Through it All

Topic: Progress

Focus: Being transformed

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NKJV) Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Sprit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

As you continue to move forward, you will keep changing. You will not stay the same. Your life will be a constant process of newness. There was a time when you wondered how you would ever be able to change, but you don’t have to wonder anymore because the changing has already begun. You have changed more than you know—just by your decision to come out of bondage.

It’s a terrible thing to be bound in shackles…wanting things to be different, but not knowing how or where to begin to find freedom. In that condition, you continue to do what you have always done because you can’t imagine there could be another way. You live in a dull unawareness, going through mechanical motions—trying to accomplish what you think people expect you to do—without much thought about the fact that there could be another way.

Then one day the Spirit of the Lord reveals the chains that have been holding you back. You see that what you thought was freedom was really a myth.

Bondage causes us to see ourselves as through a ‘veil’. What we think we see is not the total truth. The bondage we bought into, gave us a promise that it didn’t deliver. We thought we were free to do what we wanted to do, but the freedom we thought we had—wasn’t actually freedom at all. When we come out from under bondage, the veil is removed and we’re able to see clearly.

Besides not seeing ourselves clearly, bondage also keeps us from being able to see the Lord clearly. Again, the veil has distorted our vision. How can we be transformed into the likeness of the Lord when things stand in the way of our seeing Him face to face? In order to become like Him—we have to be able to see Him…with nothing between Him and us. To see Him clearly, we have to get rid of the bondage that has veiled true clarity.

NOW, YOU CAN LISTEN AND/OR READ!

You can’t really be free and under bondage at the same time. Galatians 5:1 (NKJV) says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”  John 8:36 (NKJV) tell us, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

There are many kinds of bondage. Some kinds are obvious and others are almost invisible. Some kinds of bondage can seem like they’re not really bondage—until we choose to step into the light. When you have stepped out of the light and things have become ‘shadowed’ it’s hard to tell anything has changed at all. You go along in numbness, as though everything is fine—because you think it is.

When the day comes that you realize you are really not free and you have the tiniest fleeting memory or vision of what freedom was—or could be—you are faced with a choice to make. Will you continue to habitually and mechanically perform what you have come to accept? Or will you leap at the possibility for new life?

When the titanic was sinking, there were people who were trapped inside the vessel with no way out. There were others who were given an opportunity to step off the doomed ship into a comparatively small boat in the middle of dark, uncertain waters.

Some people undoubtedly felt guilty leaving those who weren’t being given the option of deliverance. Some probably stepped off the shuttering, groaning ‘unsinkable’ ship—that was indeed sinking—wondering if they were trading one kind of death for another. While others, made no hesitation.

The ones who seized the opportunity as it was offered, believed that abandoning ship was the only possible hope for life and a future. They were willing to take the risk—and they lived.

Still others, continued to believe it would be impossible for the gigantic, powerful ocean liner to actually disappear beneath the icy surface. They imagined staying on board would be much safer than launching out in a tiny lifeboat.

Depression and dependency are like a sinking ship on a dark night. You made the choice to take the lifeboat. You are alive. You made the right decision. Don’t look back…ever. Keep moving toward Jesus and stay free.

Declaration: I will find new strength daily as I remember I am no longer under bondage. I have been given a new life that will keep getting better and better as I keep moving toward Jesus and don’t allow anything to veil His image.

Topic: Progress

Focus: The long-term plan of God

Exodus 15:13 (NKJV) In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling.

In order to make progress, you have to want something better. You have to be tired of where you’ve been—tired enough to want change. When you’re tired, it’s not easy to find the energy to do anything. You can keep going along in the same paths, repeating the same actions, in a dull and monotonous force of habit. If your emotions are battered, you might not have the courage to take any kind of action. Some days you might have more energy and courage than others…but in a weakened state, people often just don’t try to break free.

God had been in the process of freeing His chosen people from slavery for a very long time. Long ago, when Moses was a tiny baby, God arranged for him to be discovered by pharaoh’s daughter, as he floated in a handmade waterproof basket in the river where the princess always went to bathe.

Moses was such a cute and helpless little guy that the princess couldn’t resist wanting him for her own. She arranged for him to be nursed by an Israelite woman, through the offer of a young girl who happened to be nearby when the princess found him. Of course, the princess didn’t know the young girl was Moses’ sister, Miriam. And she had no idea that the Israelite woman the young girl recommended to care for Moses, was his own mother.

NOW YOU CAN LISTEN OR READ:

But why was Moses floating in a basket in the first place? What kind of mother would put her child in a river? Something as strange as that would only be done by a mother who was desperate. You see, Israelite baby boys were being murdered during the time of Moses’ birth. The Egyptians thought the Israelites were multiplying too fast and wanted to control their population. So, rather than have her baby killed, Moses’ mother took a valiant risk. She decided to make a basket and hide the baby in the river.

So it was, that Moses was nursed in the arms of his very own mother. She must have cherished those precious days. As hard as it would be to have to hand her baby son over to someone else, at least she knew Moses would live. After Moses was weaned, he went to live in the palace, where he was raised as the son of the princess. He was fed, clothed, and educated on a level he could have never received in his own family.

Years later, as a young adult, Moses witnessed an Israelite being beaten by an Egyptian. He went to the defense of the Israelite and ended up killing the Egyptian in the process. As a result, Moses ran for his life. For 40 years, Moses experienced a totally different existence in a place far away. One day, God spoke to him from a burning bush and asked him to return to Egypt and lead His people to freedom and a new life. When all of this happened, Moses was minding his own business and tending the sheep of his father-in-law.

Moses had a few weaknesses, and definitely lacked courage, but God wanted to use him anyway. Moses had legitimate reasons to be afraid of the job God was offering him—and he said so. Moses wasn’t a very good talker and he didn’t think the pharaoh would listen to him.

Moses was right. Pharaoh was very controlling and resisted all of the attempts of Moses, as he asked pharaoh to let his people go. After many different plagues and a considerable loss of life, pharaoh finally gave in, sort of, and the Israelites were able to leave Egypt. But the

story doesn’t end there. Because of ingratitude and disobedience, the trip to the promised land was long. Most of the ones who were ‘set free’, never reached their reward because they continued to grumble and make the wrong choices. Being set free was not the end of their problems.

As you have been set free from your own bondage, you must realize there are ongoing responsibilities to be met ‘by you’.  God will do His part—and you have to do your part, too. God has called you out of a lifestyle that was apart from His will. You have to be willing to keep moving forward by making the right decisions on a daily basis…it’s not a part time job.

When God called Moses, Moses was insecure. God told him that if he would co-operate, He would provide help. God also demonstrated His miracle working power to Moses…letting him know that it was not Moses’ power that would save His people, it was His.

Declaration: I will find new strength by cooperating with God and His long-term plan to help me make progress and stay free.

Topic: Progress

Focus: Being transformed

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NKJV) Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Sprit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

As you continue to move forward, you will keep changing. You will not stay the same. Your life will be a constant process of newness. There was a time when you wondered how you would ever be able to change, but you don’t have to wonder anymore because the changing has already begun. You have changed more than you know—just by your decision to come out of bondage.

It’s a terrible thing to be bound in shackles…wanting things to be different, but not knowing how or where to begin to find freedom. In that condition, you continue to do what you have always done because you can’t imagine there could be another way. You live in a dull unawareness, going through mechanical motions—trying to accomplish what you think people expect you to do—without much thought about the fact that there could be another way.

Then one day the Spirit of the Lord reveals the chains that have been holding you back. You see that what you thought was freedom was really a myth.

Bondage causes us to see ourselves as through a ‘veil’. What we think we see is not the total truth. The bondage we bought into, gave us a promise that it didn’t deliver. We thought we were free to do what we wanted to do, but the freedom we thought we had—wasn’t actually freedom at all. When we come out from under bondage, the veil is removed and we’re able to see clearly.

Besides not seeing ourselves clearly, bondage also keeps us from being able to see the Lord clearly. Again, the veil has distorted our vision. How can we be transformed into the likeness of the Lord when things stand in the way of our seeing Him face to face? In order to become like Him—we have to be able to see Him…with nothing between Him and us. To see Him clearly, we have to get rid of the bondage that has veiled true clarity.

NOW, YOU CAN LISTEN AND/OR READ!

You can’t really be free and under bondage at the same time. Galatians 5:1 (NKJV) says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”  John 8:36 (NKJV) tell us, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

There are many kinds of bondage. Some kinds are obvious and others are almost invisible. Some kinds of bondage can seem like they’re not really bondage—until we choose to step into the light. When you have stepped out of the light and things have become ‘shadowed’ it’s hard to tell anything has changed at all. You go along in numbness, as though everything is fine—because you think it is.

When the day comes that you realize you are really not free and you have the tiniest fleeting memory or vision of what freedom was—or could be—you are faced with a choice to make. Will you continue to habitually and mechanically perform what you have come to accept? Or will you leap at the possibility for new life?

When the titanic was sinking, there were people who were trapped inside the vessel with no way out. There were others who were given an opportunity to step off the doomed ship into a comparatively small boat in the middle of dark, uncertain waters.

Some people undoubtedly felt guilty leaving those who weren’t being given the option of deliverance. Some probably stepped off the shuttering, groaning ‘unsinkable’ ship—that was indeed sinking—wondering if they were trading one kind of death for another. While others, made no hesitation.

The ones who seized the opportunity as it was offered, believed that abandoning ship was the only possible hope for life and a future. They were willing to take the risk—and they lived.

Still others, continued to believe it would be impossible for the gigantic, powerful ocean liner to actually disappear beneath the icy surface. They imagined staying on board would be much safer than launching out in a tiny lifeboat.

Depression and dependency are like a sinking ship on a dark night. You made the choice to take the lifeboat. You are alive. You made the right decision. Don’t look back…ever. Keep moving toward Jesus and stay free.

Declaration: I will find new strength daily as I remember I am no longer under bondage. I have been given a new life that will keep getting better and better as I keep moving toward Jesus and don’t allow anything to veil His image.

Focus: The long-term plan of God

Exodus 15:13 (NKJV) In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling.

In order to make progress, you have to want something better. You have to be tired of where you’ve been—tired enough to want change. When you’re tired, it’s not easy to find the energy to do anything. You can keep going along in the same paths, repeating the same actions, in a dull and monotonous force of habit. If your emotions are battered, you might not have the courage to take any kind of action. Some days you might have more energy and courage than others…but in a weakened state, people often just don’t try to break free.

God had been in the process of freeing His chosen people from slavery for a very long time. Long ago, when Moses was a tiny baby, God arranged for him to be discovered by pharaoh’s daughter, as he floated in a handmade waterproof basket in the river where the princess always went to bathe.

Moses was such a cute and helpless little guy that the princess couldn’t resist wanting him for her own. She arranged for him to be nursed by an Israelite woman, through the offer of a young girl who happened to be nearby when the princess found him. Of course, the princess didn’t know the young girl was Moses’ sister, Miriam. And she had no idea that the Israelite woman the young girl recommended to care for Moses, was his own mother.

NOW YOU CAN LISTEN OR READ:

But why was Moses floating in a basket in the first place? What kind of mother would put her child in a river? Something as strange as that would only be done by a mother who was desperate. You see, Israelite baby boys were being murdered during the time of Moses’ birth. The Egyptians thought the Israelites were multiplying too fast and wanted to control their population. So, rather than have her baby killed, Moses’ mother took a valiant risk. She decided to make a basket and hide the baby in the river.

So it was, that Moses was nursed in the arms of his very own mother. She must have cherished those precious days. As hard as it would be to have to hand her baby son over to someone else, at least she knew Moses would live. After Moses was weaned, he went to live in the palace, where he was raised as the son of the princess. He was fed, clothed, and educated on a level he could have never received in his own family.

Years later, as a young adult, Moses witnessed an Israelite being beaten by an Egyptian. He went to the defense of the Israelite and ended up killing the Egyptian in the process. As a result, Moses ran for his life. For 40 years, Moses experienced a totally different existence in a place far away. One day, God spoke to him from a burning bush and asked him to return to Egypt and lead His people to freedom and a new life. When all of this happened, Moses was minding his own business and tending the sheep of his father-in-law.

Moses had a few weaknesses, and definitely lacked courage, but God wanted to use him anyway. Moses had legitimate reasons to be afraid of the job God was offering him—and he said so. Moses wasn’t a very good talker and he didn’t think the pharaoh would listen to him.

Moses was right. Pharaoh was very controlling and resisted all of the attempts of Moses, as he asked pharaoh to let his people go. After many different plagues and a considerable loss of life, pharaoh finally gave in, sort of, and the Israelites were able to leave Egypt. But the

story doesn’t end there. Because of ingratitude and disobedience, the trip to the promised land was long. Most of the ones who were ‘set free’, never reached their reward because they continued to grumble and make the wrong choices. Being set free was not the end of their problems.

As you have been set free from your own bondage, you must realize there are ongoing responsibilities to be met ‘by you’.  God will do His part—and you have to do your part, too. God has called you out of a lifestyle that was apart from His will. You have to be willing to keep moving forward by making the right decisions on a daily basis…it’s not a part time job.

When God called Moses, Moses was insecure. God told him that if he would co-operate, He would provide help. God also demonstrated His miracle working power to Moses…letting him know that it was not Moses’ power that would save His people, it was His.

Declaration: I will find new strength by cooperating with God and His long-term plan to help me make progress and stay free.

SaveSave

Focus: Being transformed

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NKJV) Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Sprit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

As you continue to move forward, you will keep changing. You will not stay the same. Your life will be a constant process of newness. There was a time when you wondered how you would ever be able to change, but you don’t have to wonder anymore because the changing has already begun. You have changed more than you know—just by your decision to come out of bondage.

It’s a terrible thing to be bound in shackles…wanting things to be different, but not knowing how or where to begin to find freedom. In that condition, you continue to do what you have always done because you can’t imagine there could be another way. You live in a dull unawareness, going through mechanical motions—trying to accomplish what you think people expect you to do—without much thought about the fact that there could be another way.

Then one day the Spirit of the Lord reveals the chains that have been holding you back. You see that what you thought was freedom was really a myth.

Bondage causes us to see ourselves as through a ‘veil’. What we think we see is not the total truth. The bondage we bought into, gave us a promise that it didn’t deliver. We thought we were free to do what we wanted to do, but the freedom we thought we had—wasn’t actually freedom at all. When we come out from under bondage, the veil is removed and we’re able to see clearly.

Besides not seeing ourselves clearly, bondage also keeps us from being able to see the Lord clearly. Again, the veil has distorted our vision. How can we be transformed into the likeness of the Lord when things stand in the way of our seeing Him face to face? In order to become like Him—we have to be able to see Him…with nothing between Him and us. To see Him clearly, we have to get rid of the bondage that has veiled true clarity.

NOW, YOU CAN LISTEN AND/OR READ!

You can’t really be free and under bondage at the same time. Galatians 5:1 (NKJV) says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”  John 8:36 (NKJV) tell us, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

There are many kinds of bondage. Some kinds are obvious and others are almost invisible. Some kinds of bondage can seem like they’re not really bondage—until we choose to step into the light. When you have stepped out of the light and things have become ‘shadowed’ it’s hard to tell anything has changed at all. You go along in numbness, as though everything is fine—because you think it is.

When the day comes that you realize you are really not free and you have the tiniest fleeting memory or vision of what freedom was—or could be—you are faced with a choice to make. Will you continue to habitually and mechanically perform what you have come to accept? Or will you leap at the possibility for new life?

When the titanic was sinking, there were people who were trapped inside the vessel with no way out. There were others who were given an opportunity to step off the doomed ship into a comparatively small boat in the middle of dark, uncertain waters.

Some people undoubtedly felt guilty leaving those who weren’t being given the option of deliverance. Some probably stepped off the shuttering, groaning ‘unsinkable’ ship—that was indeed sinking—wondering if they were trading one kind of death for another. While others, made no hesitation.

The ones who seized the opportunity as it was offered, believed that abandoning ship was the only possible hope for life and a future. They were willing to take the risk—and they lived.

Still others, continued to believe it would be impossible for the gigantic, powerful ocean liner to actually disappear beneath the icy surface. They imagined staying on board would be much safer than launching out in a tiny lifeboat.

Depression and dependency are like a sinking ship on a dark night. You made the choice to take the lifeboat. You are alive. You made the right decision. Don’t look back…ever. Keep moving toward Jesus and stay free.

Declaration: I will find new strength daily as I remember I am no longer under bondage. I have been given a new life that will keep getting better and better as I keep moving toward Jesus and don’t allow anything to veil His image.