Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Tuesday 06/19/2012)

Words Don’t Mean That Much To Me

Isaiah 29:13-16 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹³ And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips but remove their hearts and minds far from Me, and their fear and reverence for Me are a commandment of men that is learned by repetition [without any thought as to the meaning], ¹⁴ Therefore, behold! I will again do marvelous things with this people, marvelous and astonishing things; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their discerning men will vanish or be hidden. ¹⁵ Woe to those who [seek to] hide deep from the Lord their counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, Who sees us? Who knows us? ¹⁶ [Oh, your perversity!] You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be considered of no more account than the clay? Shall the thing that is made say of its maker, He did not make me; or the thing that is formed say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?

           

            Last week my daughter and I were up late cooking for an event.  I usually let her listen to her music within reason, to keep her going and motivated as we pull those long late night hours. I like some of her generation’s music, but it is nothing like what I grew up on, but as we approached midnight, a song came on her computer that I recognized and actually like it is a song entitled “Words” by Bobby Valentino, as I sang along and the song came to the chorus, that spoke the devotional’s title words, “Words don’t mean that much to me.”  As the song came to an end and those words kept playing over and over in my mind.  I thought of my own my life and how many times I had relied on people’s words and been disappointed, let down, lied to and deceived.  This was a lesson I had to learn, this was not a lesson that I just knew right away.  I was prone to believe the best in people and to believe that people were who they said they were and they would follow through with what they promised to do.  I had to learn that the heart is often deceitfully wicked and selfish in its motivation and will lead a person to say things it really doesn’t mean to get its way. I thought about how many times words were used as a ways to a means or weapons.  I have had to learn words don’t mean much; it is the behavior, actions, motives and living that to me means the most to me. It is at the heart of who we are.

            The irony is we don’t just do this with people we do this with God.  We tell Him how much we love Him, but we don’t obey Him.  We say how much we need Him but we don’t spend any time with Him. We tell Him how much we want to know Him, but we don’t study His Word, His works or His ways. Our words are all in but our life is all out.  Why do we feel that words will have the same effect on God that they do on people?  Why do we feel we can pull the wool over God’s eyes like we can a human being? Why do we feel that our words will hide the true intent of our heart and the truth of our thoughts?  We forget that God knows the very intent of our hearts and our thoughts.  He knows our beginning from our end and everything in-between.  We should desire truth inside and out as God desires it of us, but human nature often leads us to do things that make it easy on our flesh and does not challenge us to do better or be better.  But the God in us, the spiritual part of us, the part of us that is connected to God should desire to walk in integrity, truth, and that our words should line up with what is in our hearts, minds and spirits.

            Proverbs 10:19 states, “In a multitude of words transgression is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is prudent.” My motto often is I can show you better than I can tell you.  Sometimes some of us need to study to be silent and just do the will of God and live in the obedience of God instead of talking about how much we actually aren’t really doing.  Let the words that we do speak, be acceptable in His sight and let them be ones that touch His heart, and are truth and spoken in integrity. But let us not stop there, let our works and behaviors do the same, even where it concerns mankind.  Give your words meaning, by meaning what you say and doing what you mean and say!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Monday 06/18/2012)

How Do I Live Without You

Mark 8:35-39 Amplified Bible (AMP)

³⁵ For whoever wants to save his [higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the lower, natural, temporal life which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it [his higher, spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God]. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life [ in the eternal kingdom of God]? ³⁷ For what can a man give as an exchange (a compensation, a ransom, in return) for his [blessed] life [ in the eternal kingdom of God]?³⁸ For whoever is ashamed [here and now] of Me and My words in this adulterous (unfaithful) and [preeminently] sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory (splendor and majesty) of His Father with the holy angels.

            Last week during a morning workout tape with my husband I found my mind focusing on God needing Him just to get me through this workout.  This reminded me of a time when I was in Air Force Basic Training and I came down with a very serious case of Bronchitis and I could not participate in physical training and conditioning for three weeks; I was under doctor’s orders, so I went from doing three laps to doing six.  The six laps was part of my physical requirements to complete and graduate from Basic Training and to go onto Technical School.  I remember praying through each lap and asking God to help me; I was asking Him to take the pain away and help me to endure. These two times that many people would look at as small but for me I look at these situations as examples that if I need God just to make it in the small things how much more do I need Him to make it through the larger more complex events of my life?

            There are many times when we get to a place where we have developed so much ability and acquired so much knowledge that God becomes much to do about nothing for us.  We don’t fear Him, and because of all that we have acquired; we definitely don’t think we need Him, so we do us, living our life as we design and know how to do.  Many of us are thinking that God really has nothing to do with us; we make and cause our own destiny.  We have cultivated a thought that we make our own destiny and we are our own judge and jury.  We think that what we obtain, the education, positions and the material wealth is fulfilling our own needs and this is the most important thing and God is really not concerned with us, the way we behave or the way we are living and treating others.  But in fact He is.  This life is not all that there is. If we neglect to choose Him in this life, He will neglect to choose us as it concerns eternal life.  We can have so much going for us, that we forget that all is possible because of God our Father, He is the one that helps us to obtain, wisdom, knowledge and the abilities that aid in the process of obtaining wealth.  But many of us don’t see the correlation or the connection; we do not see that God is the source of our strength, and ability.  We are choosing to live without Him, and some of us even confessing that He is ours, although this is our choice in the manner in which we live.

            Every breath that we breathe is God’s air, but just like our lives, we don’t realize this fact and we take it all for granted.  We have chosen us over Him (God), we have chosen to go solo, instead asking Him and allowing Him to become our ride or die, our everything and our all and all that we acknowledge in all of our ways. Instead we place Him in a space that says, I will go to church on Sunday I may even claim Him to friends and family but I am still going to live as I please doing what I please the way I please and treating others the way it suits me.  But if we choose us now, we cannot expect God to choose us later.  We have to make the decision to live with God through Christ now, in order to live with Him later.  It is high time that we wake out of sleep, and stop thinking that the way in which we live our lives has no consequence. Because if you are sold out to you and the world and living according to its standards, it is your soul that lies in jeopardy.  Don’t continue to live without Him, understand choosing Him now is a life altering experiences that can alter not just the here and now but all of eternity!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Monday 06/11/2012)

Preparing My Heart and Mind

Psalm 51:9-17 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁹ Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities. ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. ¹³ Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted and return to You. ¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness and death, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness (Your rightness and Your justice). ¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. ¹⁶ For You delight not in sacrifice, or else would I give it; You find no pleasure in burnt offering.  ¹⁷ My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.

            One of the blessings and curses of being who I am is that I will replay any situation that I am in good or bad over in my mind to see if I acted or said anything inappropriate or if I brought shame upon my Heavenly Father.  My mother says I am hardest on myself, which I would have to agree with.  I have a tendency even when I know I was perfectly within my right to say something, evaluate a situation or even feel a certain way, I am always asking did I do it in a way that God would be pleased with or not, were my words seasoned with grace, and mercy instead of anger and malice?  Were my actions, ones that identified my relationship with Christ because I acted not in maturity and integrity or did my actions cause those who encountered me to question that relationship because of immaturity, malice and anger?  Did I ultimately attract or repel people?  I understand and have long come to understand that not everyone will like me, and I have come to be okay with that because, I am uniquely who God made me, not who I made me or situations and circumstances have created me to be and they are uniquely who they are, but I always want to be in a place or posture where I do not, cause them to think that I disrespected them as a creation of God, or I have intentional belittled, hurt, disregarded their concerns or damaged them.  I have learned we will not like everyone because of their attitudes, behaviors, habits and methods of communicating but everyone we are instructed and commanded to love by God.  Hence my evaluation of my words, actions, and behaviors, and my need to ensure that I have not given an appearance that is shameful or contrary to my relationship and rights standing with God my Father

            I have learned a necessary part of my living is asking God to create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit.  Our emotions can often get the best of us and lead us to be way out of God’s will and way out of His way.  I find that by evaluating my words, behaviors and actions and not being in a place of condemnation it keeps me broken before the Almighty and He ultimately is the one that I must please, and be in right relationship with.  I understand that no matter what I say and do in the presence of some individuals, they will always respond in a place of anger, resentment, hostility and judgment because of their own internal issues and often lack of a love relationship with God, but we have to understand that no matter how they react or respond we have a responsibility to be in a place with God that sends a message that our heart and mind are ready for Him to inspect, ready for Him to reside in and ready for Him to send us into arenas that others will never go.  As with David, God’s ability to move Him into the palace from the fields was based upon David’s humility and desire to be right with God.  David was not perfect, and he had his issues, and made his mistakes, but his ultimate desire was always to get back in connection with God and to be right with Him and to have his life be worship towards God.

            Interesting enough, many people will never identify that their life is worship and a service to God that will deploy them into service to others, as I had not, always done.  But it is when we come into the knowledge that truly our life is not our own, we get to enjoy it, but it is really not about anything else but about service to God, and abiding in His will, we will do more preparation of our heart and mind, to ensure that wherever we find ourselves we are doing it the way God asks us to, we are treating people that way that God wants us to, and we are talking to people in a way that pleases God, and not our right to be right or our emotions. Preparing our heart and mind only benefits us and gives us the advantage that others lack when it comes to be in right standing with God!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Friday 06/08/2012)

What Are You Really Hungry For

Romans 16:17-18 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁷ I appeal to you, brethren, to be on your guard concerning those who create dissensions and difficulties and cause divisions, in opposition to the doctrine (the teaching) which you have been taught. [I warn you to turn aside from them, to] avoid them.¹⁸ For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites and base desires, and by ingratiating and flattering speech, they beguile the hearts of the unsuspecting and simpleminded [people].

            Have you ever been hungry for a particular food, and you either could not get to it, could not find it or the place was closed, and someone then suggested an alternative, how did that make you feel? Most people would say the substitute was not an option, others would admit frustration, because attempting to satisfy your appetite with anything other than what you really desire is selling yourself short, or not satisfying the original desire.  I remember just recently I had two people on two separate occasions attempt to tell me that women were not meant to preach the gospel.  I remember the frustration of the initial moments and then the Holy Spirit reminded me that we are not to argue the Word of God because God can defend His Word all by Himself, but only stand on what it says.  I remember responding in scripture and referring to what I knew in the Greek and Hebrew and eventually letting the conversations stand, and my knowledge of the truth and God’s Word stand alone!  Nothing that they were attempting to feed me satisfied my appetite for truth of God’s Word and God’s Will as revealed in scripture.

            Unfortunately not everyone will agree with us all of the time, especially as it concerns what we believe, because everyone has an opinion or a perspective.  But we must learn to develop an appetite, a desire for God above all else.  When we begin to desire the truth of the Word and we are willing to search out the scriptures and to allow God through the working of the Holy Spirit to speak to us we will find truth and the true things of God.  We will not desire to eat from the table of others opinion and perspectives that lead us away from the truth and satisfy our own flesh or the agenda of others; we will always defer to truth because we have built up an appetite for truth.  It is when we have not truly developed relationship with God in a way that we know His voice and follow after no other, we defer to His word as the ultimate authority, and we are obedient to His will, by bring the flesh under subjection that we lean to our own understanding and the doctrine and understanding of others; we will fight for what we want above all else. It is when we find ourselves in this state that we will bring discord, dissention and causing some of our brethren to go astray; by our pulling apart the Word of God to make it fit our agenda. You see what we crave and hunger for will drive us, our behaviors, beliefs and actions.  The Bible reminds us in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied!”  When we hunger and thirst after the things that our fleshly desires we will never be fully satisfied, and we will find ourselves looking again to be filled, but when we allow the things of God to fill us we will be completed satisfied and filled to overflowing.

            Just as when we are choosing a meal during the course of our day, it is our choice to choose something healthy, and nutritionally balanced or to eat junk food, it is the same with us spiritually, we can choose to run after what satisfies the flesh or we can sow and feed our spirit.  But if we choose to sow to our flesh and our agenda or even other people’s agenda that has been sown into us, be careful not to cause your agenda, and your appetite to become someone else’s problem, by teaching them your bad eating habits.  Don’t lead others astray by discounted and tearing down the truth of God’s Word, just to satisfy your fleshly desires. Seek first the Kingdom, hunger and thirst after what is the righteousness of God so that you and those you encounter may truly be filled. If you seek to be filled by the flesh and of false doctrines and opinion of everyone to include yourself may end up with food poisoning that may cause a spiritual death.

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Thursday 06/07/2012)

I Believe I’ll Stay Right Here

Exodus 33:9-11 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would talk with Moses.¹⁰ And all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the tent door, and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man at his tent door.¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Moses returned to the camp, but his minister Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the [temporary prayer] tent.

            All of us have woken up in the morning and felt the warmth and comfort of our bed and articulated the fact that we thought it would be best to stay right where we are. On those days, speaking for myself, I feel safe, a sense of contentment and most times an overwhelming sense of peace.  I have experienced times with God that has felt the same way.  Spending time laying prostrate before Him, I feel a sense of contentment,  a sacred place, holy, peaceful and loved in such a way that it is overwhelming and makes me not want to move from my posture of communion with my Lord.  I have been blessed to be in church services where we were never able to get out of worship because God came in and sat with us; His love and anointing overtook us.  Not just were we in a place of peace, we felt transfigured and in a place of holiness, a sacred place that one would resist coming out of, because it felt so good; Those moments only made you want to stay right there and not go anyplace else.  It has been these times that I understood that God was doing something, even when I did not understand Him as I do now.

            How often do you run into God’s presence?  How often do you desire to press into God’s presence in worship even at home or do you find yourself waiting to be filled in the assembly (church)?  Have you developed a relationship with God that desires His presence and you find comfort in His presence more than anyplace else?  The tabernacle was where the Spirit of God rested.  It is a representation of the Holy place, Joshua, did not want to leave God’s presence.  His desire was to be where the Spirit of God was.  He desired to maximize His time and what He could obtain from God.  I believe Joshua understood something that many of us miss, which is the more we spend time with God, the more of Him we should obtain.  David in Psalms expressed the one thing that He desired of the Lord and that would He seek after that He would dwell in the House of the Lord Forever (Psalms 27:4).  The more we push the world out and God in He becomes the focus and we are able to receive from Him in a way that others may not.  It also sends a message to God that we are reliant, dependent, and desirous of Him, above all else.  I am a firm believer that you are what you eat; you become what you give yourself to and who you invest your time and effort into.

            My desire is more of God, to do more for Him, and to stay in His presence.  I desire to live a life that glorifies God, not just live a life that I desire the way that I think it should be done.  I want to stay in His presence, in a posture of worship that is my life.  We should all desire for God to saturate our lives and to fill us up to overflowing, but the question becomes do we.  We hear it said so much being so heaven bound that we are no earthly God, but earth is ultimately not our home and man is ultimately not who we should desire to please and reflect, it should be the one we refer to as ABBA Father, Our Lord, Savior and King.  We should desire to stay in a posture in our lives that God fills us and that our soul is crying “less of me and more of you is what I need.”  As we become willing participants of worship and submission we will see God’s anointing, grace and favor manifested in our lives.  We will find the more we give to God the more He will give to us, the more we yield in sweet surrender to Him, the more He fills our life with His Glory and Good things, that accomplish His work and His will!