Child of Mine....

"When you were a child, I called you my own. And you were mine. When you were a child, You could not standalone...but you were fine. I want to know that child again. Maybe time has changed you, but Love remembers when. You called my name and like the wind I carried you away. It seems like only yesterday. When You were a child. When you were a child, the world was the unknown. But you were wise to simply trust in me that I will never leave and hold on tight."

What about sin blinds us? What about the enemy's tool hardens our heart so that our Joy can't be found? What makes us loose sight of our convictions? At Encounter last night, Matt was talking about Joy....and our fight to hold onto it! When we loose Joy, we loose perspective, the perspective of God's plan for our life. And when we loose perspective, we are tempted. The Enemy uses the sin that he tempts us wih to steal our joy. The longer we walk without Joy, the weaker our perspective grows and the easier it will be for us to fall into the lies of Satan. The less convicted we become about our sin and the more hard hearted we become, the hader it will be to climb back out of the valley that we will find ourselves in. To fight for Joy is to actively engage everything about what is true of God. If you loose sight of what is true about our God and about yourself- you will sin. This steals your joy, it dishonors God, and cheapens his grace. "cheapens His grace..." That is such a powerful statement. Think about it.....when you sin- it cheapens the value of grace in your life. Even though God's grace is enough, and it always will be, it still cheapens the value of what it means to you. If you sin, knowing that you are sinning, and also knowing that god's grace will be there to fix evereything when you decide to stop sinning, then it puts us in the mindset that God's grace is our clutch- and it is NOT our clutch....it is anything but that! It is a gift....a precious gift that God gives us so that we may live. and when we take advatage of that grace- we wil pay the consequences. God is merciful, but he is also a vengful God. so don't cheapen his grace. Dont sell grace short....it will always pick us up, but only when God allows it.