LET

It all started last week when the word "Let" just kept coming at me... 

Finally, I was like, "I got it, Lord....I am encouraged  to choose the position of my heart in any and every matter."  In this case we are discussing our marriages in our focus group that meets once a month.  So the idea of "letting" my heart choose God's way as it relates to my spouse is the subject on the table today.  

I sometimes find myself thinking that I just get to react to my spouse however I feel...but NO. I need to choose my attitude, regardless of his. I don't just get the luxury of giving vent to all my unruly emotions with him, while in every other relationship I guard my thoughts, my mouth and I consider my reactions carefully.  

LET is just a small three letter word but I'm beginning to gain a deeper understanding of it's power! I'm reminded that in everything, I have a choice. This has been my mantra with the young girls in Bible study on Tuesday afternoons as I often ask them to repeat it after me. "I always get to choose".  

God says we can "let" our hearts do things....can you think of any "Lets" off hand?  

I found just a few in scripture in a couple short minutes:

Let not your heart be troubled

Let yourself delight in The Lord,

Let His mind be in you.

Let each of you esteem another as of higher importance than yourself

Just to be completely transparent I will share that for many years I had a haughty opinion of myself and saw myself as superior to my spouse in communication, in spiritual matters, and in decision making (especially with the children).  I was wrong and it was a setup for some unhealthy patterns in our family and marriage. This was the working of my flesh!  God had to humble me under His mighty hand so He could rework our marriage and family. He showed me that neither male nor female is higher or more superior than their spouse.

 (Gal 3:27) For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

We are a team and God has a specific design for how this works....beautifully!  I get a picture of a tandem bicycle. Both people are riding and working together as the one person in front guides the bike so it doesn't run into the ditch. Total teamwork, complete agreement and power to move smoothly and efficiently in a positive direction. His direction!!!  

I was humbled as I realized my way was not Gods way. As always our example is Jesus Christ.  

Phil 2:8 "he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross!"  

Have I humbled myself enough to die to my way?  Death...it all comes back around to dying to ourselves or as Lois said the other night when we were meeting with she and Greg to prepare for their night of sharing with our marriage group.... "coming to the end of myself". This was a huge process in both of their lives as they candidly shared with us last Saturday. Their story is nothing short of miraculous!  They were married 20 years, divorced 12 years and remarried 6 months ago. They both had to be reconciled with God first after realizing their own way was killing them. They had to DIE. This is another three letter word but actually powerful and potent in the life of every Believer as we decide to LET Christ become The Lord of our life and not just Savior over our eternity. Christ came alive in them individually, as they LET Him take over and run their worlds. Then, as He had His way in heir lives individually, He performed a miracle of redemption and new life for their family! And, it all started with a death. Dying to self and coming alive to Christ and his way for my life. Funny, but a dead person doesn't have to push for their own way because they are dead.  Look at scripture on this:

 Galatians 2:20  (NIV)

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 Can we make a monumental choice to LET our flesh, with all it's desires to be on top and have our own way, DIE? If I were to look at "my way" purely from a factual standpoint....it's not really working anyway, is it? Or as Dr Phil's famous one liner goes...."How's that workin for ya?"

Can we be open to let the Holy Spirit teach us a new way? I saw this set of verses in a whole new light as I was writing out on my deck last Saturday morning. 

2 Cor 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old gone, the new is here! 

BUT LOOK AT WHAT IS RIGHT AFTER THIS VERSE!!!! 

Vs 18  "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation".

 (Definition:  Reconcile- cause to coexist in harmony: make or show to be compatible, settle a disagreement) 

How can I stare at this verse and miss it?  When we DIE, we can then be truly reconciled to Christ, meaning we can let Him have His way with us. Then we can go on and be reconciled to each other .....then we can turn around and become reconcilers!!! HOW? 

Look at the next verse:

vs 19  "that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." 

Not counting our sins against us...not keeping score, keeping track, proving my point by holding up the proof...that is not forgiveness..that is not the way of Jesus.  Miguel and I used to have this running score card that we would pull out on each other to gain the upper hand. All this card did was put us at odds with each other  as we compared everything from chores, to time away from the home, to who cared more. Silly and counterproductive .....do you have one? 

When we can decide or LET the other person be free from our score card with the help of the Holy Spirit and by choosing to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we can then "be lifted up" .....UPGRADE!!

  1 Peter 5:5-7 ...all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." 

It's literally a promotion!! I am promoted from my current position to ambassador. Let's look at the final verse in this sequence.  

vs 20 "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us."

 As part of our focus time together in our marriage group, we split off for a 10 or 15 min time alone with our spouse. So today as you go off together and alone...LET us choose to destroy the dividing wall between us.

Eph 2:14  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 

 LET us choose to rip up the score sheet and forgive one another from the heart "not counting sins against each other". LET us choose His way of reconciliation and peace for our marriages and our families as we "LET not our hearts be troubled" 

Before you go, just close your eyes and listen to these verses...can we hold our spouses hand?? Can we LET love have it's way?

Phil 2: 3

LET nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind LET each esteem other better than themselves LET this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 

Another version of the same set of verses:  

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus" 

Matt 5:16 "LET your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify God"

How about letting our light shine before our spouse and let them see the miracle of the new person being built up in Christ so that they begin to glorify our Father in Heaven?

Ps 95: Come, LET us worship and bow down. LET us kneel before the LORD our maker, For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, 

 A repeat of the above in the New Testament  

Hebrews 3:7-8"is why the Holy Spirit says,“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness."

Part of this LET is choosing not to harden our hearts but to soften them in recognition of the working of the Holy Spirit as He directs us in our marriage relationship and in the heart we have toward one another. 

In Love and Grace

Keely