Perception is important

Ps 147:3-5,11 .
3He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
His understanding has no limit.
11the Lord delights in those who fear Him,
who put their hope in His unfailing love.
One may say, it is perception that is important. To perceive His Love for us, we need only to look, His Love is all around us. Perception is important, let me give a example. Let’s take a brick, one person sees the future of a home or structure, a building material. Another may see a very effective tool to throw through a window. It all depends really on the heart of a person. How a person perceives who they are, and what they may want in and or out of life. God’s Love is clear, yet to many it is difficult to accept. It’s their hearts you see. A great many have trouble accepting His Love. The “placebo” effect is clear, it works on power of belief and trust. A placebo is an effect, not merely a thing. It is more or less a component of all healing yet is poorly understood or studied. In clinical trials a placebo pill, device, or procedure acts as a control to ensure that the effect seen with the treatment is specific, not only the result of the placebo effect or the natural evolution of an illness that accompany every therapeutic encounter. (Thompson WG. What are placebos, IFFGD 2002; Fact Sheet No. 172) As a person trusts the doctors, and believes what they are given will work, and it will more then often not. Why? What makes sugar pills or standing on your head and hopping on one foot for two minutes work? Faith. Plain and simple faith. Heb 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. God’s Love is Not a placebo! But what this does show is, Rom 10:10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. God’s Love is Real and can be counted on. What we believe and speak, reveals much of who we are. Heb 3:12-15 12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 15Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” We have been given such a great gift, but like all gifts unless, it is unwrapped and put to it use, what good does it do us? God knows what we are and are not capable of. He would not offer His Love to us, if we were not able to receive His Love, in Christ. As a matter of fact, as we are in Christ, nothing happens to us that we are not able to handle, with His Grace. Bottom line what are we being asked to do? Believe God Loves us and Cares for us. Believe His Word is True. We have already seen, we as humans have the ability to believe in, what we do not see to be true. Add the Power of Holy Spirit; the Spirit of God, nothing is impossible to the one who Believes. The proof of His Love is clear, all that Jesus did for us, and continues to do. All that the Father has done, and continues to do. The Spirit of the Lord, shows us; opens our eyes, to all we have in Him. 2Cor 1:8-11 We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,b about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 9In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. 10And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. 11And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety. As Paul tells us, “crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,” “But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God” There it is, we must come to the end of ourselves, so that we learn to rely on God. Now here is the thing, what is better, to learn this on our own, or adopt this Wisdom now. As that is the point of all this anyway. Obedience is better then sacrifice, is it better to obey; learn, then to ask for forgiveness later. We have been given all the tools to succeed, His Son, His Spirit, His Word. We have been given His Love, there is nothing Greater; nothing more Powerful then these things. We must chose however, to use what we have available to us, or not. And, that is the skinny anyway. Allow God to be Master, Jesus to be Lord, and yield to Holy Spirit and His leading. By His Grace we are able to fulfill, who and what we are in Christ.