Thankfully Overcome

 God is the master at reminding us of foundational values through events and seasons.  Just as October challenged us to stand in the authority Jesus has given over the powers of darkness, November is designed to bring us back to acknowledging God's eternal goodness, not just in what we now have, but also in His awesome future for us to dwell in His presence and glory forever.  What God has planned certainly is beyond description and our finite understanding, but nevertheless, true and worthy of rejoicing in His revealed plan and letting it motivate our godly choices.    

Scripture reveals that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before Him.  Surely HIs joy was seeing you and I receive what He was doing to pay for our sins and become children of God to be with Him forever.  Likewise, in Revelation 2 and 3, God sent messages to the various churches with awesome encouragements of "joy" set before those who overcome. 

God is a rewarder of those who seek Him and obey Him.  If God does not overlook having a reward for giving a glass of water to a little one, how much more will not miss rewarding choices to obey our Spirit-led promptings and to put down the screaming lusts of the flesh (Romans 8:13).  He promises life and peace to those who obey the Spirit.  

Therefore, in this season of thankfulness, hear the word from Jesus in John 16:33, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  And the accompanying truth from 1 John 5:4-5, which states that all those who are born again overcome the world through our faith. 

We rejoice together in thankfulness for all the goodness we taste now (Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good); and also for the amazing future goodness God has for those who love Him (Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. 1 Corinthians 2:9)

The Lord has enabled His children to overcome through His death and resurrection; furthermore, He has given us sufficient reason and anointing to be thankful in every situation.  As He overcame, we now thankfully overcome by His power working in us.  

What Feels Good

The general practice of the world (and our flesh if we want to admit it) is to live by whatever feels good and whatever our heart desires, with no regard for God and His established rules of right and wrong.  

However, God reveals in Jeremiah 17:9-10 that the human heart is "deceitful above all things, desperately corrupt (or wicked)."  God then states, "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."  Our fallen nature, called the flesh in Romans 8, is so corrupt that it cannot and will not please God.  

When men refuse to listen to God, as Jeremiah 16 points out, He turns them over to "their stubborn heart."  Romans 1 states this fact even stronger, that those who do not acknowledge God and refuse to thank Him, He gives them over "to the lusts of their heart" and "to their vile passions."  When men reject God and His ways, He lets them have what they want but with the obvious warning that their choice will only bring misery and death.  

In short, God lets us have what we want, even though it clearly is not His intention or given purpose for us.  He will even let us go to hell if we want to, even though He loves each person so much that He willingly laid down His life for them.  God honors our choices. 

God's answer for our wicked heart and darkened mind, through His death and resurrection, is to make us new creations. Jesus put to death our fallen nature with His death on the cross in order to give us a new heart and to transform our thoughts in our minds so that we can have the mind of Christ.  It is by the Spirit of God, who pours the love of God into our hearts and renews our mind with truth, that we are able to put to death the deeds of the flesh.  That is why, like Paul (in 2 Corinthians 5:9), we make it our aim to please God and make no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14).

Therefore, it is essential to pick up our cross daily and let the Holy Spirit and the Word of God direct our steps.  To pick up the cross means that we admit our fleshly thoughts and desires need to be crucified, and by the Spirit's help we choose and "delight to do the will of God."  We can set the mind on the Spirit and trust His leading, which produces life and peace.

May God reveal His heart and His desire to each one of us, so that the world's deceptions and our fallen-nature heart desires would not be able to distract or destroy us.  We choose to set the standard of what pleases God rather than what feels good.  Well done, good and faithful servant.