Walk Boldly With Jesus

God Knows What He Is Doing!

Isaiah 45:9 “Woe to you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making”? or “Your work has no handles”?

As soon as I heard this verse the other day I knew I wanted to share it with all of you.  As soon as I heard it I thought, “Wait, that is exactly what we do.”  This verse is talking about how a clay pot wouldn’t tell the creator how to form it.  The potter knows how to form clay.  It’s his job.  I heard this verse and I instantly felt silly for all the times when I told God how I think He should do things.  Yes, I really did that, and I am sure you have to.  We see things like they are and we are sure we have the solution of how to make things better.  We tell God if He would just do X, Y and Z then everything would work out and everything would be fine.  I hope you see, as I do, how crazy this is.  Why don’t we realize God has already thought about that?  Why doesn’t it occur to us that God has not only thought of that plan, but 5,000 other plans just like it and He has seen the outcome of all those plans.  Not just the 5 minutes down the road outcome, or even the 5 years down the road outcome.  He has seen the forever down the road outcome.  

We think we know better than God because we don’t have the ability to know how things will turn out in the end like He does.  We tend to see what is right in front of us and we might be able to look ahead some, but none of us know what is 5, 10 or 20 years in our future.  There is too much between us and that future to see how it will turn out.  There are too many forks in the road, too many twists and turns for us to see clearly to the end of the road.  The same is not true for God.  He can look around every twist, every corner and down each fork in the road.  He sees what we can’t see and that make Him uniquely qualified to be our Creator.  I know I am not telling you something new.  I know you know this already, I do too.  So… why do we still tell God how to do things?  

I wonder if it is because we don’t know what else to do?  I wonder if we tell God what to do because we want to help, we want to be useful and yet we know there is nothing we can do to help. But, if we are telling God what to do then we are helping, right?!  We are part of the solution? I have a newsflash I know is not going to be a surprise to you.  God doesn’t need our help.  He doesn’t need our solutions.  God is the way maker.  He makes a way where there isn’t a way.  God is the God of the Impossible.  He makes possible what isn’t possible by human standards.  God’s got this, He doesn’t need our help or our suggestions.  What He would love is our praises!  What He would love instead is our gratitude.  What He would love is our love and appreciation.  

I know some of you are going through a really difficult time right now.  I know some of you don’t understand why your situation is the way that it is.  I understand the feeling.  I have had a lot of situations over the last 20 years that I did not understand.  Situations I wouldn’t have thought I would ever be in.  Situations I didn’t feel I deserved to be in.  I felt I had been faithful to God and I didn’t understand why life was so hard.  What I do understand now, that I didn’t understand then is how much of a better person I am because of those trials.  I am a better wife and a better mother because I had those trials.  I am a better listener because I had those trials.  I have provided many other parents with comfort because of the mountains I had to climb.  I have been able to offer words of encouragement and words of support instead of words of judgement because of the all that happened in my life.  

If you are in a season right now where everything sucks, I promise you a better season is coming.  I don’t know when, but you are in the sowing season right now and you will reap the harvest.  I almost said soon, but I don’t know if it will be soon.  I struggled for 16 years and the struggle is not over yet, so I can’t promise soon.  I can promise it will come though.  I can promise you God hasn’t forgotten about you.  He understands why you think your solutions is better than His and He also knows why that is not true.  He knows you just want the hard part to be over and yet He knows why you have to walk through this.  I don’t know what your specific circumstance is and I don’t know why you are in that situation.  I do know that God can take any awful thing and use if for good.  

That doesn’t mean it won’t be awful anymore.  I heard it explained one time on the Big Life devotional crap is always crap.  Can crap be used for good? Yes, farmers can use it for fertilizer.  Does that mean the crap is transformed into something good.  No, it is still crap, but it can be used to create something good.  If someone takes their pain and uses it to help others, that is taking something bad and using it for good.  However, that pain is still their.  That thing that happened to cause the pain is still an awful thing that happened.  Sometimes when people hear that God will use what is bad for good they are waiting for the hurt to go away.  They are waiting to feel happy about what happened.  That is not what is meant here.  Crap is still crap.  You are not suddenly going to feel happy about some awful thing you went through.  However, you may be able to use that pain or that sorrow to help others and that can create something beautiful from something awful.  I hope that made sense.  

God knows what He is doing!  We do not have to tell Him what to do.  We do not know better than He does.  Remember what it says in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  God’s ways are higher than our ways.  As hard as it is to do sometimes, we need to trust God knows what He is doing and instead of telling how He could be doing it better we could ask Him for the strength to endure it, or the strength to get through it.  We could pray for whatever it is we need to survive.  We can ask Him to help us not just survive but to thrive in any circumstances we find ourselves in!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we are so grateful your ways are higher than our ways.  We are sorry we forget this so often.  We are sorry we are constantly telling you how to do things better than you are.  Please help us to remember you know better than we do.  Lord, we ask you to help all those struggling right now.  We ask you to fill them with all they need to make it through this very difficult time.  Lord, we ask you give them wisdom to understand what is going on.  We ask you to fill them with trust, hope and love.  Lord you are amazing.  We love you so very much.  You are the light of the world and the word made flesh.  We are so grateful and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk body with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s guest is a friend of mine named Jeremy.  I first met Jeremy through his wife Kristiann.  We had a mutual friend and when Tony and I were moving to Germany, our friend put us in contact as Kristiann and Jeremy had moved to Germany a few months earlier.  It was great to meet someone so soon after getting there.  I love that about the military.  Everyone helps everyone and someone you know probably knows someone at the new base you are moving to.  Jeremy and his wife are no longer in Germany and are now living stateside again.  Jeremy is going to give his witness about how he struggled with loss and what happened when He turned to God and told Him “I can’t do this, you need to do it for me.”  It is an amazing witness and I can’t wait to share it with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day! 

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Words Have Power to Bless or to Wound

James 1:19 “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

This verse really hit home with me this morning.  It was the subject of the daily devotional I am reading “Jesus calling.”  Actually it wasn’t even today’s message.  I am behind because I was on vacation and I wasn’t doing my normal morning routine.  This morning I got up and decided I would do two devotionals so I can try to catch up to where I should be.  This book is so good.  I always really enjoy the devotionals.  The reason I say this mornings devotional hit home for me is because I know how important words can be and I know how much what we can say can hurt others.  

I just got back from a family vacations with my husband, all three of our boys, and my husband’s whole family, his mom and dad, his brother and his wife, and their two girls.  This is one of our favorite times of the year.  It is so nice to get too spend a whole week with family.  We get to hang out and talk.  We get to play lots of games, especially with his mom and dad.  My youngest two boys love to play with their two girls.  They play all different board games and card games.  It is music to my ears to hear them talking and laughing.  The place we go to is a campground in Maine.  We stay in a cabin with no internet.  There is internet at the lodge, which is open 8-7 but not in our cabins.  There is a tv, but it doesn’t have cable, you can just watch movies on it. I love this because it means we have so much more time to talk and to visit.  However, as you can imagine my kids do not love this.  

Two of them really enjoy playing games with their cousins, playing chess with their Pop (Tony’s dad) and playing parcheesi with both Tony’s parents.  They also really enjoy when we rent a boat and they get to go out in the boat and go fishing, or when we pull them behind the boat on a boogie board.  However, that still leaves a lot of time when they are bored.  They do not enjoy the fact there is no Wifi.  They miss talking with their friends on the computer and playing video games with their friends.  Also, this year was super hot and the cabins are not air conditioned.  Since our house is air conditioned, they are not used to sleeping in such hot temperatures.  Some parts of the trip were difficult for them.

Our oldest, really did not enjoy the vacation. He really liked spending time talking with Tony’s brother, and he got to play chess with Pop a few times, but most of the time he was unhappy.  I did go out and get him a fan at one point and he was much more comfortable after that but he still was very unhappy.  He is the reason this verse hit home today.  When he is unhappy or angry, he says things he doesn’t mean.  He is really struggling right now and being away from his friends and his work for a week was more than he could take.  Each day, at least once a day he would start to say very unkind things.  Not because he really thinks those things were true but because he was upset and that is how he acts when he is upset.  I don’t know why he does this.  It is not something new, he has done this ever since he was little.  In the moment, when he is angry, he does not care what he is saying or who he is hurting.  However, afterwards he feels really bad about it.  I wish he could hear this verse and adopt this principle.  I am going to write it on a sticky not for him, because I know he doesn’t want to do this.  He doesn’t want to feel this way, he doesn’t want to say unkind things and then feel bad about it later.  He needs help learning to control what he says and it is not human help he needs.  He needs the Lord’s help.  I know my son is not the only one who says things they don’t mean when they are angry.  We have all done this before.  I thought I would read you the devotional I read this morning because it really explains this verse well and how important it is to watch our words.  

“Watch your words diligently. Words have such great power to bless or to wound. When you speak carelessly or negatively, you damage others as well as yourself. This ability to verbalize is an awesome privilege, granted only to those I created in my image. You need help in wielding this mighty power responsibly.  Though the world applauds quick-witted retorts, my instructions about communication are quite different: “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” Ask my spirit to help you whenever you speak. I have trained you to pray – "Help me, Holy Spirit" – before answering the phone, and you have seen the benefits of this discipline.  Simply apply the same discipline to communicating with people around you. If they are silent, pray before speaking to them. If they are talking, pray before responding. These are split-second prayers but they put you in touch with my presence. In this way you're speaking comes under the control of my spirit. As positive speech patterns replace your negative ones, the increase in your joy will amaze you.”

I love the advice in this short devotional.  Imagine how much different our interactions would be if we all paused before replying and said, “Help me, Holy Spirit.”  Also, if you need to start a conversation with someone you just quickly pause and say, “Help me, Holy Spirit.”  The Holy Spirit is within us.  He is waiting for us to ask Him to help us.  What if we got in the habit of doing that more often?  I wonder how different our days would be?  I wonder how much smoother our conversations would be?  I love how it says, “In this way you’re speaking come under the control of my Spirit.”  Wouldn’t you love that?  I know I would.  I would love it if everything that came out of my mouth was under the control of the Holy Spirit.  I know I say the wrong things sometimes.  I have gotten so much better than I was because I have spent a lot of hard work and time learning to say the right things and to say kind things.  And yet, I still mess up, I still say the wrong things.  I wish I had heard this before or thought of this before.  I have prayed things like, “Lord, guard my mouth.”  However, I never thought to say a quick half a second prayer every time I open my mouth.  This sounds like it could be a great way to become better with my interactions with others.  

The other thing I wanted to quickly touch on because it really touched me this morning also was the last three words, “slow to anger.”  This touched me because sometimes I can be quick to anger.  Sometimes I can take offense to small things.  Sometimes I can get upset over things that weren’t intentional or weren’t really a big deal.  I know I can’t be the only person that does this.  When I read them, it was as if the Holy Spirit shined a light on my actions.  It was as if He was gently reminding me God wants us to be slow to anger.  God doesn’t want us to take things so personally.  He doesn’t want us to walk around taking offense and getting angry at everything we encounter.  He wants us to be slow to anger.  Is that you?  Are you slow to anger, or are you quick to anger?  If we are quick to anger it doesn’t mean we are bad.  It just means we need to ask God for help.  We need to ask Him to show us how to be slow to anger. It means we need to invite the Holy Spirit into more of our interactions.  Maybe each morning when we get up we can hand our day over to the Holy Spirit.  Maybe we could say a quick prayer like, “Holy Spirit, come into all my interactions today.  Help me be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. I give you permission to take control.”  That would take not more that a second or two and yet you are inviting the Holy Spirit into your daily interactions.  You are handing over control to the Holy Spirit.  I bet we would find this practice very powerful.  

Let’s start now.  “Holy Spirit, come into all my interactions today.  Help me be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. I give you permission to take control.”

Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing and we are so grateful for all you do for us.  Lord, please help us to be quick to listen and slow to speak and to anger.  Help us to not take offense to everything.  Help us to see our loved ones aren’t intentionally trying to hurt us.  Helps us to hold our tongue when we get angry and not lash out.  Help us to invite the Holy Spirit into our interactions before we even open our mouths to say anything.  When we do speak out rashly and possibly unkindly, help those we offend to forgive us and to heal from what we said.  We love you Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Call To Me And I Will Answer You

Jeremiah 33:2-3 “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

How great would it be if the Lord was talking to us like this?  I picture this scene like the movies where Jeremiah is just sitting there drinking his morning coffee and all of the sudden a booming voice comes out of nowhere and says, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”  This is not how God communicates with most of us.  He did communicate with some like that.  Moses talked with God and heard His reply.  God called to Samuel in his sleep.  Some people report hearing the Lord’s audible voice, however, most people do not hear His voice.  Even if you do not hear His voice, the Lord can still talk to you.   He can communicate in a variety of ways.  Let’s examine what the verse is saying, and then we will talk about the various ways He talks with us.  

The first part of the verse is reminding us how amazing God is.  It says, “The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it - the Lord is his name.”  The next part says, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”  God is constantly telling us throughout the Bible if we ask He will answer.  This time He is telling us He will tell us great and hidden things we have not known.  Who wouldn’t want to know great and hidden things?  So, how do we know when God is talking to us?  How do we hear his voice?  Do we hear His voice?  

As I mentioned earlier, you may hear His voice, but this is very rare.  I know a lot of people who hear from God regularly and they do not hear an audible voice.  There are several different ways that God communicates with us.  The way I see God communicate most often at my Thursday prayer group meeting is when we are all silent and ask the Lord to speak to us.  We usually say what Samuel said to God in 1 Samuel 3:10, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Then we wait to hear from the Lord.  Most of the time someone has a thought come into their mind.  It is not an audible voice but the Lord has put this thought in their head and they share it with everyone.  Listening to the Lord does require a degree of trust and a degree of vulnerability.  If you ask the Lord a question, or if you just tell Him you are listening and willing to listen to Him, and then you started to get a bunch of thoughts in your head, it takes trust to believe it is God speaking to you. Especially if you are new to communicating with the Lord in this way.  If you are sitting and asking God to talk to you, have paper with you to write down any thoughts you get after you ask God to talk with you.  Trust that these thoughts could be from God.  You asked Him to talk to you and when we ask, He answers.  

The enemy does not want us communicating with God because He knows when you do you grow closer to God and your deepen your relationship.  Do not be surprised if when you are trying to listen to God and a thought enters you mind, you start to doubt it’s from God.  This is the enemy.  He will also put thoughts in your head, but these ones won’t be nice thoughts.  The thoughts from the enemy will be things like, “Why would God talk to you, you’re a nobody?”  “You’re just thinking whatever you want to think.”  “God would never talk like that, God would never say that.”  If you start to doubt what you are thinking is actually from God, know the enemy is probably putting those thoughts in your head.  You can answer those questions with the truths that God has give us.  For instance, “Why would God talk to you?” Your answer can be that God would talk to you because you are made in His likeness and image and because He told you if you asked He would answer.  If you call to Him He will answer.  He tells us this right here in this verse.  Don’t let the enemy convince you otherwise.  

Another way some people communicate with the Lord is through visions.  They will ask the Lord to speak and then they will get a vision of something.  Sometimes this vision is accompanied by a word and sometimes it is just a vision. My friend Corinne tends to have visions during our prayer group meetings and often times they are comical.  Our Lord has a sense of humor and it really comes out in her visions.  One time during prayer group He was trying to convey a message of joy and Corinne had a vision of us all riding down the hill on a sled in the snow.  We were all just laughing and have a great time.  Sometimes people will have a vision and then they will have a word from the Lord that goes with it to sort of explain it.  

Another way God talks to us is through the scriptures.  I have had a lot of people tell me about how they were really struggling with something and then they saw a scripture verse and it gave them so much comfort.  How they see this verse is always different.  Maybe they heard it at church, or they saw it in a book or on a magnet.  Maybe their friend mentioned it or they saw it in passing somewhere.  I remember a story I heard from a speaker.  She said she knew God was asking her to move to another state, but she really didn’t want to go.  She said if He wanted her to go He was going to have to make it really clear because she didn’t want to go.  She had three different random people give her the same scripture verse in one week.  I am not sure what the verse is anymore, but it was clear to her that God wanted her to move.  One of the people that gave her the verse was a delivery man.  It was not someone she knew.  She had never talked with him before, he did not know if she was religious.  He just dropped off her package, went to walk away, and then turned around and said, I feel I am supposed to give you this scripture verse.  This happened two other times with different people in one week.  This leads me to another way God communicates with us.

God communicates through other people.  You could be struggling with something and you don’t mention it to anyone and yet someone you know, or maybe someone you don’t know, happens to say something that makes you feel better, or answers your questions.  I listen to a lot of different things, between podcasts, webinars, music and prayer groups and they are always exactly what I need to hear.  How does God do that?  I listen to the Big Life Devotional Podcast.  It is actually where I got the idea for this podcast.  There are hundreds of thousands of people that listen to that podcast.  There are at least 400 of those listeners that are in the Big Life mentoring program.  Pamela Crim does a Facebook live for all her members in the morning while she records her devotional.  All those of us that are watching live are all different.  We are different ages, different jobs, different stages in our lives, different family make ups and yet every one of us feels like each episode seems to be written specifically for us.  The sermons in church are the same.  Did you ever wonder why the Sunday sermon said exactly what you needed to hear?  It’s because the Holy Spirit helped write that sermon.  

The woman that does the Big Life Podcast could not do the morning Facebook Live video this morning because she is traveling.  She told us if we wanted to do our morning routine we could watch an old one that was recorded.  I saw one the other day that said Wednesday.  I didn’t check the date because it happened to be Wednesday.  I watched the whole thing, it was really what I needed to hear, and I actually connected with someone else who happened to rewatch that one on Wednesday.  I finally realized it wasn’t the correct date It was from Jan 6, 2021.  God knew what He was doing.  He knew I needed to connect with this lady.  He knew of all the messages in her devotionals, that was the one I needed to hear today.  God is so good.  He will talk to you through other people if you are open to hearing it.  

I said earlier communicating with God requires trust and it requires vulnerability.  It requires trust because you have to believe that if you ask He will answer.  You have to trust those thoughts in your head, after you asked the Lord to talk, are really the Lord.  You have to trust He will talk to you because He said He would.  It also requires vulnerability because it can feel like you are risking rejection asking God to talk to you.  What if I ask God to talk and He doesn’t, what does that mean.  This brings us back to the trust.  If you ask God He will answer.  It also requires vulnerability if you are in a group setting because you are saying the thoughts that come into your out loud and you might start to wonder, “Did I really hear something?” “Is this really from God?” “What if it’s not from God?”  This is normal. When this happens remember the enemy doesn’t want us to communicate with our heavenly Father.  He wants us as far from Him as we can get.  He will always start to cause doubt when He sees we are getting closer.  Keep trusting it’s the Lord talking.  Spend time each day listening for all the Lord has to say.  I promise if you do start listening more, your relationship with the Lord will grow so much deeper.  You will develop an intimate relationship with your heavenly Father, His son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we want to hear your voice, please help us listen more.  Open our eyes to see all the ways you are trying to communicate with us and open our ears to hear them.  Open our minds to understand your messages Lord.  Lord we are open to hearing you, in whatever way you want to communicate with us.  Help us to hear you and help us to recognize it is you talking.  Help us be brave and share what you tell us with others.  Fill us with the trust we need to believe you would talk to us.  We love you Lord!  You are truly amazing.  You are the light of the world.  You are the word made flesh. We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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In Your Presence There Is Fullness of Joy

Psalm 16:11 “You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

We talked a lot on Tuesday about how God directs our steps.  God has a plan for our lives and it is an amazing plan. He has plans for our good.  We also talked about how we sometimes don’t wait for God to direct our steps.  Sometimes we don’t take the path that God is trying to show us because we run ahead of Him.  God has our lives perfectly timed and we don’t want to wait for His timing.  We think we know better and we are sure our timing is perfect.  So, instead of patiently walking side by side with God, we run ahead.  Then when we reach a fork in the road we don’t pause to turn around and ask Him which way to go, we just pick the way that looks the best and then run full force down it.  Then we wonder why things go wrong. We wonder why we aren’t happy.  Sometimes we are living the exact life we dreamed about living and yet we still aren’t happy.  

I think this is explained in the next line of this verse.  “In your presence there is fullness of joy.”  We aren’t happy when we reach the things we wanted to reach because we ran ahead of God.  We didn’t bring Him along for the journey.  The fullness of joy is found in the presence of God.  It doesn’t say the fullness of joy is found in your job, it doesn’t say you will find the fullness of joy when you make a lot of money or reach your wildest dreams.  It says the fullness of joy is found in God’s presence.  If we want to have joy we need to remain in the presence of God.  

In John’s gospel Jesus says, “remain in Me” frequently.  What does this mean?  How do we do this?  How do we remain in the presence of God?  I decided to look this up online to see how we could remain in the presence of God.  I found an awesome video from Father Mike on YouTube.  Father Mike says, getting right down to it, remaining in the presence of the Lord is inviting God into everything we do. Whatever the next step we are going to take is, we just ask the Lord, “Could you come with?”  Hey Jesus, I am going on a run, do you want to come with?  Hey Jesus, I am about to make dinner, do you want to come with?  We invite him to come with because this is what you do with someone you love you invite them to come with you.  How do we do that?  How do we invite someone along with you?  First, you ask them.  Second, its when you gaze upon Jesus in that interior gaze.  Where you just know that Jesus is there with you.  

Father Mike then explains about the Practice of the Presence.  He says it is something we have to learn.  If we want to live a life where we remain in the presence of God we will need to practice.  It is not something that will just come automatically.  He talks about a book he read where the author wrote about the practice of the presence of God and the author said the way he does this is to remind himself every time he touches a key on his computer Jesus is with him.  He doesn’t do this in a burdensome way.  He doesn’t get upset with himself if he forgets.  He just tries to remind himself throughout the day that God is with Him, in everything He does.  Even if he needs to remind himself a hundred times a day.   The first way was to ask God to come with you.  The second was to gaze upon God. The third way is to speak to Him because He is present.  When we are running, cooking, working, whatever you are doing talk to God.  God is always present to us, and when we invite him to come with we are being present to Him.  Remember, remaining in God takes practice.  Don’t beat yourself up if we don’t get it right the first time or the 100th time.  Just keep coming back to it and keep practicing it.  

We might wonder, when we invite God to come with, what will that feel like?  What will we experience? Father Mike explains that we never know.  God is free.  He is not an ATM where we punch in the correct code and we get the same thing each time.  God is not robotic in how he loves us.  Sometimes it might feel great, and we might experience great blessings, sometimes we might feel nothing, sometimes it may be difficult.  He always loves us how we need but He is free to love us how he want to.  So, how will God respond, what will it be like?  It will be exactly what you need because God is free and because He loves you very much!  I will post a link to Father Mike’s video in the show notes so if you get a chance you can watch it.  It is really good. (CLICK HERE for video)

The last line in this verse says, “In His right hand is where we find pleasures forevermore.”  I looked up the meaning of this because I didn’t really know what to say about this part and because I know the right hand is a place of honor and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing some important meaning.  As always, I am so glad I did.  I love when I can get a deeper meaning of the scripture.  I will place a link to the article I found because it talks about each part of this verse.  I am just focusing on what the author wrote about this last part.  “Christ is at God’s right hand. We are in Christ at God’s right hand. This is a place of great priority in the heavenly courts. The pleasures that come to us from the hand of God in Christ are the kind that are eternal, rather than temporal. Sadly, even Christians will trade the eternal pleasures of God for the temporary pleasures of sin. It is so wonderful to understand that God has eternal pleasures for us that are so far above what the earth has to offer. It is the pearl of great price that is worth a man or woman’s whole life in trade (Mt 13:44). Lay down your life for what he has for you.” (CLICK HERE for full article)

I am glad I found this because this line takes on a whole new meaning to me now.  When I first read it I thought it sounded nice, God has pleasures for us.  I didn’t key in to the word forevermore. Or, maybe I did think about it, but I thought about it more like forevermore in this life.  I didn’t connect the dots that God was offering us pleasures that are eternal versus what the world is offering us which is temporary.  It makes so much sense know that I have read the explanation.  I can see how we are always choosing the temporary pleasures of this world over the eternal pleasures from God.  I don’t know that we are consciously making this choice.  I think if we thought about that before we made the choice we might choose differently.  If every time we were about to choose a temporary pleasure we remembered that it is one or the other.  We can’t constantly choose the things of this world and then have an eternity with God, we have to pick one or the other.  If we knew that was our choice, I don’t think we would choose the temporary pleasure of sin so easily.  

The problem is, we aren’t really choosing it consciously most of the time.  We have all formed habits and a lot of the time we go through the day on auto pilot and we just do what we have always done and don’t ever give it a second thought.  If we want to choose eternity with the Lord we need to be better about intentionally choosing Him and letting Him lead us.  We need to do as Father Mike and practice being in the presence of the Lord every day.  If we keep practicing we will slowly but surly replace our bad habits for good ones and we will spend more and more time in the presence of the Lord.  This will help us grow stronger in resisting the temptations of the enemy.  Eventually we will be strong enough to choose what is eternal versus what is temporary.  Will you join me in practicing being present with the Lord this week?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to be in your presence.  We want to find the fulfillment of joy in You.  We want to follow the path you have for us.  Help us to do so.  Lord help remind us to practice being present.  Show us what to do.  Give us the strength we need to choose your eternal rewards instead of the temporary ones the world is offering us. Help us to see what the world is offering us comes through sin.  Help us to see if we want to spend eternity with you we constantly have to choose you.  It is not just a choice we make once and we are good to go.  It is a decision we make hundreds of times a day.  Help us make the right decision Lord.  Lord you are awesome. You are the bread of life and the blessed and only ruler.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus Holy Name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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 We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

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Though We Stumble, We Shall Not Fall

Psalm 37:23-24 “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way;  though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds us by the hand.”

I have read that verse several times today and yet this time when I read it I got the image of toddler walking along the sidewalk while he is holding his daddy’s hand.  When we are just learning to walk we definitely stumble and sometimes we even fall.  We fall because we are learning something new.  We fall because we are letting go of the safety of the wall, couch, or coffee table and venture out on our own.  It is not a bad thing when we fall as long as we get back up and try again.  It is expected to take time to learn something new.  It is part of the journey.  If we never let go of that safety net we will never learn what we are capable of.  

What I love about this verse though is that it says we will stumble, but we will not fall because God hold us by the hand.  God allows us to venture out into the unknown, but we are not alone.  He doesn’t send us out alone, he holds our hand.  He allows us to stumble, but we don’t fall headfirst into the ground.  We stumble and He steadies us.  To me that is a great image.  

The beginning line of this verse says, “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way.”  I found the word “when” an interesting addition to this sentence.  I was wondering why it was there.  I know the words in the Bible are chosen carefully so what does that first sentence mean?  The first thought that came to me was maybe when our steps are unsteady and weak, we aren’t doing what the Lord wants us to do.  Maybe we are like a child venturing out on our own.  We aren’t waiting for the Lord to hold our hand, we are just heading out without him.  Have you ever done this? Saw something you wanted and went after it.  You didn’t stop to ask God if it was right for you?  You didn’t stop to weigh the pros and cons, you didn’t really give it much thought at all.  It all seemed too good to be true and so you ran after it.  Yep, me too.  How did it work out for you?  Was it all you thought it would be?  

The thought that keeps coming up in my mind is, “Not every opportunity is from God.”  If something feels too good to be true, this is a great time to pause and examine the situation.    I am definitely an optimist so you won’t find me raining on your parade.  Maybe it is exactly what you have been praying for.  Maybe God gave this opportunity to you as an answer to your prayers.  God does do amazing things.  Often times God’s plan do seem too good to be true.  This is not me telling you if it seems too good to be true it probably is.  What I am saying is if the opportunity is from God He won’t mind if you pause to consult Him about it.  He will like it if you take time to pray about it.  Even if that time is 5 minutes.  A job may come up and you may not have a lot of time to consider it, that’s ok.  Take a few minutes, catch your breath and ask God what He thinks.  Ask Him for guidance and see what he says, or how you feel about the job after you have talked to God about it.  

Have you ever rushed into the perfect opportunity because you thought it was the answer to your prayers and it wasn’t?  This can happen when we don’t stop and invite God into our decision making.  For instance, we have been praying for more money and then a promotion becomes available.  We decide, without talking to God, this promotion is the answer to all of our prayers.  However, when we get the promotion we find out it has a lot of travel attached to it, or longer hours and now we never get to spend time with our family.  Not every opportunity is from God.  Sometimes the enemy offers us things that seem like what we want but aren’t actually good for us.  For instance we want to be rich and powerful and we achieve it and yet we are not happy.  These opportunities, or maybe the desires, might be from the enemy.  We live in a fast paced world and sometimes it seems like we have to do everything so quickly.  We feel as though we don’t have 5 minutes to stop and think.  If you don’t have time to pause and consult the Lord then I don’t believe that opportunity is from the Lord.  I think that is the enemy trying to get you to make decisions based on your feelings instead of your thoughts.  

Our feelings can betray us.  When we are acting solely upon our feelings we are letting go of God’s hand and telling Him we can walk on our own.  We are telling God we don’t need Him.  Our feelings don’t have our overall best interest at heart.  Our feelings are based on our temporary happiness.  Their goal is to make us feel good in the moment.  For instance, we might eat some macaroni and cheese for dinner because are feeling sad today and want to feel happy.  However, how is that macaroni and cheese going to make you feel when you no longer fit into your clothing.  We might take a job that seems good and pays a lot of money because we feel scared that we won’t have enough money to pay the bills.  However, how much are you going to enjoy that job when you find out you never get to see your family.  Do you see how your feeling can betray you.  

The verse says, “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way;  though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds us by the hand.”  When we stop and consult God, ask Him what He wants us to do, invite Him into the situation, our steps are made firm.  When we pause and grab hold of God’s hand He will lead us.  This doesn’t mean everything will be perfect.  We will still stumble, but we won’t fall.  God hold’s tight to our hand.  Yes, he allows us to stumble, and that is because when we stumble we learn, when we stumble we become more resilient, when we stumble we learn to lean on Him  more.  However, He does not allow us to fall headlong.  He catches us and sets us on solid ground once again.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful that you make firm our steps.  We are grateful you allow us to stumble because that is where we grow and yet you don’t allow us to fall.  You are there to catch us.  You hold our hand gently guiding through these uncharted waters.  Lord, we are sorry for all those times when we run off without you and do the things we want to do.  We are sorry for the times when we don’t consult you.  We know you know better than we do.  We know your ways are higher than our ways.  Help give us the strength to pause and invite you into our decisions.  Help give us the patience to wait on your timing.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s guest is one of my dearest friends Marlana.  We met in NJ just after we both became mothers for the first time.  We met at a prayer group with several other ladies. These ladies will forever hold a special place in my heart because we all learned how to be mothers together.  We were there for each other through all the craziness of being a first time mom and we were all there for each other when we each brought a second, and sometimes third baby into the family.  Our spouses were all in the military and we also got to support each other through many different deployments.  Marlana is going to talk to us about how she learned about the importance of obedience to the Lord, especially when you don’t understand why He is asking you to do the things He is asking you to do.  She has an incredible story of how her obedience helped her grow closer to the Lord and her family grow closer together.  I know you are going to love her story as much as I do and I can’t wait to share it with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Have Kept The Faith

2 Timothy 4:6-7 “ For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

St. Paul is speaking in this verse.  I didn’t really understand what the first line of this verse was saying other than it seemed like St. Paul was dying.  I had no idea what he meant by being poured out like a drink offering.  I did not know the significance of that.  I was tempted to just skip that line and go to the next one as I really like the next line.  However, I remember that is not why I am doing this podcast.  I am doing this podcast so we can all learn the scripture better, so we can all understand it a little more.  We won’t be able to do that if I skip over the sentences I don’t understand.  So I decided to look up the meaning of that first line.  I am always surprised at what I find.  According to bibleref.com, the "drink offering" refers to a cup of wine a Jewish priest poured out beside the altar following the offering of a ram, lamb, or bull in the temple (Numbers 15:1–10; 28:4–7). Just as the drink offering symbolized the end of the offering, Paul's life was about to come to an end. He is writing these words under Roman imprisonment and expects to be executed before too long. Paul has already made one courtroom appearance during this imprisonment (2 Timothy 4:16), but does not expect to be given another opportunity.

St. Paul thought his life was over, he expected to be executed shortly.  The next line in this verse is one that I have heard often.  It says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  Well, I haven’t heard that last part often, but I have heard “I have fought the good fight, or  I am fighting the good fight?” I really like that phrase.  St. Paul embodied this phrase.  When He says he fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith, he is not just saying that.  If you don’t know the story of Paul you can read about it in Acts 9.  Let me summarize it for you. Paul started out as Saul.  Saul was going around finding and persecuting anyone who believed in Jesus.  Saul went to the high priests to ask if he could go to Damascus and round up any believers of Jesus and bring them back as prisoners.  On the way he saw a blinding white light and heard Jesus’ voice ask why Saul was persecuting Him.  He told Saul to go into the nearby town and wait for someone to come to him. When Saul got up he could no longer see.  Saul waited for this person to come find him.  Ananias found Saul, prayed over him and Saul we baptized in Jesus’ name.  Saul became Paul and became a man of extreme faith.  

Paul changed his ways.  He went from persecuting anyone that believed in Jesus, to being one of His biggest believers.  Paul was one of the most prolific contributors to the New Testament.  There are 27 books in the New Testament and 13-14 of them are traditionally attributed to Paul.  Paul suffered a lot in his quest to spread the good news.  In 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 Paul talks about all he went through.  I will just read you 2 Corinthians 11:24-27 “Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.  I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.  I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.”

Wow, did you know Paul went through all of that?  If anyone can say they “fought the good fight” it is Paul and he definitely kept the faith.  I think we often take for granted how good we have it here in America.  Can you even imagine being stoned or thrown into jail for being Christian?  That seems so strange to me because in this country we are free to worship whatever we want to worship.  We don't have to worship in secret.  We are free to attend mass every single day if we want to.  I wonder if we know how lucky we are?  there are countries where it is still illegal to be Christian.  According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80% of the world’s governments interfered with their citizens; religious worship in some way in 2019.  There are some countries where you face persecution if you are Christian.  There are some countries where you are risking your life to practice your Christian faith.  For example, converting from Islam to another religion is illegal and is punishable by imprisonment, confiscation of property, or even the death sentence.  We take for granted the fact we can go out to the store and buy a Bible.  In some countries they are not allowed to sell Bibles.  The only way to get Bibles into these countries is by illegal covert operations.  

I wonder how much more the people living in these countries appreciate reading their Bibles.  I bet they are so much more grateful when they have the opportunity to receive the Eucharist.  I can’t imagine having to worship in secret and having to hide my faith for fear of my life.  I look back at all Paul had to deal with, how hard he had to fight to spread the word of the Lord and I am thankful I didn’t live back in that time. However, I realize it is still going on today in many parts of the world.  I am not sure what I can to do about that but I know I can pray for those that are not free to worship God.  I can pray things change and that we are all free to worship God openly.  I can also be careful to not take my freedom of religion for granted.  I can be grateful for all the opportunities to worship here in America.  I can make sure I am not complaining if the mass times don’t line up perfectly with my schedule.  I can be grateful to the priests who work so hard to try and reach everyone even though more and more churches are being closed.  Churches wouldn’t close if more people were attending them.  We are very lucky to be Christians in this country.  It is not perfect and their is persecution, but no where near what they see in other countries, and I am very thankful for that.  

Wouldn’t it be great, when our time of departure is near, if we could all say, “ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  Our fight may not be the same as anyone else’s fight, but it is still a fight.  Being Christian is not easy when we are surrounded by a world that is so different.  Living a Christian life style is contrary to a lot of the ways of the world today.  This is not something new, the apostles knew this truth all too well.  If they could be brave and live this lifestyle in the times they lived in, so can we.  They were facing stoning and crucifixion.  We may face judgment from those around us, we may even face alienation from friends or family who don’t believe the same way we do.  However, in most circumstances, we will not face death, or even jail time.  Let us live our Christian life proudly.  Let us stand up for what we believe without fear of Judgement from this world.  The only Judgement that matters is the Judgement from the Lord, who is a righteous judge.  Let us live in a way so when our time is done those around us will say, “He/She has fought the good life, She/He has finished the race, He/She has kept the faith.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we are so grateful to have you in our lives.  Lord, we pray for anyone living in this world who can’t freely worship you.  We pray things change and everyone in the world is able to freely worship you. We pray for those being persecuted in your name.  We pray for all those meeting in secret, that they may one day be able to meet in the open.  We pray for strength for those who do not have regular access to the Eucharist.  Lord, we ask you the help us appreciate how good we have it here in the United States and anywhere where freedom of religion is something actually enforced. We ask you not let us take our privileges for granted.  We love you Lord. We want to be able to say at the end of our lives, above all else, we kept the faith.  Help us Lord.  You are our strength, you are our rock, you are our fortress.  We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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The Veil Is Torn In Two

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

This was a verse I needed to look up to truly understand.  I am always so surprised when I read the explanation of verses by people who have studied the Bible and know so much more than I do.  This is one of the reasons I really enjoy doing Bible studies.  There are people who know so much about the original languages the Bible was written, or the history of the times it was written in.  There are people who know the Jewish traditions and how they relate to various aspects of the Christian faith.  I love when I do a Bible study and they explain these things that seem like little bits of information and yet when you know them it adds so much more to what you are reading.  The explanation of this verse is a great example of that.  

When I read this verse I didn’t really understand the significance of the part that says, “who with unveiled faces.”  I thought it simply meant uncovered faces.  I should know by now the words in the Bible are chosen very carefully and nothing is just thrown in there.  God paid attention to every detail and every word and there is a reason for the exact words used.  When Paul said this he was referring to Exodus 34 when Moses’ had to cover his face after meeting with God.  The reason Moses’ had to cover His face is because it would be a reflection of God and the Israelites’ hearts and minds were hardened by their sin.  They could not look upon the Glory of God because of their sin.  There was no way to remove this sin through study or attempts at obedience or even through religiously following the law.   Paul explains that God removes the veil between Himself and His people when they come to Him through their trust in Jesus.  Only in Christ is sin forgiven once and for all.  For the Israelites, Jesus had not come to die for our sins yet.  Therefore Moses had to cover his face after meeting with God.

Let me try to explain a little more about the significance of the veil.  In the Old Testament, in the temple there was a veil separating the Holy of Holies—the earthly dwelling place of God’s presence—from the rest of the temple where men dwelt. Man had to be separated from the presence of God because of sin.  However, in Matthew 27: 50-51 it says, “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…”  I read an article which talks about the significance of this verse.  I will place a link to it in the show notes in case you are interested in reading it.  The article says the size and thickness of the veil makes the event of it tearing upon Jesus’ death all that much more momentous.  This veil was around 60 ft high and Jewish tradition states it was about 4 inches thick.  The articles states, “Above all, the tearing of the veil at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice, the shedding of His own blood, was a sufficient atonement for sins. It signified that now the way into the Holy of Holies was open for all people, for all time, both Jew and Gentile.”

Now that the veil is removed the Holy Spirit can work on removing the hardness in our hearts and allowing those in Christ to see God’s glory.  Because this veil is removed we can now see Christ for who He really is.  When this happens God begins to transform us into the image of Christ.  Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, we no longer have to be separated from God’s glory.  As the verse above says we, “are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  God’s glory can transform us, if we allow it to.  First we have to say yes.  Yes, to accepting Jesus died on the cross for our sins.  Yes, to believing we are saved, not because we deserve it, and not because of anything we have done, but because Jesus died on the cross for us.  Yes, to accepting God’s glory and letting it in.  Yes, to listening to God and accepting His ways.  

When Jesus died on the cross He torn down the veil between us and God and yet we keep wanting to put it back up.  We want to keep ourselves apart from God because we feel we aren’t worthy.  We hold onto our sin because we simply don’t believe that God could ever forgive us.  We know and believe in theory that Jesus died on the cross for our sins but deep inside we tell ourselves He died for other’s sins but not ours, our sins are too great.  Why do we do this?  Why do we let the enemy fill our head with these lies?  Why is it so hard to accept forgiveness?  It is not just God’s forgiveness we struggle to accept.  We struggle to accept forgiveness from our loved ones as well.  Is this something you struggle with? Something happens and you hurt a loved one. You apologize and they forgive you and yet you let the guilt eat you up inside anyway.  Why don’t we believe them when they say we are forgiven?  Why is it so hard to believe that our loved ones have forgiven us?  

I think the answer to both situations is the enemy and the fact we live in a fallen world.  We don’t believe God will truly forgive us because the enemy whispers in our ear all sorts of lies about why we aren’t worthy and why we can never be forgiven.  It is the same with our loved ones.  The enemy preys on our deepest fears and turns them into lies that he whispers into our ear all the time.  Also, we live in a broken world, so we don’t experience true, selfless forgiveness like Jesus gave us when He died on the cross.  It is hard for us to believe things we haven’t seen before.  If we haven’t seen healthy forgiveness then it is hard to believe it is possible.  The good news is God can help us with this if we turn it over to Him.  You may be tired of hearing me say that by now, and yet I will continue to say it because it is true and because someone still needs to hear it, or someone needs that reminder today.  

We are not perfect, we are all flawed.  We tend to look around us and think that everyone is so much holier than we are.  We wonder how everyone else can be getting it so right, and we are getting it so wrong.  If this is you, if you have these thoughts, these next few Bible verses are for you.  Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.” Romans 3:10 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one;”  Psalm 14:3 says, “They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.” There are several other verses just like these.  The Bible makes it clear, in the Old and the New Testament, we are all sinners.  In Romans 3:23-24 it says, “ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  Did you catch that last part, it begins by saying we have all fallen short of God’s grace.  Then it says, AND we are all justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  

God knows we aren’t worthy.  God knows your sins, even if you hide them because you are too ashamed to tell Him.  He knows them.  Bring them to Him, lay them at his feet and ask Him for help, ask Him for forgiveness and then rest assured that you are forgiven.  God gave us the ultimate sacrifice to forgive our sins and I truly feel it is a slap in the face when we refuse to accept His forgiveness.  Jesus talked about not accepting His forgiveness in the parable of the unforgiving servant found in Matthew 18:21-35.  If you are struggling to accept Jesus’ forgiveness you may find it helpful to go and read this parable.  We need to learn to accept God’s glory and His forgiveness and the good news is we don’t have to do it alone, we just have to ask God for His help.

Wow, I had no idea we were going to be talking about forgiveness today.  The Holy Spirit knows where He is leading me though, so I am sure that was exactly what someone needed to hear today. It was a great reminder for all of us.  Jesus died so we could be forgiven and that veil separating us from God could come down.  Don’t try to put it back up.  Allow God’s mercy and grace to transform you each and every day.  Some days will be better than others and that is ok.  Progress not perfection is my motto.  Remember, when the enemy starts whispering lies about how we don’t deserve God’s glory, you remind yourself and the enemy that God doesn’t give us His glory because we deserve it, and He doesn’t give it to us because of anything we have done, He gives us His glory because Jesus died for our sins and there is nothing anyone can do to change that.  It is ours forever!  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we are so grateful you gave us your only son to die for our sins.  We are grateful you love us that much.  Lord we want to accept your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness and your love.  If anything is standing in our way we ask you to remove it.  We ask you to help each and every one of accept your grace and forgiveness.  Lord, you know our struggles, please help us.  Please release us from anything binding us to our negative thoughts and our negative habits.  We want to be free from all evil spirits.  When the enemy is whispering his stupid lies please fill our minds and hearts with Your Words instead.  We love you Lord. You are amazing. You are the Great I am, you are the just one and you are the lamb of God.  You are our joy and our life.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have an amazing and blessed weekend.

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Thankfulness Opens The Door to My Presence

1 Thessalonians 5:18 “ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

I talk about gratitude a lot because I believe it is the key to so many things.  I think if we can practice being grateful more often we will discover how much more we have to be grateful for.  If we are more grateful with those we love then our relationships will become stronger.  If we are more grateful to those who work for us then they will like coming to work more and will probably work harder because they feel appreciated.  That is what gratitude does, it shows appreciation.  One of my sisters said to me the other day that her love language was gratitude.  When her customers and when her co workers show her appreciations she feels loved and is so much happier at work.  Think about your own life.  Are you happier when you feel appreciated?  Do you like it when people are grateful for the things you do for them?  I know I am happier and I love it when people show gratitude for the things I do.  

This morning’s devotional in “Jesus Calling” talked about gratitude in a way I really liked.  Remember these devotionals are written as if they are a direct message from Jesus.  I think I liked this one so much because it explained exactly how important I think gratitude is and yet I couldn’t quite explain it as eloquently as the Lord did.  I mean, He is God after all.  Here is the passage from this morning’s devotional:

“Thankfulness opens the door to My Presence. Though I am always with you, I have gone to great measures to preserve your freedom of choice. I have placed a door between you and me, and I have empowered you to open or close that door. There are many ways to open it, but a grateful attitude is one of the most effective. Thankfulness is built on a substructure of trust. When thankful words stick in your throat, you need to check up on your foundation of trust. When thankfulness flows freely from your heart and lips, let your gratitude draw you closer to me. I want you to learn the art of giving thanks in all circumstances. See how many times you can thank me daily; this will awaken your awareness to a multitude of blessings. It will also cushion the impact of trials when they come against you. Practice my presence by practicing the discipline of thankfulness.”

I know, there is a lot in there, so let’s unpack that together.  First God is saying thankfulness, or gratitude opens the door to His Presence.  Who wouldn’t want to be in God’s presence?  I feel as though just knowing that makes me want to be more thankful throughout the day.  We often say God gave us free will.  However, do we really understand what that means?  Do we understand if we want God in our lives, we need to choose Him?  We need to make the constant decision to follow Him and His ways?  God is not going to force Himself upon us, we get to decide if we are going to invite Him into our lives and it is not just a one and done type of situation. It is a multiple times a day kind of situation.  I really like how God explains in this passage that although he is always with us there is a door in between us as well.  I love the wording of this phrase.  I love how He says He has empowered us to open or close the door.  God, the almighty one, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings has given us the power to decide if we want to open or close the door.  That is pretty awesome and also it’s a lot of responsibility.  Sometimes I wish I could trade my free will for God’s will.  Sometimes I wish it weren’t up to me to choose to do the right thing.  Have you ever felt like that?  Do you struggle with choosing to do the right thing?  Do you ever feel like it would just be easier if you didn’t have that choice?  It might be easier if we didn’t have the choice, but it also wouldn’t be true love if we didn’t have a choice.  Love is not true love if it is taken, it must be freely given.

The next line in the devotional says, “There are many ways to open it, but a grateful attitude is one of the most effective.”  A grateful attitude is one of the most effective ways to get closer to God, to open the door between you and Him. Do you even need to hear anything else?  I feel as though I could end this devotional with that line and you would have all the info you need.  However, God didn’t stop there, He kept going.  The next line, is interesting.  “Thankfulness is built on a substructure of trust.”  It goes on to say if you struggle with gratitude you should examine your foundation of trust.  I am going to be honest and admit that I don’t completely understand this line.  I think about when someone gives me a gift, why would I not want to say thank you? What does that have to do with trust?  The thought coming to me is that I am not trusting their motives maybe.  For instance this salesman on the phone this morning was complimenting me on my website.  I said thank you, but in my mind I was telling myself he was just saying it to get me to buy what he was selling.  So, I guess I can see how sometimes our reluctance to say thankful things could be because a lack of trust.  And then when we can be grateful we can let that gratefulness draw us closer to God.  

The ending says, “I want you to learn the art of giving thanks in all circumstances. See how many times you can thank me daily; this will awaken your awareness to a multitude of blessings. It will also cushion the impact of trials when they come against you. Practice my presence by practicing the discipline of thankfulness.”  This is such a clear call to action and such a practical thing for us to start doing.  Sometimes when we hear about things that will help us grow closer to God we don’t always know how to do them.  For instance, how exactly do we trust in God more?  What are the steps?  This time, God spells out exactly what He wants us to do.  He wants us to learn how to give thanks in all circumstances.  This isn’t necessarily a clear path, as we know what God wants us to do, but not necessarily how to do it.  But God doesn’t stop there.  He tells us to see how many times a day we can thank Him.  This is a very practical thing and it is not at all confusing.  God is calling us to practice thanksgiving each day.  If we are already in the habit of seeing how many times we can thank God when things are going well, it will be easier to keep up this habit when things aren’t going well.  I love how God says gratitude will cushion the impact of trials.  When you can focus on the good things and learn to be grateful in the really hard times, then gratitude makes the hard times hurt a little less.  They are still awful, but the gratitude does lessen the blow.  If we can practice thankfulness each and every day we will continue to grow closer and closer to God. God is calling us to see how many times a day we can thank Him.  Are you going to answer that call?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to practice being grateful, please help us. We are so grateful you empowered us to open the door in between us.  We want to grow closer to you each and every day.  Lord, help us to hear these words from you today. Open our hearts and minds to your message of gratitude.  Help us to grasp the importance of it and help us to develop and attitude of gratitude.  Lord you are amazing.  You are the Light of the World and we adore you.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day.  

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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