Eye Of The Storm...Part Two

      I started writing about the eye of the storm a few weeks ago.  I thought I would get back to it sooner than I did.  Sorry.  I know most of you are waiting in anticipation.  :)  No, really.  The reason I write at all is because I want you to be ok in the coming days.  Devastating things are about to happen.  For some people it already has.  Look at Sandy Hook, Boston, West, Oklahoma, and then last night we got an email from a lady who is selling her son's motorcycle.  He and his fiance were killed two months ago by a drunk driver while on the way to his little brother's birthday party.  When things like this happen, our heart will be attacked from all directions, and we have to know how to find peace in the midst of the storm.

     God's covenant with us is to give us life and peace. (Malachi 2:5) This only comes when we reverance Him, but we have so much garbage in our lives that we barely even take note of the God of the Universe, so He is about to turn our hearts back to Himself.  Everything that happens to us in the coming days is meant to train us in righteousness (to believe God).  That means that God has to expose the lies we have believed our entire lives.  Once exposed, we can choose:  life or death, blessings or curses.  The choice is ours, so the trials of the coming days are coming to expose the lies and then one of two things will happen. 
     Either the trials will purify our hearts.  We will learn to trust God in ways we could never dream possible, and we will know him in ways we could never imagine.  He is going to do this by taking away everything we have ever trusted in (Micah 5:10-15) so that we will never again worship the work of our own hands.  Think about that one.  Romans 1 says that we traded the truth for a lie and worshiped the creation more than the Creator.  So God is about to turn our hearts back to the truth and to the Creator.  We will no longer value things over God.  This will come as a refining fire to purge us so that we will once again offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.  (Malachi 3:2-3)  This doesn't sound like fun, does it?  I don't think it is going to be, but if we will allow every circumstance to train us in righteousness (to believe God), we will make it.  If we allow bitterness, anger, hate, revenge, covetousness, greed, jealousy, etc. (you get the idea) to enter our hearts and control us, we will not make it in this life or in the life to come.  We have to purge our land (heart) of all enemies.
     Or the trials are coming to bring judgment on people who refuse to turn and live.  The same thing is going to happen to the just and to the unjust, but it is written, a wise man builds his house upon the rock, and when the floods come, his house will stand because he trusts Jesus, and he is a "doer of the word" and not just a "hearer only".  Those who are wise find refuge in their Savior.  Those who are foolish run the other way, and it is written:  "Because the rest of you have forsaken the LORD and have forgotten His Temple, and because you have prepared feasts to honor the god of Fate and have offered mixed wine to the god of Destiny, now I will 'destine' you for the sword.  All of you will bow down before the executioner.  For when I called, you did not answer.  When I spoke, you did not listen.  You deliberately sinned - before My very eyes - and chose to do what you know I despise."  Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says, "My servants will eat, but you will starve.  My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty.  My servants will rejoice, but you will be sad and ashamed.  My servants will sing for joy, but you will cry in sorrow and despair..  Your name will be a curse word among My people, for the Sovereign LORD will destroy you and will call His true servants by another name." (Isaiah 65:11-15)  Terror, famine, disease, and destruction (Ezekiel 14 and 21) will come upon those who turn their hearts from the living God in the coming days, but the suffering that will happen in this lifetime does not come close to the suffering that will happen throughout all eternity.  That is why God is going to do everything in His power to turn our hearts back to Him.  HE DOES NOT WANT ANY TO PERISH!!!!!  He knows what will happen to those who do not turn from their sins, and He does not want that, so like any GOOD Father, He is going to do everything in His power to try to save us.
     I don't know about you, but when I read things like this, I'm like...I want to be prepared, but how do we prepare?  First, open your heart wide to God.  Ask Him to come in with the light of His great love to search out every dark, hidden, broken, shame-filled, bitter corner.  Ask Him to reveal what is inside of you.  Then as He reveals it, accept your guilt (don't point the finger at someone else) and tell Him you are sorry.  Say this outloud and say it to a friend.  Do not let the things inside your heart remain hidden.  Once it is in the light, it has no more power.  Once you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.   Forgive others and forgive yourself.  Say outloud, "LORD, forgive me for not forgiving myself.  I am sorry."  Then the peace of God which passes all understanding should enter your heart.  If it doesn't, ask God to come in again and to expose the lies you have been believing.  Confess it as a sin.  Remember that condemnation is an enemy, too.  If you have confessed your sin, and you have turned from it, you are clean.  If condemnation comes in, confess it as a sin.  Say, "God, please forgive me for condemning myself."  Peace should enter.  Seek peace and find it.  This is the "eye of the storm".  We have to stay here.  We won't make it if we don't.
     So whatever happens..."Fix your eyes on Jesus"..."Guard your heart"...and "In everything give thanks."  If we do this, we will make it.  We have to have our eyes on Jesus, though.  If we are looking at anything else, we will not be able to maintain peace.  Now I am going to give you one of my favorite scriptures.  It is in Phillippians.  "Don't worry about anything.  Pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for what He has done, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will GUARD YOUR HEART AND YOUR MIND in Christ Jesus.

​Blessings, my friends.  May you enter and find rest in the "eye of the storm".

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