Working Out What is Being Worked In

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12,13 (New King James Version)

Let‘s not misread Paul‘s words to the Philippians. Working out our own salvation is not referring to being saved by our works. It is referring to the demonstration of our salvation in the areas of spiritual growth and development. It is the on going process in which each of us are energetically and persistently involved. It is the process of our spiritual maturation in Christ. The very things we are doing should be done to produce results in our life and reflect what God is doing in us.

There are a number of things involved in my growth as a Christian. At times, I have a book or two that I am devouring that target issues I am facing. I count it a privilege to metaphorically sit at the feet of numerous authors and draw from their vast storehouse of wisdom. Music can often bring a message home that solidifies a truth for me. Sermons and teaching from within the walls of my home church help with my growth and development as a Christian. Taking in the truths from God’s Word and actively applying those truths on a daily basis is like a dose of “miracle grow” for my spirit. Last, but not least, taking in the counsel and wisdom of others through talking and sharing aid in my process of maturing.

When any of those “pieces” are missing from my life I notice and must take care not to let it stagnate my walk. I take Paul’s comparison to heart when he refers to things being done in his presence and more so in his absence. I know what it is like to live out my daily walk with someone watching over my spiritual steps. There is something about another set of human eyes on my life that bring me a sense of security. Often times, though, God will allow that for part of the time and then bring me to a point of practicing the truths on my own.

Presently, that is how an accountability partnership is working for me. We talk and watch as God brings some wisdom to the forefront. Then it is time for me to step out of her home and presence and live out what I have been shown. All the while, God is faithfully and consistently doing His work in me. I am not on my own in any way, shape, or form!

Father, thank you that You never intended my lot in life to be one of isolation. Your internal work in me is often affected by the external tools You choose to use. Amen.

Made Me Glad - Hillsong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Zc_VWJJoI&feature=related

I welcome your questions and comments to any devotional thoughts. I am honored and delighted to share my journey with you and privileged to hear of yours.

Times, Reasons, and Seasons

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1 (King James Version)

Realizing that God has a time, a reason, and a season for everything in my life brings great comfort when I am going through a trial. I want to know the uncomfortable circumstances in my life serve a purpose and that there is an end in sight. I want to know life will not always be like this. I want to know that somewhere down the road there will be joy, laughter, and freedom. I want to know that the roller coaster of emotions will bring me to a place of rest.

But I am coming to realize this verse also applies to the good things of life. Those things that make me comfortable, those things I enjoy, those people who become precious to me, those relationships that put me on cloud nine. Anything I hold near and dear to my heart must be held with hands that have this verse inscribed on them. I must realize that nothing and no one this side of heaven can be considered a permanent part of my life. Just as the seasons change, just as nature itself changes, and landscapes change, our lives change. We cannot stop that. Our interactions with people will go through changes. It is natural and it is necessary.

The problem comes when I fight the change. Some people can come in and out of my life and it doesn‘t affect me much. With other people, their removal from my life can seem devastating. When I realize they are gone or the relationship has changed I can take a nose dive in my emotions and soul. I can feel that my world is falling apart and lose all sense of security and stability. It is then that I realize I have grabbed hold of them in a way I should grabbed hold of God. They have become precious to me and I don’t want to give them up.

God knows if I never experience these changes I will not draw closer to Him. I will not depend on Him as I should. I will live unsatisfied and stagnate. That is the difference between a pond and a river. A pond has life but it is very limited. A river is always moving forward and affecting the things around it. I want my life to be a river designed by God. I want Him to place the bends, the forks, and the banks in all the right places.

Father, all of life around me is changing but You and Your ways never change. You are the One constant in my life and I cling to that! Amen.

Draw Me Close To You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALzCQn8LA4M&feature=related

God and Others

And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. Philippians 1:25,26 (New King James Version)

There are times we set limits on ourselves that God never intended for us to set. Times when we attempt to do without the very things God purposes for us to embrace. Scripture is meant to be a pattern for us. It shows us truths we can digest and upon which we can live. I am in need of balanced truth this morning and Paul’s words to the Philippians are becoming my personal instructions. They are addressing an issue with which I am still wrestling. I stated it to a friend in an email just yesterday morning and it is this….finding the balance between going to people and going to God. My “all or nothing” mentality still rules much of my ideas, responses, and actions.

God knows each reason I hesitate to allow others to be a part of my progress and joy of faith. He knows where the skewed thinking is embedded. He knows where truth has been replaced by lies and how those lies seem like the truth. And He knows when I am keeping at arms length the very ones He has given me as gifts of encouragement. Somewhere along the line, rejoicing in others became idolatry. Asking for help became a dependency issue. Receiving instruction became wrong.

Then I come across Paul’s words to fellow believers and I see him connecting himself with their spiritual growth and journeys. He sees himself as a necessary part of their Christian lives. It is at this point that God once again encourages me to take down the “no trespassing” signs over relationships and learn to allow others to be what God intended them to be for me and me for them. I heard a speaker once say that “people are meant to be the icing and not the cake” and God sees the times I attempt to live with an uniced cake!

I want to reacquaint myself with the joy of fellowship. I want to joy in others and see them as “permissible” in my life. While my journey continues to be about learning the truth about God, He wants me to also learn the truth about others. He knows my fears and apprehensions. He knows how I distrust my own heart. He also knows how He will bring me to the point of healing and wholeness.


Father, help me to get it! Help me to see what others already grasp. Help me to reach out my hands and receive the gifts of friendship YOU are offering me. Amen.

Thank You - Ray Boltz
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UFrdJ2V3r7Y&feature=related

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. Job 36:16

His Unremovable Love

"For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,“ says the LORD who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10 (New American Standard Bible)

My present journey began in the spring of 2004 with the realization that God’s love was not dependent upon what I was doing. That journey continues with precious, continual reminders that His love will never be removed regardless of my attitudes, actions, and weaknesses. The security of that truth wraps itself around my spirit on an ongoing basis. I thrive under it, I revel in it, I rejoice over it, and I remain awe struck by it! As God pours out His love, peace, and compassion on me, I am changed.

This morning an “even then” list is formulating in my mind and it is having a powerful effect on me. When I fail Him, even then His love remains. When I live out of my flesh instead of my spirit, even then His love remains. When I look to others to give me what only God can give me, even then His love remains. When I give in to the things He desires to free me of, even then His love remains. When I react and respond to others in a non Christlike manner, even then His love remains. When I place my wishes and will above His own, even then His love remains. When I attempt to walk in my own strength and ability, even then His love remains. When I allow something or someone to take precedence over Him, even then His love remains. When negativity marks my mind and my mouth, even then His love remains. When I hold on to that which He asks to be released, even then His love remains. When I fear circumstances more than I trust His ability to carry me, even then His love remains.

It is not a sentimental, stoic, abstract kind of love either. It is a love that will intervene, correct, discipline, and instruct. It is a love that sings over me and under girds me. It is a love that wants the best for me and will not allow anything to come into my life without passing through His own hands and heart first. It is a love that will introduce and remove all the things necessary for my growth and His glory. It is a love that remains and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

God is the only One who patterns this kind of love. Some individuals give me glimpses of it but only He can display it on a never ending basis. Only He can put traces of it into my own heart. Therefore, I look to Him and follow.

Father, I spent decades misunderstanding Your love for me. Thank you for the clarity and consistency of that love. May I live out the rest of my days marveling over You and Your ways . Amen.

Love That Won't Walk Away - Kathy Troccoli
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6uQGr4fa2Z0

If what you are reading is touching your spirit and increasing your thirst for God then you are one of the reasons I write these devotionals. I want to extend a personal invitation to you to join my email devotional family and allow me to send them to you directly! Simply send an email to shattuck7@sbcglobal.net and request to be added to my devotional list. It would be my honor and privilege to do so.

A Powerful Cord

For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Philippians 1:19,20 (New American Standard Bible)

Ecclesiastes 4:12 says that a threefold cord is not quickly broken. I am seeing one of those “cords” in the words of Paul this morning. He is standing in confidence of having such strength. He is staking his very deliverance upon it. And what is Paul’s cord of three strands? The prayers of others, the provision of the Holy Spirit, and his personal expectation and hope of the answered prayers and working of that Spirit. How God desires for each of us to see the necessity and benefit of enlisting the prayers of others along side the work of His Spirit in our given situations. How He must delight to see our anticipation in what will come of it!

I am learning the power of prayers made on my behalf. A few weeks ago, in a study group, we were sharing prayer requests. For once, I felt an urge to share openly with the group a personal need of deliverance I had. I was struggling with the wrong perceptions of others and asked the women to pray that I would have victory in that area. Pray they did and those prayers were affective as the Holy Spirit worked in me.

An email from a friend last night included her requests for prayer in areas of her life. At the close, she asked how she could pray for me. A list spilled out of me! Specific requests. I have every confidence that she will in fact pray for me as I have already prayed for her this morning. I know the Spirit will work in both our situations.

God is developing in me the ability to not only request prayer but to stand in expectancy and hope of the answers to those prayers. As others pray for me and as I pray for others, God is working! My ears are beginning to perk up when someone tells me they have been praying for me. I am touched beyond words because I am now seeing the significance of that. Only Heaven will fully reveal the many who were part of a threefold cord of prayer in our life. I thank God for each of them this morning and I am asking Him to help me to be that more profoundly for others. For truly, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availed much” (James 5:16).

Father, I have often failed to see the power and privilege of prayer. Thank you for the ones who have modeled it for me. Instill within me a passion for prayer and a delight for seeing those prayers answered! Amen.

Spirit Song MV - Maranatha Singers (sung by Evie)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KqkvIhs7Ijg

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. Job 36:16

Not Allowed to Stay

But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me. Ruth 1:16-17 (New American Standard Bible)

God knows, if given the chance, I would have spoken these words to every significant person He ever brought into my life. I wanted each relationship to last a life time! Unlike Ruth though, I was never allowed to continue to stay with or follow my ‘Naomi’ persons. Due to moves and changes, I usually saw the separations as necessary and a part of life. Before long a new person came along and I would thrive in the new relationship.

A year and a half ago, the scene had changed dramatically. There came a time when I was urged (forced) to leave the care of a person I highly respected and upon whom I greatly depended. No more following, no more interacting with, no more counsel, no more support. My desire to stay was not granted and the relationship was promptly put to death! It took awhile for me to come to see the necessity and truth in all of it. I had to go through a season of grief and tears but in time God slowly opened my eyes to His purposes, desires, and hand.

I thought the ending of this relationship would lead to other ones, but I have become aware of something my Father is intentionally doing that He has never done before in my life. He is limiting my access to significant people and He is doing it out of a heart of love for me. While I still have people involved in my life, God is blocking my ability to derive from them what I have always sought in relationships……security, significance, attention, availability, and affirmation. The time I spend with them and the questions I bring to them is limited and the reason is clear to me now.

God’s intent is that I learn to walk out the truths He has spent decades teaching me. To learn to live each day in dependence upon Him and in connection with Him. He wants me to see and hear things for myself and thus gain the spiritual muscles needed to have a walk and life of faith in Him. I have strained at it (and still do at times) but I am coming to a place of accepting it as a good gift from His hands. He knows there is strength and wisdom I will never possess until I am willing to walk most of the time alone with Him. What I have seen in others and desired for myself comes only by a solitary journey of two….my Father and me. I finally agree.


Father, this life lesson has not come easily or without tears. What I have fought so hard against, I now embrace and accept. Things will never be the same and I see now that is a good thing. Amen.


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

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.

A Slight but Dangerous Shift

Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad. Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face continually. Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done, His marvels and the judgments from His mouth. 1 Chronicles 16:10-12 (New American Standard Bible)

Shifts can be so slight that we often are not aware of a problem until it is bigger than life and affecting us profoundly. Such was the case for me during the past couple of weeks. I had been in the habit for several years of rising in the wee hours of the morning to spend time in the Word and send out email devotionals. It had become a special time for me and usually set the pace for the remainder of my day. Due to a change in my work hours, I found myself becoming physically drained and felt a change was needed-- i.e. more sleep! This decision resulted in a change to my morning routine. I went from purposeful meetings with the Lord to ‘chance’ meetings and found myself taking in less and less of His Word and presence.

What started out as a gradual thing, snowballed and I found myself sinking emotionally and spiritually. This evening I have taken some time to look back over the past week or so and see how my reactions and attitudes have been more out of my flesh than spirit, how my perceptions of others have once again become dark, how emptiness was beginning to mark my internal world, and how I no longer resembled one who walked in the joy and strength of the Lord. What happened? I had become lax in my seeking God, seeking His strength, and seeking His face! I had drifted away from remembering His wonders and marvels. While I managed to keep activities relatively the same, my spirit was showing signs of starvation and God was nudging me to start feeding it again.

I want to go back to my early morning meetings with my Father. I want His Word to be at the start of my day once again. I have tasted the consequences and results of not doing so and it has been uncomfortable to say the least. Once again, God has wisely allowed something painful to bring me back to Himself.

People have often commented on the authenticity of these devotionals. I believe that one of the reasons God leads me to be honest and open about my journey is so that others can begin to be honest and open about theirs. We can all learn together that it is a given that we will have good and bad days, victories and failures, tragedies and triumphs as we travel through life. After all, God does not look for perfection….just progress.

Father, I have missed You. Amen.

The Voice of Hope - Lara Martin
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qbk1TGe5k0Q

I welcome your questions and comments to any devotional thoughts. I am honored and delighted to share my journey with you and privileged to hear of yours.