Hebrews 11:6

P 3268 Yesterday I learnt a lot.

/ DVH

I was in and out of tech land for the whole day yesterday, and I rapidly came to the conclusion that what was happening inside me, was even more important as anything else going on around me. I was not a happy camper! I can see the irony in the fact that the last picture I struggled so hard to post said:… ‘Sorry!’  … 🤣

My take-away-lesson from the Lord was, no matter how much control we think we have, the reality is, we have none … “unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain.” Psalm 127:1. My technical problems yesterday  showed me that I must learn to let things go. Now there is something I’ve written about here for a long time now! But it was extremely difficult to do. You have my sincere apology for oversimplifying stuff that is hard. Please forgive me. 

Meanwhile, I learnt that PRIDE can hide itself in the sneakiest places!  I just found some … I found it in the last place I thought it would be – writing this blog! Because I haven’t missed a day in over 8 years and I didn’t want to break my own record, I had built some sort of significance for myself through doing it. So I had a melt-down. The tech guys were doing their best to fix the problem, and at the same time, I also had to interact with AI.  I have to say, I don’t like AI very much! It can’t be reasoned with, my brain and its logic don’t mind-meld! What a frustrating thing that was! 

The realisation finally dawned on me that the Lord needs to be my only significance – not what I do, or don’t accomplish in a day. I have found He is always so kind and patient with me, He waited for me to wake up to myself and repent, and it took a while too! You know, many daily things can be taken for granted and when they misfire, it seems like you were standing on something that looked secure – and then suddenly it slides out from under you – because you aren’t standing on the Lord’s Grace anymore! 

With that in mind, I figured pride and learning curves are good things to talk about today. When stuff becomes clear, and you realise that you have fallen into pride, it is far too easy to try to drag yourself back up again … without learning anything. I think we can do that on the premise that everything worked OK before the drama, so why not now? But that thought means we will miss out on what the Lord wants to reveal to us and teach us, and I personally don’t recommend it!

That’s when I finally realised that I need to stay more open to change. Often the Lord has to literally peel back layer after layer that we have cleverly wrapped around our hearts to feel safe, wanted, stable and useful. BUT …“GOD  (Himself) is my refuge and my strength, my ever present help in times of need.” Psalm 46:1. The reality is I will always need His help! My self-effort, no matter how good the cause seems to be, doesn’t cut it. The Lord has always helped me write this blog, so I need to trust Him to look after it … whether I can post it or not! Meanwhile, I don’t want to miss the lesson of yielding to the circumstances, and putting Him in charge.

In my recently revised opinion… like yesterday… how’s that for current? Ev-er-y-th-ing is an opportunity for growth. And if it is frustrating, then it is going to end up being a really great opportunity to see what’s actually going on inside. Because of my own situation, suddenly I could see how easily someone can get caught up in book sales, favourable opinions and conferences, as well as numbers. That stuff is a lot more easy to buy into when you have invested your heart and your time. The point is not – are we being successful? It’s actually – are we pleasing Him? And that is not always the same thing!! “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9.(Hebrews 11:6)

At the same time, I had stopped using my faith, and instead I was doing it so I wouldn’t let other people down. And I took up the heavy burden to make the blog work. Plus it had become so important for me to keep building the numbers than I ever realised. The reality is, I am not solely responsible for the outcome – a tech team in Denmark is also silently contributing by keeping the site running smoothly. When that didn’t happen the way I thought it should, I got so angry and what came out was: ‘I will lose my readers.’  Not my finest moment. Sigh.

I have now come to the decision that we can hide ourselves from ourselves in order to make us feel better about ourselves. And yes, I know I have overused the word ourselves! Teehee. I also know that one of the things that has stabbed Christians in the foot in the past, is that many people with influence aren’t always honest. And after a while, the normal pile of junk that leaders feel they must maintain, piles up to the roof and it becomes insurmountable …no wonder so many leaders in the body of Christ do dumb things!  When we begin to evaluate what the Lord is doing through us — we’ve missed the entire point! 

Nobody means to be dishonest, because we all love Jesus. However, we can get caught up trying to protect our reputation under the guise of protecting His reputation … like He needs our help! I learnt a lot yesterday! Please pray for me that I can successfully avoid pride and stop fussing over numbers!  Bye. 👋

P 2920 Faith only.

/ DVH

“My beloved brothers and sisters, the passionate desire of my heart and constant prayer to God is for my fellow Israelites to experience salvation. For I know that although they are deeply devoted to God, they are unenlightened.And since they’ve ignored the righteousness God gives, wanting instead to be acceptable to God because of their own works, they’ve refused to submit to God’s faith-righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law. And because of Him, God has transferred His perfect righteousness to all who believe.”Romans 10:1-4 TPT

It is, unfortunately, a difficulty we all face, we can be deeply devoted to Jesus and still be living under the law and works. It is sadly quite easy to switch over from faith to works and not know you have done it. Engaging with works means you can almost immediately see something for your efforts, and it also gives us, as human beings, validation, because we want to take part in whatever the Lord is doing.

Engaging in works also means we can dismiss ‘spiritual-things’ as done for the day  — like when we tick off, prayer, bible reading and church. Actually that simply means we did what we ought to do. But is that all there is? Are we listening to, and paying attention to whatever the Lord is saying as we go through our day? Did we obey? Can we hear Him over this life’s cacophony of activities?? Have we wandered off into our own understanding?

Here’s an illustration from my life. When hubby and I go on the road, people financially support us, so we want to have results to show for the money they’ve generously donated. It becomes really easy to start counting things. Things like: we’ve had this many great conversations, or given away that many bibles, and bookmarks. It’s a very real temptation to try to account for spending other people’s money, whether they ask you about it, or not.

And to be utterly truthful, it is also a temptation to exaggerate what goes on out here … because sometimes, there ain’t nuthin’ happening here! Results don’t matter bupkis to the Lord. He simply loves to go on our journeys with us –  to work, or school, or on the road talking to people – that’s what matters to Him.

Jesus’ death paid the entire price for our sinful nature, and now we can talk to Him and we know we will be heard. Those are the things that need to matter more than anything else, to us too, if we want to walk with Him in the righteousness He died to give us. Enlightenment comes from trusting in what He did at Calvary, using our FAITH,  nothing more, nothing less. Automatic responses reduce Almighty God to a chore, a task, or yet another thing we need to remember. When all He wants is for us to be obedient to His ongoing instructions. As we keep acting in faith, He can and will correct and direct our course. He’s just that gracious.

Our minute by minute attitudes, are a whole other ballgame – those things are under our own personal control. That’s the place we learn to yield. We will all wrestle with walking in faith, because it is so much easier to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ’t’s and get validity from our actions and intentions instead. However, a truly authentic life rests on Him, and what He did, not on our actions. We are validated because what He did for us validated us! So on the road, we rest in the fact that He told us to do what we are doing, whether we see anything or not.  And sometimes, despite our best efforts … it’s …OR NOT! 

In that situation, hubby and I remind ourselves that planting seeds is a slow business. You gotta wait to see whether what you planted pops up after a while, plus harvest time can be a little while coming!! Even the disciples travelled all over the known world to spread the Gospel of God’s kingdom – and as they did it, they lived by faith, they were trusting Him to guide them.

At one time, Jesus Himself walked about 70kms, up and down tall mountains, for about 5 hours. He was going from one place to another. In this process the Lord met a Samaritan lady. Just in case you forgot, Jews don’t like Samaritans very much, but at the other end of the Lord’s enormous trek, HE FOUND A HARVEST. A whole bunch of Samaritans got saved. Whether the Lord knew what was going to happen or not, He perfectly illustrated what we have seen out here on the road. Unforeseen things happen! Stuff you could not possibly have planned.

Sadly, all of us can easily get lost in the every day ordinary things that need to be done. If you have a family then plenty of boring repetitive stuff daily has to happen. How do you do that kind of stuff in faith? I can only speak for myself – I GIVE UP a lot. When I find myself planning and using my own ideas, I repent and go back to trusting Him. Repentance is not just about moving away from sin – we also need to repent when we go back into works again. This truth has been the biggest blessing to us as we travel all over this country. We’ve put aside what we can do, and made it our priority to follow Him. We want His Presence more than we want results.

Continual enlightenment comes as we walk in what He already has done for us – it flows from our surrender, not from our own efforts. That’s what Paul is saying here. We don’t want our own righteousness, or our works, or our cleverly thought out activities – instead we want to live under, and give away to others the righteousness Jesus Himself totally paid for – for all of us. He voluntarily did what He did, to cover, direct, and comfort us. Every single bit of our lives needs to be lived in faith — waking, sleeping, walking, doing the washing up, servicing the car, playing with our kids…not legalistically … instead we simply include HIM in all things. 

 And if, or when, we run out of instructions, then we need to prayerfully go back to His book. Bye👋