March 21, 2024 | Paradigm Shift (Excerpt from Daughters of the King Book)

 

"I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of 
God's power for us who believe in Him..."
Excerpt from Ephesians 1:19-23

Today's Triumphant Victorious Reminder points to Deuteronomy 6.  I find it amazing how often we forget the greatness of God. Yet no wonder, as recorded in Deuteronomy 6, we seem to witness a divine hyperbole, a holy adamancy:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on your doorframes of your houses and gates...be careful you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

- Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 12 (I encourage you to read the entire chapter)

Upon this reminder, I woke up this morning with a seeming whisper in my spirit to reflect back on a testimonial I wrote in a book, Daughters of the King. It is an anthology compiled to point to God's goodness in the midst of the difficult and the hard. This book is a collaboration with almost 40 women. 

This morning as I awoke, feeling physically sluggish and knowing I have not been doing my best with making better eating choices, a loving nudge to read my own testimony of God's faithfulness from the book reminded me yet again of not forgetting the Lord. Hence, to not forget is to be reminded.

To share this reminder from the devotional, may it encourage God's paradigm shift within you.

"Machines beeped. Long, glass doors surrounded me. I was lying down in the ICU bed.

How did I get here? I knew I wasn't feeling well, but I didn't know it was this bad. That's when a thought came, "Well this health scare was a wake-up call."  When suddenly it seemed as though the Holy Spirit intercepted that thought like a hockey stick to a puck. He violently cast that thought out so quickly while divinely interrupting with, "No! This is not a health scare. I do not lead by fear. You must see how strong I made your body. This moment is evidence of how your body was fighting to live for you." 

How often have I thought my body was closer to dying when in reality was vying and fighting to live. Fighting the gravity of decay. That was the moment of God's perspective planted so deeply within my heart. In that moment is when another thought swept in with a call to come up higher: "From now on you will see because your body was willing to fight for you, even when you weren't willing to fight for it. How much more will it work for you when you do your part." That's when the perspective of "Not wanting to be sick" shifted to "Getting to be healthy." From that perspective and mindset is where it had to change, so the true transformation in my heart from God could take place - causing everything else to follow.

Meanwhile, God sent a woman, a clinical pharmacist and diabetes educator whom I met through social media, her name is Lisa Pena and she helped me to maintain this perspective in Christ that transcended into the practical realm. I began to see the moments before me as a decision to live with the heart of worship, instead of ritual and obligation. I began to see the "get tos" overriding the "have tos." My friend Lisa continued to remind me that my organs were depending on me to do my part, so they could properly do theirs. 

How many times have I blamed my body for doing things that were only a result of what I took for granted? That was the moment I began to repent to God and even speak to my organs. As Lisa was helping me through the glycemic index, I remember she stopped and looked at me through our Zoom call and said, "Teresa, you have the ability to repent to God even over your organs." So, one of the things I did was pray, "Pancreas, I am sorry you haven't been able to trust me, but from here on out, I will do my part, so you are taken care of." Although it sounds a little crazy, I had to do this to really own up to my part.

Think about it. If I were to buy a new car and never maintain it by not getting the oil changed, never getting the tires rotated, never getting the fluids changed and filled, and all the other maintenance responsibilities, then one day when my car didn't work properly, who would be to blame - the car or my lack of stewardship of the car? And yet, all the while, I get frustrated with my car, complaining how it's good for nothing when my part was to simply take care of it.

So, in this life, it's about stewarding what is not our own and getting to do so with worshipful awe and grateful heart to God Who is in the midst of all of our trials and triumphs. During every situation, He has so generously provided. It's a paradigm shift from lack to abundance - from death to life and from "have tos" to "get tos." May the shifting of our focus be turned to Who we get to do this with and for. This shift can only happen from a heart that is reminded to be grateful to God for who He is and what He has given to us."

When we have those moments of complacency or grumbling, may we remember to hear God's call to stewardship, and let it be our notification or alert to simply be grateful to God. We can count our blessings, one by one, and be in awe of all that He has given us and even more than that, being in awe of who God is. 

Today's Triumphant Victorious Reminders is to remember we get to be grateful for everything God is doing in us and how His presence is closer than near in the midst of the hard and the difficult. The paradigm shift of death to life - darkness to light - from self-reliance to dying to self and coming alive in Christ...especially with the practical moments of our lives. What a life we get to live in Christ Jesus.

To learn more about Teresa's books: