Tag Archives: lifehouse

Coffees & Chats

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I’d love nothing more than to sit face to face with you and have a chat over a coffee, but we will just have to pretend. So grab a coffee, pull up a chair, and let’s chat!

Do you know we can’t catch God off guard? We never stump Him, surprise Him, shock Him. We can’t knock Him off His throne bewildered or flabbergasted. God doesn’t get His “knickers in a twist” nor is He flustered. He isn’t taken aback, perplexed or rattled. These are not His attributes. They never were & they never will be. God isn’t sent reeling by anything. He doesn’t have knee-jerk reactions or roller-coaster emotions. He is God. He is steady. He is the Rock. Never changing. Faithful. Immovable. He knows all, sees all, hears all. He is prepared.

There isn’t anything that He doesn’t already comprehend, although He Himself is incomprehensible. He is not confounded by the wise, yet He confounds the wise. He is not shaken, yet He shakes the heavens & the earth. He is not stumped or left speechless, although He leaves us awe-struck and without words to describe His greatness & His goodness. He is mighty. He is ready. He is prepared.

He is prepared for everything we could throw at Him. Our thoughts, our questions, our expectations, our high & lofty ideas, our discouragement & disappointment. Our passion, our confusion, our temptation, our pride, our insecurities. Every emotion, every feeling. He’s not dazed or repulsed. He can’t be …. Because He is LOVE. His arms are always open. His eyes are always on us. His thoughts are always for us. He is prepared.

He is prepared for us. Waiting. Longing. Searching. Looking. Listening. Full of compassion, righteousness, justice. Pure. True. Merciful. He is prepared for all that lies ahead in life & in death. Today & tomorrow. He never changes. He is prepared.

And He PREPARES: for those who love Him.

•“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” 1 Corinthians 2:9

•He prepared good works for us to walk in. Ephesians 2:10

•He prepared a kingdom Matthew 25:34

•He prepared a city Hebrews 11:16

•He prepared a table for us, right before our enemies! Psalm 23

•“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent (this body), is destroyed, WE HAVE A BUILDING FROM GOD, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens … Now He who has PREPARED us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 5:1 & 5

When we begin to understand that God is prepared, our trust, our hope, our faith will increase. It will not be misplaced, put in man, a system, or an organization, but rightly placed in the ONE who is awesome and excellent. The One Who is the great King over all the earth. Who reigns above the nations & sits on His holy throne. Our eyes, our perspective, our focus will begin to shift & We will exalt Him above the noise of this world, the media, the politics, the news, the reports, the statistics, all that is seen & all that is said. He is above it all. when we come into agreement with that truth, then our worry, fears, anxiety, confusion, the noise, will begin to fade into the background. we will stand in the inheritance, the position that He has already prepared for us right here on earth, right NOW ….. a position of faith, of steadiness, of strength, of hope, of courage. He Himself is prepared, He has prepared for us in the eternal & in the here & now. For those who love Him, it is a place of glorious, enriching inheritance. A place of peace. It’s already prepared!

Faith Has Legs

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It’s a funny saying, but one my husband uses often to remind me, that faith and action go together. They are partners. You can’t have one without the other. In fact we can’t really say we have faith, if we aren’t willing to put feet to it. Faith has legs. Faith has feet. Feet walk best when they are walking IN FAITH.

Faith without action is dead …. It may be believing something, but only to the point that we might think it, say it, or feel it, and that is as far as it goes. We use the term “walking by faith” which sums it up quite well. Real faith walks. It takes the first step. We can all talk about dreams, but will we put feet to them? We can say we have faith in God, but do we really believe He is faithful enough and trustworthy enough that we are willing to obey Him? We can all talk about what we “feel” we should do or could do, what we are hoping for, believing for, what we have faith for, but if we aren’t willing get out of our comfort zones and take that step, then what does that say about our faith? Faith acts. Faith moves. Faith shifts things. It should move us, shift us, cause us to act. We are the carriers of faith. We are the vessels that God uses faith to move through and produce the evidence. If we don’t put legs to our faith, feet to our faith then we become the road block instead of the pathway for God to fulfill His promises. Faith acts. Faith is activated through our actions.

Action without faith is dead … It is doing something in our own strength, our own way, with our own agenda. It is taking steps without being lead by God, without trusting God, leaning only on our own understanding and ways. This will cause us to become weary, frustrated, confused, and possibly disappointed and disillusioned. We can work very hard, jump out of the boat, so to speak, but as soon as things get tough, start to look impossible, take longer that what we thought, we will begin to feel like we are drowning. We give up. Action without faith will cause us to fall short and wear us out because we don’t see the promise ahead of us. Faithless acts can cause us to wandering aimlessly with no hope. The Israelites had promise. They were just delivered out of captivity and in faith didn’t just walk out, but they ran. Sadly though their actions became faithless. Their walk became a stumble because it was not strengthened by faith. They lost sight of God, of the goal, and wandered as they wondered. We may be doing all of the “leg-work” but without faith behind our actions, our legs will eventually give out.  When our actions are partnered with faith, driven by faith, surrounded by faith, no matter how difficult the task may look, no matter how long it takes, no matter the opposition, we will find ourselves with sure footing, leaning on our faith, secure and motivated to keep on keeping on. 

The beautiful process of faith is the promise that FAITH PRODUCES ACTION and ACTION PRODUCES MORE FAITH. What a beautiful cycle. A wondrous flow to be caught up in. Faith causes me to step out, and as I step out, my faith grows. Putting legs to my faith strengthens them. Faith becomes my sure footing. I act in faith. I walk in faith. Faith grows. Faith increases. Faith carries me further than I could ever go on my own. As I step out in faith, God, in all of His incredible Sovereignty, strengthens my feeble knees and releases more faith to walk out some of the biggest adventures in my life. Faith has legs.