Go Limp...

With all of the economic turmoil going on today,it's easy to fall into a depression and/or adopt an overall negative view of life. There are families that don't know where their next form of income will come from. Even the unemployment blanket has grown too thin against the cold economic winds. There is alot of sickness in the world as well as lonliness. It's so easy to let fear step in and make itself comfortable but I have news, Jesus is the way. We have to learn to lean not to our own understanding. I mean truly letting go of what we think we know and trust that God is working it out on our behalf. He promises never to leave or forsake us. I believe this is what many speak of when they talk about having joy that the world didn't provide. This joy is a comfort in our creator knowing that regardless of our circumstances, he will take care of us. No matter how turbulant our flight is, we will MAKE IT to our destination. We will get there. We have to truly believe this. I once heard a story about a person who was drowning and his automatic reaction when someone came to help him was to pull the other person down in order to get himself out. After much struggle, the person providing the help said, "GO LIMP". In the drowning man's mind, this sounded CRAZY. He thought to himself, "why would I do that?! that makes no sense!! I'll surely die but I'll trust my helper and see what happens". Once he went limp, the helper was able to pull him out because there was no struggle. Doesn't this sound familiar? We often fight with God and wrestle within our circumstances trying to bear it all. We simply weren't made to do that. Jesus got on the cross for a reason. We have to learn to just...go limp. If you ever see a person within a difficult circumstance & they are still walking around with a smile on their face or they still speak positive words, they have went limp. Jesus is holding them up. I know about this. There were a few times that I didn't have any choice but to go limp. My energy was just sapped. There was one particular time where I was in the midst of writing my 80 page dissertation paper and everything negative that could happen,HAPPENED. It immediately drained me and I came to a point where I stopped attending my course and stopped writing my paper all together even though I knew, I was under a strict timeframe. I knew that I wouldn't receive my Master's degree if I didn't finish this paper but I didn't care. It was my last & only hurdle to jump in order to receive something I'd always wanted & I simply "walked off the race track". In my mind I said, forget it. I simply threw away the years of hard work and dedication in my mind. I sunk in a very deep depression where the only time I left the bed was to use the bathroom. I didn't eat...I didn't bathe....I didn't speak. I just stared at the ceiling with tears sliding down my face. I just gave up. My dreams were even in turmoil. I'd even cry in my sleep BUT I'm here to tell you that God truly does draw near to the broken-hearted. He had a plan and no devil in hell or here on earth was going to stop his plans for my life. He placed some wonderful people in my life who reached out. They weren't scared to "intrude". I can honestly say that it was not by my own strength that I got out of my "deathbed" to finish that paper. Not only that,I received an "A". How ya like that? God is so good that it amazed even me because he used me as well as placed others around me to say and do what he needed them to say and do. Alot of the times,we don't even know we're being used by God. I'm sure some of you have your own unique experiences where you "went limp" and let God carry you. If not...KEEP LIVING. We all have our seasons. Sometimes I just repeatedly speak,"I trust you God". Even though the tears may flow and my eyes and ears are seeing and hearing something else, I know that you won't leave me and I trust you. I know that I will survive this. I know that this giant will fall down. I know this is simply a season. We have to train ourselves to know that when we can't lay hands on HIM, we can lay our FAITH on him. This simply means, even though you can't possibly fathom the WHY'S of your circumstance or can't possibly see how you'll survive your circumstance and really don't know if he hears your cries and prayers, know that he does. Trust and have faith that he is working behind the scenes. Walk by faith not by sight. Faith goes beyond what we can see. Faith suspends judgment. Learn to SHUT DOWN the negative voices. Learn to talk to "self" & stop letting "self" talk to you. INTERUPT self and INSERT Jesus. The enemy operates through "self" because "self" is the flesh. I know some may think that I'm getting a bit too deep but that's just who I am. I speak what I believe. "Self" operates through wounds and experiences whether good or bad. Alot of times, "self" is the loudest most persistant voice. The source tends to feed off of what others may have said or done in the past. Learn to shut it down because alot of times it tends to be negative. Learn to speak life and positive thoughts consistently even though you may not SEE it with your physical eye. Some view this as awkward but I view it as gardening. Gardening includes taking a seed & planting it in the ground. You water and nurture that seed with whatever you feel it needs in order to grow. The same goes for words and our life. Words are the seed. Speak words of encouragement, prosperity,love,etc. So many of us can do this for others yet we fail to feed our own inner person.  Don't starve yourself. Don't neglect yourself. You deserve this and more. The father wants us to live life abundantly. When I say abundance, I'm not simply referring to material things. I speak towards spiritual gifts and value. Take as much if not more time getting your inner person ready as you would the outer,physical person. One of my faults includes uplifting others yet having an issue when it comes to myself. I'm getting better at it now but it is definitely one of my struggles. I'll say this and then I'm done, Walking by faith is not being perfect but being persistant. Lets all be persistant in our faith walk. It's a process but I believe that if we do what we can, he'll do what we can't.

Peace, Love, & Blessings,

Nata Bee

copyright © 2011 Renate' Bender

Agitation

The greatest battle that most of us will deal with is maintaining peace. Peace keeps you protected. It protects you from agitation. John 14:27 says: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." I'd like to discuss agitation since it seems to be a giant that has come up in my life alot lately. I know that everyone experiences this. Some more than others. Agitation is a mental state of extreme emotional disturbance. It means to change the position of a certain thing. We have an arrangement with peace. Jesus handed us his peace. Peace is security in the midst of turmoil. Peace is security in the midst of agitation,turmoil,pressure,temptation, etc. Negative emotions are designed to move you away from the will of God. Stop allowing it. As hard as it seems, this is possible. If we can allow it, we can NOT allow it. Agitation is all about moving or changing an arrangment. In this case arrangement is peace,love,etc..The enemy causes the arrangement that you have in love or peace by repositioning or in other words causing agitation. Agitation causes you to move away from God's will and 9 times out of 10 into something that you won't normally do. Basically,peace has been robbed. Make the choice to CONSTANTLY remain seated in peace. Why do many of us choose to open the door to agitation? The answer is simple, FEAR. Unsettling something or becoming agitated is BASED in fear. When you permit fear, the agitation works. When this is done, you are moved AWAY from the will of God. Everytime we're agitated we'll cross over into something that we're not supposed to do aka sin. Many will say, I'm not fearful. What do you mean? What exactly is my fear? The answer lays somewhere in the fact that we're fearful that our peace or love or respect may have been diminished from this "repositioning". The enemy operates from fear. What do you fear that makes you agitated? A prime example in my case is slow drivers & traffic. I absolutely despise & become agitated like clockwork over the same circumstances that I've been dealing with for the last 4 years. When I asked myself why was I so irritated, I really couldn't answer at first but now that I think about it, I believe its because I'm a control freak. If a driver isn't going the speed limit that I'd like, I become irate. I become irate because I won't get home at the usual time that in my mind is a strict schedule. My fear is that I won't be able to complete everything that needs to be done before preparing to go to sleep. As silly as all of this sounds, its true and more common among people than you think. This is not the will of God for our lives. The bible says that the steps of a good man are ordered & all things work together for the good of those that love the lord so why am I throwing a tantrum along with the ungodly things that come out of my mouth? When we do or say things that I just explained, we're basically trying to fill in the blanks and get back settled but going about it the WRONG way. We're basically afraid that whatever God has said or put into our heart about different situations isn't good enough or coming to pass so we jump in to "help" God out. Wherever agitation is, there is fear and wherever fear is, there is unbelief. Unbelief causes the word of God to not work in our lives. Faith is the activator of God's word. John 14:1 says: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me". Learn to locate the areas of fear and unbelief. More than likely you can find it in the daily agitations in your life. Agitation turns faith into fear... love into selfishness and peace into unpeace. We can choose Christ's peace. Jesus' peace is the way out of agitations and fears within our lives. Please know that once you make the conscious decision to do this, the arrows of agitation will come at you at full speed ahead.  Learn to let it slide off like water off of a duck. Pass the test! Breakthrough is on the way.

Nata Bee