Captivated

I’ve heard many times that actions speak louder than words which I’m finding more and more to be true but how about what this quote, or even yet these scriptures say about our actions?!?!

‎”ACTIONS speak louder than intentions” -Andy Stanley Choosing to Cheat

“They claim to know God, but their ACTIONS they deny him.  They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good.” -Titus 1:16

 “You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his ACTIONS were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” -James 2:20-24

 ”Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with ACTIONS and in truth.” -1 John 3:18

WOW!! my actions are pretty powerful!  I can intend to call someone to let them know I’m thinking of them all day long but unless I do it, that person has no clue.  I can intend to spend time with someone all day long but not do it, again that person has no clue.  I can intend all day long to workout, but until I get by butt up and workout, it’s going to do my body no good.  I can intend to do my quiet time, invite someone to church, tell someone about Jesus, go to church myself, make changes I know God is calling me to make  through His Word or wise people but until I put ACTION to those INTENTIONS, it means NOTHING!

And even as these scriptures point out, I can even go past the intention to talking about it but that’s just as useless.  There’s nothing stronger I’m beginning to believe than ACTIONS!  Anything can come out of my mouth in a split second but my actions grow from intentions to something I talk about to something I do.

So, has God placed an intention in your heart and mind that you might even talk about that you need to put feet to, so to speak, and ACT on it?!?! 

“Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.”  Galatians 6:5

My creative best…what is my creative best?!?!
You know, I enjoy being creative..maybe not exactly the way the next person would but in my own way…the way God created me, right?!?!

I love kids!
I love decorating…but not just any decorating…I love like the pintrest ways of decorating!
I love creative projects like pintrest projects or photography projects…being crafty!
I love to cook!
I love intimate conversations with just one person or a few people where I can truly be myself through and through!
I love  journaling and blogging!

It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of life or even the trying to fit in with that group or that guy or that girl that I think it’s easy to lose the creative me that God’s created me to be.  I guess I thought at 26 I’d have that all figured out…what was I thinking, right?!?!

But with this verse in mind  and words of Lynne Hybels In Nice Girls Don’t Change the World (“A good woman knows her unique life matters to God”), I want to embrace those things listed above knowing that there is no need to shun these things or put them aside because someone else doesn’t like it or appreciate it or because they seem too simplistic to really have meaning.

God created me, and He created these interests in me, and as Lynne Hybels points out when I avoid those interests and passions God’s placed in me NO ONE WINS…not me, not people around me, not God…we all lose!

So, even though it’s not always easy, I’m trying to embrace the creative me God’s created me to be!

There’s a battle that rages inside of us.
As Ephesians 6 tells us this battle isn’t against flesh and blood but against the devil’s schemes.  Satan will do anything for us to be insecure, weak, self-conscious, self-absorbed…anything that will take our eyes off Jesus but even more deeply than that take our minds off Jesus.
You know I think it’s easier to guard my eyes from something than it is to guard my mind.  I can close my eyes and not see something or I can simply not go somewhere if I don’t want to see something.  But my mind…there’s no getting away from my mind and the thoughts it produces.

So as I contemplate how Satan will stop at nothing to make me be insecure and feel like I’m not good enough, God in His unique way has followed that thought with the only way to combat Satan’s schemes and guard my mind is with TRUTH…His Word.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will set you free.”  (John 8:31-32)
And the first thing we’re told to put on in the armor of God in Ephesians 6 is the belt of TRUTH!

Satan wants so badly to hold us captive by our thoughts…by thoughts that make us feel insecure and not good enough but as God’s Word tells us…the TRUTH will set us free from this captivity!

So, if I want to live my life in this freedom, I have to fill my mind with the TRUTH…with God’s Word.  By spending time in His Word daily but even deeper than that…hiding it in my heart, memorizing scripture.  I am absolutely horrible at memorizing anything (just ask my piano teachers in high school and college LOL) but as a girl I was talking to last night said, “life happens”, and if I’m not ready with my belt of truth on at all times, I’m in a very vulnerable spot for the devil’s schemes to knock me down, hold me captive, and kill me (or at least kill my joy).  I don’t know about you but that’s a place I don’t want to be!

I was reading the book Spiritual Leadership a few weeks back and there is one part that has really stuck out to me.

J. Oswald Sanders talks about the story of Moses in Exodus 32 where God tells Moses when he’s on the mountain that the Israelites have turned from Him and created golden calves to worship.  At that point God is ready to destroy them but Moses pleads to God on their behalf.

Moses had a choice at that moment…God was not angry with him.  So, he could have thought only of himself and moved on with God completely disregarding the Israelites and their walk with the Lord.  But instead he had such a passion and concern for the people he was leading that he pled to God on their behalf.

Here’s the convicting thought….do I get caught up in my own needs, desires, goals, etc that God has given me and even my own personal walk with Him or am I following the example of Moses in Exodus 32 and taking time to plead to God on behalf of those people God has placed in my life to lead, live life with, love, etc?