bersepeda bersama Yesus Juli 4, 2009
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dari saudara Simon Hadipratono
Pada awalnya, aku memandang Tuhan sebagai seorang pengamat; seorang hakim yang mencatat segala kesalahanku, sebagai bahan pertimbangan apakah aku akan dimasukkan ke surga atau dicampakkan ke dalam neraka pada saat aku mati. Dia terasa jauh sekali, seperti seorang raja. Aku tahu Dia melalui gambar-gambar-Nya, tetapi aku tidak mengenal-Nya.
Ketika aku bertemu Yesus, pandanganku berubah.
Hidupku menjadi bagaikan sebuah arena balap sepeda, tetapi sepedanya adalah sepeda tandem, dan aku tahu bahwa Yesus duduk di belakang, membantu aku mengayuh pedal sepeda.
Aku tidak tahu sejak kapan Yesus mengajakku bertukar t emp at, tetapi sejak itu hidupku jadi berubah.
Saat aku pegang kendali, aku tahu jalannya.
Terasa membosankan, tetapi lebih dapat diprediksi … biasanya, hal itu tak berlangsung lama.
Tetapi, saat Yesus kembali pegang kendali, Ia tahu jalan yang panjang dan menyenangkan.
Ia membawaku mendaki gunung, juga melewati batu-batu karang yang terjal dengan kecepatan yang menegangkan.
Saat-saat seperti itu, aku hanya bisa menggantungkan diriku sepenuhnya pada-Nya!
Terkadang rasanya seperti sesuatu yang ‘gila’, tetapi Ia berkata, ‘Ayo, kayuh terus pedalnya!’
Kadang Aku takut, khawatir dan bertanya, ‘Aku mau dibawa ke mana?’
Yesus tertawa dan tak menjawab, dan aku mulai belajar percaya.
Aku melupakan kehidupan yang membosankan dan memasuki suatu petualangan baru yang mencengangkan.
Dan ketika aku berkata, ‘AKU TAKUT !’ Yesus menurunkan kecepatan, mengayuh santai sambil menggenggam tanganku.
Ia membawaku kepada orang-orang yang menyediakan hadiah-hadiah yang aku perlukan …
orang-orang itu membantu menyembuhkan aku, mereka menerimaku dan memberiku sukacita. Mereka membekaliku dengan hal-hal yang aku perlukan untuk melanjutkan perjalanan … perjalananku bersama Tuhanku. Lalu, kami pun kembali mengayuh sepeda kami.
Kemudian, Yesus berkata, ‘Berikan hadiah-hadiah itu kepada orang-orang yang membutuhkannya;
Jika tidak, hadiah-hadiah itu akan menjadi beban bagi kita.’
Maka, aku pun melakukannya.
Aku membagi-bagikan hadiah-hadiah itu kepada orang-orang yang kami jumpai, sesuai kebutuhan mereka.
Aku belajar bahwa ternyata memberi adalah sesuatu yang membahagiakan.
Pada mulanya, aku tidak ingin m emp ercayakan hidupku sepenuhnya kepadaNya.
Aku takut Ia menjadikan hidupku berantakan; tetapi Yesus tahu rahasia mengayuh sepeda.
Ia tahu bagaimana menikung di tikungan tajam, Ia tahu bagaimana melompati batu karang yang tinggi, Ia tahu bagaimana terbang untuk m emp ercepat melewati t emp at-t emp at yang menakutkan.
Aku belajar untuk diam sementara terus mengayuh … menikmati pemandangan dan semilir angin sepoi-sepoi yang menerpa wajahku selama perjalanan bersama Sahabatku yang setia: Yesus Kristus.
Dan ketika aku tidak tahu apa lagi yang harus aku lakukan,
Yesus akan tersenyum dan berkata …
‘Mengayuhlah terus, Aku bersamamu.’
Breaking free from The spirit of fear Juni 18, 2009
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by Joyce Meyer
Everyone of us deals with fear regardless of our age, gender or nationality. And it’s a powerful force than Satan uses against us in an attempt to paralyze and keep us from moving forward to receive the will of God for our lives. I believe that the more attention we give to fear, the more power it has to influence and control our lives. Job 3:25 says, For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me. The more we think about fear, the more opportunity we give fear to take control of our lives. I have found that the best antidote for fear is faith. Although you and I can’t do anything to keep the enemy from bringing his thoughts of fear against us, we can choose what we are going to think about. Through our faith and the words we speak, we can overcome Satan’s attacks.
Exposing Fear
Many years ago my outlook on life was extremely negative. I was so bad that even a few hours before Dave and I were married, I had this lingering feeling that he was going to back out. I feared that I would show up at the church and he wouldn’t be there. I had experienced so many disappointments, devastations, and hurtful situations in my life that my mindset had become, If I don’t expect anything good to happen, then I won’t be disappointed when it doesn’t happen. I thought that by thinking this way, I was protecting myself from being disappointed, but the truth was that I was miserable.
When I first began to seriously study God’s Word, the Lord showed me that I had many deep-rooted fears in my life. And one day while I was in the bathroom getting ready, God suddenly made me aware of a strong feeling that something bad was going to happen to me that day.
Within moments God revealed to me that I had lived with this feeling for most of my life. So I asked Him, ”What is this?” The Holy Spirit answered, ”It’s evil forebodings.” Webster’s II New College Dictionary defines the word foreboding as “a sense of impending misfortune or evil.” Now until this time, I had never heard anything like this. However, the Lord confirmed this in my heart by leading me to Proverbs 15:15. It says, All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances].
As God revealed this to me, I began to realize that Satan had been playing the same recording in my ears all my life. It said, ”Something bad is going to happen to you.” The more I meditated on his message, the more it became embedded in my thinking and my speaking. I received, believed and spoke his thoughts of fear. As a result, I was in agreement with the enemy.
Faith in Action
Just as fear is a force that draws the will of Satan into our life, faith is a force that draws the will of God into our life. In order for my fearful mindset to be broken, my thinking needed to be renewed. God wanted to free me, but in order for me to receive His freedom, I needed to have faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that …without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to [God]…
Once I recognize that fear was active in my life, I had to decide to stand against it. I purposely began to refuse Satan’s fears and choose to have faith in God’s Word. Even though it made no sense to my mind and I had no emotional feeling to back it up, I began to believe God for good things to happen.
God honored my faith and help me to develop a positive perspective. But it seemed as though something was still missing. So I went back to God and said, “I did what you told me. I stopped thinking and speaking fearful and negative thoughts, but I don’t see much change in my life.” His response was, “You’ve stopped thinking and saying the wrong thing, but you haven’t started saying the right thing.”
The Lord showed me that it is not enough to stop doing the wrong thing – we need to start doing the right thing. In this case, the right was a start speaking the promises of God. They key to keeping the devil off our back is to act in faith instead of react in fear.
Armed with The Word
I believe that one of the greatest weapons you and I have as believers is our mouth. Scripture gives us examples of the power of the spoken Word. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, the Scripture says He defeated Satan by speaking the Word (see Luke 4:1-13). In the book of Genesis, we find that God spoke and created the world and everything in it. Romans 4:17 says that we serve a God who …calleth those things which be not as though they were (KJV).
With this in mind, I made a list of about a hundred confessions – all based on God’s Word – that I felt God wanted me to start saying. Two or three times a day. I would speak these things over my life. When God first called me, He put in my heart that I would have a worldwide teaching ministry. So one of the things that I began to say out loud was, “I get speaking engagements every day of my life – by mail, phone and in person.” At the time I began saying this, I hadn’t had one speaking engagement. Now I receive hundreds of invitations every month.
Once my mind and mouth started getting into agreement with God’s will, God began to do mighty things in my life. The more I received, believed and spoke God’s Word against the devil’s deceptive lies, the less Satan was able to manipulate and control me. Soon I began to see radical changes in virtually every area of my life.
Don’t Fear Fear!
I believe that God wants to see His people set free from fear to live a life full of expectancy. Scripture tells us that His eyes search the earth looking to bless all who are looking to be blessed. Isaiah 30:18 says that …the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you …Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!
I want to encourage you to open your heart to God, and ask Him to show you where you may have fear in your life. And although fear will try to attack you, it doesn’t make you a coward. Fear only becomes a problem when you and I receive it and let it control our lives instead of standing against it and confronting it with the truth of God’s Word. The next time fear attacks you, you don’t have to say, “I’m afraid… I’m afraid…” Instead, you can say, “I believe that God had a good plan for my life! Through Christ I am more than a conqueror!” (See Lamentations 3:25, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:37.) By aggressively standing against Satan’s fears, we can shut the door on his plan for our lives and open the door to God’s blessings.
