Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Day 3 THE ACTION CHAMBER

I continue to ask God to reveal to me the things He wants us to know. What areas hold us back? Where do we lack action? It's not always fun being the messenger because I realize that some of you may not like this post or lesson today. But there are areas in our life that must be exposed. As long as these things remain in the darkness, the enemy has a foothold. When we expose them, the enemy is rendered powerless and Christ is able to use our imperfections to set someone else free! Thank God for that! Glad to know He can use my junk and create something beautiful from it.

This afternoon I asked the Lord to show me why women continue to struggle with the same problems over and over again? What keeps us from changing? True change. Where do we lack action? As we continue to study the HEART, we now move to the right ventricle, ACTION. So what is the function of the right ventricle? Here's what I found.

Right ventricle: Receives blood from the right atrium and pumps it to the main pulmonary artery. The main pulmonary artery extends from the right ventricle and branches into left and right pulmonary arteries, which extend to the lungs. Here oxygen-poor blood picks up oxygen and is returned to the heart via the pulmonary veins.

When I saw this definition, I had a pretty big "a ha" moment so I began to study more about the right ventricle. Instantly I was drawn to the word "deoxygenated blood". This blood has to be restored with oxygen because it doesn't have any. It's amazing process to read how the blood is restored and how the right ventricle is a source of ACTION. I don't want to lose you with all the medical terms but it is amazing how it can be applied to our spiritual hearts. The ACTION CHAMBER!

Here is a list of things the Lord revealed to me regarding the ACTION CHAMBER. This is the "deoxygenated" stuff that needs to be restored. This is the stuff that doesn't have "life". It's a reduced state and needs to be filled with OXYGEN! When it is filled with oxygen, it brings life and it flows throughout our heart into our veins and into the lives of others.

1. Instead of keeping our joy no matter what others say about us, we allow others to constantly control our emotions.

2. Instead of being secure in Christ and enjoying our friends and family, we wonder who and who doesn't like us.

3. Instead of giving others the benefit of the doubt, we allow things like facebook and twitter to consume us. Jealousy, anger, paranoia and so much more come as a result of jumping to conclusions.

4. Instead of overlooking another's faults, we take offense easily.

5. Instead of praying for our friends and realizing Jesus loves them just as much as He loves us,we gossip about our friends.

6. Instead of trusting God to handle all of our needs, we constantly talk about our problems. We brew and brew and brew.

7. Instead of being there for our friends, taking their kids for an afternoon, helping them clean or do laundry, fixing them supper, we are consumed with ourselves.

8. Instead of allowing others to see that we too have struggles, we pretend we don't.

9. Instead of giving grace to others, grace we also need, we assume!!!

10. Instead of loving when we do not agree or understand, we DO NOT love.

Now there are a few on this list that I feel I don't battle any longer but I look forward to the day when I can have victory over all of these. Maybe you struggle with one or two, maybe all of them. The truth is, if we are HONEST, we have ALL struggled with every single one of them at one point or another.

Bottom line. If we are not at a place where we can examine the four chambers of our hearts, we cannot take action and we will remain. Unless we expose these nasty habits and mindsets, these ten things I have listed will continue to be a part of our everyday lives and we will NOT be renewed!

It's time to get out of our heads! Quit sitting around thinking everyone is plotting against us!

Can you be brave and own this? We aren't teenage girls! We are women! WOMEN OF GOD!

We've gotta quit getting offended! Quit thinking everyone is out to get us! We have to quit being so afraid of someone not agreeing with us or someone having a different set of standards and convictions. We have to allow others to be themselves! For some reason when someone is different than us, we feel threatened. We need to embrace the differences! Quit reading into everything posted on facebook and quit getting our feelings hurt. Unless we learn to release these things, we will remain.

These things we allow to control us is a roadblock to being RENEWED. Find women in your life who have freedom in this! That's who you want to hang out with! Look for a woman of action and study her!

I'm careful to make sure when I am writing this to not "talk at you". You will see I use the words us and we a lot. This is for me too friends, not just you. We can walk this together and own it together and be RENEWED together!

Let's be women of action!


Day 3 click here

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is it I am so quick to forgive pretty much anyone, but when it comes to someone I love dearly I find it so hard to truely forgive and forget? I feel like this has been a battle I have been fighting for such a very long time ane it is really bringing me ane my family down. I pray to love her for who she is and for the decisions she has made. Even though I do not agree with them, they are for a reason. I love people, people I barely know. But I find it challenging to truely love ane forgive my own mother...

Steph

Kelly said...

Powerful. Just what I needed this morning... as I was driving home from the bus stop I thought, "I am truly paranoid"! I see the negative and assume the worst and it is consuming me and stealing my joy. I pray I don't pass this on to my daughters... my greatest desire from this study is to be a better example for them.