Freedom, Liberation, Tenacity

I'm just being blown away by the speaker this week. Today he talked about freedom from self-hatred, from comparison, from unbelief, doubt, passivity, etc. That we don't have to wait for a strong, emotional feeling or steps to go through, or striving, self-help methods to overcome sin and bondage. It is a simple decision to just fix our eyes on Jesus, to have unhindered intimacy with God. To take our eyes off ourself and our issues and place them on Him alone. Having tenacity, being done with it, everything that the enemy is using to hold us down, to say we hate it, we're done with it, we shall live under it no more, and whenever the thought comes back, to repent, and be free again, having no guilt and no shame; just to keep putting it under the blood of Jesus and moving on. It's not a long process with steps and striving involved, it's just a decision. It's all about the manifestation of the love inside us. He longs to give tenacity for freedom. I'm not to focus on overcoming fear, I'm only to focus on God. He is the place of rest, and all I have to do is believe in His love. God is much more committed to my healing, to my calling in life, to my future, to every one of my life's issues than I will ever be - that is liberating. I waste so much time trying to figure out my next step in life when God is longing to take the reigns. What should I do next? Gaze at the Shepherd. God is my destiny, He is the only thing that fulfills. I don't have to do anything to prove myself to God, He loves me therefore I will do whatever it is He wants, out of an outflow of love, rather than a duty. All He wants is a simple "yes" each day, to have that attitude. Pray that I will gaze upon Jesus alone, and stop striving to be better in my own strength, out of selfishness. Pray for me to have tenacity for freedom, and to know how high, how deep, how wide, his love for me truly is.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws. You will live in the land I gave to your forefathers. You will be My people and I will be your God. -Ezekiel 36:26-28