In Udder Words ~~~~~~~~Giving God our ALL

Proverbs 3:5,6 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your way know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.                 Amplified Bible

 

Why is it that we are always one phone call away, one moment away, or one conversation away from shattering life changing news? As unpleasantly true as it is we can’t go around living our lives as if it was fact and not fiction. Wow, imagine that!  We’d all be living in fear of the next “moment.” Now there is a phobia for you that could do a lot of damage.

 

Instead of living in fear of that next moment we need to be prepared in a different way for it. Our preparation begins with leaning on, trusting in, and being confident in the Lord with all our heart and mind. Stop! Back the typewriter up right there; did you just type, “All your heart and mind?” Sorry to burst any proofreading bubbles looking for typos but that is what I typed, and more importantly it’s what God wrote in His word for our guidance, giving God our ALL.

What God said in Proverbs 3 is exactly what we are to do with ALL of our heart, mind, as well as our soul because that is what follows. The crack in our foundation that keeps us from being totally prepared is the fact that we have the tendency to hold back bits and pieces of our heart and mind for ourselves. We love the Lord, we believe in Him and we think that is enough. However, the minute we hold back pieces of ourselves for ourselves that is where Satan gets his foothold into our lives. It is the very place where the damage to our faith and trust in God begins.

 

We need to forget trying to lean on our own understanding because try as we might there are things in life we will never understand. It’s up to us to know and acknowledge God as we allow Him to do the leading, the guiding, the straightening of our somewhat crooked paths. It’s up to us to trust in and be confident in Him.

 

Too often we lose our confidence when we see bad things happening to us. “If I can trust and lean on God then why did this or that happened to me or my love one” Once again God never promised us a pain-free, no storm, no trouble life if we lean on and rely and trust in Him. What His promises tell us is that He can walk us through the storms in life and get us through to the other side. The journey between the two destinations is where we learn, grow, and mature into the people God designed us to be.

 

Right now in my heart as I type I battle with something having to do with my dad. The news may be bad, it may be not so bad, it may be ok but I won’t know until we talk to the doctor early this morning. I confess the first thought that popped into my mind wasn’t, “Oh I’m leaning on the Lord for this one.” No, my human reaction beat my spiritual response and I worried that the news may be cancer.

 

We can’t stop those thoughts from popping into our heads but we are responsible for whether we allow them to build a nest there or not. The minute they come we need to stop and say to them, “No! Accessed to my heart denied!” Refute them permission to stay as we decide we are not going to lean on our own understanding but lean on God’s instead.

 

God is in control still no matter what the news we receive. Our confidence comes from knowing that in our hearts and living it out in our choices in life, our attitudes, and our actions. Relying on God with ALL our ways with ALL our hearts is the way to go as anything else is only a temporary fix that will eventually fail.

 

God will not fail us; we need to make sure we do the same for Him as ALL our faith is in Him in ALL our ways. He’s reliable and we need to be too. Now not later is the time to give Him our ALL.

 

 

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

 

 

 

Classroom in Session

His word is a book of instructions, guidelines, and boundaries. If we study the Word, learn His ways, and submit to His Word, we are protected. –Lara Velez, Psalm 91 – He Who Dwells…




Praise the Lord that God’s Word is a textbook for the classroom of life. It is full of instructions, guidelines, and boundaries. Boundaries? Yes, boundaries. The God who set the boundaries for the ocean telling it where it can stop and go has boundaries for us. Unfortunately this is where the secular world likes to make Christianity look unappealing. They claim we have no freedom with all the rules and regulations God has placed before us. They think we are so old-schooled that we haven’t had a modern thought in centuries.


Much to the world’s surprise we are way ahead of them. We not only have the layout for the future but for all eternity as well. Studying God’s word, learning His ways, and submitting to His Word is what will get us where we need to be in our journey forward. It protects us spiritually.


Some would think, ‘a lot of good that does me right now, I need protection from bad people, disease, mother nature, and other things first.’ No, if you ponder the idea when it comes to protection we have our priorities. We protect those things that are the most valuable, what we love the most, what means the most to us.


We need to start to realize that our spiritual lives should be the most important thing we set out to persevere and protect. It’s the one thing we will take with us into eternity. In some ways the condition of it going into eternity is what it always will be. Thankfully it will be minus all the worldly traits we don’t have to fight anymore but we still are responsible to get it in shape here and now.


Getting it into shape is what takes us back to the classroom of life and the lessons and growth that needs to take place there. Psalm 91 that is being studied begins with, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” In other words, we are under God’s protection but we have our part to play. We have to attend the class of life with the attitude that we want to learn and grow from what we have been taught.


It should never be good enough to simply pass but to advance with a maturity goal that can be seen in our actions, attitude, and availability to God. Indeed the formula we have to use to accomplish this is the three in one, 1) study, 2) learn, and 3) submit. Once properly applied we get to dwell in the shadow of the Almighty, under His protection, engulfed in His love, surrounded by His wisdom.


I’d hate to burst any bubbles out there but school is never over. There will always be a classroom that demands our attention and gives us a lesson or a test we have to pass. It would do us well to pay attention to our Teacher, Jesus Christ. Doing so with the determination needed to study hard, learn well, and submit frequently all we have learned.

Our spiritual classroom is in session, where is your seat? Are you out in the hall waiting out your punishment? In the principals offices waiting for mom to come and get you after you’ve been expelled? Or are you sitting in classroom day dreaming of “after school? Or are you paying attention to the Teacher and taking serious the things needed to learn to move forward and achieve improvement.


Truth be known, I’ve probably been the student that has been in each of those positions at one point or another. A time or two or three or four or…… I’ve found myself up by the chalkboard writing 100 times the thing I did that I was told not to do.


No matter what area in our spiritual classroom we are currently in we need to continue to move forward and not to drop out and quit. We need the determination to better ourselves and to learn from our mistakes, to seek God’s protection. The Teacher has put a lot into the lessons we need to learn, it would do us well to do our best to learn them, to actually be teachable. It’s protection for our souls, its peace for our minds.




Our host today is Twinklemom at her blog, SunflowerFaith, you really need to get over there and see the wonders she has in store for us in this mini series of quotes from a study of Psalm 91.

Dwell or Excel

“The Christian often tries to forget his weakness: God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply.” by Andrew Murray


I don’t know about you but when it comes to weaknesses the last thing I am able to do is forget them. For me they seem to pop up frequently, haunt me often, and Satan uses them as a board to beat me over the head with. They are the boots that stomp me in the ground when I’m already down. Over and over again its Satan’s voice I hear that reminds me daily of my areas of little strength. He is the first one to point them out and the last one to keep silent regarding them.


To me, God is the one who tells me not to worry about them because He has them covered. He is the support we need when we’re at our weakest. He is the strength we lack and the confidence we need to get by. That’s what God wants us to remember is the fact that He is there for us, that we shouldn’t worry about those areas in our lives because He has them wrapped up in His own strength and wisdom.


What God doesn’t want us doing is dwelling on these areas to the point we get stuck in our own flukes and flaws. Too often we like to use them as an excuse to get out of doing things for the Lord as well as other people. “Oh I can’t do that I’m too shy. I can’t serve God there I’m not talented enough…..” and the excuses go on.


There’s a balancing act here to be found. An act of balancing between dwelling on our weaknesses too much or not enough. We can learn from our weaknesses and become stronger where we once were feeble. We don’t need to dwell but to excel in these areas using the strength of God so that we can’t boast that we “did it ourselves.”


Where we are weak God is strong if we would only allow Him to be. God’s not in the stomping business but the carpentry business of building us up. The part we play is to want to be teachable. Learning from our own weaknesses instead of always trying to point out other people’s to make ours look better.


Dwell or excel the choice is ours. God makes the one possible, we make the other happen.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Sticky Notes from God

January 18, 2010

“Every happening, great or small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” Malcolm Muggeridge

As I read today’s quote my brain connected it to another. The old familiar one of, “been there done that” we frequently like to use. A quote that appears to be missing the part that should say, “Been there done that learned from it.” Basically that is what Malcolm is saying here that God speaks to us through everything that happens great or small. However Malcolm doesn’t stop there as his quote comes with the part on the end that says, “The art of life is to get the message.”

Indeed our part is to “get the message.” Sadly enough in the place of wanting to get the message we often want to “shoot the messenger” by cussing Him out or blaming Him for all that is going on in our lives. Instead of giving Him credit for making beautiful the art of life by what He has to say to us and what we can learning from it. We put the fault on Him for messing up our perfect picture we seem to think we can paint for ourselves.

Where I work, documentation is important. If you don’t document correctly sometimes you can basically “shoot yourself in the foot.” In other words harm your outcome because you didn’t get down what needed to be.

God is out there speaking to us through our circumstances and we need to be paying attention. Unfortunately the only time we appear to be home spiritually to answer the knock on the door of our hearts from God is during these moments. If we are smart enough to answer His knocking we need to be intelligent enough to invite Him in and ask, “what is it you want me to learn from this situation.”

Slamming the door in God’s face and ignoring the message we need to get will only harm the outcome of what needs to be accomplished. It doesn’t have to be “been there done that and had to go back and learn it again” type of situation. If possible for every situation we enter we need to try to come out of it wiser and more perfected towards our goal of being the model Christ wants us to be.

For every happening, great or small it doesn’t matter God is leaving us a sticky note with a message on it for us to read and learn from. Looking back over the years and the times I choose to shoot the messenger by getting angry and frustrated with Him because He wasn’t listening to me or showing that He cared I find the sticky notes I failed to see because I refused to look.

Notes reading something like this, “Karen, I love you.” “Hang in there Karen I’m here.” “Little more to the right Karen you’re leaning to far the other way.” “Grow some patience Karen, it’s a virtue.” Trust or worry, which is it going to be with you.” “Don’t ever think the light at the end of the tunnel is a train, it’s Me coming toward you or better yet you getting closer to Me.” “I forgave you, you can forgive others.” “Don’t beat yourself down Karen, lift yourself up using My strength I give to you.” “Do you have your ears on Karen? Are you listening? I’m knocking. Don’t be so slow to answer. I have a bag of blessings for you.”

Sitting here in tears reading those old notes still stuck in my heart I could go on more and more about the messages left behind for me to read and learn from. As a child learns not to touch a light-bulb when it’s on by touching it when mom’s not watching we need to learn as well. What we extract from our circumstances, situations or happenings in life is up to us. They can make us bitter or better, more mature or add to our immaturity.

“Lord, what do You want us to learn from this?” is the correct question and the best way to enter or exit every journey we find ourselves in as we travel through life picking up sticky notes from God along the way.

© 2010 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing