of who we are...Only God can change us at the deepest level...One moment with Jesus changed the trajectory of Saul's life...His life became completely centered on Jesus...Paul experienced change from the inside out." Check out 1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Learning to Surrender
"The good news of the gospel is that God already knows we can't do right. Our mistakes and failures never surprise Him...Surrendering means letting go of ourselves-of our pride and our attempts to be good enough on our own-and grabbing hold of God...He calls us to follow Him, to trust Him, and depend on His grace for our salvation."
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 6:8-9
The above verses are what brought my husband to a saving knowledge of God's grace and set him on a faith journey the past 40 years that has blessed not only our family, but has touched many others and brought glory to God.
The Life God Offers
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9
Undone by Love
"Selfless love is powerful. Selfless love-godly love-gives without expecting anything back and gives to those who don't love in return...We want to get what we're owed, and we don't want to be beholden to anyone because that gives others power over us. Love gets rid of all that. God's record keeping is different. Romans 6:23 tells us, 'the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.'...Accepting grace is a fundamental part of the gospel."
Voices of Condemnation
"Regret, if not prompted by God, leads to condemnation...When we are stuck in self-condemnation, our best antidote is truth from Scripture. Romans 8 begins with this promise: 'There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.' (verses 1-2)."
Bring to mind the way Jesus treated the woman who was caught in adultery. Rivers says, "His response was not condemnation but grace and encouragement toward repentance."
Hallelujah what a Savior!
The Song "Freedom" by Austin French
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-VfFTVu-6E
