Walk Boldly With Jesus

The Golden Rule

Matthew 7:12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”

Did you know that the golden rule was actually in the Bible?  I knew it was something that I was taught growing up.  I knew that it was a nice thing to do, but I did not realize that it was found in the Bible.  I didn’t know it was a command from our Heavenly Father.  I am not sure if it was ever presented to me as if it were God telling us to do this.  I figured it was just something that parents told their kids to get them to behave better.  You know what I mean?  Similar to how they tell us that the magic words are please and thank you.  Even though I didn’t know this was a bible verse, I did try to embrace this advice.  

I feel as though this simple, short verse can be a guiding principle for how to live our life.  If we are not sure what to do in a certain circumstance, we can think of this verse and it can help us make a decision.  For instance, if we are not sure if we should tell someone something, think about whether or not we would want them to tell us.  This can apply in many different circumstances.  When we are interacting with our children, when we are driving, when we are at work, no matter the circumstances we can ask ourselves what we would like someone else to do to/for us and then decide what we will do.  

I feel like the world would be a much better place if  more of us remembered and lived by the golden rule.  When I read some of the comments that people write to other people on social media I wonder what they are thinking.  The definitely are not thinking about how they would feel if someone said that to them.  They write comments that are very unkind.  One of the people I follow on social media made a post about the comments people made on her posts.  They wrote comments about how annoying she is and how they can’t stand her.  This is crazy because if you think someone is annoying you can not follow them, or you can click on a button and hide their posts so they don’t show up on your screen.  You do not have to share you unkind thoughts with them.

This golden rule also makes me think of the Matthew 25:34-40 “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;  for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,  I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?  And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?  And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

When is the last time we fed the hungry or clothed the naked?  When is the last time we gave someone a drink, or went to visit someone that was lonely in prison or sick?  My sister and her husband and daughter used to make meals for those the homeless people in Worcester.  It wasn’t anything fancy, it was just a brown bag with a sandwich, an apple, a bottle of water and maybe  a granola bar.  Then they would drive around and give them to those they saw on the streets.  I have always admired this and wanted to do it, but never have.  Her daughter is an adult now and last year she was going to college in Boston.  She would carry around in her car a basket of granola bars, water, chips and other snacks so if someone came up to her car, she could give them something to eat.  Kindness is contagious.  If we have it, we can spread it.  The world definitely needs more kindness right now.  

Another thing I have always admired and yet not actually done yet was something I read in Matthew Kelly’s book “Resisting Happiness.”  If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it.  It was so good.  In this book Matthew Kelly talks about how his mentor at the time use to take him to a nursing home on Saturday afternoons for an hour or two.  It was not a lot of time, but he said it was so powerful.  He said the elderly that lived there were so happy to have a visitor and they were so wise and had so many stories to tell.  How are we treating the elderly in our society?  How are we treating our own parents as they get older, or the people at our church?  Are we patient and understanding?  Are we empathetic to the fact that growing old isn’t easy?  Are we treating them like we would want to be treated when we are their age?  If we are lucky enough to live to be their age?  Do we respect their wisdom and their experience?

What about clothing the naked?  There are plenty of people that can not afford clothes.  What are we doing with our clothes?  Are we donating them to others when we no longer want them?  What about buying new clothes for those that need them?  For instance in the winter time, we could donate fresh, new, socks to the homeless shelter.  It is cold out there in the winter in a lot of places and dry socks are a commodity.  What about donating winter jackets?  These don’t even have to be new, but if we have more than we need, we can donate some.  Also, we could go to the thrift store, or Goodwill and buy a few winter jackets and bring them to a homeless shelter.  There are plenty of people living on the streets and although we can’t clothe them all, we can do our small part.  

Do you see how this golden rule can apply to so many circumstances.  God is looking for us to treat others how we wish to be treated.  He is wanting us to be kind and loving towards all we meet as this is how we would want to be treated.  However, He doesn’t want us to just stop there.  He wants us to go out and search for those that are lost, hungry, sick, thirsty, and take care of them the way we would want God to take care of us.  God wants us to be His hands and feet on earth and help Him take care of all of His children.  Will you accept this challenge?  Will you continue to try and live by the golden rule?  What is one thing you can do today, or this week to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, or visit someone that is lonely?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to live by the golden rule.  Help us to be your hands and feet in this world.  We want to be your instruments Lord, put it on our heart how you want us to help.  Lord, help us to see that it doesn’t have to be a big thing that we do all the time.  Help us to spend less time thinking and planning and more time doing.  Help us to know what you want us to do and let us not get side tracked by all the options.  There are so many ways to help those in need, let us just pick one and do it.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  You do so much for us and we want to do more for others.  We just need your help.  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 just want to remind everyone that my prayer group is putting on a Life in the Spirit Seminar tonight at 7:00 P. M. (EST)  If you are interested in learning more about the Holy Spirit and how to invite Him more into your life, email me and I will send you the zoom link.  [email protected].  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

The Lord Is My Shepherd

Ezekiel 34:14-17 "I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.”

This is another promise from God.  There are so many of them in the Bible.  I feel so incredibly lucky to have a God that cares about us so much that He would promise to take care of us.  God is not just talking about giving us what is left over, or a mediocre life.  It says that He shall feed us with good pasture and with rich pasture.  He talks about how our pasture shall be on the Mountain heights of Israel.  The Lord is saying that we shall be set apart.  He will feed us and make sure we have a place to live.  The Lord will be our shepherd, he will make sure we have all we need.  A place to eat and a place to lie down.  

The next part says that God will search for the lost and bring back those that strayed.  Do you feel like you are lost?  Do you feel as though you have strayed far from home and can’t find your way back?  Don’t worry, the Lord isn’t expecting you to find your way back on your own.  He is out there searching for you and He is ready to help.  The Lord says in this verse the He will be our shepherd.  He is a loving Father that doesn’t pass off his responsibilities.  He didn’t just create us and then appoint someone to take care of us and then move on to something else.  He has appointed people to be His instrument here one earth, but even when God has done that He has always stayed involved, always walked with us in our journey.  When God appointed Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, His spirit was in front of them the whole time.  Day and night, His spirit was there leading the way.

A prime example of when God has gone out to seek the lost is when He found Mary Magdalen.  She was raised Jewish and her father used to read her stories and teach her the Jewish ways when she was little.  However, when Jesus found her she was far from her Jewish roots.  According to the Chosen episode I saw, she was possessed with demons and she would sometimes go crazy.  She didn’t know what was going on, but she was longing for something.  I just don’t think she knew what she was longing for.  Then Jesus came and called her home.  It is a really beautiful episode if you ever get the chance to watch it.  

Another way that we can tell how much God loves us is found in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  God sent Jesus, His only son, down to earth to show us the way and to die on the cross for our sins.  We were all lost to God because of original sin and so He sent His son down to save us.  He does not give up on us, ever.  He keeps searching for us until He finds us and calls us home.  

We tried very hard to raise our boys Catholic and to bring them to church and religious education.  However, they really struggled going to mass each week and we struggled as well.  They weren’t always well behaved and sometimes it was really hard to get anything out of mass when we were trying to deal with certain behaviors.  However, once COVID shut down the churches and the religious education class it became impossible to get them to go.  Actually, we stopped trying to get them to go.  I am sure I told myself that it was ok if they didn’t go because the obligation to attend mass was waived for a while and it was probably not safe for them to go any way.  Maybe this was part of it, but the bigger truth is that I didn’t want to fight anymore.  I also wanted to enjoy mass and be able to listen and pay attention.  So I just stopped waking them put to go.  Of course I had no idea that COVID would last so long and with each passing week it got harder and harder to get them to go back to church.  I will keep trying, however, I take comfort in knowing that God will seek them and bring them back in His time.  

The next part of the verse says, “I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.”  God will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.  This is something we really need right now.  This is a promise that is really useful during a pandemic.  There are lots of people injured and weak that are crying to God for help.  I have known several people that have cried out to God over the last 24 months and He has saved them. He has fixed their cancer, cured their MS symptoms, healed them from COVID.  He has been very busy lately.  Although I suspect He is always busy.  

I also know many that have felt weak over these past few years and have turned to the Lord for the strength that they needed.  He has always come through.  He doesn’t always answer our prayers in the way we think He will, but He does always answer them.  I heard the witness the other day of a woman who said she was married for 25 years and then she got a divorce.  She said that although he Lord didn’t answer her prayers the way she would have liked, sparing her from he divorce, He did provide her the strength she needed to make it through the whole process.  He not only provided strength but he provided practical things like a one million dollar lean on her house to be taken off so she could sell it.  She was able to rent an apartment to live in with no down payment and no job.  The Lord found her a job after being a stay at home mom for so many years.  All of these things were miracles and she was so very grateful.  

The one part of the verse that I didn’t understand was, “but the fat and the strong I will destroy.”  It seemed strange to me that God would destroy the fat and the strong, so I looked up what it meant.  What I found said that what this meant was that God was going to destroy those that were getting fat and strong because of taking advantage of others.  The people that would eat all the food and not share with their fellow man, or take what they had and lord it over other people.  Use their strength and power to keep others down.  This makes more sense.  Then the Lord says that He will “feed them with justice.”  It makes sense that if people are acting like that then God would enact Justice on them.  He is after all the God of Justice.  This is why we can rest assured that we don’t have to be scared of evil doers, because God will take care of them for us.  He is a loving God that always looks our for us and provides for us.  Thank you God!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful you provide for us and look out for us.  We are grateful you seek us when we are lost and you bring us back when we stray.  You are a great shepherd and we are so lucky to have you.  Help us to seek you Lord.  We love you Lord, you are amazing!  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

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

The Easy Path or The Harder To Travel Path

1 Corinthians 2:9 “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”

This is pretty awesome when we think about it.  God has prepared something so amazing for those that love Him that no human heart has conceived it.  No eye has seen it and no ear has heard it.  I definitely want to sign up for that.  How do we sign up for that?  The verse says that God has prepared it for those that love Him.  It might be easy to think that we automatically qualify because of course we love God.  We have talked about this before in another episode about how we may feel like we love God, but does God feel like we love Him?  What are we doing to show God that we love Him?  

If you are listening to this episode then I am sure that you love God.  You wouldn’t go out of your way to spend 10 minutes of your day listening to me talk about a scripture verse if you didn’t want to grow in your faith, grow closer to God, or learn how to walk boldly with Jesus.  I am not questioning if you love God.  I am sure that you do.  I do wonder how we could show God that we love Him even more than we already are.  I would like there to be no question in God’s mind whether we love him or not.  

I feel as though God has been repeating a few things to me lately.  Does this ever happen to you?  You feel as though God is telling you something and then every where you look it seems to be a similar message?  This is a thing, I know it is.  I have heard many people talk about it.  I heard a story once of this woman who had a big decision to make.  She didn’t want to move, but she really felt like God was calling her to move.  She told God that if he wanted her to move He would have to make His will very clear to her as she really didn’t want to hear it.  She was in church on Sunday and she heard a verse that confirmed that she was supposed to move.  She passed it off as coincidence, or maybe she was reading too much into in.  The next day, a friend called her up and said that she didn’t know why, but she had a feeling she was supposed to call and give her this certain scripture verse and it whatever it was confirmed that she should move.  Again, she tried to ignore it and explain it away.  The next day, a delivery man dropped off a package to her door and after she signed for it he was walking away and then he turned and gave her a scripture verse, out of the blue.  It was not someone she knew, he just said, I am not sure why this is coming to mind but what does this mean to you and gave her the scripture verse.  She finally agreed to move.  God is funny how he works sometimes.  If He has a message for you, He will get it to you, no matter how many times you try to ignore it.  

This is what the Lord has been doing to me lately, or I should say he has been doing this for me lately.  There seems to be a few messages that keep coming up over and over again.  One of them is the one I talked about the other day.  God has been telling me through Bible verses and through conversations with people that He really wants us to just be still with Him.  Another message that seems to keep coming up is that the road to God is the narrow one, the road less traveled.  The scripture Matthew 7:13-14 keeps coming up.  It says, “Go in through the narrow door. The door is wide and the road is easy that leads to hell. Many people are going through that door. But the door is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life that lasts forever. Few people are finding it.”  

This message has also come up at my prayer group.  Someone today had a vision of a path that we were walking down and then the path split and you could choose which path to go down.  One way looks smooth and easy to travel and the other is all rocky and hilly and harder to travel.  The Lord says, “So many times we chose the path that is the easiest because we don’t want to have a hard time doing anything.  We want things to go smoothly constantly.  But on the other road, where it is hard to travel, that s where He is.  It is in the rough traveling, it is in the hardships, it is in the hard times going, trying, fighting, to get to the Lord, that is where the purities come.  That is where your heart becomes more like His because He struggled constantly.  As we walk the road, we get tired and we say, “Lord, I don’t want any more of this.  I’d rather just walk the smooth road.  And He constantly calls us with the eyes of Love.  “Come, just a little bit more, just a little bit further.  For I am waiting, don’t worry about the roughness it will not hurt you for I am your God and I travel with you.”

This is something I feel He keeps reminding me.  Sometimes I want to do something am I am not sure if I should.  For instance, my husband and I started watching a tv show that was an interesting show, however, it was very graphic and had a lot of sex in it.  There were times when I felt very uncomfortable watching it.  I felt as though the Holy Spirit was convicting me that I shouldn’t be watching it.  I would try to rationalize that it was a very popular show and I knew plenty of other people that watched it.  This is when I felt very strongly that the Lord showed me Matthew 7:13-14.  I felt like the Lord was telling me that He knows a lot of people have watched it, but He is calling me to more.  He is calling me to take a different road.

The Lord is not just calling me to take a different road.  He is calling you too.  He is calling all of us to examine our behavior and see if we are loving Him through our behavior?  If we were to look at our lives would we know just by what we see that we love the Lord?  Would we see that we put God first, or everything else first?  We would see that our lives are lived any differently than anyone else’s?  God is telling us in Matthew 7:13-14 “Go in through the narrow door. The door is wide and the road is easy that leads to hell. Many people are going through that door. But the door is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life that lasts forever. Few people are finding it.”  Are we part of the few people that are finding the narrow door?  Are we even looking for the narrow door?

When I was watching the show and I felt convicted that I should stop, I didn’t want to.  It was a good show and I was enjoying it.  I was trying to convince myself that God didn’t really care if I watched it.  I was afraid of missing out on something enjoyable.  Then one day I thought about how amazing Heaven is going to be.  I though about how I may be sacrificing some enjoyment in the here and now, but I will be gaining eternal enjoyment.  I say that I will give anything to be in heaven with the Lord for eternity, however, I couldn’t even stop watching one TV show when I felt the Lord was asking me to.  So, it looks like I still have lots of work to do.  And you know what, that is ok.  The Lord doesn’t need me to have it all figured out right this second.  All He really wants is for us to be seeking the right answers.  He wants us to keep trying to get it right.  He knows we will fail a lot and He still loves us anyway.  

Let’s all take a look at the path we are on and figure out if it is the easy path, the one that feels good, but doesn’t lead anywhere good.  Or, are we on the difficult path, the one less traveled, that leads to the Lord.  I love in the vision when the Lord said, “Come, just a little bit more, just a little bit further.  For I am waiting, don’t worry about the roughness it will not hurt you for I am your God and I travel with you.”  I love that God is traveling with us and that He is protecting us.  If you are traveling down a really hard road right now, I hope the Lord’s words will bring you comfort.  “Come, just a little bit more, just a little bit further, for I am waiting.”  He is there waiting for us, we just have to keep choosing the right path to walk down.  It isn’t one decision and we are done.  It is a series of decisions every single day and if we get it wrong, we can always course correct.  He just wants us to keep trying to get it right.  Remember what is waiting for us when we get it right.  “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to choose the narrow path, please keep guiding us.  Please keep sending the Holy Spirit to convict us when we are heading in the wrong direction.  Please keep turning us around and directing us back to the correct path.  We love you Lord, we love you above all things, help our behavior to reflect that. Help us to put you above all things.  Help us overcome our temporary desire for pleasure here on earth so we can enjoy eternal happiness living in your presence.  Lord we want all the amazing things you have planned for those that love you.  Help us be counted among those that love you.  You are so amazing and we are so grateful that you still love us even when we mess up.  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 seeing you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Sprinkle Love Like Confetti

 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

I liked this verse when I read it for a couple of reasons.  The first reason was that it says “such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.”  I liked the phrasing of it.  The verse is saying that they have confidence toward God through Christ.  They are acknowledging that Christ is the reason the have confidence in God.  It is through Him that all things are possible.  I like this because it means that all the responsibility for trusting God is not on my shoulders.  If I ask, Christ will help me with my confidence towards God.

The next line says, “Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God.”  I like this because again, it takes some of the responsibility off of us to have to know how to do it all and to be good everything.  If God asks us to do something then He will give us all we need to do it.  This is sometimes hard to believe.  Imagine God asks you to build an orphanage in a foreign country.  One where you have never been before.  It is difficult to say yes to this when you have no idea how any of the pieces will come together.  Maybe you don’t even know how to build anything, and you are not a fan of travel.  Maybe you don’t have any money and you don’t have the first clue how to do fundraising.  It would be hard to step into this calling when you don’t have any answers.  And yet, some people do.  

God asked Noah to build an arc.  He asked him to build in arc in the middle of a drought.  Noah had no idea how to build an arc, he was a farmer.  Noah had never built an arc before.  I don’t think that Noah had all the supplies to build the arc before he said yes to the Lord.  God asked Noah to build an arc, with very specific dimensions and Noah said yes.  He said yes, not because he knew what he was doing, and not because he had all the answers.  He said yes because he loved God and God asked him to.  He said yes and relied on the Lord to give him what he would need to complete the project.  

I wish we all had this kind of trust in the Lord.  I wish that when God asked us to do something, we all just said yes.  We didn’t think about it, we didn’t weigh the pros and the cons, we didn’t worry about whether we were good enough or not.  I wish we just said yes.  If God wanted to erase everyone except Noah off the face of the earth then it seems like the world was in a pretty bad place.  The world is in a pretty bad place right now.  It seems as though you can be anything you want today except for Christian.  You have to be tolerant of everyone else’s beliefs, but no one has to be tolerant of the Christian beliefs.  Don’t get me wrong, I think that we should be tolerant of other people’s beliefs.  I just expect that same respect and it doesn’t seem to be happening these days.  I believe that God is calling us all to action.  I believe He wants us to spread the gospel, to live His word every day.  

This brings me to the next line in this verse, “our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant.” God made the apostles competent ministers of the new covenant.  He will do the same for us.  If we just say yes, he will equip us with the knowledge and power that we need to spread the good news.  If you are anything like me you shrink away from the responsibility to spread the good news.  You think to yourself, “Who am I to talk about God, what do I know?” or you say “There are others much better suited to talk about Jesus. Others that have studied harder or paid attention more.” There are any number of things we tell ourselves to convince us that God maybe calling some people, but He isn’t calling me.  I am not worthy to serve the Lord.  I am not good enough, smart enough, educated enough, or whatever your version of “not enough” is.  

This is the enemy talking!  He has convinced us that we aren’t enough and so God couldn’t possible use us.  All the proof you need to know this isn’t true can be found in the Bible.  God never used the most educated men, the most holy people, the people that got everything right.  He used normal, everyday people to be his instruments in the world and He wants to use you.  Do not believe the enemy that you are not enough.  Are you worthy?  No, none of us are worthy and yet God loves us and wants to use us anyway.  God made us in His likeness and image, so we can’t be all that bad.  

The last part of this verse is a really important part.  It is one that I find really interesting and want to dive deeper into.  I will just touch on it today to draw your attention to it and then if you want to dive deeper to understand it better you can do that.  The last part of this verse says, “who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  This talk of a new covenant is what I would like to dive deeper into.  The things I found regarding this particular scripture say that the letter of the law is the mosaic law.  Before Paul was converted he used to enforce the laws of the old covenant.  The reason this verse says that the letter kills is because it is impossible for us to follow all the laws on our own.  We are a sinful people and we can’t live a life without sin without the Holy Spirit.  When Paul teaches the new covenant he teaches those who trust in Jesus to live by the Holy Spirit.  

I think this is where many of us go wrong.  We want to help everyone find Jesus and we have noble intentions.  However, we go about it by preaching the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law.  Instead of starting out letting everyone know how much they are loved by our heavenly father, we tell them that they are living in sin if they live with someone they aren’t married too.  Instead of loving people right where they are at, and trusting the Holy Spirit to convict them of any wrong doing, we judge them and treat them according to how we feel they should be treated.  The Holy Spirit has really convicted me over the years that Jesus is love and that He wants me to be an example of that love to all that I meet.  I fall short and I don’t always do this, however, I never stop trying and I know that when I do fail, God forgives me and then he gives me the grace I need to do better next time.  

If we truly want to help people find their way to Jesus then we need to be a reflection of Jesus to all we meet.  When Jesus ate with the tax collectors and the prostitutes, he did not lecture them about what they were doing and how they needed to change.  He just loved them right where they were at and they saw a love and a peace in Him that they wanted.  Our words will not be the thing that changes people, our actions will.  It seems like people are starving for love and connection these days.  This may sound weird because with social media, it seems like everyone has so many more friends.  However, it is rare to get true connection with others online.  There is definitely a shortage of love these days.  Even with all these ways to communicate people are feeling more alone than ever.  What if we spread love around to everyone we meet?  I heard this saying and I love it.  I think if we all made it our goal for 2022, we would be better people at the end of the year and the world around us would be that much better.  I will leave you with this quote, “Sprinkle love like confetti.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I  ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to love you and to have confidence in you.  Lord, help us to say yes to whatever it is you are calling us to, even if we don’t understand how or why you are calling us to it.  Help us to say yes, even if we don’t have any of the answers we think we need.  Please give us the grace to trust You and rely on You for all we will need to carry out the mission you give us.  We want to be competent ministers of the new covenant.  Help us to lead by example and to teach the spirit of the law instead of focusing on the letter of the law.  We love you so much Lord, help us sprinkle that love like confetti to all those we come in contact with.  Thank you so much for all you do for us.  You are truly spectacular and we are so grateful.  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

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

You Need Only Be Still

Exodus 14:13-14 “Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

This is something that the Lord has been telling me a lot lately. “You need only to be still”  When I read this verse I knew it was a message that wan’t just for me, it was for all of us.  The beginning of the verse says something that God says a lot in the Bible.  “Do not be afraid.”  God is constantly telling us this in the Bible.  He tells us over and over again to not be afraid, to not worry.  Why is it so hard to listen to Him?  Why do we tend to worry about everything?  Why is it so hard to trust and to not be afraid?  I think that it is so hard to trust because we are used to people letting us down.

We live in a broken world and people say they will do things all the time and then they don’t.  We all make promises and then struggle to keep them.  People say one thing and mean another.  As much as we want to be perfect, we are far from it.  We are afraid to trust God because we forget that He is not like the other people in our lives.  We forget that He doesn’t let us down and that He always keeps His promises.  God does not tell us one thing and then do another.  When you read the Bible you can see exactly who God is.  He tells us who He is, what He wants and all the things He is willing to do for us.  So, why can’t we trust it?  Are we working on trusting more?  Are we trying to trust that He will do the things He says He will?  Are we trying to not be afraid, knowing He will save us?

The next part of the verse says, “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”  I know a lot of people that are waiting for this deliverance today.  Moses said this to the Israelites when they were standing on the banks of the Red Sea.  They were scared because they looked behind them and they could see the Egyptian army coming right for them.  Then they looked in front of them and they saw the red seas.  I would be scared too!  They were confused because Moses told them that God was leading them to a promised land. They trusted this was true and they left their homes.  Now it looked like they were facing certain death.  How could this be happening?  Then Moses said stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  

How do you stand firm when you are scared?  How do you stand firm when it looks like you are facing certain death?  I don’t blame the Israelites for being scared, I think I would have been scared too.  And yet, the Israelites had seen God do the impossible just before they left Egypt.  The Lord had brought plagues upon Egypt, but spared them.  They saw how Moses held up his hands and the plagues came and then he commanded them to stop and they did.  God killed all the first born sons in Egypt, but allowed them to mark their doors so that their first borns would be saved.  They had seen first hand the power of God and yet, they were still scared when they reached the Red Sea and couldn’t see a way out.  We might be tempted to judge them. I mean, they saw first hand God’s power, how come they didn’t trust He would save them?  They didn’t trust because they didn’t see the way.  We are people who believe and trust what we see and are skeptical if we can’t see it with our own eyes.  Sometimes even when we do see it with our own eyes, we don’t trust it.  We think it must be a trick, there must be some other explanation for it.  

In case you don’t know this story, God parted the Red Sea and the Israelites walked right through it on dry ground.  Then when the Egyptian army tried to do the same the water flowed again and they all died.  You would think after seeing this the Israelites would never again doubt the Lord.  And yet they do, time and time again.  I guess it is our human nature.  However, I think it is something that we should fight against.  I don’t think we should just accept it as a fact and not try to do anything about it.  Moses was able to trust all God said.  Well, there was one time when he didn’t and because of it wasn’t allowed to lead the people into the promised land.  However, for the most part he learned to trust in God.  If he can learn to trust in God then I believe we can too, but how?  How can we learn to trust in the Lord more?

I think the answer can be found in the last part of this verse.  “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  I think if we want to trust in the Lord more we need to be still and sit with Him.  There were two words of prophecy from my prayer group that seem to fit perfectly with this episode and seem to confirm this call for us to just be still.  In the first one the Lord said, “My children in the days ahead I ask that you simply be, be with me in silence.  Just be and let that silence fill you, around you because I am in that silence.”  Sometimes we can feel like we always need to be doing something.  We feel as though we need to be praying, or saying a rosary, or talking to God.  We don’t understand that He loves it when we just sit with Him, not doing anything, just sitting.  The Lord our God is in the silence.  When we are sitting with Him in silence He is all around us.

In the second word, that was given to my prayer group, the Lord said, “Be still my children.  Be still and breathe in my Holy Spirit.  The spirit of life, of goodness, of truth, of wisdom, of love and compassion.  Be still and breathe in the very breath of God.  I know that my gift to you, in my great mercy is life, life in me, with me, through me, because of me.”  “Breathe in the very breath of God.”  Wow, imagine if we thought of that every time we took a breath?  How much closer would we grow to God if we remembered that every time we were taking in a breath we were breathing in the very breath of God?  Again, in this word the Lord is telling us to be still.  I know He is not just talking to me.  We live in such a busy world.  If you think about it honestly, when was the last time you just sat in silence with the Lord?  I know for me this is so difficult.  We are used to a noisy and busy world.  

When I hear the Lord telling me to just be still with Him I get confused.  I want to obey the Lord and yet I wonder, be still and do what?  He tells me to just be still and do nothing.  Do nothing?  How do I do nothing?  It is definitely something that I have been working on and yet still struggle with a lot.  If we want to trust the Lord more then we need to do as He asks us to do.  We need to sit with Him in silence and to let that silence fill us up.  The Lord tells us to breathe in  His Holy Spirit.  The spirit of truth, wisdom, love and compassion.  Who doesn’t need more of all of that?  The Lord will give us all we need, and He all He is asking from us is that we sit still with Him and let Him fill us up.  Why is this so hard?  Can you commit to spending even just 5 minutes sitting in silence with the Lord today?  Will you sit in silence and breathe in the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this podcast today.  Lord, help us to stand firm and to not be afraid.  Help us to trust that you will deliver us from our situation, whatever that situation may be.  Lord, help us to sit still in the silence.  Calm our minds and help us to see that you are calling us to just be with you.  That we don’t have to do anything, you just want our time.  You offer us so much Lord, help us to accept all that you offer.  You have said that your gift to us is life you, with you, through you and because of you.  We want that gift Lord.  We want to live a life in you and with you.  Please help us Lord.  We love you, you are wonderful and I know we don’t tell you that enough.  We are so grateful for all that you do.  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

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Do Not Lose Heart

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

The beginning of this verse is something that is much easier said than done.  It is easy for us to tell others to not give up hope, don’t lose heart.  It is easy for us to tell them that the chronic pain they are having won’t last forever.  It’s easy to say the pain you are feeling over losing someone will fade one day.  It is easy for someone outside of the situation to tell you not to loose heart.  It is a much harder thing to actually do when you are the one in the middle of the hard thing.  It is very hard to not lose hope when you don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.  

What this verse is telling us is that even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  Have you been sick for a very long time?  Are you just waiting for the pain or the illness to go away?  I have a friend that only has one kidney.  Not because of anything she did, she just happened to be born with only one kidney.  She has been in a lot of pain over the past few years.  She had seen several different types of doctors and they could not fix the pain.  She finally found one that was able to help her.  She was pain free for quite a while and then she started to get a lot of UTI’s.  These were quite painful and they kept putting her on medicine that didn’t work well.  It would take her several trips back to the Emergency Room before someone would listen to her and fix her medication.

I can see how she could be losing hope.  It is not fun to always be sick.  When you are sick you feel weak and your defenses are down.  The enemy loves to take advantage of this.  He loves to tell you that you will always feel like this. That there is no end in sight and that means you will feel like this forever.  I can see why he does this.  This is what it feels like and this may even be what it looks like.  The devil is not idiot.  He does not make up lies out of thin air to tell us.  He takes what is true and bends it to fit his needs.  He can see that it would be easy for us to believe that things will stay like this forever, because that is what it looks and feels like.  It is not a leap to think this.  You were probably already wondering and he is just confirming it for you.  

However, this is not the case.  This verse says that this momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.  I don’t know if that helps you at all, but it helps me realize that this suffering I am going through right now is preparing me for an eternal weight of glory.  That is pretty awesome.  Sign me up for eternal glory beyond all measure.  You are not suffering in vain. The Lord sees your suffering and will reward you greatly in Heaven.  The verse also says, “we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

This is telling us that we are looking at the wrong things.  We are looking at what we can see instead of relying on what we know.  We see our body staying sick, or wasting away, but we don’t look and see how much stronger we are getting on the inside.  We can’t see our faith growing and our trust growing. We also can’t see how much more resilient we are getting.  What we can see is temporary and what cannot be seen is eternal.  What if we focused on the eternal?  What if we were able to concentrate on the fact that this life is temporary and that our eternal life is going to be so much better?

The Lord does not want us to lose hope.  He wants us to keep fighting through the pain, through the depression, through the illness that seems like it won’t quit.  Some of my friends have had one bad thing after another for months now.  It seems like it is never ending and they are wondering when it is going to end.  When will it be their time to enjoy some calm seas?  When will they feel better? When will their loved ones get better?  When will these attacks from the enemy telling them they are not good enough stop?  I don’t have an answer for them.  I don’t know when it will stop or when things will get better.  I do know that God doesn’t want them to lose hope.  I know that He is there with them through it all.  

I wonder if it is helpful to think of this time as a training time?  I know it is a really difficult time and I also know that sometimes when I am going through a really hard time, a perspective shift can be enough to help me turn things around and stop feeling so badly.  I know chronic pain is not an easy thing to experience.  I wonder if thinking about that pain as training for eternal glory would be helpful?  Would it be helpful if you thought about your suffering as a necessary thing to go through to gain eternal glory?  Eternal glory beyond all measure is your reward for suffering here on earth.  Does knowing that make the suffering easier?  I can’t answer that for you.  Only you know what is helpful and not helpful.  I just wanted to explain what this verse was saying to the best of my ability and to pose some questions to see if thinking about your situation in a different way would help change your perspective.

Our perspective is everything sometimes.  We always have a choice how we look at a situation and if we choose the wrong way then we will not be helping ourselves out.  We do ourselves a disservice when we look at our lives negatively.  When we judge everything that we are going through in a negative light.  If we are able to change this, and try to see the positive side of every situation then we will live much happier lives.  Not because everything is all of the sudden sunshine and rainbows in our life,  but because we are choosing to shine a light into the darkness and brighten things up a bit.  I know this is not always easy and it does take some work, sometimes some hard work.  However, it is so worth it in the end.  Wouldn’t it be worth the hard work of changing our thoughts if it could change how we feel in any given situation?  It costs you nothing to change your thoughts.  It is something you can do even if you can’t change your circumstances and when you do you will feel like everything has changed.  

If you are not sure how to change your thoughts, the simplest and easiest way I can think of right now is to start being more grateful.  Try to come up with three to five things every single day that you are grateful for.  You may not feel any different the first few times you do it, but I promise, if you keep at it you will see a change.  I would suggest writing them down in a notebook so that you can look at them as often as you want and remind yourself of all the things you have to be grateful for.  However, you could always just say them out loud also.  Just take a minute or two and write down or say out loud things like, “Thank you God for allowing me to wake up today.”  “Thank you for my family.”  “Thank you for this wonderful cup of coffee.”  “Thank you for the sunrise.”  Whatever it is that you can be thankful for is great.  The more grateful you can be the better you will feel.  I have know lots of people that have tried this and they have all reported feeling better.  Give it a try, what have you got to lose?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us when we are struggling.  Help us to focus on what is eternal instead of what is of this world.  Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you and the eternal glory beyond measure that you have waiting for us.  Lord, we ask that you put on our hearts to be more grateful, especially in times when it is difficult because we aren’t grateful for the circumstances we find ourselves in.  Even if we can’t be grateful for our current circumstances, help us to find something throughout our day that we can be grateful for.  We love you Lord, you are amazing! 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 wanted to invite all of you listening to get to know the Holy Spirit a little more and how to live in the Holy Spirit.  My prayer group is holding a free Life in the Spirit Seminar starting tonight at 7:00 pm EST.  It will be from 7-8:30 EST every Tuesday night for the next 7 weeks.  It is a great way to learn about the Holy Spirit and to even be baptized in the Holy Spirit on week 5.  If you feel like this is something you would like to check out send me an email at [email protected] and I will send you the zoom link.  Oh, I forgot to mention that it is virtual.  I hope you can join us.  It is a life changing experience.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Take Away The Stone

John 11:38-44 “Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.  “Take away the stone,” he said.  “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”  Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”  So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”  When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.  Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

I am not sure how many of you listening to this know the story of Lazarus so I want to fill you in case you are not familiar with this story.  Jesus is friends with this family.  He has stayed at Mary & Martha’s house before when He has come through town.  Mary and Martha are the two sisters and Lazarus is their brother.  Jesus loves all of them.  They are His friends.  When Lazarus first got sick Jesus was out of town and Mary sent Him a note saying that Lazarus was sick and would die if Jesus did not come. Jesus replied in John 11:4-7 “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

That verse did not make a lot of sense to me when I first read it.  Especially when it says, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”  I would think if He loved them He would have left immediately to go and save Lazarus.    Also, Jesus says that this sickness will not end in death.  Yet, when Jesus arrives back in Judea Lazarus is dead.  He had been dead for four days by the time Jesus got there.  How could Jesus say the sickness would not end in death, when Lazarus died?  

Jesus could say that because death was not the end for Lazarus.  Yes, he died and was even placed in a tomb, and then four days later Jesus came.  This is where the verse for today picks up.  It says that Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.  Jesus felt for Martha and Mary.  He was sad with them.  It even says that Jesus wept.  He knew the ending and He still wept with them.  He could feel their pain.  Once Jesus got to the tomb He told them to take the stone away.  Then, Martha tells Jesus to be careful because after four days, Lazarus will not be smelling too great. Then Jesus says to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?  Here Martha is, she just told Jesus a few minutes ago that even though Jesus wasn’t there to save Lazarus, the Lord would do whatever Jesus asked.  She was basically telling Jesus she believed he could do anything.  Then, a few minutes later, outside the tomb she starts to doubt.  

Isn’t that just like us?  We believe and then when it comes time to see our faith in action we doubt. We wonder if it will really work, if it will really happen.  So Jesus reminds her to believe and she will see the glory of God.  This is what Jesus meant in the earlier verse when he said, “No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s son may be glorified through it.”  If Jesus would have gone back and saved Lazarus before he died, would God have gotten all the Glory?  He may have gotten the glory, but then He might not have.  People might have said Lazarus got better because of the medicine, or because of the doctor, or some other reason.  However, with Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb, there is not mistaking who deserves the glory in this instance.  There is no misunderstanding or claims of coincidence.  Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead.  There is no disputing that it was witnessed by many.  

I forgot to talk about one very important part of this verse.  Right before Jesus calls Lazarus to come out of the tomb “Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”Before Jesus asked the Lord for anything He thanked Him.  He didn’t wait until He saw Lazarus alive to thank the Lord.  Jesus thanked Him before He even called for Lazarus to come out of the tomb.  This is something that we get wrong a lot.  We ask the Lord for a lot of things and we wait until we get them and then if we remember, we thank Him.  Why is this?  Why do we wait until we have it before we thank Him?  Why do we so often forget to thank him?  Wouldn’t it be great if we could ask for things with the confidence that He was going to answer our prayers and then thank Him for answering them?  We can ask the Lord in confidence as He does always answer our prayers, just not always in the way we want Him too.  Isn’t it good to get into the habit of thanking Him even if we didn’t get the answer that we wanted? Have you ever gotten a present for Christmas or your birthday and it wasn’t what you asked for?  Did you still say thank you to the person who gave it to you?  Then why aren’t we saying thank you to God.  

In this verse Jesus says right after He thanks God that He knows God always hears him, but that He wanted all of those around Him to know that God sent Him.  Isn’t it crazy how we have to see and hear with our own eyes to believe?  Even though Jesus was about to bring Lazarus back from the dead, he knew if He wanted others to believe that God had sent Him then He needed to make sure people heard Him ask God and then Thank Him for answering His prayers.  He wanted to make sure people knew that it wasn’t His own power but that God had given Him the power to raise Lazarus.  

This is something that we need to all remember.  God is still doing miracles every single day.  He is still healing people and I have even heard of at least one case where someone was brought back to life just as Lazarus was.  When we witness these things we sometimes want to praise the person that seemed to create the miracle.  However, it was not through their own power that the person was healed.  It was through the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, and God all in one.  We can’t heal people, only God can do that.  What we can do is agree to be His hands and feet here on earth.  We can say “Yes, Lord, use me.”  We can ask the Lord to use us to help him in any way He needs us too.  However, I caution you to not take those words lightly.  If you ask the Lord to use you, He will.  If you say yes, He will gladly accept the help.  Just make sure you are ready to help as you never know what He will call you to do.  He called Moses to talk to all the Israelites when Moses wasn’t a good public speaker.  He called David to kill a giant when he was just a boy.  Think about it and if you decide you are ready then say yes to the Lord, ask Him to use you.  He may give you tasks that are outside of your comfort zone, but He will never ask you to do something and then not give you all that you need to do it.  I heard a saying at a retreat once and it has given me a lot more courage to say yes to the Lord.  We were told at the retreat that “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.”  What this means is that if God calls you to something He will give you all you need to answer that call.  All He requires of you is to say yes.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to believe even when we doubt.  Help us to thank you for all that we ask for, and help us to do it right when we ask instead of waiting until we get what we want.  Help us remember to thank you and not to forget.  Lord, when we see amazing things happening here on earth help us to remember to give you all the glory.  Lord, search our hearts and inspire those of us that are ready to say, Yes Lord, use me.  I am yours for whatever you need.  Help me be part of your army.  Let me help spread the good news to all those I meet.   Let us be your hands and feet Lord.  We love you!  You are so amazing 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

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Being Content With What I Have

Philippians 4:11-13 “Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all learned this invaluable lesson?  Paul said that he has learned to be content with whatever he has.  If we could all learn this there would be so much less fighting in the world today.  It seems like a lot of fighting begins when someone has something and someone else wants it.  It can be a material thing, like oil, food, water, or it can be something else like power, fame, or good fortune.  When we see others with these we have a tendency to get jealous and to want what others have.  Some people feel as though they deserve to take what others have and so they try to take what they want.  

Can you imagine a world in which we are all content with what we have?  I think it is hard in this country because we have access to so much and the American dream seems to be wanting more and more.  Climbing that ladder of success no matter what it means for you personally or to your relationships.  It seems that there are few people in this country that are content with what they have.  I think social media makes it even harder to be content with what you have because everyone is always posting photos about their new car, or their  vacation, or their house, or whatever exciting new thing just happened to them.  Back in the day, if your neighbor got a new car you would see it outside their house, but you wouldn’t be reading about it online.  You probably wouldn’t see everyone’s photos of their vacations all the time.  It would just be if you happened to be at their house when they got their film developed.  

However, with digital cameras and phones in everyone’s hands all the time, we tend to document our lives and live more publicly than we used to.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as I am very happy that I get to keep in touch with my friends from all over the world.  I like that I can spend 30 minutes on social media and catch up on most major events in my friends lives.  As opposed to having to email, snail mail, or call all of them.  Technology has been a life saver in many instances.  Especially when we couldn’t leave our houses.  My family had many zoom calls during that time and it was great to be able to see everyone's faces.

As much as technology can be a life saver it can also be a major source of envy for many people.  It can be hard when you are going through a particularly hard season of parenting and all you see on social media are these posts that make it seem like everyone else seems to be superstar parents.  Maybe you have been struggling with health and yet everyone you look at online seems to be so healthy and it appears to come so naturally to them.  Maybe you just lost your job.  I know this is a very real possibility for many people these days with all that is going on.  It is hard if you lost your job not to be jealous of those that have jobs and are posting about their jobs.  

One way you can tell that people are not content with what they have is when you hear them complaining all the time.  When you are content with what you have you don’t do a lot of complaining.  You are happy with the way things are and you are grateful for what you do have.  The definition of being content is being in a state of peaceful happiness.  This does not mean that you never strive for more, but it does mean that you are happy with what you have at the moment.  One thing we can do that could help us be more content is to focus on the things we do have instead of the things we don’t have.  It can be easy to get stuck in a rut thinking about all the things that we want and yet don’t have yet.  However, if we shifted that focus to thinking about all the things that God has blessed us with then we would be much more content.  We may even be grateful.  I think being grateful is one of the keys to being content.  

You may be complaining about something that you have at the same time that someone else is begging God to have that thing. For instance, you may be complaining because your hair is too thick, too think, too long or too short all the while someone who is going through chemo therapy is praying for God to give them hair again.  You may be complaining because your car is older than you would like and someone else is praying for a car so that they can get to work.  You may be complaining because your spouse or your children are driving you crazy.  Meanwhile, there are so many out there that are still struggling to find a spouse or to have children.  When we think about what we have in this manner it makes it much easier to be content with what we have.  

I have heard stories of people from other countries that have far less available to them than we do and yet they are completely content and grateful for all that they do have.  I have heard of people going on mission trips to other countries and they bring candy for the children.  It is not a lot of candy, but they said the children are so excited just for one piece of candy.  I have also heard that they bring pens and paper and the children are so excited.  I don’t think my children would be excited if I gave them a pen and paper.  These are things we take for granted.  Think about how much time and anguish we would save ourselves if we could be content with what the good Lord has given us.  If we could view everything we have as a gift from the Lord.  

In this verse St. Paul says, “In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  What is this secret that St. Paul found?  He found that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him.  When we rely on the Lord He will give us the strength we need to get through any circumstance.  Whether we are hungry or not, whether we have all we think we need, or not.  When Jesus Christ is by our side, we will be strengthened to face the circumstances, no matter what they might be.  St. Paul knew this, and he is sharing it with all of us.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to be like St. Paul and to be content with what we have.  Help us to not be envious of what others have.  Help us to appreciate and be grateful for the things you have given us.  If we strive for more let us do so with a gracious and humble heart.  Let us not complain but instead shift our focus to gratitude.  We are grateful Lord, help us to show you.  We love you Lord, you are awesome 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 again on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

The God of Hope

Romans 15:13 “ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The God of hope, what a great way to refer to the Lord.  He is the God of hope.  All hope can be found in Him.  I like the thought of God filling me with joy and peace as I trust in Him, don’t you?  I feel as though that would be reassurance that we were doing the right thing.  Actually now that I just said that I can see how this is the case.  When we are trusting in the Lord, we are filled with peace and joy.  Can you think of a time when you had a decision to make and you felt completely at peace with it?   Can you think of a time when you were so happy and filled with complete joy?  Think about these circumstances.  Can you see how you were trusting the Lord in them?

The second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021 were really tough on our family.  Actually they were tough on most families as we were in the middle of a pandemic, and we were stuck in our houses for a lot of it.  It was not an easy time for anyone.  However, on top of all of this we had a lot of other things going on that made it even more difficult.  Probably some of the hardest parenting issues we will ever have to face, and we have faced a lot of parenting issues.  Although it was a really difficult time, I was filled with joy and peace for much of that difficult time because I was trusting that the Lord knew what was best.  We were encountering situation after situation that we had never encountered before.  We didn’t know what to do or how to handle most of it.  What do you do when you are in a situation and you don’t know what to do?  You turn to the Lord.  I spent a lot of time in prayer.  I asked the Lord at every turn which way He wanted me to go.  I relied on Him to get us through it.  I am not saying this to boast at how great I am for turning to the Lord.  I turned to Him because I did not know what else to do.  This is usually why we turn to the Lord.  When we have tried all we can think of on our own and nothing worked.  

However, I would love to change this.  I would love to turn to God first in every circumstance, not just when I feel stuck and don’t know what to do. This is what the Lord wants too.  He is always there for us and He is happy when we turn to Him in times of trouble.  However, I am sure He would also love it if we turned to Him in our every day decision making.  Or, what about when you do know what you want to do?  What about stopping to ask God what He thinks about you taking that job you want or buying that car you want.  You may already know what you want to do, but what if we stopped to run it by the Lord and see if He thinks it’s a good idea?  Sometimes our decisions can be clouded by superficial things or we have the wrong motivation driving our decision making and we don’t realize it until it is too late.  Invite the Lord into all your decisions.  Wouldn’t it be great to feel that peace and joy of trusting the Lord all the time?

This verse ends with, “so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  I don’t know anyone that would turn down the chance to be overflowing with hope.   This verse also tells us where hope come from, the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we want to have more hope, we just have to ask for it. Jesus tells His disciples in John 16:23-24 “ On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”  If we want to have more hope in our lives all we need to do is ask the Lord for it and we will receive it by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we ask that you fill us all with joy and peace as we trust in you.  We all want to overflow with hope, please show us how.  Please fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit.  Please help those that have given up on hope, or have forgotten how to hope.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  You give us so much to hope for.  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

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

God Lights Up My Darkness

Psalm 18:28 “It is you who light my lamp; the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.”

This is one of the verses that is great to copy down somewhere and look at it often.  This is a great verse to refer to when you are in times of trouble or when you are confused as to what you should do.  It is a short verse, so it is one that could easily memorized.  Whenever we are struggling or feeling like we need some direction, Scripture is a great place to turn to.  There are so many answers and so many reassurances that can be found in the Bible.  The problem can sometimes be that we don’t know where to find those answers.  This is why it is a good idea when we hear a verse that we think can provide us comfort, we write it down somewhere we can easily find it again when we need it.  

This verse talks about how God lights our lamp.  He lights up our darkness.  You are not an exception to this.  Are you currently go through a dark time in your life?  Are you struggling with something and wondering if you will ever get through it?  I have a friend that has been sick with Covid for over 2 months.  She is finally feeling better during the day, but really can’t breathe well at night.  When she goes to take a deep breathe she can’t and then she starts to get anxious that she won’t get enough air in her lungs.  I have another friend who has had a sick member of her family since Thanksgiving.  Every time one of them gets better another one gets sick.  It seems like it is never ending.  Do you know someone going through a similar darkness?  

I hope this verse can bring them and you a lot of comfort.  They are not in this darkness alone and neither are you.  The Lord is with you.  He is always with you.  There is never a time when you are going through anything alone.  God is with you each and every step of the way.  He will never abandon you.  Sometimes when we are in the darkness it is hard to see the light.  I am sure when my friend is up late at night and she can’t breathe she is feeling alone in the darkness.  I am sure my other friend is wondering why everyone in her house keeps getting sick and if it will ever end.  Yes, it will end.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel and that light is our Lord.

The Lord is our light.  When you are in a period of darkness or when you are unsure what to do, turn to the Lord and He will light the way.  Sometimes He will shine a bright light and provide some sort of solution that renews your hope and brightens your whole day.  Other times He may just shine a flashlight.  He may not illuminate the whole way forward.  He might just give you the next right step and then He doesn’t illuminate the next step until you take that first one.  This can be frustrating.  We often times want to know the whole plan before we take any steps forward.  Moving forward on our journey one step at a time takes a lot of faith.  Where is the path leading us?  What if we start down it and then we don’t like where we are going?  We hesitate to take that first step because we are afraid.

The Lord has our best interests at heart.  He would not lead us down the wrong path.  He has amazing things planned for each one of us but we have to be brave enough to keep taking the next right step, even when we can’t see where our steps are leading.  Even if we feel like we are walking in the dark.  The Lord is our light.  Do you know where all of our fear and questioning comes from?  The enemy!  He puts these questions in our heard because he is afraid of what would happen if we all followed the Lord’s light.  Can you imagine if everyone on earth was following the Lord and living up to the potential that God gave them?  Imagine what an amazing world this would be to live in if we all just did the next right thing.

The enemy has imagined that and it didn’t make him happy.  He loves when we are at odds with one another.  I am sure he and the rest of his evil spirits have been celebrating a lot over these last few years at least.  The way we have been treating our fellow Americans over the last few years is crazy.  I am sure it is not just the last few years, I know racism has been a problem since the creation of the country.  However, these last few years everything seems to have spiked.  The country is so divided on so many issues.  It reminds me of Luke 12:52-53 which says, " From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  

Why are we so at odds with one another?  Because the enemy wants us to be.  He is a liar and a trouble maker.  He whispers things in our ears all the time.  Our loved one can say something to us that is not a big deal and yet we can blow it up into a huge thing all because the enemy is telling us we shouldn’t let them get away with saying that, or he keeps reminding us of it over and over again. He may point out annoying things about those around us just to keep us arguing.  He points out the differences between us and everyone else, instead of showing us how we are alike.  The enemy is awful and we can’t let him into our minds.  It says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

This verse is showing us how to live in the light that God is providing us.  It is reminding us that we are not really fighting ourselves, we are fighting the enemy and all of his evil spirits.  The verse is also reassuring though because it says that our powers are also not merely human, but they have the power to destroy strongholds.  Does the enemy have any strongholds on you?  Is there something he has been telling you for a long time that you keep believing.  Or maybe it is an illness or an addiction and the enemy keeps feeding you all kinds of lies about how it is never going to go away.  He may be telling you God can’t take it from you or God won’t take it from you.  The enemy may be telling you that you have always been like this so you will always be like this.  Don’t believe him, the enemy is a liar.

This verse tells us how to defeat the enemy.  It says, “we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”  Take your thoughts captive.  Right now the enemy has hijacked a lot of our thoughts and is feeding us misinformation.  He is taking some kernel of truth and twisting it to fit his purpose of dividing all of us and turning us against each other and convincing us that the Lord doesn’t love us.  We need to stop listening to him, take captive our thoughts and remember that my God lights up my darkness.  It is the Lord that lights my lamp.  God will light your path and show you which way to go.  He will help you make your decisions if you ask Him.  This is where a lot of us go wrong.  We forget to stop and ask the Lord what He thinks we should do.  I am not a betting person, but if I was I would bet you that if you stopped and asked the Lord what you should do before you made any big decisions, you would see Him in your life so much more.  He is right there, waiting for an invitation to lead you to the life you have always been waiting for.  Are you ready to invite Him in?  Are you ready to trust Him, even if you can only see the next right step and you don’t know the final destination? Are you ready to finally step into the light?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to follow you, wherever you are leading us.  Help us to invite you into our decisions Lord.  Actually Lord, let’s invite you in right now.  Lord, we invite you into our decisions and we ask you to guide us in all future decisions we need to make.  Let us know what you want us to do and then give us the strength to do what is right even if it is hard and even if that is not what we want to do.  Lord, light our way and shine a light so brightly that we can’t do anything else except follow it.  You are so wonderful and you always save us even when we do the wrong thing.  We are so grateful for all the times you shined a light through the darkness.  We wouldn’t have gotten through it without that light.  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 again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace