1 Samuel 17:34-36

P3454 Remembering Helps!

/ DVH

“…and when He (Jesus) had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My Body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 ESV. 

People participate in this scripture in a number of ways – all of them are wonderful and worth doing. From blessing our food and drink daily, to taking communion together, and reminding ourselves that Jesus’ broken body and shed blood makes a way for us to be able to run to the Lord any time we need to, or want to do it! He is here to help us.

Remembering the Holy Spirit is a great daily aim. The thing that stood out to me, in 1 Corinthians were the words … “remember Me.” These verses are a prompt to help us to value our memories of good, moment by moment, during each and every day. I liked that thought. So much crowds in on us during our daily lives, lots of things that demand our attention, it means that Jesus sometimes becomes an after-thought — if He is even a thought at all … and I’m not condemning anyone! Let’s pull our focus off the situations around us, and back onto the One Who is here to help us – the One Jesus relied upon.

Many years go, I had 3 children under 5. Trust me, you are lucky to be able to think at all when you have babies or toddlers. It was over 50 years ago, and yet I still remember the endless  wailing and feeling powerless to help the child! Not to mention the futility of trying to quiet an infant when you have no clue what caused the problem in the first place. New mothers, take this from me, please — these days will pass away and you will look back at them with bitter sweet sadness… especially the part where they hadn’t learned to say “NO!” yet. Whenever you can, enjoy the little ones.

Parenting is not about perfection, it simply requires plenty of  participation. We can’t prevent the lumps and bumps of this life happening to our kids – it’s all prep for adulthood – yours and theirs! One day soon all the intense work that goes into raising an infant will go away, and you are left with raising a brand new human being, with its own will and preferences. Parenting is not as much fun as the magazines pretend it is, and, trust me, we all fail at it – despite our dedicated efforts. Remembering Him helps us keep our cool when we can’t cope with our inadequacies.

I am learning that reflecting on the things that the Lord helps us with — successful times from the past — can often help us get through the things happening right now. David did it in 1 Samuel 17:34-36  “But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.” Please let us remember, David is talking about two really really bad things … a lion and a bear. This is not a kitten or a cuddly toy!

And he took the past, his own personal experiences with God, and used it to do two things. It gave him courage and confidence for now. And then he used it as a weapon so he could carry out the next thing. Remembering is a very valuable tool, when Jesus Himself asks us to do it. When we are hurting, sometimes we need to be our own cheer squad. Some people enjoy writing a journal, my hubby does it periodically, and it blesses him to go back over the things that the Lord has said, and done, in the past.

Jesus asked us to remember Him when we take communion, when we eat, when we sleep, when we wake up — even as we are going about our normal lives. His Presence goes before us, and comes behind us as we walk this walk of faith. “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:8. 

Nothing happens to us that the Lord Himself doesn’t know about. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago.  I will consider all Your works and meditate on all Your mighty deeds.” Psalm 77:11,12. It is so beneficial to our faith to remember the things He has done, especially when we feel oppressed,  ill, or even a bit depressed. You know, it is of no use to pretend that Christians don’t struggle with mental disease … that’s what it is …. mental DIS-ease. Something inside our thinking is not helping us, and we are no longer at ease. 

One of the best ways I know to help that, is to phone a friend, or if you pray in tongues do that. And if you are locked in then please don’t beat yourself up. Life may seem to be suffocating you and you do not need “ought to” and “must” sitting on your heart and mind as well. God loves us as we are. If we could perfect ourselves we would not need a Saviour! Maybe we have allowed some squirrelled up ideas about appearances and expectations to put even more pressure on our faith. These things deny our humanity. (2 Corinthians 1:8; Matthew 26:36-46.) 

I urge everyone to cultivate the remembrance of good in your life. Was someone kind? Thank them, and tuck that kindness in your heart, you might need it someday. Remembering helps us to keep on pressing on. Bye. 👋.

P 3126 Get rid of unrealistic expectations.

/ DVH

I lived the major part of my Christian life full of unrealistic expectations. This went on for a very long time. I thought I needed a  transforming touch from the Holy Spirit, but no matter where I went, nothing changed permanently. I always enjoyed the experience, but nothing changed for me until I took His Word seriously. It has taken me years to learn that a default approach to my relationship with the Lord was not part of God’s plan. 

I discovered that most Christians were like me – not like my favourite teachers, preachers and authors! The majority of the brethren were struggling too. That didn’t mean we were getting it wrong – it meant that our Precious Father wanted to be closer to US, personally. Getting a touch was wonderful, but in any relationship – the best solution to distance – is time and deliberate devotion. Finally, I realised that my future lay in whatever He wanted to personally say to me, day by day. 

Almighty God wants us to seek Him – that’s all over the book! And this will involve each one of us making an effort to prioritise Him, and contributing more than just a cursory nod to Who He is. When you have a busy life, it is so much easier to let someone else who has made all that effort, speak to you. However, it is so wonderful when we realise God really does know MY name, and He wants to personally interact with me, and speak to me, every day through His Word.

Inspiring podcasts are great, watch them. Christian books can encourage us, read them. However, we already have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Their promise to help us personally. Not to mention the bible itself! To be honest, I think that many authors only seem to write about the good bits in their lives. They write about successes and their own personal victories. The hard bits often only come up when they can show us how it brought them to victory! YOU are not a failure in God’s eyes – and His eyes are the only ones that count.

Let’s participate in, and praise Him for our very own personal victories. Those victories will be hard-fought but worth every second of our time! Someone else’s successes are no help at all when stuff is flying at us, and we feel like we are drowning. We need to see God at work in our own lives like David did. “But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”1 Samuel 17: 34-36. David made a scary decision based on his own previous experiences – he had a personal victory to draw upon.

Our daily focus belongs to the Lord Himself. Who He is. What He has done. What He is still doing. What He will do. Other people’s testimonies can help to lift us up when we feel flatter than a cane toad hit by a lorry — but we too can get squashed in many ways, especially when other people appear to cope with their spiritual lives better than we do! Don’t lose heart, your faith is SO precious to Him. The Holy Spirit Himself has already provided us, in the bible, with all kinds of people whose stories and insights, have survived mankind’s whimsy and fashion’s dictates.  

Let’s look at Daniel 11:32. It is an interesting discourse about what happens to God’s people who like their ears tickled by foreign Kings with an agenda.“With smooth words [of flattery and praise] he will turn to godlessness those who [are willing to] disregard the [Mosaic] covenant, but the people who [are spiritually mature and] know their God will display strength and take action [to resist].” 

The way for us to be able to resist our enemy is to KNOW OUR GOD, for ourselves – like Daniel and David did. We must become single-minded. An archangel came to Daniel after an elongated period of prayer, in chapter 10, verse12. “Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”This shows us that GOD HEARS OUR PRAYERS … but … we are all in a war! An archangel had come to encourage Daniel, and prophesy about the future. He tells Daniel that God has got the situation, the trouble will come to an end.

This mighty angel concludes by saying this 12:3-5: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”  My last point today is this: troubles, trials and difficulties are part of following Jesus. (John 16:33) But we dare not allow other people to steal away our own personal hiding place. JESUS is that hiding place! We need to know and trust Him, so we can run to Him, in any disaster, pain or suffering that seems to want to drown us. 

These two men of God didn’t just have to deal with their situations, they had to learn to deal with themselves, then their responses led them into a deeper relationship with God Himself. To live like that we will have to prioritise what God says. The Lord does not always want to take us out of trouble, instead He wants us to learn how to go through it and come out the other side, unscathed! Bye. 👋