Category: Whispers (Page 29 of 161)

Happy weekend to you! What gorgeous weather we have been having and still colorful on the trail. Today I plan to make cookies on a stick and pork chops with Spanish rice and clean the apartment. 

 We can only love the souls of others when we know the Lord ourselves. Whatever we do for others, whether it be providing a big need or something small as listening to them, we are really doing it for the Lord. It is His power at work in us, to even give us the desire to reach out and touch others with His love. But in our reaching out to others we must never get so busy that we neglect the feeding of our own souls. As we read the Word, our own souls are fed and thereby we are given the strength to no longer live for ourselves but to live for Him. II Cor. 3:15) It is   also helpful to pray the scriptures for certain verses will penetrate our hearts and also silence our own thoughts to think His thoughts.

When we open our hearts to others, we also open ourselves up to pain, as well. Sometimes those we help hurt us and we must expect pain as a follower of the Lord, for think what they did to Him. Sometimes people walk roughshod over our hearts, but let that not deter us from opening ours. We never know what God has in store for us, for often He surprises us. One such experience some time ago, I met a lady in a wheelchair at church who was legally blind. We exchanged names and she had heard I supplied clothes to different people, so she asked if I would find clothes for her. Since I worked at Share and Care then, I started looking for clothes in her size and brought them over to her at Assisted Living. But the Lord had much more in mind, for I spent time with her and we shared the Lord and prayed together. I have come to love her and each time we go to the lake I visit her; and since she now has more clothes than she can possibly wear I just bring her baked goods and root beer to celebrate with others and we spend the whole time sharing and praying. I always feel uplifted after my time with her.

The Lord has put each of us in a particular place to help us to grow in Him but also to help those around us. Let us keep our hearts open first to God’s love and then to others.

Hope your day is full of joy.  Al will be off to Men’s group this morning and I plan to go for my treatment and also bake bread and make crock pot stew. This afternoon we have Bible study and later going to Costco.

The Lord is to be our source and strength, not others. Even though they may be close to us, the pressure on any person for our happiness is too much, for only the Lord can fill that place.   David sang in Psalm 28:7, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped therefore my heart exalts, and with my song I shall thank Him.” There were many people in David’s life that would certainly have been disappointing, including King Saul and his own son Absolum etc. Our expectancy and our hope must be in the Lord. (Psalm 27:2)

The Lord asks us to do many things that we may not want to do, but if we want to walk by the Spirit, it means surrendering to what He shows us to do. It doesn’t depend our feelings and emotions but rather on we know from scripture and what the Spirit prompts us to do. We don’t need to ask ourselves if we “feel” like doing something that God asks us for it is more a matter of choosing to do what we know God asks of us. I was reading Joyce Meyer’s devotional and she said it well, that if our feelings vote ‘yes’ but our hearts say ‘no’ we need to tell our feelings they don’t get to vote! Feelings are immature and most often don’t vote what is best for us. Many times, the enemy toys with our feelings to get us to do things we know are not what God says. We can’t trust our feelings so let us not let them vote! How many of us reap disappointing consequences when we lead with our emotions and not by the spirit. Our feelings may say that what our neighbor said to us was uncalled for, so l will just tell him what I really think and let him have it! Or it can even be that our emotions tell us to keep working when we need to quit, rest, and not neglect our family. Feelings are not reliable so let us obey the Lord even when we don’t feel like it, and I find our right feelings usually catch up. Let us choose to obey!

It says in Gal.5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desire of the flesh.” May we not let our emotions dictate our faith but walk in obedience.

I read today from Proverbs 16 and verse 2 say, All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the Spirit.” Maybe we think we are right and even discuss with the Lord our feelings and plans, but is it in harmony with His? Are there areas of our lives that we are blind to our faults and perhaps prideful? In verse 5 it says what God thinks about that. The amplified version says, “Everyone proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful, and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured (I pledge it) they will not go unpunished.”

In our pridefulness we may think our ways are better than God’s and that is arrogance. Instead, we need to commit everything to the Lord, and when He shows us that we are out of line, we need to agree with Him and ask to be centered in His will. Verse 20 gives us the result, “He who deals wisely and heeds (God’s) word and counsel shall find good, and whoever leans on, trusts in, and is confident in the Lord—happy, blessed, and fortunate is he.” Let us ask the Lord to show us areas of our lives that are not in alignment with Him and humbly ask forgiveness and be willing to go His way.

Fear brings to mind the worst things that can possibly happen to us, like job loss, death of a spouse, health problems, divorce, humiliating circumstances etc. Fear wants us to believe the worst. Faith rather wants to believe the best is about to come. It may not be exactly as we imagine but it will be good, and we can look forward to the future.

Daugherty gives the example of David who wrote the familiar Psalm 23 that he would fear no evil even though he would walk through the valley of the shadow of death, because he knew the Lord was with him. Everything was not hunky dory for him at the time for he was hiding in a cave from King Saul who wanted to kill him. He focused on the Lord and not his fears.

Challenge for today: When fearful thoughts try to edge their way into your thoughts, give them all to the Lord in exchange for His peace.

Blessings on the remainder of your day and prayers and love, Judy