You can have everything you need. Your marriage is falling apart; you can have everything you need. Infertility is breaking your heart; you can have everything you need. Work is crushing your spirit; you can have everything you need. Grief is overwhelming your soul; you can have everything you need. If we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, THEN we have access to everything we need. But, just because we have the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean we automatically live by the Spirit. It is a choice. It is a day to day, situation by situation, moment by moment choice.
Romans 8:11 says that the same Spirit “who raised Jesus from the dead LIVES IN YOU.” Yet, shockingly, as Christians we often still live as if we don’t have the Spirit of God within us. Before we are saved, we don’t have options. Our flesh is our natural response to everything in life. As Christians, we have two options. We can continue to live life controlled by our flesh, or we can live life surrendered to and empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is a lifelong battle, a daily straining and determining of our soul, where we can either choose to live by His divine power or by our own evil desires.
I often say that the instant we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are fully surrendered, our hearts laid bare before Him, no area of our lives withheld from Him. But a moment later, we take most of it back. And we start on that lifelong journey of entrusting all that we are to His care and control.
Our life is like a house. At conversion we swing the front door wide open and give Jesus full access. But then, quickly, we confine Him to one room. We don’t want Him to open the doors to abuse, rejection, failure, loss, disease, loneliness, fear, etc. We think we can handle those things on our own. But, we can’t. You can’t. I can’t.
The locked room in my life was infertility. Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a mom. And I wanted lots of kids, at least seven. But at age 19, I was diagnosed with severe Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Amenorrhea, Anovulation, possible early onset Menopause, and a Paratubal Cyst the size of a grapefruit destroying one of my Fallopian Tubes. I was clinically “infertile.”
When I became pregnant four years into marriage, I was overjoyed. But quickly my joy turned to pain after suffering two devastating miscarriages. I became quite angry with God. I pushed Him away, but His kindness drew me back to Him. As I listened to worship music and read His Word, He reminded me of His promises, that He “created us and knows us”, “is always with us”, and “meets all our needs.” His promises became the anchors for my weary soul. Still, I was terrified to entrust Him with my desire for children. I believed the lie that if I relinquish the desires of my heart to Him, then I’ll never get them.
I was enslaved to my own “evil desires.” But wanting children isn’t an evil desire, right? Of course not! In fact, God commands us to be fruitful and multiply. But when we desire something, anything, more than we desire the will of God, then we are enslaved to those desires…however innocent they may be. Once I allowed God to join me in the room labeled “Infertility”, everything changed. As I walked by the power of the Holy Spirit, obeyed God’s Word, and surrendered my will, God showed me who He is. As I trusted His promises, my knowledge of Him grew. His “glory and goodness” overshadowed my circumstances.
What is holding us back from letting God into every room of our lives? I believe that deep down we don’t believe God is who He says He is. When we refuse to trust the promises of God, we are actually failing to trust the character of God. This is exactly what Satan wants. He wants us to question and doubt the character of God. He wants us to remain corrupted by the world and enslaved to our own evil desires. Satan did the same thing to Eve. Eve allowed Satan to deceive her into thinking God was withholding something good from her. She doubted the character of God. She thought her way was better than God’s. She thought she could attain knowledge without God. She was wrong. It’s by our knowledge of God that we have access to “everything we need for life and godliness.”
God wants us to be free. He wants to show us who He is and what He can do. He wants us to participate in His divine nature. How will we know Him if we don’t seek Him? For some reason we think growing in intimacy with God is some obscure mysterious trick. It’s not. It’s actually quite simple. It’s the same as seeking out a friend. Calling them, spending time with them, and entrusting them with our secrets and dreams builds intimacy, trust, and deep fellowship. The same is true with God. As we spend time with Him in prayer, learn about Him from His Word, and entrust Him with the depths of our hearts, we grow in intimacy with God. Such intimacy allows us to have an increasing knowledge of Jesus’s glory and excellence.
He reveals Himself to us as we surrender ourselves to Him. As we open up the doors of our hearts and let His Holy Spirit into every room, every closet, every hidden crevice, we grow in our knowledge of Him, and get to participate in His divine nature empowering us to will and to act according to His good purposes. Before I let God into the hidden room of my heart, I knew of God. Now I know God. What are you waiting for? Let God in. Swing wide the doors, and see that the Lord is good!
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Week 5 Challenge:
This week, focus on the truth that God has already provided everything you need for a godly life. Then identify an area of your life where you might be striving in your strength rather than relying on God’s divine power. Write it down and pray over it. Search the Bible for promises or truths that speak to that area. Then, take a moment to surrender it to God, trusting in His power to equip and sustain you.
Week 5 Reading Plan:
Find it in your journal or on the LGG App!
Week 5 Memory Verse:
