Find A Christian Man

Tag: Spiritual Growth

  • Dangling A Low Hanging Fruit

    Dangling A Low Hanging Fruit

    When a relationship is at a point where it’s held together by a thread, often the woman on the other end of it is holding on for dear life. The man, on the other hand, is dangling it before her. It’s a string without a meaningful commitment attached to it. At one time, he might have been all in. He thought he knew what he wanted, and at one point he probably thought it was her. She thought so too. In his heart, he knows he’s not ready to commit, but he doesn’t want this woman, whose given him so much of herself, to be with anyone else. So he’s blocking her growth, her potential, her future, and her true blessing, by keeping her dangling at the end of a string; and she’s a willing accomplice.

    Trying to tell a sister that is in a relationship like this to let go of it is almost pointless. The typical response will be something along the lines of “Your heart will do what it wants to do…no matter how much you try to tell it which direction to go in, it will only let go when it’s ready.” Whenever we allow the soul to govern our decisions this way, we diminish our privilege, desire, and opportunity to be led and guided by the Spirit.

    Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that we can be deceived by our own hearts, because our hearts can and do at times lead us astray. Our human hearts can cause us to veer off the path that God wants us to be on. This is why He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT), “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” God knows our futures. He knows the person that is best for the path that He has purposed and laid before us.

    The reality is that many of us will hold on to less than the best, because we are fearful that we will not receive better. 1 John 4:18 (NLT) tells us, “18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” A broken heart feels very much like punishment because it hurts so badly, but we should not let the fear of this pain keep us from practicing the discipline of faith and trust in God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our healing, blessing, and promotion will travel through the pipeline of our faith.

    2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT) tells us, “7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” God has given us a spirit of power, love, and self-control. These are those that will elevate us out of the level we’re on and transport us to the next place of growth and blessings. Power, love, and self-control must be activated. They require us to move with, in, and through them according to our faith in God’s promise that they belong to us, and we can utilize them to go higher. When it comes to what is no longer working for us, we’re going to have to give up the less useful to make room for the more useful. Moving with faith through any discomfort we might experience in this process is the empowerment of self-control and self-love; this is what paves the way for newness.

    Fear and doubt are not a part of the Kingdom of God. These belong to the devil’s domain. It’s a trick of the enemy to dangle a low hanging fruit before us, because we don’t have reach and stretch to grab it. The Will of God will always require our flexibility, and faith will demand our allegiance to God’s truth. As Daughters of Zion, we must aim high so that the reach and strength of our grasp will match the wealth of the prize we seek to obtain. We must not be sidetracked from the greatness of what God has in store. Spiritual maturity calls on us to discipline ourselves to let go and press on. And when it comes to a man who is not ready to honor our worth and not willing to commit to it, this is exactly what we may have to do.■

    Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    “Dangling A Low Hanging Fruit”, written by FACM, Finding A Christian Man.Com ©2017.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

  • Are You Ready to Hit the Reset Button?

    Are You Ready to Hit the Reset Button?

    The countdown is over and the New Year is here!  Some of us are seriously excited, and others of us…not so much. That’s not exactly the mindset God wants us to have. If you give it some thought, you’ll see that Heavenly Father has woven a few reset buttons within our existence, and a lot of us don’t use them to their fullest advantage. We set certain limitations in our minds and hearts. Most of us are okay with a little bit of change, but seldom do we allow ourselves the luxury of imagining a total transformation not only for ourselves, but for others as well.

    In Isaiah 43:13-15 The Message (MSG), Heavenly Father said, “13 Yes, I am God. I’ve always been God and I always will be God. No one can take anything from me. I make; who can unmake it?” 14-15 God, your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel, says: “Just for you, I will march on Babylon.  I’ll turn the tables on the Babylonians. Instead of whooping it up, they’ll be wailing. I am God, your Holy One, Creator of Israel, your King.” In this passage, God is telling and showing them (and us) who’s BOSS! He’s our Keeper, Protector, Shield, Provider, Maker, and King! He’s our everything, and there isn’t anything that He can’t do. He’s willing and able to help us fight any battle and win. Our privilege and responsibility is to trust Him, and remove the shackles of limitations from our minds and hearts.

    Lamentations 3:22-23(NLT) tells us, “22 The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” We are never too old to begin again, and God’s mercy allows us a continual fresh start. Every 24 hours God gives us a new day, and He’s been blessing us this way for longer than you and I can know. In like manner, every 365 days, He gives us a new year. Major reset there. We get to end each year by celebrating the birth of our blessed Lord and Savior. And we can also reflect, reevaluate, and unload some stuff that didn’t serve us well during the previous year.

    One of the major setbacks overshadowing the reset we all desperately need is forgetting to be thankful and remembering what the holiday season is all about. It’s meant to get us to take a breath so that we can refresh and get our minds anchored in the goodness of God. Instead, many of us have allowed the world to burden us with its agenda, and the season becomes riddled with anxiety and pressure. We lose the chance to reset according to the seasons and timelines that God has allowed.

    The start of the New Year is most definitely God’s wake up call to believers to leave the old behind and embark on a new chapter in life.  Most people get this, and that’s why just about everyone has a New Year’s resolution that they try their best to stick to every year. Some are successful, but a lot of us kick that resolution to the curb when we find it isn’t as easy as we thought it might be.

    We start off trying to take big bites, when a lot of the times we’re meant to just nibble our way through. But big chucks or small bites, in the end the whole point is that positive change is good! People are transforming themselves all the time, and Christians should have a mindset that believes transformation is possible for anyone who loves and knows Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

    God has given us our marching orders in Romans 12:2. He tells us to renew our minds to the truth of His Word, so that we will be transformed through and through. If we look only at our stick-to-it-ness, and don’t factor in God’s overwhelming love, willingness, and ability to help us make changes, we might give up. We won’t believe in our own ability to change for the better, and therefore, we will also be skeptical of others; but when we trust in God’s power, we will prove what His good, acceptable, and perfect Will for us is.

    Hitting the reset button in our minds and hearts gives us an opportunity to be renewed in faith, and to believe in our ability to go higher in Christ. That’s what is most important, because when we believe the best in ourselves, it will spill over into believing the best in others as well. It’s not so much about how we look or the relationships we forge; it’s about understanding that change begins in our hearts first. There must be a spiritual transformation in us, and it can only happen if we’re making time to grow and know God better.

    Isaiah 43:16-21(MSG) tells us, “This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?” How awesome is this?!!! Change is good! It’s a necessity in order to grow in any area of your life. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, God has given us a chance to keep getting better and better. In 2018, let’s be committed to hit the reset button by making positive changes. We can start with small bites like changes in our attitudes and thoughts. As we make progress on the small things, God will continue to help us with the big things. If we’re alert and present, we won’t miss it when He pulls out all the stops and makes 2018 a monumental year of growth and blessings. ■

    Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

    Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

  • From Lonely to Coupled

    From Lonely to Coupled

    Matthew 6:26 (NLT)
    “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them.  And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?”

    Do you believe you are worthy and lovable? God says you are. This is a question we sometimes have to ask ourselves when our behavior speaks otherwise. God challenges us to shift our focus off what we don’t have and consider what He has already provided, but this is a tough cookie in the face of loneliness. Our emotions are a good indicator of our headspace at any given time, and the problem with loneliness is that it tricks us into believing that God hasn’t provided exactly what we need, when we know from His Word that He has.

    Philippians 4:6 (NLT) is a very impactful verse, because it not only comforts us, but it tells us what to do in order to see good results. It says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Worrying is a thorn in our faith. It jams the ability of our minds to think the Word and the ability of our hearts to trust the Word. So when our faith equipment isn’t working properly, the end results will not be as pleasing to us as they could be.

    God instructs us to pray about everything. Prayer is communication with God. It isn’t just a bunch of words we use to put in our requests. It’s a sacred communion with Him that requires us to acknowledge Him as our Creator and Holy Father, and to therefore acknowledge ourselves as His children and loved ones. He commands us to tell Him what we need, and then thank Him for it, even though it may not have manifested in our external reality. This is faith, because faith requires us to trust God and not depend on what we see.

    Matthew 6:26 asks us to make a comparison. It tells us to consider the birds. They don’t plant, harvest, or store food, and yet Heavenly Father has provided for them. You are His child; how much more will He do for you? This is sometimes the clog in the engine of our faith; we haven’t taken the time to really allow the reality of our identity in Christ to take hold in our hearts. Faith is how we demonstrate our gratitude to God. We must discipline our minds and hearts to be thankful for the blessing of a husband, truly and authentically thankful, even though he may not be in our lives yet. Thank God not because the man will take you from lonely to coupled, but because the blessing of a husband symbolizes that you’ve learned to trust God.■

    Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

    “From Lonely to Coupled”, written by FACM, FindingChristianMan.Com ©2017.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!