Faith | TFRC | The Faith Resource Community

5/05/23 Nothing of Ourselves

If you are like most of us guys, plans, ideas, challenges, and a myriad of other mind games consume our time and cause us to seek outcomes that seem logical to us. We think our way into scenarios, feeling that it’s part of our function as husbands and fathers. Although planning for the future is good and necessary, plans that originate with “logical us” instead of God easily crop up, and a life ordained by us doesn’t glorify Him.

Although our Father in heaven wants us to steward our time wisely and make our days count, He is training us to leave every moment we live in His hands. For most of us, that’s a hard thing to do even though we know that it’s right and it’s what Jesus did. He fully submitted to His Father’s will, doing nothing of Himself.

There’s probably not much you and I can do about how we’ve taken charge of our lives in the past. There is, however, an awful lot we can do from this time forward. Wisdom would say that it’s time for each of us to fully surrender to the Lord in every area of our lives. The example of Jesus fully surrendering His every thought, action, desire, and outcome to His Father is a pattern that pleases the heart of God. It’s also a formula for success as He sees it.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

5/04/23 Restoration

“I love restored relationships. Jesus died so that you could be restored to Me. It is My heart that you follow His example. His death was physical. To restore relationships, it always takes the death of someone’s choices. Someone must pursue the other in love. First, begin in prayer for the other party. If you have offended someone, seek forgiveness immediately and often until you have done all that you can. If he will not forgive you, turn him over to My heart. He will eventually deal with Me. You come to Me for forgiveness. My freedom will sustain you.

"If you have been offended, you must forgive that person immediately in your heart. Let Me work on his heart. Place the offense in My hands and be healed. If he is receptive to My hand, restoration will come forth. If and when that happens, wait on Me to tell you how and when to proceed. I will accomplish far more than if you would move without My presence. Be ready for My appointed time. Pursue restoration diligently in prayer but move in My freedom until it happens. When I orchestrate My appointed time, you say and do what I have told you to do in your prayers. Be humble. Forgive completely. Forget the offense by the power of My Holy Spirit. Move on in My love once I have begun restoration. Find a way to trust again at every opportunity.”

Matthew 5:23-24 NIV

23) “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,

24) leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother: then come and offer your gift.”

Luke 15:19-20 AMP

19) I am no longer worthy to be called your son; [just] make me like one of your hired servants.

20) So he got up and came to his [own] father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness [for him]; and he ran and embraced him and kissed him [fervently].

John 7:6-8 NIV

6) Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right.

7) The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.

8) You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.”

John 15:12-14 NIV

12) “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

13) Greater love has no one than this; that one lay down his life for his friends.

14) You are My friends if you do what I command.”

Acts 24:15-16 NIV

15) …and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

16) So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

God is always looking at the heart of His children. Love is always at the center of all that He does. He has given us the mandate to love others as He has loved us. Words and actions mean nothing if His heart motives are not the heart motives of all that is done in any situation.

The Word is very clear on how we should act when offenses take place. When people or situations make things muddy, however, we first need to know what Father has in mind for that specific situation. Diving into His presence and remaining there until we receive positive instructions that are in line with His Word are prerequisites, or we will move in our own motives and possibly cause greater harm. Once we have His heart and His timing, we can express His love properly in the confidence that He is with us.

Help me to seek Your heart in everything, Lord,

Jim Corbett

5/04/23 The Husband Bride

When I first came to the Lord, I couldn’t comprehend how a man could also be part of the bride of Christ. “Macho Me” had great difficulty surrendering my masculinity to some bridal story in which I was to play a part.

Over the years, I have learned of the wonder and privilege I have as a member of God’s family, and how I was to prepare for my role as a man, a husband, a father, and a waiting bride. I learned that the epitome of being a man is to prepare myself for Jesus as a waiting bride would prepare for her wedding day. I’m to be sincere about my intentions, focused on my preparations, and meticulous about my appearance before Him. I am to prepare to honor Him and join myself with Him, having gained His kind of heart through my preparation - all for His joy and glory. I want to do that!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

5/03/23 Examine Each Step

“I want you to walk through each and every door that I open for you with wondrous anticipation and careful communication with Me. Allow Me to unfold all that I have for you while you are being obedient. Examine each step to see if it is part of the plan that I have for you. Many of My children make the mistake of seeing an open door and running through it only to find that they have missed some of the markers along the way. They then run headlong into trouble and confusion by not waiting for Me to plan their steps. Walking with Me through an opportunity is a process. There are times to move and there are times to wait for things to be put in place. Often there are times when I tell you to wait for a while before your next step.

"In these times, I want you to have patience. Listen for clear directions. Wait for Me to light the way. Above all, rest in My arms. You see, I am not as concerned about where you are going as I am about how close We walk together as you are getting there. I want you to be so consumed with Our relationship on the journey that when We arrive at any destination, We are closer friends than when We began. The journey together is important to Me. What We communicate and deal with on the way delights My heart and prepares you for your task.”

Ps. 37:23-24 NIV

23) The Lord delights in the way of the man whose steps he has made firm;

24) though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

Ps.119:133 AMP

Establish my steps and direct them by [means of] Your word; let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Pr. 16:9 NIV

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

I Pe. 2:21 AMP

For even to this were you called [it is inseparable from your vocation]. For Christ also suffered for you, leaving you [His personal] example, so that you should follow in His footsteps.

Because we walk with God, it does not mean that every step we take leads us to safety. There are times that we walk in obedience to Him, only to find great hardship along the way. In these times, it is easy to feel like we have missed His perfect will, especially when everyone around us is more than willing to confirm our suspicions and doubt. That is why it is most important to keep in constant communion with our Lord on any journey.

God often leads those He loves to hard places that force us to intimate communion with Him. In fact, often the communion with Him is the object of the journey that He has sent us on. That is the opposite of everything that we have been taught.

Our expectation is that if we follow God, we will always eventually be free from any form of trouble or strife. We even find doctrines that purport that if we are in some form of strife, we are out of the perfect will of God. The loving Father that I read about in the Bible loves to walk with us through difficulties rather than steer us around them.

Hold my hand, Lord,

Jim Corbett

5/03/23 Player or Prayer?

Are you primarily a player or a prayer in your relationship with your wife and children? A player adheres to the world’s direction for solving his family situations. He acts out the role of husband and father in a way he’s been taught by society. What is society’s definition of being a man? What does society see as the role of father? Where does society say we, as husbands and fathers, should go when problems and challenges arise?

A prayer, on the other hand, is deeply rooted in Christ. He understands society has no answers for him and his calling. His role as a husband or father is ordained and defined by God. His approach to every situation is modeled after the heart of Jesus. When challenges occur in any family situation, the prayer does just that; he prays. He is firmly convinced that every challenge has a Christ-like solution that’s found in the Word of God.

In this very challenging world, our Father is looking for men who are prayers, not players. He’s raising up mighty men who win every battle on their knees. He’s calling forth strong, loving, formidable men to win the war the world has waged against their marriages and families. He’s calling forth families to rise above the stranglehold the world has had over them for too long. He’s calling His men to implement the instructions He gives them during their time in His throne room.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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