Affections

P 3475 Pause, remember … and reset.

/ DVH

“God, You’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge! You’re a proven help in time of trouble— more than enough and always available whenever I need You. So we will never fear even if every structure of support were to crumble away. We will not fear even when the earth quakes and shakes, moving mountains and casting them into the sea. For the raging roar of stormy winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith in You. Pause in His Presence” Psalms 46:1-3 TPT.

When I read this today I realised that the last 4 words are the key to the first 79 ones! “Pause in His Presence.” What does that mean to you? To me it means when ‘the stuff’ is flying about so rapidly I can hardly breathe, my very best first response is to stop … and stand in His Presence. Why? Because those first 79 words remind me of Who He is and how much He loves and cares about us all – every single minute of every single day!  Those last four words show us how blessed we are. We can be in His Presence anywhere. Doing this will remind our spirits to defer to His ways.

Wherever you are reading this blog today, now is a good time to stop … and just stand or sit, in His Presence. Remember, it says pause, it doesn’t say ‘you must spend three hours.’  Anyone of us can pause for a few minutes, just long enough to slow your breathing and look into Jesus’ dear face. This is one of the best habits we can cultivate. We will momentarily block out the immediate, and focus on the eternal.

Our world may be groaning and griping all around us, but Jesus is not fazed by it. He knows what comes next. “He knows the plans He has for us – the ones that give us a hope and a future.” What we focus on gets bigger. When we focus on Him, He gets bigger than the problems, especially when we take a moment to renew our trust in Him.

Everything seems to be spinning around so fast sometimes, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. However, when we go and stand with Jesus and look up at Him, the noise, the fear, the challenges and the heartache come into perspective. These things come, and they go … Jesus always stays the same. His loving face toward us will not change.

The Lord Jesus’ love does not change, that’s why we can trust it. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases …” Our ineptitude in spiritual matters will not change His response. His love continually comes toward us. You are taking a moment to be with SomeOne Who truly understands humanity. And as you pause, please remember, despite what is going on around you, He’s the same Jesus Who loved you so much He died for you. Just let that soak in … then go back to your day. 

He is praying for you right now, right where you are. He prays perfect prayers. Pause and remember… ‘His goodness in the land of the living.’ ‘He is with us to give us His abundant life.” Those promises are not only about earthly things, they are about forever things. Like love, joy, peace. We can have peace with God because Jesus came here and made peace for us in His own Body, with His own blood. He will not take it back … “He demonstrated His love while we were still sinners….”

Troubles come and go, but our God’s Word remains the same. Your version of the bible may be a little different than mine, but it is still His Word to you today, right where you are. Pause, remember how much you are loved. He loves us when we first wake up and we haven’t even done anything yet! This love is not the kind of love that keeps score, because Jesus is not interested in Himself, He came here for mankind. We are His joy. The Lord looked through the pain He suffered and saw US. It is His greatest joy to facilitate our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Let go of all those bad, unhappy feelings, because they will cause you to stumble. Just cling to His truth and remember … the God Who made the Universe loves you. As we take a moment to pause in His Presence, we will begin to realise that these afflictions we are going through are momentary. They simply seem endless while we are in the middle of them. Remember, disappointment and despair do not come from our Heavenly Father, God. That’s the other guy. Resist him and bring all those busy thoughts captive, and just take the time to breathe. 

These moments belong to you and the Lord, whether you are on the train, in your car, on a bus. Wherever YOU are HE is there. You and I both know that the Lord has asked us to keep no record of wrongs, because Jesus Himself doesn’t remember our wrongs! In your pausing, remember to let go of any hurtful or bad things — just like you would let go of a balloon and watch it float away. Those things can’t hurt anybody when we let them go! Jesus understands … let that be enough.

We pause, remember, and reset, even if it is just for a few moments on our way to somewhere else. Stand in His Presence and watch the worries, cares, and seismic shifts jostling you, simply melt away. God’s got you, your family, and this world. Like Jesus said to the wind and the waves: “Peace, be still.” So let’s take any opportunity to quiet our hearts in the middle of life’s bustle and strife… and pause in His Presence, remember and reset. Bye. 👋. Thank you Jesus!

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 TPT. 

P 3190 Who colours your world?

/ DVH

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”  Proverbs 4:23 TPT.  When I hear that scripture I think of a little man in a guard’s uniform marching up and down with a big gun on his shoulder. Behind him is a door, with a sign on it and it says:“No entry without permission – Joe Blog’s mind.”  Suffice to say, I have a very vivid imagination! 

The thing is, all of us need as much help with our minds as we can get. Our minds need to be renewed — on purpose, daily. This must happen simply because we are continually being bombarded with worldly propaganda minute by minute. Just recently, I was dragged into a conversation that centred on something I wouldn’t normally talk about. I actually internally, disagreed with the speaker. The trouble was this person was a guest in our home so I had to choose between being rude to a guest, and exercising good manners, or bailing out of the conversation. 

You guessed it – I went the easy way, and then I felt really bad about it. I repented of course, but I was disappointed in myself. However, it gave me a chance to reflect on something I might normally brush aside. How do you go about giving someone else a loving refusal to their ideas, when what they are saying goes against what you believe? I know that the Holy Spirit has a way through this kind of difficulty, if we simply choose to stay in His Presence. Sadly, I flunked that test, this time, I fell right in!

The scripture above from Proverbs actually gives us a great clue about this kind of scenario – it isn’t what comes out that is the problem – it’s what is already IN there! Somewhere, somehow, I have not been guarding what my heart loves, and so the wrong issues got in. In computer-land, if your programming is bad, then the results won’t be great either. So, what do I need to put IN to reprogram my inner opinions with His Word? His word, duh!

Now the issue is no longer about what anybody else said, but what I have been inwardly holding onto. Well, there’s a yucky thought — but it is worth exploring. I don’t want ‘all that I am’ to be affected by opinionated stuff that I may have thought was important in the past. I want everything I am to be affected by the Lord and what He wants in my life, right here, right now.. BTW, I do pray about my speech being “winsome” during the day, but sometimes my opinions have a mind of their own. They have a tendency to pop out unannounced!

My starting place for things like this is always repentance, there is nothing else like it for clearing the decks of detritus and junk we don’t need. Then with the Holy Spirit’s help, I am going to need to pay attention to what I am holding onto from the past, that is not scriptural. That’s when the fun starts! Because I will need to hold the line the Holy Spirit and I have just drawn, with His help and lean on Him. Holding the line, is not as easy as it sounds, things or thoughts attack us unexpectedly.

“God tells the truth, even if everyone else is a liar!” The Scriptures say this … “Your words will be proven true, and in court You will win Your case.” Romans 3:4. In my heart I know that when I go with God’s opinions, then He will stand with me and His Word will prevail. But first, I will actively need to embrace what He thinks and throw out my own opinion. Otherwise I can say goodbye to His spring of living water bubbling up inside me, as well as out of me, toward others.

When I choose to be judgmental in any situation — instead of excusing myself, and pushing those thoughts back under that ’things I hide from myself’ blanket in my mind… I will have to face the truth. Whether I meant to be critical or not, somebody else could misunderstand me and I can lead them astray. (Romans 14.) My sin is not what I said or didn’t say – my sin is this: I can lead someone else astray with my opinion. I must pray that ‘…God’s word in me becomes more powerful, and more to be desired than fine gold!’ (Psalm 19:10)

The Lord has showed me that leading people astray:  “…is not (MY) calling. (I) will lead by a completely different model. The greatest one among you will live as the one who is called to serve others, because the greatest honour and authority is reserved for the one with the heart of a servant. For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served but to serve and give His life in exchange for the salvation of many.”” Matthew 20:26-28 TPT. That’s my calling!!

It is clear that I am called to be a servant to others, the way Jesus was a servant to me. And only HE can help me fulfil that aim. So now, my question becomes this, how can I serve this person who has opinions that resemble actual things I too have thought or said in the past? Are they best served by my re-enforcing a worldly opinion? No. This is a place for my silence and loving acceptance toward somebody else who doesn’t know any better.

Whenever I find somewhere that I have not yet been transformed, I cannot afford to go into shame, but rather I need to pray and ask Him how to put what I know to be true, into practice — instead of just agreeing with it as a theory. We can allow the world around us to colour us, BUT!!… the reality is we have the power to bring His true colours into this world where others can see them. Bye. 👋

P 2756 Don’t let distraction fool you.

/ DVH

“We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.”2 Corinthians 10:5 TPT.

One of the most common stumbling blocks to living our life of faith is distraction. Our lives can be so busy, we get overcome by everything that is going on around us. We are blessed with wonderful leaders and people who want to inspire us, but sadly, even the people we admire, and cherish their words – or buy their books, or listen to their podcasts, etc. can trip us up. What someone else thinks about what the bible says contributes insight – if you want insightful inspiration for your own life, you will have to go after that for yourself.

There are no shortcuts to a relationship with Almighty God. The only proxy we need is Jesus – and He sent us His Spirit to help us. We dare not put any other person in His place. Each of us needs personal time with the Holy Spirit and His book. My advice is this, don’t cherish anyone else’s words above HIS. His words have His power in them! When we love and read His word for ourselves, and think about it – it is harder to be led off by our own imagination. So when things bump into us and turn the world on its head, we will know how to handle them – or where to go to find out!

Secondly, not every thought we personally think is worth keeping! Look at it this way – if you were the other guy – wouldn’t you throw the odd tempting ugly thought into people’s minds? That guy is the most dangerous being in this world. he tells us stuff that is from the pit — smelling of temptation, full of hatred, half-truths and prejudice and he tells us that these are our thoughts and we must act on them.Our minds can be an escape room, where nobody else can see or hear what goes on in there. The bible says: everything that is hidden will one day be shouted from the rooftops…Jesus Christ has stamped us with His stamp of approval – let’s live this life gratefully paying attention to Him instead.

Realistically speaking, I think that sin starts in our minds.  And sometimes those seemingly random thoughts, can be thrown in by our enemy as he sneaks by us, these things can be disguised as normal. The antidote against any despicable thoughts, or even some peculiar thoughts that seem a little bit off! –  Is God’s Word. When we know what the Lord thinks, we have comfort when we need comfort, we have security when we need security, we have unconditional love permanently. Now these are some thoughts that are worth holding on to.

Amazingly, our bible is what Almighty God thinks, in writing! How blessed are we? If we don’t know, or can’t remember personally what God thinks, we have a book full of what He has said. This book is not just about what He said to us, but it shows Him interacting with other human beings who are fragile, easily distracted, just like us. In His Word we have written truthful testimonies as to what our God is like, and how He interacts with other people. They are an example of how to take captive any thoughts that could lead us away from following Christ. Or they clearly show us what happens when we don’t!

The Holy Spirit’s kind of thinking helps us to relax into God’s love, rest there, and allow Him to lead us in the way we should go. His lovers LIVE to obey Him. Our affections govern our minds and hearts, and eventually, our behaviour. Listen to this scripture and think on it: “So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 TPT. Here’s some great questions to ask yourself regularly: “How is my spirit doing? How is my heart?” I am not talking about how I’m feeling. But have I got peace on the inside? Even if worry is clanging away inside my head – it doesn’t have to torment me. The bible gives me a sword to deal with that stuff.

I heard this recently and it made me laugh … and then I sighed…  all at the same time. Truth does that to me! Someone said this about today’s world: “I had a vision of the Bride of Christ walking down the aisle toward Jesus, her Bridegroom. He was standing at the altar smiling, His eyes burning with love for His bride. And … suddenly … ’here comes the bride’ … She’s stunning, beautiful. Dressed in the finest, purest white, embroidered silk, her hair shiny, and her skin is like smooth satin.

As she progressed down the aisle a strange buzzing was heard. The bride reached into a pocket in her beautiful dress, and pulled out her phone. She stopped walking, and started talking to the person on the other end of the phone. After that, she checked her Instagram, took some selfies, and posted a photo of how she looked on Facebook! Meanwhile, Jesus our passionate bridegroom was still waiting for her to come to Him. He was waiting for the affection of her heart to turn toward Him.” 

My immediate response is to ask myself – am I like that bride in the vision, so distracted by this life, by the every day stuff going on? Or am I trying to find out how many people are watching me?  Do I seek everyone else’s opinion of my life but HIS? It is later than we think. We cannot afford to let our distracted ways of thinking get in the way. Our Bridegroom is waiting for us.  Bye. 💕

P 2700 Let’s keep our eyes on forever.

/ DVH

The bible tells us to “… above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”Proverbs 4:23. When I watch over my heart I am watching over who I am and what I produce!

Sometimes the hardest thing to watch over is our own heart. From my limited experience, other people often tread on someone else’s heart unknowingly. However, whoever started whatever has happened, if someone is offended, it means that there is something we both need to look at..Sadly, we can mistake somebody else’s motivation for evil intent, when the truth is this:… a whole lotta people are just big dummies, (like me), and they talk without thinking.

It goes without saying that forgiveness is the key that opens the door to understanding and reconciliation, but we all have people in our lives who are repeat offenders. So today I want to talk to the offended as well as the offender. Have you noticed how easy it is today to take offence? My first bit of advice to the one who is offended, is that forgiveness will require resolve, it will take self-discipline. There’s a happy thought! However, this is how we mature, and grow the fruits of self-control and patience…  by hanging on firmly to the VINE – true forgiveness is in that vine.

So we: “…set our mind on the things above.’ Colossians 3:2. Most growing points in our lives are a matter of forgiveness. The thing is, people aren’t doing whatever they did AGAIN – if we really forgave them in the first place! There may be some times when we read this bible stuff and say to ourselves, “yeah, yeah, great thought, but how do I do that?” I wish I had some snappy whizz bang methodology, that took care of our instant responses – but I don’t.

Here’s my advice for the one offended. My experience in this area of forgiveness has come down to two words – DO IT.  Don’t expect to feel good about it – just do it. Deliberately, and with great resolve, take authority over all the mean, niggly things you want to say to that offender, and ZIP IT. 🤐 When Jesus hung there silently on that cross for us. He gave us the power, by what He did, to shut up when we desperately want to put someone else in their place or comment on their behaviour.. 

Seriously, don’t give into your feelings for a minute, because you will find yourself circling the plug-hole going down for the last time! The bible says SET your mind because sort of kind of hoping the conflict will magically go away, will not work! Let me clarify this – we are changing an internal mindset in our lives, and doing that is not easy. Mindsets change when we consistently ask Him for His help,  use our faith, and keep our anger to ourselves. I say to myself: “I wanna be like Jesus and this is the Way to get there.” People who have no self-control haven’t totally realised what He gave us when He died for us. We already have forgiveness – LEARN TO SHARE. Read Romans! The more we die to self the more we gain!

Transformation takes hold when we find we can say something positive to the person who is jumping all over our last nerve. The bible says: “Bless those who curse you, do good to those who despitefully use you.”  Look, we are not talking about a walk in the park, we are talking about pressing into God until you forget what you were mad about! It IS hard! Hullo!! I say to myself at this point: “Oh there’s that thing that I am not going to remember, because it is a trap sent to distract me!”  That scripture from Colossians is not just a nice thought – it is an essential part of victorious Christian living! Why would we hand our enemy a loaded gun to shoot us? Disarm the gun.

Now to look at the offender: If something is your fault. If you opened your big mouth and hurt someone else and they tell you what you did … then don’t make excuses, and don’t give endless explanations… simply APOLOGISE. Humble yourself. You are not the judge of what hurts someone else! Actually we are not the judge of anything — read the book. Ask what you can do to make amends. People can easily forget that “I’m sorry” is not what the bible says. It says repent. Repentance involves humbling yourself and taking responsibility for what you did. Hurting someone else IS a big deal, because we don’t live by this world’s standards, now we live by His! And He clearly tells us not to make each other stumble.

Offending people is a big deal! I’ve met many people who say they are sorry, but they don’t go that one step further to usher in reconciliation. The aim of repentance is reconciliation. We need to remember that in this Christian life our hearts belong to Him. Father God takes this stuff seriously – it cost Him His life!  When people are mean to you they are being mean to His child. This means we need to pray for them!  Christ’s ministry is all about love and reconciliation, and that is our ministry now too. To live this way, it will help us to keep our eyes on forever, instead of just the here and now. Bye. 👋

P 2216 We need His unforced rhythms of GRACE.

/ DVH

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

The place to begin to learn those unforced rhythms is to teach yourself to focus on Him. You know, Jesus didn’t start a bible college, the Pharisees etc. might have killed Him a lot sooner if He’d done that!! Instead He called men and women to walk with Him – all day, every day. Not just a quick – “Hi Lord” in the morning and “Bye Lord,” before they crashed out at night … like we are all tempted to do. 

Here’s my advice, periodically, during your busy day, just stop for a second and on the inside remind yourself that Jesus is your Lord. Tell Him: “Lord Jesus, I’m just turning my focus to You. You are the centre of my affection.” Doing that shifts our focus. It’s called ‘setting your affections on Him.’ And it is mentioned in Colossians 3:2: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Christ Himself said: “I only do what I see my Father doing. I only say what I hear my Father saying …” His mind was set on the things above. Jesus needs to become our life because Grace’s rhythms don’t come easily when He is an add-on.. “In Him we live and move and have our being …” Acts 17:28. We start with Him, and everything else we do comes out from that relationship.

There is a flow of Grace – Grace in, and Grace out toward others. I just ask for more Grace whenever I think of it, whether I need it or not at that moment. Something is bound to happen that will irritate me! We are the only ones who can interrupt this flow. I call this process the power of choice. Choose to focus and ask for His help. It can take an effort to get free of our human ideas of ‘what is meant to be our priority.’ We aren’t just here for Him on Sundays! So we can’t just do what we think on Mondays.

The Psalms are also a wonderful road map to living like this. Try Psalm 91. Look for instructions. Meanwhile, I have found it is very useful to follow scripture like you would instructions from the doctor or the chemist. Pray, then ask for the Lord’s help, and go and do what it says on the label. In our situation … it’s in the book.

Next we need to pay immediate attention when we hurt others or they hurt us. There is nothing like being angry with someone else, or them being angry with you, to cause human beings to stumble and leave what God thinks, behind them. That kind of stuff is a whirlpool – it sucks you in! The Holy Spirit knows how to guide our steps through the pitfalls of human emotions and thoughts. He knows what the other person meant when they said that dumb thing that really got our goat! 

Many people think that worshipping the Lord, praying and reading His word is all that is necessary …BUT – walking with Him minute by minute actually revolutionises our lives. WHY? Because HE knows the way we should go – that’s why. “Our steps are ordered by Him.” Psalm 37:23,24. The disciples walked around with Christ, and now because of what Jesus did for us the Holy Spirit wants to walk around with us. If we let Him and make Him welcome. He will teach us, guide us, and help us to do what we are here to do – love people. And we all need His Grace to do that!

His Grace is like fresh air, it gives us a fresh perspective. We breathe it in when we mess up, and we breathe it out toward other people no matter what they did – or haven’t done. Our own will power is not enough. We need His Grace to die to self – the Grace that faced CALVARY. Grace needs to become the rhythm of our lives. I believe Grace is the Holy Spirit’s air in our spiritual lungs. 

Grace is so much more than just putting up with difficult people. Grace is love under pressure. And it refuses to give up on anyone or go into self-preservation. We cannot ignore this quality – it is the currency of His kingdom. 👋🏻 “Nothing is impossible WITH God.”