Peace

P 2679 Stress – the peace devourer.

/ DVH

This is the dictionary’s interpretation of the word – STRESS: great worry caused by a difficult situation. People under a lot of stress may experience headaches, minor pains, and sleeping problems  As if life isn’t difficult enough!

Here are some of my own thoughts about combating stress. I believe exercise can help. Repetitive gentle stretching and moderate exercise gives my brain more oxygen to work with! Plus I use intentional breathing. I quiet my emotions and thoughts by simply concentrating on my breathing. And a few good night’s sleep in a row can help! Also do something fun to break the cycle of “I’ve gotta be, gotta do, gotta go, gotta help …” Instead prioritise helping yourself to get rid of the stress. Stressful people ain’t fun to be around!!

I think parents often find themselves striving to keep their kids lives on an even keel. When kids are on edge so is everyone else! My advice is to let them practice fixing their own problems, instead of adding their problems into your list! I do this all the time. 🙄 Older kids need to be given opportunities to resolve conflict and trouble for themselves – it’s a much needed life-skill. I’d encourage them to ask the Lord to help, but I would also pray for them. The thing is, we often problem solve things for our kids because if they are stressed then they over-stress us and … round and round we go! Pray God will help them and step away. If they are too young to think things through, then present them with two alternative answers to their barrage of questions – tell them the answer is this OR that.

Laughter and humour are great stress breakers. But if you are dealing with another person I recommend that you explain you are not laughing AT them – otherwise war may break out! Watch something you like on TV, that is not stressful. I use Youtube a lot. I put on some Tim Janis or Dappy T Keys and I just listen and watch the pictures! That stuff is like peace on a stick. It’s incredibly peaceful. Or you can listen to music that you like. Sit and read a book and zone out. If you are going to read the bible then read your favourite Psalms. Just don’t read great big swatches of it – it is better to soak, not study. Just read a couple of verses that show you how much God loves you, and regularly pause while reading, to let it sink in. 

People often behave irrationally when they are under stress – it is not intentional – stress has a way of sneaking up on all of us. The thing is, if you are stressed then it is more than likely the rest of your family will pick up on it and they will eventually join in! I believe stress is the cause of more disagreements and strife in our everyday lives than we actually realise. You can’t think your way out of it – because over-thinking got you into it!  FYI, none of us have the ability to solve a whole lot of problems all at once! Just saying …

Stress can tip over into worry when we are unaware of it. The mind winds up and shoots off in a number of directions trying to solve every problem in our universe  – then, quite naturally, our mind objects to being overtaxed because we are not made to deal with a whole lot of problems all at once! I recommend prioritising. Make lists if it helps but remember to cross things off the list once you have accomplished them. Human beings need the feeling of winning, of gaining ground, to help us keep on moving forward. So do celebrate your successes – do it on purpose!

There have been times in my life when I have forgotten what I was stressed about, (good thing!) but then I drove myself nuts trying to remember what I forgot. (Bad thing!!)  At the same time, I have been known to annoy people in my near vicinity with my somewhat over-emphasised problem-solving attempts on their behalf. A problem-solving person may not be what a stressed person needs! I found that out the hard way. Suggestions can just muddy the waters and frustrate everyone.

I have left the best until last. God does not want us to live this life like a frayed end. Please don’t leave the Lord out. He wants IN. He wants to show Himself strong and active on our behalf. I have often made the mistake of thinking that the best way for God to help me, is for Him to solve all my problems. Wrong! God is not our personal problem solver any more than He is our personal trainer! His aim is for us to get through the difficulties holding onto His hand, totally at peace and releasing that peace into the atmosphere around us.

John 14:27 says:“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” How do we enter this peace? There’s this groovy little word called “let,” it means “allow.” When we find ourselves buzzing about like a bumble bee trapped by a window, it is time to realise that we have let ourselves be overwhelmed by the circumstances. Time to stop and pray about letting things go and handing them over to Him. See all the above suggestions … I told you I like to make them!! 😊 Lastly, fix the things you can with His help, but relinquish the ones you can’t. Bye. 👋

P 2669 Stuff happens.

/ DVH

Sometimes I miss out on seeing what faith looks like. We can all quote this scripture and that, but when the chips are down and ghastly stuff is pouring all over us, it is easier to give in to despair, first. Scriptures are great for quoting and reading and understanding … but real comfort and victory comes from our actions and our decision to stand in the face of attack. But first we must recognise what is actually going on and grab onto Him.

Just recently we were awoken by some unfortunate news …my precious mum had fallen down – she IS nearly 97. Unfortunately, she broke both bones in her shin. Because of some old family circumstances, which are way beyond my ability to manage, I fell prey to despair. Now she’s older, someone who is not a Christian started making pronouncements, and this and that, and in the end, I started to think, ‘bye bye Mum!’ 

First of all, I want to start by saying God is so good to me, instead of panicking, I was actually calm inside. My emotions, were demanding attention, but my spirit man was fine. I knew it was the Lord, because I can quite easily flap-doodle. However, despite the very large clue of God’s peace-which-passes-all-understanding, — I started making burial plans in my head! Plus I forgot to pray – I simply accepted what that other person said. Of course when I finally came to my senses I prayed like mad and started praising Him for looking after Mum.

Nevertheless, when we finally got to the hospital after a whole lot of trauma finding parking etc. I expected to find my mother pale, in great pain, and at death’s door. And there she was sitting up on the bed like a cheerful white-haired budgie! She can’t see well, can’t hear hardly at all, and yet she was cracking jokes. At that moment, I was very grateful for everything the Lord has done to change our relationship … which has not always been great. Nowadays, talking to my mother is often hilarious, as she’s not as on the ball as she used to be. 

Anyway, normally, she can barely move about, and you have to shout – even though she is wearing hearing aids. She merrily describes herself as being as deaf as a badger. Honestly talking to her is so funny and yet at the same time it can be so frustrating repeating yourself over and over again. However she bears it all with a smile and her own weird self-deprecating humour. At the same time, like a lot of old folks, she tells the same stories over and over again, and when we returned from our last bible trip she asked us 4 or 5 times in just one visit, if the trip was a good one.😂

When I was younger she was a tour de force! Striding through crowds … picking up other people’s children who got in her way and putting them to one side. As a teenager, whilst trying to be invisible, I trundled along behind and copped the angst from the child’s parents who weren’t keen on their kid being man-handled! I was often mortified by her over-the-top exuberance. One of her favourite things was singing along loudly to elevator music. She sings quite well, so maybe she thought she was treating the other lift occupants – I dunno! Whether the lift was full or not, she’d sing away, and I would do my best to blend into the lift like wallpaper – madly hoping no-one knew I was with her.

Back to Saturday’s saga … apparently, both of the bones in her lower leg were broken but they had lined up neatly like soldiers, so a severe operation was not necessary. Thank the Lord that nobody wanted to give somebody that age an anaesthetic! When we left her she was demanding for someone to please cover her shoulders, and why hadn’t anyone given her a cup of tea? Meanwhile, the prospect of surgery had cancelled all food, and she was on a drip. 

Saturday helped me realise, yet again, that stuff happens, and we don’t always react as well as we would like to. But God’s grace is so enormous, there are times when He picks us up and carries us. I know my Mum’s forever starts in heaven, but I sure would miss her down here! Absentminded or not, I have my own private miracle which I celebrate every single time I see her. Sadly, we have not always been friends, but the Lord worked with me to give me such an appreciation of who she is. 

Meanwhile, Mum hasn’t changed one bit, she’s just a tiny little bit more sentimental now. Today, I want to celebrate the fact that nothing ever goes the way you plan it, and people do do the darndest things! But in every circumstance, LOVE IS THE VERY BEST WAY TO MOVE FORWARD. The bible tells us to pursue it and I can highly recommend the Lord’s wisdom. Because of His Grace, I have yet another testimony that He can take negative attitudes and transform them into a real appreciation of someone else’s personhood. He did it for me. He taught me to keep choosing love over my past hurt feelings and He transformed ME, along the way. Bye.👋

P 2662 “In this world you will have trials …

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… cheer up! I have overcome this world.” John 16:33 … well that’s sort of what He said. It definitely is what He did! We are over-comers IN Him. Troubles come, and they go, but our God’s Word stands forever! Hallelujah! To have faith in the midst of hardship we must look away from the troubles, to Jesus, He’s the Author and Finisher of our faith.

“Don’t you remember those days right after the Light shined in your hearts? You endured a great marathon season of suffering hardships, yet you stood your ground. So don’t lose your bold, courageous faith, for you are destined for a great reward! You need the strength of endurance to reveal the poetry of God’s will and then you receive the promise in full. But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:32, 35-36, 39 TPT.

For those of us who have been Christians for a while we can easily identify with this scripture. Sometimes all we can do is … stand. Even with our earthly legs wobbling and giving out, we will always need His help to keep standing up spiritually. That means we use the power our God-given choices and refuse to let the enemy steal our hope in Christ! This is how you get endurance. Standing firm in the face of adversity and holding fast to His goodness – which never changes. It is too simplistic to think that getting answers to our prayers will strengthen our faith. Most of the time, that simply makes us feel comfortable — because then, we have a well-ordered life to show to others.  The enduring life can be, and look … messy! 

Believing in His goodness in the face of adversity, means we are still standing … even if we have to lean hard against the wall of His Word to do it! We remain undisturbed spiritually, when that terrible bus of adversity keeps running over us. Even when our enemy is shouting through the broken windows …”He doesn’t love you, He’s gone off and left you all alone!”  And we lie there, bleeding. Blasted by our circumstances and pain, feeling every jolt and bump as the bus of infirmity, calamity and hardship keeps driving over our broken body … back and forth, back and forth. Endurance is a difficult thing. We get it by hanging on to Him, in spite of our terrible circumstances. We believe in His goodness when everything around us says He’s gone off and left us to our fate and weak devices. 

I hate to say this because it is not very cheery, but I do believe it is true – sometimes our REWARD will come in the next life, not this one. We simply must stop seeing answers to prayer as a reward — answers are His GRACE extended toward us, not rewards. Answered prayer is a place of thankfulness and worship. Even our covenant with Him is founded upon sacrifice. His incredible sacrifice at Calvary, and our daily sacrifices and choices that are made in His favour, instead of our own convenience, safety and comfort. 

Psalm 40:1-3 “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;  He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in Him …”

Trusting God when you are in the middle of “stuff” is incredibly hard. If you ask me in those dark moments when I want to be delivered from trouble and strife — my answer would be ‘about 30 minutes before it even happens!’ But the 23rd Psalm tells us that He is with us even when we walk through death’s dark valley. He is the Person who stays when the rest of the world walks away. We need to rely upon Him in those moments when we want to give up and give in to despair … because holding fast will stretch, strengthen and increase our faith that He will never leave us. 

I’ve found it works like this for me. Suddenly something awful happens, so I pray: “Lord, I need You badly.” And very slowly, as I hold fast to Him, my insides begin to calm down. If I turn my head to focus on the bad news, it will easily get bigger and panic will set in again. But when I focus on Him, those ugly circumstances may still exist, but inside I now have peace. In those moments, however, I need to stay alert, because the destroyer is still around. I have to  keep reminding the Lord, and myself: “I can’t do this without YOU.”

Don’t just grab at Jesus’ Arm to steady you – live your life clinging onto Him like a limpet – then those trials will eventually come and go, but we will still be standing. Whatever the immediate answer seems to be – the real Answer lives inside us. Bye 👋

P 2660 Our everyday bread …

/ DVH

Romans 10: 8-11 MSG:”The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what He did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting Him to do it for you. That’s salvation.”

We are all currently engaged in our God’s eternal processes. That means God is working in us, just like He did when He raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Salvation is not a one stop shop – it is a process … which started when He saved us and continues to this day! The Holy Spirit is working in each one of us, day by day, to deliver us from the things that made us dead in the first place! Now we have to the power to turn away! He transforms our minds so we don’t think dead thoughts. He gives life to our mortal bodies so we can worship and serve Him in Spirit and in truth.

He also releases us to do eternal things, so we can carry His kingdom all over this world. V14: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Look at your feet. In God’s eyes they are beautiful – He gave those feet an assignment … to go everywhere and tell everyone we meet that He is not mad at people any more. SomeBody Else, a perfect human being who did not deserve punishment, stepped up to the plate and took our place of punishment. You and I should have been nailed to that cross – NOT HIM.

Now, because of the power that was released when He was raised from the dead – we can come out of the dead patterns and thoughts that have haunted us all our lives, and really live. Jesus Christ loved people. He saw restoration happening everywhere He went. People’s lives were restored, hearts blossomed. Their hearts were withering and dying under the very strict laws that were enforced upon them. However, those laws were designed to bring the Jews back to God. Sometimes we are more interested in Jesus Christ the Healer, than we are in Jesus Christ the Author of our ongoing salvation. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

The Lord is also God’s living Word – He’s more than just a human illustration – He is God’s Word per-son-ified. That’s our destiny too. To be daily transformed so that our lives are saturated in the Word of God. We obey it, soak it in and give it out to anyone … the good, the bad, the ugly. And as we press in to learn this kind of obedience, we will kill off the very things we’ve adopted and adapted as protective garments. So now we stand before the Lord and others, just like Jesus was on the cross. Naked. We must be naked to be fully clothed! We are unashamed of this nakedness, because He died to clothe us in HIS righteousness, peace, grace, love, faithfulness …

To enter into this new life we must choose to come out of the grave of our old life, just like Lazarus came out of the grave he was in. Now we let God Himself, and others … strip off the grave clothes that are still binding us into death. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is now alive and working in all of us. That dead life we led before cannot be in charge now – we’ve MOVED. We don’t live there anymore. We moved out of that darkness and now we stand blameless in His marvellous light because of what He did. 

However, it is totally unrealistic to expect our new life to look just like that old one! It can’t, because light and dark cannot co-exist together. One excludes the other, so you can’t have both. This is where the outworking of our faith lies. Not in raising the dead, or healing the sick, or saying Godly stuff – it lies in choosing to live in the place we’ve been given. That’s why our minute by minute choices matter. 

Our old enemies have convinced us that we are still bound to that old life, because those old choices can still appeal to us. But, the Truth IS, those things no longer have any power or control  – they are shadows, not reality. We left that stuff behind us, and now … we are living to follow Jesus day by day. Daily reclaiming the land that was ours from the moment we were born again. We have our own promised land. Christ IN us – our hope of glory. This new land He died to give us flows with milk and honey because HE LIVES HERE.

Today, and tomorrow, and all our tomorrows! … We must realise that we need to choose to fight the giants that we have let occupy that old land – our old life. The things we have allowed that have no place in this new life. We don’t choose which things have to go, the Word of God every single day divides between our thoughts and emotions and releases His truth so we can see it. We simply practice obedience and submit to what He says, every single day. That’s why we read the bible – to get our every day bread and marching orders. 👋

P 2657 Self-effort will fail.

/ DVH

Romans 8:5-11. MSG.“Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores Who God is and what He is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored”.

“But if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!”

Wow! That’s some plain speaking right there! I’ve read that quite a few times and this time it is from the Message Bible. What Paul is saying is this: … Saying “I can’t change” is denying the reality of God within us. Before we understood what the Lord Jesus did for us, we had an excuse – we were empty and ignorant. But now! We are full to the brim of God and His purposes. Paul is explaining when we focus on us, how we feel — we become self-absorbed and after that, it is no surprise that we are not aware of God and what He is doing! We are too busy making sure we get what we want from Him or trying hard to please Him. Christ already did that – for us. 

We need to give up trying and start believing. Next comes obedience. We cannot go around these things because as soon as we do, we will go back to thinking about my life, my family, my purposes and what I want. And there you go, I’m self-absorbed again. That’s the thing about trying harder, you will get the stitch with it because we cannot maintain the effort … After that it becomes too easy to start focussing on what He’s not doing in my life. When I gave my life to Jesus, He took it. That’s what faith is all about. I just believe what He said and act accordingly. Feelings are nothing! Instead we choose to believe in the Lord, that He has whatever it takes to change us and we start doing what He said.

Meanwhile, that self-effort hole is deeper than we think. Paul explains it wonderfully – if I think about ME and how I feel, and how whatever you said hurt me, more than I do about Him and His purposes … I’ve totally moved into self-absorption. And that’s not a hard step to take. Everything around me lives like that. Plus I’ve been thinking about me for most of my life! Instead, I need to focus on what He wants and Who He is, and His desires for my life;  to overcome my natural penchant for selfishness.

So my diagnostic tool is this — WHO AM I FOCUSSING ON?  I must focus on Jesus, He perfectly met every single criteria for the things of God. Without His input those things are beyond my natural ability. I need the Holy Spirit Who is my Helper, He is brilliant at them. His emphasis on the other person is total. We will not get to where we want to go by forcing ourself to do what He says … we get there by asking Him to help us, and then we step out of the boat of self effort and self-centredness into FAITH. We need to GO WHERE THE GRACE IS!

I am so greatly encouraged by these verses that the same Spirit that helped Jesus to do everything the Father assigned for Him to do – IS NOW IN ME. I simply need to adopt a posture of total deference. In other words to walk with Him I need to learn to YIELD. He is not on ‘our’ side, HE IS ON THE LORD’S SIDE. He’s an expert at pleasing the Father. Any effort we make to change without His input is doomed to fail. It may produce a temporary result – but it will not grow FRUIT that lasts. You know the really great thing about growing fruit, is once it starts happening the fruit happens all by itself. We simply need to keep our focus on the Lord – then the Holy Spirit will supply what we need.  Doing what the Holy Spirit leads us to do, transforms our whole view of this life.

Whenever He leads us, we cannot possibly get proud – HE helped us and WE KNOW IT!  Self-effort is an exercise in futility that will send us off into despair – following Him leads us into a freedom we have never known.👋

P 2656 Let’s remember we are to be married.🕊

/ DVH

Romans 7:4-6 MSG: “So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died He took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with Him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.”

Oh man, some days I can’t wait to get to heaven to listen to the Apostle Paul preaching  – that’s if I ever get over following Jesus around! What a conundrum … Picture this: Jesus is talking about how He and the Holy Spirit made the moon and stars, as He heard the Father speaking them into being. At the same time, Paul is talking about the beauty of Christ Jesus;  and James is reminding us of what we’ve been given … OR …OR!!! … every now and then we fall on our faces from the sheer wonder of where we are! And… AND!!! Here’s the biggest plus of all! We can run into the throne room and fall on our faces and worship at the throne. Choices, choices!  Maybe in heaven we can do all those things at once?! Sorry I got so distracted … moving on …

Romans 8:1-4 MSG: “With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In His Son, Jesus, He personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.”

Feel free to stand on a chair and cheer! 🥳 What a brilliant explanation! First of all I want to say, there is no worship and devotion toward the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit like the worship we choose to give All of Them down here. Why? Because down here worship is a choice, a sacrifice – in heaven, worship is joyously spontaneous. We give the Trinity the best gift when we choose to worship Them, because They are so worthy. Despite our busy lives, or whether we feel like it or not!

Just imagine the throne room for a second … there are these incredible angels — flying around the throne crying out; “Holy holy holy” over and over and over and over again – they never stop. I asked the Holy Spirit once why they do that and He told me this: ‘Because at every single turn they see something new, something glorious to enjoy, some aspect of the Father’s Love and Grace they have never seen before.” 🤯 Well, that’s my mind blown… how about you? Down here, we are always running after whatever is new – in heaven we simply have to gaze at our Heavenly Father and the view will be breath-taking and endless.

I shall vacate this heavenly rabbit trail and get back to my point … which is … look at what our beloved Bridegroom has done for us!  Take a minute to wander back to Romans 8:1-4 and read those verses again. Just when you think things can’t get any bigger or even more wonderful, we are reminded that our precious bridegroom, Jesus Christ, volunteered … because He loves us that much. Well, there’s me in a soggy heap in the corner. 😭

Christians can live like everyone else, staring at the ground, thinking that the next episode of our fav show is the only moment of joy in a week of drudgery and effort — OR — we can reread Romans and rediscover what we have been GIVEN. Those verses mean that we have the power to throw off depression and the cares of this world, because of our Bridegroom’s gifts. Those freely-given gifts mean we can be at rest, care-free, living in pure peace, despite our circumstances and difficulties.

JESUS HAS GOT US AND HE WILL NEVER EVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US. How we feel is just a blip on time’s radar. We don’t have to live under this world’s clouds of pessimism, constant drama and angst. Instead we can choose to embrace what we’ve been given. Each and every time I take hold of those hard-won gifts that He died to give me, I fall in love with Him over and over again.

Real Love is like that. It is a journey of discovery, familiarity …  as well as delight, where we visit and re-visit the Lord’s loving kindness, mercy and grace, and realise how much He loves us.  It’s time to remember we are engaged to be married to the most incredible Bridegroom … Who loved us before we even knew Him! Our faith is not based on pretty thoughts or theories, now we live in the daily reality of being totally forgiven, loved and cherished … And if we aren’t living there, then it is time we did!  Bye. 🙌

P 2651 The Western world is believing a lie.

/ DVH

I believe the lie is this: we think we are entitled to have a happy, prosperous care-free life. Who told us that? Where did that lie come from? And where does that leave the billions of poor people, those who are oppressed and tortured? Those people who constantly live in fear of their lives. They think they are lucky to have one meal a day, and their only shelter is a cardboard box or they sleep out in the open… victims of the elements. These people have no access to clean water, or facilities — all those things we take for granted in the Western World. Our thoughts of entitlement are terrifying … and unscriptural. (Read the book!) We are miserable because we are self-obsessed! Learn to be other centred.

Yet we can get irritated and out of sorts when our bus or train is late. Even our kids have learnt to live entitled lives – they feel deprived if they don’t have the latest iPhone!  Our society acts like the world we live in, is there to serve us. We lack GRATITUDE, big time. We need a much bigger attitude of gratitude and generosity. There are plenty of people in our own country who are doing it tough … who says we have to own a home at 25 years of age? The way to live this life as an overcomer is to not complain, or be jealous, angry or fretful – those things are a waste of the precious time we have been given. The way to overcome is to live like He did – Jesus used His faith all day every day – and He was thankful!

We must deliberately look for things we can be thankful for. Some days my attitude of gratitude is that I woke up!  There are millions of people across this planet who live on $2.15 a DAY. Let’s look at this life sensibly – ya can’t buy too many big Macs or chips and a coke for $2!  We don’t have to feel grateful to BE grateful, we simply need to be obedient.“In everything give thanks for this is the WILL of Christ Jesus concerning you!” I Thessalonians 5:18. Let’s use the time we have been given to be observant and interested in what is going on around us and help others. The feelings of gratitude often come later. Here are some scriptures that have impacted me:

“What do you have that was not given you?”  John 3:27, Romans 12:3. (That’s in the book twice!) “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21. Here’s another great diagnostic tool – people who are living in the flesh, are constantly reviewing and revising their current situation, looking for improvement, and feeling deprived if they think there is none. People of the Spirit know that: “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory.”  Philippians 4:19. Father God is rich in ways we can’t count!  So if we don’t got it – then we don’t need it! If we lack something, ask the Lord for it, and if it doesn’t happen – then praise and thank Him that we can live without it.

Here’s something that Paul said that has always grabbed my attention: Philippians 4:11-13: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”Paul rejoiced in his lack because his lack gave him an opportunity to rely upon God even more! That’s a sentence that’ll blow our minds! It is the WAY we look at this life that helps or hinders our day to day living.

At the same time, other people can’t hurt us by their nasty attitudes … unless we let them. So we need to make a quality decision that the peace we get from the Lord Himself is worth something. It is a waste of time to make up excuses for others, sin is sin – forgive them instead. It is not our place to judge, so let’s pray and then give it all to God and let go. We need to put our everyday effort into remaining attached to Him and His ways – and let the world do whatever it must. Lately I’ve had to stop watching the news because I want to yell at the people on the TV for their appalling behaviour toward each other. 😳

Lastly, listen to this exhortation – it’s IN the book:“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8. I’m the boss of my mind. If it keeps thinking things that are out of line with what the bible says, then I need to deliberately renew my mind. Let’s begin to weed out the lies we’ve embraced and give His truth priority! The Word of God is our reference point, it is the Manufacturer’s handbook. It tells us how to proceed in this life we lead.

As we learn what it says, then we become responsible to apply what it says into our lives. It is not enough to memorise it – we must become it, by changing the way we think, and act. Using our faith. Many people are living a lie. We’ve become obsessed with wanting more, things that are bigger, brighter and more expensive. I know someone who has a clapped out old car – that car somehow runs on God’s goodness, forgedabout petrol! Personally, I know I’m blessed. I have food and shelter and medicine for what ails me, praise God! Amen. 👋

P 2644 Give up your right to be right.

/ DVH

Definition. ‘Redemption means to secure the release or recovery of persons or things by the payment of a price. It is a covenantal legal term closely associated with ransom, atonement, substitution, and deliverance, thus salvation.’

Here are some great scriptures about redemption:“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”Galatians 3:13.“But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”Galatians 4:4-5. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7.“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:12.

OK, let’s move on now we have established a premise. Redemption is part of our new birthright. I totally believe that it was done once and for all by Christ at Calvary – BUT – I now choose to apply it into my life, all day every day.  Today, I want to share the way I see that redemption working personally. I will begin with a hypothetical scenario. 😂 I get cranky and mess up, and I yell at my poor beleaguered hubby. I get good and angry. The first thing I need to do is to remove myself from that scene and toddle off and go sit somewhere else so I can …

1/ Repent. Repenting always come first. It is like clearing out a blocked drain – my spiritual ears work so much better when I start with what I did. When I wander off into what the other person did or said, I will get lost! My own feelings tangle up what is in the past with the present. The real secret to repentance is this, even if I don’t think I am wrong. I still go there first. Why? Because the bible says not to ‘lean on my own understanding’ – that’s why! It also says ‘the Lord gives grace to the humble’ and at that particular moment I badly need GRACE. It is extremely important not to rush through this repentance process, because our enemy is lying at the door waiting to trip us up.

2/ Next I pray until I regain my peace. I need to do that before I even think about talking to the other person. Why? Because I don’t know what you’re like, but once I’ve gotten mad it takes a while to calm down! But when I have His peace, then I know can reconcile. I’ve repented, and God has given me His Grace –  whether I feel like it or not! Now His peace is available to me and I can stand on something firm. Not my feelings, or even my own need. I stand on His peace. It’s in the book. If the other person is still unhappy with me, now I will have grace and peace to help me through their accusations and angst.

These things work because the bible says: ‘a soft word turns away anger.’ Just to make this clear, those are faith steps, I often don’t feel anything. But I choose to refuse to go over and over what happened and who said what and how hurtful it was! Instead I pray and hold fast to those words that renew my mind to think like Jesus does. I take those errant disruptive thoughts captive and I tell the Lord I am prepared to suffer wrong. At this juncture the other person cannot lead the way unless they too decide to go the way of grace and peace – otherwise everybody’s feelings get the better of us!

3/ Then I ask the Lord to please redeem the situation. Why? Because something is going on in me — or that other person that is out of order with Jesus’ ever-present, always available, redemption. I don’t try to diagnose whatever that is, because I’ve know I have fallen down that hole way too many times in the past! I can end up in the land of ‘what you did and said’ in a heartbeat. The Lord has already told me I can easily see the speck in your eye, but the log in mine escapes me! Acknowledging our mutual redemption is necessary to repairing relationships.

Next, I walk away from who is right and who is wrong, and start to pursue LOVE. Love is the perfect bond of unity – and at that point we need unity! Asking for redemption releases God’s power into a fixed or stalemated situation. That prayer is right up there with the prayer of relinquishment. Those two things are like the best prayers ever…!  I pray them all the time. If something seems out of order or difficult, I pray for redemption. I relinquish my right to be right and have things work out the way I want them to, and I yield to God’s greater judgment. 

The bible tells me, that we have authority to do it.  We are charged to participate in restoration and releasing His redemption into the world around us. I have interpersonally seen miracles when I operate under the grace of redemption. Things that could not be fixed were … when I gave up my right to be right, and went God’s way instead. Bye. 👋

P 2633 We all need comfort and love …

/ DVH

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.”2 Corinthians 1:3-4 TPT.

So many of us are struggling in one way or another in these difficult days, so today – let’s pray together: “Precious Holy Spirit, please be with the lonely, suffering, the broken and those who are in pain. Jesus please make Yourself real to them in a brand new way. I pray that whenever they open the bible, the scriptures they read will fly straight into their hearts and bring them such overwhelming comfort. I ask You to help them to draw even closer to You, in their sorrow and suffering, so that they constantly feel protected and loved. Please bring their brothers and sisters around them to offer Your comfort and help, in Your precious Name, Amen.

When stuff happens to me and it starts to sink my little ship, I go straight into the Psalms and dig in!  But today I found these two verses in Corinthians and realised I was limiting myself, by staying in the Psalms. So I looked up comfort and love instead. What a wealth of stuff there is in our bibles! Now here are a couple of references that really helped me. Psalm 23:4;  Psalm 27:1;  Psalm 145:18-19; Isaiah 41:10;  Matthew 10:29-31; Matthew 11:28;  2 Corinthians 4:16-18 and Colossians 1:11. As you can easily see, a couple turned into a lot! 

My advice is to read these verses over and over until they slip down from your head into your heart. Your heart will remember far more easily than your head, and they will surround and comfort you in the dead of the night when no-one else is awake. There is no sad like the sad at 3.00 am and you can’t sleep. Life seems incredibly dismal when you have pain in your body or soul. However, we gotta give the Holy Spirit stuff to work with, so that when we are overwhelmed: ‘He can lead us to the Rock that is higher than we are!’Psalm 61.

There is a hidden blessing in suffering — it builds something inside us. And it makes us more open to care for someone else who is not doing well either. Over the years I have learnt to recognise pain by looking in someone else’s eyes. I don’t think it is a spiritual gift … well maybe it’s discernment… whatever! Lately, everywhere I look I see pain. I can’t even watch the news. How newsreaders can read about such terrible daily suffering and still smile beats me.

The wonderful thing about our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is — They are non-partisan and not prejudiced against anyone. Holy pure Love flourishes between Them like an ever-flowing fountain, and we are incredibly blessed to be splashed and washed over and over again, in the fountain-overflow of Their love. When your body is tired and aching, a shower or a bath is great – when your spirit and emotions are overwhelmed we need to be soaked in, and splashed with His love for us.

Think about this – our God actually loves those who hate Him. Just think about that as an example of His unending Grace! Think about the people you know who have deliberately walked away and could care less about coming back to Him. Yet He still goes after them. I pray for those people that God will give them a revelation of how marvellous His love is. Until time is no more, our wonderful God will chase after ALL His kids. Each one of us matters to Him, and, speaking personally … some of us are kind of a bit strange – and that’s an understatement! 

Our Heavenly Father pays attention to every bird that falls to the ground. That made me wonder just  how many birds die every single day all around the world? So I looked it up…tens of millions of birds die every single day and He sees each one fall. Now here’s the glorious, hang-onto-this-info-with-both-hands bit — we know that HE CARES SO MUCH MORE FOR YOU and I, as imperfect as we both know we are.

The point is we need to let Him comfort us, instead of trying to buck up and stagger on, pretending everything is alright. My advice is to just sit in a puddle of your own tears on the floor and tell Him everything is NOT alright, and it won’t be alright until He helps you. And then wait for His peace to fill and still your heart. We need His comfort and love to surround us, all day every day.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” … “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:7 (I found another one!!) Bye.👋

P 2627 He is always with us.

/ DVH

“When you pass through the deep, stormy sea, you can count on Me to be there with you. When you pass through raging rivers, you will not drown. When you walk through persecution like fiery flames, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you,…” Isaiah 43:2.

The bible says – Lord will be ‘with’ us. It does not, however, say that He will always keep us away from dangerous, difficult stuff. I think the reason the Lord does not say: ‘I will make it so you never suffer’ – is because “I will be WITH you…” is SO much better! The very best thing we can do when we are in dire straights, is to look for Him. Why? Because He said He would be there, that’s why! The body of Christ has become spiritually unfit – we stopped doing our spiritual exercises and started demanding God do this and that. That’s what sent the Israelites down the plug-hole!

We can see in the bible, that the fire of persecution could not touch Christ. He stood silently and faced accusation even on the way to the cross. satan couldn’t drown the Lord Jesus either. Even before He was resurrected, He walked on water. He knew Who was in charge of what He did and where He went  He was with those disciples on the water talking to them when they thought they might drown. He stood on the water outside the boat!

Almighty God respects our free will, instead of turning it over to our enemy – we need to remind ourselves Who we belong to. The best thing we can do when things go upside down and inside out, is to ask Jesus to be with us. In His Presence nothing on this earth can bother us – we simply must learn to live in His Presence. Jesus DID it! Kingdom things like grace, mercy, love, and peace etc. are bigger than trouble, they instantly exclude it. Stuff won’t go away – we will WALK RIGHT THROUGH IT.

God’s peace does not sort of kind of shoo trouble out of the door, anymore than turning on the light pushes away the darkness! When His peace is present HE is present. (God’s peace is a Person, BTW – the precious Holy Spirit.) If you and I switch a light on, the darkness instantly disappears. There is no contest between light and dark. One thing simply excludes the other. That statement is our point of faith. Despite how we feel – truth is always truth. Our faith is an ever increasing revelation of Who we know God to be.

The real secret to overcoming in difficult circumstances is to make Him welcome. Tell Him: “Holy Spirit You are welcome in this place” – then point to your heart. It is one thing to do that in church and completely another to do it when stuff starts happening. It’s a faith statement. We aren’t talking about a theory – one that works sometimes and doesn’t others. Jesus didn’t try to walk on water. He simply did it, as casually as you or I would walk up the street. The wind and waves didn’t bother Him one bit. Why not? Because ...“He was going to the other side.” That’s what He said and that’s what He did.

Even on this earth Jesus lived in another kingdom! That kingdom has a different POV than this world does. God’s Kingdom has His POV.“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], IN Whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].” James 1:17. Knowing God can’t deceive you despite the circumstances, is the place to stand. There is no “maybe” or “I hope so” in God’s kingdom. Everything is YES and AMEN. 

The Lord Jesus quite simply didn’t live in a place that included other possibilities. He took the time to know His Father and relate to Him. Just like you and I take a breath without even thinking about it, the Lord Jesus lived to do God’s will. As imperfect human beings we like to entertain other possibilities — mainly to explain why we are shrieking our heads off in a sinking boat, as it goes up and down in rough seas!

In heaven there is no place for doubt. Faith and Love rule. Our job is to bring those things down here – no matter what is going on around us. That cannot work if we don’t practise the skill of trusting God in all things – big and small. We need to immediately get rid of those thoughts that say: “God won’t help me”… “This thing doesn’t matter it is too small to bother Him about” … “I can’t.” I can’t but HE CAN. Dependance upon Him means we lean back into Him and trust He is Who He says He is.

A lack of peace begins in our soul. In our emotions, our thoughts. Fear grabs at us and we start to sink in our emotions and thoughts first. The reason we have to wrangle this or that all the time, is that we are living in the wrong kingdom –OR maybe we are trying to live in both! That means we end up doing the hokey pokey with our faith! When we live by His kingdom’s rules then His life flows. Remember, nobody can kill us without His permission. And Almighty God will not give permission until it is the right time. Why? “Because there is a TIME to be born and a time to die ..” (Ecclesiastes 3) 

Sometimes I want to say to people, take your earthly glasses off and put on the kingdom ones and just leave them there, and please, don’t forget to read the book!! His book reminds us of Who He is, and how much He loves us. He is always with us. We are not of this world … we are His Kingdom people. We talk about it, carry it, live in it, breath it, and do it – and if necessary – we die for it. Bye.👋