I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3

Often our heart and motivation to do something can be wrong.

A lot of times we can be motivated by our fear and desires, rather than our motivation to serve others and God. When we are motivated by our fear or our desires to do something the result often leads to control, anger, and frustration. We may even lose the trust of those around us. But what else can we expect when we ourselves do not trust in god?

Being a wife and mother takes a lot of faith. So often we feel the call to be perfect, but God never asked us to be perfect. In Ephesians 4:2 it tells us that in order to have the right motivation when it comes to answering our call we need to keep a humble heart. In other words it’s OK you’re not perfect, that’s the whole point!

Recently I have been noticing where I am weak. Often I like cling to my successes and forget my failures. But now I see where I fail God succeeds. If we are ever going to live a life where we are being led by the Holy Spirit we need to embrace the truth, and the truth is we are weak. However the good news is that when we are weak we are also humble, and the Holy Spirit is able to work in our lives. Then we are motivated to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

Sometimes our motivation isn’t always right, but humility comes when we are able to confess that our motivation is wrong. Humility doesn’t try to make things better or perfect, humility surrenders their weaknesses to God. Humility opens our heart to be motivated every day by the Holy Spirit…

Prayer:

Dear God, Thank you for bringing me to a place where I can recognize my weaknesses and surrender them to you. Even though I know bringing me to this point is never easy. Lord I will continue to seek You so that truth will always be revealed to me. Sometimes all I have is my love for You that brings me to the point of seeking Your truth, and I am thankful for You always being by my side, teaching me, and guiding me. Lord be my strength where I am weak. I pray this in Jesus’ name. – AMEN!

Copyright © 2011 Heather Bixler, All Rights Reserved

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“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 (ESV)

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

A brain fuzzy from lack of sleep, I try to handle a sibling conflict. Impatient, I speak harshly. I enforce unnecessary consequences. Later, I realize I had made matters worse. I wasn’t Christ-like in my interactions with my children. Instead of pointing them toward Christ, my behavior turned them away.

Some days, my failures as a mother point an accusing finger straight at my soul. It tells me I am no good and a failure as a Christ-follower.

Do you have days where you feel like you’ve failed in your walk with Christ?

Scripture challenges those lies that I am a failure. Instead, it tells me that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. (Romans 5:8) When I stumble in my walk, I remind myself that he bore those very sins on the cross. His grace covers me each time I fall.

Not only that, the Bible tells me that the path to holiness has already been paved. The righteous life Jesus lived is given to me. I just need to walk in it. He will complete the good work he started. Christ paid a high price for me, He will not allow me to fail.

I rest in that promise and it strengthens me.

On those days where I stumble in my flesh, He pulls me back up so that I may stand on the road of grace. And I remember anew the Love that died for me. It was His grace that paid for me, His grace that gives me His righteousness and His grace that helps me to continue my walk with Him.

Do you sense His grace today?

For further reading: Hebrews 4:16, 2 Peter 1:2, Romans 5:10

Copyright © 2011 Christina Fox, All Rights Reserved

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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

As a mom most of my daily, or weekly, chores includes laundry. Laundry in a family of five is never ending, there is always laundry that needs to be washed, folded, and put away. I spend a lot of time washing clothes because I want to make sure my kid’s have nice clean clothes to wear. I go out and spend money on new clothes because I want my children to have clothes that fit them, and again I want them to have nice clothes to wear.

I try not to complain about doing laundry, even though it really is never ending. I try not to complain because having a lot of laundry is truly a “side effect” to the many blessings we have in this house. Lots of laundry means I have a family, we have clothes, and I have a washer and dryer to clean them in. It’s hard to complain about laundry when you look at it from the perspective that a lot of clothes equal many blessings.

However with all of the many blessings, there is one thing that irks me when it comes to laundry. The one thing that upsets me the most about doing laundry is when my children put clean clothes in the dirty clothes hamper. They have a couple of reasons for doing this:

1.) They put clean clothes in the dirty hamper because they don’t feel like folding and putting away their clean laundry.

2.) They don’t “like” the item of clothing so they just keep throwing it in the dirty clothes hamper.

This is a huge problem with me when they do this. Whenever it does happen I get upset. I wonder WHY buy them new clothes and put myself through the struggle of separating, pre-treating, washing, and drying their clothes so they can have clean clothes to wear, if they are just going to put on the same clothes again and again?

I know that God doesn’t doubt His sacrifice of His only Son when I put on my old dirty clothes. You see just like my kids, when they don’t feel like taking care of their new, clean clothes, we sometimes treat the new person we are in Christ the same way.

We have been clothed with glory by the King of Kings when we become believers, but too many of us are living our new life in dirty old clothes. Too often we cling to the lies that were told to us long before we became believers instead of living a life glorifying God.

I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

Why as believer’s are we always taking off our robe of righteousness in order to wear the dirty old clothes? Why are we instead throwing our garments of salvation into the dirty clothes hamper?

One day I will learn to walk this earth wearing my robe of righteousness proudly all the while sharing the glory of God with everyone around me. I think for a lot of us we get comfortable in our old clothes. Everyone has that old t-shirt or sweatshirt that is soft against your skin. It may have holes in it, but it sure in comfortable.

Comfort and safety is what we seek when we wear our old dirty clothes. But the truth is comfort, safety, and the peace we seek only comes from the One who has blessed us with His grace and mercy. If we want REAL peace then we need to learn to wrap ourself with the robe of righteousness every single day, even if it is just a robe that hides who we truly are underneath. Only in Christ can we walk around this earth as royalty and a servant leader.

Prayer:

Dear Father God, Thank you for this beautiful day. God I am tired of wearing old dirty clothes. God, I am tired. Every day instead of putting on my robe of righteousness I put on my old dirty clothes. But not now. From now on I will wake up and put on my beautiful golden robe of righteousness, the gift you gave me through the sacrifice of your Son Jesus. I will walk this earth, imperfections and all, with confidence because I know that wherever I am weak Your grace will cover me. When there is less of me, those around me see more of YOU! Lord cover me in your grace. Today and tomorrow, and the next day, I will walk through doors and open my heart up to the life you have set for me. It won’t be easy, but I know you are right there with me. I pray this in Jesus’ name. – Amen

Copyright © 2011 Heather Bixler, All Rights Reserved

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