I remember being afraid of the dark until I was about twenty years old. I remember shutting off all of the lights in my little one bedroom apartment and running back to my bed and hiding under the covers. It was all a mind game really, having seen scary things in the past I would conjur them up in my mind at bed time or when I couldn’t physically see what was around me. But the funny thing is, when I got to my bed, being able to cover myself up was where I felt better. I could burrow under my covers and none of the awful things that I thought about could get me there. I was safe and had complete control. I wouldn’t come out and face the world until the sun came back out.

I imagine that living in spiritual darkness is a similar experience. 1 John 1:5-7 Tells us that “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

I use to fear the images my mind would dream up at night or the possibility of someone else being in my apartment with me. (Which is silly because it was only 580 sq. ft. and I totally would have known) but the other side of that was that once I was buried under my covers, no one could see me. I was free to do whatever I wanted and no one would ever know unless I told them.

It’s easy to profess around other believers that we love God and fellowship with him daily. We sings songs of worship, we study our bibles, we join small groups, we pray…occasionally. But what are we doing in the darkness, where no one can see us? Who are we in our private time when it’s just us? Are we scrolling through social media, jealous in our hearts over the lives that all of our “friends” are leading? Are we gorging ourselves on food or substances to help us medicate our insecurity? Are we entertaining pornography or engaging in selfish sexual practices out of boredom or lust?

The Bible says that we are not able to truly fellowship with our Abba father or to be cleansed of our sins if we are not proactively living in the light. In the light is not only where God lives and who he is, but it is where truth lives, it is where forgiveness lives and it’s where our cleansing takes place. If we are not able to let go of the things that have us bound in the darkness, then there is no way that we could ever experience true fellowship and relation with God.

Our hearts are rebellious at best and unrepentant hearts is what pushes us further and further away from the light. Now that’s not to say that once you come in to the light you will be perfect, but you will have the opportunity to see yourself and to see God. You can be open, honest and transparent before the father when you fall and he is faithful and just to forgive.

It’s when we try and hide what we are struggling with and try to push God away while we get ourselves together, that we begin to make spiritual darkness our home.

I want to encourage you today and let you know that no shame, no fear, no sin, no nothing is strong enough to keep you from God and his marvelous light. So what have you given the power and authority over your life? Whatever it is isn’t worth it, and no match for our almighty, Abba. So whatever it is that you’re going through or may be struggling with, say no today.

Be intentional with your walk, come out into the light where God is able to see the beautiful child that he has created. He longs to cleanse us, affirm us, love us and guide us. All he needs is our sincerity and attention.

Will you give him all of you today?

Love you!

Amber D. Avery

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God has given us such a broad spectrum of emotion, and from infancy we are able to communicate our likes and dislikes in such an intuitive yet haphazard way. I believe that God has given us the ability to feel many different ways so that we may experience a deeply abundant life in Christ, where we can identify with others, empathize with others and maybe even gain a small perspective on how God feels towards us, as his children.

Though we’ve been gifted with different emotions, we’ve still got to be vigilant stewards of how they shape our everyday lives and decisions. We may not always have complete control over how we feel, but we do have control over how we respond to circumstances that may prompt our emotions to rule over us.

The Holy Spirit is a HUGE helper when it comes to self control and will often help us control negative, overzealous behavior, blatantly rude words toward others, or even protecting us from our own self inflicted emotional bouts.

When I originally thought of the concept: Eating from the table of Emotion, I saw a banquet table lined with the finest foods, but when I went over and saw the serving platters, attached to every delicious dish, was an emotion.  Sadness, next to doubt and joy, anger wedged in between depression and peace. I had the option to pile whatever onto my plate, savoring and feeling what I wanted to. But what I noticed was that there were only two serving spoons and they had already been used in things like grief and anxiety. I waited to see if the waiter would come to replace what had already been used, but no one ever came. I was forced to use the same spoon that had just been in anger to dole out my own happiness and joy.

Galations 5:22 reminds us of all the good fruit that the Holy Spirit develops in our lives, but it is not necessarily in the absence of feelings and emotions that may affect us in a negative way. Even though sometimes in life we’re forced to eat of sad and oppressive situations,  we still have the option to press into the Holy Spirit; partaking in joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness instead. It may not always be easy, but knowing that tough times effect everyone is a great forecast into the future and an amazing opportunity to trust that God will take care of us in those times.

Love Always,

Amber Danielle

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Imagine that on the inside of our hearts there is a tiny little thrown nestled inside. It’s the epicenter of life filled with hopes, dreams, aspirations, goals and desires. Whatever is on the thrown of our hearts will effect every aspect of our lives.

This particular place in our hearts was made for Jesus to make his home. In Matthew 8:20, Jesus says “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to even lay his head.” Some theologians would suggest that Jesus’ desire was to make a home on the inside of our hearts, so that he could always be with us. And what’s neat is that we are the home of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us.

Our hearts can become a cluttered place, and through the transitions of life and circumstance, the thrown of our hearts can be occupied by something or someone who isn’t Jesus. But when he enters our hearts and sees that the thrown is occupied by something else, he patiently waits to take a seat in his rightful place.

For example: We may find ourselves in situations where we are being tested or we have the opportunity to return to the old versions of ourselves who didn’t reverence or fear God, and didn’t care very much about his will or his way. Or we have the option to behave in a way that says I am no longer inspired by fear, unrighteous emotion or insecurity. I am now inspired by the word of God, I am inspired by the prompting of his Holy Spirit, and I am inspired to do right because I want Christ to be pleased more than I want to succumb to the immaturity of my flesh.

Let’s say for instance, that pornography is seated on the thrown of your heart. You think to yourself: It’s not hurting anyone else. It’s a much better alternative than actually engaging in sexual activity with someone else. Maybe you’re in a courtship and it’s something that you run to, to keep from overstepping your boundaries with your significant other. Either way, porn has found a way to desensitize you into thinking that it’s not “that bad” and that you’re not hurting anyone else. The truth is that you’ve allowed for pornography to come and destroy the idea of sex that God has created for marriage. You’ve allowed for it to distort your expectations and desires of what your sex life should be like after marriage and it touches multiple aspects of your life, even if you can’t visibly see it. So in the moment it may feel like a quick fix to your problems when you’re all alone, all the while it’s destroying our future marriages, courtships, relationships and dispositions. It’s giving a home to something in our hearts that has absolutely no intention or POWER to save us as Christ would–seated on the throne of our hearts where he belongs.

The beautiful thing about our relationship with Christ is that he has given us the gift of free will. He’s not forcing his way on to the thrown, or bullying us to do anything that we willfully don’t already want to do. Which in turn is an awesome opportunity to see ourselves and where we may need some improvement in our lives. The great thing about living for God is that even when we don’t feel like it, or we know all of the right things to do–and don’t do them–that we can ask God to give us the desire to please him and to live the way that he desires us to. We can be open and honest with him, relinquishing our feelings and emotions and submitting our lives unto him for repair.

The cool thing about free will is that it shows us ourselves and provides us an opportunity to be open and transparent about our lives with Christ. And it’s not that he doesn’t already know, because Christ is all knowing. It gives us the opportunity to make that cognitive decision to submit our lives unto Christ. If God had to force our hand or bully us into giving him what he deserved, he would never really know how we truly care for him or desire to live for him. If he were to force us to pray, worship or tell him that we love him daily, how would he ever really know if those actions were genuine or sincere? He wouldn’t, because the actions would be contrived and robotic.

So take advantage of the opportunity to give God the thrown of your heart, today! Right now! Jesus is the perfect gentleman and would never force us to do anything that we didn’t want to do, so make the decision today to let him in. He desires to lead and guide the direction of our lives, and to spend eternity with us in heaven when this life is over. So maximize the time that you have here on earth to accomplish the will that God has for your life, so that when we transition from this life to the next, we can celebrate in heaven, worshiping God all the days of our eternal life!

Love you!
Amber

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