Today we continue our series entitled, “Pursuing Grace-Based Success!”
Here are our foundational scriptures:
(Ephesians 2:8-10 ERV)
8 I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.
9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.
10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
(1 Corinthians 1:30,31 NLT)
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”
(2 Timothy 1:9 NKJV)
Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
For the past couple of weeks, we have been discussing “Entering Into God’s rest” from Hebrews 4:1-11. We worked our way through the entire passage. Yesterday I shared some general thoughts about resting in God and how critical this is for your overall success in life. Today I will continue what I started yesterday.
So what does this mean for you today? Let’s see.
1. There is a battle in your mind for your mind.
If you submit to the process of mind renewal, allowing yourself to be deprogrammed and then reprogrammed through the Word of God, you can actually get to the stage where you are SO conditioned to think God’s way that it will be extremely difficult for the enemy to get a hold of your mind with his negative thoughts of fear, doubt, failure, and defeat. This is the stage I pray you desire to get to, and I pray that you do. It won’t happen overnight, but if you submit to the process, little-by-little, it WILL happen!
Once you get to this stage, the negative thoughts from the enemy will have a hard time getting into your heart becuase you will be so conditioned to think and act like God (see 2 Cor 10:3-5). It’s a lot easier to be successful in life as a believer when your thoughts and actions align with God’s heart and will.
2. What will you allow?
Jesus said, “Do not allow your heart to be troubled” (John 14:1). Just like you can ALLOW your heart to be troubled, you have the power to refuse it. Faith is a choice, just like fear is a choice. You cannot trust and worry at the same time, and you get to CHOOSE which one YOU will do. To enter in and remain in God’s rest, you must choose faith over fear, rest over worry, and peace over anxiety. God will allow whatever you allow, so make sure you choose wisely (see John 14:27).
3. Rule your emotions.
Don’t let your feelings tell you how to feel. If you allow your emotions to rule you, you will live an unstable and possibly unfruitful life. God has given you the power to rule over your emotions, but YOU must do so in order to enter in and remain in God’s rest (see John 14:27). You have more power over yourself than you may realize. You can control what you think about, which will lead to you controlling how you feel (because your feelings amplify your thoughts), and once your thinking and feeling are in alignment with God, your choosing (making Godly decisions) will follow.
4. You can have peace during storms.
The peace of God is not about the absence of conflict but rather about the presence of God. When God is present, you can have peace internally, even when everything externally seems to be going haywire (see John 14:27). This is something you must master in order to maximize your purpose and potential in life, becuase you won’t always be able to control what is going on AROUND YOU. What you can control is what is going on IN YOU!
5. More grace.
When you ask for less challenge, sometimes God responds with more grace. God is not always going to deliver you FROM challenges, but He will give you the grace to overcome them. When God does this, He is delivering you IN it rather than FROM it! (see 2 Cor 12:9).
No matter what you are facing, remind yourself that you have the grace for it!
6. You can remain IN FAITH when you enter into God’s rest.
When you have an issue, it’s not hard to fall on your knees and pray. It might take some humility, but praying is not the hard part. The hard part comes afterward, in the space between your prayer and the performance, in the space between your confession and the completion, in the space between “I believe I receive, Amen” and “There it is!” That’s the challenge because in the space between the prayer and the performance, the devil will attempt to cause problems. In the space between the confession and the completion, the devil will attempt to stir up confusion. It’s in that space that you must remain in faith and patient, trusting God, abiding in His rest (see Heb 6:12).
The highest form of faith is rest. If you genuinely believe that God will do what he said He will do, you will rest and allow Him to do what He needs to do in order to bring it to pass.
7. Spend time at Jesus’ feet.
What’s your issue? What are you dealing with today? What is causing you stress, struggle, strain, and strife? What is the thing that is keeping you up at night? To experience grace-based success (success God’s way), you must spend time at Jesus’ feet. Humble yourself, worship your Lord, fall at His feet, call on His name, acknowledge His power, reverence His throne, and find He will meet you where you are. Whether you are up or down, at the end of your rope or on the top of the world, struggling or sailing, in faith or afraid, in hope or in despair, Jesus is available to you today, and there is a great exchange that takes place at His feet. Spend some time at His feet today, and He will impart all you need to start experiencing His best life NOW! (see Mark 5:22 and 5:33).
8. God trusts you with it.
If we all have a breaking point (and I believe that we do), and the Father will ensure that we are not pushed beyond it (and I believe that He won’t), then we must find comfort in knowing that if we are facing a challenge, then God clearly believes we can handle it! In other words, if you are facing it, then the Father has already given you the grace to overcome it. If you couldn’t take it, you would not be facing it, so if you are, then you can! So face it head-on, in faith, with full confidence in God, and enter into God’s rest (see 1 Cor 10:13).
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about grace-based success.
I renew my mind with Your Word. The more I get Your Word IN me, the more my mind is deprogrammed from stinking thinking.
I set my mind on You. I DO NOT ALLOW my heart to be troubled. I enter into Your divine rest, and I rest from my own works. I no longer rely on my human effort and ability alone.
There are times when I ask You to relieve me from the challenges I am facing, and instead of giving me LESS CHALLENGE, You opt to give me MORE GRACE.
So, Father, I embrace Your grace, I become a conduit of Your power, I rest in Your ability, and I face every challenge head-on, in faith, without a doubt, fully relying on Your supernatural power to access the victory You have already provided!
I enter into this day with Your peace all over me because of Your presence. You have committed to be with me always… never to leave me or forsake me. Since You are always with me, I am never helpless. Since I am never helpless, I am never hopeless.
My hope is in You, and I believe You can meet me today, right where I am, and You can manifest Your glory in such a way that You will help me to get to where You want me to be!
I know You can, and I believe You will! Therefore, I enter into Your divine rest, and I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
