PUT YOUR BUTS… WHERE THEY BELONG
Did you know that people can say one thing but really be thinking another? Just listen to them talk. People actually live according to what they say after the word “but.” I don’t care what they say first before this conjunction; it’s what comes after that you hear what they are really thinking and believing in their heart.
Example: “So and so is a good man, we are lucky to have him for a pastor; “but” … now we are going to hear what they really think about the pastor. “But he talks too much.” “But his sermons are a bit dry.” But… But… But…”
Sadly, most Christians typically say the wrong things before and after the “but”. We put God’s truth before the but and our situations or feelings after. We say things like, “I know Jesus loves me, but it doesn’t feel like it,” or “I know God is my sufficiency, but I don’t really have what I need,” or “I know I can do all things through Christ, but that’s easier said than done, “or but I’m only human,” etc. You get the picture.
Now when we do this to ourselves, where are we living? We are living in the negative thinking within. “For as a man thinks within himself, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7
We need to learn to live out of God’s truth, to live out of the life of Christ within us. Our enemy the devil doesn’t care how much God-talk we use in our lives as long as we put it before the “but.” God’s truth belongs after the” but.” (I pray you are grasping this.)
A name for putting God-talk after the “but” where it belongs is The Holy But. Our Lord used it in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, “Father, take this cup from me, yet not my will be done, but yours.”
The Holy But is a bridge. It moves us from our negative thinking to faith in Christ Jesus. We don’t deny our circumstances because they are real, but they should prompt us to move through faith into living in the truth of our New Life within.
The Apostle Paul understood The Holy But, too. Let’s look at II Corinthians 4:7-10:
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed: perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned’ struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
Paul also penned Galatians 2:20 which reads: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (and) the life I live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God…”
LIFE LESSON: To operate The Holy But, we have to put our circumstances first before the “but” and God’s truth last after the “but”. This will move us from our circumstances to the solution-the Spirit life within… the hope of glory. So, from now on Saints…!
PUT YOUR BUTS… WHERE THEY BELONG
“I feel awfully weak, but Christ is my strength.”
“I am in pain, but Christ is my sufficiency.”
Bottom line; “But for the Grace of God go I… apart from Him I can do nothing.”
We appreciate your continued prayers and financial support. Thank you for your faithfulness in both.
Growing in His Grace
