Gaze

P 2977 Every promise in the book IS mine!

/ DVH

Here’s a great clue, if we sit about waiting for this promise or that to fall on us, maybe it won’t … or …maybe it will, but it probably won’t always happen the way we think it will!  The promise was never meant to be our focus – HE IS. Every interaction with Almighty God needs to strengthen and stretch our knowledge of Him.

Our God doesn’t like systems. Tell me one time He did the same thing twice! He does, however, repeat what He has said. Someone checked it out and the phrase “fear not” is in the book 365 times! How cool is that? One for every day. Everybody loves God’s promises! Me too. But I’ve also noticed that some of His promises are conditional. Isaiah 26:3:“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.” Obviously cultivating a trusting, steadfast mind will reap a more a fruitful situation…  As you can see, it is good to do more than just read the words!

Over to Nahum 1:7: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”  He’s always the place to go when things go upside down, that’s when we deliberately choose to trust in Him, and hold on! Psalm 84:11: “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”

OK. First things first. Because of what Christ has already done for us, we are now regarded by our God as blameless. So this promise is for us. If you lack something you’ve asked for —instead of thinking about God as withholding things from you — or questioning whether you are blameless or not — turn it around. If I haven’t received the thing I prayed for then it is probably not good for me. Let it go!! We are not the best judge of what is good for us – He is.

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”The first place to check when you feel like fainting is where or what have you put your hope IN. Sometimes we accidentally hope in people, or circumstances and those things definitely can’t deliver what God just said.

Some of His promises are applicable because we are engaged with His Kingdom – but all of His promises are activated by faith. Our faith in His goodness is the first place our enemy attacks. Faith gives the Lord’s promises substance …even if we can’t see it yet. However, if the Lord were to put out a guarantee brochure … it would say that He reserves the right to stretch our faith whenever He can see it is the right time to do it.

Accepting His will, His Way, makes complete sense to me. It means I am engaged in building His Kingdom. Trying to build the kingdoms of this world appalls me. Those kingdoms are all about money or power. It’s not that I don’t care about these things, it is more about the fact that money etc. is always coming and going – there is nothing permanent about these things. God’s Kingdom is permanent – eternal … like … forever. Now there’s a plus! So whatever we do in faith for His kingdom, as He leads us, lasts forever.

The bible tells us in Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” When things get outrageously difficult – HE WILL BE THERE, even if it feels terrible – HE WILL BE THERE.  That’s the promise. Our focus needs to come away from the water, river, fire and flames, and instead we choose to focus on HIM. If we keep on checking to see how that threat is going… we are moving away from our faith in Him, and our fear of being burned or drowned can overtake us instead.

Focus is everything. He wants to be the centre of our focus, our reason to live. Why? Because it is the safest place for us to live. Jesus showed us that. The Jews tried to kill Him before the time for His crucifixion came around and they couldn’t do it. They talked about it … which gave that spirit of murder, power. But they could not kill Him … until it was the fullness of God’s timing … Almighty God has a time for every purpose under heaven, but it won’t always make sense to us. That’s why we need faith.

It is also why we must read His book diligently for ourselves.  Nobody else’s words should take priority over what He says. Chase Him! People have no idea how much fun our God is. Often we simply try to use Him for our own deficits, ambitions and comfort … instead of simply enjoying Him.  Believing in His goodness and mercy IS worship when you are in pain or trouble. God’s love is pure, holy and not self-centred. Everything that happens to us is under His loving gaze. If He allows it, then He will see us through it.

Sometimes the hardest thing to learn is to be real with Him. Remember, Father God listens to our hearts, not just our words. By all means ‘ask and keep on asking…’ And remember HELP is a prayer!! Every promise in His book is mine … because they are HIS promises … and He keeps His promises. He’s the best Father ever. Bye. 👋

P 2911 LET.

/ DVH

‘Let’ is actually a really big word despite it only having 3 letters! God clearly tells us: “I will LET you learn.” The dictionary says this about the word LET… not prevent or forbid; allow. As we deliberately pick up His yoke, He has promised to teach us everything we will need for our new life. But the Lord won’t push us, we still need to choose what He wants. So … let’s move on and look at a few of the many blessings of ‘letting’ …

“Let us gaze upon Jesus, as the Author and the completion of our faith,…” Hebrews 12:2;  Looking at our failure kills faith, but looking at what He did for us, opens us up to learn His Ways.“And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds…” Hebrews 10:24. WE set the pace, we choose our growing edges. God is always waiting and willing to teach us.“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not …” Galatians 6:9. If we get tired we can ask for help, that’s how we will learn how patient He is, how ready to help us. 

“…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,…” Hebrews 12:1.We need to let Him guide us, and teach us what we need on our journey with Him, His book is a revelation of His will. Some things are weights, so we can get tired if we don’t  leave them behind. We need to choose to confess our sins, and receive His forgiveness, be-ca-use … “IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

So much is available to His kids when we chose to deliberately learn His Ways and practice them! Jesus said: “…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.” Matthew 11:29a&30. The Lord allows us to learn how Grace works, as we read and put into practice what He said in the book. This is how we learn to trust Him, because what He does can be seen unfolding around us.

His overflowing Grace is always there for us, and we have more than enough to give away. That’s because we have a more-than-enough God Who is rich in these qualities and HE LOVES TO SHARE!  A.S.K. and … keep on asking!  Jesus gave this world an inexhaustible supply of Grace. We are encouraged to learn how His Grace impacts our lives and the lives of those around us, with His help, by using our faith. We are now grace dispensers.

Grace is our all day, all night, in every circumstance – enabler of good! It’s the Holy Spirit’s forte. He is so-oo good at it! Sometimes I have been as dumb as the dirt I came from, but HE knows how to do anything and everything – well!  When His Grace is present it means my focus is on Him, not just any pain or circumstances. I deliberately choose to put my focus onto the Lord and His eternal provision, and at the same time, I understand that He is teaching me about Himself. Then: “having done ALL I stand!” … until I hear from Him again. The Holy Spirit helps me, and praise Him, He will help and allow His kids to learn LOVE in all its forms.

We can gladly embrace the Love God has for every single human being, because our focus is not on what they have done, or did or didn’t do — it is on Who He is and what He already did! As we let that kind of love in, using our faith — it opens us up to the infinite possibilities of His Kingdom. He helps us by pointing out where we are falling down … so we don’t have to fall down next time! He lets us learn His Ways with His loving Eye upon us. Our God is never an absent God – He can be silent – but He is never gone!

You and I are a part of Him now, because we are His Body. We know we will always be received and He loves to help us to be ministers of reconciliation.. We need to make Him welcome, as our personal tutor/teacher/helper/guide/interpreter. We just need to A.S.K. I am so grateful that He lets us learn. I’ve found that the action of letting Him, or allowing HIM to take charge, is a HUGE thing.

Despite this word’s actual size, it is incredibly important. It has opened the door to a whole other way to live – in another Kingdom – His! Bye. 👋

P 2899 Never give up, never surrender!

/ DVH

One of my all-time favourite movies is “Galaxy Quest.” My title today is one of the lines in it. This phrase inspired me  because the disciples often seemed to give up at the drop of a hat. Hubby and I were talking about them and the continual spirit of stupid they seemed to prefer to live under, recorded in the gospels! Even though Jesus was right there… like … they could see HIM! Those disciples remind me a little of those bobble-headed dogs that people have in the rear window of a car. They nod their heads up and down all the time, but they aren’t really saying ‘yes,’ – movement and momentum got them instead!

Picture this, the disciples are in a boat, (Matthew 8:23-27) and the wind and the waves are threatening to sink it, but Jesus has fallen sound asleep up the back of the boat with His head on a cushion. He’s tired. Let’s take a second to think about what He had already done in that day. He actively taught His disciples, as well as the crowds who had come to hear Him speak. He healed many others, including lepers. Like I said – He’s tired! And the disciples climb all over each other in total panic to wake Him up! Then they wail and whine at Him and say: “Don’t you care if we are going to drown?” 

I mean, Jesus is in that boat too, right? If they are correct, then everybody is going to drown not just them! It seems that these men still had not grasped what He had given them. Let’s be clear, panic can easily set in for all of us, but I’m not talking about what you or I might say out loud, I’m also talking about the miscellaneous rubbish that rolls about inside our heads when we shift our gaze OFF Him … and onto some problem or other! Bad move. Our focus matters. We simply cannot afford to forget Who our Father in heaven IS.

I can’t count the times when I have said, inwardly — and, sigh, sometimes even out loud: “Oh God, don’t You care that I am not coping?”  Like how I feel should be HIS number one priority!? The bible says this: “Do not yield to fear, for I am always near. Never turn your gaze from Me, for I am your faithful God. I will infuse you with my strength and help you in every situation. I will hold you firmly with My victorious right hand.’” Isaiah 41:10 TPT. Yield, BTW means I’ve given in to fear and I am flap-doodling about.. But it also says that if I can’t see Him, guess who turned their head?? … Not the Holy Spirit!! We are under His gaze 24/7. 

How about another time when the Lord is teaching the disciples to forgive over and over and over and over again … and: “The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.” (Luke 17:5). Boy that last line made me chuckle.  Basically, what the disciples are saying is: “We want to do it! And we would do it if we just had more faith Lord!” Hah! Like somehow their faith or lack thereof is HIS FAULT. What a miserable excuse for them to make. Remember, the boat story above in Matthew? But Jesus said to them: “Where is YOUR faith?” He expected them to have faith in Him, and what He had already taught them. Those guys had private personal lessons.

Faith is personal. God gave each one of us a measure of faith and sometimes I think we feel and act like He short-changed us. Maybe what we actually think in hard times is that He hasn’t given us enough for something this big! Our faith is not like fairy dust, which can blow away in the winds of bad circumstances, and melt in the heat of tribulation — it is a real gift given to us straight from God’s throne in heaven!

ps: That faith is the same faith we received when we said ‘yes’ to Jesus in the first place. We all have it, it is what causes us to read the bible, pray, fellowship with others, and go to church. Faith is not a feeling, it is a choice we act on! If I have feelings then I have evidence! BUT!! …“…faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN.'”Faith has no evidence but the cross.

It is designed to grow. It will grow quickly if we use it! But if we park it on a shelf and only drag it out when the sky falls in on us, we can easily find our faith is not as big as we hoped it was! That was the problem for the disciples, they weren’t using the opportunities He gave them to stretch and strengthen their faith. When things got hard, I think they kind of figured that Jesus would fix it. But the Lord knew He had to eventually leave them, so embracing that tactic was not going to be a viable solution. Remember, He sent them out in twos to practice their faith! And when the Lord saw their faith was in the results, He rebuked them. 

They were His servants, they served Him. Being a servant is simple, you obey whatever it is you are told! You know, some truths are more weighty than others. The fact that one day we will all die and leave everything we know and love behind us is true. But there is a bigger truth, our salvation. It will sustain us through that end-of-life process. If one day I prayed for someone for a headache and they still have that headache, that is not proof that my faith does not work- it means it needs more using and stretching!  My faith is in what He said, not in what I can see.

Jesus will never leave us, EVER. Just because we can’t always see anything, that doesn’t make how we feel true. It probably means we need to crucify our flesh and move on over into the Spirit. We need to have more faith in His goodness, than we do in our circumstances! Never give up – never surrender! Bye. 👋