The Bible clearly instructs us to walk with other believers. We are to be transparent with each other, right? I thought you might get a kick out of another possible one another.
“A joyful heart (brought on by laughter) is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). Hopefully this picture was a spoonful of medicine for you this fine Friday!
Set Free Noww“W”

It’s time to exercise. Count how many times you use the word “I” and “me” or any combination of these pronouns and time yourself while doing it to see how fast it takes you to get to 100.
When you’ve reached 100, filter the time it took you through Jesus’ statement that we are to listen to Him and follow Him (Jn. 10:27): how much time do you spend thinking about and listening to yourself rather thinking about and listening to Jesus?
2 Corinthians 10:5 states we are to “demolish arguments and every pretension (the “I” problem) that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” We are to tear down anything and everything that stands up to Christ, including ourselves. This exercise will help you to be honest with yourself. You, like me, probably think about yourself way too often, which if you are honest with yourself, is your major problem.
After exercising use the FREEdom process to start counting to Jesus faster than you do yourself as He is the solution to all our challenges.
Set “FREE” Nowww

I can remember vividly the very day when I fell in love with my then girl friend, Jan, who is now my wonderful bride of 27+ years. We were by the refrigerator in the house I was sharing with three other guys. I looked into her eyes and was hooked. To this day, I still feel tremendous joy looking into her loving and accepting eyes.
Now all those who are married will totally get what I’m about to say. There are times when you or your spouse does or says something that hurts. The last thing you want to do is to look into their eyes. What you want to do is to turn your back and either walk out of the room or roll over on your side of the bed. It’s a terrible feeling to be together and separate at the same time!
The moment we put our faith in what Jesus did for us, we became secure children of God. At that point, Jesus will never turn His back on us! His face will always be toward us. His eyes full of love and acceptance are always looking at us.
The question is, “Why would we let those loving eyes stare at the back of our head?” His love is unconditional (see Monday’s post), which means no matter how much we hurt or disappoint Him, we can look into His loving eyes. If only we would keep facing Him!
Don’t let your screw ups give you a double dip of pain – pain from messing up and pain from turning your back on the One whose hands are only reaching out to give you a hand up. You don’t have to put your head down! Get up and look straight into those loving and accepting eyes again. Let Him exchange your feeling of shame with significance and disgust with love.
When you fail, you choose what Jesus will see – your back or your face. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true: Jesus wants to look into your eyes and heal you. Let Him.
Jesus, our High Priest, is praying this for you and for me: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).
“S”et Free N“O”www

As healthy believers we don’t feel, but rather think our way into action as faith based decisions often go against the way we feel at any given moment. I like taking my drugs of choice as they make me feel good; yet this immediate high eventually becomes disastrous. Jesus asks us then to listen to and follow Him, which in some cases will not make sense let alone feel right.
One author put it this way, “Feelings are functional only when they are under intellectual control. When the opposite is the case, when feelings rule thought processes, irrational thinking and behavior are the inevitable outcome.” He showed through research that “for more than forty years, parents and schools have put more emphasis on children’s feelings (i.e., making them feel good about themselves) rather than on their thoughts. This is why so many of them have such difficulty thinking straight: choosing responsibility over irresponsibility, delaying gratification, holding back the wild horses of their impulses.”
It’s okay to feel, but they must be processed through the Truth. Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross in Gethsemane; yet, He went anyway as He filtered His feelings through what His Father told Him. Aren’t you glad His emotions were under the control of His thoughts?
S“E”t Free Nowww

I read a statement that caused me to ask, “Can what this person be saying actually be true?” They wrote, “Unconditional love is such an amazing non-reality.”
As I processed this statement through the Word, it started to sink in as true. We live in a fallen world, which means people as imperfect beings can and will hurt us. In order to protect ourselves from this hurt, we make boundaries or put up defensive walls. This very action means love can’t be unconditional. In effect we’re saying, “I’ll love you only so far. I’ll open up to you only as far as can I trust you not to hurt me.” Life on this planet is bathed in conditional love for this reason.
This is why we needed God’s unconditional love to break through our existence. He opens Himself up to us knowing that we will hurt and disappoint Him. He loved us long before He ever got anything out of the relationship too. He is our example of pure unadulterated unconditional love.
His unconditional love has been poured into our lives through the Spirit of God (Rom. 5:5). It’s already there; and yet, the Lord knowing it’s extremely difficult to not only grasp this kind of love, but experience it as well (Eph. 3:17-19) asks us to pray for each other to make it happen.
Who are you allowing to pray for you? Experiencing this love has to start with first believing it’s possible and then opening up to it. Let someone pray for you today!
Set Free Noww“W”