Prayer | TFRC | The Faith Resource Community

7/18/24 The Underbelly

One of the most vulnerable spots of any animal is the underbelly or underside of its body. In most cases, it consists of soft tissue with little armor for protection. Knowing that, most any foe can do life-threatening damage once the underbelly is exposed.

In the intimacy of a marriage, all faults, traits, fears, and vulnerabilities are exposed to husband and wife. In a very real sense, the underbelly or weakest areas of who they are become known to each other. Unwise stewardship of that knowledge can be deadly in the truest sense of the word.

As a husband, you have the privilege of knowing who your wife really is behind all the masks and protections put in place over the years. You get to see all her fears and weaknesses. On the other hand, she gets to see who you really are. If either of you makes that knowledge available to anyone else, even a best friend, you have violated the trust of your mate and closed down a very important part of your stewardship of each other.

If this trust is violated, walls of protection go up and true intimacy becomes impossible from that point forward. The offended mate hides his or her vulnerabilities for protection, and the offender loses the privilege of holding his or her mate before God in prayer for healing. Wise husbands and wives never allow anyone to see the underbelly of their mate. They seal their marriage; and unless it is mutually decided to seek outside help in certain instances, they seal their lips from any outside influence, so that the Lord alone is their healer as they present those needs to Him.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

7/17/24 On His Terms

“The way to the throne is always by way of the cross. The resurrection life can only come from the grave. Most of My people short-circuit the plans that I have for them, because they attempt to bypass My way of doing things. They attempt to find a relationship with Me on their terms, rather than in the way that I have established through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Why would you believe that I would acknowledge any other pattern for your life than the life that He exhibited before the world? He came to show you the way.

“You want My favor, but you are unwilling to embrace the understanding that the cross is what I recognize—not your positive confessions and your faith in your faith. Give yourself completely to Me now. Humble yourself before the cross. I will lift you up and make your life significant.”

1 Cor. 11:1 NIV

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

2 Cor. 1:8-10 NIV

8) We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

9) Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

10) He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us…

Jam. 4:7-10 NIV

7) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8) Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9) Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Our significance is in God, not in whatever we place our significance. We live in a day of pride—pride as a nation, pride in our accomplishments, pride in the things we own, even pride in the sports teams for which we root.

The great things of the Lord spring from humbleness and personal insignificance. We will never have God’s kind of worth until we see things from God’s perspective. He is not looking for us to get better at anything, even serving Him. He is looking for us to understand and function in our need of Him in everything. That goes against everything that we hold dear. As soon as we understand and embrace His ways, we will be free.

Teach me Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett

7/17/24 In His Hands

Although Father God has given us a stewardship of our wife and children, He asks us to turn them over to Him for their safe keeping. He is ultimately responsible for their best interests. We are responsible to give them and their needs to Him.

Foolish stewards look to their own strength and wisdom to protect and guide their charges. They personally take on their responsibility, instead of placing everything in God’s hands. Wise stewards, knowing that they are, in themselves, incapable of taking care of the needs of their marriage and family, give everything over to God.

Think for a moment of that exchange. Attempting to navigate the perils of this life with our weak, limited capabilities, or giving those perils over to an almighty God, capable of providing everything we need. Which is true wisdom? It’s really a no brainer. Why then do we attempt the first option almost every day of our lives?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

7/16/24 Voluntary Decrease

“The extent to which you allow Me to eliminate your life will be the extent to which I will be able to replace it with My life. That is why there are so many different motivations within My church. It is because of the varying depths of surrender.

“First and foremost, everyone, who wants to be Mine and spend eternity with Me, must surrender their lives to the work that I have done through Jesus, and make Him the only Lord of their lives. Everything is simply religious games until that step is taken. Without surrender, there is no relationship. When you surrender to Jesus, you are made spiritually alive and able to spend time in My presence.

“After that, how much you desire to be like Jesus is up to you. The extent to which you choose to surrender will be the extent to which He will live through you. I will work with you to make proper choices and in-depth commitments. Your job is not to try to become more like Him; it is to become less like you through My power. I will change you when We are together. As you voluntarily decrease, He will increase. Spend time in My Word and with My Word. Allow My Holy Spirit to lead you into truth. It is why you have been created all over again.”

Matthew 16:24-25 AMP

24) Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].

25) For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting].

John 3:30 AMP

He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.]

John 6:57 AMP

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.

Galatians 2:20 AMP

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]: it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

God has a plan, and we have our own plans. The tragedy of wanting our own way started in the Garden of Eden. Once we, as mankind, decided to go with our own plans and add God to them when we needed Him, things really became messy. Nevertheless, God had a greater plan all along. Instead of creating a second creation that would also obey because it is the right thing to do, (the first being the angels,) He created us—a creation that would eventually follow Him out of love. Therein lies our free will and our ability to make right or wrong choices.

The most important right choice is to surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus. That must be a definitive time in our lives when we cross over from death to life in our spirits. After that, we are allowed to make right or wrong choices every day. I am not talking about the typical sin choices. I am talking about choices that determine whether or not we have more of Jesus living through us. Do we surrender to Him and His will, or do we remain in charge over and over again?

It is only through the power of God that we can make the proper choices. We need to seek Him to give us the heart to desire to surrender fully to Jesus. The increasing depth of surrender allows Jesus to live brighter and brighter through us.

Give me a hunger to surrender completely to You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

7/16/24 Hold Nothing, Have Everything

The world chases after possessions. They’re some of the gods we serve, whether we know it or not. Most of us men go to work to gain possessions of some sort, whether it’s bigger houses, cars, clothes - anything we need more than we need intimacy with God.

Some possessions are necessities; others are the enemy’s way of keeping us distracted and so busy that we have little time for God. An example of that would be you and your wife working harder or longer to afford the mortgage payment on a bigger house.

God’s priority is an intimate relationship with Him. Anything that minimizes or distracts from that relationship is out of His will. It is not of Him and should either be eliminated or minimized to its proper place in God’s eyes. If we hold on to anything – money, fame, material wealth, status, etc. - we lose more than we know. If we let go in our hearts of whatever it is that distracts us, we will gain the fullness of God. That fullness is everything. Holding on to nothing of this world in our hearts allows us to grasp the wonder of Who God really is and what He has done. That is true wealth! Are you ready to let go?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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