Substance

P 2625 Love needs to be given away.

/ DVH

“Love is never wasted for its value does not rest upon reciprocity…  …To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” (C.S. Lewis – The Four Loves.) “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Matthew 6:21.

I was challenged by what C.S. Lewis said, because I think it is so true. I have met people who decided loving others was not ‘safe’ — and, sadly, they seemed to be some of the most black and white people I ever met. It was as if all colour was sucked right out of them. In my opinion ‘compassion and empathy’ bring God’s glorious out-of-this-world’s colour into, and out of our little lives. Those incredible gifts are the very essence of Christ’s being and life. However, without His Presence we can do nothing but flap our gums and look awkward. But with Him, we can usher in His kingdom here on earth, right here, right now. Our God is always NOW.

Let’s be clear, loving others is not only hard, like C.S said, it is fraught with danger. People are not reliable by nature, instead they have been badly influenced by the world around them. However, we have, inside us, the power to speak His life into others. Nobody can tell me that this kind of thing doesn’t or can’t happen, because I’ve watched it happen time and time again! A seemingly ordinary person, who is polite and helpful – but distant – suddenly floods with the Lord’s colour and His light, and they are alive in a way that seemed impossible a second ago. It takes my breath away every single time.

If we want to see Him at work and watch what He can do, first we need to lay aside our fear of rejection, abandonment and looking foolish. We will need to be brave. At times like this my favourite thought is: “I am never going to see these people again, what do I care what they think of me?”  So I start with whatever small thought He has given me, and I just keep pulling on that thread. Then, I stop and wait. I’m waiting to see what the Lord will do next. I try not to speak in paragraphs or whole pages. Instead, I do my best to speak as simply and clearly as I can. But the main point is: I do what He tells me to do the way He tells me to do it.

My dear hubby has been used by the Lord in this way, in front of my eyes, many times.  And he illustrates this releasing of God’s  glorious colours in others, time and time again when we are on the road. He is normally quite shy, and retiring, or that’s how he appears, until the Lord lights up inside him! At those times he is so bold when he speaks, even to strangers. And they glow under the lamp-light of God’s kindness and approval.  Then they tell him all kinds of personal things they probably wouldn’t even dream of telling people they know!

Hubby’s personal transformation illustrates to me what the kingdom looks like when it flows through us toward others. In those times we do not have to persuade anybody that God is real … when He turns up, His Presence is self-explanatory! Everyone knows that He is there. They don’t know, how or why … but they know that something extraordinary is going on. Mostly, the people we speak to look like little children who suddenly feel at home and LOVED.

God loved us so much He gave… and unless we participate in a lifetime of giving, loving and continually caring for everybody we meet, we will get stuck in a grey world that is the same old same old, day after day after day. You know, when many Christians get stuck spiritually, they end up hoping that going to church week by week will do. Actually, our relationship with Him is meant to be alive and vibrant minute by minute. If we only have Christian friends and Christian fellowship, then we have limited our exposure to the world around us. This means we will most likely never see the Lord shine as brightly as He does in the darkness.

Lately, we’ve all been so focussed on making ourselves feel better, we forgotten we are keepers of the most precious substance on this earth – HIS LOVE.  Love is meant to be given away, not hidden or hoarded. Hiding it defeats the very purpose we were given love in the first place! The more we give His love away, the more our lives will be bombarded with His colour and beauty. Jesus can’t help Himself, He just loves to do extraordinary things … usually without our permission! YAY! Our privilege and joy is – we are allowed to watch Him do them.  Aren’t we the blessed ones? 👋

P 2619 Let us not misunderstand God’s Love.

/ DVH

Our Heavenly Father’s Love is always ON. His love is ablaze with fire and passion for all of us. His love burst forth in a visible form at Pentecost.  And His Grace has been abounding on this earth for centuries. Imagine that! It doesn’t wane, become greater or less, or fall away. That’s because our God is love, it is His nature.

Jesus Christ suffered unimaginable pain and suffering, not to mention humiliation and death, so WE could be called the Sons of God. His death teaches us, by example, that Love ALWAYS looks like something. It looks like a broken, bruised, bleeding, unrecognisable, totally innocent man, hanging on a wooden cross, tortured and dying … simply because He loved us all, and He spoke the truth. But people rejected His truth because they could not comprehend a love that could love the unlovely.  Humanity’s glorious opportunity to know God’s love for us, literally cut Him so deep, it was, and still is – incomprehensible.  Father God spared no cost, and held nothing back, now we know that Almighty God’s idea of love includes sacrifice not just emotion. 

“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”1 John 4:20. Our Heavenly Father takes love  seriously and His love is so far-reaching into our lives, plumbing our very depths, simply because we choose to belong to Him. Now the way we love our brother, exhibits a direct reflection of the measure of God’s own love IN, and toward US. We cannot conjure up such a love, but we can learn it if we choose to – one sacrifice at a time. 

That thought today made me wonder if one of the reasons that we feel we can’t love some people is because we have not actually comprehended what we are constantly being given! We often excuse and underestimate our sins, and exaggerate the sins of others. God didn’t love each one of us just enough – as in a measurable quantity – just enough to meet the requirements, and no more! His love is so overabundantly great it is always available and it is designed to daily transform us. His love is so deep we can swim in it, drown in it … and yet still live.

As we start to understand, through our own experiences with Him, and others in this life, how much undeserved GRACE we have been given, we will start to comprehend what Paul said in Ephesians 3:17-19.“…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Most of us have never experienced what being filled, right to the top with love, over and over again, is like … even though we all know Jesus. I have prayed Ephesians 3 for myself for years! I know I need ever-increasing comprehension! It seems to me that everything we know about Almighty God and His kind of love hangs on those verses. He wants our hearts to respond to His heart with the same kind of passion He has already shown us. And we will all definitely need His help to do it, because human beings have a habit of hiding who we really are from ourselves.

In the Old Testament the Israelites were kind of …blah about God. He was a figurehead Who was there to provide and care for them, and when it appeared to them that He wasn’t doing what they thought He should do – they voted with their feet and went after empty pagan symbols that had no power or meaning. That’s a childish kind of love. Our reciprocal love toward God is not meant to come from a “I won’t love You if You don’t please me.” kind of response. Our admiration for His Grace toward us, needs to overtake our judgment of others.

Maturity understands that what He did surpasses anything we can possibly hope for or imagine. Let’s remember God’s love in Christ is not exclusive.  It is utterly inclusive. He doesn’t treat us as we deserve – EG: ’that guy’s sins are worse than mine.’ Instead His love is part of His very Being, His substance. It simply doesn’t have self- imposed limits. The reason the bible tells us to love our enemies, those who hurt us – is so we will quickly realise that we need to be constantly and comprehensively flooded with His love to such a level, that the other person’s reaction or response doesn’t come into it! A shortage of His love is not the problem, our decision to die to activate it in ourselves is!

Let’s not misunderstand God’s love or make it into something that it isn’t… God’s love is utterly incomprehensible unless you start to chase it. His kind of love causes the one He loves to flower and be the best version of themselves. Loving others transforms ME so I don’t see them the same way. It is a key to “His kingdom coming here on earth as it is in heaven…” Jesus Christ left us His keys to His kingdom. Sadly this means we can lock other people into being less than they can be, by our lack of love for them. But if we live this life, prepared to die for others, like our Saviour did for us, the passion and fire of the Holy Spirit is always with us. He will do that IN US.  👋

P 2598 No fake smiles please!

/ DVH

My dear hubby loves the Emoji movie, especially that over-the-top female smiley face that blinds people with its toothy grin. He thinks she is hilarious. You know, that face is actually pasted on – it’s stuck. In other words that emoji has been carefully drawn to pretend to be something it isn’t.  So when bad things happen, that smiley emoji isn’t being REAL — which is just like a whole lot of Christians. Bad things happen and they paste on a smile but inside they feel God, and everyone else, has let them down. 

Most people in this world know FAKE attitudes a mile off. It is so much better to be your real self and repent for stinky attitudes, than it is to hide who you are. Now if you happen to be a grump … then the answer is to be transformed. 😂 The bible covers that! Please note: transformation is not instant. It’s repetitive… it’s re-pet-it- ive … it’s actually quite repetitive! So now we spend our days learning to lean. Getting stuff right is no longer our goal, leaning on Him is! 

If we are not careful we can make living for Jesus … into a future goal. We can live this life hoping that if we fake it we will eventually make it. Yielding, surrender, dying to self – these are all key words.  Otherwise transformation becomes something we work hard towards achieving, but we never seem to arrive!  The bible says we need to be living for Him every single day. 

Almighty God wants us to draw on His strength all the time, using our faith. Faith grows when you use it! So we exchange His beauty for our ashes. His joy for our mourning etc. We are human and we run out quite quickly — but Jesus is rich in these things ! He will give us what we need as we live a life of total dependence. The Lord is not fooled by our positive, Sunday morning smiley faces.

We could see miracles every single day if we stop trying to be what God already made us and learn to yield to and trust in Him! Listening to yourself being kind to someone, when you wanted to smite them mightily a minute ago is a miracle! Success is no longer our goal – because we know can’t do anything without Him and we don’t want to be without Him.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

We need to be changed inside, and honesty matters.  We can’t! … But He already did it for us. Some of our nice attitudes are barely skin deep — so when they are provoked they end up coming out. The Lord is not looking for perfection … Jesus already nailed that, and then He generously gave it to us – for free. Ask yourself this: why would Almighty God – Who loves us – want us to live our lives pretending to be something we are not? But oh! How He LOVES a truly transformed heart and life. Then when someone else hurts us, we feel worse for them than we do for ourselves.

I know some transformed people. They know they can’t do anything without Him, but they yield in obedience to what the bible says daily, so they can change the way that they live. They are not perfected. Not at all! But they enjoy being close to Him, and they don’t want to give that up for living a shallow life that has no substance. Things stay shallow when we stop living by our faith.  We must learn that we are not called to exhaust our OWN patience/love/joy/peace,  first — only to find that we have run out! Here’s a hot tip, let go of your pride and GIVE UP RIGHT AWAY and fall into His everlasting arms. He will supply that need.

My point is, learn to pray “Help help” early! We cannot afford to wait until we are overwrought and exhausted because we’ve been wrangling a problem in the natural. I pray a surrender prayer all the time now. I remind the Lord that I won’t be able to  manage anything at all without Him. I do that at the beginning of the day and I repeat it when I find myself pasting on a fake smile. I could care less about looking incompetent, or inefficient. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy seeing Him active in my life. I feel Him help me to go further than I ever could in my own strength. I know I can’t meet Christ’s standard, what He did was perfect. So I start with surrender and I don’t move from there. 

We have all developed coping mechanisms over the course of our lives and when we get saved, we carry those coping mechanisms over into our faith. Then when we read in the bible and see what we are supposed to look like, who we are meant to be, we increase the pressure on ourselves to be like that. Unfortunately, when we fail in our own efforts – we feel we are letting Jesus down. And if we do happen to succeed, then WE GET PROUD.

All that leads to a level of inadvertent deception, and a lack of transparency that prevents intimacy. It stops Christians from becoming all we can be in Christ. It also leads to a form of religion with no power in it. We need to learn to live our lives dependent upon Him, using our God-given faith instead of striving to reach an unattainable goal. We cannot make ourselves perfect. He has already accepted us.  No more fakey fake smiles. Learn to lean on Him. 👋

P 2518 Faith says I need HIM more than stuff!

/ DVH

“Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.”1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

The difficulty we face with verses like these, as I see it, is that we can read them and say to ourselves: “Oh, dear, I’m not like that. That means that I am failing God. I don’t see how I can ever be like that, I’m too bad tempered, too selfish, etc.” Hmm. There is no faith needed to diagnose what everyone else around us can already see! However, these verses are about faith, they are not there to diagnose lack. They are a description of what the Lord’s love does, and His design and purpose for our lives. They show us what we are aiming at! We can have anything on that list IF we are prepared to die to self!

Using our faith to act on what He says is the key to giving these things substance —  BUT — telling ourselves that we already have them, without using our faith, is not scriptural! Be-cau-se  “FAITH is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. Faith is not just claiming stuff — it is love in action so others can then see our faith! Ya might want to think on that the next time you are shouting at someone. It will be hard for them to believe you have faith to overcome sin when all the evidence they have to hand is to the contrary! It will hurt to deny ourselves take up our cross … (that cross is often people who just don’t get us!)… and follow Jesus.

These things already exist in Christ, and HE is now our new home. In Christ we have all these glorious qualities – Jesus died to give us all this, and more. Jesus didn’t just say He died – HE DIED! We cannot pretend to have this stuff and hope He is fooled. These things are precious Holy Spirit qualities, and they are real tangible things, not wish-thinking. They are the language of love between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ died to give us what He already has with the Father. “In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.”1 John 4:17. We are destined to look like Him, and we get there by our obedience, one step at a time. Which includes shutting our mouths when we want to let fly, or by curbing our ungodly desires etc., and asking the Holy Spirit to do what He does best. HELP US.

Those qualities written down in 1 Corinthians are a check list, but they are not there to condemn us. They are there to help us recognise that when we deliberately choose not to keep score of someone else’s sins – we are manifesting His love toward that person. When we choose to be satisfied with what we have, then we are manifesting His love! Practically speaking … when we are supernaturally patient, using our faith, when we are dealing with a two year old who wants what he wants – we are manifesting God’s love toward that child!

But if and when, we miss the mark, then we confess our faults, to the other person, and repent and restore relationships as needed.Repentance is now a part of our way of life because we are be-i-ng perfected … but we ain’t there yet! Right now we are all learning to walk in the WAY … “I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.” Proverbs 8:20,21. See?! We are to be a source of great blessing to many … and I’ve always started with my family! Here’s an example of what that looks like from the book —“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her …” Proverbs 31:28. This is a way of life, not a book of nice theories. It is a faith book.

Unfortunately, many of us have misinterpreted scriptures as a free for all to ‘ask and you shall receive,’  and think that means that we can have whatever we want if we just ask for it in His Name. 😱 Jesus Christ lived a life full of LOVE from God — to manifest GOD — here on earth as it is in heaven! Not a new yacht or a diamond ring or a McDonald’s cheese burger!  He will supply all our needs and this is a huge gift to us, because Jesus Christ is rich in glory with every heavenly blessing, but those things are not necessarily material! They are kingdom things.

However, because God is a loving Father we can always ask Him. And we can always ask Him for help. But our very real need is transformation, not material things! Priorities matter.  We can have the kingdom of this world, but it is far better to chase after the kingdom of our God! So now we use our faith to access His Presence. His fruit. His incredible love for us, that other stuff will follow along … or not!  Bye. 👋

P 2423 The outworking of faith is seeable.

/ DVH

Faith has evidence of its existence. Without any evidential faith we cannot please Almighty God! This means that there are appropriate actions that match the stuff coming out of our mouths. Christianity is not just a theory, or a set of really tough rules – it is a living, breathing, ongoing, active, growing, moving, productive thing. As we live our lives our faith stretches us. Daily.

Telling others we have faith, without being able to provide evidence in our own lives, is like telling people you are an astronaut because you’ve carefully studied the subject and you’ve been to NASA, plus you’ve studied it and know everything about it! 

Knowing and doing are two entirely different things. We can talk about, or discuss our faith until our faces are blue, but the truth is … real faith often makes no sense at all until it is acted on, and then the understanding comes afterward. Ask Gideon, or Mary, or Abraham, or Hosea! Our Heavenly Father does not operate like we do, instead we can be quite poor reflections of Who He is. We often misunderstand His directives as a substitute for a strong spiritual life. Rules are not faith – it took the Israelites only 40 days to break the ten commandments!  Agreement is not faith. The devil agrees there is a God!  

“And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that He is real and that He rewards the faith of those who passionately seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 TPT. Faith has to be alive. It is not about last week, last month, last year – or even about when I gave my life to Christ, way back when. Or whether I go to church every week. Faith is about God and me – to-geth-er! DOING STUFF outside of church.  

Here are some uncomfortable questions regarding that point. If I was suddenly struck dumb how would someone who was watching me know that I have faith? What evidence would they have? Many people go to church but they don’t have active faith. Maybe they have HOPE – and sadly, sometimes, they have fear and/or religion. Ask yourself: “What does my faith DO that can be seen by others?”“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. 

Faith steps out – that’s why it is called evidence. First of all notice the ‘NOW’ in the scripture pictured above. Faith is always now … not yesterday. This does not mean we must spend our lives standing on a street corner witnessing. But it does mean that our faith is always active in our lives changing us. If people cannot see an ongoing change in our behaviour toward others, or our personhood being transformed, we need to ask ourselves, do we have faith that is alive? One of the best ways to activate inactive faith is to talk about Jesus to someone-who-doesn’t-know-Him-yet.

Changing the habits and selfishness of a lifetime takes faith. This means we will end up wrangling with ourselves every single day because we are longing to be transformed. Even though we also use our faith in His ability to transform us to maintain what we believe – Christianity is actually not performance based. What would be the point? SomeBody Else did everything necessary to include us!! More questions: Is Jesus the first Person we go to when we can’t manage? Do we actively rely upon Him, and do things His way? Our faith is activated every time we ask Him to help us obey and then act.

Faith has substance. It is not the result of airy-fairy wishy-washy theories. The actions of faith result in transformation, for you, and me, as well as for the people around us. Maybe that grumpy family member keeps behaving badly because we keep having the same response! Faith will produce something seeable. James 2:26 tells us that “faith without works is dead.” Faith does stuff. It may also talk … but it definitely does stuff!! It feeds the hungry, preaches the gospel, witnesses to others, helps the homeless, and ministers to the broken. Faith lives this life dead to self and lives for Jesus’ sake now.

However, faith is not just about the things we don’t, or won’t do. If someone refuses to cheat on their spouse, or asks for help for a foul temper, or stops spending money like it grows on a tree, that takes faith. But faith doesn’t just abstain from evil — it is a productive thing. It is not about the absence of bad things – faith introduces the provable presence of the goodness of the living God.

When I went looking for a picture for today’s blog, I easily found the verse I wanted. This verse had all these pretty pictures with flowers and scenery. I rejected them! I chose the picture above, because the man in that picture is putting his faith into action. He knows all about gravity – but his desire to move on motivates him into action. Faith is prepared to take risks, because it has seen personal evidence that God is in charge and it stakes its life on that. 🤗

“But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

1 John 2:5-6 TPT

P 2330 Using our faith.

/ DVH

“But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble.” Psalms 59:16 NKJV.

I am a great believer in using the scriptures like a medical prescription. Just follow the instructions. Let me explain. If it says ‘sing’ then … sing! Sing a song or hymn that you already know, that reminds you of the Lord’s protection. Like – “What a mighty God we serve!” Doing that will need you to use your faith to obey what it says. Just don’t expect to always feel like it.

It is hard to do, if you haven’t ever done it before. Only Julie Andrews has the wherewithal to burst into song in the middle of a Swiss meadow – and what she did was from a musical score and it was choreographed! Look, I know it feels funny, strange – it feels funny when I do it too. OK. Get over that bit … and just move on. Pick a quiet, solitary place and have at it! Now let’s move along to harder things that will stretch our faith even more … (Well YAY!!)

Personally, I would just sing what it says. I make up the notes. Why? Well, the words are already, like … already there (!), and it actually uses even more faith to allow yourself to make up music or random notes! Very few of us are musical composers. So, again, we will be taking a risk and could feel like a goose, but, the thing is, we will end up TRYING. Father God could not care tuppence about whether we are tuneful or not – He has angelic choirs … remember? Croak away – He’s looking at your heart anyway!

Faith is funny stuff, if you don’t use it, you will very quickly lose sight of what it looks like and end up doing nothing, or worse, you will have to continually rely upon someone else’s faith when a crisis comes. Remember Jesus said to His disciples, Luke 8:25:  “Where is your faith?”…”  We can only piggy-back on someone else’s faith for so long.  Let’s decide to learn how to use our own. Moving on, I’ve used the tune of Three Blind Mice many times to get me started. After a while you stop being self-conscious and become HIM-conscious, because it is not about us!

Using our faith involves not knowing, and trying anyway. Cos if we already know it works, then it is not faith. Faith involves st-re-t-ch-ing. It has substance because we are doing something that can actually be seen. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. What we actually DO puts our faith on display … doing nothing because we might get embarrassed, is about pride.

Here is some more stretchy stuff. If you have the gift of tongues then that can also help with using your faith. Singing in tongues takes heaps of faith, because that’s not just music, but words you may not have even heard before as well. That uses heaps of faith. Fix your heart on the words of the Psalm and off you go. Remember tongues is not about talking to people – it is about talking to God with our head out of the way. It builds up faith. IT EDIFIES US. Now there’s a plus!

Lastly if you play an instrument, then use that and play away. Forget about being accurate with the notes and let your heart flow through the instrument. This is all about focus. If we focus on how we feel, we will stop too easily. if we focus on how good, perfect, loving, and faithful, He is, and how much He loves us – then this life’s superficialities fall away. Faith is the language of heaven down here on earth. (We won’t need faith up there!)

Finally, because faith does not rely upon what we feel, it encourages us. It looks beyond the circumstances and speaks the things that are not, into being. We start acting like His kids. No matter what time of the day or night it was, back then, you never  saw Jesus saying to somebody who needed Him – “Could you come back tomorrow? I’ve used up all my faith for today – I fed 5,000 people, not to mention all the sick people who came to Me and needing healing. I gave My disciples three parables about sowing and reaping and I’m all out. I’ll be going up the mountain to pray tonight so come back tomorrow, I can accommodate your request then.” 😳 

We all know that didn’t happen, Jesus used His faith while hanging on the cross to save someone. HE WAS KIND OF BUSY AT THE TIME! Faith can be a mustard seed that obeys what the bible says, and we can stir up our faith just by singing! 👋🏻 

P 2293 Sound advice.

/ DVH

“Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (MSG) When I read this today I thought … brilliant. This verse is simple, concise and extremely clear.  Sometimes our biggest hardships occur when we overly complicate things and in the end we have so many things to remember, the truly important things get lost.

In my case they seem to fall out of my ears despite my hearing aids! More’s the pity. Keeping it simple stupid works best for me. I love to remember those bible verses I first fell in love with – back then we had pure scripture in song. When things get tough those versions flood back into my heart. These older versions remind me in the heat of battle of the reason why I live this way. 

I don’t know about you, but under pressure from the really high and low tides of this life, plus the normal everyday wear and tear and daily grind, my little faith boat sometimes slips its moorings and starts floating away. That is not good in a crisis. Then we need something sure and solid to hold onto, and the bible has such strength and stability in it.

Ideally, because His book says so, our faith should have substance to it, and not just bob about on the sea of life getting tossed by this and that. Otherwise it is unfortunately far too easy to feel like you are nearly sinking all the time. I know that faith can have its highs and lows, but in the main, our faith needs to be a slow steady progression upwards. We should literally be able to see our faith grow over a prolonged period of time, especially when things have been rough. 

In those times this is where we need to learn to cling to the Lord and His book more tightly. However we must remember, no matter what season we are in – GOD IS FAITHFUL. HE WILL NEVER EVER LET GO OF US! Even when we are faithless, He is always faithful. 

The above scripture from 1 Corinthians 16 doesn’t actually sound like it includes ‘time off for good behaviour.’ There are no holidays from being His kid! When stuff gets tough cling like a limpet to the Rock of all ages!  This particular scripture is both directional and instructional. ‘Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.’ 🤔 There is order in these instructions. The easiest place to end up defeated is in our HEAD. This is where self-talk, from the Word, is a strong rope keeping us moored safely. It directs us so we know what to look for, and how to do it.  You may need to pause and think about that. I did. 

And this verse is definitely correctional, because the absolutes in it are not muddy or unclear. I personally love it when the bible is like that. I definitely love the stories of people just like me and how they succeeded in spite of themselves. Or even how they got it wrong, and God rescued them because He pitied them. But I also love this kind of clear directive. Forget the language, look for the instructions.

Things like the word pity, in any language, is not common today. That word is like …’feeling sorry for.’ But God actually pities us and has mercy on us, because He remembers we were made from dirt. He knows our frame and He knows our weaknesses, and He never despises us for them. To top that kindness off, our Lord Jesus came and walked through this life as a human being, subject to the same temptations and distractions that we are, and He did it without sinning. It demeans His total reliance upon His Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit, to think that this life was easy for Him, because we think He somehow had a special advantage we don’t! 

Actually, we have exactly the same advantage He had, the same Helper He had, the same Person Who would’ve held Him fast to His purpose – holds us. The one thing I admire about the Lord Jesus is the only time we see any outward struggle is during His time at Calvary. All of time this everyday stuff was totally settled for Him, He knew where victory lay. Victory lies in obedience.

His purity of His purpose is our benchmark, plus it is also a place of wonder and worship. Remember, the Lord knew irritating people too! He walked around with people who didn’t understand His purpose and started trying to enforce their own agendas. It kinda reminds me a bit of politicians, who start out enthusiastically wanting to help people, and quickly discover there are an awful lot of hurdles in the way! Jesus made that complicated process extremely simple, He loved the person in front of Him. He treated each person in front of Him with God-inspired attention. It totally fascinates me that He didn’t give up under pressure, which is where I sadly fall over.

Thank God we all have His righteousness undergirding us, plus His grace flowing freely through the open channel of our lives, as we give away His love for us, using our faith. One resolute step after the other, in good times and bad, is the only way to follow Him and remain steadfast. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2235 Activate your faith with your obedience.

/ DVH

We will never walk on the water of our faith, until we decide to get out of the boat of perceived safety, and walk on the water that might drown us. Activated faith produces substance. Let’s quickly look at Peter. He could only walk on that water, that day, because he was walking on his faith in Christ’s word. Jesus said: “Come” and Peter came!  When he took his eyes off the Lord and faltered, Jesus said: “Where did your faith go?”  When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, and looked down at the sea around him – he lost the substance he was standing on. This is a good place to mention that the Lord did not let him drown. He won’t let US drown either. 

Faith in Jesus exists in a much higher reality than the things we can see around us. Now we have been born again, to ‘walk by faith, not by sight.’ Here’s something to read and think about in Matthew 25:14-30 (edited) “For it will be like a man …who called his servants and entrusted to them his property….He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.”Hiding from trouble won’t produce anything but fear, because that action has its roots in fear.

“Now after a long time the master of those servants … settled accounts with them. And he who had …five talents came forward,… ’Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents …saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’…  … Enter into the joy of your master.’ 

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant!  …you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Our faith is always IN something. Ourselves, others, circumstances, failure, or Christ. For us as Christians, our faith needs to be in Jesus;  what He did for us is all the proof we need. We must to stop looking at ourselves, and the sea of trouble around us or in us, to see whether we feel like we have enough faith. Then ask the Lord to show us how to invest the faith we’ve already been given – because we have all been given a measure of faith.

The amount of faith does not matter, BUT … who or what we put our faith in does! Think on this … this parable is a faith parable. Each one of those servants had various levels of faith – they wanted to obey and please their master. Their obedience activated their faith and the one who had five talents got more. USING our faith will help it grow! Not using it leads to FEAR. How we look at Jesus matters. Personally, I always feel afraid when the Lord asks me to do something – however – when I obey, fear takes a backseat. Suddenly I am investing in my faith’s future.

This parable is not just about managing money, or what we do with our various talents and gifts, it is also about how these men regarded their master. The guy who doubted His master’s goodwill let FEAR stop him from doing anything with what he was given. Our faith is not in what WE think we can do – it is in WHO WE THINK JESUS CHRIST IS. And whether we obey Him … or not. 

Sometimes, hubby and I appear to be doing very little with our seed sowing trips, because we don’t always see huge outstanding results. But our faith is IN Jesus. We know the Lord will follow up the people who responded to Him – the results are still pending – eternity will reveal them. 👋🏻

P 2176 David teaches us about connection.

/ DVH

Written by David, the servant of the Lord. “…but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:18b &19. Knowing how much the Lord delights in every single one of us, helps to keep us focussed when things don’t go the way we hoped. He is our support system. He’s there when other people are too busy, or when they think our problems are trivial. We can talk to Him about our disappointments and sadnesses, when some things don’t change, depending on what the difficulty is … or even when those things get worse. In my experience sometimes things appear to get worse before they get better!

Our God is a long-term God. He’s in this relationship with us … forever.  We need to go to the Lord with all our difficult things, big and small, at any moment, and ask Him to help and comfort us. He’s not just an emergency God – He is our reason to live! The hardest bit is to teach ourselves the kind of focus we need to make Him the centre of everything we do. But when we do that, we are often highly amazed that He cares enough to participate in the sort of stuff we might think of as little things.Jesus died to give us a permanent connection – we can talk to God any time we need to … no telecommunications experts required!

When we read the Psalms we can see that David constantly reminded himself about his past. He remembered those times when God delivered him, and he memorialised those things by writing them down. Personally, I think that things overtake us when we are simply living out our Christian life day by day. This life is full of mundanities – the whole, same-old, same-old everyday events. You get up in the morning, send your kids off to school, go off to work, etc. etc. When life is that humdrum that’s when our faith is really tested. It is also one of the greatest times for faith to grow – when nothing whatsoever is happening except the kind of stuff you know you can do, all by yourself!

In a really big crisis our first thought is often “Help, Lord!” But everyday mundanities reduces our faith to lip-service, very quickly. We can all cheer and shout and set off fireworks when He delivers us from some terrible event or another … but our day-to-day obligations lull us off to sleep and we can end up going just through the motions. This happens in ordinary human relationships too. We can get easily lost in who does what chore, and forget that the other person is someone we love and care about.

And those seemingly ordinary places are where the relationship we have with Him can stabilise us. God rarely announces His purposes over a loud-hailer! There are times where we suddenly notice someone standing off to the side of busy activities looking lost or sad or afraid. But we need His eyes to see them. We can walk past someone He wants to talk to because of our own busy lives. Remember we daily meet with a PERSON – the life that is in Christ is in us! 

I urge you to read the bible until it speaks to you. Jacob prayed this prayer in Genesis 32:26b. “… But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Today, I want to encourage everyone, to wait for the blessing whenever you engage with the Lord. Whether praying, reading or just daily living. Our God knows how much time you need to get to the ‘next thing’ on your agenda – pause, show Him that you want to hear what He has to say to you personally.

The blessing is the connection. David valued his connection. Ask the Holy Spirit to sit with you. Reading the bible isn’t about information or feelings, it is about acknowledging your need for His input. That takes faith. It is our intention to eat that counts, so ask Him for today’s daily BREAD. If reading the bible is difficult, and it does get that way sometimes, then say what Jacob said. It doesn’t have to take hours – it just means that you purpose in your heart to connect with Him. Meanwhile you can do this at anytime, as often as you want to do it during the day. 

Faith has substance because we give it substance, by giving it priority. Sometimes I have to remind myself that just because this day seems like the ‘same-old same-old’ that does not mean He isn’t there with me, listening. I have His WORD and the Holy Spirit wants to help me to overcome things like impatience, irritation, momentary selfishness, disinterest in someone else’s problems … the  everyday nitty-gritty stuff that can seem endless. Jesus is always here. He promised to be with us, and He keeps His promises. Be like David, go about your day mindful of Him. Remind yourself of all He has done and enjoy His company.   👋🏻