Psalms

P 2749 Don’t settle for less than on fire!

/ DVH

I’ve been listening to a number of different things lately, all made possible by YouTube. I discovered Project of Love this morning. It consists of verses from the bible in spontaneous song. Featuring books like Isaiah, Psalms, Habakkuk, Mark, and many more – about 22 so far, and these Scriptures set to music are accompanied by the really powerful images. It was a breath of fresh air.  Xander, the guitar playing singer, heard the Lord tell Him to pick up his guitar and sing what He was reading from Isaiah.

At that time, Xander did not know God, and he had been deeply depressed, he was on suicide watch. He was saved on the spot! After watching this man’s joy in action it really convicted me that it is easy to get stuck in the ways of the past. In the days to come I think that the Lord will bring out some extraordinary gifts from ordinary people, in whatever He is going to do next. Meanwhile, maybe we’ve made worship or teaching about having musically experienced leaders, and competent musicians. In other words we look for the people with the best voices or those who have been trained. But we sing to help US focus and to bless His heart. Ephesians 5:19 – “Speaking to yourselves, in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” 

This thought meant that I asked myself some questions …  why should worship be about the sound, and not our hearts? The danger for all of us who know exactly what to say and do, is that worship can become a routine, and everything is left to the leader out the front. Yet I think we could see a day when the Lord might take members of society that the church would reject, or maybe pass over, because they don’t meet some sort of ‘ministry’ standard. He wants them contribute.

Personally, I believe God is going to gift some people in extraordinary ways, like our friend Xander! But because the people outside our churches are ‘unchurched’ they will not have the inbuilt agendas most of us cheerfully adhere to. 

Sometimes it seems that the church at large has accepted fear as a subtext, accidentally. It seems that we are afraid of wandering off into error. However, that’s when we can unfortunately trample on the very gifts God wants to raise up! It is much too easy for us to get stuck in the way that things have always worked in the past.

Here’s a thought: … muscles are developed when they are gently but regularly stretched. Maybe the Body of Christ needs to do some heavenly stretching! Is our collective faith big enough for what He wants to do next? Our trust in His ability to care for us in any circumstance, seems to have given way to the fear of making mistakes or being misled by enthusiasm. Are we settling for the known and the comfortable, the routine and predictable, because those things are regarded as being normal and controllable. Our God is bigger than that. When Jesus came into this world, He challenged the norm by His very Presence!

Does our preaching and teaching rely more on expertise and knowledge than passion? I heard someone preach the other day and they were all over the place like jam, and yet they still managed to challenge me! Is strict adherence to conformity the very reason the church has settled into separate denominations? In many churches we go along with the same old same old, because somebody more senior and knowledgeable in God sets the rules and now we just blindly follow them. Maybe this is why some people continually hop about changing churches like the pop-up moles in Whack-a-Mole? Perhaps we are shopping around for churches that make us comfortable? Who are we here for again?? HIM or us?

We all know that I’m not the biggest fan of jumping around between churches –  yet in my denomination that seems to be almost expected, as well as accepted. But it is extremely important to remember that the Lord will choose the setting He wants to place us in. A new church is not like choosing a new shirt – for us to reach our full potential we need to rub up against people who are going to annoy the living daylights out of us! If we choose our comfort over His opportunities for our growth – we will stay babies and toddlers. 

Growth occurs as we discover our own hearts have deceived us and we are convicted by our sinfulness. So, do we  avoid change because it is inconvenient or we don’t like it, or we don’t think it is necessary? Maybe we even know we are stuck but we keep waiting for the Lord to turn up and fix the mess we’ve made?  Our job is to repent, and work with the Holy Spirit — to challenge ourselves and face up to the things we don’t like. Then we need to prayerfully revise our attitudes. Change is not just agreeing with the bible, change is when we look like Jesus and act like He would.

As Christians we cannot afford to settle for anything less than being on fire! Let’s reject the comfortable same-old same-old status quo, and press in to make sure we please His heart as well as continually press in to expand our love for Him. Bye.👋

“Don’t you realize that together you have become God’s inner sanctuary and that the Spirit of God makes His permanent home in you?” 1Corinthians 3:16 TPT

P 2680 Walking free.

/ DVH

“I waited and waited and waited some more, patiently, knowing God would come through for me. Then, at last, He bent down and listened to my cry. He stooped down to lift me out of danger from the desolate pit I was in, out of the muddy mess I had fallen into. Now He’s lifted me up into a firm, secure place and steadied me while I walk along His ascending path.” Psalms 40:1-2 TPT.

I have this theory … the things that we consciously walk into, we often need to walk out of. What do I mean by that? When we are careless and wander off His path for us, it is highly unlikely that the Lord will sovereignly transport us back to wherever we wandered off! Instead we have to turn around and make our way out of the mess we’ve made. He will always help us, but it is our responsibility to repent and repair. An-y-w-ay, this man in the above scripture fell in a hole! I like this guy already, I’ve been down more holes in my lifetime than a gopher! 

Did you get the ‘waiting waiting waiting’ part? Nobody likes that bit. Why do we have to WWW? Patience grows as we stretch our faith by firmly holding on to HIS faithfulness. The secret is to keep looking at Him — it won’t help us to constantly revise how stretched we feel! Our spiritual predecessors knew all about waiting. Some of them died … still waiting!! Hebrews 11 – the great faith testimony chapter. There’s a whole big clump of people – whose names we all know and recognise – on that list, and it says – ‘by faith’ in it 20 times! When God repeats Himself, I pay attention.

The important part of these two verses above in Psalms 40 is this: “knowing God would come through for me.” See… I actually think that most people would think “stooping down” and “lifting me up” etc. are the important bits. In other words …we all want to escape from trouble. But the longer we stand still and wait for Him, and look at how faithful He is, the stronger our faith gets. Human beings focus on deliverance, while Almighty God focusses on growth. I’m not saying it’s wrong to focus on getting out of the trouble we’ve landed in, but there’s not that much growth on that path. In the end, it seems to me that it’s the wait, wait, waiting that grows us. And yeah, I don’t like that thought either!

The Lord wants us to know our own limitations, so we can continually enjoy His limitlessness. Everything good comes to us and meets us on the path of waiting and believing in His faithfulness. Christians are not meant to stay immature. We were born again to grow, and mature people know how to wait! BTW, did you also get that word “danger?“ Yup. Another thought no-one likes. But we will be rescued and grow — all at the same time. And that path leads UP, afterwards. I won’t have wobbly weak faith anymore, because God Himself will steady me. So the path I am on now, HE put me on! He has a purpose for me, for my life  — it isn’t just to continually test me, it is to show Himself strong and mighty on my behalf. Now I will need to live using my faith so I can see what He is doing.

Almighty God should not have to prove His goodness to us day in and day out by making our lives easier. His Personhood should be an established fact in our lives. This is not something debatable – His faithfulness is a pillar in the inner house of our hearts.  We are so blessed. We are living our lives on the other side of that cross. We have the writings of the New Testament, His living active will, to refer to. It is our check-list of who we are and where we are going. Otherwise the winds of change and tribulation will keep blowing us over, like the fierce wind speed of a hurricane. 

Psalm 103:4 says: “Who redeems my life from the pit”… Redeem doesn’t just mean ESCAPE … redemption makes things better than they were. It means transformation. Jesus bought my life back from destruction and healed me, changed, and transformed everything. My old ways to live, things like – being frightened, overwhelmed, nasty, spiteful etc. have gone. All that was killed off when Jesus took my sin onto the cross. Now I don’t have to live like that anymore.

We are blessed. We get to leave behind our grave clothes just as surely as Lazarus got rid of his! Now we have a new way to live – calling us up, higher and higher. Any tests or trials along the way are not our God being whimsical … He is not testing our loyalty – He’s preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies! Now we can enjoy walking free of that old way of living, where we lived in fear that help wouldn’t come. We have proof in the bible that help has already come. Bye. 👋

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 2582 More on a heart like David.

/ DVH

The Lord said of His servant David, that “this is a man after My own heart”. (1 Samuel 13:14) It seems to me it is comparatively easy to pray:“Oh Lord please give me a heart like David had!”…in a moment of love and passion toward God Himself … with no understanding of what that means!  Will we blame God for not answering that prayer – when we ignore the opportunities He sends our way?

Think on this: if you and I really want a heart like David had, then God Himself will need to send us the kind of opportunities DAVID had! Hearts are formed, they do not fall on us. Here’s quick revision of David’s life — this young man was overlooked in his family. His earthly father forgot he had him and obviously thought the boy was not as promising as his six brothers were!  Did David moan about that? No! Instead he learnt about God in the middle of a pasture doing a job that was beneath his stature. This was where he learnt about soaking in God’s ways. That’s where he learnt to make the Lord his priority. He wrote beautiful Psalms… instead of complaining about his lowly position and the weather.

David chose God’s ways over his own human desires, many times. We all know about his failure and the subsequent consequences, but there were so many other times that David chose to honour the Lord despite his circumstances. His responses to his life were way above most men’s natural tendencies. He did not do that to curry favour with God, BTW, he did it because that was who he was! Soaking in God’s beauty had shaped his heart, and his responses came from that heart of love toward the Father. 

So if WE want a heart like David, then maybe we will have to fight our own Goliath and WIN. We all have Goliaths in our lives, and we often feel ill-equipped to fight them. But David took what he had – which was belief in Who Almighty God is – and defeated his enemy. There may also be a possibility that we will have to honour somebody in our lives just like King Saul, David’s persecutor of 20 years. Simply because that person is God’s choice to shape US… by handing out constant oppression! Maybe our tormentor has been tormenting us for years too!!

Let’s look at David’s response when his little baby boy died… “After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. On the seventh day the child died …” 2 Samuel 12:15-18. 

After his baby’s death, David’s servants were reluctant to tell him the little one was gone, but he figured it out. Then he does an extraordinary thing — it seems almost totally incomprehensible. He gets up, washes himself, and asks for food. Why on earth would he do that? You know when I think about his response it blows me away. This man is so concerned about doing God’s will, God’s way, once the Lord’s plan is revealed – He leaves the whole thing alone and goes back into ordinary life, immediately. Boy is that living this life surrendered!  

Much later, David actively sets out to find someone left in Saul’s house … even after Saul and Jonathan had died. He wants to do his enemy’s family good. (Now there’s a grand illustration of doing good to your enemies!) Despite his warrior life, this man of God had such integrity before the Lord. It all sprang from his deep love for God, not obligation, or religious duty. Those Psalms he wrote came right out of his own experiences! Instead of cultivating despair, anger and jealousy – David cultivated a sweet heart.

It may be that we too have lost else someone so dear to us, like David did, when his older son Absalom died. But David was not able to mourn Absalom … imagine that! He’s a leader, his sheep come first! He puts his grief aside, in order to be a good leader and king to his subjects. Funny how God picks ordinary people like that quite often. Think about it.

These are just some ?highlights? After all David’s life was filled with war and betrayal! If we truly want a heart like he had, maybe we are going to need some panel-beating first! That, and a sweet, spontaneous heart-response under pressure. God Himself forges men and women in the furnaces of trouble, pestilence, war, sorrow and strife. We must simply choose to learn His ways, they won’t fall on us.

Here’s my last thought – right after the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost, persecution for the gospel’s sake broke out. But Father God had a purpose, He wanted the disciples to disperse to spread the gospel further. So, instead of becoming a jolly, happy, worshipping group, who enjoyed their new life together teaching the same things over and over again … persecution and bad experiences are now their teacher.

 We will have troubles and strife in this life, and this means God is working on our hearts. To have a heart like David we will need to be changed. 👋 “Create in me a clean heart O, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.” Amen!

P 2576 Kingdom people.

/ DVH

When you have a moment perhaps you could read all of Psalm 73 ….Here’s and excerpt Psalm 73:25-28 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from You will perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all Your deeds.” Luke 17:21: “The kingdom of God is within you ..”

We have a hiding place in Christ. The King Himself is our hiding place and our city of refuge. In Him we have guidance and protection. Jesus faced everything this world can throw at humanity — every sin, every ugliness our world was ever going to produce — and He conquered it. Now, we live our lives refusing to let this world, or even our experiences, dictate our actions and reactions. Whether we experience defeat or sorrow – we know personally that our experiences cannot negate the truth. We have the power of God to help us live and respond differently.. 

We are outwardly, visibly, telling the world, around us that we love Him and belong to Him when we live this life FOR Him. However, we still have a choice to live our lives for our own benefit! But when we do that, we are turning our backs on our God-given inheritance. At the same time, by default, we’re giving satan permission to keep us busy being envious of the rich and healthy, plus those whose lives seem easier than ours. Instead of living this life fulfilling the purposes that God gave to each one of us — which is literally, the reason we are here. We were made for His pleasure. He gave each one of us a purpose and a destiny. That destiny will be progressively revealed, as we learn to trust Jesus and walk with Him.

We have an incredible destiny. It is to be the people of God in an ungodly world, reflecting His love everywhere we go. I read this whole Psalm again the other day. It seems to me that the writer’s focus had switched from God’s goodness to the world around Him, and that eventually led him into a dark place. Suddenly he felt that following God was a waste of his time, because the people who were not believers were doing better than those who were believers!

This Psalm shows us that it is a normal human reaction for us, to struggle with the difficulties of this life. We are not faithless if we do. It’s staying there that clouds our judgment. When the psalmist went on into God’s house – everything became clear.  If we have not grasped the concept of Christ’s ultimate victory, our God-given peace can be shattered simply because the bad guys are well, and they keep on prospering! However, we are exhorted to cultivate eternal eyes. 

Jesus talked about that. He talked about His people living in God’s kingdom, ushering in God’s kingdom … NOW. That fact alone means we cannot allow ourselves to be double-minded. In order to bring God’s kingdom with us wherever we go, we need to demonstrate it, as well as live in it ourselves. His kingdom must fill our view. The kingdom of God is within us – we joined His kingdom when we asked Jesus to save us. If we don’t let it out by the way we live, then other people will remain ignorant of its existence.

We are to be like the guy selling the ‘you beaut’ vacuum cleaner. Talking about it is great, explaining its benefits is pretty good too, but the best way to know if that darn vacuum cleaner is gunna work at your house is to see it working! We are God’s illustrations of what life with Him is like. You and I are His visual aids. We show others that they do not have to face this life alone – we have a Helper and they can too!

If we do not learn to cultivate these things in our renewed mindset, we can fall prey to the less-than-subtle-influences around us. Life will no longer be liveable, instead it will crash over us, and take our legs out from under us. Unless we choose to lay back on Jesus’s shoulder despite any storms that are raging and ask the Lord: “How are You going to fix this Lord? Over to You, I’m easy either way.” 

I call living like this leaning into Him. By learning to follow the prompts and doing what He says, we show Him we trust Him. In this century we are living more than ever in an information age, and we often are led by this world into thinking that if we understand something – we can handle it. Rhubarb. Unless our understanding comes from the King of all Kings, all we will get from comprehension is a deeper knowledge of how unfair everything is, like the psalmist did. 

To be kingdom people we need to progressively live in His kingdom, and start to leave this world’s idea of “the good life” behind us. We do that by choosing to love instead of indulging in hate or indifference. It is the highest form of worship we can give our precious King. Bless you 👋

P 2573 Godly advice for the sleepless.

/ DVH

From the book! “I lie awake each night thinking of You and reflecting on how You help me like a Father. I sing through the night under Your splendour-shadow, offering up to You my songs of delight and joy! With passion I pursue and cling to You. Because I feel Your grip on my life, I keep my soul close to Your heart.”Psalms 63:6-8 TPT.

Man, those psalmists knew how to write. However, it seems like they didn’t sleep so good all the time, even back then!  The Holy Spirit must have helped them with their attitudes, because the things that are written in these psalms are wiser than the ways of men. There is no greater ambition than for us to live to praise and enjoy Him, at any hour. Today I was up at 4.30 am writing the blog … at about 6.30 am I started to wish I had stayed in bed. My brain feels like it is melting. I do wish I could write beautiful stuff like that psalmist did … he’s inspiring.

Here’s some of my less-than-spiritual advice for free — unless you are single and live by yourself —bursting into song singing to God in the middle of the night may not work out well for you! Somebody else… maybe even a bunch of somebody elses … could wake up and be less than enthralled by your singing! My advice is if you have to sing, then don’t sing loudly, or take it elsewhere … like into another room! I try to toddle off upstairs when I do the early bird routine – hubby needs his sleep, he works hard.  We can see that Jesus went away from His disciples to talk to His Heavenly Father. Apparently they weren’t like Joshua, who stayed talking to God longer than Moses did!  Moving away from those who can sleep is called appropriate public relations behaviour –  anybody with a lick of sense knows you don’t poke a bear when he is sleeping.

But in those moments, in the middle of the night, I sit and quietly read the scriptures to set my heart firmly back on Him. So often nowadays, this life squeezes us so tightly, sometimes it feels like we can’t breathe. Even the bible can seem to be impossible to grasp, especially when you feel like you have fallen down a deep deep hole and His love and light is hidden from you. That’s when you PAF … Phone A Friend. Seriously. But!! Not between 12.00am and 6.00am!  You might find out your friend’s smiley face is wearing thin at that hour. Most of all take the time talk to the Lord, despite how you feel. He’s your Dad and He’s always UP and happy to hear from you! “He that keepeth thee does not slumber.” Psalm 121:3.

Sadly, for me, and about a zillion other people in this world, that word ‘Dad,’ has little or no meaning. But I’ve seen enough Dad-like qualities in the godly men around me to get a picture of what a great father looks like. Plus Jesus talked about it too. Almighty God is the greatest of all fathers. He’s where Fatherhood comes from!  His book gives us a lovely picture of what a great father looks like. Here’s Matthew 7:9-11.“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”Good verse to think about at 1.00 am.

Our Father will not lie or try to deceive us. When He says something He means it. Our task is to believe what He has said, even though sometimes in this world, other people are trying to sell us something. I’ve found that many people lie because they want something, or they have something to hide or lose. When we are sleepless, or down, because of life, or something someone else said or did — we need to remind ourselves that our God does not lie. HE has nothing to hide and He doesn’t have agendas. Everything He says is the truth. ‘There is no shadow or turning in Him.’ This simply means — because HE IS THE LIGHT … good luck finding anything dark anywhere near Him.

Our current world provides us with poor images, those things are not good to think about at 1.00am. This world is used to double-dealing, double-talking flam-flam artists who pretend to be one thing when they are really another. Deception often flows through our streets like water. Think about a simple thing like watching a movie. Movies are all about people lying to themselves …and to each other … and to YOU, for a living. And we pay them heaps of money to do it!  We’ve gotten so used to living with these things that we think of them as harmless. God is truth,  and we already know that ‘in Him there is no shadow or turning’ –so anything that is a lie is not from Him. And yes, I watch movies too! But I think that some movies are definitely not geared to help us sleep!

However, this psalmist has the sense when he wakes up at some ridiculous hour of the night, to respond to God with praise and worship. He meditates on God’s goodness, instead of making his worries bigger by thinking about them. Nor does he think about that cute little maiden he saw last week in the temple! He remembers what the Lord has already done and he gives thanks. This man is giving us sound advice. In the middle of the night when we have any worries, we need to hand them over, and go after Jesus. Try praying for people who need to be saved – satan is glad to let you nod off when you do that!  

I also like to remind myself, that even though I know I can be faithless, my Heavenly Father cannot!  BTW, FYI, I do not expect you to be Him — if I want to see what my Father looks like then I look at Christ – He’s a sure thing. The most wonderful miracle of all miracles happened a couple of thousand years ago – God came here to reveal Himself to us, personally.  And that’s plenty to think about today or tonight … or in the middle of the night when your brain is UP and you wanna sleep! Bye zzzzzzzz. 👋

P 2572 Life is hard, we need His Oasis.

/ DVH

““Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to Me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with Mine. Learn My ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in Me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.”” Matthew 11:28-30 TPT. 

We can easily lose sight of Jesus, our oasis, when we try to figure out, or fix things by ourselves. That’s why Jesus said … “Come to ME!” The first place we need to go is to Him. I have personally prayed so many many times, “Lord please hold me up.” The stuff that is going on in my life doesn’t always disappear, sometimes it even gets worse. Man … I hate worse the same as anyone else! At this stage of my walk with the Lord, I have yet to say to myself: “Hooray, everything has gone upside down, here’s another great opportunity for me to learn stuff, and watch Jesus at work!” However, now I am being held up by SomeOne greater than me.

What I say is more like … “Oh NO! Not again!!” But I have also learnt from experience that my very next best move is to scurry alongside Jesus and start reminding Him of His promises! And the first promise I remember is “I”m sinking fast Lord. Help help!” I’ve learnt to do that from reading the Psalms. Those psalmists knew how to praise God, as well as worship … and they definitely knew where their help came from! Read them again and count how many times they cried out for help. These were grown men!

An independent spirit is the antithesis of what learning to follow Jesus is all about. Our task is to learn how to lean – on Him, and on each other. What we are doing is learning to lean into Him. This life is bigger than we are. It’s harder, meaner, and contrary. We need a hiding place. He’s the HIDING PLACE. I run! Most of the time like an elderly bunny rabbit – I’m slower these days OK? – yelling all the way … “I need you Lord!” There is something about acknowledging that we cannot do this life alone, that touches the heart of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

The bible says: “It is NOT GOOD for Man to be alone!” That verse isn’t just talking about finding a spouse. It means human beings don’t do well without SomeBody else wiser and greater than we are, looking after us. Sheltering us. Caring about our pain, suffering, and our deep deep sorrows. My advice is to talk to the One Who suffered so much alone, Jesus knows how not good it is to be alone.

Just like spouses are designed to walk together, we have been remade to walk with Almighty God, like Jesus did. This means we are never alone!  And the Holy Spirit will help us to do it. When I am in pain or troubled, I don’t always feel anything but I kick start my faith by praying anyway. Our God knows how we feel deep down in our hearts. Holding that stuff inside us will not help us live through it, or even cope. It is part of learning HIS WAY to share with Him. Jesus did not hide anything from God and neither should we. Remember, we don’t have to BE the Answer – HE IS!

We can sometimes get stuck seeing something or other as a bad thing, because there is an un-renewed place in our minds. That mindset will prevent us from seeing His blessings. Yesterday the Lord spoke to me about something I’ve been praying over for ages, and He said this: “You are looking at this event as a bad thing, what if I intend it to be the answer to this other prayer?” 

You could have knocked me down with a feather, literally. My mind was fixated prayerfully on the thing I thought was insurmountable – but that thought from Him blew everything bad away in milli-seconds. My thought then was – “He is doing something else!” We desperately need to know His ways – especially in this time of great deceit, with all those smoke and mirrors swirling around us. Nothing is the way it seems … not even the weather forecast! 😂 We need a fixed place in our hearts that will not move. Jesus is our fixed oasis, at any given time, and the Holy Spirit will always lead us to Him. 

This means that now I have a place of REST because I have HIS POV. I tell myself: “The Lord has got this, I will not give it another thought.” And then I take the thoughts of worry, stress, and angst captive, when they blast at me from all sides, and give them to Him as they come. I quote whatever He says to me, at that time, at those thoughts. Now I can rest, knowing He’s got me.

This is the way we find out He is gentle, humble, and easy to please  – by following His instructions. Step by step. We get to know Him from His responses. And then we hold fast. God is bigger than our understanding and we must stop trying to organise Him into doing things our way, and learn how to do things His way. Stepping into His oasis is His way!  👋

P 2548 Fight for your HOPE.

/ DVH

Psalm 42:1-11. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”  Have you ever thought to yourself? … “If I can just get to Jesus, I know I will be alright.” It seems this Psalmist guy had a similar thought … or … maybe he is just a realist? A lot of our time can be wasted on trying to work out stuff we can’t possibly fix – and/or things that are way outside our control! When all it takes is “help help” Lord! We cannot manage our new life without Him.

“These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.”

Remembering the good things of the past sets us up to have renewed hope for the future. This guy has enough sense to know that his soul, his feelings, his imagination and his circumstances are never good things to be allowed to lead us. He asks himself questions! We cannot afford to spend our time and focus lamenting about the things that come at us. We must remind ourselves God is still on His throne and He always wants to help us!  BTW, unless we are continually renewing our minds, our minds can go into terrible places too.

“My soul is downcast within me;  therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.  Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;  all Your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.“

This Psalmist has a great grasp on reality. He doesn’t deny what is going on, instead he uses his memory to remind himself of better times, wherever he goes. Without the Lord Jesus continually guiding us, our lives can be smashed against the rocks of this life and they can immediately seem purposeless.

In the Western world we’ve been led astray, because we’ve been living lives of comparative ease. We don’t face the terrible things daily other people in this world are facing, daily. It is too easy to think that having whatever we want;  a good life without hardship, is our right. And then we can get our crank on when this life becomes difficult. Easy lives raise shallow people, just like shallow soil raises plants with shallow roots. God wants to grow oak trees, not radishes. You can harvest radishes in a week, oak trees take a little longer! 

“I say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God? Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.”

You know, if we absolutely have to complain, then let’s go and talk things over with the Lord. But remember, if all we ever do is complain then — He will eventually leave us to work things out for ourselves. Complaints need to turn back toward faith in Him and asking for His help. We must push past our feelings into the reality of His Presence. Our God is always with us, He wants to help us. He will even save us from our own stupid selves. Trouble is the best time to ask yourself questions. Why am I feeling so overwhelmed? Why isn’t my faith handling this Lord? 

The way through trials and tribulations is to continually push back against everything around us that wants to soothe us off to sleep, into oblivion. This world will be happy to tell us how unfair our life is. We have to learn to resist whatever is going on around us, and go back to lifting our eyes and hearts, up to the Lord. That’s where our help always comes from – He is the centre of focus – not the things that pass away. Plus our feelings, will lie to us!  Let’s press on into hope and resist our circumstances, because they can change in a heartbeat. And then we ask ourselves, ‘Who is in charge of my life, my responses, my well-being … my circumstances, or God?’ I will always have a choice to make. I can choose to give in to how I feel etc. or remember where my hope comes from.

Just because things don’t get better that does not mean God has deserted you – He has a plan. No matter how dark it seems – He has a plan to ‘give us a hope and a future.” Hold on! Don’t let your feelings push your faith aside. The man who wrote this Psalm knew he was able to get through things, because he knew that in God, he was bigger inside than outside. Whenever we let go of our hope we are letting go of OUR anchor! Hebrews 6:19, 20.”We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, …”

If you end up bobbing about in rough seas wondering why you are being pushed around by huge waves, currents and undercurrents of this life – it is time to remind yourself that you’ve forgotten to let down the anchor. Grab hold of Jesus and tell Him, “I will not let You go!.” Because of what Christ did, we can go into the Holy of holies and seize our hope. Hope is our forever anchor, and our Hope is always in the Lord and what He did for us, not in our circumstances. Jesus is our everlasting hope that God has a purpose in the midst of the chaos. 🙌

P 2531 Our place in God’s plans.

/ DVH

1 Samuel 22:20-23: “But one son of Ahimelek son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to join David. He told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. Then David said to Abiathar, “That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your whole family. Stay with me; don’t be afraid. The man who wants to kill you is trying to kill me too. You will be safe with me.”

To put you in the picture – King Saul is on one of his “let’s kill David … … plus anyone else who helps him!”… moods. Saul had heaps of ‘destroy that guy’ sprees. Below is my condensed version of one of those stories.. David goes to Nob and asks the high priest Ahimelek to help him, he and his men need food. Ahimelek gives David and his men yesterdays’ shew bread plus Goliath’s sword to help him. It is good to remember, King Saul hates David without any Godly cause. Some people do that you know – it isn’t always your fault.

Meanwhile, I think King Saul is deeply envious, and jealous of David and his popularity and his good heart. To start with Saul’s own son Jonathan loves him and this young man is constantly helping his friend. Back to the story — Saul hears about Ahimelek helping David out and he becomes furious — which actually seems to be the king’s emotional default position (!!)  And he sends for Ahimelek, and all the other priests. There were 85 of these men, and King Saul tells his men to kill all of them. 

But the king’s men are unwilling to strike down priests, so Saul gets Doeg the Edomite to kill them, as well as everyone else who lived in the town of Nob. Apparently Saul also believes in guilt by association. This is where the verses above pick up the narrative. We find out that through the text, that David did not trust Doeg at all. It seems that David’s internal spiritual radar was spot on! 

The reason I want to feature this story today is to highlight David’s attitude. Attitudes are easy to miss when you are just reading things as a story! One of Ahimelek’s sons escapes and runs to David, telling him what Saul has done and David picks up responsibility for what has happened … even though he was not the perpetrator! He literally becomes this man’s city of refuge, taking the man and his whole family in under his protection. I love that! When I read it recently, I started praying the Lord would make me a place of refuge like that for others, so they can come to know Him and His love, better.

It is good to look hard at what happened to Ahimelek. We need to note that none of the people who were assassinated did anything wrong – but they were all destroyed to satisfy the king’s desire for revenge. It can be way too easy to start hunting around for the ‘Sauls’ in our own lives … those people who hate us … when we read stuff like this… Nobody loves everybody all the time! By the way, if you find some people like that in your life – remember to forgive them! 

However, today my aim is to talk about having a heart just like David had toward others. He became the protector of the weak and vulnerable – despite the fact that he was being actively pursued by a jealous, vengeful king. He is innocent of any wrong doing. Under pressure, David is still a righteous man! As Christians, we need to be the sort of people that care enough about other people to protect them prayerfully etc., as well as practically and we need to learn, from the Lord, how to prevail under pressure. You get it that the pressure comes first – eh? Then we get to do the prevailing stuff!

This world has so much injustice today it is easy to be swept up in anger and frustration, and then get overwrought, and start acting, and reacting from our pain. Because of that pain, we can easily switch our focus over toward getting rid of the problem. In this story, and in most of ours, the problem is a person. Yet David had enough wisdom to leave Saul and his machinations to GOD – he just kept actively evading him. This was WHO David was!

IF we take matters like this into our own hands we will miss our calling. We are called to be ministers of reconciliation – not God’s revenge on two feet! Our enemy can successfully distract us from the main thing and … the main thing is to find OUR PLACE in His ANSWER. One of our biggest temptations is to rush in where angels fear to tread and act without wisdom. My advice is wait for our King, Jesus. Our place in God’s plan is to be a minister of reconciliation. There is no greater calling.👋

P 2497 Even our motives need to be purified.

/ DVH

“I just want to obey all You ask of me. So teach me, Lord, for You are my God. Your gracious Spirit is all I need, so lead me on good paths that are pleasing to You, my one and only God!” Psalms 143:10 TPT. 

What a wealth of faith, hope, and love has gone on in this life, before any of us arrived here! This morning I was overwhelmed by thoughts of the wonderful saints of God who have died, and now they are singing their hearts out around the throne! You and I are standing on everything these incredibly faithful people have contributed in the past – because of their devotion to the Lord and the things they have said, and done, and written down. Their example is our platform. These men, women and children have gone on to their reward, leaving behind a legacy of faith in Christ for us. 

Maybe there have been incredible saints in our own personal lives who shared what they knew with us, so that we too can know the reality of His love. Mothers, Fathers, Aunts, and Uncles and Grandparents etc. all sorts of relatives who made faith choices, and stuck by their choices through thick and thin – giving us individual platforms to stand on. Many of them chose a life of service over popularity and fame. And now it is our turn. We have the opportunity to serve and obey Him, and glorify Him, through our little lives so we can pass an even deeper legacy onto our children. 

I love the attitude of the Psalmist David, in the scripture written above. There is great humility in what he said. “I just want to obey all you ask Lord … so teach me …”  King David had the most incredible heart. How amazing that this passionate, loving, shepherd boy kept on writing Psalms, and kept on documenting his life with God, right up until the end of that life. I know he also failed and sinned, and he betrayed the trust the Lord had put in him – don’t we all! But the bible indicates that at this time, when he wrote this Psalm, he was in one of the hardest times of his life. His much-loved adult son, was betraying him – yet he still maintains his soft heart, which is quick to repent.

David’s son, Absalom despised his father, because he had not sought or learnt the faith of his father.  This younger man was lobbying and doing all he could to replace David as king. As we read the entire Psalm we find that David is yet again, in turmoil, overwhelmed with yet another different kind of sorrow and broken-heartedness. But David knows the only Person Who can get him through the incredible pain of betrayal in his shattered heart, is the Lord Himself. What a lesson God has taught this man! The first place and the only Person we need to turn to in times of trouble, is the One Who has shared this ordinary life by living among us.

There is such wisdom in knowing where our help comes from! I don’t know about you, but I have lived in the ‘phone-a-friend-because-the-ceiling-has-fallen-in-on-me’ vein for years and years. My help was sort-of-kind-of in somebody else. I was looking for a person, someone I could see and hear more easily. Someone who would buddy me through any pain and heartbreak until it was over. I wasn’t interested in growth, I just wanted relief from pain.

Our Christian families, church, or otherwise, are the biggest blessing — but they are not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with God Himself. This personal relationship with Jesus Christ is our highest calling. Yet one of the paradoxes of Christianity is that we often deeply feel the need to have someone next to us, someone with skin on – someone who will pat our hand and tell us that God will get us through … whatever it is…   And we miss the opportunity to identify something that David himself, understood. OUR GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US.

At the same time, I am personally guilty of trying to be all things to everybody, so I can help others in any way I can, and some of the time I mess that up badly. Everyone misses out, including me!! There have also been times where I tried so hard to impart my faith to my immediate family that I know I got in the Lord’s way. I have never wanted fame or such, but I have definitely been guilty of wanting to leave a legacy behind me. That’s when I realised I desperately needed to have my motives purified. King David had a pure heart that was devoted to Almighty God above everything else. 

This man was tested in ways that appall me, yet he stood fast. He repented quickly, accepted any consequences of his wrong actions, and moved right back into leaning on God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. I truly pray that my motives are pure toward the Lord. The mind is a funny thing, it hides things it doesn’t like from itself … Today, I want to remind myself that I want my motivation to be like David’s, trusting in God’s wisdom and strength to get me through whatever comes next. Bye. 👋