Encouraging Word

Intro
Hi this is Dorette Schaal with an Encouraging Word for your day. In the coming weeks we’re going to be exploring how we can love more like Jesus. When Jesus invited us to love like Him, He not only told us how to love, but He demonstrated it by how he lived. During this journey we will be discovering how we can connect more deeply with Jesus, and be transformed into His image. This week will be an introduction to this “School of the Soul” and will begin to answer the common question we so often ask ourselves which is, “can I ever change?”The answer is YES!!! We can be love drenched, others focused and courage filled. Here is your encouraging word for today.

Monday
Where is your focus? We hear about focus a lot in our world. What we are focused on is what we will move toward. In the center of every Christian’s visions should be the image of Jesus. Our whole world should revolve around Him. He is the object of our affection and the lover of our soul. Because of His love, He desires for us to love like He does, as His character is formed in us. I think it is easy to become casual about serving God, or lackadaisical, and even sloppy when it comes to how we live. Jesus lived a better way, and He set the example for us to do better. He doesn’t expect perfection or for us to live perfect lives, but lives of excellence as we CONNECT with Him, demonstrating who He is the world around us. When we do the connecting He does the perfecting! So as a launching point for this whole series, we will be asking you to take some time each day to ponder, how Christ-like as I? Is my life love drenched, others focused and courage filled? If we want true transformation into the image of Christ, our lives will be! The transformation process will take us from the place of asking what would Jesus do, to how would Jesus do it? And how Jesus did it, is how we do it in our world. Are you ready to be transformed? I sure want to be and I hope you do too. Let’s love like Jesus.

Tuesday
One of the things we want to do during study is to comprehensively look at being transformed into the image of God. There are a couple of ways to do this. The best way to become like someone is to spend time with them. Another way is to read what others have said about them, and still another way is to read what they have written to you. What is so wonderful about that for Christians is that it is as easy as opening up the Bible and beginning to devour God’s Word to you. Jesus is the Word made flesh, and the Bible is all about Him, and His Words to us. So to get to know Jesus better we can do those three things….spend time with Him, read about His character, and actually study His words. If we do that on a human level, we would know someone pretty well. Today let’s talk about spending time with Jesus. This happens several ways. It can be personal, on your own, or corporately with others. To have the daily spiritual discipline of communicating with Jesus during your personal time of devotions and spending time with Him can be one of the most renewing and energizing things you can do. Making the choice to align your day by taking time to give God first place shows that we love Him. We spell love T I M E, and when we give our time to someone, we show them that we value them. In His presence we get “our cup” filled up. Taking time to worship and adore Him on a personal level is a great way to break into freedom. When we do all of these things with others, we get the benefit of the corporate anointing. Just as one can chase a thousand, and two can chase ten thousand, the power isn’t just added, it is multiplied. There is great joy in hearing others around you worship God. In fact, one of the most wonderful times of worship I’ve ever experienced is when I was at a Women’s Conference and all you could hear was thousands of women’s voices. I encourage you to daily practice being in God presence, and then worship God with others regularly in a church setting.

Wednesday
Another good way to be transformed in the image of Jesus is to read what others say about Him. The most reliable book source about who Jesus is, is the Word of God. A great place to start is in the New Testament with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The gospels actually are 4 different accounts of Jesus’ life on the earth. It is good to know His character, and see how He interacts with people from four different perspectives. It is good to notice what kinds of questions He asks, and how He responds to questions that are asked of Him. You can find all of that in the four gospels. One of the most obvious things we see is that He showed compassion to the ones we might walk right by. He was more concerned about others than He was Himself. And most definitely He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. If we want to have the same kind of attitude that Jesus had we can learn about it as we read about Him. Perhaps you’ve heard this that the Old Testament is the Word concealed, and the New Testament is the Word revealed. We can see shadows and types of Jesus in so much of the Old Testament. When Jesus walked on the earth, His motives and character were revealed for us to imitate. But the good thing is, we don’t just have to try to act like Him, He actually put His spirit in us, shed His love around in our heart, and gives us the power to be a new creation, as it says in the New Testament. This might sound odd, but we don’t have to “act” like Him, He is within us and we get to demonstrate “God in us” to the world. We are filled with the fullness of God when we know the love of God.

Thursday
I remember so well the time when my husband and I were engaged, and we lived a 13 hour drive apart from each other. As busy as his schedule was, going to school and working, and serving in a ministry, he took time every day to write me a letter, and I did the same. This was before email and cell phones, when we actually used pen, paper and stamps!!! Needless to say, I looked forward to getting the mail every day. And the very first thing I would do when I got home from college or work was read the letter from my beloved. Do you realize that the words God had written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit in the Bible were designed as a love letter to you? When it comes to being transformed into the image of the One we love, we should take time to read what He has written. When you know and love someone, you value their words. You can’t wait to read what they have written, or listen to them when they speak. You’ve probably heard it said that couples who have been married a long time often look like each other. They begin to finish each other’s sentences, and often don’t even have to ask their mate’s opinion because they already know what it is. As our connection and love grows with Jesus, what is so cool is that can happen with us. We start to look like him. His words are so familiar to us, that they naturally roll off of our lips. We don’t have to ask what His will is, because we already know it. That sounds like transformation to me!

Friday
As we develop spiritual disciplines, they are meant to lead us into a deeper relationship with God and at the same time into joy and goodness. They help us to show more mercy towards ourselves and others. It isn’t a way to earn God’s favor, because we already have it. Disciplines are a way to develop habits that connect us to Jesus and His transforming power. The disciplines we will talk about are not just for elite Christians. Anyone can do them. They are not necessarily hard either. They can fit into the fabric of our lives and can be practiced daily. And maybe the most important part of practicing spiritual disciplines is doing them with the right motivation. We don’t do them to impress others, or to look like we are super spiritual. The whole goal is to connect with God. As we connect with God and spend time in His presence, read His words, and live for Him, we will be transformed. The word transformation relates to the word metamorphosis. Whenever I hear that word, I think of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It is a total transformation, from ugly to lovely! If you can relate to the psalm that says that God rescued us from the pit, or the miry clay, you can see how transformed we become when we wear the radiant robes of righteousness that we receive at salvation. We are changed from the inside out. We are transformed into the image of God, never to be the same again. After salvation, as we practice spiritual disciplines and connect more deeply with God, the transformation continues and more and more we demonstrate the love of God to our world.

Saturday
We are going to be talking about how to love like Jesus loves today. When we realize that God’s love is on the inside of us once we ask Jesus into our heart, we can not only love ourselves, but we can love others around us. We can be transformed from being concerned mostly about ourselves, and really be concerned about others. That takes transformation. The Bible says that we are transformed by renewing our mind to the Word, which really means changing the way we think. We can do that with every breath we take. In each moment as we breathe in, we can take our thoughts and exchange them for thoughts that line up with what God’s Word has to say. When we do that, it will be like breathing out the tender love, mercy, and grace of God to those around us. We can do that when we wake up, when we eat, when we go to school, when we are with friends, when we are doing homework, when we watch tv, when we do chores, when we read, and when we go to sleep. As we continue to think about Jesus in everything you do, and our friendship with Him, we start to become like Him. Our own desires will be much less important than pleasing and obeying God. As we experience the love of God on the inside of us, and we will begin to do everything we do in the same way that Jesus would. So we can know what Jesus would do, know how he would do it, and then do it ourselves. That’s real transformation.

Sunday
Have you ever felt like you were getting squeezed by the circumstances in your life? I know we all have. It can be intense when we feel pressure from every side. There is good news associated with pressure. It’s probably time to get prepared for a promotion! If you go to a higher altitude in an airplane, or a lower altitude in a submarine, both places require a change in cabin pressure. So if we want to go deeper in God, or fly higher – with our strength renewed like an eagle, don’t be overly concerned when the pressure comes. On the other side of pressure is likely a promotion, higher or deeper ----if you pass the test…. If you don’t pass, get prepared to do it over again.

Moses and the children of Israel took 40 years to make an 11 day trip with lots of pressure. They kept circling, because they didn’t pass the test.

Abram passed the test after flunking first. He caved to the pressure to make the will of God come to pass on his own. He had his own plan, and because of Ismael, we now have upheaval in half of the world. Then he passed….Isaac was born. Then another test. Will he give Him back to God? Another passed test. God had a ram in the thicket to take Isaac’s place on the altar.

David passed the test with Saul

Are you going to pass? Or are you circling in the desert for a while? Use the pressures of life to your benefit! Know God more deeply, and use His strength on the inside of you to go to a higher place in Him.