Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

We actually perceive and experience the world through our memories.  Our memories help us to observe and process new experiences and give them a place in our own unique life experiences. The most important thing to remember is God and His promises. So many times in the Bible we are told to remember. There are some wounds we would rather forget.  We falsely believe that if we don’t think about them, they will go away. They don’t.  Unhealed wounds that are hidden set us up for added sorrow in our relations with God and others.  This behavior can even be passed on to future generations. But if we recognize our memory as God’s gift to us, those things we believe will always plaque us  can be redeemed.  Absolutely nothing in our lives remains outside the reach of God’s love and mercy. If we try to hide or deny parts of our life story from God, others and ourselves, we’re assuming a divine role.  But instead if we let Him bless the past He can take those dark painful parts and bring healing. If we hide and pretend, it can become our identity and mask. We will lose our true self and wind up living an illusion. This goes back to pride that wants to take control and forget the truth of our existence, that we were bought with a price. God forgives our past but he doesn’t delete it. When we are open to face our broken and wounded condition, then we are in a position to be healed and enter a new way of living.

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

When we are at home in God’s love and know that He delights in us, are we not more joyful, grateful and free?  Our concept of God is constantly giving our life its purpose, definition and meaning. When our thinking about God is correct, consistent and focused, we have the basis for thinking correctly about everything. But when our thinking of God is incorrect, inconsistent or disjointed, we’re thinking incorrectly about everything else in our life.  Some of us may in fact, have to rework our own self-image if we accept ourselves as being loved unconditionally by God.  “The thing Jesus wants from us, more than any other thing, is our daily, unedited and unbridled response to God’s unconditional love.”  He desires that we give him every conflict, every disappointment, and every hurt.  He wants our attention and for us to be mindful of Him during the unfolding moments of each day. How important it is to be alert and responsive to what He is saying to us!  Let us not hurry through the day without making space for Him. As we do this we become more present, open, and free. Making room for God and belonging to His family requires becoming completely ourselves, setting aside our roles and achievement. As we become small and childlike, we can embrace the truth that we stand before God empty- handed.  All is grace!

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

Mother Teresa said, “What I do you cannot do; but what you do I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”   The woman who anointed Jesus did what she could.  Successful living is seeking, knowing, loving and obeying God.  But we live in a world that awards love and respect on the basis of possession, accomplishments and reputations. This desire to achieve only leaves us empty, disappointed and lonely. It is important that we realize our calling to follow Jesus is rooted in where we are, the gifts we’ve been granted and the challenges before us. “Each of us is unique, a one-of-a-kind expression of God’s unspeakable creativity.”   We have a calling that is uniquely ours. It is senseless to compare ourselves with others but instead we must learn to trust that we’ve already been given all that is needed to be the person God has called us to be in the world. Let us be who we are and embrace our uniqueness!  Then we can rejoice for the opportunities that are given us each day to do whatever we can.

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

“NO act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. “ AESOP

Sometimes it may just be a word of love but it can be a supreme act of love.  That’s because “when our words become flesh in our lives, the world is transformed.”

Jesus is the living Word and His words and actions are one and the same.  In Matt 5 he says, “Don’t say anything you don’t mean…You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying” I’ll pray for you, and never dong it, or  saying” God be with you,” and not meaning it. …..when you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.” 
How often do we waste words?  Or money?  Or food? Or talents etc.?   It’s true we are a wasteful culture but some of us have adopted religious values that placed usefulness above love for Him. Jesus wants us to be caring for others but He is our first priority. He wants to be the focal point of our affection and we’re to lavish upon Him all that we have, including our very selves.  Our friendship with Him cannot be measured by our usefulness or fruitfulness but by our intimacy and openness with Him.  That means “wasting time” with Him who knows us by name and loves us unconditionally!  We don’t have to be concerned about wasting everything on Him!

Devotions from article in Just Between Us magazine

In Phil 4:12 Paul says he has learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Contentment is defined as ‘Happy enough with what one has or is: not desiring something more or different; a satisfaction with ones’ possessions, position, status, or situation.” It’s not having what we want as wanting what we have.  If we are truly content, we will be able to say that we are happy right where God has us. We don’t have to be rich in earthly possessions to be rich in Him and we don’t have to have a lot to give all we have!  If we compare ourselves with others who have more we will find ourselves discontent. When our thoughts and hopes are always on what we are wishing for, we will find it hard to set our heart truly on Him. If we are discontent with our marriage, our salary, our circumstances, etc, we can ask the Lord to help us discover the secret of contentment. He desires to give us all the strength we need to live a contented life.

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules, concerning spiritual blindness

“A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide.” Samuel Butler

We don’t naturally see and all of us have distorted vision and blind spots. We need to see as God sees and let Him guide us to see the things that we have not been willing to see or unable to see. The author’s religious training led him to believe he was a failure and disappointment to God.  This kind of self-rejection blinds us to the truth that God wants us to see about ourselves. We are His beloved and are chosen by Him. Maybe we are scared to let Jesus tell us what He really sees when He looks at our life.  But we won’t come completely out of hiding unless we trust Him. He wants to open our spiritually blind eyes and enable us to see everything about ourselves more clearly.   We will find that He loves us and knows us better than we know ourselves. Because of who we are, in spite of what we are, God loves us!  He loves us up and down, through and through. Nothing and nobody can remove us from His presence.  May we believe His voice and listen to Him so our knowledge of His love can move from our head to our heart.  Let us be still long enough to listen to Him that we can hear our true identity declared.

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book Breaking the Rules

Jesus says His kingdom in not a subdivision for the self-righteous nor for those who feel they have it all.  It is rather for those who know they are sinners and cannot make themselves righteous.  Those who talk the most about others’ need for a savior are often blinded to their own need for one. Jesus came for sinners. We can stop lying to ourselves and admit that we are often unkind, angry, selfish, and mean even towards those we love. Yet we have been warmly embraced and welcomed into God’s family.  “God, whose very nature is love, will never love us any more of less because of what we do or fail to do. Therefore, we don’t have to strive to make ourselves acceptable to God.” We can face our failures, knowing we are deeply loved and forgiven. We repent because we are forgiven and we are grateful.  Isn’t His grace amazing?! It gives second and third chances and never stops. We are
“hopelessly flawed and hopelessly forgiven

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

Dan Banister said that Religion is the archrival of intimate spirituality. It is a tiresome system of manmade dos and don’ts and is what is left after a true love for God has drained away. “Religion is the shell that is left after the real thing has disappeared.” Sometimes we can spend much of our lives learning rules instead of celebrating and enjoying our relationship with Jesus.  Has the emphasis on following rules has caused us to live from our heads?  Instead we should live from our hearts, where our God-given and God –guided intuition resides.  The author, Fil, spent so much of his life trying to manage a glittering public image, which prevented him from trusting God and to accept himself for who he was.  Union with God is more than behavior. God reaches down to us, telling us to come to Him when we are burned out and tired, and learn the unforced rhythms of His grace. ( Matt. 11:28-30)

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book Breaking the Rules

It’s time to leave our ought- tos, shoulds, have- tos and musts behind. We need to shift our attention from what we feel we MUST DO to what God has ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED..  God wants to give us freedom and has designed us for living from the inside out. We don’t need to feel pressured to do certain things in order to be in relationship with Him. God’s gift of grace is intended to produce a much different kind of fruit.—Rest. Think of yourself as floating in the river of God’s love. Floating is like a gift we can only be given; it’s never achieved by striving. 
We live fully only when His life is streaming into ours. The author found freedom as he realized he was lovable only because God loved him and He always expected more failure from him than he expected from himself. He said,
“When love permeates us we are whole, redeemed and free to be our beautiful true self. This is the hope that inspires me. This is the foundation and the love on which I live.”

We get to live our lives here on earth only once, so let us live it fully and as beautifully as we can!