1/27/20 Above All, Choose Love

This life continually offers us choices. Many of those choices are slam dunks because the options available are simple. Right is always right, and wrong is always wrong. There are many times, however, when choices are not simple. Sometimes weighing all the factors doesn't lead to making choices clear.

Motivated by love, Jesus made a choice to leave heaven and come to earth. In the garden, He made the choice to do His Father's will. It was also a choice motivated by love. His whole time on this earth was motivated by the love He had for His Father and for us. We are to walk as He walked if we call ourselves His followers.

As a husband and father, you have been placed in the position of being responsible before God for those you steward. You are presented with many choices that determine the outcome in situations that impact the lives of others. It's a responsibility of your God-given office and it's important to Him.

Some choices are easy. When choices that require more than simple decisions are before you, you can never go wrong if you choose love when you make them. You're to lay down your life as Jesus laid down His life. You're to live for the best interests of others. If the choice you face is doing something either for your best interest or the best interests of others, follow the life decisions of Jesus. Choose love! Make the choice that is in the best interests of the others involved rather than yours. Jesus did it; so should you at every opportunity. Abba likes that!

Let's talk more!

Jim Corbett

1/27/20 A Wonderful Journey

        "You delight My heart. I notice you as a father notices his beloved child. I love to invest in you. As you respond to My leadings, I straighten the paths for your journey. Your obedience thrills My heart. Don't be concerned about how many mistakes you make along the way. They are covered by the blood of Jesus and My mercy.

        "I am looking forward to you finishing the race set before you. Pattern your life after the life of Jesus. As We walk together, I will show you My heart. Respond to My leading. Be obedient to My will. Your life is a wonderful journey that We will enjoy together."

Gen. 1:27-28a AMP

27) So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him: male and female He created them.

28) And God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]...

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

 

As the Father reveals all aspects of His heart, sometimes I reel with the overwhelming challenge that I am called to face. I begin to condemn myself for who I am not, cower at the prospects ahead of me as a Christian in the coming times, stagger at the weight of my responsibility to represent Jesus properly; and become discouraged as I attempt to prepare for His return. It is then that I remember that none of this was my idea in the first place. My Father has ordained my life and has promised to fulfill His plan for it and in it. My job is simply to need Him desperately.

Thank You for my life, Lord,

Jim Corbett

1/25/20 Affirming Your Children

Do your children know of their intrinsic value? I'm not talking about telling them how well they're performing. I'm talking about how valuable they are to God and to you. If you are a father who is performance-oriented and you place your expectations on your children, they may grow up to be successful because of the striving attitude you've taught them; but they'll never be able to rest in the worth they have simply because they're breathing.

God has called everyone into being. His desire was for all of your children to be born, and He calls them good. As a father, you are to carry on His attitude toward them. You're commanded to build in them, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a knowledge of His love and acceptance of them. You're to show them they are accepted just as they are and not for what they do. It begins with teaching them how much you appreciate them as His representatives.

If you are not in the habit of affirming your children and have set a course where they need your approval to maintain their worth, they're on the road to a life of needing that approval even after you're gone. If they don't have it, they will need to find it from some other source. Many lives are spent seeking approval of some kind because you, as a father, haven't established God's kind of approval in them through your words and actions toward them.

Begin now! Seek the Lord as to how you can be used to change the course of the direction of the lives of your children. Ask Him to show you the wounds you may have already caused and how He wants to use you to heal them. Commit to creating an atmosphere of affirming their worth with your words and actions, so they are free to be who they are. Give them the freedom to fail without your disapproval. Give them the freedom to live their lives, not yours. Show them Jesus through your attitude toward them. You will be amazed at how beautiful they really are.

Let's talk more!

Jim Corbett

1/25/20 Only the Best for You

        "Few of you, My children, are bold enough to ask Me for all that I have for you. You choose to wander on the perimeter of My perfect will - looking but never really seeing, listening but never really hearing; and doing, but never really having enough of Me to change your world. I have sorrow in My heart for you. You are really missing out on the abundant life that is your inheritance.

         "If I were given access to every area of your life, you would never be the same. I would make some changes. You would have to forgive everyone who has ever offended you. You would have to throw away some of the diversions in your life that replace your time with Me. You would need to start seeking relationships for their closeness to Me, rather than because they give you alternatives to My working in your life. I would overhaul your days, dwell in your dream patterns; and maintain your every thought, bringing it captive to My will.

         "I am a loving taskmaster, wanting only the best for you. You would lose all things that make you weak and receive everything that builds you up to emulate Jesus. Choose to find the abundant life. Be bold! Ask Me to really control every area of your life. It will be worth it. I promise!"

Ps. 18:30 AMP

As for God, His way is perfect! The word of the Lord is tested and tried; He is a shield to all those who take refuge and put their trust in Him.

John 10:10 AMP

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

Rom. 12:2 AMP

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

Eph. 3:20-21 AMP

20) Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]­­-

21) To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).

 

I think about the caterpillar. (I don't really do it often, honest.) If the caterpillar chose to stay outside the cocoon, it would never experience the lofty life of the butterfly. Its very nature would, however, continually attempt to drive it to its destiny of becoming a butterfly. To resist that call would take more effort than submitting to it. That is like each of us before we made Jesus our Lord.

Now carry that simple caterpillar-butterfly analogy further, and relate it to us as born again believers. If we don't completely submit to our Father's hand, it would be like the caterpillar entering the cocoon; but then deciding what parts of the butterfly it will accept and what parts of the caterpillar it will keep. The result would be a pretty foolish-looking, half-finished combination of both creatures, ill equipped to properly function as either. Maybe like some of us, huh?

Finish me completely, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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