The Richness and Reward of Resting

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:12 (New American Standard Bible)

I am learning how to be refreshed and repaired in my internal world. When emotions become tangled, when situations get confusing, when relationships shift or appear to be dormant, when expectations are met with disappointment, and when the reminders of living in a fallen world continually confront me, THOSE are the times I need my joy restored and my spirit sustained. At those times, there is only one place to resort….in the shadow of Abba’s wings!

There have been many times when any of the afore mentioned scenarios would send me reeling but I am learning some wise alternatives. When I know something has gone awry in my spirit, it is imperative that I rest from the mental exercises of trying to figure everything out. Just like I would set aside activities if I were sick, I am seeing the importance of allowing myself to take a break when there is an emotional over load taking place. It is at that point that I stop all the thinking and wait for some direction from God. He has an answer for any thing and every thing that is taxing my mind or my spirit. Resting in Him and waiting on Him allows the “draining feeling” to stop and the infusion of energy to begin. It opens the door for me to receive that which I need from His hands.

Practically speaking, when I find myself wrestling with issues I can at any point choose to stop wrestling and become still. It doesn’t mean the issue will go away but it does mean I can have some time to get myself back into the right frame of mind and spirit to work through that issue. I am learning to see myself as a wounded soldier who is removed from the battlefield in order to be strengthened to return. Too often I have failed to remove myself and hence only grew weaker and less effective.

I took a rest this morning. Relational issues weighed heavy on my heart and became a call to rest in Abba’s presence. As I relaxed, His counsel came. Within moments He let me know what to do…..give people space and pray for their needs. He assured me the relationships are not lost. They are just in a resting mode. This is a time when He will help me to poise myself for their awakening. With restored joy and a willing spirit I face a new day!

Father, You never cease to amaze me! Open my eyes to the many resting places along my journey. Your invitations to come aside are becoming clearer to me. Amen.

WARRIOR IS A CHILD/ DO I TRUST YOU? ~ Twila Paris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pzu-jWpcdw

It's a Start

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 4:32-5:2 (New American Standard Bible)

I love it when Scripture spells things out so clearly. Last night I asked a friend what it looks like to love others in the Lord even when personalities clash and you can barely stand to be around them. It is a dilemma we all face from time to time and I knew I was in the throws of one myself. What I wanted to know from my friend was what does that kind of love look like and how do I go about showing it. She is the kind of person I will ask questions of and assume she will always have the wisdom of Solomon when she answers me. We both laughed when her only answer was to let her know when I found out myself, because she too has an individual she is learning to love in the Lord!

After our conversation, the Lord brought today’s passage to mind. It is a beautiful and descriptive portrait of walking in love. Basically it is encouraging me to be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving of others. As I imitate God and walk in love (just as Jesus did) it will be a precious perfume to God. What I give up for others delights God. It all sounded great but left my heart unchanged. I knew I needed a different starting point and God graciously gave me one this morning.

I recalled how last week He nudged me to begin honoring an individual with whom I was housing negative thoughts. It was a powerful exercise that I have continued to use as needed. But when I tried to bring it into this other relationship, it wasn’t effective. Just as in the case of Old Testament battles, God will not always give the same instructions. This time I was to pray for this individual and what a list He has given me. I went to www.biblegateway.com and came up with a number of verses that were actual prayers. Prayers for God’s wisdom, strength, and working. With the list, I formulated a prayer that was specific for this individual as well as one for myself. I am finding it is a powerful thing when we infuse our prayers with Scripture! Praying God’s Word is not a new concept but it is being newly used by me and I am standing in expectancy of God’s answers to those prayers.

I don’t have a complete answer for the issue of loving others in the Lord, but what God has given me so far is both precious and powerful. I know that obedience in this area will bring about profound changes in me and others.


Father, I want to walk in love and that is requiring a change in me. Teach me Your ways and help me to follow You. Amen.

HOW BEAUTIFUL -Twila Paris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJfSp_rceFs&feature=related

In Need of Prayer

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (New King James Version)

How convinced are believers of the necessity, privilege, and power of prayer? How convinced am I? There is a reason God starts this verse with the word IF. He does not presume to think that all believers will make prayer a prerequisite or priority in their lives. It is the one aspect of the Christian life that gets talked about much more than it is actually practiced….at least for me that has been the case. While I talk with God throughout the day, I have to admit most of my intercession for others is hit or miss at best. The urgency to pray over decisions and situations is lacking. While I would tell you that prayer is important, I don’t pray as if it is. I don’t often pray believing that it makes a difference. How God wants that to change!

I remember years when opening God’s Word was not done with passion or expectancy. That changed and so can my prayer life. This is not being said out of guilt but rather out of an awakening that is being brought about by God and His desire to see prayer become my life blood. My life line!

God has crossed my path with individuals who know the importance and power of prayer. They don’t just say prayer works, they know prayer works. Their example is being used of God to make me want what they have. I can tell He is getting ready to bring about changes for me in this area. He wants me to experience prayer as it was meant to be experienced. To bring every need, every question, every request, every circumstance, every person to Him. To ask, to seek, to find! What He says in today’s verse is meant not only for a nation but it is meant for my life as well.

How easy it is to rely on the prayers of others more than on praying myself. The disciples were moved to ask Jesus to teach them to pray and He did. He not only gave them a pattern for prayer, He patterned prayer for them. His life was lived out of constant communication with His Father and He wants mine to be as well. The face of prayer is changing for me this morning. I can tell it is God who is wooing me in this direction. He has a whole new world that He is anxious to open up to me and He definitely has my attention.

Father, teach me how to pray. I confess to how little I know of it but I look to You to change that. Amen.


When I Call on Jesus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwMw16eocuU

Personalizing His Words

Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous. Joshua 1:5,6 (New American Standard Bible)

Scripture is meant to be read and taken personally. I must allow the words to be spoken as directly to me as they were to the individuals God first spoke them to. What God told Joshua at the start of the book that bares his name, God is saying to me as well……..every day! I can slip many Bible names into this verse and it is still true. As God was with Moses, David, Gideon, Ruth, Esther, Paul, Daniel, Martha, Mary, the disciples, Timothy, Isaiah, and even Jesus, He will be with me. Never failing me. Never forsaking me. Because of that I can stand with strength and courage no matter what.

Just as He had plans for their lives, He has a plan for mine. Just as He caused the lines to fall in pleasant places in their lives, He will cause the lines to fall in pleasant places in mine. Just as He disciplined them when they went astray and brought them back to Himself, He will discipline and bring me back to Himself as well. Just as He enabled them to do what He called them to do, He will enable me to do what He has called me to do. His words of love, correction, direction, and encouragement are for me and to me just as much as they were for each of my spiritual ancestors of the Bible.

God’s Word has engaged my heart this morning and I am drinking my fill of it. Gone are the thoughts that weighed heavy on my mind and heart into the night hours. Gone are the feelings of insignificance and aloneness. Gone are the desires that crave anything or anyone that is not a part of His unique plan and purpose for me. The God of the universe has once again intersected my life with Himself. His Word has come alive to me and is quickly making its way into the driest of dry places that I have been living out of for a time.

I am waving the white flag of surrender as I bow my knees to the One who is faithfully working in me all that He desires and wills for my life. He has shown me once again that He loves me too much to give me less than His best. His no’s have not wavered nor have His extended offers and invitations to join Him on the unique path He has meant for me before the foundation of the world.

Father, I give up my childish ways in order to delight myself in You. Thank you for loving me the way that You do! Amen.

Give You Glory - Jeremy Camp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-IHvnsQVIY

When the Simple Becomes Difficult

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (New American Standard Bible)

When I accepted Christ as my Savior at the age of 14, one of the first things I did was I began confessing every known sin I had committed in my decade and a half of life. As things came to mind I confessed them. After two weeks of admitting to God all the things I could think of, I finally said, “And if there is anything else that I can’t remember, please forgive that as well.” In essence, what I wanted was the sense of a clean slate. I wanted to feel I was stepping into a new beginning of sorts.

That was nearly 35 years ago and this morning I found myself once again standing before God with a tangled mess of past sin and regret. I am wanting the childlike faith that experiences 1 John 1:9 in its simplicity but somehow it has gotten complicated. The questions abound in my head. Am I doing it right? Am I being specific enough? Am I listing it all? It seems that I get one thing confessed and ten more come to mind. I feel like the child who has messed up her bedroom and is now standing before a parent apologizing for each individual article. It seems overwhelming and endless.

I want the clean slate/ fresh start feeling back! I want to experience the radical forgiveness the prodigal son experienced and the extravagant cleansing that David experienced. I want to join hands with the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery who both KNEW their past was forgiven and a new life was theirs. As I think on their accounts the spoken confessions and received forgiveness seemed to be fairly quick transactions. They embraced God’s love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness in life changing ways. I want it THAT simple!

So today will be a day of asking God to teach me the truths of His forgiveness. He knows what is making me squirm and walk with caution. He knows I am missing some precious truths about His heart and willingness to completely forgive me. He knows my realization that I can’t make everything right but that doesn’t mean forgiveness is not there. He knows everything I desire to know and I turn my eyes and my ears toward Him to learn.

Father, teach me what I need to know so that I can receive what You long to give. Amen.

East to West - Casting Crowns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyoVJfADlwo

More Than Meets the Eye

Friend, your sins are forgiven you…….He said to the paralytic ~ I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home. Luke 5:20,24b (New American Standard Bible)

Jesus’ deity, power, and intervention were shown in a paralyzed man’s internal world as well as his external world. Both the forgiveness of sins and the healing of the body are miraculous works that only God can perform. Of the two, it was the physical healing that amazed the crowd that day. Like them, we often put more stock into things we can see, smell, hear, taste, and touch. But we must realize there is a world of amazing things going on IN us every day.

I have never seen a physical healing of a disease. I cannot imagine the impact it would have on a person to see someone who is paralyzed get up and carry what use to carry him. Or to see any number of healings Jesus performed while here on earth…..blindness, deafness, leprosy, demon possession, deformities, and even death. Life threatening, life altering, and life taking situations all transformed before my eyes. The impossible not only made possible but visible. How long would it take for me to stop saying, “Wow!”

May I be just as amazed at the internal things God does every day within me and others. Each time I confess my sins to God (whether they have to do with things I said, thought, or did) He graciously speaks the same words to me as He did in this passage of Scripture…..”Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” Those words mean instant reconciliation and restored fellowship with God. May I never take that lightly. Or the many times I come to Him emotionally spent over heart issues and He calms the storm in my mind just as profoundly as He calmed the storms at sea with His disciples. Or the experience I have on a daily basis of opening Scripture and seeing truth in a way I have never seen before. Words that were penned thousands of years ago becoming personal for me today! Having lived for decades without that experience, I now stand amazed each time it happens.

I challenge each of us to find areas where God touches our internal world each day. He intersects our world in so many precious ways and when we begin to see that, we are forever changed.

Father, for too long I missed the numerous things You were doing in my life. Today, may I see the inner workings and be in awe of You! Amen.

What Sin? By Morgan Cryar
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qaMIeOKQVDs&feature=related

Mutual Relationships

That is, that we may be mutually strengthened and encouraged and comforted by each other's faith, both yours and mine. Romans 1:12 (Amplified Bible)

I find that relationships come in three forms. There are individuals in my life for whom I am used of God to minister to. There are also individuals in my life who minister to me in profound ways. And then there are the relationships like Paul is describing whereby the strengthening, encouragement, and comfort are mutual. It runs both ways and what a blessing when it does! I am at a point in my life where that is happening more and more with the people I am crossing paths with and I am thrilled to have it that way.

Is it always easy? No. There are times I find myself feeling foolish for expressing needs or wanting to talk. There are times the unavailability of the other person can fill me with a sense of embarrassment and shame. Those are the risks that can cause me to want to retreat into a safe hole and pretend I don’t need anyone or wish I didn’t. Those are the times I can try to convince myself it would be better to live a solo existence. But more importantly, those are the times God reveals aspects about my own heart that need a touch from Him.

He knows there are reasons behind my relational issues and He wants to bring them to the light for healing and wholeness. He also knows that although relationships entail risk, they thrive on trust, respect, honesty, openness, vulnerability, and acceptance. I praise Him for the ones who provide a safe place with whom I can experience that. They have enriched my life and have allowed me to enrich theirs.

At a time when I struggled the most with the awareness of my own emotional dependency issues, I believed the answer was to live without close relationships. But my own transformation began when I became open to that very thing. As I allowed individuals to see the real me, I saw that they didn’t walk away in disgust after all. They know I have a long way to go and they are such precious cheerleaders along the way. They (more than anyone) have been the heart and hands of Jesus to me.

Do I still second guess myself, feel like a basket case, hesitate to ask for help, cringe at my own “phobias”, and long to be a different person inside and out? Absolutely! But mutual relationships are helping to lessen those moments and growth is coming slowly but surely. They remain the precious jewels in my treasure chest of life and I value them highly.

Father, thank you for all the relationships I enjoy. May each one please and glorify
You! Amen.

Kathy Troccoli sings "My Life Is In Your Hands"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlmYxZAgrGI