Motivation

P 3483 Cling to Him. 

/ DVH

“ … God doesn’t miss anything. He knows perfectly well all the love you’ve shown Him by helping needy Christians, and that you keep at it. And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep at it till the finish. Don’t drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them.”  Hebrews 6:10.

“We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up His permanent post as high priest for us, …” Verses 18-20.

Sometimes I find the scriptures are so extraordinarily clear, it’s almost like following a recipe! We are told to hang onto our hope with the same passion we show for the needy. Now there’s another great motivation to help others, it will give us a clear picture of what kind of effort we will need to hang onto our hope.. Meanwhile, truthfully speaking, I have found that when stuff happens, hope can be the first thing to go out of the window.

I get a bit like a headless chicken, aimlessly running on the autonomic nervous system instead of His word, which is hidden in my heart. This is when I know I need someone else praying for me, because I seem to have dropped the ball in some sort of overwhelming panic. At the same time, I don’t want to miss what God has for me in this new situation, so I cling to Him. I remind myself to hang on tightly to hope, because I know that hoping in Jesus, will not disappoint me! (Romans 5:5.)

My point being that hope and other spiritual things are absolutely, definitely, OURS – but they do not always come naturally to us. When we are in panic mode, we are more likely to remember the times things didn’t go the way we needed them to, especially when the ceiling has fallen in again and we are under pressure. Our faith muscles stretches when we deliberately choose to believe Him instead of our circumstances. Will it get better? Won’t it get better? Who cares! Jesus has got this and He always has a plan.

Let’s remember that without hope in His loving faithfulness we’ve accidentally thrown away the anchor, and it’s no wonder we are being tossed about like a tiny ship in a typhoon.  We need a solid anchor in a storm, and Jesus Christ is our anchor. Throwing hope away means you are a couple of steps away from going under. He will save you but your emotional well-being will take a beating. Speak to your soul! I have to yell at mine sometimes … “Soul! Hope thou in God.” My soul understands King James English, even when my head doesn’t!

Verses 18-20 explain why we must hang on to our hope. Our hope goes right into the Throne room. It is our lifeline between us and Almighty God Himself. We trusted Jesus to save us, now we trust Him to keep us … no matter what kind of stuff is going on everywhere else … even in our own households! He made the world, He knows what to do about whatever is going on.

Bad times are never convenient … I know that seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be said. It’s usually when your pay is short that God will ask you to help out someone else, and suddenly your gas bill turns up and it is overinflated … (pun intended) … the rent suddenly super-sizes in front of your eyes … and then your car starts making those weird noises that you have heard before, but now it is making them in earnest! 

The thing is, our difficult circumstances can distract us from the reality of His hope. Unfortunately, these circumstances are what caused us to go under in the first place! This means we will have to deliberately look away from them back to Jesus, because He is our hope. He can’t fail because He already won. I often ask Him to help me to see what’s at the root of my over-the-top emotional reactions.

I had to do that earlier today. And the answer came like an explosion in my heart. “Despair,” He said. “You are in despair.” Then I ask for a verse to fight with, and if I can’t find one, I type in a word or phrase that currently fits the situation and I go looking. Mostly I hold on tight to WHO HE IS! Jesus doesn’t break bruised reeds and He knows we are all glorified dust.

Psalm 34:18 says: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Well that’s gotta be good! Jesus is close, He saves … those are great words! Skip over the crushed bit, or you will find yourself circling the drain, trying to figure out why you are feeling crushed or whatever …Just take those words ‘Jesus is close’ and ‘He saves’ and deliberately wrap them into your thinking. Cling to Him. Pull your thoughts away from the trouble, back to that phrase … ‘He will save you from this!’

I love this next one! Psalm 43:5: “Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? HOPE IN GOD, because I will praise Him once again, since His Presence saves me and He is my God.” Let’s remember, we are not relying upon our own faithfulness —our faithfulness can vary, depending on the circumstances. We are relying upon HIS, and His faithfulness reaches to the sky!! Which neatly takes care of flying on an aeroplane, if you don’t happen to like them. Bonus buy.

Last one – 2 Corinthians 4:8-9: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” If we hit despair, like I did, then we’ve gone too far. Back up and turn around. The Lord can redeem any situation for good. Just watch Him do it! Jesus made a way for you to get through those things that seem impenetrable.

Now continue to look at Him, not the problems. Do what He says and keep your eyes on Him, not the storm. Earthly things fade away in His Presence as we cling to Him. Remember the cross. Have confidence in Him – speak it out loud, talk to your soul and start thanking Him for helping you through whatever is going on. Sometimes I pray blessings over every single person I can remember, including my enemies. Talking to Him reminds us that He is our hope, our ever-present help in time of need. Bye for today 👋.

P 3481 Our greatest treasure.

/ DVH

Today I want to talk about love – Our Father’s love, and ours. First of all, we are not qualified to decide what love looks like. Almighty God already did that … with the Ten commandments and the subsequent birth of Christ Himself, His example, plus some truly awesome scriptures in 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 3!

However, living in, and for His Love, does not always mean we will end up feeling fantastic. Living a life of love sometimes means we will have to back down when we don’t want to, and shut up when we want to defend ourselves. Aren’t you glad I said that?… Me neither! … God’s Love is not like that feeling of floating-around well-being that we get when we think about someone special to us. It is a decision made and carried out using our faith. In other words, even if the other person drives us nuts, the bible tells us in Romans 13:8, that we owe them love. That’s the response, there is no other.

God’s Way of love requires us to live aware of the fruit of self-control, despite our circumstances. Plus we are told to give away grace, mercy and kindness. Let’s remember that self-control won’t just fall on us! It has to be worked in us as we learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit. Living in God’s kind of love is costly, and I strongly suspect that is why some of us do not want to do it! Let’s look at someone who loved Jesus beautifully and well – this is described in Luke 7: 37&38. Just pause please and notice who is loving Him commendably.

“A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” 

It would be a huge mistake to simply read the above scriptures as a lovely story about one woman’s attitude to Christ. Because it is in the book, then it is in there to show US something about ourselves. The first thing I can ‘see’ is that this woman took the lowest place in the room. Nobody needed to explain to her that she had been living her life badly …she already knew that … but she did something extraordinary about it. Instead of hiding from the Lord’s pure gaze, she overcame her fear of exposure and sought to minister to Him, out of her love for Him. She had no other motivation in her dear little head other than blessing Jesus!

We need to look closely at any people we know who have a heart like hers, because we can learn so much from them. People like this woman do not think much about themselves, their aim is to bless and minister love and honour to others. They are just grateful to be included! Unfortunately, like the other guests at this party, we can easily be distracted by this woman’s sin, and forget about our own. If you or I were in that room where would WE be? Sitting at the table talking to Jesus? Asking questions? Discussing this scripture or that? Or crawling along the floor trying not to be seen at all, because you want to wash Jesus’ dirt-laden feet and honour Him?

Let’s move down to verse 37, where Jesus says: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Um! That’s one heck of a sentence! Jesus is using this woman as an illustration of what great love looks like. It is so easy to quote: “Love is patient and kind etc.” or “Clothe yourselves in love.” The theory is easy – however, practicing this kind of humility and Grace, shows up all the dents and dings in our character. Those things we hope nobody else knows. This woman had nothing to lose, nobody respected her anyway – but she did stand to lose big time if Jesus reviled or rejected her.  And that thought would probably keep many of us from crawling along the floor to wash and kiss His feet.

Instead we prefer to say: “I’m this and that – the bible says so. I don’t have to crawl along the floor, Jesus died for me and I’m a new person” …Sigh.  Sadly, for a new person, we can still have a very old, unpleasant attitude! Great love is expressed at great cost. For people with a fear of rejection, it is almost a death threat. Loving others when they hurt you, could leave you battered and beaten down by their treatment of you. But Jesus sees this kind of love and He kindly and gently elevated this woman’s heart attitude by what He said. He recognised her actions, because her actions spoke louder than any words. It brought her forgiveness and a brand new start.

I’ve heard many sermons on how much the perfume she used cost, how precious it was to her, etc. etc. But I prefer to see how much the Lord Himself valued what she did as she humbled herself before Him, and the surrounding company. It’s time we began to realistically contemplate our own hearts – instead of excusing stuff. This woman clearly gives us hope that sinful or not – we will be received! When we humble ourselves, we will not get rejection, but Love Himself will see us in our clumsy efforts to bless Him.

His love for us and through us is now our greatest treasure. Jesus is the prize, all we will ever need. In the Presence of His glory, none of us qualify to stand with Him. Whatever we have, has been given to us, gratitude is our only response. Bye. 👋

P 3466 Our new life is an adventure.

/ DVH

Spending time with the Lord can quite easily become just a habit. It is a good habit … BUT… the reality is, I don’t choose to spend time with my husband out of habit. I love him, and I enjoy his company, plus I also totally appreciate the way he looks at this life. We need to see our Heavenly Father and think of Him that way too, because Jesus Himself instructed us to call Him “our Father” in Matthew 6:9-13, and Luke 11:2-4. You can’t do better than that! He dearly loves each one of us. What more can we ask for?

In Genesis it accentuates that ‘God Himself is our shield and great reward.’ So let’s think about a shield and what it does. First of all it means the Lord is between us and trouble. Nobody should hold a shield at arm’s length, away from their body, and expect it to protect them! A shield is meant to cover your whole body, all the vital parts, Father God wants and needs to be that close to us. Over in Ephesians 6:16 it explains what the shield it is for. “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” We put out all kinds of fires in our lives as we choose to hold up our faith-shield of His love for us.

Our faith in His Word and His goodness will always be our shield. We can’t manage this new life of ours without it, so trying  to live any other way is folly. I’m a literalist … When God tells me I am safe behind the shield He gave me … I believe Him. What He says, in His book, is my point of faith. That is based on the fact that I know our God does not lie. The things that are sent by the enemy to maim or kill us, need to crash into this shield, before they ever get near to us.

Behind us and around us stand our brothers and sisters. When we are together we are a tightly knit army. We all have a God-given shield, along with other defensive and protective things, also listed in Ephesians 6, these things are designed to keep us safe and active. I’m not big on this thing means that … blah blah blah. I like to take the Lord God at His Word. I believe the bible was written for dumb people – and I know I ARE one.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1 NKJV. “My God is my protection and with Him I am safe.” Psalm 18:2. It seems to me that we have a quorum – here are a whole lot of verses which say that Father God’s desire is to protect me, the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus agree with Him, and I join in with “YES!” Done deal.

“Lord, in my place of weakness and need, I ask again: Will You come and help me? I know I’m always in Your thoughts. You are my true Saviour and hero, so don’t delay to deliver me now, for You are my God.” Psalms 40:17 TPT. Amen. Often our basest desire is to protect ourselves from other people’s barbs, and perhaps that kind of response has been cultivated from our own personal experiences. You know, other people don’t always mean to poke you in the ribs with a dagger, maybe you stumbled and fell on it by mistake, and you have misunderstood their motivation. Good place to stop and think.

Let’s err on the side of caution, and give our brothers and sisters in Christ the benefit of the doubt. If we don’t learn to do that, or practise forgiving even the deliberate jabs we can snidely aim at each other — then we will become an army of ONE. Father God will still be my protection –  but when we act like cranky numpties and get mad at the brethren – we lose the protection on each side of us, in the front and at the rear. An arrow can kill you just as dead from the side or behind. Ya might want to think on that too for a bit. It could be a good time to mend some bridges.

Just like knowing my husband has been a huge reward in my life, so knowing Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, climbs way off the charts. Knowing our Heavenly Father gives me access to all kinds of things I can never ever know on my own, but now I have His book, revealing Who He is to me. This book features a different perspective that changes depending on my viewing angle and circumstances.

The bible is like a prism, one way we see red, another blue, the colours are inexhaustible and so are the possibilities. He is our precious Helper, He knows exactly what I need to see when I am reading it. And He will teach us and help us translate what we read into comfort, instructions, deeper meanings and application for ME – just because I asked Him to help me. I read my bible believing He wants to speak to me!

Father God Himself will always be our greatest reward, so now we have daily access to an abundant love that does not depend on our actions. SomeBody Else freely and gladly paid for us to have this freedom, plus our ongoing knowledge of His kind of love, depends on our willingness to interact with Him. Because my sin before Him is forgiven and forgotten, I can relate freely, honestly without fear of rejection – in His eyes that is a done deal. Father God is my shield, shelter, my great reward, my ability to see further than I can with my own eyes. 

He is the supplier of everything I will ever need. This life is an adventure with Almighty God, you never ever know what He will do next. Take the time to read the Old Testament, if you happen to need proof. Bye.👋.

P3374 Let’s learn to ask: “how?” 

/ DVH

Sometimes we can be so afraid of being misled, that fear itself imprisons and freezes us in a bad place. The antidote to this is accessed by allowing His Word to remain in us, and letting it comfort and challenge us. If the bible says God loves you, don’t waste your time reminding yourself of the dumb things you did yesterday – repent! Say Thank YOU! And move on. You could end up with a testimony! Jesus said: “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7. 

Today’s scripture is not just about asking for what we want. Our focus needs to be on: “IF you remain in Me and My words remain in you …”  This promise is conditional … and our personal choices actually set those conditions. When we remain in His word, and His word becomes part of us – self-centred, sin-laden prayers evaporate. His word throws light on our motivation and things just …POOF! Disappear in His light. This is part of HOW we live the new life Jesus died to give us.

Our new way of looking at others who have deliberately injured us, will change us and our point of view, but it won’t necessarily change them. Particularly as we allow His Word to actively penetrate our lives. Otherwise what is in the book is theory. It’s a wonderful theory, but it won’t become real until we take a risk and obey Him. Taking the word out of head knowledge and practically applying it, is part of ‘How’ to use your faith to access the reality of God. EG: Don’t just read about forgiveness, or tithing, and then smile and nod. Forgive and tithe!!

The bible does not have sub-texts or escape clauses. Other people may say things like: ”Well, of course that doesn’t mean you have to forgive those peope, we understand they have behaved despicably toward you.” That’s just dumb – repent, forgive. It isn’t rocket science, it’s not even a suggestion! Very few of us are utterly accurate about what has actually happened, we all embellish stuff to make US look better! The point is to use our faith, not just our intellect. Faith becomes active when we stretch it … even just a little bit. Stretching our faith means we believe what God said, especially when life gets bumpy or nasty. Allowing no exceptions, is part of “How!”

God’s Word, as we regularly read it, washes our minds clean of all the detritus this world throws at us, and through that process, we get a renewed mind that thinks like Jesus does. However, a renewed mind won’t be  accessed by just replacing what we already know, with something that He said. The actions digest the thought and make it part of us — then Word of God washes our minds clean of impurity  and selfishness. “So that He (Jesus) might sanctify her, (His bride) having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word,…” Ephesians 5:26. 

Let His Word wash over you and highlight the places you can’t easily see. You may be an excellent driver, but every car has a blind spot, and so do Christians!  I’ve learnt to never presume innocence, always ask and follow through with action. This is another part of HOW.  Remember that Judas asked: “Is it me Lord?” After Jesus mentioned someone would betray Him. That question wasn’t enough he needed a heart that would apply itself to change and repent!

Any study of God’s word is fruitful. But I believe our major accent, our very own point of faith, is found by digesting the word of God itself. So how do we take those difficult  verses – and make them a part of our lives in such a way that they become part of us? Step one – use your faith. Step two – is ask Him to show you how it applies to you. Step three – don’t assume innocence. Repentance isn’t cutting off your head, it’s humbling yourself! Read the same verse in a number of versions, to clarify it. Look carefully at it to see if there is another way to look at it. Attack the bible with expectancy. Our God loves to speak to us.

We don’t have to be afraid of what it says, SomeBody paid for our sin. As we let His Words remain in us, reading God’s Word becomes like pulling on a spiritual string. The more you pull on it, the more we discover His help with whatever we need to do next. This makes His Presence in our lives more tangible. After all that – we stand still, and we rest and wait for what He says and does next. That’s another HOW. Christianity runs on faith. And if what we are doing is not using our faith, then we are missing out on all the good bits! 

Asking ‘how’ is an important part of our spiritual walk. The Holy Spirit knows everything, and He’s always with us, and for us. Let’s start from that place. A healthy child knows that they belong, and our God has never been an absent Father. He is present and willing to interact with us over everything going on in our lives. Asking “how” is not rude, it is deferring to His wisdom.

Ask Him: “How do You want me to do this?” He won’t just give us instructions and walk away. The Lord will walk beside us in our journey. The bible tells us: “He will guide us with His eye on us.” I’ve had Him say to me – “Do this. Now do that. Now wait. Wait for Me to show you what comes next.”  How the Lord does stuff is the best part of learning faith. Bye. 👋

P 3309 Anxiety.

/ DVH

Charles F Stanley wrote the following. I hope it is helpful: “Anxiety is a problem we all will deal with at one time or another. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”(Matt. 6:25-26)

The Greek word for “anxious” in this passage means “distracted.” It’s a word that refers to uncertainty. That’s what anxiety produces in us. It gives us a feeling of, what’s next? It’s a feeling that the rug has been pulled out from underneath us and we have no idea if we’re going to fall, how hard, in what direction, or onto what.

The word “anxious” is also translated as “worry” in the Bible. For many people, worry has become a way of life. If that describes you, I encourage you to read again the words of Jesus. His words are not a suggestion—they’re a command. You may say,“I can’t help feeling anxious, I’ve always been a worrier.”I’ve heard that from many people through the years. My response is, “Yes you can.”

There’s nothing about a circumstance that automatically creates anxiety. Anxiety occurs because of the way we respond to a problem or troubling situation.Your ability to choose is part of God’s gift of free will to every human being. You can choose how you feel. You can choose what you think about, and you can choose how you will respond to a circumstance. It certainly isn’t God’s purpose for you to feel anxious—He doesn’t allow situations in your life so you’ll have anxiety. 

The Father may allow a situation in your life to develop stronger faith, grow and mature, or change a bad habit or negative attitude. But God doesn’t set you up for anxiety. He’s always at work to bring you to a place where you’ll trust Him more, obey Him more fully, and receive more of His blessings.

You can fall into a downward spiral of anxiety, or you can say: “Father, I bring this to You. It’s beyond my control. I feel helpless in this situation, but You have the power to change what I’m facing. You love me perfectly, and I’m trusting You to handle what concerns me in the way You see fit. I know whatever You’ve planned for me is for my good. I look forward to seeing the way You choose to express Your love, wisdom, and power.” Amen. Friend, this is the way of peace—the road out of anxiety and worry.” 

Back to my little bit for today! I think this is the stuff that haunts most people. I put these thoughts by Charles F Stanley on my blog today because so many people are under siege from the things he talks about. His writing is clear and concise and he said it a whole lot better than I can! My motivation is this:  whatever it takes to help someone else get free is useful!  

This mini-sermon was particularly helpful to me, because we are preparing to put far too many things inside our car and even more stuff on top of it!— And still fit us, in it! Plus we will end up talking to a whole bunch of strangers. All this happens as we are travelling over 3,600 kms in the middle of a petrol shortage with prices through the roof. Some generous people have already helped us out financially with the extra burden of the cost of petrol. But my point is this: hubby and I are not exempt from anxiety either, it’s an ongoing battle for all of us.

I do have one helpful hint that works for me. If anxiety and worry start to build and I end up mentally knitting, I phone a friend or text someone. I don’t always tell them the problem, I simply ask them to pray. God knows what I am concerned about. I can fall into worse trouble when I talk about the difficult stuff, it actually kind of magnifies the problem in my mind. I might end up looking for sympathy instead of explaining that I simply need to hold fast. I have to pick my battles. Sometimes there are some things I can’t solve, but I can pray.

I’ve learnt that as I relinquish my anxiety about the things that bother me, I am far more open to His passions than my own. It’s not hard to love a God who values human beings so much, that He died for them. I think anxiety is a bit like a snowball rolling down a steep hill, it gathers momentum as it rolls on, and on. You can’t stand in front of it, it will squash you flat! The important bit is to know where and when that snowball begins in your life, so you can stop it at the top and jump all over it to disperse the thoughts.

The bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 …  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  Anxiety is our enemy’s lies on steroids.  We can pay attention to the incessant ugly noise or give our attention to the One who lives inside us. Yes, it is a battle, many, many times – but Mr Stanley offers great advice, I intend to take it. Bye 👋.

P 3238 Unplugged.

/ DVH

“Keep creating in me a clean heart. Fill me with pure thoughts and holy desires, ready to please You.” Psalms 51:10 

I like this version, because the word ‘creating’ is used in the present tense. I actually think this is an ongoing process for every one of us. Daily, sometimes minute by minute, the Holy Spirit continually creates a new living-for-Jesus heart in us – if we let Him do it. Yielding to the Lord is one of the best assets we have.

However, we can personally short-circuit this entire process by choosing our own way, and giving into our baser desires – simply by ignoring repentance. Repentance is the way out of the kind of difficulties we can get ourselves into! When anything seems to be clouded or muddied in my mind and heart, I know I need to repent! 

I realised years ago, that I will always need to ask for His help to back up and start again, because I’m human and repentance means humbling myself. Even in the times when I am really mad, and I think the other person is utterly wrong, that’s when I really struggle to repent! Like I said – that’s also when I really need His help – and He will give it. He longs to help us. 

True repentance is the very best kind of prayer, it clears away the deceitful cobwebs we allow to hang around in our mind and heart. The Holy Spirit always answers that kind of prayer, immediately. I confess that there have been times when I kind of wished He wouldn’t!  But that is because, in those moments I want to justify myself. It is exceedingly dumb to give up the Lord’s blood bought justification for us. When I settle into my own kind of justification, nothing gets fixed, plus  ….I end up with a permanent lousy attitude!

Maybe you don’t even think about something like revenge, because you know that would be wrong. However, I still think we are all capable of speaking, thinking and wishing someone else ill, silently. I think that’s why the Lord spoke to the Israelites so often about “murmuring and complaining.’  Sadly if we are not murmuring and complaining about God, then someone else is probably in our firing line. That’s because human beings have a habit of doing it!  By the way, the Lord does not accuse us when He points this out, so we can repent. Instead He is diagnosing something that shoots all of us in the foot all the time… our inner attitude. 

Honesty, with yourself and others, can be very costly, but it also creates opportunities to truly connect. Sometimes I think the only time people feel free to be honest is when you’ve annoyed the living daylights out of them and they are angry! If we sincerely want to have the Lord create a clean heart in us, then we need to be free to own up to the stuff we keep on doing … the stuff that no-one else knows about. Even the stuff we don’t think we want to escape from that we try to hide from ourselves with lame excuses.

Because He’s our God and He can do anything—He can change our motivation!  Always remember, the bible is called GOOD NEWS! Seriously, there are some things I used to do that I can’t stand anymore. God changed my attitudes when I wasn’t even looking. I don’t know if you have met this wonderful quality the Lord has, but it blows me away, every single time I encounter it. 

It means I have ceased to be attracted to something dumb that uses up the time He has given me. One day I was able to enjoy … (whatever it was, without blinking) … and then almost instantly, I simply couldn’t stand it anymore. And all I did was give it to the Lord and I left it with Him. I cannot stress how much total surrender has changed my life. Yet it was the very thing I specifically avoided for years, 

I was so scared of Jesus taking over and taking way stuff… I knew nothing about the fact that the Lord won’t do that – our power of choice always remains. This is the blessing we have, when we deliberately choose to go in His direction. Our preferences change instead. He has never made me do things I didn’t want to do.. But eventually I figured out I was never going to be the person I longed to be from self effort… … I’m a bit thick, so that took a while. 

Finally I gave up! That’s when total surrender became easy … when I realised I was never going to be able to create a clean heart in myself, by myself. Not to mention the lack of ability to have pure thoughts and a right spirit within me! This world had provided me with so many opportunities to get mad and stay mad—eventually I had outsourced my ownership of my own emotions, into someone else’s hands.  

The reality was they weren’t doing so well either, so that was an entirely dumb move. Back then I could tell you what was wrong with everyone around me, far better than I knew myself! In order to walk like Jesus did, I needed to unplug from this world’s thinking and plug into His. I urge you to take that path, it makes all the difference. 

Bye. 👋

P 3211 Procrastination.

/ DVH

“Procrastination is the thief of time.” I was taught that saying in my teens, years ago. Here’s the meaning: procrastination is the act of unnecessarily delaying tasks, even when you know it will lead to negative consequences, by choosing less important activities instead. It’s a common behaviour, not just laziness, often stemming from poor emotion regulation, perfectionism, fear of failure, or executive function challenges. While occasional procrastination is normal, chronic procrastination can cause significant stress, guilt, anxiety, and harm productivity and well-being. 

If you are a Christian, this particular attitude can cause doubt, fear, unbelief, and eventually inactivity to grab us. These traits often show up in our thought patterns: “Did God say that?’ “He wouldn’t really want me to do that would He?’ ‘I need to wait to be ready to do what He said.’ ‘He knows I can’t do that!’ ‘There are other people who can do things like that better than me.” ‘I don’t have an anointing to do that!’

That last thought is just plain dumb. We have the Lord’s instructions written down in the bible, signed in Jesus’ blood. It almost goes without saying that none of us are ever ready! I urge everyone to stop looking at famous Christians and let go of the kind of thinking that says, they are our example. Maybe you and I don’t have their anointing but we can still be obedient to our own personal heavenly calling. Besides —Jesus is OUR example, and motivation – not other people.  

Sometimes all I can do in a ‘talking to people’ situation, is to get my feet moving. When that happens it is not because I am disabled, it’s because I’m scared! Scared of someone else’s response, scared of somebody being mean to me, scared of the consequences in my life and in theirs. Maybe I will mess witnessing etc. up! This is a good time to remind ourselves of the things the Lord has done in the past. God fought without-number Midianites with Gideon and 300 men, and He also got Jonah to Nineveh via a whale taxi. Of course He can help us! Here’s something from His book to sort out our excuses. PS … when the Lord says ‘ME” He means YOU too!

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on ME, because the Lord has anointed ME, to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent ME to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour.” Isaiah 61:1-3.

If we both sit about waiting to feel super spiritual, or hoping to have some wild experience with Him, to signify we have been sent by Him – we will miss the boat. Famous Christians are the exceptions, not the norm. Procrastination can easily steal the time that God has generously given to us, and we will end up at the end of our lives in the land of regret.  

The bible says this in 1 Corinthians 3:15 In the Message bible: “Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.”  Um… found out? We won’t get BY?! Torn out and started over?!! Barely survive?? None of that sounds good! 

There is a kind of evasive thinking that can dominate our hearts and minds, spiralling us into fear, as well as hiding from our calling. We can never afford to forget that we are now dead! We died with Him. We’ve been saved for His purposes now – plus we’ve been given gifts to use for His glory, and to benefit other people. None of that has anything to do with our comfort, lives, families, or our careers. When we live our lives for His glory our focus actually changes.

Someone once told me that their boss was so demanding they couldn’t find a minute to talk to anyone about anything, so Jesus was relegated to the back seat…. plus it didn’t seem fair to do the Lord’s work on the boss’s payroll! That kind of sounds OK eh? Except the bible tells us we can ask for anything and it will be given to us, and if we have a need He will supply it. Ask the Lord to make a way, where there seems to be no way! He’s really really good at it. 

I’ve had to face facts, one of them being there is nothing extraordinary about me. I’m everybody and nobody rolled into one older lady! But it’s a New Year and Father God has left us on this earth for a purpose. We need to find out why, and start doing it. Postponing God’s will, together with doing things His way, means we are postponing the very thing that will set us free from fear, anxiety and the spirit of stupid that seems to be extremely prevalent everywhere.

We are called to pray so we can find out what we are here to do. We do not pray to get Father God’s rubber stamp on what we think we should be doing! If HE is not in charge, then whatever we do, it will fall on its head! And produce no fruit! Procrastination is the thief of time, I urge you to watch out for it. Otherwise it will steal your birthright away. Bye. 👋

P 3199 Real life.

/ DVH

At our house, we like to watch endless Christmas movies before Christmas. My dear husband loves them… ME? … not-so-much. He likes the soppy, sappy, sometimes sad ones the best. And if we find a funny one, it becomes a classic, and it comes out year after year, after year … …Unfortunately, I’m a Big Bird meets Bambi girl myself, I like to look for movies in the kids department … well, I did, until they became nasty as well!

My daughter explained to me that this situation could be much worse. Lots of men like exploding, guns blazing, blood and gore movies …I think those blow-everybody-up movies should be piled in a heap and burnt. Now there’s a strangely telling response to violence if ever there was one. Any-way … we were suffering through… sorry …’happily watching’ … some totally inane junk … and somebody in one of them actually said something that was worth our attention. 

It took me a little while to recover, because what they said was vastly unexpected!  It actually made sense to me, but we will definitely need His help to do it! When you are watching soppy movies endlessly, the most ridiculous things suddenly seem quite brilliant. It’s called brain damage, and should be listed under the heading of things you should never do to your wife! Hmm, I may have a slight problem with resentment there, I’ll have to look into that.

This is what was said, and it really got me thinking: “Let’s act like the person you want to become.” I mean, like WOW! … Like how cool is that?  U-oh! Please hold…I’ve just realised that I may have been spending wa-ay too much time with my adorable granddaughters, and I’ve picked up the habit of over-using the word “like.” That word now seems to be the new comma. I wonder whatever happened to ENGLISH, and peculiar things like Grammar. Meanwhile it seems good to keep up with the younger generation, they’ll be in charge one day soon. Now, where was I? … ‘acting like the person I want to become’. Well, that got lost in the wash fast didn’t it?  Maybe it is easier said, than done. 

Yet this sentence still has a clear ring of truth in it.  So, today, I want to look at something I learnt from some dumb movie I recently watched to help my spouse enjoy Christmas. After all, hubby endlessly does all the work and all the cooking so that everyone else can have a lovely Christmas. That is now my motivation. However, at the same time, I must honestly say that a teeny tiny bit of the rest of the movie did make me laugh …. 

Here’s the bit — one of the main characters in the movie is asked by their small granddaughter. ‘why there are so many Santas?’And, then she wanted to know all their names because they couldn’t all be Santa! Of course Grandpa didn’t have a clue so he said whatever popped into his head. ‘Santa, Janta and Mylanta…” For some inane, utterly ridiculous reason I found that hilarious. Probably because Mylanta and I have more than a nodding acquaintance. Meanwhile, I think some of my marbles may have given up on me.

Third try to go back to my point… let’s act like the person you want to be.  I have to say that I’m not big on acting at all, because actors get paid incredible amounts of money to LIE for a living! But, I believe the Holy Spirit is delighted to help any one of us, as we begin to take teeny tiny faith steps out onto the choppy dangerous waters of this life.  He can take our intention and make it real.. What would happen if we decided to ignore any and all provocation, and respond with love instead? It could go like this:  someone says something mean because they are angry, but we choose to say something sweet instead: “I’m so sorry, I seem to have offended you,” I have to say I’ve tried that one and it works beautifully.

At the same time there is a chance that others can take great offence if it seems you are able to be more gracious than they are feeling at that moment. That’s why I pray help a lot! I pray like that because everyone needs it. All by myself I can make things far worse than they were ten minutes ago. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful Helper, and He often tells me: “Time to be quiet now.” He’s way too kind to me to tell me to shut up! There are other times when He reminds me that I may be mad in that immediate moment, but I do actually love that other person, so it is not good to injure our relationship by flinging my uncensored opinions about all over the place. 

He is, without a doubt, the very sweetest Person I have ever met. He gently reminds me about what the bible says too. My advice is to watch out for His whisper. He says lovely things like: “Love suffers long… it bears all things …” You know, all that stuff that we can say by heart — but then we find that what we believe is only skin deep. And right now it seems I am tempted to run on hurt feelings, so I’m probably going to choose to go with, ‘I wanna hurt you back!’  That’s not a good plan.

Here is a scripture to refresh everyone’s memory, including mine, about the kind of Love the Lord Himself,  extends to us, all day every day.“…that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favor with God]. …” 2 Corinthians 5:19. In real life, we may feel like we are pressed hard on all sides. But actually we’ve left our faith behind. Let’s go get it again and choose to find our inheritance and use it instead. Bye. 👋

P 3176 Sounds like a laser to me!

/ DVH

“For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.”  Hebrews 4:12 TPT.

Yeah, that last bit is a bit of a doozie! The writer is talking about those inside, hidden-in-our-heart bits we sort of kind of know about, but we do our best to hide them from ourselves, and others! You know what I mean, the things that we suddenly glimpse, and we try really hard to instantly forget them because they look like the Great Wall of China and it’s all too hard! We all know a Godly life is a priority. We must remember that stuff like this is a distraction. The thing is, those hidden things I’ve mentioned, flavour our lives and our points of view …to the extent that we end up seeing bad motivation where there is none. Then we end up trying to escape or debate over the issues of the very things that can transform us.

We know that God’s Word will go straight to the heart of any matter and, at the same time it lays our phoney, self-serving excuses bare. So there we are … uncovered and exposed, feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a wheel rut. Guess what? In those self-discovery moments we must remember that Jesus died for every stinky evasive attitude we have as well. We will lose our way when we stop listening to the cues that the Holy Spirit gives us. He wants to lead us back into true fellowship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father. That’s the only safe place for us. Our God is always for us.

When we choose to allow His Word to work on our hearts, it will do the kind of surgery that will affect our minds emotions and bodies. It can expose errors between what the Lord says, and what we think. It often shows us the way we think is shooting us in the foot spiritually, especially when we choose to take it seriously! His Word takes the doubt out of what we believe because it reveals to us the Way the Lord thinks, and what He wants from us. Plus it separates our way of thinking away from the world’s way of thinking. All that happens because this morning we decided to prioritise His Word – reading it until something strikes us in the heart. Then we choose to go out and act on what we read. 

The acting on it bit is incredibly important. James 1:19-27 exhorts us to not just hear what the Lord says but go out and do it. “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Looking into God’s word and persisting with it, until we identify how to act on it, means we are moving away from being a hearer, into being a doer. We will begin to walk with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God never theorises – He acts! It is in His nature to be active for us and others. The people who choose to follow Him, act like Him. They know they need His help, because they know themselves clearly enough to realise that they can be deceived so easily.

These people are not driven by emotion, instead they manifest what righteousness before the Lord, looks like. The Word working in them and on them changes the way they react! They truly love the Lord, because they have discovered His love is a love that is like no other. ‘Listening and doing’ people deliberately set aside anything that remotely looks like it might hold them captive. They know that Godly actions bless them and others, as they participate by working with Him. His kids understand Who the Lord is, who they are, and they are realistic about this life. They constantly remind themselves that Jesus died for their inadequacies.

These people James is talking about are never self-deceived because they don’t trust their own opinions – instead they use the bible as their permanent reference book. They are well-aware that life and death is expressed through what they say, so they pray and watch over the way they use their words. Their desire is to bless others and if what is said won’t bless anyone, then they refuse to say it. His kids love to honour the Lord in everything they do, simply because He has revealed His heart to them and they’ve fallen in love with Jesus and the Way He does things. They can never forget that the poor, hungry, homeless among us are our responsibility. 

The Holy Spirit’s leading and freely given understanding are just like a laser, cutting through our wishes and wants, to expose who we really are, but without any fear or shame. Bye. 👋

P 3134 The best response.

/ DVH

Our justification before Almighty God is based entirely on what Jesus did for us. He came to earth, totally identified with mankind, and chose to die in our place. That fact continually amazes me …. What amazing love! What an incredible exchange! 🙌 The Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit have such a passionate love for humanity, wherever we are, no matter what we have done. Always remember, Jesus knows how hard this life can be. Because of what He did for us, now we are DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, dead! All dead – so we live like we are DEAD!

The blood of Jesus washes away every single bit of our ugliness, carelessness, spite, anger, rage and wanting what we know we cannot have. Now, because of the freedom from fear of reprisal, and the power of God given to us to live like Jesus did – it’s time to put this AWAY world’s junk and LIVE for Him. God is no longer angry with mankind – all His anger was spent on Jesus. Now let’s ask some questions: what are we doing with what our Saviour DIED to give us? Do we squander it by living this life doing whatever we want to do? Or pay Him lip service on Sundays, while we live for ourselves Monday through to Saturday? What should our response be? Romans 5:1-6,8-11,16b, has the answer: 

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us. 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… … But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation… … The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.”

Have you ever told a lie, thought an unclean thought, or wanted to seriously hurt someone else – even in your head? God calls that, and many many other things, sin. In His kingdom, that which is not LOVE is SIN! Instead of all of us facing punishment, Father God chose to give us the opportunity and power to live this life glorifying the One Who gave us so much. Jesus is with us in Person, day by day. 

Thank God, our ignorance or rebellion, has not cancelled out the magnitude of what was done on our behalf. The Lord Jesus made us right with Almighty God, and it cost Him everything this world had to offer, to do it for us. He paid our outstanding debt! A legal contract that eliminated what we owed forever, washed clean in His blood. Before we knew Him, we had no inkling of need, or even the personal power to gain that kind of incredible favour for ourselves. We’ve been tainted by sin since the moment we were born – even the sin of our forefathers still haunts us. His LOVE toward us, is the reason we are compelled into action.

After Jesus Christ died He went to hell and He defeated death. It had a legal right to claim all of us. He went there for us, as our proxy, the One Who chose to face satan in our place. But hell could not keep Him there because satan could not find one reason to punish the sinless, spotless Lamb of God! He had no legal reason to accuse Jesus. our enemy had to let the Lord go, because Jesus never sinned, in thought, word or deed. Everything He ever did, said, or thought, was done from Love’s motivation..

He took away every legal right satan had to torment mankind forever … and then …Holiness entered the halls of hell! Now satan cannot keep anyone there who has given their life to the Lord because he has no legal ground to stand on. Faith in what was done on our behalf is our only response. We’ve sinned, but SomeOne Else overpaid the bill for us and satan has been legally tied up. he has no recourse – except to deceive us into thinking we don’t qualify …or torture us with past sins … or get us to totally focus on getting what we want in this life. When we call upon the Name of Jesus to save us, we move from this world’s kingdom into God the Father’s kingdom. Our faith in what Christ did justifies us, gives us His peace, and releases God’s grace to live this life the way Jesus Himself would. 

We no longer belong to this world. We have an allegiance, a loyalty to the One Who paid it all to save us from ourselves. So much grace was released by what Christ did, that the power of sin over us has been broken, forever! No matter how we feel, or whatever temptation crosses our path, we don’t have to live that old life anymore. Daily we choose to live, by faith, in His kingdom where LOVE has all the power. We live  voluntarily, giving away that love, for His sake. When we choose to step away from sin, or accepting its premises, we find that now we have the power to defeat it. That’s the very best response! Bye. 👋.

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6:2b.