Shhhh...Be still...

I don't know about you.... but to be still sometimes is the hardest thing to do.  I've tried to be just completely still and quiet.... yet thoughts rush in from everywhere.  More often than not.... they are anxious thoughts that try to destroy the tranquil peace that is surrounding me.  Or sometimes, if I am sitting on a very hard surface... I keep twisting and turning to ease the discomfort of my aching body.  

As I am sitting here this morning,  I can hear the cars passing on the highway, and the distant voice of my husband downstairs talking to a friend on the phone.  The heat vent also makes a little popping sound when the air starts flowing through. Yesterday morning, I awoke to the sound of the neighbors diesel truck, and then the garbage truck.  Later as I was having my devotions, someone had gotten an early start on trimming their hedges or mowing their lawn. 

How hard is it to actually just sit and listen to someone else who is talking to you?  I've been embarrassed at times because my thoughts have wandered ... and I'm trying to remember if I locked the door before I left home... or something they said triggered a thought that lead me somewhere else.  

How many times in my devotions have I tried to be quiet before the Lord and just listen... and before I know it, my heart is palpatating because I thought of something that brought concern or anxiety.  God wants us to lean into Him, rest our head on His chest and hear His heartbeat.  He has already read our journal and was up a long time before daylight.. Actually, He was up all night.... watching over us and the things of our heart.  It is possibly the only time that we are completely quiet before Him.  The moment our eyelids flutter in the morning... our thoughts are racing toward the day...  

Can we ask God to calm our anxious thoughts... to settle our hearts long enough to listen to Him... to seek His face even though the world is pounding at the door....

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble,

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with  their surging."

Be still and know that I am God...

Psalm 46: 1-3, 10

 

Jesus, my Joy

Praise you, Jesus...God of my heart...Lover of my soul...

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12

Thank you Jesus, for this:

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Psalm 51:6

I have been asking God to reveal His truth to me...to show me areas in my own heart, my inner being, my soul, that are not well and need healing so that I can be free and beautiful in His eyes. I want to dance in freedom before His throne, be a daughter bringing joy to her heavenly Father...I want to serve without hinderance and love without reserve....

Sometimes,the truth God shows us in our inner being hurts....but He reveals it so that He can cleanse us and heal us....He came to set the prisoners free. He came to set me free...and you.

Oh, how I love Him.

No one cares for your heart like Jesus.

He is the Joy your heart longs for.

The Light of His Face!

As I sit here this morning, the light of the sunrise is streaming through the windows and onto my face. (I'm trying not to notice the fingerprints, dog slobber, dust, bird droppings, and spider webs that are revealed by the glorious rays of the sun.)

I love the light of the sun and feeling the warmth of it on my body. When the sun shines on my face, I think of Psalm 44:3 "for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them." The light of his face. The light of his face along with the his righteous, victorius right hand, saving me, fighting for me, winning the battle for me. I imagine it - the light of his face on mine.

Oh, amazing thought that he delights in me! The warmth of the sun on my face reminds me of that. I thank him for it, relish it, linger in it, soak it in.

On bright spring and summer days, as the rays of sun kiss your face, bask in the light of his face. He is delighting in you.

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" ~ Hebrews 13:4-6

The Bible cuts right to the truth. You cannot argue with what God says in His Word. It's right there for us to read and walk in His Truth.

I get frustrated watching TV and seeing all the disgusting shows that are on there promoting extramarrital affairs and sex before marriage. There is so much sleeping around and cheating happening in these shows or movies. What makes me even more frustrated is that by watching it we support the ratings and encourage them to show it.

In today's society stepping outside the marriage boundaries is glamorized. I trust my husband 100% and he trusts me. I am so thankful that God has brought him into my life and chosen the best person for me. Our marriage is not perfect but one thing we have promised each other is to never allow ourselves to be in a situation where we could be tempted or do something to jeopardize our marriage.

Hebrews 13 also talks about the love of money. Money is the root of all evil, the Bible tells us. It really can be. It can be something that Satan will use to come between people by creating jealousy or it can be something he uses to lead us into sin. God hates sin. Satan loves it. The second we step outside the boundaries of marriage the way God designed it or we lust after things we don't have, Satan has us in his snare. It's a wicked snare that we need to continually pray for God's hedge of protection to be around us.

God promises he'll never leave us or forsake us. The more we draw closer to God the more we walk like Jesus did. If we're filling our mind with the junk that's out there and not filling ourselves with what God wants for us in His Word, you can start walking the way the world wants us to. We become desensitized to the evil out there.

There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
My son, keep your father's commands
and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
Bind them upon your heart forever;
fasten them around your neck.
When you walk, they will guide you;
when you sleep, they will watch over you;
when you awake, they will speak to you.
For these commands are a lamp,
this teaching is a light,
and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,
keeping you from the immoral woman,
from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.
~ Proverbs 6: 16-24

It's easy to get caught up in what we see on TV or movies. Satan uses this to stomp on our self esteem and self confidence. God wants what's best for us. Fill your mind with God's words, not the world's words. Keep your mind pure. Soak in on how Jesus walked and follow by example. Let God's commands be the lamp, His teachings the light.

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength." Isaiah 30:15

When I discovered this verse many years ago, it opened up a whole new way of thinking and living for me.

We at Soul Kitchen repeatedly write that it’s about God and what He does and has done rather than about us and what we do.

Religion = what man does to reach God.

Christianity = what God has done for man.

Isaiah 30:15 has become a benchmark verse for me to see if I am living in – embracing - what God has done and promises to do.

In repentance and rest is your salvation. I repent of the ways in which I have gone my own way or have relied on myself for salvation. I rest – even bask - in what You have done for me.

In quietness and trust in your strength. The fears, concerns, rantings even, are stilled…calmed… when I trust in God; in His faithful love and goodness towards me.

Unfortunately, Isaiah 30:15 doesn’t end where I had it end above. It continues, “but you would have none of it." Verse 16 follows with , “You said ‘No…’” and tells of what the people rely on instead of God.

That’s where I question myself. Am I walking in repentance and rest? Quietness and trust? Am I saying “No” to God in any area of my life instead of trusting God and His ways? Am I relying on myself... or others... or other things?

I couple this verse with Isaiah 32:17

The fruit of righteousness will be peace;
the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

How I want my life to reflect this. I want this life of righteousness through Jesus Christ. A life of being able to confidently trust God and have that peace that only God can provide.

One more very cool verse that I found in my Bible travels this morning! :)

Psalm 85:10

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Surrounded by the enemy...

Sometimes in life, we are surrounded by the enemy and don't even know it... Sometimes he has already attacked and we didn't feel a thing.  I'm sure you have been there.  He attacks our thoughts, our bodies, our health and our relationships with other people.  There are times when he makes things look pretty good... and there are times when we see everything we love disintegrating before our very eyes.  He likes to rob us of a few things too... like our health, our goals and visions for life... our hope and often our dreams.  

A friend of mine has battled leukemia for years.  In January of 2005,  she had written a letter to me and claimed this passage of scripture for the year.  She would cling to it for dear life.  

     "O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven?You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.  Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can withstand you.  O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?  They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, If  calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and You will hear us and save us."

     "But here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them.  See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.  O our God, will you not judge them?  For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us.  We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you."

     

     "All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood before the Lord."

     "He said; "Listen, King Jehosphaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem!  This is what the Lord says to you:  Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.  For the battle is not yours but God's."

              II Chronicles 20:6-13, 15

Our battles are oftentimes so huge we cannot fight them.  But my friend Lois held onto God's word and trusted.... It doesn't always turn out specifically the way we want it, but Lois told me this past month that she is in remission.  

We all have battles that we are fighting.... can we trust Him to fight them for us.... even if it takes longer than we want it to?  I had much rather God fight the battle for me than try to fight it myself.  My strength is weak and powerless.... His is matchless!!!

Belonging

For the majority of my life...I believed that I didn't fit in anywhere...that I just didn't belong.

Even though, I have been greatly loved in my life...by my parents, and others that God brought into our path. I made friends easily each time we moved. I felt uninhibited crossing cultural borders. But somewhere along the way...the evil one whispered a lie to me...."that I didn't belong." I'm not sure when I began to believe it, but at some point in my teenage years I agreed with the father of lies, and entered into womanhood believing and living with the insecurity that no matter where I went or what I did...I didn't really fit, I wasn't welcome, and I didn't belong.

Oh Precious Sisters.....How that one little lie has hindered me over the years!

It kept me from freedom. It kept me from walking in confidence to be the woman God sees in me. It kept me from serving to my fullest. It kept me from joy.

Jesus says...."You belong to me. You are my daughter. You are my princess. You are mine."

Your identity rests in the hands of your Saviour, the One who died to make you His own.

1 Corinthians 6:17
But he (or she) who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. (italics mine.)

Do you get the significance of what that means?

Sister...if you have joined your heart to Christ...then not only do you belong to Him but you are part of Him, and are one spirit with Him.

Believe me...with that as your inheritance....You Belong!

I will leave you with this....a prayer close to my heart these days....

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19