WRITTEN BY CHERYL WELLS
Our theme for 2020 was Glory! Well, Ann Voscamp said in her Advent book, The Greatest Gift, “The glory’s rising – glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth, because God has left the glory of the galaxies and come down to our depths.” He left heaven to come be with us in the midst of our sin and mess.
Our 2021 theme is going to be God’s Faithfulness, No Matter What. On Christmas Eve at our First Hometown Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, I spoke and shared this scripture – For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. (Isaiah 9:6 ) God is with us. That is what I have repeated over and over since Thanksgiving all the way to the end of 2020 as truth and our encouragement. God is with us.
Jehovah Shammah, You are here with us. You are faithful and that will never change. We can look back and see the faithfulness of God to each one of us, over and over. As we do that, we become sure and “more sure” that God will stay with us. God stays with us…
I want to encourage you that no matter what will come our way in 2021, God will stay with you. He will always be there because He is faithful. The faithfulness of God will never change, ever. Yes, we change, we falter, we don’t keep our word. But God is not like us. If we have believed the lie that God changes His mind, or doesn’t keep His promises, we have sin in that. Sin keeps us from experiencing God’s best and even His felt presence. What do I mean??? Have you ever felt like God was not with you? Have you been, or are you in a season of doubt because you can’t feel or hear Him?
If that’s where you are, please know that He loves you and would not leave you, ever. You may have shut Him out because of a lie that you believe about Him. I want to walk you through how to clear the way for you to be close to Him and know His presence again so intimately. When we believe a lie about God and choose that as our truth, it is sin against God. At that point, we are believing the enemy of our soul and agreement is like making a covenant with Satan. We don’t do that on purpose, the enemy is so tricky and that is how he lied to Adam and Eve and got them to take a deadly step that affects us all.
Ask this question – what lie do I believe about You, God? What am I believing that is hindering my walk with You? Be silent and wait so that you can listen and know. I pray that you will “know” and I have prayed ahead for each of you.
Maybe you have believed a lie that has caused you to not trust God? Or maybe your heart has hardened because of a break in a relationship? No matter what it is that has kept you from Jesus and living in the Spirit, the step to bridge that gap is small.
- Just ask Him to forgive you specifically for it.
- Call out your sin, out loud, to Jesus. Break off the agreement with the enemy and send it back to the pit of hell in Jesus’ name, and then out loud choose to agree with God.
- Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. He is so faithful and He wants to be with you.
- Receive His forgiveness and His comfort.
- Tell Him that you receive it now and affirm that He is faithful to you.
- Enjoy the fellowship of Jesus and those that might have been shut out because of sin. God is so faithful.
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)
