Do Not Fear

 "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you." (Isaiah 41:10)

The Lord certainly knows how much help I need from Him throughout the day. Sometimes, I walk around  feeling so weak and broken; so lost and exhausted. I often feel zapped of all energy and zest for life. That right there is what I want to change. It is not all the time this happens, but when it does, I want to challenge myself to rest in God and not fear. 

1. Do not fear- I don't have to worry. Fear will not overtake me

2. I am with you-God is by my side, He is ever with me and walks with me

3. Do not be dismayed-I choose not to be confounded, dismayed, or discouraged. 

4. I am your God- He is my God. He alone is the the one who saves, not myself or anyone else. 

5. I will strengthen you-He will strengthen me as He does to those He loves

6. And help you- He will help me, I don't have to do this alone. His help is available to me, at all times. 

"Dear Lord, I pray that today you would banish all fear, let me feel You by my side. I choose to obey your command to not be dismayed, You are in charge, You are my God. I believe that You will strengthen me just like You do for all of Your creatures. I believe You will help me and that You are ever available to me. Open my eyes, help me to embrace all the strength and help You have for me today. I walk with this awareness. You are with me, You are my God, You will strengthen me, You will help me. Thank you for these truths. I receive them in my heart right now." 

Simple Steps to Get out of Mental Fog

 "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14

There is no way around it. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to move in order to get out of a mental funk. Motion. This is crucial. I realize so many times, I'm just in my head. When I 'm in my head I over obsess, analyze, deliberate, overthink, and most often get nowhere. I have to take it one very slow step at a time. I also need to be highly aware of the things that set me off and be vigilant to avoid them. So just how will I fare today? What is my plan for overcoming? 

1. Take one thought and action step by step. What does that mean. It means to not think too far into the future or the past. It means to be in the now. I often overwhelm myself with all that needs to be done or all that I want to do. Or many times I'm carried off into distraction because of a thought that pops up and I follow that thought trail. But, when I take one thought and action at a time, I'm forcing myself to be disciplined and handle what is in the current moment. I think of the verse in 2 Corinthians 10:5 I'm more at peace when I do this. "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 

2. Keep a schedule close by. I make a simple schedule in my planner. I refer to my schedule to make sure I am on track with what needs to be done. I'll refer to it when I feel anxiety coming on and I want to reach for the phone. I am singularly focused on staying focused on the schedule. This schedule is the blueprint and goal I want to reach. 

3. Put on a timer on each task. This keeps me focused and on point with the tasks I have to do. It is an effective way for me to zone in on what needs to be done. It is a way to train my brain in the direction that I want it to go. Sadly, I have to take these extreme measures, because when I'm not operating at my best I am prone to distraction. This timer approach is a protection in making sure I am moving in the right direction. 

4. Trust that all will be well. The very belief that all will be well reduces the anxiety about whether it will or not. I try to remember scriptures that calm my mind. Like "He has given me all things that pertain to life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3) or "He will perfect that which concerns you."(Psalms 139:8) or "For it is God who is able to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Phil 2:13) or "He has not given me a spirit of fear but of love and of power and of a sound mind." (2 Tim 1:7) These are reminders that

It is God's will for me to operate with a calm and trusting mind. This is the mental state I want to be in. Unfortunately due to my poor coping mechanisms when dealing with deep anxiety, I have to work towards repairing the impulsive thoughts that crowd my mind. There is a real effect on my mental state when I allow my thoughts to run rampant. I realize this is neurological process that happens when engaging with technology. So for that I give myself grace. But the damage can be undone. I trust that if I ask for God's will to be done in my life (calm, trusting, at peace, confidence, etc.) then I will receive it. It is up to me, will I walk in it? Will I do the things necessary that foster calm and confidence? Today, I choose to embrace the answer to my prayers. I have asked, it is His will,and I believe that He hears me. 

"If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14

Lessons from the Parable of the Sower Part 1

 “This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life.” (Psalms 119:50) 

I’ll never forget the day when I discovered the power of God’s word and how it gave me life. Since that life-changing day, I’ve been a college freshman, a student missionary, a wife, and a mother among many other things. This Bible verse in Psalms, clearly summarizes my experience with God’s word. It gives me all I need to live well throughout every season of life. throughout these life seasons, I’ve come to realize, that it’s the daily, moment by moment connection to the truth found in God’s word that keeps me rooted in my Christian experience. For all spiritually-minded parents who want to grow in faith, feasting on the word every day ought be as natural as drinking water when thirsty. 

 But many of us are parched. Life gets busy, distraction gets the best of us, and intentional meditation on God’s word just doesn’t happen. The moments when we do make time for God, the scriptures fall flat and lack power to penetrate our hearts. I know this pattern well, because I have experienced it myself at times. How can we make sense of when the word doesn’t impact us like it should? What gets in the way of God’s word transforming our heart and making change in our lives? In the parable of the Sower, Jesus explains why the word doesn’t bear fruit when it is sown in a person’s heart. The full story of the sower is found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, or Luke 8:4-15. I see 3 different ideas emerge from this story that shed light on the things that get in the way of the word taking root in our hearts. In this post I'll cover the first one.

Supernatural Forces 

“...as he sowed..some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.” (Mark 4:4)

In the parable of the Sower, a sower or farmer sows seed on 3 types of ground. In first type of ground, He sows seed on the wayside which is on hard ground, then very soon the birds comes and devours the seed. Based on the different Bible passages that recount this parable, a few things happen to people in this first group. 

1. Overt Attacks. In Mark 4:4,  Jesus says these are people who hear the word, but Satan takes it away.  When they read the Bible, the enemy is already planning how to zap whatever they read right out of their minds.
2. Dull Understanding. In Matt 13, Jesus says they hear it but, they don’t understand it.  So when they read the Bible, they don't get it because they lack the ability to sit long enough to understand it. The enemy takes advantage of this weakness and draws away their minds from meditating on the Word.
3. Lack of Belief. In Luke 8, Jesus says they hear the word, but Satan takes it away because he knows if they believe it they will be saved. The enemy fosters doubt in God’s word and His promises.  The enemy doesn’t want us to know how powerful Jesus’ words are. The amount of promises and counsel found in God’s word is immeasurable are abundant. "For God so loved the world that He gave His begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life." Our belief in Jesus saves us, Satan knows that and wants to take that truth away from those who could believe.

This reminds me of this verse: 

"Be sober be vigilant, for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whomever he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8)

Have you ever felt that something was overpowering you that you felt like you had no control over? Maybe it came as an intense emotion, or a wave of deep sadness or darkness. Or perhaps you have felt that your best efforts towards change and growth have been met with one roadblock after another. 

We simply cannot deny that there are dark forces in this world. I believe that it is Satan's express interest to keep us from seeing the truth in the Word of God. For in it, reveals God's true character and an invitation to get to know Him personally for ourselves. 

Overt attacks, a dull understanding, and lack of belief are all factors that can impact the quality of your spiritual life and why the word is not bearing fruit in your life. Think about these things, are any of them impacting the word from bearing fruit in your life? If not, perhaps something else is at play. In our next post, we'll look at another barrier that may be keeping the word from being rooted in your heart.

Obedience is a Response

 "Obey Me, and I will be your God." Jeremiah 7:23

If I thought long and hard, I could probably recount many times where I was told to do something that I didn't do and realized that I should've listened to begin with.  We could perhaps name certain instances where we've asked our children to obey us, they don't listen, and they regret not listening. Instead of choosing God's way, we follow our own way. The idea of obedience gets a bad reputation. Why? Because it has the connotation of an authoritarian and inflexible dictator-like authority figure who is cold and lacks genuine care. Popular culture seems to value rebellion, bucking against authority, and anything that appears to impose rules. If a corrupt system is in place, then perhaps doing these things are okay. But what about obedience to a loving God. Because the truth is, God is love. Sadly, most people do not have this picture of God. 

Right now I'm in the process of trying to teach my 4 year old the importance of obedience. It's a lesson that needs to be repeated multiple times throughout his life. His understanding of it is different now than when he was younger, so I can introduce deeper concepts that will hopefully make a more meaningful impact on him. As I venture into this intentional process, it's got me thinking, how do we obey? How do we teach our children to obey?

Trust. Establish a warm bond of connection. Because love and trust leads to obedience. We want to make it easy for our children to obey us. We do this by creating a loving environment and having a loving relationship with them. How, spend time, talk to them, listen to them, care for them, be there for them in their most vulnerable moments, encourage them in right doing. Be consistently loving and kind. Predictably so. Know what shows love towards that child and do that so they are assured of your love for them. Help them to know that their Father in heaven loves them more than we ever could and knows what's best and will never fail them. 

Trust comes first, then obedience. In order for people and children to obey, there has to be trust. True and authentic obedience comes from a trusting, loving, willing heart. Forced obedience, is manipulation and control. Children need to learn the value of rules, because not following them can lead to negative consequences. This is ultimately what God wants to protect us from. 

Obeying the right voice makes life easier. We can learn the easier way (by obeying and watching other people's mistakes) or we can learn the harder way by going through the hard knocks of life barely surviving the trauma we inflicted on ourselves due to our own lack of compliance. 

How do we obey God? It is His goodness that draws us towards repentance. It is embracing the righteousness of Christ and putting that on as our clothing. It is knowing that God's love, mercy, and grace compels us to love and obey and honor our savior. It's not hard when we meditate on God's goodness, His grace, His love towards us. 

God's love, that is what draws us. I pray that I would forever be in awe of God's glory. His possibilities, His ability to help me weather through any difficulty. I have confidence in God. He is trustworthy. I don't trust myself, but I trust that God will come through for me and give me the courage to face whatever comes my way. 

Dear Lord, thank you for being my God. I ask in the name of Jesus that you will pour your Holy Spirit and love out in full measure. I ask that I would come to know the depth of your love. May my response be to obey, honor, and praise you so that others can be saved from sin and darkness. Cause me and my household to walk in your way, We acknowledge you as our God. Thank you Lord for hearing this prayer. 

Keeping Promises

 "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise. He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish." (2 Peter 3:9)

I am constantly amazed at the faithfulness of God. This particular passage refers to His promise to return back to earth and rescue His people. When I see this verse, it reminds me of all the other promises He has in the Word as well.  He promises that if we call to him, He will answer us and show us great and mighty things (Jeremiah 33:3) Well, I prayed this prayer this morning before I studied the Bible that He would show me great and mighty things and He did not fail to deliver. 

Since early January, I've been reading through a One Year Bible, which features several passages to read daily over the year until you've read the whole Bible by the end of the year. There's a New testament, Old testament, Psalms and Proverbs. As I read this morning, several passages spoke to me. But when I was finished reading, I didn't have any specific powerful feeling of what I read being particularly significant or deeply  hard-hitting. However, I stopped, said a prayer and read the Psalms passage over again. It's Psalms 15:1-5 When I saw it, the message was right there, clear as day. 

This passage highlights the character qualities of a person who may "dwell on God's Holy hill." Of the 11 qualities it mentions, it was verse 4 that popped out.  In answering the question highlighted in verse 1 that says "Lord who may dwell in your sanctuary? When may live on your holy hill?" The answer comes: 

"He who keeps his oath even when it hurts." Ouch. 

I looked in a different Bible to find a reference verse and read in Leviticus 5:4 where it describes a person who speaks thoughtlessly when they give an oath. Yikes. That is so me. Our motivation is to please and not cause any riffs. In the end, our words bind us to oaths we don’t have the will or capacity to keep. 

I realize, I make lots of promises yet many times I do not keep them very often. I make promises and break them all the time. It is hard for me to keep my word. This is a character flaw that can keep me from being on that God's holy hill as mentioned in Psalms. This may not seem very significant, but it's huge because broken promises lead to broken relationships. 

The damage done to a child when a parent breaks his promise is immense. It is a sad day when a child realizes how unstable and faulty their parents can be. The instability of a child's environment can lead to serious trust issues, emotional issues, and a whole litany of problems.  Children who grow up as healthy adults either have parents that were highly stable and consistent or they had a heavenly father they looked up to that was a source of stability for them. Either way, stability is key. This stability is what makes God our Father such an incredible source of assurance for me. I long to be the parent that upholds a sense of integrity and keeping of my word, even if it hurts. Yesterday, I made a promise to take my kids to a special library in town. We were running late, I didn't feel like going anymore, but the response daughter gave sent me in a tailspin. I realized how often I break my promises. How I speak thoughtlessly. Kids can experience disappointment and survive. Things shift and change that is out of our control. But, I made a decision right then to keep my promise to her even though it hurt. 

"The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him." (Proverbs 20:7)

This is how I want to be. I want to be a principled person, steadfast immovable, full of integrity. This is what I desire and this is what my children need. Think of how many promises we've broken and yet our standards for our children or others are higher than our own. We want others to keep promises, but we don't keep promises to others or even ourselves. This is a fatal flaw that has to be confessed and surrendered to God. I think of Jesus who made a commitment to do His father's work and complete His earthly mission to save the world. At the very end of His life, He prayed for things to change, but, He ultimately made a choice to follow's God's will and not His own. It was not easy, it was painful, it hurt, but He kept His promise. I'm so glad that He did. I'm so thankful for a faithful and steadfast God.  He kept His promise this morning to me. I was reminded of my faults and my need for God and bowed my head in praise as I thought about His faithfulness. A renewed sense of keeping my word emerged. I'm so glad God keeps His promises.

"Dear Lord, Thank you for being faithful in keeping your promises to me. You are so faithful, you are steadfast, you are a solid rock on which I can stand. Forgive me for making promises without the tenacity to keep them.  I pray in the name of Jesus that the righteousness of Christ will cover me that I may walk in integrity and my children can follow and be blessed. Even now you have promised to come again, yet you are patient because you don't want anyone to perish and are giving us time. Fill me with your Spirit that I may be a strong rock for my children. Live in me that I may not make thoughtless promises. Cause me to keep my word today. In Jesus' name, Amen." 

God Never will

The lush grass massaged bare feet as I stroll the backyard and imagine my baby girl

She was late, but I know, in just a few days, she'd be entering into this world

I'm so excited about what's to come and I just can't wait!

Immediately after I feel this excitement, a thought comes and it won't escape 

I'm not perfect,  I'll mess up, and I don't know how I’ll measure up?

I just don't think I am capable of always filling her love cup. 

I'm going to fail her, I'm going to ruin her, I don't have what it takes

I'm faulty, I'm a sinner, I'm going to make too many mistakes!

I cry to the Lord and I tell him all that's on my heart and soul 

Soon, I'm encouraged as I realize that He will help me fulfill this role

He says to me, "My daughter, didn't your mother make mistakes?

Don't you realize I helped her to know that she had what it takes?

You had troubles, you had cares, you had worries you fretted about

But look how I formed you, just look how you turned out

You will not be perfect, but remember to be at peace, be still 

It's guaranteed that you'll fail, but I assure you, I never will"

The joy that came was abundant and overflowing

The assurance of the Lord came as sure as the wind started blowing

I knew right then what I'd teach my little girl to remember

The thought was crystal clear on that day in my backyard in late September

I'd say, "Though you will have many troubles in this dark cold world

I trust that you will be strong, my beautiful, bright little girl

You’ll face good things, bad things and you may not know how to feel

Just know this one thing that: I may fail you, but God never will" 

Prayer for Walking in the Midst of Trouble

 "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life."Psalms 138:7

Dear Lord, I know you come through for me. Preserve my life today. Preserve my thoughts, actions, and the core of my being. Help me to stay true to core truths. Guide me in how I am supposed to live. Help me to walk according to your ways and to surrender to You, and to obey You. Reveal your power to me today and show me truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God that pierces the soul. Thank you for this verse:

“You hear, Oh Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and you listen to to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.”  (Psalms 10:17,18)

No weapon formed against me shall prosper. 

To all of us walking in the midst of trouble: He will plead your cause. Be patient, wait, stand your ground. God always comes through for His people. Release the negativity attempting to choke out the joy of your salvation. He will preserve your life.