Category: Encourage

The Power of Worship: Finding Your Path to Serve the Lord

The first step is to acknowledge that I am not master of my own destiny. The second step is to realize that I do affect my destiny. The third is to seek how to choose wisely as I am confronted with alternatives.

Meditation Thought: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” (Luke 4:8)

Who is the Lord that I should worship him? Who is the Lord that I should serve him?

The Lord is more powerful than any other creature of power.
The Lord is everywhere.
The Lord is wise, loving, just, righteous, merciful.

Are these qualities which I should value? Of course – and not only value, but determine the significance of them in relationship to me.

To be ignorant of the structure of life is to lack the knowledge and the wisdom to make decisions which will be in harmony with that structure, and thus bring positive results.

The first step is to acknowledge that I am not master of my own destiny. The second step is to realize that I do affect my destiny. The third is to seek how to choose wisely as I am confronted with alternatives.

The whole eludes me,
The part entraps me.
Or is the entrapment truly a cocoon
Protecting me, nourishing me, preparing me
Until I am ready to soar above
To see beyond the limits of my childhood place?

To venture out into the vastness of creation
Without preparation for the awesomeness, character, and challenges it presents
Is to be a fool, to endanger myself, to be prey to the unknown.

But to choose to follow my nature,
Be patient to learn before I leap,
To seek to know who I am, and what I should become
That I may be true to my best potential
And satisfy my soul:
This is to be a worshiper of the Lord,
And a servant unto Him.
Hallelujah!

Renew Your Spirit: Tap into the Living Water

Meditation Thought: “God loves a cheerful giver… and God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:7-8)

“Yes, I will provide water in the wilderness and streams in the desert to give drink to my people. Head my directions in leading you to the deep artisan wells I want you to uncover and release in a gushing of the Living Water to renew and burst forth in full potential.

You possess my “divining rod” to discover the hidden wells needed to release growth. I will teach you to use it if you will seek my wisdom and knowledge, in faith and trust, and act upon my instructions. Do not leave one well uncovered by being distracted, inattentive, allowing feelings to wrongly overwhelm you.

Take my ‘divine rod’ in your hands, and let Me energize it at the places you are to dig: if you set your will on obeying your you will have the excitement and joy of “bringing in a real gusher” time after time after time. You will hardly be able to contain your energy as you realize that you are bringing beautiful life into that which appeared desolate as you allow Me to guide you from glory to glory.”

Transforming Despair into Hope

We must trust our Father as to the design that will be needed for eternity even though it may look out of place in the earthly realm.

Meditation Thought: “I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.” (2 Corinthians 7:9)

Death – Resurrection
Despair – Hope
Dormant – Live
Passive – Active
Proud – Humble
In-self – In-God
In weakness – in power
Ineffective – dynamic
Sinful – righteous

We choose one of each pair – we must choose one of each pair with each breath we take. The process determines our life in human form. As in a test in school, we may choose to the read the instructions carefully, rise to the challenge of doing our best and seek to learn. Or we may plunge into the test ignoring the instructions, defiantly, sloppily working along to get it over with, with the least inconvenience to our feelings, ignoring our Teacher’s signals that would correct our misunderstandings. Our moment-by-moment choices count on the ‘test’.

Our choices will repeat a pattern – a lovely one, prepared for display in the Kingdom – or a haphazard disordered one better suited to the back room. Remember, we can see only the limited dwelling places of the world. Patterns we would make for the world would look out of place in a mansion in heaven. We must trust our Father as to the design that will be needed for eternity even though it may look out of place in the earthly realm.

Trusting God’s Hand: A Path to Healing and Strength

Rejoice in the security of My hand enclosing yours.

Meditation Thought: “For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:15)

“Come, My children – take My hand in yours, and with your other hand, reach out to clasp another. I would pass on the warmth of My love and grace and power through you. Be not afraid of the hand you hold – even if it feels cold, clammy, dirty, rough. Your other hand which clasps Mine will be all the comfort you need. And as the ministering of My ways passes from Me to you to another, their hand is cleansed, relaxed, healed, made strong and sure. Sure enough one day to let go of your hand and reach directly for My hand, which became visible to them through your hand which they could see with their eyes before they could see My hand in faith.

Do not go seeking far and wide for hands to hold. Only hold My hand, look to Me, and you will realize that a hand has taken hold of your other hand. Do not strain to serve Me: only rejoice in the security of My hand enclosing yours. Let me lead you gently but firmly. The more you trust Me, the more relaxed you can be in our world together. Turn over the cares of your life to Me, for I wish to dissolve them. Sometimes they will disappear one by one – sometimes they are so entwined that the release of one will release many. But always the care comes as a potential for My blessing, if you will but trust My leading in it and through it and out of it.

Learn to reinforce your trust in Me, and you will learn how to cast your burdens away quickly, becoming stronger in faith and trust and releasing more of yourself to Christ within you with each cast.”

Finding Peace and Boldness in Faith

Experience love, give love, be more alert. Your joy is boundless, your eyes perceiving beauty everywhere, your mind connecting all that comes into it into a pattern never before even suspected.

Meditation Thought: “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

In Christ, a new creation!
– Righteous, for your sin is forgiven and forgotten
– Bold, for fear is replaced with confidence in your Helper (who is always with you, forever)
– Content, for your longing for peace and fulfillment is satisfied
– Excited, for you know that in Christ the work of the Father is constantly being done. And done with enthusiasm, good results and often in surprising ways!
-You are experiencing love and giving love, you are more alert, your joy is boundless, your eyes perceiving beauty everywhere, your mind connecting all that comes into it into a pattern never before even suspected.
– That which is unseen becomes as that which is seen, and that which is seen becomes magnified and intensified.

Christ is beyond all of the most potent effective medicines, vitamins, beauty aids and self-help courses washing over you, pouring into you, transforming the dead entity of your self now willed to Him into the Father’s image: His precious offspring, spirit of His spirit – His paternal dream fulfilled.

Suggested prayer:
“Come, Lord Jesus, into my heart and mind, that all of my thoughts and actions are in tandem with your thoughts and actions. Amen.”

Creating a Beautiful Life

Will you allow God the pleasure of loving and caring for you?

Meditation Thought: “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

“Picture yourself choosing various objects laid out before you to drop into a transparent cylinder of time. The overall pattern is determined by the objects you choose. If you listen to Me, I will enable you to choose objects which will produce a pattern of glowing loveliness and beauty. It will be a column of time giving pleasure to the world and to the Kingdom.

If you choose to ignore My wisdom and knowledge of the whole in selecting the objects, the column of time will be clouded and dark and jumbled. It will make no pattern of loveliness. Do not become so preoccupied with the necessity of selecting that you forget to consult Me. Walk in the Way, the Word, the Spirit, to discover My selections for your ideal pattern.

Trust Me – knowing that as the child, you cannot function properly without the care of your Father. I desire to love you and care for you – allow Me this pleasure.”

Serving as God’s Instrument

You can be the builder of others’ delights.

Meditation Thought: “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:21)

“Works carried out in God” – the Will expressed in the yielded will. (Our will, my will, yielded to His.) The believing heart, the attitude of serving, the loving words and actions, the builder of others’ delights. Oh, Lord, Yes! Help me to be your instrument whereby your works are carried out on earth, to your glory in heaven.

To do what is true, it is necessary to do what is in the Word. And the Word is light. We act in the Word as we perceive it and thus trust that we are in God’s will, functioning as His hands and feet on earth in our time and place.

Caring for Our Bodies in Christ’s Image

Meditation Thought: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 6:15)

Christ in each cell! With the yielding of my will to His will, my body is transformed into Christ living in the world today! How can I treat His body with anything but care and love?

Bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Genesis 1:27 says that God created people in His own image. That cannot refer to our physical beings – if it did we would all look like each other! Therefore, spiritually we are made in God’s image. Made to seek Him and His way. Made to care for the body He chose to encase our spirit. Not to abuse it, not to bemoan it, but to care for it and love it. And by so doing, we are then able to love others.

Finding Peace: Now and in the Future

Meditation Thought: “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

We walk by the inner light, not the outer darkness.
We walk in the joy of the Lord, not the confusion of the world.
We walk in the righteousness of God’s way, not the selfishness of the heart.
We walk in love, not in envy.
We walk in service, not in demanding to be served.
We walk beside the still waters, while the storm rages only a short distance away.
We walk in the peace of forgiveness and in the hope of the future.
We know that future is secure for it is fashioned as a place of refuge and heart’s desires by our loving Father. This is true if we will walk by faith in Him and not by faith in ourselves.

Cleansing and Beautifying Your Inner Temple

Meditation Thought: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Look at yourself – look at your heart! Take time to compare the temple you are with the temples of those who walked with Jesus. This will help you to restructure and redecorate your own temple in a manner more befitting the residence of God on earth. You! A residence of God on earth!

Jesus as a man was the perfect temple: no mortal can become a perfect temple – but it is possible to yield to the Spirit within you to the point of becoming a pleasing temple, a temple based on the Ideal Temple.

Suggested Prayer: Oh Lord, help me to every day improve my temple to be more fitting as a place for You to dwell. Cleanse me of sin, shine me with Your righteousness, beautify me with Your love. Let me be a place where others are drawn to worship You, to come to learn more about You, to rejoice in You. Amen.