SHINEMinistries

Stop Building Dams Against God’s Goodness

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Picture a river flowing steadily toward you, full and constant. The problem was never a shortage on His end. The problem is the dams people quietly build that block the very blessing they’re praying for.

What Are You Damming Up?

Fear, unbelief, a critical attitude, an old wound you haven’t released, these all function like dams. They don’t stop the river from flowing. They stop you from receiving what’s already headed your way. Many of us approach God from a mindset of trying to become good enough, when Scripture invites us instead into a posture of simply receiving what a good Father wants to give.

Renewing the Mind Is an Active Choice

Philippians calls believers to let the mind of Christ shape their thinking, and that’s described as something you do, not something that happens to you. Renewing the mind works much like changing your eating habits: adding good thoughts while still feeding the old fearful ones won’t produce lasting transformation. Something has to be replaced, not just added.

See God as a Father, Not a Reluctant Giver

How you picture God shapes how freely you receive from Him. A God who is reluctant to bless produces striving and anxiety. A Father who delights in blessing His children produces confidence and gratitude. Philippians 4:6 puts it plainly: replace anxiety with prayer, thanksgiving, and trust that He hears you.

So this week, take an honest look at the dams. Trade fear for love, worry for prayer, and bitterness for joy. The river hasn’t stopped flowing. It’s simply waiting for you to remove what’s been holding it back.

-Terrence Burton

Why the Trinity Isn’t a Math Problem

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Ask a room full of Christians to explain the Trinity in one sentence and watch how quickly things get complicated. That is not because the teaching is confused. It is because it is describing something bigger than any single sentence can fully hold.

One God, Three Persons, Together

The simplest way to say it is this. God is one what and three whos. The one what is the single divine being. The three whos are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each fully God, none of them merely a part or a role God plays. At Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3, we see all three at once. Jesus stands in the water, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven. That single scene is one of the clearest pictures Scripture gives us of one God existing as three distinct Persons.

Why the Easy Comparisons Fall Short

People often reach for a triangle, a musical chord, or water turning to ice and steam to explain the Trinity. Every one of those comparisons breaks down eventually. A triangle’s corners are only parts of the shape, but the Father, Son, and Spirit are not parts of God. Water changing form is one thing wearing different disguises, but Scripture shows us the Father, Son, and Spirit present and distinct at the very same moment. The safest approach is to let analogies help a little without asking them to explain everything.

A Mystery Worth Trusting

Calling the Trinity a mystery does not mean it is confusing nonsense. It means God has truly revealed Himself to us, and He is still greater than our minds can fully contain. Jesus told His followers to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, naming one God the way He taught us to know Him. We do not need to solve the Trinity. We simply need to worship the God who is one, and who has always been three.

-Terrence Burton

You Were Never Meant to Just Get By

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Before there was sin, before there was a fall, there was a decision inside the heart of God. Genesis 1:26 records it plainly. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. That was not a passing comment. It was the blueprint for why you exist.

Made To Resemble Him, Not Just Serve Him

The Hebrew word for image, tselem, points to a real resemblance, while likeness, demuth, points to character and action. Together they mean humanity was never designed to be merely useful to God. You were designed to reflect Him, the way a child carries a parent’s features and mannerisms. Leviticus repeats the charge, ye shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. That standard was never about a list of rules. It was about identity.

Jesus Is The Example, Not Just The Savior

Matthew 5:48 records Jesus saying something that should stop us in our tracks. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. That word perfect, teleios in the Greek, does not mean flawless performance. It means full grown, mature, complete in purpose. God is not asking you to never fail. He is inviting you into wholehearted love. And because none of us reach that standard alone, God gave us a living example. First Peter 2:21 says Christ left us an example, that we should follow His steps. The Greek word there, hypogrammon, described a writing pattern placed under paper so a student could trace the letters. Jesus is not a rulebook. He is a pattern you trace with your life.

You Are Being Changed, Not Just Forgiven

Second Corinthians 3:18 says believers are changed into the same image from glory to glory. Salvation was never only about escaping judgment. It is about becoming who you were always meant to be, a living reflection of the God who made you on purpose.

You were not created to simply survive your days. You were created to look like your Father. Let that truth reshape how you see tomorrow.

-Terrence Burton

Featured

The Secret Bartimaeus Knew Before He Could See

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A blind man sits on the roadside outside Jericho. He hears a crowd, learns Jesus is passing by, and starts shouting. People tell him to be quiet. He shouts louder. When Jesus finally stops and asks him a simple question, that question becomes one of the clearest pictures of faith in the whole Gospel of Mark.

What Do You Want Me To Do For You

Jesus asks Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46 to 52, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee. It is a strange question to ask a blind man. Isn’t it obvious what he wants? But Jesus places the responsibility on Bartimaeus to name it. He answers plainly, that I might receive my sight. Notice the word he chooses. Not give me sight, but receive my sight. He already claims it as his before it shows up. That is not presumption. That is faith defining its target.

Receiving Is Not The Same As Striving

Scripture is full of people who positioned themselves to receive rather than strain to earn. The man at the gate called Beautiful in Acts 3 stretched out his hand expecting to receive something, and his feet and ankle bones received strength the moment he stopped waiting and started expecting. James 1:5 to 8 warns that a wavering, double minded person is like a wave tossed by the wind. Faith is single minded. It knows what it is asking for and it does not keep changing its mind about whether God is willing to give it.

Define The What And Trust God With The How

You are responsible for naming what you desire and bringing it to God with honesty. You are not responsible for engineering how it happens. Romans 12:1 and 2 calls this being transformed by the renewing of your mind so you can prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Fear, doubt, and indecision are the real obstacles, not God’s willingness.

Bartimaeus did not receive his sight because he understood theology. He received it because he asked clearly and believed simply. That is still available to anyone willing to shout past the crowd.

-Terrence Burton

Speak It Like Jesus Did

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When Jesus stood outside the tomb of a man who had been dead four days, He did not organize a prayer meeting or ask the crowd to agree with Him in faith. He simply said, Lazarus, come forth. That moment holds a lesson many of us have missed about how prayer actually works.

A Prayer That Sounds Like a Command

James chapter 5 instructs believers to call for the elders when someone is sick, to pray over them and anoint them with oil. But just a few verses later, James points to the prophet Elijah as an example of effective, fervent prayer, and what Elijah actually said was a declaration to a king that it would not rain again until he spoke otherwise. Scripture calls that prayer. Sometimes what we call decreeing is simply a form of praying that speaks with the same confidence Jesus and Elijah modeled.

Confidence Comes From Relationship

Before Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, He first thanked the Father, saying, I knew that thou hearest me always. That confidence did not appear out of nowhere. It was the fruit of a deep, ongoing relationship with the Father. When we know God hears us, our prayers naturally shift from anxious pleading to peaceful, confident declaration.

Healing and Forgiveness Together

James also connects healing with forgiveness, noting that the prayer of faith will save the sick, and if sins have been committed, they will be forgiven. Neither one depends on our perfection. Both flow from the same place: a Father who is willing and able to help those who belong to Him.

The next time you pray for someone who is hurting, consider whether you are only asking, or whether you are also willing to speak with the same settled confidence Jesus did. He is still teaching us today what He taught His first disciples then, one obedient step at a time.

-Terrence Burton