Walk Boldly With Jesus

Don’t Worry, I Will Explain It

1 John 3:8 “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

I read this verse and thought, “Nope, I don’t want to go there.”  Actually, I read this verse and then read the next two verses after it.  1 John 3:8-10 says, “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.  Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.” Ok, after hearing all that do you see why I didn’t want to touch this verse?  

First of all, I didn’t really understand it.  If I sin I am a child of the devil?  What does that even mean?  We all sin, don’t we?  Then it says Those born of God do not sin.  But wait, I am born of God and yet I do sin?  It is definitely confusing and not something I felt qualified to talk about. Secondly, I didn’t want someone to hear this verse , or read it in the transcript and then think they weren’t a child of God because they sin.  Because let's all be honest, we all sin.  So, I was happy to skip this one and go on to find another verse.  I felt the Holy Spirit stop me and ask, what does this verse mean?  What if someone already read it and didn’t stop to ask what it means?  What if someone is walking around thinking they are no longer my child just because they sin?

I am always humbled when the Holy Spirit reminds me of the purpose for this podcast.  It is not to talk about all the things I understand.  It is not to talk about things I really love talking about.  It is to help myself and you, all those listening, to understand scripture a little better.  My purpose is to help you walk a boldy with Jesus one verse at a time.  The only way to do this is to take difficult scriptures, ones I don’t understand and figure them out, examine them, research them, and then share that with you.  I may not alway get it right, but I do try my best and I ask the Holy Spirit to take care of the rest.  

I am sure I will keep needing to be reminded to stop and examine a verse if I don’t understand it because the enemy loves to try and stop me by telling me I am not qualified to talk about the scripture.  He tells me I don’t know what I am doing and so I can’t help others.  Do you see how he takes a kernel of truth and twists it?  He is right, I am not qualified and I don’t always know what the scriptures mean.  However, the way he twists it is because I am not sharing just my thoughts on it. I am researching and looking to those that do know the answers.  I am taking the time to explore the meaning and then sharing what I learned from those that are qualified so that you don’t have to take that time.   If something I say is confusing, or you still don’t understand the verse, I urge you to reach out and let me know.  I would be happy to explore it in more detail with you.  Or you can explore it on your own as well.  I just type “What is the meaning of 1 John 3:8” or whatever verse I am looking at in the search bar on the internet and usually a list of articles come up.  Whatever it is in the Bible we are trying to understand, there are probably plenty of other people that have come before us that have asked the same question.  Look for the answers they found.  I will put the links to two of the articles I read in the show notes in case you want to read the full articles.

Now that I explained all that, what did I discover?  What does this confusing verse mean?  From what I found, I understand it to mean that when we are sinning we are a child of Satan, meaning he is influencing those behaviors.  When we are following God’s ways, God is influencing those behaviors.  I feel the Holy Spirit just gave me an analogy that made me smile.  It is one that if you have kids you have probably said it and even if you don’t you probably heard your parents say it.  When our kids are not behaving I tell Tony they are his kids and when they are behaving I say they are my kids.  Of course they are all both of our kids all the time.  However, when I say that I am implying that his DNA is what is influencing the kids misbehavior and my DNA is influencing their good behavior.  It made me smile when this thought came to me because I could just picture God up in heaven shaking his head, looking at Satan and saying, nope, they are your kids today.  I know He doesn’t do this, but it made me smile remember all the times, Tony and I went back and forth, nope, these are your kids.  

One thing everything I read agreed on is that this verse is not determining your salvation.  This verse is not saying because you sin you are a child of Satan and you are going to Hell.  That is not the case.  It is not saying if you want to go to heaven you can’t sin.  It is not talking about your salvation in any way.  We are all born with a sinful nature.  Ever since sin enter the world, it has plagued us.  Sin entered the world because of Satan.  He brought it here and when we sin it is because of His influence.  It is because we are allowing his influence to shape our behaviors.  We are cooperating with him.  However, the ending of this verse says, “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”  This means that although we were born with original sin and a sinful nature, Jesus was sent to destroy that.  If you have been baptized you are received the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Even though we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us we also have Satan trying to influence our behaviors, trying to get us to go against what God says.  One example I found in one of the articles talked about Matthew 16:23 when Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!” He was revealing the source of Peter's rebuke of Christ by which Peter demonstrated that he was representing Satan's purpose, not God’s.

I pray this explanations clears up some of the confusion surrounding this verse.  The verse is not saying you will go to hell if you sin.  It is not saying you belong to Satan if you sin.  It is saying that while you are sinning you are under the influence of Satan.  It is a good reminder as sometimes we can write off little sins.  We can say, that wasn’t so bad.  We can question, is that really a sin, does it really matter.  I think when we read this verse, it can speak to those situations.  If you are sinning you are cooperating with the enemy.  Does it matter if it is a little cooperation or a lot of cooperation, let me ask you this question.  If one of your loved ones was being influenced by someone who was sent here to steal, kill and destroy, would it matter to you that they were only being influenced a little?  God cares deeply about even our smallest decisions.  Instead of being offended by this verse, let’s take it as a warning to try harder not to be influenced by the devil.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this episode today.  Lord we want to follow your ways, please help us.  We want to only be influenced by you.  Please help shield us from the influence of the enemy.  Please help us put on your armor Lord.  Lord, I ask you to help each one of us understand what this verse is saying and I ask that if we don’t understand it you will inspire us to go deeper.  Lord, we want to understand your Word.  We thank you for your word and thank you for giving it to us.  You are truly remarkable.  We love you Lord and 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 meeting you here again tomorrow.  I just want to remind all of you, if you haven’t gotten a chance to check out my book yet, I invite you to do so.  Or if you have checked it out I invite you to leave a review on Amazon or suggest it to a friend.  If you didn’t know I wrote a book, you can find it on Amazon.  It is called Total Trust, in God’s Safe Embrace. Thank you for all of you that have already purchased it I truly appreciate it!  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

Q. Does 1 John 3:9 Teach that Christians Must Be Sinless?

Can a Christian Be of the Devil? - 1 John 3:8, 10 (GraceNotes - no. 60) by Dr. Charlie Bing

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Mutual Affection

Romans 12:9-10 “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;  love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”

This was not the verse I thought I would be using today. I was planning on using the next two verses in this chapter. However, when I clicked on the whole chapter and read these two verses, the last part jumped out at me. Has that ever happened to you? When you are reading a verse, it just jumps off the page or sticks in your head. Honestly, it doesn’t happen that often to me. This is how I knew the Lord was trying to talk to me about this specific verse today.

What stood out to me was where it says, “Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.” I think this part jumped out at me because I have been really thinking a lot about how Tony and I interact, especially when other people are around. I have been noticing lately that he has changed. It used to be that the two of us were pretty sarcastic towards each other and would kinda give each other a hard time. We argued all the time. Sometimes, I think we argued just to argue because it was rarely over something important.

I used to think that those who spent time with us must have wondered how long we would stay together. We love each other; I guess we just liked to argue, too. Anyway, lately, in the last several years, I have noticed that we don’t argue as much over silly things. I have also noticed that Tony has changed the way he talks about me to others as well. For the most part, when he talks about me to others, he is very kind and loving. I noticed when I went out with Tony and the people from his work a month or so ago I was still very sarcastic, and it did not come out very lovingly.  

The reason I am telling you all of this is because I doubt I am the only person who could speak nicer to my spouse or loved one. Maybe for you, it is not your spouse. Maybe you need to work on how you speak to your parents, your siblings, your co-workers, your children, or whoever it is in your life that you spend a lot of time with. The Lord has been putting this on my heart a lot lately, so I wanted to share it with you as well if you are struggling with this.

Let’s look at this verse and see what the Lord is telling us. It begins, “Let love be genuine.” This is harder than it may seem. In order to let love be genuine, we have to be our true selves. This means not hiding behind any facade that we may have put up to protect ourselves. This means being the real you with those you love, including God. Why do we try to hide things from the Lord? He already knows everything about us and loves us anyway. People can’t genuinely love us if they don’t truly know us. Genuine love also means that we are honest and truthful.

The verse goes on to say, “Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.” This can be really hard. The world teaches us to love sin. It teaches us that what we want is good and that we can have all that we want, even if it is not according to what God wants. The Bible tells us differently. the Lord says to “hate what is evil.” Do we do this? Do we hate sin? Do we hate the things that the Lord says are wrong, or do we just accept them as good because the world tells us that they are good?

The verse says to hold fast to what is good. What is good? God is good. The things He tells us are good. Loving the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, and soul is good. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is good. There is a lot of good in the world; we just need to look for it. We need not be seduced by the evil in the world, and we need to look past it to see all of the good.

Next it says, “ love one another with mutual affection.”Are we doing this? I know I talked about this one a bit earlier. I also want to say that this is not just talking about your spouse. God wants us to love everyone with mutual affection. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Are we doing that? Are we loving our neighbor as we love ourselves?

I think this commandment gets overlooked a lot. We love God, but we struggle to love Him with our whole hearts, minds, and souls. We also have to love our neighbor, but there are a lot of not nice people out there. How can God expect us to love them? Surely God doesn’t mean I have to love my co-worker who is always throwing me under the bus? Surely, God doesn’t mean I have to love my neighbor who is always stealing my paper and talking about me behind my back. Guess what? It says in Matthew 5:44, “ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” So, yes, God wants us to love everyone, even those we would consider our enemies. Can we love those we meet in life with mutual affection? Can we at least work on it? I am sure we all know a few people in our lives that we struggle to love. God is not asking for perfection. He is asking for progress. Can we at least try to be nicer to them even if we aren’t quite ready to love them yet?

The very last part of this verse says, “outdo one another in showing honor.” This is part of what struck me that I don’t think I talked about earlier. What if we made it our goal to outdo one another in showing honor? What does this mean? What if we pointed out what people were doing that was right instead of all they were doing that was wrong? What if I stopped being sarcastic with Tony, especially in public, and instead talked about all the amazing things he does at home for the kids and me or at work for his employees? I give Tony a hard time but I know how lucky I am to have him. He does all of the outside lawn work, which I hate to do. He fixes our cars, not just the little things like changing oil, but he can fix pretty much anything on the cars. He works very hard to provide for this family. What if I honored him with my speech each time I talked about him?

How are you? Who do you struggle to honor? What if we started honoring our friends and family? What if we started pointing out all they are doing right instead of what they are doing wrong? What if we told them how much we love them and how proud we are of them? You would be surprised how powerful those words are, “I am so proud of you.” Those words can go a long way in honoring someone. My challenge to you today is to begin to be more aware of your speech. Begin to ask yourself if your love is genuine. Ask yourself if you hate what is evil and hold fast to what is good. Ask yourself if you have a mutual affection for others and if you are outdoing others in showing honor. It would be great if we all spent some time pondering that today. I think for most of us the answers would be no, we aren’t doing the best we can at this. If this is the case, ask yourself, “What is one thing I can do differently today to honor someone better, or to love in a more genuine way?” How can I honor those I love better today? If we start at home we can move on to our enemies once we have mastered loving our loved ones better! Mother Theresa said, “Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all of those listening today. Lord, show us how to love others. Show us how to honor others. Show us where in our life we are falling short with this. Show us where in our lives we are not hating evil and loving what is good. Lord, this world has us all mixed up. It tells us what is bad is really good, and it can be hard to know what to believe. Help us turn to you. Help us listen only to your voice, Lord. Help your voice be louder than all the others. We love you Lord, you are amazing. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I know the world might seem like a scary place right now. This is why I decided the theme for mentoring this month would be “Be Not Afraid.” I invite you all to join me next Tuesday for the week #2 of this series. The recording of Week #1 is on my Facebook page. If you want to watch it to see what mentoring is all about, feel free to reach out and I will email you the link to watch week #1 ahead of time. If you want more information on mentoring, please click on the link below or go to my website walkboldlywithJesus.com and click on the mentoring tab. I look forward to seeing you again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I got the impression that we are each in our way a blessing. And there's certain things that he wants to use each one of us to bless others. But if we stay in our own little cocoon and we don't do anything, other people will not receive this blessing that God has given each one of us.”

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The Fruits of the Spirit

Colossians 1:9-10 “For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.”

I was at a conference this weekend on Saturday, and the speaker, Walter Matthews, talked about this verse. He started with verse 10, “So that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.” I like this verse as it talks about bearing fruit in every good work as you grow in the knowledge of God.  However, I thought verse 9 was important as it says that they were praying they would all be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  I think this is the key to the verse 10.  If we don’t have wisdom and knowledge, then I believe we will struggle to bear fruit with our work.  

Do you know what it means to bear fruit in your life or in your work?  I am fairly new to this concept, so in case anyone else listening is like me, I will explain.  Bearing fruit is another way to look at the outcome of the things you are doing.  Are they good vs. bad?  Are you getting good results at work?  Do you feel good, do others around you feel good after interacting with you? What about at home?  Are you happy with who you are at home? Are others happy with who you are at home? Is your home and your family growing in a positive way? These would all be good fruits.

When we want to judge if something is truly from the Holy Spirit, we look for the fruits of the Spirit in our work. There are nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. My mom actually got me a box set of books that talked about each of these fruits of the Spirit. It was cool to read about them each in more depth. One day when I was talking to my spiritual director, actually the first day with this spiritual director, he said something that helped me realize I could use these fruits as a gauge to see how I was doing in life.  I can’t remember what he even said, and yet I remember a lightbulb went off in my head.

I am constantly wondering if what I am doing is pleasing the Lord. Am I getting this thing called life, right?  Am I hearing what He is saying to me, and am I doing the things He is asking me to do?  These are questions we should all ask ourselves from time to time.  I tend to ask myself this often. After speaking with my spiritual advisor, I realized I could look at my life and see where the fruits of the Holy Spirit are showing up.  For instance, where in my life can I see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? If I am seeing the fruits of the Holy Spirit, then I am doing something right.  

When I look at my life, I do see the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  The extent to which we see them in our lives can be an indication of how well we are doing walking with God if we have a lot of love in our lives, a lot of peace and joy, if we have a lot of patience in our lives, along with kindness and goodness.  If we have faithfulness, gentleness & self-control, then we are probably doing pretty good. There are things that can also show us the areas we need to work on improving. For instance, lately, I have been struggling with self-control.  I used to be doing pretty well, and now I struggle more with it.

The fruits of the Spirit are not something that we can earn with our own efforts.  

The fruits of the Spirit increase when we live according to the Holy Spirit.  The more we listen to the Holy Spirit, the more we do as we feel the Holy Spirit is leading us to do, and the more we will exhibit these fruits.   So, what does this look like for us practically, that is the question I am wondering right now.  How can we increase in these fruits of the Holy Spirit if it is not through our own efforts? First, we rely on the Holy Spirit more.  We stop before we do something and ask the Holy Spirit if that is the path we are supposed to go down.  Or we ask if there is a problem going down that path.  Second, we remember we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and it can give us courage and strength to do things we might not do otherwise.  For instance, we might speak up against the injustice that we see a little more if we remember that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us.

Another way to grow in the gifts of the Spirit is to help others.  Jesus told us what we have done for others, you have done for me.  In Matthew 25, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Jesus wants us to help the poor, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. If we want to grow in the gifts, we can do these things as well.  

It says in Matthew 7:18, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” To me, this is reassurance that even if I am not seeing all of the gifts of the Spirit in my life, or I am not seeing them to the degree that I would like or that I strive for, I am still a good tree.  The same is true for you.  You are a good tree.  Whether you have very little fruit growing on your tree or you have tons of fruit growing, it doesn’t matter as much as it does that you have some fruit. If you are like me and you wonder how you are doing following the Lord, look at your life.  When you see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in your life, celebrate it.  That is the Lord’s goodness showing up in your life.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, I ask you to help people hear what they need to hear in this episode today.  I feel I did not explain it well, and yet I think it is important for people to understand the fruits of the Spirit. Please help each person to hear exactly what they need to hear in the way they need to hear it.  Please help it to make sense and not to be confusing.  We love you, Lord.  We want to follow you. We want to be led by the Holy Spirit. Please help 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 seeing you again tomorrow.  Remember, signed copies of my book are still for sale on my website.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  If you have a witness you would like to share for this Wednesday, please let me know.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose three testimonies from the God Stories Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear this testimony, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

Sarah-Jane: I’ve been going through many trails the past several months. I faced a breakdown in my marriage due to mental and financial abuse.  I was depressed and life in general was getting a hold on me. I started to shut down and isolate from people and life. Best to do things on my own, or so I thought.  But it didn’t work out great.

I eventually shared my struggles with my close friends and family. They were the ones who cared for me and loved me.  I was so ashamed and embarrassed of the situation that I was in.

But I am fortunate to have a loving church community that has been on my journey with me. I have handed everything to God. I have forgiven people that have hurt me.

I believe that since I’ve opened my heart more to God, He has filled me to overflowing with the Holy Spirit just at the times I needed it. Whether it was through a worship song, a sermon or a Bible verse. He has the spirit pour over me in the past few weeks.  One day at church, we were invited to come to the front before the mercy seat, I couldn’t speak, but within seconds, I just lost it and was crying tears of joy and trembling with laughter.

God has shown me so much mercy and grace and it is good to know that I’m never alone. I’m forever blessed to have such a loving God who has made me whole, and He has given me peace and comfort in my trials. If God wasn’t in my life, I don’t know where I’d be today. He has opened many closed doors.  He provided a nice home and my children visit often. He has helped my anxiety and depression to be manageable. I am a much stronger woman and I’m grateful for God’s love.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 – “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

Jenelle: I had the next chemotherapy treatment today. It was number 4. I had a PET-CT scan last week which showed that the metastatic ovarian cancer has reduced in size, and nothing new has grown since the last scan in June. This is the 7th time I have had chemotherapy in 13 years. It has been quite a journey.

Because of my experience I can speak with authority to others who are experiencing metastatic cancer and encourage them that God has not forgotten them, and that He always has a purpose for us.

Kathie, a fellow traveler, needs prayer. She has metastatic bowel cancer and is questioning not only her doctors, but God. I keep encouraging her to trust God. I have told her that most people don’t consider what will happen when they die. I’ve sent her Bible verses to encourage her. We are the privileged ones because God has given us time.

I’ve had 13 years to plan my funeral! This life is just the shadow. We look forward to the real world that will go on for eternity.

For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain! For me, Kathie, and everyone who submits their lives to Jesus, cannot lose! It’s definitely a win-win situation! And I for one cannot wait to get to heaven!

Jon- My name is Jon, and I want to tell you a story about how the Lord challenged me to trust Him during trials where I frankly thought it would be easier to just end my life. About 15-16 years ago, I blew out a disc in my lumbar spine. At the time, I had never experienced that type of pain, yet I didn’t know it that God was giving me a practice session for what was to come. I was treated and it got better but then it came back with a vengeance, and I was taking pain medication like they were Tic Tacs, just to stay functional.

I ended up having surgery and praised the Lord when I woke up, because the pain was gone… Again, the Lord was just giving me a break, before the big game started.

Six months later, I was diagnosed with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was in a blue funk for a long time. RA is incurable. They don’t really know what causes it and all the different medications were only to prevent more damage from happening.

But God… He used this time to take someone who really had little patience with people and change that. God made me thankful for the blessings that I had previously not really paid a lot of attention to, and He compelled me to share those blessings. For a long time, my life verse has been Psalms 119:71 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, so that I may learn Your statutes.”

Just recently, I was really depressed because I knew I was about to be laid off for the second time in a calendar year. That’s when my wife introduced me to Matthew’s song “How good of God.” We had been praying for direction in what to do when I found out that I was right and that I was laid off.

But “How Good of God!” People I haven’t talk to in years came out of the woodwork to help me find a new job. A lot of folks will say, “sure I’ll keep an eye out,” but then never do anything. One person I had never met paid for a tool that helped me make my resume better. How good of God! More importantly, I’m saved! My wife is saved! My kids are saved! He has blessed me beyond measure, so I hope that if you’re suffering or challenged that you’ll remember how good God is. You may not understand but you can always trust Him.

Thank you so much for sharing your stories. You may not think it is a big deal but the more we hear how God is working in other people’s lives, the more we will see him work in our own lives. Your testimony is helping build the faith of others. Thank you! God is so good!!

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God Is In The Practical Things Too!

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

I read this one and I really liked it because I think wisdom is something that we might not think to request from God.  I think we all feel pretty comfortable praying to God when we are sick or when a loved one is sick.  I don’t know if it is because we know God can heal people or if it is because we know there is nothing we can do and so we hope God can do something.  I think we tend to go to God as a last resort.  We try to solve things on our own, and then if we can’t, we turn to God.  Why do we save him for last?

God can do anything.  He created this whole Universe; he can surely help us with whatever it is we need help with.  Yet, we don’t always think to ask him unless it is something we know we can’t do ourselves, like healing a sickness.  It’s interesting because when you have to rely on God for more, you see him more.  My husband and my boys didn’t really see a lot of miracles from God when our kids were growing up.  Luckily, my husband had a great job, and he is really good with money.  We never really struggled with money, and my kids never lacked anything with regard to food, clothing, or a roof over their heads.  We always had great medical insurance.  We were blessed with being able to live in other countries and travel to see things.  I am grateful that we didn’t have to struggle with those things.  

I am grateful, and yet, at times, I wish we did not have to struggle.  I know that probably sounds strange, and I understand why it sounds strange.  Why would anyone want to have to struggle?  I don’t think I truly wanted to struggle; I did want the faith that comes with having to struggle, though.  I wanted my kids to be able to see that God will always provide for us.  I wanted them to know that God would always be there to take care of their needs.  My parents struggled when I was growing up.  I mean, they had 11 kids to take care of, and my dad had a great job, and yet money only goes so far.  Imagine paying the mortgage, electric, and heating bills for a house that fits that many children.  Imagine the food bill and then the clothing and the shoes.  Think about how much it costs for you to have one child play a sport, do dancing or theatre, and then multiply that by 11.  

My parents sacrificed a lot to have all of us kids.  There were months when they had to decide which bill they were going to pay and which one could wait until next month.  My mom was constantly on the phone with the bill collectors, telling them she could send $5 a month or whatever it was she had.  I know it was hard on them, and I don’t wish that on anyone.  And yet, I do wish everyone could have the faith that they have that God would take care of what they need.  They knew without a doubt that they could call on Him for big things and small things.  They knew He would help with practical things, like food and a car, just as much as he would heal my sister of a mysterious illness.  

I know, and God knows, that I didn’t really want to experience the pain of not having enough, but I did want the faith that comes with it.  I feel the Holy Spirit is pointing out to me that although I did not have to worry about resources like food, shelter, or clothing, I did have to struggle.  My boys were pretty difficult at times and I did learn how to trust that God would be there in all the different ways.  I had to trust that God would save my child from being hit by a car when he would run down the middle of the street.  I had to trust that God would save my children from each other when they were at their worst.  I had to learn to trust that God would not let my children take their own lives.  I did have plenty of ways to build my trust, and you do, too.

Maybe you don’t have such drastic things in your lives, but we are all struggling with something.  What causes you the most struggles, and how can it help you trust God more?  Has your faith grown because of those struggles?  Can you look back at the past few years and see how God was there for you in the struggles?  I can look back and see that God placed the perfect people in my life at each and every base where we were stationed.  I was never alone.  I may have felt alone in my house, but I always had really good friends who would listen to me, build me up, and support me.  They would also take the boys when I needed a break, or they would take me away for the weekend, and Tony would keep the boys.  God also provided me with a strong Catholic women’s group or the strength to start one if there wasn’t already one.  If you are not part of a Christian woman’s group or men’s group, you should find one.  I cannot tell you the strength you get from seeing others living their faith.  It is incredible.  

God can use your struggles to help build your faith; you just have to let Him.  If you look closely over your struggles, you will see Him there.  You will see He has always been there, and He will always be there! Getting back to this verse, in particular, says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” I wanted to share with you a quick story of a time when my dad really needed some wisdom, and he got it!  My dad got a call from my mom one day from work.  She told him that one of their neighbors was upset with him because my dad had talked to his girlfriend about going back to church again.  Once she started going back to church, she decided she couldn’t be with her boyfriend anymore.  I am not sure of the exact circumstances of the breakup, but that is why the man was mad at my dad.  My mom told my dad that the man said he was coming over tonight as soon as my dad got home from work to beat my dad up.  When my dad drove up to the house, he saw the man waiting for him in our front yard and all the neighborhood kids, including my siblings, standing around to watch the fight.  

As my dad got out of the car, he started praying to God for wisdom regarding this situation.  He prayed that God would tell him what to say.  He prayed God would give him the words, and He did!  He walked up to the man and said, “I know you want to punch me, and I understand why.  I know how much you are hurting inside, and if punching me will take that hurt away, then I will gladly accept that pain.” Or something to that effect.  Then he closed his eyes, bracing for the punch.  Instead, the man started crying. My dad gave him a hug, and they went inside and talked for a few hours.  My dad knows there is no way he would have come up with that on his own.  He asked God, and God came through, just like He always does! I wish we all stopped to ask God what we should say before we said it.  Imagine what a kinder place this world would be if we all just stopped and asked God what we should say or if we should even say anything before we said it.  

If you take one thing away from this episode, I hope it is that God is in the practical.  You can ask God for wisdom.  You can ask God for help making your decisions.  You can ask God to find you a new place to live.  You can ask God for the huge healing miracle you need.  You can ask God for food or for money to pay your bills.  You can ask God for anything. It doesn’t have to be big; it doesn’t have to be something you can’t do on your own.  God isn’t just for last-resort types of prayers.  He wants to be in everything with you! Invite him into the ordinary of your day.  Ask Him for the practical things you need and you will be surprised how He shows up.  Look for Him, and you will find Him!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to look back and have the Holy Spirit open our eyes so we can see where we were through all of our struggles.  Help us to see that you were there the whole time.  Help us to give you permission to use our struggles to build our faith.  Help us to turn to you, not just for the impossible things but for the practical things as well.  We love you, Lord, you are so incredible.  You are there for the big and the small.  Help us to see this, Lord.  Help us to truly know this and help us come to you more.  Help us to remember to consult you when we have a difficult situation and we don’t know the words to say.  We are so grateful to have you on our side, 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.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “You've nothing to fear. You are sealed in the blood of the Lamb. Your Father loves you. He loves you. You're His babies. His. His. Remember that always. No matter what you face, you are my sweetness. My sweet song of love.Precious children, remain in my love.”

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Be Not Afraid!

Jeremiah 30:10 “‘So do not be afraid, Jacob my servant; do not be dismayed, Israel,’  declares the Lord. ‘I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. Jacob will again have peace and security, and no one will make him afraid.”

This morning, when I read this verse, the words that jumped out at me were, “Do not be afraid.” The Lord is constantly telling us this, and yet it seems we can’t seem to help ourselves. I get it; there is a lot of scary stuff going on in the world right now. There are countries at war, with no end in sight. They just seem to be escalating. In America, we have an election coming up. It seems no matter what side you are on, Republican or Democrat, you are terrified that the other person will win, and if that happens, it is the end of the world as we know it.

If we aren’t worried about politics, we are worried about something. There is so much that we tend to worry about. Many of us have children or marriages we worry about. Some don’t have children or a spouse, and they worry about that, and they worry if that will ever happen. Some worry about their jobs and whether they will lose their job or they worry about changes within their job. Others worry about growing older and all that entails. I know some people who are sick and are worried about what will happen. Will they get better? Will they die? Will they be sick for a long time? Can they handle all the pain and the not knowing how long it will last? As you can see, it seems like we have plenty to worry about.

However, The Lord is constantly telling us not to be afraid. He tells us “Fear not” a lot in the Bible, and He also tells us almost every week in our Prayer Group.  Here are some examples of what the Lord is telling us in our prayer group. These were all received in just one month, August of 2024.

“My children, all I tell you to do know that you can. My spirit empowers you. It puts my words into your mouth so that you can reach the hearts of others. It's not you. It is my spirit empowering you to say what I wish you to say. Do not fear to go out, I keep telling you, fear not. My spirit is with you, and He will provide whatever you need to succeed. I am your God. I am all powerful. There is nothing that I cannot do. Trust in my word. Trust that what I say is true and go about your way and make me known, my children. How many times must I tell you, you can because I send you. You can because I am your God, and I provide the power; whatever you need, I provide. It is as simple as that, my children. Be not afraid to move and do what I tell you.”

The very next week, We received the verse that I picked for today, and then we received the following words and scripture.

“I just had a deep sense from the Lord that he's saying to us. Well, I guess what he's always said to us is that we have nothing to fear and that we need to put our hope in His word and what He has promised us. No one will put an end to us. He has come to save us. And He will save all of our offspring as well. He's going to call them back from their lands, and we need to keep that in the forefront of our thoughts and our thinking as we thank Him every day for what he's doing because He is the victor of the world.”

Then some else said, “I just want to confirm all that's been said so far because I come up with three psalms and each one said the same thing that everyone has said in a different way.”

Psalm 91:9-16 “Because you have the LORD for your refuge and have made the Most High your stronghold, No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent. For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You can tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon. Because he clings to me I will deliver him; because he knows my name I will set him on high. He will call upon me and I will answer; I will be with him in distress; I will deliver him and give him honor. With length of days I will satisfy him, and fill him with my saving power.”

Then someone different received the word, “There is no fear. We live in fear. We allow fear to creep in. I hear the Lord saying, every time a negative thought, a fear creeps in, send it to the feet of Jesus. Do not allow it to consume you for one second, and when you've done that, call the Holy Spirit into your life to show you how to combat the enemy faster.”

Then, another week in the same month, someone received this Word, “I hear your cries, my children. Come to me, come to me in your brokenness. Do not be afraid to come. I will help you. But in my time. Wait patiently, and I will show you a way out. Know that all is possible when you trust and believe. I am here. Do not doubt it. I do hear your cries. I do feel your pain. Continue to trust, continue to believe, and I will help you.”

All of these Words from the Lord and the scripture verses were given in the same month. This is not unusual. The Lord tells us all the time not to worry, and yet we continue to worry, why is that? Why can’t we take the Lord at His Word? Why don’t we believe that He will be there for us? I wonder, if we look back over our lives, would we find more evidence to support that the Lord will be there for us or that the Lord won’t be there for us? I know when I look back over my life, I see how many times the Lord has shown up for me and saved me from things, sometimes big things and sometimes small things. I look back, and I can’t find a time when I called upon the Lord, and He didn’t answer that call. I can find a few times where I look back and realize I didn’t call upon the Lord until I tried to fix it myself for a really long time. However, when I did finally call upon the Lord, He always came.

What about you? What if you take a few minutes right now and look back on your life? Do you see all the ways God has shown up for you in the past? Can you find times when you called upon Him and He wasn’t there? God is so good. He always answers when we call. So, why are we afraid all of the time? Why do we struggle so much with believing the things that the Lord tells us? Why do we struggle to believe that He can save us, even from ourselves? If you look through the Bible you will find so many times when God saved His people from incredible things. You will find stories where the Lord’s people were few in number and going up against vast armies, and yet when they were listening the Lord He delivered them even though the odds were against them.

I know the odds don’t look good in your situation right now. I know the doctors are telling you there isn’t anything they can do for you. Or, maybe you are facing a different situation where you just don’t know what to do, and you don’t see any positive solution. Maybe you are frozen and fearful and don’t know how to move forward. Maybe you have been dealing with the same situation for a long time, and although you want to trust God, you don’t see any end in sight. Instead, all you see is the other person who is against you winning at each turn. If this is you, the Lord wants to encourage you to keep your trust. I hear Him saying, even in your circumstance, “Be Not Afraid, I’ve got you in the palm of my hand. You don’t have to figure all things out on your own. I will guide you. I will lead you. When you rely on me, I will show you the way, and things will be easier. Life won’t suddenly be easy, but when I am truly leading your steps, things will come together more easily. Trust if I want you to move or take a step in a different direction, I will make that clear to you. I love you, my children.”

I pray that those words or any of the other words in this episode speak light into your situation. I pray that they help you to be less afraid and trust the Lord a little more. He is there for you. He is protecting you, and He does not want us to be afraid!

Dear Heavenly Father, please bless those listening to their episode. Lord, thank you so much for always being there for us. Lord, I ask you to help show us all the times in the past when you have been there for us. Lord, when we are fearful, help us to remember all the beautiful things you said to us in this episode. Help us to remember you don't want us to be afraid and that you are there for us. Show us how not to be afraid, Lord! We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your word and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I just decided this morning that the theme for this month’s mentoring will be “Be Not Afraid.” I hope you will join us this month for mentoring. If you have been listening to this podcast for a while now and would like more or would like to go deeper, I encourage you to check out mentoring. It is a place where we can go deeper when exploring the topics. It is also a chance to see how to apply them to your everyday lives. If you are interested in checking out mentoring, please let me know, and I will send you the Zoom link for tomorrow night’s session, and you can check it out for free. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Some of you are too hard on yourselves. Immerse yourself in my all-encompassing love. Walk in confidence. Walk proud. You are children of the King, the sons and daughters of the Most High God.”

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Sacrifice Is The Heart of Worship

Psalm 95:6-8 “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!”

This verse was received at prayer group yesterday, and when I read it this morning, I thought it would be a great one for today’s devotional. It talks about worshiping the Lord and hearing the Lord’s voice. These are both things I love to talk about, so it seemed perfect. I also think they are great topics to end the week with. I believe the world could be a much better place if more of us were worshipping the Lord instead of all the things in this world that we worship.

I was listening to Father Mike Schmitz's sermon from Sunday, October 27th, yesterday on Spotify, and I really enjoyed it. He talked about how the heart of worship is sacrifice. He said you can tell how important something is to someone by what they are willing to sacrifice for it. I thought this was interesting and also challenging at the same time. Everything involves a sacrifice or at least a giving of something. For instance, if you want to eat healthily, you need to give up your soda, your junk food, and your comfort foods. If you want to watch TV, you need to give up that time that could have been spent doing something else. If you want to worship God, you need to give Him your time.

Father Mike talked about one of the biggest times to Worship the Lord int he Jewish culture was Passover. He described how the Jewish people would sacrifice a lamb to the Lord at Passover. However, they wouldn’t just buy a lamb and then sacrifice it. They would buy a lamb the Sunday before Passover and they would bring this lamb into their home. They would live with this lamb for a week. They would begin to care for this lamb, they may even love this lamb by the end of the week as they have just spent the week taking care of it. Then, they would carry this lamb upon their shoulders and bring it to the temple to sacrifice it to the Lord. They would do this every year.

All this talk about sacrifice being the heart of worship really challenged me. It challenged me because I am in a season where sacrifice is hard for me. Well, true and meaningful sacrifice is hard for me. These days, it seems I am all too happy to sacrifice my productive time so that I can watch TV. However, what am I getting from the TV? What is that saying about what I am worshipping? I am really struggling with sacrificing for the Lord. My heart wants me to fast, and my brain finds all these reasons why I can’t. My heart wants to spend more time alone with the Lord, and yet I find myself watching TV instead.

I am not sure why sacrifice is so hard for me right now. Sometimes, it comes much easier. I used to be pretty good at fasting or not watching TV. I am not sure why it is more of a struggle these days, other than the fact that life is not always linear. I heard this term when I was teaching about the dark night of the soul, and I think it not only applies to that, but it applies to all of life. Sometimes, we can think that life is like a mountain we are climbing, and we climb this mountain slowly and steadily, and then we reach the top. However, have you ever really climbed a mountain or seen someone climb a mountain? Yes, slow and steady is a good pace, but you aren’t always moving forward. Sometimes, you slip and fall. Sometimes, you catch yourself right away, and other times, you slide down a bit before getting back up again. Sometimes, there will be a big cliff you can’t climb directly, so you need to take another path, which might not be headed up the mountain, but rather around the mountain until you find a safe way up the mountain.

Do you see how walking up the mountain is probably not just a straight path up? Life is like this. It is not linear, meaning we go from one step to the next to the next. Sometimes, we go to the next step, and then we regress back three steps, then we take the next right step. Life is a process. It is one we all go through, and I am sure if you look over your life, you will see that it didn’t always feel like you were moving forward. Sometimes, it felt like you were moving backward.

I think going into this weekend; we can remember what Father Mike said about the sacrifice being the heart of worship. How can we worship the Lord better this weekend? What can we sacrifice in order to show our love for the Lord? If we look at what we are already sacrificing in our lives, that will show us what we are worshiping right now in our lives. What are you worshiping? For me, I think it is food and TV, but I wish it was the Lord. This weekend I will spend some time talking with the Lord and seeing what He thinks I should be sacrificing.

Which brings me to the second part of this verse. The last line of this verse says, “ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!” We are the sheep, and the Lord is our shepherd. Sheep can hear their shepherd. There have been studies done where they put a bunch of different herds of sheep together, and they disguised the shepherds so they were wearing different clothes and smelled different, and then they had the shepherds call out to the sheep. The sheep went with their shepherd because they recognized the voice.

We can hear the Lord’s voice, too! I like that the verse says, “O that today you would listen to his voice!” This is the desire of the Lord. He wants to talk with each one of us, and yet we are not listening to His voice. I think for most of us, we are not listening because we didn’t know we could hear the Lord’s voice. This is why I love talking about listening to the Lord. The more we talk about it, the more people will understand that we all have this gift. They will know that they, too, can listen to the Lord. This is such an amazing gift, and it is so important for us all to know that we have it. It is not set aside for a select few special people. It is a gift God wants to share with each and every one of us.

Let me briefly go over the ways that we can hear the Lord’s voice. You might already be hearing Him, and you didn’t know it was Him. We can hear the Lord in four main ways. First, you may hear a voice in your head, which usually sounds a lot like your own voice. Second, you may have a thought that just pops into your head. Third, you might have a feeling about something. It is not a word or a thought, but you know something because of a feeling somewhere in your body. The fourth way is through a vision. You might see something, almost like a dream. The vision can either be like a dream, where it plays sort of like a movie, or it could just be an image, almost like a picture that you see. God can speak to you using one of these methods, a few of them, or all of them. Usually, He uses the one that He knows we will be most comfortable with because He doesn’t want to scare us.

You may be hearing the Lord already. Have you ever asked Him a question and then felt like you knew what the answer was? You didn’t understand how you knew, but you definitely knew the answer to the question you asked the Lord. If you have not spent any time trying to hear the Lord, I invite you to spend some time this weekend practicing hearing the Lord. The reason I say practicing is because it can be hard sometimes. We don’t always believe we can hear the Lord, and so sometimes, it takes a bit to get over ourselves. It can take a while to convince ourselves that we aren’t crazy and that the Lord really does want to talk to us.

One way that helped me was to journal our conversations. I would write a letter to the Lord, then I would ask the Lord to answer my letter using my pen, and I would write a letter back to myself. Now, I have started asking the Lord specific questions and then writing down whatever comes to mind right afterward. I don’t question it while I am writing it down. I just write down all that I hear, and then I reread it the next day to see if I think the Lord could have said that. The Lord will never contradict Scripture. That is His written word, and so if you hear something that tells you to do something you know is wrong, that is not the Lord. Also, the Lord is gentle, and He does not condemn us. If you are receiving words that make you feel shame, regret, or just overall bad feelings, that is not the Lord either. The Lord may convict you of something while He is talking to you but never in a way that leaves you feeling shame.

I hope you will try to hear the Lord’s voice this weekend. I hope you will spend time with Him in conversation. Maybe ask Him a question you have always wanted to ask Him. I also hope you spend some time thinking about how worship is the heart of sacrifice. So, what are you currently worshipping with your sacrifice and how can you shift your worship more towards the Lord?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we want to worship you, please help us. Show us where we are worshiping other things instead of you. Help us to sacrifice for you, Lord. We also want to hear your voice, Lord. Help us to hear your voice. Give us the confidence we need to know you are talking to us. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am your daily bread, so you can also be the bread for others. I use you so they may come to me, become the bread of hope, joy, and peace to others.”

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No More Masquerade

Colossians 3:7-9 "That's how you once behaved, characterized by your evil deeds. But now it's time to eliminate them from your lives once and for all – anger, fits of rage, all forms of hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying. Lay aside your old Adam self with its masquerade and disguise.”

There were two things I liked about these verses this morning. The first is that they tell us it is time to eliminate certain behaviors from our lives once and for all. These behaviors are anger, fits of rage, all forms of hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying. I was drawn to this because those are things I think we would all get rid of if we could. I don’t think any one of us likes being angry or having fits of rage. Many would love to give up hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying too. However, it is what we know. We might think it is who we are. If this is the case, then how do we give these things up? How do we stop doing something that we feel has become part of who we are?

The first step in changing anything is acknowledging the need for change. If we don’t think anything needs to change, then nothing will change. Once you realize something needs to change, your brain will subconsciously start to think of ways it can help you change. However, that doesn’t mean you will implement these new changes immediately. It often takes us a while to make changes, especially if there are changes in things that we have done or have not done for a while. For instance, I know I need to work out every day. I want to work out, and yet I can’t seem to fit it into my schedule.

It takes time to change things about ourselves. We can’t just stop doing the thing we want to change. We need to replace that behavior with another behavior. For instance, if we usually curse when we are mad, we will need to find something else to do instead. This will be much more effective than just trying to stop doing it altogether. My dad used to tell us this when we were younger. He would try to tell us that we should pick a replacement for the bad words we would get into trouble for saying. Then, when we would say the bad word, immediately after saying it, we would say the word we wanted to replace it with. This seemed to work for us, at least a little.

How do we stop getting angry, though? How do we stop experiencing rage? I don’t think the people who experience them do it because they want to. I think the people want to act this way; they just can’t help it. I think the solution to this is to live more intentionally. We need to be proactive instead of reactive. We need to go through life deciding how we want to act instead of just reacting to everything that happens.

My kids used to push my buttons like it was their job. They knew just what to say to make me yell or get really upset. I would get so mad and occasionally would say things I didn’t mean but felt like I couldn’t help it. However, I finally learned how to resist reacting negatively to their words or their actions that were meant to upset me. If I can do it, you can too. It was not easy, but it is doable! Which thing listed in this verse is something you need to stop doing?

The second thing I liked about these verses is when they say, “Lay aside your old Adam self with its masquerade and disguise.” Adam and Eve brought sin into this world, and it was shared with all of us. However, Jesus brought that sin to the cross so that we could be a different person. Why are we still acting like our old selves, full of sin and shame? Also, why are we hiding ourselves? When I saw the last line in this verse today, it made me think of a song. I know you are not surprised, as I tend to always think of songs. However, there is a song that talks about how we are all masquerading and what if we just took our masks off. I believe that is what this verse is calling us to do.

The song I thought of is called Cages by We the Kingdom. Here are the lyrics.

What if I got real honest?

What if I took a risk?

What if I opened up my heart

And let you see in?

What if I took my mask off?

Trying to fit in

I don't wanna be a mannequin

What if we took our masks off? What if we were just who God created us to be? What if we let go of all the anger, fits of rage, hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying? Why do we do those things anyway? Do we enjoy them, or is it so that we will fit in with those around us? Do we do it so we will feel normal?

What if I let my guard down?

What if I took a breath?

What if I wasn't perfect?

What if I was just a mess?

What if I bled my soul out

Givin' all I could give?

What if we let our guard down? What if we weren’t always trying to be perfect? What if we just let the world see us for the mess that we really are? Would that really be so bad? Can you imagine how freeing it would be to just feel comfortable being yourself? That is what this verse is calling you to do. Stop pretending and just be you.

I'm so tired of pretending

I'm comin' out of my cages

I'm steppin' down from my stages

I'm sick and tired of faking it

What I wouldn't give to be known

What I wouldn't give to be known

How great would it be to be known just as you are? How great would it be to have people really see you, the you that you truly are?

What if I got new armor?

What if I swung my sword?

What if I face my demons

Like I've never done before?

What if I hung my banner?

What if I chose a side?

What if I knew I couldn't lose this time?

What if this new armor the song is talking about is your new way of living? What if this new armor is the armor of God? What if you stopped all the things that God doesn’t want you to do and embraced this new way of living? This way of living where you get to be you, and you don’t feel you have to fit in anymore. God created us to live in this world but not be of this world.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode. Lord, we want to eliminate the behaviors of our old selves and live the life you want us to live. We need your help, Lord. Some of these behaviors we have done for a long time now, and we feel as though we can’t give them up. However, we know all things are possible through you, so we ask for your help. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow! Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, reflect. What do you have to lose? What do you have to gain?”

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Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose four testimonies from the Addictions and Deliverance Category. Today's witnesses are about how people who were addicted to drugs and, through the intervention of God, their lives were changed. I know people who are really suffering right now because of drugs or addictions, and so I thought these witnesses might give all those affected by addiction some hope and encouragement. God is not done in your situation or your loved ones' situation. If it’s not good, God’s not done! Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear this testimony, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

First we have Jim: The story I have is 100% God!!!  In the darkest days of my opiate addiction, I went to jail.  Then, I received a three-year sentence.  I had never been in trouble as a teenager or a young adult. At one point, I overdosed and if God had not put air in my lungs, I would have died.  Nobody was around and nobody would have been there for days. God knows our hearts and I went to Greater Cleveland Teen Challenge and completed that phase.  Then, I went on to Cape Girardeau Missouri where I completed an additional ten-month program. Jesus Christ set me free from the bondage of drugs and alcohol! Thank you, Lord, for your sovereignty and for calling me out of the darkness and into Your marvelous light!

Next is Jane: God hears you when you cry out to Him, and I can tell you that it’s true! When I was deep in the trap of addiction to alcohol and cocaine, I would cry out to God in desperation to remove it from me because it was literally killing me. He heard my cries, and in perfect timing, through a car accident, He released me from my addiction! The night of the accident, I wasn’t under the influence of any substances, and the accident was caused by the other driver. We were both injured, but God took away my addiction that night and at that moment! It was a true miracle, and I hope that someone who has these struggles will be encouraged by my story. God is a way-maker, and He will remove your addictions if you keep crying out and believing in the power of Jesus! There have been many more miracles in my life, but I chose this one in hopes of helping a brother or sister in need!

The third one there is a story of a girl whose family did not protect her.  I grew up in an abusive home where I was sexually trafficked by my mother to other family members. I told my pastor, my teachers, doctors, and nurses. No one did anything. So I grew to believe that I was unworthy, unlovable, and useless unless the person had an ulterior motive. I became seriously depressed to the point that I was diagnosed with medically-resistant depression. I was suicidal and thought of ways to kill myself daily. I sought counseling but it always failed to benefit me. I attended a depression and anxiety recovery program in November 2018. I had a gun in one hand and pills in the other and told God if He didn’t get me in the program that I was done. I met a man named Paul with a ministry called “Straight 2 the Heart” who taught me about Jesus’s suffering and being tempted with my negative thoughts. In the prayer process, receivers listen for God’s still small voice and encouragement. So often that encouragement has come in Matthew West’s songs as God reminds me of my identity and value. I’ve been sober and off of narcotic prescriptions and hard liquor for just over 2 years. Thank you for letting me share.

Last but not least we have Karryn: I grew up in a good family, but I’d never felt loved. I didn’t know why. I was also a very good liar since I was young, and I never understood why about that either. I have been listening to Matthew West’s music since the first time I went into rehab in 2015. That was the first time I was introduced to Christianity. I was a bad methamphetamine addict. After rehab, I had my ups and downs. I had two beautiful sons, Jaz and Lucas, but I never put them first. In 2019, I went back into rehab, a Christ centered facility. But, I ended up leaving to be with my boyfriend, Dallas, whom I really loved. He was about 700 miles away from me. I got pregnant soon after we reunited, but we continued to use drugs. We lost everything. We were living in a tent, and were hurt both physically and mentally by the people in that scene. This is when I found out that Dallas had been raised in a foster home and his parents were strong in their faith. I began to pray. God opened up a door and we were blessed by St. Vincent’s, a place here in Australia that helps those in need. That’s where our lives changed, and I believe it was our Lord who changed all of this. I was still struggling with how to handle this pregnancy. The only thing keeping me from terminating the pregnancy was the fact that I had just begun to grieve a previous abortion.  On my Spotify, randomly the song “Unplanned” began to play. Dallas and I cried and cried. It was a massive turning point for us. We have been clean for months now.  We are off all substances. Our new son, Aleksandr, (Alek) has arrived and is a very healthy boy. We are just so grateful to the Lord and to Matthew for his music and especially for the song, “Unplanned.”  It was a moment in our lives that we will never forget.

Thank you all so much for being brave and vulnerable and sharing your stories. So many others will receive hope just by hearing your story! I pray God continues to bless you along your journey!

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How Fleeting Life Is

Psalm 39: 4-6 ““LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.” Selah “Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.””

This was a verse that was received during my prayer group last week. I wanted to get a deeper understanding of what the verses meant, so I went online to the Enduring Word Bible Commentary that I learned about not that long ago. I believe it is a minister who has compiled a commentary on the different books of the Bible. He helps to explain it so we can all understand what is being said in a little more detail. Sometimes it is nice to know what certain things meant back in the time when they were written. Yes, the Bible is a living Word that is just as true today as it was the day it was written.

However, sometimes it is nice to be able to understand why they chose to use certain words or if those words had a different meaning back when the Bible was written. Also, the Bible was not originally written in English, so sometimes the word that was used in the Greek or Hebrew edition is not an exact translation into English, and I love to hear what the word they actually used meant and how it is different than the English word. This stuff is discovered by theologians who study scripture and the ancient times and fill us in on all that they learn. I love learning more in-depth explanations of what the Scripture is really telling us. Today I will share with you the explanation I found on the enduring Word Commentary website as I think He explained it very well.

First, it says, LORD, make me know my end: David’s silence was broken in the best way – by humble prayer to God. He would not speak his fears and doubts before the wicked, but he would pour them out before His God. Here, David asked God for wisdom – specifically, the wisdom to know the shortness and the frailty of his life (that I may know how frail I am).

We might have expected David to break his silence by telling off his enemies or by defending his own righteousness. He did neither; he sought God for wisdom. “It is well that the vent of his soul was Godward and not towards man. Oh! if my swelling heart must speak, Lord let it speak with thee.” (Spurgeon)

Next it says, Make me to know my end: “This was not a prayer inspired by a desire to know when life would end; it was not a request to be told the date of death. It was a prayer for an accurate apprehension of the fact that life quantitatively – that is, as to the number of its days – is as nothing.” (Morgan)

Then, You have made my days as handbreadths: “He compares it to a ‘handbreadth,’ one of the smallest units of measurement in ancient Israel. It is equivalent to a couple of inches.’” (VanGemeren)

“Life is very short, but a great deal may be done. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in three years, saved the world. Some of his followers in three years have been the means of saving many and many a soul.” (Spurgeon)

Next, Certainly, every man in his best state is but a vapor: David was a champion, an accomplished Special Forces warrior, a leader, a celebrity, a skilled poet, a musical genius, a survivor, and a king. If anyone might have thought more highly of himself, David had the right to. Yet he understood that he, like every man, is – at his best state – merely a vapor, a puff of steam or smoke.

“He learns that, since life is short, the only real meaning of a man or woman’s existence must be in his relationship to God, for God is eternal.” (Boice)

Next, the word Selah: The idea in Hebrew for this word (occurring 74 times in the Old Testament) is for a pause. Most people think it speaks of a reflective pause, a pause to meditate on the words just spoken. It may also be a musical instruction for a musical interlude of some kind.

This Selah is an appropriate call for each one to pause and think of the shortness and frailty of his life. It should drive us to great dependence upon God and great earnestness about life and doing good in the short time we do have.

It goes on to say, Surely they busy themselves in vain. Sounding very much like the later Book of Ecclesiastes, David thought about the mass of humanity who lived, ignoring the shortness and frailty of life.

· Each of them walks about, but like a shadow, living a life with no substance.

· They are busy but in vain, being blind to eternal things.

· Each of them works hard and heaps up riches, yet does not think beyond his own short and frail life.

This is the land of shadows. Heaven is the land of reality, of true high definition.

“Every man that exists is vanity. All his projects, plans, schemes, etc., soon come to nothing. His body also molders with the dust, and shortly passes both from the sight and remembrance of men.” (Clarke)

I know today was a bit more technical than I usually do, and yet I thought it was a good explanation of what David was saying in this verse. I think all too often, we go about our days as if they are unlimited. We act as if we don’t have an end to our timeline here on earth. I am not saying we should constantly be thinking about when we will die or the fact we only have so many days, weeks, months, or years left on Earth. I do, however, think we live more intentionally when we know that our time is coming to an end. We don’t have to wait until we get a bad prognosis to start living our lives intentionally. The Lord showed me this in my prayer time this morning. He told me that I was accomplishing all I needed to get done, and yet there is a whole lot of stuff that I want to do but am not doing simply because I am not sitting down and planning out my day or my week. I end up wasting time because I have “free time” and I didn’t have anything scheduled during that time so I don’t really know what to work on and I spend the whole time trying to decide. Or even worse, I get caught up in scrolling on the internet or playing a game and don’t get anything done.

I don’t think the Lord was scolding me in our time this morning. I think it was a gentle reminder that a little planning goes a long way. I want to pass that message on to you today, too. What is it that you really want to do and yet don’t think you have time to do? Take a few minutes, look at your schedule for the week, and find a place where you could do that thing, even if it is just for a few minutes. You will be much happier when you are living more intentionally. The alternative is to allow life to dictate how you go about your day, and you just show up and do it. This has some appeal, but I think it is a trick from the enemy to keep up from accomplishing the amazing things we could accomplish with a bit more planning. One of my favorite lines in a song is from the song What Are We Waiting For by For King and Country. The line I like in the song says, “What are we waiting for? Why are we wasting all the time like someone's making more?” I love this because it is a great reminder that we have a finite amount of time. The time that we waste, we don’t get that time back. It is gone forever. I would love to encourage you to take a few moments today to pause reflectively, as mentioned above, and think about how short life is and then think about how you could be living this one life that we get more purposefully. Let’s live it with more intention. What do you want to do that you have been putting off for another time? Is not the right time to do it?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we would be lost without you. Lord, help us to live our lives more purposefully. Help us not just to float through life but to live it with intention. Help us to see how short life is and yet not let that worry or overcome us. Help us to use that knowledge to fuel our passion for living.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Do not be a coward. Do not lay back. Know that I am the Lord, and my Spirit is there to bring joy as you do what He says. Be convinced that I am with you. Fear not. Again, I say, move forward.”

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