“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”
― Vance Havner
― Vance Havner
DANIEL 7-8
1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.(7:1)
1 JOHN 5
1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
JOURNAL
What does it mean to overcome the world? I think it means that the world stops controlling us. We no longer are controlled by the emotions and temptations that arise because of evil and sin. It is not that they no longer exist, for they will exist as long as we are in this world. But through loving God, keeping his commands and loving others, we continually gain victory over the world and sin.
This is a complete mind shift. This changes us fundamentally at our core. It does not suppress or change the fact that we are still human and will always deal with distracting thoughts, anxiety, stress...troubling emotions etc. Yet we have the power to see and understand what is going on and choose differently. Just because I experience an emotion does not mean I have to roll with it and allow it to dictate my actions. Because of the power and love of God, I can stand apart from the emotion and choose how I will respond.
Yet it is often because of my failures and my brokenness that I can see more clearly the better path, the path of God. Therefore my past sins and failures are not to induce shame but rather wisdom and joy in that the renewing of my mind is giving me a power to renew my life.
This is a complete mind shift. This changes us fundamentally at our core. It does not suppress or change the fact that we are still human and will always deal with distracting thoughts, anxiety, stress...troubling emotions etc. Yet we have the power to see and understand what is going on and choose differently. Just because I experience an emotion does not mean I have to roll with it and allow it to dictate my actions. Because of the power and love of God, I can stand apart from the emotion and choose how I will respond.
Yet it is often because of my failures and my brokenness that I can see more clearly the better path, the path of God. Therefore my past sins and failures are not to induce shame but rather wisdom and joy in that the renewing of my mind is giving me a power to renew my life.
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
ROMANS 12:1-2
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