EVERY PERSON’S PRAYER

My precious Father, I praise Your holy name.  My heart’s desire is to really know You, to hear Your voice and be called Your friend.  Teach me your ways Lord, that I may walk and live in Your truth.  Direct and unite my heart to fear and honor Your name.  Let Your words dwell in me richly, with all wisdom and understanding, and fill me with the knowledge of Your will.  Let Godly fear pervade my being, recognizing You are God, and let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, my Lord.  Keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking deceit, and let me grow in the grace and knowledge of You.  Let the love with which You loved Christ be in me, replacing my stony heart with a heart of love as Your love flows out to others.  Create in me a teachable spirit and teach me what delights You, so I can be a delight to You.  Help me not to sin against You and to live my life worthy of You, with clean hands and a pure heart.  Let my mind be forever set on things above, disregarding my circumstances for the true reality that is only found in You.  Let me never forget how big you are and how able you are to be my supply, my all in all sufficiency.  Impart to me the gift of faith in accordance with Your word.  Let every obstacle in my path be an opportunity to learn from You, to grow in faith and to trust You more - for I know that all difficulties are within Your purpose.  I need to learn to trust You in all things, to know that I am safe in Your hands, and I need to know that You trust me.  Holy Spirit, You are my comforter - comfort me; You are my teacher - teach me; You are my guide - lead me on the smooth path of righteousness.  I submit my insufficiency to your all sufficient will, Father.  Keep me from secret faults and presumptuous sins.  Bless me that I might be a blessing to others, for I know you have given me a giving heart.  I kneel down and kiss the hand that sometimes hurts - transform me into the image of Your Son - make me Christlike.  For I am eternally Yours.  In the precious name of Jesus, amen, So Be It!

SEVEN EPIPHANIES ON WORRY

We live in an infected world plagued with contagious anxiety, the ugly child of worry. Anxiety is subtle, slipping in unannounced to lay siege on our mind, gripping us in uneasiness, dread, fear and doubt. “Let not your heart be troubled.”  God will not keep our heart from being troubled!  This is a command in the Greek, a willful act as is “Be anxious for nothing.” Nothing? Yes, Nothing!  Renewed minds look skyward.

Worry implies a lack of trust that God knows best and is powerful enough and willing to interject His remedies into our circumstances. Hidden deep within the labyrinthine of worry is the master “Self”, who has a death-grip on control. We worry about the important and the mundane with equal vigor as if this movie called “Life” is all about us: Read the credits:  written by, produced by, directed by and starring God! So... “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding.”

Worry is Self’s way of sorting things out, we are all masters at it and our life is littered with opportunities. Worry is a choice with a cost. Joy and Peace, which are inextricably linked together and diametrically opposed to worry, are the price paid. When we choose to trust God, the Peace of God, that bypasses our understanding, is apprehended and comes to mount guard over our heart and mind. And Wala... “Joy inexpressible and full of glory”!

Worry affects our health, our relationships, and our Kingdom works, producing a joyless, spiritually weak, miserable, depressing, defeated life. Joy during adversity is a barometer of our spiritual maturity... our divine healthiness: If we truly love God we will trust Him, for just how can we claim to love a God we don’t trust? And trust brings God’s supernatural Peace soaring on the wings of Joy... “The Joy of the Lord is our strength.” So even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death... we will fear no evil... for God is with us! And... It’s only a shadow! True reality is God’s Kingdom invasion into our “Now.” Remember, we are In The Beloved... In Christ. And... He is in us! We are never alone...

Worry is a perpetual emotion machine, a fretting dynamo, feeding itself with itself to continually reproduce itself. Swapping anxiety for peace and melancholy for joy, worry burns through earth’s most precious commodity leaving wasted years in its wake. Worry is the product of an earthly mind set, and abandons us to despair, having nothing to offer but more of itself. But the Spirit of the Lord says... “Why are you cast down O my soul… Set your mind on things above... Hope in God.”

God promises, grace releases, and we apprehend by doing. Is there a better demonstration of faith in the face of adversity then Joy, being joyful in all circumstances... to “Count it all Joy”? There is no “wiggle room” here for everything in life is part of this ALL. To “count” is to reckon, choosing trust over worry moment by moment – stopping to pick ourselves up when we slip and fail, until trust becomes a spiritual discipline, a divine habit. Joy during adversity is a work of faith, trusting in God’s goodness in spite of any apparent evidence against it, recognizing His ways are above our understanding.

Worry is simply fear in the face of adversity: we have a choice, we can fear God, or fear everything else. To fear God is to revere, honor and respect Him, to extol His name, and to trust in Him as the good and sovereign God who is ever present... especially when our life is out of control. When difficulties strike I know five amazing God things:  God is faithful even when I am not, for He cannot deny his love for me.  God will never leave me or forsake me, never!  God has made a way of escape that I may be able to bear the difficulty.  God is working in me both to will and do His good pleasure.  God is working this thing, this difficulty, out for my good... the very best good, according to His purposes. So... “Fear not, for I Am with you.” Awesome

WORRY ABANDONS ONE TO DESPAIR

HAVING NOTHING TO OFFER BUT ITSELF

DRUMBEATS, MYSTERIES AND MANTRAS

Jesus obviously marched to a new and different drumbeat. It is clear from scripture the Father’s heart determined the course of the Son’s actions and the course of the Son’s conversations, for of Himself the Son could do nothing. His life moved to the spiritual rhythm of His Father’s heart, mimicking His Father’s words and performing the Father’s chosen works. Real life is a drama played out on God’s stage, written, produced, directed, and staring God. For the most part we receive little insight into “why”, why God does… or why God doesn’t…, its called faith. His methods are purposeful and intentional, unanticipated and unknowable, and often troubling or painful for God’s ways are a mystery, unfathomable and unsearchable, and past finding out. The secret mysteries of God are, well …a secret. It is clear there are no formulas, no prerequisites, and no divine recipes for miracles, be they healing, de-deviling, or the mountain moving kind. We live in the brokenness of a fallen world, between the times, the cross behind us and full redemption ahead, and we really do not understand the miraculous breaking in of God into our circumstances, infrequent, but frequent enough to keep hope alive. We have become experts at explaining God’s mysteries, sculpturing “doctrine” out of cobbled up half-truths rather than allowing God’s sovereignty to speak for itself. Deception is birthed in half-truths torn from their context and dressed up in desire. This much we can say:  Jesus’ life flowed forth out of His Father’s indwelling life.  His mantra was “Not My will but your will Father.”  Whether it be subjection to human form, a wine fest, the wilderness, Jacob’s Well, the Pool of Bethesda, purging the temple of commerce, The Garden, or the Place of the Skull, “Not My will but your will Father.” We need to remember, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us.”  We will never understand why some things happen, or, more often, why they don’t. These are “God’s secrets” and don’t concern us.  We need to concern ourselves with “those things which are revealed”; the clear literal well documented promises of God’s word. And we need to embrace God’s absolute Sovereignty in all things in heaven and on earth, knowing He knows better than we what is best for us – even when it hurts.  Jesus always obeyed the Father; rather than try to understand the unfathomable lets embrace the knowable and emulate His obedience.                                                                                   

IT’S OK NOT TO KNOW WHY