"The Best Gift of All" - by Margaret Slaughter

 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Romans 12:1 KJV

 

Have you ever agonized about buying a gift for a person that has everything?  You mull it over in your mind for weeks.  You’re completely stumped.  Cash is always good, but you think that’s too unoriginal and impersonal.  You eventually settle on a gift, hoping they can use it.

As I was thinking about this, I thought to myself, what do you give God, He owns everything?  His Word says so . . . “Everything belongs to God, and all things were created by his power.” –Hebrews 2:10 CEV.  So, again, what do you offer someone that owns everything?  Well, your life, of course!  Let’s look at our subject scripture in The Message version:

Romans 12:1-2

Place Your Life Before God

^1-2So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you:  Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

The title alone gives you an idea: Place Your Life Before God.  If you love God the way you say that you do, and you want to give him “The Best Gift of All”, place your life before Him. Be available to Him.  Let Him use you for His service.  He’s waiting.

Margaret Slaughter

"Man in the Mirror" - by Margaret Slaughter

“My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.  So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”  --2 Corinthians 12:9 

In the late 80’s Michael Jackson had a hit song titled, Man in the Mirror.  The song starts, “I’m gonna make a change for once in my life.  It’s gonna feel real good, gonna make a difference, gonna make it right.” 

Many times I’ve felt like the beginning lyrics of the song.  I set a goal, I’m pumped and excited, and after a few weeks I self-sabotage and never reach the goal.  Ever heard the old saying, ‘you are your own worst enemy’?  Well, I’ve recently come to the realization that ‘I’ am the barrier to me reaching my goals. 

Now that I’ve admitted the problem, I’m moving toward the chorus of the song, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways.  And no message could have been any clearer.  If you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself and then make a change.”  How do I plan to do that? Through the power of Christ.  Philippians 4:13 tells me, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13).  My subject scripture tells me Christ’s power works best in my weakness.  I’ve identified the weakness, now I must surrender, and let Christ help me quickly recognize when I’m tempted to self-sabotage.  I can do it with His help, His Word tells me so.

Margaret Slaughter

"Repent and Redirect" by Margaret Slaughter

 “So repent [change your inner self – your old way of thinking, regret past sins] and return [to God – seek His purpose for your life], so that your sins may be wiped away [blotted out, completely erased], so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [restoring you like a cool wind on a hot day].”

--Acts 3:19 AMP

We hear a lot of people say, ‘I’m struggling with my weight’.  It came to me during my meditation time that I’m not struggling.  I did it willingly by doing things my way.  Not availing myself of the many resources designed to help me.  I began to think, the same thing goes for my Christian walk.  I’m not struggling with sin, I give in to the temptations willingly.  Not availing myself of the Source designed to help me.

The Apostle Paul described it best in Romans 7:17-25:

“But I need something more!  For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!  I realize that I don’t have what it takes.  I can will it, but I can’t do it.  I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it.  I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.  My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions.  Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.  It happens so regularly that it’s predictable.  The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.  I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight.  Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.  I’ve tried everything and nothing helps.  I’m at the end of my rope.  Is there no one who can do anything for me?  Isn’t that the real questions?  The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.  He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”

Now what?  There’s a saying that goes, ‘when you know better, you do better’.  Once you’ve recognized the problem, consciously make better choices.  Repent (turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life) and redirect (change the course or direction of), and enjoy the ‘times of refreshing’ promised in God’s Word.

Margaret Slaughter

Kill the ANTs

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV

 

I was watching a Channel 9 special by psychiatrist Daniel Amen who was discussing techniques to stop a panic attack before it starts.  The technique was referred to as ‘killing the ANTs’, or Automatic Negative Thoughts.  All the strategies Dr. Amen provided were good, but the best way to kill the ANTs is by combating them with the life changing Word of God.  We live in a time where everything seems to focus on the negative.  You can’t turn on the news without hearing one negative commentary after the next.  An article in Psychology Today claims there are “as much as seventeen negative news reports for every one good news report”.  No wonder it is difficult to kill the ANTs!  Difficult, but not impossible.

 

Our mind is a very powerful thing, and for those of us who think, over think, and think again, it can be very hard to ‘turn off’ all those thoughts.  So, let’s focus on the last part of our scripture, ‘bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’.  Captivity is defined as: the state of being kept in a place (such as a prison or a cage) and not being able to leave or be free.  Essentially, don’t let the ANTs run free in your mind. Bring them ‘to the obedience of Christ’, or combat them with the Word of God.

 

Philippians 4:8 MSG can help us with that: “Summing it all up friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true , noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly, things to praise, not things to curse.”  So the next time your mind is filled with the negative, kill the ANTs!

Margaret Slaughter