Walk Boldly With Jesus

Keep A Tight Rein on Your Tongue

James 1:26-27 “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

There were two things that really stood out to me in this morning’s verses. The first one is when it says, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” I think we all know people who claim to be religious and yet say all sorts of unkind things about other people. Sometimes, I don’t think they even know what they are saying is wrong.

They may think they are just saying things that are true, so it is not a big deal. However, sometimes that is gossiping about others. We need to stop and ask ourselves, does this person need to know this thing about the other person? Why am I telling them them? Is it so they know this person a bit better? Is it because I don’t agree with it, and I want others to reassure me that I am right and this other person is wrong? Am I just talking about this other person because it makes me seem like I know things others do not know?

We might get caught up in gossip not because we want to but because everyone around us is gossiping, and we don’t know how to avoid it. I have been in this situation before where those around me were talking about someone, and I didn’t want to participate, and yet I also felt like I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want to seem like I thought I was better than anyone else, and I didn’t want to speak up and then make them feel judged. However, what I am realizing right now is that it is more important for me to think about how God is thinking about me than it is about those who are around me. Also, I am doing them a disservice if I don’t speak up, as God is not happy when we gossip. If we love our friends and family, we should do all we can to get them into heaven. This means if we see that they are gossiping, we can let them know that we don’t want to participate and that God doesn’t want us to gossip.

I do think how we tell them this is important. I think whenever we see something, and we feel called to speak up, we must always speak up out of love and genuine concern for their soul. We should speak with nothing but love in our voices. We shouldn’t be filled with judgment or condemnation. When Jesus was here on Earth, He saw all sorts of wicked things, and yet he didn’t condemn people; he convicted them, and many of them changed their ways. He did not talk down to them, although He could have because he was fully God and fully human. He did not make them feel bad about what they were doing. He made them feel loved. Jesus loved them completely just as they were, and that was something people had never felt before. They did not change because He yelled at them and told them what they were doing was wrong. They did not change because of his judgment or condemnation. They changed because of His love for them. Those around you deserve the same. They need your unconditional love for where they are right now, and then they will begin to move towards where the Lord wants them to be!

The second thing that stood out to me in this verse is the last line. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” I love this because it reminds us that religion is not just a set of beliefs. It is a way of life. It is not just a set of words and prayers, but it is action as well. We can’t just talk a good game and not live it out. We can’t talk about how important it is to take care of those who don’t have anything and yet do nothing to help those in need.

The verse says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by this world.” We have to take care of the orphans and the widows in distress. What does this mean? Does this mean if we see a homeless kid on the street we need to pick him or her up and take them home? No, but it does mean we should do something, not just walk buy and pretend we don’t see them. That seems to be what most of us do. It is too hard to look at them. We don’t have to give them money because we heard that is bad because they will just use it for drugs. So, we don’t know how to help them, and so we ignore them and pretend we don’t see them. This hurts them. Have you ever had someone walk right by you and pretend not to see you? It is not a good feeling.

There are plenty of ways we can help those in need. We can physically go out and help them. For instance, I have a few friends who go out to the streets and talk with the homeless. They learn their names, spend time with them, and get to know them as people. Who were they before they ended up on the streets? What is their story? They might bring them some snacks of something else they might need.

I know another few friends who go out and minister to the homeless living in Boston. They meet with them, and they offer to pray over them for whatever it is they need prayer for. It is a beautiful thing. However, even if you feel like you can’t go out and take care of their physical or spiritual needs yourself, you could always donate to an organization that helps provide for those in need. There are so many good ones. There are a lot of organizations that are looking to help take care of God’s forgotten people. It is up to us to figure out how we can help them.

We can’t just talk about how Jesus was there for everyone and that he took care of the poor and the lame, and yet we just ignore them. We need to figure out how to put our faith into action. We need to figure out how to keep a tight reign on our tongue so we are only saying things that bless others. We need to take captive our thoughts so we are only sharing nice things about others. Then, we also need to find a way to do as Jesus did. We need to help those in need.

The other thing the verse says that I didn’t really touch on is that we need to keep ourselves from being polluted by this world. This one is not that easy. The Lord is calling us to live in this world but not be of this world. He wants us to remember that we belong to Him, and so we need to protect ourselves from the many ways that the world would like to corrupt us. One of those is by not keeping a tight reign on our tongues. Our words can corrupt us and those around us. We must watch what we say. We must watch what we do and who we do it with.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each one of us here today. Lord, we love you, and we thank you for showing us the way you want us to live. We ask that you help us to live in a way that shows the world that we are your followers. We ask that you help us to keep a reign on our tongue as that is not easy to do. We need your help, Lord. We also ask that you help us figure out how we can help the orphans and the widows. Lord, put it on our hearts to help more. 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 I am, 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, “Fear not, my children. Move forward. My Spirit will lead the way and He will tell you what to say and what to do. If you move forward, you will find joy.”

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The Lord Is My Refuge

Psalm 91:9-13 “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place,  no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.”

These verses were given at one of our evening prayer group meetings last month.  When I saw it in my notes and looked it up this morning, I thought it was a great verse to talk about today. The first line is great. “Because we have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.” This is amazing. Yet it also makes me wonder, have I made the Lord my refuge? I feel like I have had evil befall me, so what does that mean? Does that mean that I haven’t made the Lord my refuge?

I think when we read certain passages in the Bible, we can wonder things like this. This is why it is super important not to take verses out of context. It is also important to look at everything the Bible says as a whole when trying to understand scripture. Psalm 91 speaks about God's protection, but it doesn't suggest that believers will never face hardship or experience evil. Instead, it emphasizes God's presence, care, and protection in the midst of difficulties. Verses like Psalm 91:2-3 declare:

"I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.' Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence."

However, this protection doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen. Instead, it points to God being a refuge during difficult times and offering ultimate protection, even when facing dangers or evil. The psalm uses symbolic language to show how God can shelter and protect from harm, but that doesn't imply that no adversity will ever come into a believer's life. In fact, other parts of Scripture acknowledge that faithful people can suffer (e.g., Job, Jesus' teachings, and the Psalms of lament).

Psalm 91 reminds believers that even when evil befalls them, God is their refuge, and they can trust in Him for strength, comfort, and, ultimately, deliverance. It also speaks of spiritual protection—preserving the believer's soul, even when physical or material harm occurs. Therefore, facing adversity doesn't mean God is not your refuge, but rather it may be a time to deepen your trust in Him.

Next, the verse says, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands, they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” Can you even believe that God commands his angels to guard us in all our ways? I have heard many stories of when people have been saved by angels. One of them was from someone in my prayer group. She was out driving her school bus in a snowstorm when her windshield wiper stopped working. She pulled over to the side of the road. She didn’t have any kids on the bus because she was about to park the bus for the night at the bus lot. She didn’t know what she was going to do because she couldn’t drive without windshield wipers, and the snow was really coming down. She prayed for the Lord to help her.

Right after she finished praying, she saw lights in her rearview mirror. Another bus had pulled in behind her. The driver got out and fixed her windshield wipers. They both got back on their way. When my friend got to the lot to park the bus, she asked them who the driver was and who stopped and helped her. They said there were no other drivers. She was the only one still out. She said she knew it was an angel that helped her. Here are a few that I found online:

A young woman was saved from a home invasion when something prevented the attacker's hands from touching her. A hospice social worker was able to avoid a large van with a metal ladder on top after hearing a voice say, "Both hands on the wheel." A mother was praying in her room when she read a verse that said, "And the Lord will provide your wages." A young lady knocked on the door and handed her an envelope containing a good amount of cash. A couple were about to miss their flight to Bermuda when an attendant found a packet of landing papers on the counter. The attendant called the plane back to the gate, and the couple was able to board. A man on a bicycle almost hit someone walking down a hill in Jerusalem, but his bike seemed to hit an invisible wall, and he fell over. 

I think sometimes we think our problems are too practical for God. We don’t ask for things because we can’t see a way that He could help us. We think He is up in heaven, and sure, He can orchestrate big things to happen, but He can’t really help me with my practical problem of needing $50 right now so I can pay my bill. I believe He can help me find a job, but how is He able to make sure my car doesn’t get repossessed while I wait for that job? We think of God as capable of doing all the big things, but we tend to either count Him out for the little stuff or don’t even bother to ask Him because we think He has better things to do. God wants to be in all parts of our lives, not just the big ones. He wants to be in all the little details as well.

The verse ends with, “You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.” When God is our refuge, we don’t have to fear the enemy because we are stronger than anything the enemy has to throw at us.  1 John 4:4 says, “Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” We don’t have to fear what is in this world because Jesus already defeated evil. Evil will not prosper against us. We have the Spirit of the Lord living inside of us, and He is greater than anything else. So, when it comes to us coming up against the lion or the serpent, we don’t have to worry because we will defeat them. We can trample them under our feet. This verse, actually this whole Psalm, is meant to remind us of God’s protection over us. It is meant to help us feel safe and remind us of where our strength comes from.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode. Lord, thank you for the reminder that you are our strength and you are our refuge. Thank you for sending your angels to guard our way also. Lord, you are so amazing! You do so much for us, and I wish there was something we could do for you. Lord, we ask that you help us turn to you in times of trouble. We ask that you remind us of your strength and protection when we forget. Which is probably more often than you would like. Thank you for being so patient with 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 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 Holy Spirit falls upon all peoples of all times. My Holy Spirit seeks a resting place. Open your hearts and souls to provide fertile ground for my Spirit to plant and bring forth fruit for your times. Let go of your wounds and hurts. They are covered by my Spirit who is doing new works in you and for your world.”

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Today, I want to tell you about the retreat I had a few weekends ago. I felt like I would have more people at this retreat than last year. I did have many more people I invited who said they were interested in coming. However, most said they wanted to go but could not make it for the weekend that I booked the retreat house. Three weeks before the retreat, I asked the retreat director, Nancy, a question, and at that time, I only had four people signed up. She told me that she could not pay her staff to come in for just four people. I totally understood this and yet was devastated that I may have to cancel the retreat.

Nancy was super sweet and said that I could still use the retreat house to have the retreat, I would just need to provide the food. She said she would reduce the amount of money that I needed to pay to use the retreat house and that she and her husband would take care of reheating the food, picking up takeout, or helping with whatever we decided to do for food for the weekend. She said she didn’t want me to have to cancel on those who had already signed up. I prayed about it and felt like the Lord still wanted me to have the retreat, even if it was just for four people.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I had four more people sign up, so we were up to 8. Then, two of them had things come up, and they were unable to come. We were down to 6, but with me, that was seven, and I thought that was an ok number. I had wanted more to come, but I understood that people had things going on that weekend. About a week before the retreat, I talked with a friend of mine, and she said she was able to come. This brought us up to 8, including myself. I thought that was a pretty good number. Then, the Wednesday before, another friend asked if she could come. She said she didn’t originally sign up because she needed to cover for someone at church, but that person came home from her trip early, and she was free to come. Then, on Friday morning, another friend called up and asked if it was too late for her to come. She really needed a retreat weekend and was wondering if she could come. I checked with the retreat house, and Nancy said it was not a problem. So, the final count was 10 of us at the retreat.  

I thought this number was small, but those in attendance were happy that there weren’t too many people because it meant they didn’t have to be nervous spending the weekend with 40 other women that they didn’t know. They all got to know each other pretty well. By the end of the weekend, they were hugging each other, exchanging numbers and Facebook profiles, and promising to keep in touch. It was such a great weekend, and it was really great to see the beginning of what I know will be some amazing friendships. I think that is part of the magic of retreat. There are so many nice parts about the retreat: the talks, the activities, and the food, but one of the best is the fellowship with others going through the same kind of stuff. We may not all be going through the exact same stuff, but we are all going through stuff, and to get the opportunity to spend a weekend with other people who are going through stuff and who also love Jesus is a great thing!

Remember above when I said Nancy said I could still use the retreat house, but I would need to provide the food? I was trying to think of what I should do for food. I thought maybe I could do takeout, like pizza and pasta, or maybe grinders. However, now there were ten people, and takeout would get expensive. And what would I order that everyone would like? I decided it would be good to do casseroles. This way, I could make them ahead of time throughout the week, and it wouldn’t be a lot of work for Nancy and her husband. They could just put them in the oven to reheat them.

I spoke with my sister Liz, who is a master party planner. Well, her day job is as a counselor, but her passion is party planning, and she is so good at it. She also loves meal planning and meal prep. She said she could come over the weekend before, and we could make stuff and freeze it. She and another sister, Dee, came over the Sunday before, and we made four quiche, two nondairy egg casseroles, beef stew, chicken noodle soup, and two ranch chicken and potato casseroles. It was amazing because it only took a few hours, and yet we had both days of breakfast taken care of; we had one dinner and one lunch taken care of. I had decided the other dinner would be a chicken and stuffing casserole that I couldn’t make in advance because it is not great to freeze stovetop stuffing. I was also going to cook up some hamburger meat for the second lunch so we could have tacos. What seemed like it was going to be really difficult turned out to be really easy, and everyone ended up really happy with the food.

When it finally came time for the actual retreat, it was amazing! Everyone hit a lot of traffic, so we started late, and yet no one seemed to mind. We started with introductions, and then we ate dinner together. Over the course of the weekend, I gave four talks on the theme’s topic, which was “Come as you Are,” and then I gave two other talks. One was on the reckless love God has for us, and one was on how endless God’s forgiveness is. We also had some free time, Confession and Mass were also available for those who wanted to go. We did an illuminated Rosary where we had tea light candles laid out in the formation of rosary beads, and we lit each candle, well, turned each candle on, as we said each prayer. It was beautiful.

We also had three people who were healed of pain during the retreat. My sister’s back had been hurting her the whole car ride to retreat and for the whole night at retreat. She mentioned it before going to be, so I asked if I could pray over her for healing. She agreed, and God healed all the pain in her back. She was able to go to sleep with no pain, and it did not return. Another woman had fallen several months ago and hurt her elbow. She also had a brace on her wrist because she was told it was bone on bone in her wrist. I asked if I could pray over her for healing, and she said yes. After a few minutes of prayer, God took away some of her wrist pain. She was hesitant to move the wrist too much to test if it was pain-free because if she moved it a certain way, it was pretty painful. However, 30 minutes later, she was moving it all around pain-free! Hallelujah, God is so good!!

Finally, my niece was also on retreat. She came up to me on Sunday morning and said that she needed me to pray over her foot. She said it had been sore for several weeks now, and it wasn’t going away. She was wearing support in her shoe, and that was helping, but she just wanted the pain gone. It was funny, too, because when I pray using the Encounter Ministries model, I always begin by asking them to ask Jesus if He wants to heal them. When I asked her, she didn’t even hesitate. She immediately said, “Yes, I know He wants to heal me. He said it's time to end this,” or something like that. She was so confident God would heal her, and I thought that was such a beautiful thing. I prayed for a few minutes over her foot, and then she walked around to test it out. The pain was gone. Her foot was healed. It was amazing and wonderful. She was so happy! We all just marveled at how good God was throughout the whole weekend. Several of the ladies said that they had breakthroughs while they were journaling through the various info they learned on retreat.

God is so good. If you have never been to a retreat, I invite you to find one and to go. I know many of us think retreats are just for holy people. Yet, the reality is they are for everyday people who love the Lord and just want to have some time away from other people who love the Lord. Regardless of what the retreat topic is or what is planned for the retreat, just that time away from life where you can focus on God is enough to make it worth it. Give it a try, what have you got to lose? I hope you will consider joining me on my next retreat. I will keep you posted on when that is. I am hoping to find somewhere to have one in the springtime.

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Consider Life's Challenges A Gift

James 1:2-4 “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”

I love how God works. Sometimes, I just laugh at how he orchestrates everything and how He just knows what we need to hear. It’s like He keeps telling you something in a bunch of different ways until we get it. If you have been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you probably know how much I love talking about healing. I love praying for people for healing. I believe with my whole being that God can heal everyone, and I will pray with anyone who will let me for God to heal them. As you can probably imagine, not everyone I pray with for healing is healed. This confuses me as I don’t understand why this is.

I know that God’s ways are higher than our ways and that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. I know that God knows infinitely more than we do and that He sees the whole picture when we only see a tiny part of the picture. I know that He knows the future and that He knows what He is doing. I know all of this, and yet I still don’t understand why some people have healed on this side of heaven and some are not. I don’t understand why some people are healed instantly and some take months or years. God and I chat about this often, and He keeps trying to explain it to me, and I don’t seem to be getting it.

This month’s theme is the dark night of the soul. If you are unfamiliar with this, the "Dark Night of the Soul" refers to a spiritual crisis or period of deep inner struggle and desolation, where a person feels distant from God or disconnected from their sense of purpose and meaning. It often involves intense feelings of doubt, confusion, and loss but is ultimately seen as a necessary stage in spiritual growth or transformation. The term originates from the writings of the 16th-century mystic St. John of the Cross, who described it as a painful yet purifying experience that leads to a closer union with God. I had heard of this before. However, I did not know much about it. However, this is what a few people in mentoring wanted me to cover, so I did some research and learned a lot about it.

Yesterday, I decided to get an audiobook by Thomas Moore called, “Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life’s Ordeals.”

In this book, Thomas Moore talks about how we are always trying to end difficult times quickly. If we are sick, we want to be healed immediately. If we are struggling emotionally, we want the struggle to end quickly. If we are uncomfortable in any way, we want to do whatever we need to do to get comfortable as quickly as we can. Thomas said in his book that we are doing ourselves a disservice when we do this. Instead of trying to escape our misery, what if we approached it with curiosity? What if we tried to understand it and what it was trying to teach us? This seemed to stand out to me because I was just talking to a friend the other day about how I just wanted her trouble to end. She was saying that she could see how she would be so much stronger when she was on the other side of this, and I was just thinking, God, can you stop these bad dreams now? Why wait, why keep struggling?

Now, to be clear, although God could stop these bad dreams now, He hasn’t chosen to do so. It is not as if she hasn’t prayed for them to stop. It’s not as if plenty of people haven’t prayed for them to stop. So, it got me thinking maybe Thomas Moore is on to something here. Maybe I am just in a rush to have God heal these people because then they will be more comfortable or out of pain or misery, and yet God knows that the uncomfortable feelings that they feel now are nothing compared to the glory they will feel if they just hold out a little longer.

I have been talking to the Lord for a long time now to try to understand why He does what He does, especially with regard to healing. When I heard this explanation from Thomas Moore, I felt like the Lord was talking directly to me. Then I went to a meeting at Encounter last night where about 16 of my graduating class got together. We try to do this once a month. The topic for last night was a renewal of the mind. We all asked Jesus to show us one place where He would like to renew our minds. This is what I felt like I heard the Lord say, “I would like to renew your mind around healing. Not every person needs to be healed. Sometimes, I do work within the illness I will highlight those I want to be prayed over.” Next, I asked Jesus how He wanted me to think about this mindset. This is what I thought I heard, “I want you to think like I do I want you to know I have my own ways of thinking and reasons for healing that have nothing to do with your ability to pray over people. You are not doing anything wrong, and you are not the reason they are not healed.

Then today, I turned to James in the Bible to look for a verse, as I recently heard someone recommend James as a great place to start if you are new to reading the Bible. I thought I would check it out and see why James was a good place to start. Then, the very first line I read confirmed what God has been telling me lately. I know that was a roundabout way of explaining how I got to this verse and why I thought it was special, but that is what I felt led to share.

I think what this verse is telling us and what God has been trying to tell me is that we can learn from the hard times we are going through. God doesn’t make us sick. He doesn’t hurt us or break our hearts. He doesn’t make us lose our job or lose our loved ones. God is not the cause of our pain and yet He can use our pain for our good. He can take this difficult time you are going through and use it to form you into a stronger, more resilient person.

I know suffering is uncomfortable. I know life can through some pretty crappy things at us, and we just want to escape all of it. We want to be comfortable and skate through life with minimal issues. I get this, and it makes sense. What I feel the Lord is trying to teach me is that God knows how long we need to be in something before it has sufficiently changed us. If we leave a situation too early, we may not have reaped the full benefit from it. Do you know what is even worse than having to go through years of agony? Having to go through years of agony and not reaping any benefits from it.

God knows what we need. He knows our future, He knows our past, He knows our innermost being. He knows how much we can handle, and He knows the perfect time to take us out of the fire so we are pure gold with no more impurities. He has also made it clear to me that this doesn’t mean we need to stop asking for the healing or the relief of the situation. He tells us over and over again in the Bible to be persistent and that He rewards persistence. What He is telling us is that while we are waiting on His perfect timing, we don't have to be frustrated and discouraged. As this verse says, we can “consider it a sheer gift” when life’s challenges come upon us. It is giving us a chance to grow more into the person God is calling us to be. Our challenges help us to become more mature in our faith.

I pray that the Lord continues to renew my mind in this area. I pray He shows me how to be patient in the wait. I pray He shows me how to approach my struggles with curiosity and allows me to have the strength to sit in my struggles without trying to wish them away before they are done doing good work in me. I pray He gives you a renewal of mind also!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we find it so hard to understand how you work sometimes. We don’t understand why you do the things you do, and so we are asking for a renewal of the mind, Lord. Renew our minds and help us think more like you think. Help us to understand a bit more about how you work and why you do the things you do. Help us to see our struggles and building blocks to becoming the person you made us to be. Give us the strength to hold out when we feel like we can’t hold out any longer. Be with us, Lord, every step of the way! 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. If you want more information on the Dark Night of the Soul, please email me at Catherine @findingtruenorthcoaching.com, and you can join us for mentoring tonight. Tonight, I will summarize Thomas Moore’s book, John of the Cross’s book, and St. Theresa of Avila’s books on the Dark Night of the Soul. 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, I am giving you at this moment a greater capacity to see my presence and my gifts to you in each moment of your life. Don't miss the gifts I give you in your sufferings and your struggles. Don't miss the gifts I give you in your joys and your fulfillment. I am always blessing you. I am always gifting you. You will have grateful hearts because you will recognize my love for you.”

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Set Your Minds On Things Above

Colossians 3:1-3 “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

When I read this verse this morning, what stood out to me was when it said, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” This seemed to jump off the page for me. I think the reason for this is because Tony and I have been watching a new series lately. Well, it is actually an old series, but we just started watching it together recently. It is called The Mentalist. It is a really good show that we both really like. The problem with me getting involved in watching a series that I really like is that is all I want to do. I just want to watch the show all the time. However, that isn’t good when I have a job and a house to take care of. Tony and I did a good job of getting out of the house and doing yard work on Saturday. But then we were exhausted and watched about 4 hours of TV after that.

I don’t think watching TV is bad.I think we could all use a break from life at times to just sit and watch something that takes our mind off of life. However, I wish TV was like it was back in the old days when you could watch one episode a week and then you had to wait a week for the next episode. I feel like that lends to moderation much better than streaming does. If you are streaming a show, it is so easy to get addicted and just watch that show and do nothing else for a week or longer. This last time I got COVID, I was stuck in my room for more than a week just to make sure I didn’t get the rest of the family sick. Tony was super sweet and made all the meals and took care of driving the boys to wherever they had to go

The first few days, I was pretty sick, and I had to sleep a lot. I was able to watch some TV, but mostly, I needed to sleep. However, once the first few days passed, I felt better, and I could have used that time in quarantine to get a lot of work done on my book or on something else. I could have cleaned the attic, which always seems to need cleaning. However, I just watched TV the whole time.

I had gone to visit my brother in FL a few weeks earlier, and he and his wife were watching a TV show that looked really good. I thought it was just a few seasons, and I thought it had about 10-12 episodes a season. However, I was wrong. It has six seasons, with most seasons having 20-22 episodes. Each episode is 45 min long. Once I get started in a show, I get so involved all I want to do is watch the show. So, instead of doing something productive while I was sick, I just watched TV from when I woke up to way after I should have been asleep.

I say all of this to explain why I think the words “Set your mind on things that are above” jumped off the page at me. Although I don’t think there is anything wrong with watching TV in moderation, I do feel binge-watching TV for hours upon hours is not good for us. Also, I think what we watch is important too. For instance, if I was binge-watching The Chosen or some TV show/movie about the Saints, then I think it would be better because it would help me grow closer to the Lord. Tony and I went to see the first few episodes of The Chosen, season 4, in the movie theater. We both really enjoyed it and yet we have yet to finish watching Season 4 because we are busy watching other things. Things that are not helping bring us closer to the Lord.

There was a time several years ago when I was very disciplined. I made up my mind on something, and I would follow through. I seem to struggle with that these days. However, back then, I had decided I was watching too much TV, and it wasn’t helping me to be the person I wanted to be. The person God wanted me to be. So I decided I wouldn't watch TV or movies unless it was helping me grow closer to the Lord or unless it was spending time with my family.

This was hard for me as our family was going through some very hard times and there were lots of times when I wanted to escape life and just veg in front of the TV. However, I had made a promise to myself that I wasn’t going to do this. I started watching movies, or episodes on the streaming platform called “Formed.” It is like Netflix, but it only has religious movies or shows. A lot of parishes will purchase a subscription for their whole parish so that all the parishioners can get a code and use it for free. I listened to some great audio teachings, and I watched some great movies about the Saints. It was a really good use of my time and it helped me grow closer to the Lord.

What is the thing that is keeping you away from the Lord? Or, maybe it’s not keeping you away from Him, but it is keeping you from being as close as you could be to Him. Is it keeping busy, filling your schedule with so much stuff that you don’t have time to spend with the Lord? Is it Facebook or other social media platforms? Is it spending too much time out and about with friends and family that there isn’t time left for God? I think this verse is a good reminder for us today that our focus needs to be on things above and not on things of this world. The things of this world will all perish one day, and they will no longer exist. This world is fleeting when we compare it to the eternity we have after we leave this world. Let’s focus on what matters, the things above.

I know that my thing is probably not your thing. The thing that gets in the way of me coming to God is probably something different from what is getting in your way. However, I am willing to bet there is something getting in your way, something distracting you from growing closer to the Lord. Something taking up your time so that you don’t have as much time with the Lord as you would like. Today might be a great day to spend a few minutes to stop and talk to the Lord about what is getting in the way of your relationship with Him. Ask Him what is coming in between you or what is distracting you. If you sit and listen, He will answer you. He will help you to see what is getting in between you two. Then, ask Him what He would like you to do about it. Ask Him how He would like to help you overcome this thing that is getting in the middle of you two. For me, I can already feel Him telling me to stop trying to escape with TV. I can feel Him telling me to spend that time with Him instead. So, I am going to do my best to obey. How about you? What is He calling you to do or to stop doing?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we are sorry that we are focusing on things of this world instead of focusing on things above. We are sorry we are letting things of this world come in between us or distract us from you. We ask for your help, Lord. We ask you to show us anything that is coming in between us, and we ask that you help us to correct it. We want to grow closer to you, Lord. We want to be in union with you, help us figure out how. Help us put you above all else. 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. If you want to join us for mentoring tomorrow night, check it out and see what it is all about, email me and I will send you the Zoom link. [email protected]. 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, “Trust more, surrender more, love more, and I will make you stronger.”

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My Help Comes From The Lord!

Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

I was going to do another part of this verse this morning, and then the song The Lord woke me up happened to be all about the beginning part of this verse. I will cover the other verse in a later episode. I really like this song because it reminds us of where our true strength comes from. It reminds us that no matter the situation we are in, our Lord is there, and He is looking out for us. We can often look to the world for the answer to our problems. We can look to the world for strength, and yet that is not where our strength is found. It says in Philippians 4:7, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The Lord is where our strength comes from, not anything of this world. This is what the song reminds us. The song is called “Shoulders” by For King and Country.

It begins by saying:

… I look up to the mountains

Does my strength come from the mountains?

No, my strength comes from God

Who made heaven and earth, and the mountains

This reminds us that our strength doesn’t come from the mountains it comes from the one that made the mountains. The one who made heaven and earth. Our strength comes from God, who is always there for us. He created everything, including us, and He is always with us.

Next the song says:

… When confusion's my companion

And despair holds me for ransom

I will feel no fear

I know that You are near

God is always near us. The enemy likes to use tactics like confusion on us because it can get us thinking about everything else other than God. He likes to get us focused on specifics and lost in all the weeds instead of focusing on what is most important. Which is that the Lord loves us and just wants us to love Him back. How we love Him can be different for each one of us. The enemy wants to get us confused and focused on all the wrong things. I like how the verse says, “And despair holds me for ransom.” Isn’t that a great visual of how despair works? When you feel despair, you feel hopeless. You feel like nothing will ever change, and you feel like you are held hostage by your feelings and your thoughts. However, you aren’t hostage. That is a trick from the enemy. The Lord wants you to be free. We don’t need to fear. We just need to remember that the Lord is always near us and that He is where our strength comes from. Whenever we are struggling, we can turn our eyes to the Lord and He will give us the strength that we need.

The song goes on to say:

… When I'm caught deep in the valley

With chaos for my company

I'll find my comfort here

'Cause I know that You are near

How many of us have been caught deep in the valley? It wasn’t one we thought we would be in, it just kind of snuck up on us. I think we have all been in a valley at one time or another. Some valleys might be deeper than others, but we have all been in a valley. When we were in that valley, we had chaos for our companion. We were so confused because we knew God, we loved God, and yet we were in this valley and didn’t understand how we were there if we knew God.

If you are in a valley right now, I want you to know that God is right there with you in this valley. I am not sure why He is allowing you to go through this valley, but I do know you are not alone in the valley. I know you may feel alone; that is what the enemy wants you to think, but you are never alone. God is walking right there by your side. In the chaos and the confusion of the enemy, you may not see or hear God, just know that He is there. Reach out to Him and talk with Him. I guarantee He is there with you! You are never alone! Not even for a second.

Next the song says:

… My help comes from You

You're right here, pulling me through

You carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness

All on Your shoulders

Your shoulders

This reminds us that God is our help. He is the one who is right there by our side, pulling us through when we don’t think we can make it another day. Have you ever made it through something and wondered how you made it through? It was because God was pulling you through. He was making sure that the thing He was allowing to happen did not swallow you up and take you out. He knew you needed to go through it, but not so you could get lost in it or be defeated by it.

It says, “You carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness all on your shoulders.” God does this for us. He doesn’t make us carry it alone. He takes our problems, our illness, and our brokenness and carries it on His shoulders to make our burdens a bit lighter. If you haven’t invited God into your current situation can I invite you to do so right now. You will be surprised how much lighter your burdens feel when you invite the Lord in to help you carry them.

… My help comes from You

You are my rest, my rescue

I don't have to see to believe that

You're lifting me up on Your shoulders

Your shoulders

Again, this is reminding us that God is our rest and our rescue. God can give us rest. He can provide all the rest we need if we let Him. Sometimes, we don’t see the rest the Lord wants us to take, and He has to force rest upon us. Sometimes, He provides rest just when we need it the most. God is so good, and He knows what we need. If we won’t take the rest we need voluntarily, sometimes He creates a situation where we need to take a rest and recuperate.

I like how it also says, “I don’t have to see to believe that you are lifting me up on Your shoulders.” I wish this was the case all the time. However, sometimes we do need to see it to believe. We know God is with us, and yet we long to see Him to believe it. I love the visual of God lifting us up on His shoulders. It reminds me of when we were little kids and we got tired of walking, so our dad picked us up and put us on his shoulders. Are you tired of walking? Are you tired of how hard everything is in life? Do you wish things were simpler? Ask the Lord to pick you up and place you on your shoulders. Invite Him into your situation and He will take your burdens from your shoulders and place them on His.

Next the song says:

… You mend what once was shattered

And You turn my tears to laughter

Your forgiveness is my fortress

Oh, Your mercy is relentless

Did you know God could mend what once was shattered? You may have situations in your life that seem like they are beyond repair. They aren’t; the Lord can fix them. You might think your situation is hopeless and that you will be sad forever. You won’t be, the Lord can turn your tears into laughter. I love that it says, “Your forgiveness is my fortress.” We can find so much comfort and even protection in the Lord’s forgiveness. The enemy can try to use the things we have done against us. However, if we hide behind the walls of the Lord’s forgiveness, the enemy can’t get us there. If we remind ourselves of the Lord’s forgiveness, we can be protected from this.

It also says, “your mercy is relentless.” God’s mercy is relentless. It will chase us down. The Lord does not want to lose a single one of His children. He will fight of us. He will come running after us. His mercy can find us in the pit of despair, it can find us on top of the mountain. Wherever we are, God’s mercy and grace can find us and help us.

The song ends with:

… My help is from You

Don't have to see it to believe it

My help is from You

Don't have to see it, 'cause I know, 'cause I know it's true

This is so true. We don’t have to see it to believe it. Sometimes, God works in ways that we can’t see. And yet, we know He is there. We can’t see Him, but we can see the fruit of His work. We can feel the fog lifting. We can feel the depression lifting. At times, we can feel something, and even though we don’t know exactly what it is, we know it is a gift from the Lord. He is so good! We can just believe that the Lord is true to His promises and that He will be there for us when we need Him because He is always right there with us.

I hope this song helped you feel a bit stronger this morning. I hope it reminds you of where your true strength comes from. I hope if you are going through a difficult time or you feel like you could use a bit more strength these days that you hear this song and are reminded of all the ways God can help us. I invite you to go to YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you go to listen to Christian music, and you listen to this song today. It is called Shoulders by For King and Country.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing. We thank you for always being there for us. We ask that if we have forgotten to invite you into our situation, we will do that now. We ask that if we have taken our eyes off of you, you would help us place them back on you. Lord, we love you, and we ask all 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 and may the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.

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 thankful for the gift of praise that you sent to me this day. ”

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Be Strong & Courageous, for the Lord is With You

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

I saw this verse on my refrigerator this morning. A few years ago, someone gave me one of the desk calendars. Each day, there is a new page with a new picture. The photos are of amazing scenery worldwide, and each day has a different Bible verse on it. I hung this one on the fridge because I needed the reminder. Today, I know several of you need this reminder, too!

This is a great reminder to be strong and courageous. A lot is going on in the world right now, both in our own families and our own houses and in the world at large. I know people who are scared because their loved ones had major surgery, and their recovery is going slow. They are worried that things won’t get back to normal or that it will be a long and painful road back to normal. I know someone who is living in her car right now and is tired of not having a safe place to sleep at night. I know someone else who is scared all the time, and she is not sure why. As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why I thought this would be a great verse for today’s devotional.

In this verse, the Lord reminds us not to be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Do we know this already? I wonder if we are scared even though we know the Lord is with us always or if we forget this, and that is why we are scared. It can be one thing to know the Lord is always with you and another to know that He will take care of all things. I was talking with a friend the other day, and she knows the Lord is with her always, and yet she can’t help but be scared of things. This fear that she has did not just develop overnight. She has carried it with her from childhood and is only now finding some freedom from it.

Isn’t it amazing how things from our childhood or past can have such a strong influence on our present and future? Often, we don’t even realize our past is creeping into our present. We know we are scared of something, but we don’t know what. Maybe we are scared of our boyfriend or husband leaving us. We don’t know where this fear is coming from, and yet, if we look back at our past history, we have had loved ones leave us. We might be afraid that our loved one will not recover completely from surgery, and when we look back, we see that in the past, we knew people who had surgery and didn’t recover.

Our past can creep in and try to make us afraid of the future. This is one of the enemy's favorite tricks. He loves to use our past against us. He loves to point out all the places where we messed up in the past and try to get us to believe we will do it again. He loves to point out all the places where people have hurt us in the past and get us to believe they will do it again. We are not our past. Just because something has happened in the past does not mean it will happen again.

It is not easy to be strong and courageous. If it was, everyone would be doing it, and this world wouldn’t be such a scary place. However, it is possible. It says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but of power, love, and self-discipline.” We were not born with a spirit of fear and timidity. God created us with a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. However, sometime in the course of our lives, a lot of us have lost or forgotten about the spirit that God created us with.  We have become afraid and timid. It is time to reclaim our true nature, our true spirit.

The question is, how do we do that? How do we reclaim our spirit of power, love, and self-discipline? I think we can do it by remembering what this verse tells us. We just need to remember that the Lord is with us wherever we go. I think sometimes we think that we can go places that the Lord won’t follow. For instance, we are stuck in a pit of despair, and so there is no way the Lord would be with us there. Guess what? He is right there next to you in that pit. We think He won’t follow us into the hospital or home from the hospital. He is right there next to you as you do your best to help your loved one. God does not leave your side no matter where you go. If you are sleeping in your car, God is sleeping right there next to you.

God is always by our side, and the more we can remember this, the more we will be able to be strong and courageous. The more we believe that God is right there with us, the more we will trust in His protection. I have heard so many stories of people who have been scared and cried out to the Lord, and miraculous things have happened. For instance, one time, a woman was about to walk down an alley, and she saw a man who looked pretty scary at the end of the alley. She asked the Lord for protection. The next day, she read in the paper that a woman was attacked in that same ally that same night. She went to the police station to help ID the man she saw in the alley. When she asked him why he did not attack her when she walked by, he said it was because of the tall guy she had walking with her. She didn’t have anyone but God with her that night. Isn’t that amazing?

God will protect you. He will give you the strength you need. I know some of you need an extra dose of strength today, and He can give it to you. I know some of you need an extra dose of hope today. He has that for you too! The Lord is always with us, and He has whatever we need. He can give us courage and strength, He can give us love and hope, He can give us whatever we need. We just have to turn to Him and ask Him! If you are feeling scared, hopeless, or a little lost today, I want to encourage you to remember that the Lord is ALWAYS with you, even if you can’t feel His presence. Call upon Him and He will be there with whatever it is you need.

Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we need your strength today. We need your hope and your love today. We need to feel your presence today, Lord. We love you, 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. The retreat this weekend was amazing! We had 10 of us all sharing life together and exploring how much God loves us and wants us to come to Him just as we are. I hope you will be able to join us for the next one. I look forward to meeting you hear 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 April 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, “Praise and mention my name wherever you are when you're taking care of someone. ”

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Wisdom for Beginners (Part 5)

Sirach 2:10-11 “Consider the generations of old and see: has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed? Or has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord and been forsaken? Or has anyone called upon him and been neglected? For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of distress.”

This is the last verse in the section called Wisdom for Beginners. I think that it is fitting that it reminds us of how faithful our Lord has been. It begins with “Consider the generations of old and see: has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed?” This is such a great thing to get in the habit of doing. When we are worried, stressed, or think the Lord has abandoned us, we can look back at our own lives and those who came before us and see if the Lord ever abandoned them. Has He ever abandoned us in the past?

Has there been a time when we trusted in the Lord and He let us down or disappointed us? Has there been a time when we trusted in the Lord and yet after we did we realized that we shouldn’t have put our trust in Him? Romans 10:11 says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” You can trust in the Lord. You can believe His promises. You can trust that He will always be there for you.

Next, it says, “Or has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord and been forsaken?” We just talked about fear of the Lord the other day and how that doesn’t mean that we are afraid of the Lord; it means that we look up to the Lord with awe and reverence. It says in Psalm 111:10: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It also says in Proverbs 14:26-27: "He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.” When we have fear of the Lord, we are protected by Him. He is not only looking out for us, but He is looking out for our families as well. Our faithfulness and fear of the Lord will bear fruit for many generations.

Next, it says, “Has anyone called upon Him and been neglected?” What about this one? Have you ever called out to the Lord, and He just ignored you? Have you ever needed Him, and He left you abandoned? The Lord does not do that. When we call out, He comes running. He sends His angels to fly to us at light speed. He does not leave us out in the cold. He does not hear us call out to Him and yet ignores us because He has more important things to do. God has nothing more important to do than to come when you call.

I want to take a minute to talk about something because we must realize this. God is not limited by the same constraints of time as we are. I have been talking with someone recently who doesn’t ever want me to pray over him for healing. I was saying that I didn’t think this person believed that they could be healed by someone praying over them. They said that wasn’t true. They said it was just that they didn’t feel worthy and that God had other more important people to heal.

I understand what this person was saying, and if this is what you are thinking too, then I want you to hear me when I say, “God has nothing more important to do than to heal you, or be with you, or answer your prayers.” God can be with each one of us fully and completely, and it won’t take away from anyone else. I first realized this when I heard a priest tell a story at a retreat one time. He said he was at a football game, and someone took a photo of him saying the rosary at a football game. The caption for the photo was something like, “Father is praying for the football game when there are bigger things we need to pray for, like people dying of cancer.”

The priest said that if we think our God can’t be there at the football game and healing people with cancer at the same time, then our view of God is too small. When we limit God like this, we are putting Him in a box and saying that we don’t believe He is all-powerful. Either He is omnipotent and omnipresent, or He isn’t. An omnipresent god is a god with the ability to be everywhere all at once. If we believe that God is omnipresent, then He can be everywhere all at the same time. He can be healing you or answering your prayers wherever you are located, and He can be on all the other continents, healing people and answering your prayers, too! An omniscient God is a God who knows everything. Such a God would have the power to know the future, the present, and the past. God knows what you are going through, He knows what you have been through, and He knows what you are going to face in the future. God knows everything about you. An omnipotent God is a God with unlimited power. This means God has the power to heal you and everyone else that needs to be healed. It means that healing you doesn’t take away from anyone else’s healing.

I think it is so important to understand this because we might think we are being humble by not asking God for healing. We think we are being selfless and giving up our healing so that someone else who needs healing can get it. However, what we are actually doing is just missing out on our healing because we don’t want to ask for it. We are missing out on our healing because we are placing God in a box and telling Him that we don’t really believe that he is omnipotent or omnipresent. We are telling God that His powers are limited, and so we want Him to save His strength so He can heal someone else who needs it more.

Don’t miss out on all God has to offer you because you feel you are unworthy. We were all unworthy and then Jesus died on the cross to make us worthy. God loves you more than you know. You mean more to Him than you could ever know. He does not want to watch you suffer just because you think you aren’t worthy. He wants to heal you, let Him!

The last line says, “For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of distress.” This last line is important for us all to remember. God is compassionate and merciful. He sees you. He sees the situation you are in, and He can help you. He wants to help you. He knows the pain you are feeling, and He can relieve that pain if you just ask. The Lord can forgive sins. Don’t be afraid to bring your sins to Him. He can forgive them! Just come to Him and admit what you have done. He will forgive you, and you will feel so much better. I know you feel like what you have done is too bad to be forgiven. Yet, nothing is too bad to be forgiven in the eyes of the Lord. He is compassionate and merciful. He forgives sin and saves in times of distress. All you have to do is come to Him.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening today. Lord, we love you, and we trust you. We trust that when we call, you will answer. We trust our lives to you. We trust our sins to you. We trust all to you, Lord. We ask you to help us in all areas of our lives. We invite you in and ask you to help us, Lord. Lord, I ask that you help each person listening truly understand how much you love them and how much you want to heal them or answer their prayers. We love you 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. Mentoring is tonight if you would like to join us there is a link below. This month’s theme is the dark night of the soul. Remember Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day and may the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in April 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, “Speak my name often so that it just rolls off of your lips, no matter where you are and what you're doing, no matter who you are taking care of, no matter who you are touching, no matter what you are involved in. ”

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God’s Foolishness Is Wiser Than Human Wisdom

1 Corinthians 1:25 “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

When I read this verse this morning I thought it was very interesting and so very true.  It is something I don’t thing we often think about.  It is one of those things that when you hear it, you know it is true, but it might never have occurred to you.  I think it is pretty obvious that God is wiser than we are and we know he is stronger than us.  It would not be hard to find evidence to support this and yet I still don’t know if I would have thought of it like this before.  His foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and his weakness is stronger than human strength.  When I find a verse to use, I try to look at the verses around it to get the context and too see what else God wants to tell us.  The verses right after this one are pretty good too.  

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,  so that no one might boast in the presence of God.  He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,  in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” One of my favorite verses/sayings is that God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts greater than our thoughts.  God does not think like we do and He does not do the things that we would do.  

If we really need a prayer answered, or a healing to occur, who do we tend to ask first?  I tend to ask my dad first, as I know he prays a lot and I feel his prayers are answered quickly.  I also tend to ask the ladies in my prayer group because again, I feel their prayers are heard.  Many would go to a priest first.  We tend to go to the people that we think are “holier” than we are.  When someone needs a healing, they tend to want a priest to pray over them as they are very “holy.”  We want the best of the best as we know the stakes are high for some of our prayers.  What I felt the holy Spirit tell me when I began this verse is that is not how the Lord thinks.  Jesus did not come to earth and ask all the teachers, or the priests at the time to be his apostles.  He was not looking for the best and the brightest.  He came and called many who were considered foolish, outcasts, or weak to the rest of the world.  

Some of us may feel we have a calling and then we start to think about all the ways we aren’t good enough to answer that call.  We aren’t smart enough, we aren’t strong enough, we aren’t old enough, we aren’t young enough, we aren’t holy enough and so on.  We list all the reasons why we can’t do the thing that God is calling us to do.  Did you hear that last part, the thing God is calling you too.  Why do we question our call when God is the one doing the calling?  Don’t we know He is smarter than we are?  If he says we are good enough, then we are good enough.  If He says we aren’t too young, too old, to foolish, to sinful, then we aren’t.  It’s crazy how if you asked us if God was wiser than we were we would say yes without any hesitation.  Yet, when we question our worthiness of the call He has given us we are saying the exact opposite.  We are saying that He must be wrong and that we know better than He does.  

When we start to question our calling and when we start to think of all the ways we are not enough, we should stop and think about all those that came before us.  Were they the smartest people around?  Were they the most holiest people around?  Were they the ones you would have chosen?  St. Catherine of Sienna is a doctor of the church and yet when she was a child she had great difficulty learning to read and did not learn to write until she was an adult.  There were plenty of religious leaders at the time that Jesus came and yet He did not call the religious leaders to be his disciples, he called every day normal people like you and me.  He also called people like Matthew, who was a tax collector.  That is not someone any of the other apostles would have chosen.  God knows what He is doing.  He has placed a call on each and every one of us and it is a call He chose specifically for us.  It is perfectly suited for our strengths and weaknesses.  He knows us better than we know ourselves.  Trust in Him and his ability to know you and what you can and can’t do.

Right at the beginning of writing this episode I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me that this is a two way street.  He wants us to believe in our calling and also to believe in other’s calling as well.  The same things I just said about your calling apply to others as well.  Trust in the Lord’s ability to call others as well.  Sometimes we may see a priest at the pulpit and we might thing they don’t seem the most qualified to be giving a sermon, or we see someone on the street talking about God and we might think they are not qualified to be talking about God.  We might see our loved one volunteering at a soup kitchen and think they aren’t qualified, or a friend who wants to be in a healing ministry and yet you know they aren’t qualified. My question to you is, “who are we to judge their qualifications?” God gave them the calling, not us.  Why do we think we know better than He does?  

I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling us not to dismiss the answer to our prayers because it didn’t come in the package we thought it would.  For instance, a young kid makes a profound comment and yet you blow it off because he is too young to know what he is talking about.  A person in the line at the grocery store asks to pray for you and you say no because how powerful could her prayers be anyway.  Someone offers to pray over you for healing and they are not a priest so you say no.  God did not come to use the best of the best.  Yes, those he used did become the best of the best, but that was only after they agreed to be used by God for whatever He called them too.  The power of prayer, the wisdom, the strength that we have, that all comes from God.  This is what the verse is trying to tell us when it says, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,  so that no one might boast in the presence of God.”  God chose the ones that He chose because that way all would know that it was Him and not the person.  

If someone that is not well educated, has not gone to fancy schools, has not studied theology and yet they can speak eloquently, wisely and authoritatively about the church and its teachings, that person can not boast in their own abilities as those abilities are through the power of God.  If you want a greater example of this go back into the Old Testament and read Judges 7 about Gideon and His army.  Gideon was severely outnumbered with his army of 30,000.  However, God had Him send almost everyone home and just had him keep 300 men.  He wanted to make sure the Isrealites knew it was God who was winning the war.  If we rely on our own strength, wisdom and power, we would claim all the glory, that is our fallen, broken, nature.  However, if we have no power, no strength and no ability, then we know it was all God who accomplished the impossible thing.  All the glory goes right to God where it rightfully belongs!  

The next time you need help, remember to turn to God first.  Also remember that He can send help through anyone.  Don’t judge the person or the way God decides to help you.  Remember that God can use anyone at anytime for anything.  They don’t have to already know how to do the thing, they don’t have to be full of natural wisdom or talent.  One of my favorite sayings I ever heard is, “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.”  If you say yes then God will give you all you need to succeed.  The same is true for every person that He calls. When He calls you don’t worry if you are enough, He will give you all you need to be enough.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we know you are wiser than we are and stronger than we are.  Help us not to forget it!  Help us to lean into you and to trust that when you call us to something we don’t have to be afraid to say yes because you will be right there with us giving us all we need to succeed.  Lord, help us to look at others in the same way.  Help us to not judge others or to question their call.  We love you Lord, you are amazing.  I am seeing so many answered prayers around me and I am 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.  If you would like to purchase an autographed copy of my book there are still some available on my website.  I want to thank you all for your support and ask if you wouldn’t mind sharing my podcast or my book with just one person over the next week.  It would really help me out.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

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