Month: March 2025

AGAIN

Are you like me and keep doing the same things over and over, that I just asked God forgiveness for the day before? It is hard to realize that God will keep forgiving us, isn’t it? I think it is harder for me to forgive myself, than it is for God to forgive me. I wrestle with guilt that I can’t push the devil out of my thoughts and I keep doing the same sin over and over. Ephesians 3:20-21 reads “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” God’s power and ability to accomplish things is far beyond our comprehension or expectations. God’s power is at work within us, meaning He empowers us to live and act in ways that reflect His greatness. Neither God’s love nor His power to forgive is limited by human imagination. I am thankful for that, aren’t you?

There is a song by Jeremy Camp, called “AGAIN.” It has made me think about this blog. I have realized that I let this world “climb into my brain” at the most inopportune times. I will be listening to the lesson at church, and all of a sudden, I realize I am wondering how my lunch is doing in the oven at home! What is wrong with my brain? I would like to blame it on my age, but the fact is, the devil loves to wiggle into our brains without us realizing it. The devil loves to cause us to swerve away from thoughts of God and His laws.

Matthew 18:21-22 reads “Then Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’’ Seven in the Bible, refers to completion and perfection. Jesus didn’t set a number of times we should forgive. Jesus pointed out to Peter that there is no set number of times that we are to forgive others. This would apply to us forgiving ourselves also. The point of this verse is not to keep count at all, but to always be willing to forgive, no matter how many times we sin over and over.

We are assured that when we confess our sins, God will forgive us. 1 John 1:9 reads “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Do you see the first word of that verse? IF. We have to take action to talk to God, in prayer and ask for forgiveness. When my brain wanders away from what I should be focused on, I tell the devil, once again, to GO AWAY!  

Jeremy Camp has a song called “Again,” that I identify with and it assures me that God is always there for me no matter how many times I go to Him for forgiveness. Below are the words to that song.

Here I am again, back in the same place I’ve been so many times.

Here I am again losing the battle and thinking I’ll never win this fight.

I’m so ashamed, down on my knees.

I know there’s grace but is there grace for me?

Fall after fall, prayer after prayer.

Father, will You still be there?

(Chorus): Here You are again forgiving, redeeming my heart again. Standing me up on my feet again. You show me Your mercy will never run out. Will never run out. I can breathe again knowing I’m loved, I feel free again, no matter how long I’ve gone too far. Here You are again.

Here I am again, reminded of all of the ways You’re patient with me. What a faithful friend, through every climb, every fall You never leave.

(Chorus)

You’d go anywhere. You’d give anything. Even lay down Your life to bring to new life to me.

(Chorus)

When I think that I’ve gone too far, here You are again.

Did the words to that song, connect with your heart, like it did mine? The devils’ attacks make it a real challenge for us to remember and simply rest in the promises of God and trust His love. He tries to get us trapped by guilt so we don’t feel worthy of God’s love and forgiveness. The devil lies to us, especially when we are weak. John 8:44 reads, Jesus speaking about the devil, “You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” The devil is always searching (remember what I wrote about him in my last blog). The devil is waiting for us to slip up, say something we shouldn’t, lose patience, lose focus, pay attention to the sins of this world, to feel less than, or when the temptations of this world pull us into old sinful habits which pull us into addictions. He just waits for us to get our focus off of God!

Psalm 103:11-12 reads “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” There is no distance, no place we can go that God’s grace and mercy won’t reach us. No depth that we can sink to that God will not pull us out of our self-made muddy mire.

The only time He will not forgive us is, if we “sit in it” and don’t ask for that unlimited forgiveness that God is so generous with. Tell the devil to GO AWAY!

Just know that no matter how many times we have to go to Him again and again, that He will forgive us and will help us to breath with peace in our hearts once again. Standing us back up on our feet again. We are once again free because of Who He is and what He has done for us. Rest in the knowledge that we are loved by a perfect God, over and over AGAIN.

Till next time!

                                                   Keela

RENEWED MIND

RENEWED MIND

The meaning of the word renews is: ‘resume or restore an activity or an activity of the mind, after an interruption’. This shows me when we see the letters re in front of a word, we need to go back to change something again, to make it fresh, to get back on track or the right path. In this article, we will re-new our mind.

Who do you think causes us to have to renew our minds? That sneaky devil! He wiggles himself into our minds, when we are weak. I have to renew my mind every day. Do you? Let’s look at why we have to keep renewing our minds. 1Peter 5:8– “Be sober, be vigilant, (on the alert or be ready) because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  My daughter and I had an experience with a lion once. When she was in grade school, I took her and a friend to the zoo. We were in front of the lions’ cage. The lioness was sunning herself on a rock and her little cubs were running around. Ashley said I wonder where the daddy lion is? Right after she said that, we heard roaring and here came the lion from behind the rocks. He started pacing back and forth in front of the enclosure, looking at those of us standing there. He stopped right in front of us, stared at us, turned around, raised his tail and shot urine right at us. I pushed the girls one way and I jumped the other way, but the lion hit its target. The urine splattered all over poor Ashley. She screamed and we went running to the bathroom to clean her up. (I am pretty sure, I started laughing.) The reason I am telling you that story, is so you can have a visual of that sneaky lion, the devil, and how he paces back and forth looking for someone to devour. (or in our case, pee on!) Job 1:7, God asks the devil “From where do you come?” and Satan says, “from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” He is always pacing to find who he can target!

Satan is always looking for someone to mess up, have a weak moment or, as in my case, lose focus. I don’t know if it is my age or what, but my mind loses focus all the time! Satan knows if he controls our thoughts, he can also control our actions. Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he, ‘eat and drink’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you.” Do you ever, in church, sing the song or hear the prayer or the lesson and realize you were thinking about that sweet baby in front of you or what you are going to have for lunch? I sure have! I will sing the words to the song, but then all of a sudden, I realize our overhead at church, says end of song. I was singing the words (I have been a Christian about 60 years, so most of those songs are in my mind), but I was not focusing on the words and their meaning. You know who has controlled my mind? Satan! Think about this! If the devil distracts our spiritually focused thoughts; there was probably something in the class, sermon, song or prayer that we needed to hear! Satan is always waiting for a time he can wiggle into our minds and get them, off of God. Something reassuring about this is; if he is still trying to wiggle himself into our minds; then he doesn’t have complete control over us! He comes with trials of this world, causing trials to come against those who are a threat to his ministry on the earth. Satan tries to make us believe we are inferior-worthless-incompetent-we don’t believe we are good enough for God to love us. When he puts those thoughts into our heads, we start living those thoughts as truth and those thoughts become our definition of ourselves!  We need a quick renewal of our mind back to what we know about our Father God!               

The negativity in our thoughts, can come into our minds, in so many ways through-tv-books-Facebook-radio-the news-someone talking to us who is a negative person-repetition of hearing negative or bad language. We hear negative so much that we can become negative or repeat what that person is saying. Think about a child who lives with mother and dad who are always negative. They believe that is how everyone is and they can be pulled down into that negativity, which will affect the rest of their lives. When I was working at the animal hospital, they hired a new veterinarian. My office was close enough to the vets’ office that I could hear what went on in that room. She cussed almost every other word! If we hear something all the time, we can take that into our minds. I started worrying that if I heard her enough with those awful curse words, would I, not on purpose of course, but would I start using them? It was a Wednesday night and I remember going to church and talking to a friend, to pray for me that I would be able to separate my mind from that bad language. Well, it ended up the vet that owned the practice, must have had a talk with her and asked her to not talk that way. Because the next day, she did not cuss but for every once and awhile. When she would use one of those words, she would immediately, holler towards the room I was in and tell me she was sorry. I was so thankful I did not have to worry about that. But you know what it also showed me; she could actually control her language if she wanted to. It was a choice.

I have been telling the devil to go away when I realize he is in my mind once again. Can you think of a time Jesus told the devil to go away? Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, tell us of when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness.  Satan tempts Jesus when He was hungry. Satan told Him to throw Himself off the high part of the temple and Satan wanted Jesus to bow at his feet. Jesus told Satan to go away and Jesus quoted from scripture: IT IS WRITTEN.

Now, that we know who is the cause of us having to renew our minds, let’s see how we are to fight against the devil. I have realized that my mind is a battlefield. (There is a very good book, that talks about this I recommend, by Joyce Meyer, called “The Battlefield of the Mind.”) Our mind is a battlefield, which means we have to put action into our lives by using God given defenses against the devil. Read Ephesians 6:10-18, which tells us of the armor God has given us to use against our enemy, the devil, and tells us what actions we need to take. Some of the defenses are: the truth-righteousness-the gospel-faith-the hope and assurance of salvation-use scripture which is the Word of God, to fight back like Jesus did, by saying it is written and then quoting scripture.

Let’s think of some ways we can keep our minds strong and renewed every day, so we can fight the devils’ battle that he wages into our minds. Some things we need to do in order to be defensive against the devil. PRAY-I always feel closer to God when I talk to Him several times a day.  STUDY SCRIPTURE-we are to fill our minds with God’s Words. MEMORIZE VERSES-when a trial or temptation comes, we will have God’s words implanted in our minds to fight against the devil. Remember what I said above that Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness-IT IS WRITTEN. TURN OFF-media, the news on tv, our phones or computer-anything that feeds us with negativity. I wonder if this contributes to our minds causing us to become negative? Of course it does!  SPEND TIME WITH OTHER CHRISTIANS-we can talk to each other, study together, laugh together, have compassion and understanding with each other. When we associate with other Christians, instead of people in this world, it will help us to not give into the devils’ grasp.

We have to turn our thoughts away from this world, by renewing them through doing spiritual exercises. We have the ability to make the choice to change our thoughts through renewal, every day. It is a constant action. We have to put off our former conduct, and put on our new self, which is done by making the choice to renew our minds in the Lord’s truth. Ephesians 4:17-24 reads “…you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness …you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus; that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of the mind, and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Philippians 4:6-9, tells us what we need to study and meditate on in order to be able to renew our minds. These are the attitudes we need to choose in our lives, in order to have peace from God and thus a renewed mind. TRUE-focus on what is real and accurate. NOBLE-have honorable character. JUST-fair according to God’s standards, righteous. PURE-morally clean both in thought and deed. LOVELY-focus on positive. GOOD REPORT-we are to be admirable, worthy of respect and praise. These verses also say we are to LEARN-RECEIVE-HEAR-SEE and DO these things. Put action and choice into our lives. God tells us how to lean into a life of positivity and not negativity, and that type of life will give us that peace of God.

God warns us that we need to renew our minds and learn how to recognize when we are in the grasp of the devil. Tell the devil to go away and have the words of the Bible so imbedded in our minds and hearts, we can say “IT IS WRITTEN.” God is the only one who can help us renew our minds and give our mind peace once again! Who are you letting come into your mind?

Till next time!

                                                         Keela