Today’s Reading:
1 Peter 5
Jeremiah 31
1 Corinthians 6
Hebrews 11
Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.
1 Peter 5:7 MSG
I heard the Spirit of the Living God say,
To you it looks like pressure is rising, and it is. But your interpretation of what you see is wrong. The pressure is not rising to intensify. It is rising to lift off of you. I have provided this sweet, beautiful lightness. I have provided the gentle refreshing of My Presence. It’s My desire for you to experience that instead of the pressure and the weight and the difficulty that you have assumed.
I’ll refresh tired bodies; I’ll restore tired souls.
Jeremiah 31:25 MSG
Remember My yoke is easy and My burden is light. You have felt as though you were operating under extreme pressure. Well, I Am releasing the pressure, so don’t hold onto it. Don’t claw it back. Don’t assume that the absence of this heavy, burdensome pressure means you’ve done something wrong or you’re missing something or not somehow hard at work. Imagine how much more you can get done, in the lightness and ease and freedom that I Am bringing through the release of this burdensome, almost suffocating pressure. I want you to learn to operate well in the place of freedom — in the place of freedom of movement, freedom of thought, freedom of choice. I want you to remember that this is a vast place. Where I have placed you is a vast place, not a confined one.
Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
2 Corinthians 6:11-13 MSG
Open up your mind and heart to experience new things, to experience newness in yourself — newness of perspective, refreshing and even newness of belief. Allow your faith to grow like wild vines here —uncontrolled and sprawling — rather than held tightly and sequestered. This is a time of My grace. So receive it. Don’t fight the lifting off of this great pressure. I’m giving you freedom to run. Where you have felt confined and stagnant, I Am releasing you to run and gallop and race ahead. This is a new day. Don’t claw back that old pressure. Leave it in the ether. And run.
How to Respond
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
- Pray, Holy Spirit thank You for lifting the pressure, for releasing the pressure and for refreshing me and giving me great ease. Help me to adjust to this lightness, and help me to operate well in the freedom You have brought me. I want to live and work with a fresh perspective and with wildly growing and sprawling faith. I want to leave that old pressure cooker behind.
- Declare, The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.
— Hebrews 11:1-2 MSG - Decree, The Lord is faithful, and He wants us to live freely in His freedom. He has not boxed me in or put me under extreme pressure. He is releasing the valve on the pressure cooker I find myself in, and He is opening my eyes to the vastness of the freedom He has set before me. I will choose to live in the refreshing He brings. I choose to run freely and openly in this place. And I will not hold tightly to my little seed of faith, causing it to be hidden and constrained. I will open my mind and hands and allow it to sprawl and grow like vibrant wild vines all around me.
For more encouragement from The Glory & New Wine, check out the post from this day in years past:
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2022:
2021:
