This song is really speaking to me this morning. I love the Scriptures.
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Nehemiah and a Cool Vacation
Do you ever feel discouraged? Discouragement is something I find myself battling lately. The Bible says that David dealt with this too. To work through it he “encouraged himself in the Lord.” I’ve been desperately trying to learn how that works. If you know please tell me but in the meantime found this interesting.
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The following comes from daily devotional email from Rick Warren:
Discouragement is curable. Whenever I get discouraged, I head straight to Nehemiah. This great leader of ancient Israel understood there were four reasons for discouragement.
First, you get fatigued — You simply get tired as the laborers did in Nehemiah 4:10. We’re human beings and we wear out. You cannot burn the candle at both ends. So if you’re discouraged, it may be you don’t have to change anything. You just need a vacation! Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to bed.
Second, you get frustrated — Nehemiah says there was rubble all around, so much that it was getting in the way of rebuilding the wall. Do you have rubble in your life? Have you noticed that anytime you start doing something new, the trash starts piling up?
If you don’t clean it out periodically, it’s going to stop your progress. You can’t avoid it, so you need to learn to recognize it and dispose of it quickly so you don’t lose focus on your original intention.
What is the rubble in your life? I think rubble is the trivial things that waste your time and energy and prevent you from accomplishing what God has called you to do.
Third, you think you’ve failed — Nehemiah’s people were unable to finish their task as quickly as originally planned and, as a result, their confidence collapsed. They were thinking, “We were stupid to think we could ever rebuild this wall.”
But you know what I do when I don’t reach a goal on time? I just set a new goal. I don’t give up. Everybody fails. Everybody does foolish things. So the issue is not that you failed – it’s how you respond to your failure.
Do you give in to self-pity? Do you start blaming other people? Do you start complaining that it’s impossible? Or, do you refocus on God’s intentions and start moving again?
Finally, when you give in to fear, you get discouraged — Nehemiah 4 suggests the people most affected by fear are those who hang around negative people. If you’re going to control the negative thoughts in your life, you’ve got to get away from negative people as much as you can.
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So may or may not work but think I will give it a shot… going to start by reading Nehemiah and planning a cool vacation (and soon).
Just a thought…
When Jesus told Peter, “If you love me, feed my sheep,” Peter had just denied Jesus. Can you imagine Peter’s feelings of guilt? I’m sure he considered ending all ministry.
How I hear that today: Jesus says to us, “If you love Me, FORGET the mistakes and failures of the past and focus on what I asked you to do!” (Of course, I’m not talking about short-circuiting repentance)
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Paradox of Fear
“Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still’.” Exodus 14:13-14 (NRSV).
We all experience fear, and maybe the paradox is we cannot be truly courageous without fear. Fear is necessary for us to do anything truly heroic. If it is within your comfort zone, isn’t it just ordinary? I believe we cannot express faith without fear. It has to be there.
Here is the thing, when I allow the fear to take me into self-pity or frozen states (and I do this more than you might realize), I give away the opportunity at conquering the fear with the help of a holy and all-powerful God behind me. And by standing firm I do not beleive Moses meant to freeze in fear. By these actions, I give away the opportunity to exercise faith. I have allowed the wrong thing to control. I find myself praying quite often that the Lord will take away all fear but I am learning that I should and must do my part to disarm the fear itself. To give into fear and allow it to control me is sin but in the Word I am told that God provides a way out; a way to flee from sin. How do I live without this sin controlling my life? I beleive this is done in at least one of two ways because fear can manifest as a result of both the inappropriate and appropriate.
First, I can approach the problem or issue in a fear-less sort of way: to be fearless, i.e. denying the fear, but truthfully so. There are truly many fears I have that are ridiculous in the face of reason. I must acknowledge that I am allowing the unreasonable and not using logical reason that God has provided. Having acknowledged this I then must retrain my minds to think differently. I believe the goal should be to quickly recognize these fears and quash them immediately. To sit around and think on them or to worry or obsess it pretty much making an idol of them. Quash them and focus on the Lord or on His children. Get my mind off of myself. I have learned that if I deliberately move away from this type of fear that He will not disappoint in strengthening me.
Second, I can approach it in a manner that just fears things less. Maybe the fear is an appropriate fear. I must move all the while and refuse to be paralyzed by fear but do so acknowledging that what I am fearing is actually appropriate to fear. I just must conform the fear so my actions in light of it are manifested healthily. I need to be open and honest about it and move through it anyway…trusting again in God for my strength. This of itself is to me real courage.
Being fearless and/or just fearing less. God is with me in these pursuits. It’s God’s will that I am not afraid.
Lessons on Loneliness from a Stuffed Horse
I have been struggling with loneliness. My circle of friends keeps getting smaller and smaller. I wanted to backpeddle and see if I could fix that but I didn’t even know why it happened or how to approach correctly or even if it truly was about me so much. I have had to stop trying to figure it out and leave it as one of those things to work through trusting in God and His plan.
I was told by a wise someone that I should look at this time of solitude as an opportunity. Focus on opportunity rather than struggle. Look on the bright side (as I always say to my kids). She said to very deliberately turn my lonely feelings into an attitude of getting a chance for aloneness…or being alone with God. Like a kid from a large family getting to spend that prized alone time with a parent. She said from a different lens the painful, isolating times of loneliness will draw me closer to God and that will help make me a woman who has something new inside to give to others.
That counsel reminded me of something. There is a story by Marjorie Williams that kind of depicts this truth. It’s called The Velveteen Rabbit. In one passage the toy rabbit and the toy horse are talking to each other:
“What is real?” asked the stuffed rabbit to the stuffed horse. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the stuffed horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the stuffed rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the stuffed horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are real, though, you don’t mind so much.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the stuffed horse. “You become real. It takes a long time and a lot of pain. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and are very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all because once you are real, you can’t ever be ugly except to people who don’t really understand.”
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I so want to have something to give and someday impact someone’s life for eternity. Perhaps in this season if I can take this advice and focus on the opportunity rather than the struggle there will be even a slight movement toward being used of God to fulfill His purposes in my life. I pray I am one that doesn’t break easily and one that doesn’t have to be carefully kept. I pray that the reward is great in the eternal sense. In a world of imaginations and distortions, I pray I will be real. I pray that even if I appear shabby to the world, I will have the inward beauty of one who has been with Jesus. I pray that the pain of loneliness will during this time turn into something real on the inside of me that looks even on the outside exactly like love.
This walk is an interesting one. Wouldn’t call it easy but I sure wouldn’t trade it.
Abba’s Promises
Last night I went to bed with such pain in my heart. Someone repeated some of my words very much out of context…using chosen parts of a question I asked to create the impression that I implied something that wasn’t in my heart at all. It provoked confusion and anger unnecessarily. Why? What is going on? Do I fight this kind of thing. I don’t know — so I asked Abba Father (the only daddy I have) for some help in dealing with this because I have no one else. God gave me two things over these last few hours. First was a Word to me almost in my sleep but like not….hard to describe. The second He sent in a Word from a friend.
To me: You are on a path and there are many that would try to stop you. They are not even aware they are being used to do this. They don’t know your path. They don’t know your potential in Me. They are as a tree that was planted to cover my path for you. Go around. Do not hesitate. Do not stop to look or listen or feel. Do not stop to smell or taste. Your fruit is not at this tree or growing from it. Your fruit is up the path, up ahead. Go around and stay on your path keeping your eyes only on me. Move toward the promises- My promises to you.
Then I received this message this morning from a friend. Just felt he was to give it to me: I see FLOWERS lots of FLOWERS Melissa. yellow flowers which represent PROMISES of God soon to come to pass. believe Him for the promises, Melissa, every accurate word spoken over you is also a covenant. remind Him of His word. loved ones, ministries, provision, etc. also i see a full plate of food in front of you. i think the full plate of food was the promise of provision for you. AND a feast of His word also Melissa. Yes you’re going to have the richness of His goodness in both provision and His word.blessings
Thanks Abba for Your love and encouragement and Your faith in me!!!
He opens His heart up time and again
One of my favorite things about Jesus is that He keeps His heart open to people. Even when He was on this earth He fully loved people and told them the truth and there was no contradiction in that. He knew that He was going to be despised and rejected and yet over and over again He would chose to love and serve.
In this day and age we find it hard to keep our hearts open to people especially if there is an indication of difficulty or pain involved. If we think there could be rejection or separation on the horizon we would rather get out before we get hurt. How opposite to Jesus.
Jesus died for people who hated Him (like us). He washed the feet of men who were going to deny even knowing Him.
I have a feeling it’s because firstly, He is love, and secondly He was so confident in the love of the Father and the Father was the one He lived to please, so even if people rejected His love He knew His Father delighted in Him.
I really want to be like Jesus!
Paying the Price
I find myself in an interesting place. God asked me to do something. I wasn’t His first choice. I know that and others know that. His first choice said “NO!” for very good reasons they answered that way. I know I was second maybe third choice here. I may have originally been no choice at all. Originally I was perhaps just someone that wanted to participate in a ministry. Only God knows that but no matter what and even still, He asked me. I know His voice. So I said “yes!” One of my friends told me up front to stay out of it because they also sensed God’s first choice. Doublebind for a moment but if you have a choice between God’s voice and a friend’s opinion, even though they are wise counsel…what are you supposed to do? How can you say “no” to God?
I have lost friends over this. Since the day I said yes to God and I am baffled. Should I be? Is this normal I wonder. Why does anyone really care what I am doing for God? When I clean toilets they could care less. Is it their own conviction? Maybe so, maybe they were actually second choice….hmmmm. If a job needs to be done and you know someone else is called does that mean you let it go undone? I don’t think so. God uses the willing. He calls us all. Many don’t answer but the work remains the same. I don’t know. Maybe I am speaking from hurt. But I lost a friend and with her I have obviously lost a couple of others that were connected through her. They don’t even have to tell me…I can see and feel what has happened. It is a loss to me and I find myself in grief. But if someone chooses to distance themselves from you and suddenly seems to want little to do with you when they were such a close part of your life, what can you do? My circle gets smaller and smaller.
I get what some of the mothers of our faith have told me about paying the price just a little bit better now.
“Yield” ~ God
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Pray also that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling. Ephesians 1:18
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
If you look at me too closely me right now, you”ll probably run farther from me than some already have. I feel like I am here cut down the middle and all of the darkness and light within this heart and mind is exposed. I prayed the prayer of Ephesians 1:18 last week. I had something very different in mind…isn’t that God’s way? Answered prayer I guess. God defnitely opened the eyes of my understanding and heart and has allowed me to see ME! It is a painful, bloody thing but I see with my understanding also beauty in a distance and don’t ask me how but I am thankful that it was set into motion through my prayer and then with the preaching of the Word this past Sunday morning. I know it is all part of His greater plan. I hope that in the coming days I can remember that because many things are being exposed and dealt with. To get to the place with the Lord that I am seeking some of the hidden things of my heart – the competition; the jealousies (which God hates); the pride; the control; so many things have to be dealt with. I can see it. He wants to change it. God is doing a work in my life and it is good but not all that glamorous.
God spoke one Word very clearly to me last night during prayer meeting and then reinforced during Bible Study – “YIELD!” (exclamation definitely was there)
I love to study words. Haven’t had the time to delve in too deeply yet but I found the meaning of this word very interesting and fairly deep itself.
Pronunciation: \ ˈyēld \
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English gieldan; akin to Old High German geltan to pay
Date: before 12th century
Resultstransitive verb before 12th century
1. 1archaic recompense reward
2. 2to give or render as fitting, rightfully owed, or required
3. 3 : to give up possession of on claim or demand: asa. ato give up (as one’s breath) and so dieb. bto surrender or relinquish to the physical control of another : hand over possession ofc. cto surrender or submit (oneself) to anotherd. dto give (oneself) up to an inclination, temptation, or habite. eto relinquish one’s possession of (as a position of advantage or point of superiority) – ∼ precedence
4 a. 4 ato bear or bring forth as a natural product especially as a result of cultivation – the tree always ∼s good fruitb. bto produce or furnish as return – this soil should ∼ good cropsc (1). c (1)to produce as return from an expenditure or investment : furnish as profit or interest – a bond that ∼s 12 percent(2). (2)to produce as revenue : bring in – the tax is expected to ∼ millions
5. 5to give up (as a hit or run) in baseball – ∼ed two runs in the third inningintransitive verb
intransitive verb
1. 1to be fruitful or productive : bear produce
2. 2to give up and cease resistance or contention : submit succumb – facing an enemy who would not ∼ – ∼ing to temptation
3. 3to give way to pressure or influence : submit to urging, persuasion, or entreaty
4. 4to give way under physical force (as bending, stretching, or breaking)
5 a. 5 ato give place or precedence : acknowledge the superiority of someone elseb. bto be inferior – our dictionary ∼s to nonec. cto give way to or become succeeded by someone or something else
6. 6to relinquish the floor of a legislative assembly
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary copyright © 2010 by Merriam-Webster, incorporated
John Wesley’s Accountability Questions
John Wesley developed this set of questions for his circle-those that were accountable to him and that he was also accountable to.
1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass onto another what was told me in confidence?
4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work , or habits?
5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
6. Did the Bible live in me today?
7. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
8. Am I enjoying prayer?
9. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?
10. Do I pray about the money I spend?
11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
12. Do I disobey God in anything?
13. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
14. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
15. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
16. How do I spend my spare time?
17. Am I proud?
18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican?
19. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I going to do about it?
20. Do I grumble and complain constantly?
21. Is Christ real to me?
hmmmmm….convicting
If anyone knows Melissa... 
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