Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Wednesday 11/30/2011)

Trash Talk

Ephesians 4:29 Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁹Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it.

            Have you ever noticed that, negative, polluted words will produce negative polluted actions and attitudes.  Have you ever been in the company of someone who complained regularly or took great pleasure in tearing others down. Someone who’s attitude about life and most things in it, was negative, and they seemed to naturally be drawn to focus on the negative. How did being in an environment where nothing but trash about others, negative communication about self and life affect you?  Did it seem to take you from your place of peace or were you able to overcome those moments with conversation that was uplifting and beneficial.  Over the years I have watched and come to observe that misery loves company, but not just that it loves company, it solicits and ever seduces the company into seeing what is bad, negative and wrong in our lives and before we know we have joined in, affirming the mess in their life, our life and the entire world, in which we live and most of us are not that aware or informed to have an opinion on the world in its entirety.  That is by no means a negative statement that is truth, because the television we do watch has very little to do with current events and world affairs, but more to do with what housewife isn’t speaking to another.

            We have allowed our thinking to be corrupt, so our communication, instead of being based in faith, love, hope and Godly wisdom is more focused on tearing people down to include ourselves. Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:]”  It is up to us to renew our mind in order for  our communication to change.  Luke 6:45 says, “The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.”  We speak from what is in our heart; if our mind is not renewed our thinking will be corrupt and our heart will be contaminated and our speech will be corrupt, trashed and unedifying.  Most of us do not understand the correlation in how we see life and the way its unfolding having anything to do with what proceed out of our mouth, but it does,  Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life];” we give life to what is in our heart and mind by what we speak. But also our speech identifies our heart’s condition and our mind’s focus. It also identifies who is in ultimate control.  So many of us are saying God is in control of our lives,  and almost everything that comes out of our mouth is something negative, something that tears down our environment, relationships, health, our living situation, our job or career, life or just people in general.  We have not yet allowed God into our lives to have full reign, we are still compartmentalizing our lives, so God is okay to touch the needs we have but not our mind’s emphasis or our heart’s state and certainly not what we speak.  We want to be free to say anything, regardless of who it hurts even if it’s us.

            As I laid and prayed and meditated this morning, I had to ask myself something, can I afford to allow corrupt, offensive communication to proceed out of me, can I afford not to allow God to renew my mind and clean my heart, so that I confess what is purely His will and brings about prosperity in my life.  Not just prosperity from a monetary stand point but from the stand point but from the stand point in which God speaks to us in III John 1:2, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers.”  I want prosperity to be what represents my life, so that people around me will have to ask, what is it that you have, so that I will have the opportunity to share the privilege of service and salvation that we have in Christ Jesus.  But if we are a ball of confusion and our communication is the same who will want to know what we have nor will they want to know how to get Him into their lives. Remember our words identify who we are, what is in our hearts and minds and who or what we are sold out to and living for!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Tuesday 11/29/2011)

Keep Your Section Clean

Jeremiah 15:18-20 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁸Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain? ¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God's faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you--not you to [the people]. ²⁰And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord.

            In this season as we are being taught more and more about the faith process and how important it is, I have learned many important parts of the whole of faith and living by faith.  BUT there is one thing that keeps ringing in my spirit, in my prayer time and all throughout the day, which is that I must keep my heart clean.  That I cannot be responsible for anyone else’s heart condition but my own.  It reminded me when my children were very young two and four, and they shared a room. They shared space, and my daughter did not know how to just play with one toy, she wanted everything all at once, and my son has always been an intense child pretty much all of his life, so this used to bother him, especially when it was time to clean up, because he felt it unfair that he should have to clean what he did not take out.  I used to tell him, mommy will get with your sister you just clean up your space and ensure that what is yours is taken care of.  I remember recently feeling this way, and hearing God impart to me this same wisdom, take care of your space, your section, your heart, and He would handle the rest.

            I remember about ten years ago, almost daily I used to pray Psalms 51 over myself.  Even then, I felt compelled to pray to keep me in line in spite of so much that was going on around me.  Somehow I didn’t realize why God had me in that posture.  Our heart and mind are the place where are issues can start to clog up or that they can be produced and begin to flow.  In Proverbs23:7, it says “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost].”  The mind is a powerful tool, and it is in our thinking that our heart can become corrupted or can become clean and free.  But whatever way our mind leads our heart and our actions will soon follow.  Proverbs 4:23 tells us, “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”  It is up to us to choose to keep a guard over our thoughts, and what settles and is produced out of our hearts.  We often wonder why our prayers are hindered or faith in action is producing no results, it may very well be because our thinking is damaged and damaging, and our heart has become tainted, blocked and contaminated.  Our flow is congested then and the life that should be within us to produce is being choked out by our thoughts and heart’s condition.

            If we want God’s will fulfilled in us and His blessings manifested in our lives, it is about keeping our section clean, it is about keeping us in a place where our mind is dwelling on “whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them], “ ( Philippians 4:8).; and that we are asking God to help “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me,” ( Psalms 51:10).  For many of us this is the difference between seeing the move of God in our lives or not seeing it.  Choosing to live in a place where we can keep our thoughts in a more positive and edifying place and our heart will follow what our mind is willing it to do, which will give us a better or right spirit, right confession and right actions and reactions.  I am determined to have my faith operational, so I am must also be determined to have my mind and heart right, what about you, are you determined to see the will of God come forth in its fullness in your life?  The choice is always Yours to make whether you keep your section clean or not!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day ( Monday 11/28/2011)

For Once In My Life…

1 John 5:8-15 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸and there are three witnesses on the earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree [are in unison; their testimony coincides]. ⁹If we accept [as we do] the testimony of men [if we are willing to take human authority], the testimony of God is greater (of stronger authority), for this is the testimony of God, even the witness which He has borne regarding His Son. ¹⁰He who believes in the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] has the testimony [possesses this divine attestation] within himself. He who does not believe God [in this way] has made Him out to be and represented Him as a liar, because he has not believed (put his faith in, adhered to, and relied on) the evidence (the testimony) that God has borne regarding His Son. ¹¹And this is that testimony (that evidence): God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹²He who possesses the Son has that life; he who does not possess the Son of God does not have that life. ¹³I write this to you who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) the name of the Son of God [in the peculiar services and blessings conferred by Him on men], so that you may know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that you [already] have life, yes, eternal life. ¹⁴And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us. ¹⁵And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.

            This is an awesomely strange season of growth and maturity, and it is also causing me to see that for once in my life I am truly more concerned about pleasing God with my whole heart and self than ever before, because of the way I am seeking the face of God, my approach to loving and serving Him and others, and my consistency to seek Him and remind Him of His word and stand on it believing that it is for me!  Not that I didn’t seek Him before or remind Him of His word before, but I let people distract me, or make me feel unworthy.  I heard Stevie Wonder’s song, “For once in my Life,” yesterday and it made me reflect on what had been, what is now and what I was seeking for and seeing for in the future.  The entire song is powerful it says, just what I am feeling:

For once in my life I have someone who needs me…Someone I've needed so long…For once, unafraid, I can go where life leads me…And somehow I know I'll be strong.
For once I can touch what my heart used to dream of…Long before I knew…Someone warm like you…Would make my dreams come true.
For once in my life I won't let sorrow hurt me…Not like it's hurt me before…For once, I have something I know won't desert me…I'm not alone anymore.
For once, I can say, this is mine, you can't take it…As long as I know I have love, I can make it…
For once in my life, I have someone who needs me.

          When we come to really realize who is with us, and who loves us, we begin to change and evolve, into a person that views the world differently and views our relationships differently as well.  My prayer for the last month has been, God I want to be right in your eyes, and I want to keep my heart clean and clear of anything that can hinder me from being in your will. No I am not perfect and I have still had my moments that have challenged me, but the blessed thing is that, I get back on track, just about in an instant.  In this time in my life, I am determined not to be scared of people and what they think or don’t think of me, or what they have to say about of to me.  You see I know where I am with God and I am focused on blessing those I can, touching those I am lead to touch, reaching out and back for those that truly need a hand and desire to move forward.  Now in this season I realize, truly that God has called me and has need of me and I have become determined to stay focused upon that fact.

            I am sharing this because I have come to find that many of us, need to get delivered from people, position, possessions, careers and our pasts.  They are the things that we have allowed to have us.  It is great to have all of these things, but it is when they have us, and change our moods, our mannerism and the way we relate to life and especially the way we serve God, there is something wrong.  For once in our lives it is time to realize we have a God that has need of all of who we are and He desires so much more for us.  He desires that we be whole, and that we prosper in and out of the Kingdom.  He wants us to know He is not like people He will not leave us or forsake us, and that we may get lonely but we are never alone. He wants us to understand that if “WE” determine it no one can take us from Him or Him from us.  He wants us to realize that in this season if we are rolling with Him that dreams will come true and that He will bless us and use us for His glory.  He wants us to understand our worth and why we were really created, that He had a purpose and a destiny before we even took our first breathe in the earth’s realm.

See for once in my life I am realizing if it not edifying, glorifying, uplifting and placing God in position of first, I don’t need it or want it in my life.  If it is hurtful, depressing, degrading, spiteful, negative or mean, it is not the road for me to take or the attitude for me to receive.  For once in my life, I have someone who needs me and that someone I have come to see has needed me all along, He was just waiting for me to realize it, just as He is waiting for all of you to realize and see the same.  For once in your life…See the truth of who you are, who God made you to be and what He desires from your life!

           

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day ( Tuesday 11/22/2011)

Can I Get It Early?

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹TO EVERYTHING there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven: ²A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, ³A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, ⁴A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, ⁵A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,⁶A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away,⁷A time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak,⁸A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

            In our home, my young people know that between October after my daughter’s birthday, if it is not an emergency or someone’s birthday, it waits until Christmas.  I have had a cut off time for extras since my children were small, and they know the rules.  I don’t care about game releases, sale items or anything, if you want it and it comes out between mid-October and Christmas it is going under the tree for Christmas.  But this year one of my children, or as I said young adults, wanted to change the rules of engagement, by getting me to buy it for Christmas, but give it to them early.  They kept trying to justify the need to obtain this item now.  I have not bent, because this morning as I sat here, I heard this scripture, to everything there is a season.  But the problem is we want what we want even if it is not our season.

            As I reread this scripture for what seemed to be the thousandth time.  I realized again that God has an order and a season, a standard and it requires us to go through a process and to stay in class, and complete the course, to include the tests, quizzes and the final examine.  Most of the time we lack the realization or maybe just the acceptance that God has us in a season for a reason, and we despise having to go through that season because we want it now. We feel as if we have waited long enough, or we have endured enough and we are entitled to get what we have coming to us.  But I am learning God wants us to complete what we have started just as He completes what He starts in and for us.  He wants us to learn all that we need to equip us to handle the next season we are entering.  As I go through my studies in counseling I have begun to see a pattern, which is that each coursework and exercise builds upon the last.  It is the same thing within in our season, or our process.  What we are going through, what we are enduring, and what we are being processed through is building upon the last thing and assisting us and building us up.  Going through the process and the seasons that we are in is also about proving our faithfulness.  Will we endure and still stand even when it doesn’t look right, or even when it gets tough, will our loyalties waiver, or will we grow faint?  Lastly, I believe that the reason God wants us to wait through our appointed times and seasons is to build in us a sense of appreciation and understanding.  If we understand that it was God that saw us through, strengthened us and in some cases carried us to the point of our break through, our deliverance and our place of purpose we will appreciate where we are all the more and how we got there, but we should also have cultivated a deeper sense of appreciation for who God is in our lives.

            We all have something that we want now, but the question we need to honestly ask ourselves is, is this our season to get it?  Have we endured the process necessary to obtain what God has for us, or our hearts desire, without losing appreciation or focus?  Did we learn everything that we needed to equip us to receive and to move into the blessings of God?  I often am blessed to speak into the lives of others and one thing that I remind them and I have often had to remind myself is not to despise the process.  Not to despise the waiting.  I look over my shoulder on occasion and I look at some of the things I went through in my life, and I see the handwriting on the wall, if I had been able to allow God to finish the work in me, or if I just had stayed focused and learned the lessons of patience and faithfulness, many bumps in the roads would have been avoided, and many setbacks would not have been because I would have been setup for greatness and moving in the season that God wanted me to be in. But I thank God for grace and mercy, that kept me and I got my lessons in and many others.  Learn to appreciate the process, the season and getting the right things at the right time.  Remember the scriptures in Psalms 84:11 says, “For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”