Are you one of those persons who do not like to participate in your office's Christmas gift exchange? Or are you that person who gets gifts from the kindness of your friends' hearts and wait until they leave to run to the stores to exchange those gifts? The same way, my friends, God wants us to do exchanges with Him. That's right, God wants us to exchange our hurts and our pains with Him; He wants us to exchange our fear for boldness; exchange our weeping for happiness; exchange our troubles for joy. God is looking for people who are tired of disappointments and discouragements; HE wants it all from you. He is waiting to exchange whatever you have to give to Him, He will take it and give you something good in return...love, joy, peace, happiness, favor, money, health.
Rev Tina Findley had told me that "Exchange" is God's way of taking our baggage away. That's right, you can exchange ALL your baggage with Christ. However, to make that exchange with God, we must put aside our pride, shame and fear and just take it to the Lord. We must let God take it away from us and we must believe and leave it all to God. We must, however, also change our attitudes. We must learn to trust in God and watch Him work in our lives. When we do this, we will live in excess. When we live in excess, we possess the spirit of God and we have freedom--freedom from all the excess baggage. When we live in excess, we are surrendering totally to God, working through every issue with God, not trying to do it on our own. Excess guarantees us God's blessings. (Rev.Tina Findley, 2009)
Friends, the really neat thing about this exchange with Christ is that it does not expire. There is no expiration date on exchanges with the Lord. No receipts of purchases are needed. I encourage you today to perform a self-exam; look for those things you have been hiding, get them out of hiding and exchange them with God. I can tell you that it feels so good to have excess weight taken off me. I have begun to feel so "light"! Friends, stop carrying around garbage with you, stop carrying around excess baggage, stop carrying around your worry and your hurt, and exchange those things with the Lord. He wants it all today!
Be blessed,
Therese from Belize
No comments:
Post a Comment