act on it

P 3442 Keeping our love ON.

/ DVH

One way or another, I have spent a great deal of my time in hospitals. I am not saying that to gain sympathy, it is simply true. Meanwhile I don’t like them. I feel like someone is going to pop out of the ether, and decide I need this ghastly test, or that. Or maybe some super keen doctor will sentence me to four hours of waiting in a chair. While I try not to mind my life being whittled away by people in white coats. Yeah, I have a bad attitude. The Lord reminded me this morning that sick people go to hospitals, “the fields are white!” He said. “I need more energy Lord,” I said!

Remembering to keep our love ON can be difficult at times, especially when we’ve spent a lot of our lives living the other way. Here’s what Jesus said:  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ Matthew 7:13-14. Yeah, I wish He hadn’t said that too … but He did. The narrow gate needs to be sought and found – it isn’t like the yellow brick road, wide and obvious!

The people who travel this narrow road study LOVE. How it works, what it looks like when we do it. The Lord has said some tough stuff in the scriptures, but when I look at the way I’ve chosen to live in the past, I am so grateful for His wisdom – I need to hear it! It wasn’t that I didn’t try to obey Him, but I know I gave complaining equal footing in my life. A grateful heart is a fantastic blessing, in the list of blessings God has given us. Let’s stop searching for the fake gold of this world, and start digging for the real treasure … Jesus Himself.

However, we will have to fight any Goliaths that have taken up residence in our lives. Those things that bellow and hurl threats of doom and despair at us, and others, through us. He yells that he will kill us, our friends, our families, plus everyone we love, to create fear. Love can’t flourish in an atmosphere of fear. We must trust the Lord to take care of us. David ran at Goliath, but he left his big brothers up on a hill hiding behind rocks! His brothers had a problem … but David didn’t! His faith in Almighty God saved an entire nation that day.

The thing I love about this young man is that he believed in the God Who was with him, when he faced Goliath. We are so much better off than David was, we have the same God IN us. That thing that we think we can’t possibly fight, we don’t ever have to fight it alone. He will be with us. He promised, so let’s choose to believe Him! David was no more alone on that battle field than WE are. Jesus told us that He has given us His power, and we need to believe Him and act on it. Then we can go to our enemy’s camp and take back what he has stolen from us. 

People spend time praying to become everything the Lord God means for them to be. I want to add that it is also good to pray that we would identify and throw off all those weights the enemy has been laying on us since birth … “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1. WE do that, God doesn’t do it for us – He does it with us!

We may not feel like we can outrun the Goliaths of this world, but we can definitely learn to outwait them. BTW, “outwait” is a verb meaning to stay longer than someone else, or to wait until a bad event or time finishes.” Perseverance is a vastly underestimated Grace. It comes directly from the fruit of “patience, faithfulness, and self-control.” We have eternity on our side – satan does not, and he knows  it! If we do not faint in our journeys with Jesus — we will win. Don’t look at problems as forever things, once we give them into His hands who knows what He will do with them?

Doing the things we hate is another form of worship, as we do them “as unto the Lord.” Let’s face it, without the Holy Spirit’s help, none of these things are actually appealing. They are easy to read, but it is much harder to motivate yourself to do it. We want to raise the dead and heal the sick, and have a ministry, etc. But Jesus wants us to be bullet proof — He cares about our hearts first. And Paul gave us a list of things that we need to remember to wear. So as we put on the full armour of God, we put on those things are illustrations of the new way we’ve chosen to live now. This is how it works:

‘Always speaking HIS truth;  remembering we have Christ’s righteousness as a gift to clear our path;  at the same time we are always ready to share the gospel;  and our faith guides us and prompts us to act. Together with the knowledge that Jesus died to save us and now we have the Holy Spirit with us.’ Let’s embrace active cultivation, through our own personal choices, and make room for the growth of the fruit of the Spirit. As we “…put on love, which binds …(all the other graces) … together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14. We can’t be patient, kind, self-controlled etc. without LOVE leading us. 

Doing things we dislike is a challenge, but there are so many riches that are already in place, waiting for us to draw upon them. So let’s focus on the Lord and His blessings, not our feelings.. Our faith when it is active, will give all these things, substance. They become evidence in our lives of His Presence.  The answer is simple — don’t take your love off … Jesus’ love is always on! Bye. 👋

P 3320 Faith has substance.

/ DVH

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask Him to strengthen you by His Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite Him in. And I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14.

There’s Paul praying for us all again! He shows us that we don’t have to see something to respond to it. God’s love has substance- the substance is in the bible. When we talk about substance, we are talking about things that can be seen when we use our faith. Just because something is intangible, that doesn’t mean it isn’t substantial. The substance reveals itself with action. God’s love isn’t just an expression in a book — He chose to come here, and be just like us. Jesus cried, was fed, burped, lulled off to sleep as an infant. When He cried there were real tears!

The reality is, any part of humanity can see and experience His love, because we, as His kids, choose transformation over information. We act on the premise that: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. The way we live gives faith substance to other people. We are His love on display, as we act, speak, and interact with others. At the same time believing what God said and actively responding to it, takes our hope in Him, and turns it into something substantial. Love has put us on a road in Australia, distributing blankets, bibles, prophetic, insightful words from the Lord for the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. God’s love has evidence. Our faith-in-action is the outward exhibition of it showing the world what He is like.

He says it, then we choose to believe it and so we go and act on it. If I am reading the bible and it says that I have a problem with my brother or sister in Christ — I don’t use my rational mind to discount what He said — even if I can’t think of anyone I’m mad at! Instead I ask the Lord, in prayer. “Lord would You please show me who I need to forgive, or who needs me to ask them for forgiveness.” My rational mind might excuse me, but the bible clearly says: “I am inexcusable.” (Romans 2:1.) Dead people don’t decide if something is wrong or right – instead we choose to ask the King!

Otherwise I can be guilty, but unaware of my guilt, simply because I can’t see myself clearly. To see myself clearly I have to look in God’s mirror, the bible. (James 1:22-25.) Personally, I try avoid ordinary mirrors like the plague, because when I look in them I think: ‘Who the heck is that chubby old elderly lady?’ I have had to learn that my perception of who I am doesn’t match up with reality! This can happen to anyone of us spiritually, we can get so busy, looking and sounding right, that we have no time or energy left to participate in living right. So when we ask for forgiveness, our faith in God’s all encompassing forgiving love is it’s own substance – we go and apologise and make reparation..

The Lord’s answer to man’s dilemma has always been astonishing and comprehensive. God’s faith had substance —Jesus (God Himself) came here, as a MAN and allowed mankind to punish Him. He literally took our place in the dock and became ‘the accused’ for us. “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].” Isaiah 53:4.

Some people look at Jesus Christ and say — ‘well, He must have done something wrong, and that’s why they killed Him.’  But He was blameless. Perfect in His attitudes, heart, and mind. It seems to me that our idea of ‘right’ leaves a lot to be desired. It can be affected by our friends, families, moods and trends. We need a steadfast guide, and Father God has provided SomeOne for us, He sent us the Holy Spirit together with the bible. James 4:17 gives us this bit of clarification: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do, and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” James knows that words lack substance without actions to back them up.

By doing what He did, the Lord Jesus chose to become a door, a way for any one of us to reconcile with Father God. Somebody had to die for mankind’s sin and Jesus did. If He hadn’t chosen to do it, hell would be full with every single human being who had ever lived. Our own self-cultivated attitudes, actions and appetites make it easy for the enemy to lead us astray. Which is why we cannot afford to look down on some awful schmuck who does some dastardly thing. None of us know what we are capable of until we are desperate and cornered.

Sinful appetites and attitudes will continue to grow, while we choose to rationalise them. Our faith needs prayerful, intentional Holy Spirit-help and inspired self-denial. Let’s choose to give our faith substance by acting on what we say we believe. Bye 👋.

P 3229 YOU are His House.

/ DVH

“Here’s the one thing I crave from Yahweh, the one thing I seek above all else: I want to live with Him every moment in His house, beholding the marvellous beauty of Yahweh, filled with awe, delighting in His glory and grace. I want to contemplate in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 TPT.

It is so easy to read lovely scriptures like this one and think of God’s house as being somewhere else. Like in  heaven, or at church, or bible study, or in our worship times. Let’s look carefully at this next scripture, which I’m sure we all know very well, however, I’m not positive we are actually applying ourselves to live it out. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is IN you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” I Corinthians 6:20.

Yeah! Sobering thought. We, you and I … are now HIS house! If we want Jesus to ‘hang with’ us, we need to make His house a place He would like to inhabit. And we’ve gone about doing this the wrong way in the past. God loves the things that last. “Faith, hope and love,’ that’s what we are aiming at. His temple is not just some hypothetical glorious ideal, far, far away from us. This verse clearly shows us we are individually responsible for the state of His house. Knowing this is the beginning of change, but it won’t actually change the way we think, until we digest it and grab hold of it and act on it. Holy-Spirit guided action can, and it will. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20.

I can’t tell you what that will mean to you, but I can tell you a few of the kind of things that have affected me, and none of them are about what I eat, or what I watch on TV, or read etc! The first one is something that I call: “feeding the doubt.” FAITH! Doubt happens when I start ruminating over anything that isn’t working out the way I thought. The thing is, God’s temple is dedicated to Him and what He wants, so what I think I need or want, pales into insignificance. His Will His Way needs to be my permanent motto. And our God loves faith. So I repent. 

I may not think I have done anything wrong, but I choose to actively trust the Holy Spirit to know what HE likes. It’s His house, so I want His desires. I need to stir up my faith and talk to the Lord about His goodness to me. Then I ask for His help to remember those times when I have trusted Him, and I’ve seen Him graciously do the miraculous in my life. All those little things that don’t matter to anyone else, but they have impacted me greatly. Remembering His goodness is a great active sword. Whenever my faith falters, I need to stop, and reestablish the fact that He is good.

The next is to actively keep my HOPE in His goodness alive, in a primary place in my heart. Because without that hope, I will start trying to solve my problems by myself. His hope is my anchor. Hope anchors me into the bedrock solidity of His never-ending-always-present love. Otherwise I can float about being affected by the wash of someone else carelessly speeding past me. Now I keep on doing whatever my day brings up, I go over everything good in my life that He has given me, and thank Him for those things. I can also thank Him for saving me, and continually washing me with His Word.

This last thing that affects me is equally important – loving other people extravagantly. This bit is where we counteract what other people do. If I do good things for a return, I am expecting a benefit from this world. My hope will be shattered. When I do the things, He asks me to, as He leads me, especially for people who don’t deserve it – It becomes extravagant LOVE. This can sound impossible, especially if the person/s involved aren’t super-duper sweet guys. In other words, we aren’t exaggerating when we say we can’t love them, because they are, humanly speaking, not nice folks.  

Actually, loving not-so-nice people extravagantly is actually easier than loving the people that you deeply love, who have treated you badly. The more invested we are in the person, the harder it gets to be obedient. We can think up lots of excuses to opt out of obedience, when someone we love mistreats us. Things like thinking they should know us better, or give us their best behaviour all the time.  How realistic is that?? 

The reality is, people are human beings. Some things – even if they seem easy to you – can be hard for others. This is the time we need to remember that people will let us down, but the Lord never ever will. We have to switch our focus off them, onto Him. They can’t do everything we need – but Jesus already did!  Loving extravagantly means we lavish love on others, even when it is undeserved. This is the kind of love that blows people away. It’s not just nice, or kind, it is over-the-top love, the kind Jesus gave away all the time. 

Loving others extravagantly reaps a harvest. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9. I call this kind of verse, the kind of verse we try not to memorise because it seems too difficult to practice! The bible has loads of those. The ones we skip and hope God isn’t looking. Because we are His house – we actually don’t have that luxury. Remember, right here, right now – you are His house. Bye. 👋

P 3195 Respond.

/ DVH

“Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.” Romans 10:17 TPT. 

The important word in the above scripture is respond. This is how we grow our faith, by actively responding to what Jesus says. The meaning of respond is — “do something as a reaction to someone or something.” Hebrews 11:1 says:“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  The thing is we want evidence to help us believe, but the lack of evidence is the very thing that stimulates and grows faith. So if our faith lacks substance it means we are not doing anything about what we believe!

Our response is always optional because Jesus won’t make us do anything! However, it is imperative and essential that our faith produces something more substantial than words. Let’s look at this a bit more deeply. In Isaiah 29:13 the Lord has been angry with Israel and He talks about His anger, because His people say one thing, but do another. He calls that lip service, and that is not a good look for His people. “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment taught by men,…”  

In the New Testament in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…” These  scriptures are not just for our information. They are written to teach us how to live. Training in righteousness is about acceptance, repetition and practice, it is not just about learning the language so we can fit in or have an opinion. Training implies effort, and that effort is to help us take what we hear, and act on it. We are to do more than just agree with the sentiment or the language. Our task is to make the faith He has given us real in our everyday lives. 

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and do many mighty works in Your Name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23. 

Chunky stuff eh? Not to be trifled with, and yet it seems so harsh. It is amazing that Jesus would say something so direct and severe. It seems to me that there are two kinds of Lordship, the one that it is in name only, and someone who chooses to live like Jesus would – if He were here with us today, in Person. Whether we are at home, alone, at school, or in the middle of our work environment. Lordship is not something to be trifled with. It is clear Jesus takes it extremely seriously! So we need to take it seriously too. 

The next issue is how? How do we live in His Lordship, day after day and night after night? The only way I know  is to choose to make quality decisions, minute by minute, and stick by them. Well meaning, sincere declarations at an altar made in a moment of time, don’t always work! They must be followed up by training.  Eventually we will begin to exchange the habits of a lifetime through prayer and practice. I’ve found some habits, some ways of thinking, are harder to shift than others. I think the secret is in what David did. He took his reference point for using his faith, from his experiences of God’s Grace in the past. 

Living in and giving away Grace is essential to the Lord’s kind of inward transformation. We cannot maintain grudges etc. and keep moving. Think of your internal heartache as mountains that will not stand a chance, because Jesus is on the scene. Remind yourself and the enemy, that the Lord Jesus once cursed a tree and it was dead as a dodo the next day! Everything in the bible has a practical application. We will just have to look for, and seek those applications out for ourselves and then live them out.

Second-hand information can seem to profit our emotions temporarily, and even stir us – but it is our commitment to find out for ourselves that causes transformation. Daily the Lord says: ‘Will you walk with Me today?’ That’s when we will have to file all our past failures and disappointments away into His hands — under: “things I will understand one day in the future.’ Or …’maybe I won’t understand but I won’t give a darn by then.’

Job’s response to all kinds of pressure was this: “Even though He kills me, I’ll continue to hope in Him. At least I’ll be able to argue my case to His face!” Job 13:15. Letting go is the only way forward that will lead us into living in His peace. Remember, it’s His peace, so we must do it His way! The bible is crystal clear that our God’s ways are not our ways, so our lack of mental or emotional understanding is irrelevant. Unfortunately, the person who needs to make this kind of decision is always ME – you can’t do it for me, I can’t do it for you. 

Our responses matter. We have entered into a time where our training often happens under duress. That stretching and buffeting could cause us to doubt He will help us, but the way to learn that the Lord is utterly good and reliable, is to live like He is utterly reliable! Talking about it doesn’t make it real – acting on what He has said makes it real and gives it substance.. Our responses count. Bye 👋

P 3182 Gold can be found by a smart seeker.

/ DVH

Here’s a fairly common family scenario – it’s early, you just got up, and you have 40 things to do before you leave for work, and suddenly the dog throws up in the lounge. When you’ve dealt with all that, plus getting kids off to school — you pray, and hope that somehow, something from reading the bible might fall into place. Meanwhile you are actively looking for encouragement, because you are already stressed!

The following parable gives us an example of adaptation, doing what we know realistically, we can do, rather than stuffing too much in, hoping we will somehow slide by. Remember, we are not reading for the sake of learning or understanding it, we are reading the bible trying to find something to DO. Our aim matters. I have sometimes read 3 words, and had enough food to keep me chewing on it all day. We are aiming at digesting truth so that our behaviour changes. Jesus is explaining that even a crook knows how to make the best of a difficult situation!

The following parable seems very puzzling, because it appears inconsistent with everything else Jesus teaches. This manager is a lazy crook and a bad servant, and yet the Lord is commending him. But this manager knew how to survive in difficult circumstances. I think sometimes we give up too soon, and so we adapt our aim to facilitate our TIME, instead of making HIM our priority. So we aren’t aiming for food—instead we are settling for soothing our conscience. 

In Luke 16:1-13 MSG Jesus said to His disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’“The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’

“Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’“He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’“To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’“ He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’“Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behaviour.”

This sneaky manager, found a way to gain something to benefit him despite his circumstances. He did what he could to survive. Reading paragraphs in the bible when you have no time may not help you survive spiritually. Why not read just one or two verses, and chew on them, and find something to do in them, and then do it. Fresh bread from heaven, doesn’t have to be a whole loaf, it can be a small slice instead! Valuing God is about looking for what He wants to say to you personally, rather than treating Him like a chore you must perform. I consider going over and over the things that I don’t really understand, extremely valuable. So I pray ‘please help me understand this Lord,’ and I keep on doing that until I get an answer. 

I was impacted by these two verses – V9-11:“I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to CREATIVE SURVIVAL to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behaviour.” See what I mean? When you are having “a day’ and it is not a good one, doing something is better than doing nothing at all. Even though doing nothing is far more tempting! It is much easier to say: ‘I’ll catch up tomorrow,’ When we do this we’ve missed the point, it is not the amount of scripture we read that matters – it is the attention we give to it while we are reading it. It’s the chewing that matters.That plus the actions we deliberately choose to carry out, to bring what we’ve read to life in our lives.

This steward was lazy etc. but he did something and it saved him. He didn’t get his old job back, but at least two other men would have been quite happy to employ him because he helped them out! Meanwhile his old boss received a benefit as well. Before, when this manager did what he did – his old boss wasn’t going to receive any payment at all!  We all need to be smart and prioritise the right things. You don’t have to read 12 chapters, so long as you keep putting what it says into action!

Even a little bit of God’s Word, when you act on it to digest it, will keep you going spiritually. We make friends with unrighteous mammon when we are realistic about what we can actually do and still prioritise our relationship with Him. Jesus Himself said: ‘every word’ that comes out of God’s mouth has power in it.’  We are better off to take in the little we can digest, rather than bite off huge chunks that get relegated into never-never-land and simply add to what I call ‘overall knowledge!’ Stuff that lies about in our brains and doesn’t benefit us because we didn’t give it enough attention. Make your situation work for you. With reading comes digestion.

The Gospels and Epistles are great places where we can find stuff we can do. Read and reread and then insist in your prayers that you want more than lip-service. Gold can be found by a smart seeker. Bye  👋

P 3007 “Take My yoke upon you … and learn from ME!”

/ DVH

Whatever we want to learn about God’s kingdom can’t be second-hand knowledge, because that stuff will simply fill our brain and puff us up! Unless we choose to action what we’ve heard it can’t change our lives! I can carefully listen to my pastor, but unless I go away and pray over the things he said, I’m deceiving myself. Meanwhile the pastor is probably praying everyone listening to him will action what he says in the first place! Because when we act on what we’ve heard – that introduces opportunities for inner transformation. 

God’s word is ‘near us’ when we study it and want to understand it… but it becomes a part of who we are when we act on it. However! When I enforce the Word on myself, without asking for the Holy Spirit’s help, I can develop things that are not desirable. I can easily become proud and religious, or easily intimidated, and overwhelmed by life’s circumstances. James clearly tells us how to make the bible a part of our inner selves:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” (Chapter 1 – Verses 22-25)

We can so easily be self-deceived if we read the Bible and then dismiss what we read as something ‘that doesn’t apply to me.’ Maybe we don’t want to face a realistic picture of ourselves? Instead, it is wise to ask the Holy Spirit to show you where what you have read applies to you and what He wants you to do about it.. Father God wants us to become so saturated in His Word through our actions, that wherever we go … we respond just like Jesus did. He didn’t just speak, He acted.This means our behaviour will change and other people will see God in action in us and through us. 

Willingly forgiving anyone in all kinds of circumstances, is a sign of God’s Word on the inside. So is generosity in all our dealings with other people. If we pray for patience, and then give up when it seems like nothing has happened, that’s when we need to carefully survey our surroundings and the people in them, and look for the ones that drive us crazy! These people are our God-given test cases. After we find them, we need to go on to thank Him for these impossible people who are giving us daily opportunities to change the way we respond. Instead of cursing them, this is an opportunity to bless them.

Likewise, when things don’t work out according to our prayers, we need to reinforce our faith with action, instead of worrying or panicking. Like I said yesterday, God always has a bigger plan. The thing to do is to keep our hope in His redemptive power alive, through prayer, thankfulness and HIS WORD. His absolutely totally reliable goodness is our eternally, ever-fixed mark. We hold onto His promises and keep the faith that God is good, all the time. This means that if we cannot see any good — then we are not through the difficulties …YET!… Hold fast! …“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. 

Our faith is always in God Himself, not just in what He does or how He does it. When our faith is in how God does stuff we can misguidedly try to manipulate our circumstances, or the Lord Himself, into doing whatever it is we want. Almighty God won’t be fooled by this deception. We are not God, He is!

I think we have totally misunderstood the Way faith works. We can rush about quoting this scripture. and that passage, up one hill and down the other, but all we are doing is bludgeoning our faith, trying to make it fit and submit to a standard that we think we need from it. Faith is not about getting – it is about Giving God Glory at any time, in any place. It’s about Him — not how well, or poorly we use it. Our faith has substance because God Himself has substance!

I have yet to get excited about being overtaken by trouble and difficulties … but I am learning if I go to the Lord and ask Him what He wants me to do about the situation I am facing … He will answer me. I want to learn – and I know that Jesus wants to personally teach me. I’ve picked up the yoke of walking together with Him. The Lord was human just like me, tempted the same ways I have been – He understands the weariness that can overtake us in the middle of the battles we face. Sometimes we need to know the way THROUGH situations rather than the way OUT.

The Holy Spirit will always be our personal Leader and Guide. He leads us through any wildernesses in this life. He tells us daily how to walk, where to go, and what to do. Just three minutes ago, hubby texted me to say that he had met 9 Samoan fruit pickers and given them all bibles. He was just going about his business in the little town of Mundubbera in outback Queensland!  Almighty God is the best co-ordinator ever!!

He is all WISE, all KNOWING and… FOR US! Let’s learn personally from Him, through our circumstances – good and bad. When we pick up Jesus’ yoke and deliberately learn from Him, we are honouring Him and His Ways above all else. Bye.🤚