{"id":23667,"date":"2018-08-14T03:30:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T10:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=23667"},"modified":"2018-08-09T13:52:27","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T20:52:27","slug":"august-14-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2018\/08\/14\/august-14-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"August 14, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/p>\n

“If you love me, obey my commandments.”\u00a0<\/em>John\u00a014:15<\/p>\n

Principles In God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For a number of years Floyd and I led a one-year leadership development training program. It was a privilege to pour into the lives of young leaders things that we had learned over decades of service.\u00a0It was such a joy to do this.\u00a0Of all the “seasons” of our lives, I would say this is one that we found immensely fulfilling.\u00a0We loved doing this.<\/p>\n

One of the learning tools we used was looking at principles we could use from each experience of life.\u00a0We would “debrief” things we walked through, and ask what are the principles in this situation that God has shown us for how to handle this.\u00a0We’d do the same thing with passages of Scripture, seeking to learn the things God has taught us in the Word.<\/p>\n

When our unexpected journey began, I immediately started thinking this way.\u00a0I’m facing things I’ve never faced before\u2026so what has God shown me that are His ways, His principles for being able to victoriously walk through this?<\/p>\n

Some sprang immediately to mind.<\/p>\n

– I needed to trust Him no matter what happened.<\/p>\n

– I needed to keep my eyes on Him, not on the circumstances.<\/p>\n

– I needed to go to the Word and meditate on His promises for hard times.<\/p>\n

– I needed to take a stand against the enemy.<\/p>\n

– I needed to be honest with the Lord, and pour out my heart to Him continually.<\/p>\n

– I needed to admit my weakness so that I could receive His strength.<\/p>\n

– I needed to be open and vulnerable so that others would know how to pray for me.<\/p>\n

– I needed to lean into my friends to help me, because there’s no way I could make it through this all alone.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying these things were “easy” to do, to live out.\u00a0But I knew what the principles were to get through. I knew what I needed to do.\u00a0I knew I needed to obey the things God has shown us in the Word for responding to trials and testings.\u00a0It came down to obedience.<\/p>\n

I realized that\u00a0obedience is simply gratitude<\/strong>\u2014thanking the Lord for how He helps us.\u00a0Whatever He asks, whatever He has shown us to do, we just give it back to Him as worship by obeying.\u00a0Obedience, in fact, is the highest form of worship. <\/strong>Worship is expressing our love to God, and one of the first ways we can express our love is by obeying His commandments.<\/p>\n

For me, trusting Him has been the foundation stone on this journey.\u00a0It’s what the Word teaches us to do.\u00a0Whatever life throws our way, we trust Him, the One who is sovereign over all.\u00a0I make that\u00a0choice of obedience to trust<\/strong>.\u00a0I lift it up as worship to Him because He is worthy of the trust.\u00a0I speak out that He is good, and kind, and merciful, and caring. I declare, aloud, the truths of the Word of how trustworthy He is.\u00a0I tell the enemy that he’s a liar if he tries to bring thoughts of God being anything but trustworthy. I thank God in words and song for being my firm Rock on which I can stand.\u00a0Even if I’m nervous or fearful, He remains trustworthy. I declare His trustworthiness through my tears because He is unchanging even though my life and circumstances often change minute by minute.<\/p>\n

His\u00a0“grace has been sufficient”\u00a0<\/em>(2 Corinthians 12:9) for each need, each situation, each choice.\u00a0He has been my “strength in weakness”\u00a0<\/em>(2 Corinthians\u00a012:10).\u00a0He has “held my right hand”\u00a0<\/em>(Isaiah 41:13).\u00a0He has “carried”\u00a0<\/em>me (Psalm 68:19) when I stumbled.\u00a0How incredibly, wonderful, unfailingly faithful He is!<\/p>\n

\u201cThank You for the principles You\u2019ve set forth for our lives. Help us to walk in them. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-69J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23669,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23667\/revisions\/23669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}