How to stop a Zombie attack!

There are many times that I feel like I am being attacked by a zombie. A zombie, for those not into trendy, supernatural creatures, are animated corpses. They are slow, cumbersome, and have no thought process except to feed on the closest living human. Yes, extremely pleasant.

No, I do not believe Zombies really exist, but I can conjure one up fairly quickly. You see, when we ask Jesus to be Lord of our life, we are a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!" (NLT)

God may put a dream, or a challenge, or just call me to something that will advance His kingdom, and I immediately conjure up my dead self. My dead self reminds me of all the reasons why I cannot pursue what I am called to do, why I cannot live out the dream He has given, why I will fail at whatever challenge is placed in front of me.

Whether it is a shortcoming, a past failure, or even a sin I have committed, my dead self is right there to crush whatever God has placed in front of me. It feeds off of this life that has been given to me, trying to kill it as fast as it can. The more it feeds off of my dreams, the more condemnation, shame and hurt I am left with.

There are 4 main ways to kills a zombie.
1. Destroy its brain. Movies portray this usually with a buckshot rifle aimed at the zombie's head. With our zombie, we need to basically do the same thing. We need to stop giving the zombie a voice. Use the promises of God to kill the zombie's thought center. When the zombie says "you can't" remember the God says "I can!" When the zombie says "you are not equipped" remember that God says"I will." When the zombie says, "you aren't good enough" remember that God says "I AM!"

2. Sever the head of the zombie. When you sever the head, the body has no direction. Sever the head of your personal zombie by staying focused on what God has called you to. When God presents an opportunity, it is rarely dropped in your lap. I think the reason why we often need to work for what we want is so that we appreciate the outcome more, and more importantly, we appreciate the Giver.

3. Set the Zombie on fire. Our God is a God of redemption and a million chances. When we turn our old self over to Him, he will use it to fuel the fire of His glory! Confess your struggle, turn it over to God and He will use it for His good. His fire burns hot and true, and will purify all of our sins, shortcomings and mistakes!

4. Completely Crush the Zombie. Here's the coolest thing about this one, Jesus already has done this for us! We need to recognize and accept that. Since the very beginning, God promised that, though Satan may strike at our heel, Jesus would crush his head! (Genesis 3:15)

When Satan is striking at your heels with your old, dead self remember these strategies and you will overcome.

One more thing, the zombie state is infectious. Sometimes it isn't the inner voice that kills the dreams, sometimes it is someone  else who reminds you of all the reasons you cannot measure up. Job's friends did this to him, but he still praised God. The Israelites tried to get Moses to turn back to Egypt, He chose to listen to God instead. Even the disciples tried to tell Jesus there wasn't enough food to feed all the people. Jesus turned the food over to God and a miracle occurred! When the zombie apocalypse is coming down on you, follow the example of these Biblical heroes: continue to praise God, listen to God's voice, turn the situation over to God and allow the miracles to happen.
 

Sufficient Grace- The Power of Forgiveness

Have you ever made a mistake. You know, one of those honest ones. And when you make the mistake, even after an apology, the injured party doesn't seem to forgive? Yeah, this happened a couple of weeks ago.
We were at a neighbors and my son, being the curious and industrious boy that he is, decided to use a bubble wand as a bat. As soon as he hit the ball with his makeshift bat, the bubble wand disintegrated and bubble juice flew everywhere- including our neighbor's freshly-made mug of coffee. "I apologized for. Y son's misstep, he apologized as well. I turned and asked my neighbor if she was ok, and she said, "No! It got in my coffee!"
Now, everyone will react to a situation in their own way. If it were me, i may have responded "No, but kids will do things like this." Or, "no biggie." I guess it depends on my attitude leading up to the disastrous event.
My mama-bear reaction to her non-acceptance of my, and my son's, apology was snarky, at best. Praise God that He didn't let it actually be said out loud. This was went through my mind to say to her, "I am so glad God's grace is sufficient for us because if we had to depend on yours, we'd be sunk!"

Here is the truth- there is no point in holding a grudge or resentment towards someone because God's Grace IS sufficient. If you ask for forgiveness, whether it is accepted by the other person or not, you ARE forgiven by the one it matters most. Forgiveness is not for the other person's sake, it is for our own heart. Sometimes we are the ones who need to forgive, and we don't want to. We want to hold onto the anger. Forgiveness can make us seem weak.

2 Corinthians 12 talks about this. First, in verse 9, it states that God's Grace is sufficient. It goes on a few verses later to say that we are strong in our weakness. Asking for forgiveness, or forgiving someone, may seem like a "weak" move in the world's eyes, but the Bible says we find strength in our weakness. How true of forgiveness! We gain Christ's strength when we choose forgiveness! How awesome is that!

If you have the chance, if you have the guts, choose forgiveness today. Experience the freedom, the strength you can receive for this offering.