Udder Words~~~~~~~~~~~~~Live It Out

Hebrews 4:3a For we who have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on God) do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration that those (who did not believe) should not enter…..v11 Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest (of God, to know and experience it for ourselves), that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell).

They say it’s not the anniversary of your baptism you should be remembering or celebrating but the actual day you “repented” and turned your life around unto the Lord as you live out your new life in Christ. Same thing with believing, if you’re anything like me I’ve believed in God and Jesus all my life but just recently at the age of 54 I told myself it was time I really started to believe. In others words, it was time to live out what I had believed all my life.

I needed to start to strive for that zeal talked about in Hebrews 4 in all areas of my life not just parts of it. A good place to start was to take the definition of believing found in Hebrews 4 and then toss in the meaning of faith and trust. After stirring well I came up with this guideline to live my life by. It goes like this:

“As a Christian I need to adhere to, follow and obey, and rely on God trusting in Him by the leaning of my entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness. Committing my all to Him and confidently looking to Him with my whole being. Believing in who He is and having the faith to know He will carry out His promises as I trust Him to guide me thru all things.”

Indeed recently through my actions, my worries, my feelings of defeat I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing as someone who believes in God. I was shortening my “all things” list by not trusting that God could see me thru certain areas. All things such as my cancer, the salvation of my love ones, marital obstacles, the true and honest repentance of myself and those around me, caregiving for my parents, my writing skills and enduring life itself one day at a time.

Truly there was no time like the present to start to follow and obey God and rely on Him to walk us through it all. We need to lean our entire personality on God not just the part that goes to church on Sunday. The evidence against us often shows us holding back parts of our lives and it’s time we give to God our absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness.  

 

Daily we need to make the choice to approach every situation believing and trusting in God as we zealously exert ourselves and strive diligently for the rest found in God. The rest received in His grace, mercy and forgiveness. The rest Heaven has to offer. After a long journey on earth that rest in Heaven is going to be simply divine. It will all be well worth the effort we were willing to put in to living out our belief in God, walking out our faith in Him. Striving to make sure our actions speak louder than words all from the day we truly first believed enough to show it zealously, in our choices and attitudes in life.

Live it out, walk it through. There’s a rest stop just ahead! Praise the Lord.

© 2013 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing       In Udder Words Tuesday

Yes Lord, I Believe

 

“Believe me.” John 4:21a

 

Last week we looked at the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and what Jesus wanted her to believe in. This week our assignment is to stop and think about what is it that God is trying to get us to believe or NOT believe. A time of reflection to meditate on what God wants us to believe as we say, “Yes Lord, I believe.”

 

Years ago when I was in the midst of a major storm in life God talked to my heart and told me, “This too shall pass.” That was the one thing at the time He wanted me to believe. He was asking me to trust in the fact that what I was dealing with would eventually pass. It was a needed lesson back then and still is today.

 It is a lesson that goes along way as we all find ourselves in situations that are painful and very difficult that seem to last forever. Indeed at the time it appeared good times were traveling through at lightning speed and the tough times lingered on like a slow poke child reluctant to go to school. Slow or fast it doesn’t matter we still need to believe that eventually everything passes. What we do in those moments, how we come out of them depends on our behavior and actions. We can either believe in God’s truth or Satan’s lie, the choice is ours.

 

Another thing I had a hard time believing once was the scripture that said, “greater is He that is in me than he that was in the world.” The way my life was going there was no way that God was greater than the evil force I was up against. That scripture had to be some kind of typo or something that didn’t pertain to “my situation” was my immature thinking.

 

Yes, I was falling for Satan’s lies instead of believing in God’s truth. God was greater but I wasn’t trying to look at things His way. I was too busy looking at the negative, the bad that were happening as I remained trapped in the depth of one pity party after another. It took several years but eventually God was able to get through to my hardened heart to show me that yes indeed He was the greater One.

 

Too easily we fall for Satan’s lies before we believe in God’s truth. It’s a fight we need to be willing to win as we look for God’s truth and hang on to it. Satan is out there trying all he can to disguise his lies to look like the truth like the two examples of what God wanted me to believe. Satan was good at making it appear as if the bad was never going to pass and that Satan was the greater more loud force in the world.

 

If you think about it, no bad time flies at the speed we want them to because we are anxious for them to get by. Kind of like the saying about how a watch pot never boils. Good times fly because we are so excited about them and we aren’t paying attention to each moment that passes. Suddenly before we know it they’re gone and we want them back.

 

As far as Satan being greater than God it’s because of the loud obnoxious sound of Satan’s voice that he comes across as being the bigger force. Truth is all he is, is the squeaky annoying wheel that gets all the oil and attention just to silence its sound. Frequently he likes to put on a big show to prove himself where God works best silently behind the scenes with nothing to prove.

 

No matter what the subject or what it is God is trying to get us to believe it’s important to make sure it is from God. We need to open our hearts to what God has to say, to pray daily, and engulf ourselves into His word. A heart that is willing to listen is much easier to get thru to than one that is stubborn and hardened full of skepticism and disbelief.

 

“Yes, Lord. I believe, in You!” That covers a lot of territory that covers a lot of truth!

 

Our host today is Loni again at her site Writing Canvas, after you’ve thought about what it is God wants you to believe or NOT believe join in with us and share.

Fill My well Lord

Jesus said to her, “woman, believe me.” Jesus Christ in His book John 4:21a

One day on her routine trip to the local well a Samaritan woman encountered something she wasn’t expecting, Jesus. Standing at the well with her He got to talking to her about things like living water and never being thirsty again. Soon the conversation ended with, “Woman, believe me.” Jesus wanted her to believe not only what He had already said but what He was about to say. What He had to say about the time that was coming soon where true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth.

 

Isn’t it wonderful that one day we all can encounter something we weren’t expecting and that is, Jesus. Out of nowhere He shows up in our lives with words of wisdom for us to not only listen to but words to believe in. His words to us are no differently than they were for this woman as He looks us into the eye and says, “Woman, believe Me.”

 

Recently as a devastating thing struck my immediate family out of nowhere I told my youngest granddaughter that we are going to trust in the promises of God. We are going to trust Him when He says, “All things work for the good of those who love the Lord. That He will never leave us or forsake us. It’s true that we can do all things thru Christ who strengthens us.”

 

In order to trust we first must believe. Once we believe in these promises of God then we are able to trust in them as well. We need to believe Christ is the living water and the fact that if we turn to Him as our resource we will never be thirsty again. Believe what He says about being a true worshipper. Believe it when He speaks to our hearts about ordinary things in life on unordinary days.

 

It can’t be said enough, our job is to believe. To meet Jesus halfway to the well and believe what He has to say. The more we do the deeper our well becomes. When times get rough, uncertainty is in the air, confusion and chaos surrounds us we know things will be okay because we were prepared by first believing.

 

It’s important that we never allow Satan to drain our well by installing a pump of doubt that just robs us of all our spiritual resources. Protect the resource you have in Jesus, the blessings that come from believing in His truths instead of trying to live off Satan’s lies. Whether by buckets of water or by a slow drip, drip, drip of a leaky faucet we need to put a stop to Satan trying to steal what belongs to us thru the avenue of not believing.

 

“Woman, believe Me.” We can believe Jesus and we should! Fill your well, prepare for rain.

 

Our host today is Loni at her blog Writing Canvas. It’s a great scripture to think about, go and join us and see what others have to say about what Jesus says to all of us.

Point A to Point B

“In the darkest of our times, God is plotting for our glory. If we would believe this and remember it, we would not be blind when God reveals His grace.”~ by John Piper ~ A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God


I have a confession to make. In my darkest times when people would tell me that everything was going to work out for the better I didn’t believe them. At times it would make me mad, “why should I have to go through “point A” to get to “point B. Why couldn’t everything work out for the good now?” My night vision wasn’t what it should have been as my spiritual maturity level and ability to trust and believe in God’s grace wasn’t there either.


Little did I know it would be those walks in the dark that would help me gain the spiritual maturity needed to improve my night vision. I had to learn for myself that what they say is true, “our best understanding comes from looking back but life has to be lived going forward.”


We can’t live our lives like the young boy who spilled his milk on the kitchen floor and his mom asked him to go out on the back porch and get the mop to clean it up. “But it’s dark out there mommy,” he exclaimed. Reassuringly mom told him, “God was out there and there was nothing to be afraid of.” Next thing she knew she heard her boy opening the back door, quietly sticking only his head outside he said, “God since you are already out there could you hand me the mop?”


I think that is the way most of us are with our darkest moments. We quietly stick out only our head instead of our hearts to ask God since He’s already out there could He just hand over the good times, glory, and grace He has for us.


We’re so busy hovering in the corner that we miss out on the grace God has for us. When I first got cancer I wanted to just curl up in a corner somewhere and pull a blanket over my head. A month or more after my diagnosis a co-worker’s husband was diagnosed with cancer in his ear. Interestingly enough she echoed the same desire to curl up in a corner and hide.


Although that is what our flesh wants to do we don’t need to follow that feeling. What we need to do is believe that God is at work. He hasn’t gone off duty. He isn’t ignoring us. There was no mistake in the glory and grace machine in Heaven that withdrew our portion of it.


The beauty of it all is knowing and believing that God is out there. He’s not somewhere out of touch but close by. For the few days I felt like I wanted to hover in that far corner in the dark God was there with me with His arms around me quietly holding me till my strength returned. God hadn’t let me down. I had let myself down by not believing.


Our part is so simple. All we have to do is believe and trust and watch for His grace to arrive. Unfortunately we like to complicate things by impatiently wanting it now, not recognizing good grace when we see it, and wanting more at our demand and terms.


Often God’s best delivery time is between the hours of us traveling from “Point A to Point B” because He has our undivided attention. It would do us good to practice sticking out our whole hearts to Him and believe instead of only our heads and the fickle thoughts that often linger there. Amen? Yes, Amen!!!!!

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

The Correct Equation

“Prayers arising from my needs are preparations for future mercies; Help me to honour thee by believing before I feel, for great is the sin if I make feeling a cause of faith.” From the book, “The Valley of Vision” a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions.


I love reading the prayers of the Puritans. They are so full of worship, humbleness, and awe and centered around God that they don’t even tell you what Puritan said what prayer because it wasn’t important. It makes me stop and wonder about my own writing and how I go out of my way to take credit for all I write. Wrong formula!

Whoever said this particular prayer doesn’t matter as much as the words they said in it. Some day I’d like my writing to be that good, something that the words matter more than who the author was.

No surprise to God but a big surprise to me the Chritian growth I’ve experienced over the years came from the prayers that arose from my needs. With my eyes squinted tightly shut to prevent even an ounce of sun from entering and my hand in my Heavenly Father’s hand I finally cracked an eye open long enough to peak out to ask “Is it over yet?” When I did I found I was in those “future mercies.”

Over the years as I have cried out to God many times, sometimes in a gentle way, most the times in tears. Other times the nature of my prayers was pleading harsh words. At the time the prayers were said I had no idea the prayers arising from my needs were indeed preparing me for future mercies. They taught me how to reach out and keep my arms open wide waiting for God’s answers. Some of the verdicts of my prayers are still out but some day they will all be answered.

It’s so important to our spiritiual well-being that we do honor God by belieieving before we feel. Too often we turn away things because we just don’t feel like it. We don’t “feel” God’s presence therefore we don’t believe He’s there. We don’t “feel” like He’s listening to our prayers so we don’t believe He ever did. We don’t “feel” like God is real so we don’t believe He ever existed. We don’t “feel” like going to church to worship God so we believe it’s not necessary. We don’t “feel” God loves us so it must not be true.

What a sad thing it is when we make feeling a part of our faith. No, no that’s not what the Puritan said. He said, “It was a SIN to make feeling a cause for faith.” Our feelings are too fickle to give them such a tremendous task as basing our eternal life on them. Our feelings change with the wind, the time of month, the hour of day, the circumstances pending. When we believe, truly believe that doesn’t change. We can anchor our life on that where our feelings allow us to drift all over the place.

Recently I didn’t “feel” like going to the mother day’s tea at the church but I went because I had a task to do. I walked away from it totally ashamed I didn’t “feel” like going as it turned out to be the most awesome worship of God I’ve experienced in a long time. Afterwards as I walked around Wal Mart doing my shopping I looked at the women who were there thinking about what they missed out on. Women doing their Saturday shopping without a clue to what was going on down at the local Christian church.

Instead of waiting to believe when we feel like it let’s get the equation right and put believing first. Feeling God’s presence will come, feeling He does answer our prayers will come. Feeling I need to go to church to worship God will come. Feeling loved by God will come.

God is coming back. We may not feel like He is but we can believe He is and we need to be ready. We need to be using the correct equation. Believing first and letting our feelings follow its lead not the other way around. Wow, what an honor to God is that, the true author of our faith instead of letting our feelings do it. Sign over the copyright to Him today and get going on the correct equation.

© 2010 Jesus Christ, thanks Jesus for making my life your writing board to a bigger story yet t be told


**In the typing of this message no keys were injured, no nails broken but I did a typo you didn’t see. Only one? Okay enough of that smarty pants. I typed sign without the “G” in it and the word you get is……. Yeah you’re right, “sin.” Interesting without the “G” for God it becomes sin. Without God in our lives doing the leading what we end up with is sin. Unfortunately it’s our human nature, we need God. That’s probably not where the Puritan got his statement about sin, feeling and faith but I thought that was interesting.

Anyway let me rattle on another direction, I wanted to let you know what an honor it is to host our weekly fellowship of writing. I look forward to reading everyone’s intake on this. If I don’t get back to you immediately today bear with me. I’m giving a test at the college and I want to make sure I’m ready. It’s not because I don’t “feel” like getting back to you immediately. Take care, you really should have gone with me to the Mother’s Day Tea.