Today’s Readings:
Romans 8
Psalm 37
Isaiah 44
22 I have swept away your sins like a thick cloud.
Isaiah 44:22-23
I have made your guilt to vanish
like mist disappearing into thin air.
Now come back, come back to me,
for I have paid the price for you.”
23 Sing! Starry sky above, break loose with singing,
for Yahweh has finished it!
Shout! Earth deep below, give up your shout!
Mountains high, break out with joyous songs of praise!
Let the forest choirs join in, with every tree singing its notes!
For Yahweh has paid the ransom price for Jacob’s tribes,
and he will be glorified in Israel!
The Lord says,
You are worthy of love. Your worth comes from your Maker. I made you, and you are as a priceless jewel to Me. Therefore, you have great value. You are worthy of love, because I made you. My heart spills forth with love for you. You are a treasure to Me. This has been a season of great squeezing, great pressure, and it has required purification. It has required and continues to require letting go, releasing the past and former ways of doing things. It requires changing mindsets and living in a state of repentance — literally — living in a state of continually changing your mind toward what is right. This is the posture and the turning that is required and has been required. Much mind changing has happened, and more work continues in your life. You can sense it and feel it. Don’t cling on to former trains of thought, to former modes of operation. Let those go. Drop them, and be deliberate to clean any messes these old ways of operating have caused.
5 Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves. But those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities. 6 For the sense and reason of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace.
Romans 8:5-6
Consider the fallout from decisions you made in an old mindset, the attachments you made in an old view of self, the losses you experienced from not having yet shifted to the up higher way of thinking that you are now choosing. If there are messes to clean and apologies to be made, endings to name because of your former ways or your changing ways, do not delay. Clean the messes now and move forward. Say the apologies now, and move forward. Cut the lingering ties now, and move forward. Move forward with a clean conscious and a clean slate. It’s time to move into this spacious life with no entanglements, with no accusations that can keep a grip on you because of your choices and no hanging on to what is wrong. Hear Me, even the letting go may require a cleanup process, so that you can move forward with clean hands and a pure heart. This is part of the process, and it can be quick and simple. It does not to be long and fitful and drawn out. Take the steps to close out, clean up and walk confidently and lightly with no strings and no unholy ties — toward peace, toward joy, toward hope, toward the bright future.
23 When Yahweh delights in how you live your life,
Psalm 37:23
he establishes your every step.
These are light living days. These are days to be holy, to be pure and to remain that way. These are days to shine for the world to see the difference I make in a life. These are days where your shining will draw many to you, and they will see Me when they see you. It’s a beautiful time, but work, cleansing, repentance and closing the books in a way that achieves clean hands and a clean heart is required.
28 So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.
Romans 8:28
These are steps toward freedom. These are choices that lead to wide open spacious living. These are steps that will cause your heart to soar and your life to look and feel different. You will look back and know that you have never felt this light. You have never felt this free from lingering guilt or shame or regret. Take the steps. Make the moves to close out and clean up these messes that linger. And move forward to a new kind of day and a new kind of sustained self-cleaning lifestyle.
Move into a lifestyle where your thinking is so aligned to Me, your heart is so aligned to Me, that the mistakes and the sins are fewer, smaller and more quickly repented of and cleaned up. You are moving toward a lifestyle of ongoing mind renewal and choices made in sync with My heart. I’m changing your instincts and your thought processes and aligning your heart with Mine. This is enabling you to choose to move forward in repentance, leaving the former ways behind. Trust Me, this is a much better, much freer way of living. You will never want to go back to the former ways.
How to Respond
- Ask the Lord to show you the areas He’s been working in your life — mindset changes, relational changes, identity changes and instinct changes.
- Ask Him to help you see any further cleanup you need to do. It may mean cleaning up messes from past mistakes and sin or ridding yourself further from habits, triggers and thought patterns that trip you up.
- Ask the Lord to give you a vision of the spacious life of freedom He has for you.
- Declare that you are increasing in purity and holiness, and you are choosing to live a lifestyle of continual renewing of your mind.
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