Romans 3:4

P 3271 “Blessed are those who mourn … for they shall be comforted.”

/ DVH

Here’s another version —of Matthew 5:4. “Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favour and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!” (AMP)

My initial thought was, how can it be blessed to mourn? After all you are suffering. Perhaps somebody died, or plans were made and lost, or maybe your world went upside down overnight? I read through about a half a dozen versions to try to understand what this verse is saying…and they all said the same thing! So I was as much in the dark as I had been before. When I get verses like this one, I pray over it until I get some clarity and then I follow through on what He says with prayer and action.  

I looked at the verse again, and my first observation is that this is a promise. The words “shall be comforted” stood out to me. I have got be honest with you, that has not always been my experience so far. I’m not saying it hasn’t ever  happened … but not always, and very rarely right away. This means my understanding of what the Lord is saying, is actually incorrect. I came to the conclusion that I am using my experience as a yardstick. Big mistake. 

I must start from the premise that God’s Word is true, and that means it’s my knowledge or experience, or lack of it, that is at fault. What I am saying is—I don’t authenticate His Word, it authenticates or convicts or transforms me. Because Romans 3:4 says: “Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “ So that You may be proved right when You speak and prevail when You judge.”  There’s that sorted.  

But I can get stuck, because my own experience with grief – so far, is that you go in – by force or by circumstances – and you come out the other side … eventually! You can also get to stay there way too long, which is on my list of things to avoid at all cost! Grief does not seem like much of a blessing, at the time …either before, during or after … this means the Lord has a different idea of blessing and comfort to mine. Blessed is used over 500 times in the bible, depending on the version you read, and comfort appears approx.150 times. God is saying something I am not getting, and I know it isn’t Him, so it must be me. “Help, Help!”

Here’s a little snippet. The basic concept for comfort in both the Old and New Testaments is encouragement:  whether it happens by words, or the presence of another to help in time of need. Synonymous words are console, help, give relief, cheer up, exhort, and fear not. The Lord is promising us His Presence is going to be our comfort – not necessarily an exit from what is happening. Psalm 91:15: “He (the believer) will call upon Me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him.”

Our Heavenly Father, Almighty God, promises to be with us. This means, despite our feelings, He does not withdraw His love and support, He stands with US. Now there is another aha! moment. One of Jesus’ own Names is Emmanuel, which literally means …”God is with us.” Because our Heavenly Father, is utterly faithful, and He cannot ever be otherwise — we can rely upon Him when we are thrown into mourning, whether we feel like He is there or not. Here’s a quote I found that explains that better than I can.

“So when God is with us, it means HE’S LITERALLY WITH US. You just can’t see Him. It’s like the wind. It’s there, and it LITERALLY MOVES THINGS YOU CAN SEE, even though you can’t see the wind that moves them.” (Caleb Jones, Reddit.) I liked what this person said. God is not making me wait because He is too busy or can’t be bothered. In these circumstances, I need to remind myself that He is doing something else. Something I cannot see or comprehend – YET.  

This means I will have to use my faith at a moment when I want to feel sorry for myself, or I am too exhausted to be bothered. That’s OK, God is still there with me. And grief, IS by nature, exhausting! I need to give whatever has happened to Him, and leave it with Him. Ephesians 5:13 MSG bible says:  

“Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”  

I literally cannot fix the existing problem with my blog, I have to leave it in the hands of the server – who is in Denmark BTW. And I need to give the people I write for, and pray for… this means you! … to Him. I must deliberately trust that He has your best interests in His heart, because the bible says He does. That’s what I am aiming at.  Bye. 👋

P 3190 Who colours your world?

/ DVH

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”  Proverbs 4:23 TPT.  When I hear that scripture I think of a little man in a guard’s uniform marching up and down with a big gun on his shoulder. Behind him is a door, with a sign on it and it says:“No entry without permission – Joe Blog’s mind.”  Suffice to say, I have a very vivid imagination! 

The thing is, all of us need as much help with our minds as we can get. Our minds need to be renewed — on purpose, daily. This must happen simply because we are continually being bombarded with worldly propaganda minute by minute. Just recently, I was dragged into a conversation that centred on something I wouldn’t normally talk about. I actually internally, disagreed with the speaker. The trouble was this person was a guest in our home so I had to choose between being rude to a guest, and exercising good manners, or bailing out of the conversation. 

You guessed it – I went the easy way, and then I felt really bad about it. I repented of course, but I was disappointed in myself. However, it gave me a chance to reflect on something I might normally brush aside. How do you go about giving someone else a loving refusal to their ideas, when what they are saying goes against what you believe? I know that the Holy Spirit has a way through this kind of difficulty, if we simply choose to stay in His Presence. Sadly, I flunked that test, this time, I fell right in!

The scripture above from Proverbs actually gives us a great clue about this kind of scenario – it isn’t what comes out that is the problem – it’s what is already IN there! Somewhere, somehow, I have not been guarding what my heart loves, and so the wrong issues got in. In computer-land, if your programming is bad, then the results won’t be great either. So, what do I need to put IN to reprogram my inner opinions with His Word? His word, duh!

Now the issue is no longer about what anybody else said, but what I have been inwardly holding onto. Well, there’s a yucky thought — but it is worth exploring. I don’t want ‘all that I am’ to be affected by opinionated stuff that I may have thought was important in the past. I want everything I am to be affected by the Lord and what He wants in my life, right here, right now.. BTW, I do pray about my speech being “winsome” during the day, but sometimes my opinions have a mind of their own. They have a tendency to pop out unannounced!

My starting place for things like this is always repentance, there is nothing else like it for clearing the decks of detritus and junk we don’t need. Then with the Holy Spirit’s help, I am going to need to pay attention to what I am holding onto from the past, that is not scriptural. That’s when the fun starts! Because I will need to hold the line the Holy Spirit and I have just drawn, with His help and lean on Him. Holding the line, is not as easy as it sounds, things or thoughts attack us unexpectedly.

“God tells the truth, even if everyone else is a liar!” The Scriptures say this … “Your words will be proven true, and in court You will win Your case.” Romans 3:4. In my heart I know that when I go with God’s opinions, then He will stand with me and His Word will prevail. But first, I will actively need to embrace what He thinks and throw out my own opinion. Otherwise I can say goodbye to His spring of living water bubbling up inside me, as well as out of me, toward others.

When I choose to be judgmental in any situation — instead of excusing myself, and pushing those thoughts back under that ’things I hide from myself’ blanket in my mind… I will have to face the truth. Whether I meant to be critical or not, somebody else could misunderstand me and I can lead them astray. (Romans 14.) My sin is not what I said or didn’t say – my sin is this: I can lead someone else astray with my opinion. I must pray that ‘…God’s word in me becomes more powerful, and more to be desired than fine gold!’ (Psalm 19:10)

The Lord has showed me that leading people astray:  “…is not (MY) calling. (I) will lead by a completely different model. The greatest one among you will live as the one who is called to serve others, because the greatest honour and authority is reserved for the one with the heart of a servant. For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served but to serve and give His life in exchange for the salvation of many.”” Matthew 20:26-28 TPT. That’s my calling!!

It is clear that I am called to be a servant to others, the way Jesus was a servant to me. And only HE can help me fulfil that aim. So now, my question becomes this, how can I serve this person who has opinions that resemble actual things I too have thought or said in the past? Are they best served by my re-enforcing a worldly opinion? No. This is a place for my silence and loving acceptance toward somebody else who doesn’t know any better.

Whenever I find somewhere that I have not yet been transformed, I cannot afford to go into shame, but rather I need to pray and ask Him how to put what I know to be true, into practice — instead of just agreeing with it as a theory. We can allow the world around us to colour us, BUT!!… the reality is we have the power to bring His true colours into this world where others can see them. Bye. 👋