A Storm Steady Mindset

Philippians 2:5- Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus

Matthew 14:22-33- ³¹ immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”³² And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³ Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Life will rock you and throw you off cliffs into darkness. Some of this rocking and cliff tossing is self-inflicted due to poor choices, others come from the hands of others hell-bent on causing you harm, some come completely out of nowhere,-you're dancing  in the sunshine of life, comfy and doing quite all right then BAM! IT_________(fill in the blank) happens to you.  Sunshine runs and torrential rain filled clouds fill your life sky. What you do there beloved, what you choose to set your heart and view upon will determine if you merely ride the storm out--each and every dark cloud washing hope away; or the sighted but never coming silver lining clouds remain just over there OR you place a strong sure anchor on your feet and a sure protection umbrella over your head...you must choose a storm steady mindset, or not. It won't just happen.

So what is a storm steady mindset? It is one that pays attention to the thoughts in mind regarding the storms purpose, duration and intensity. A storm steady mindset directs thoughts to salvations surety and scriptures reliability. A storm steady mind realizes failure isn’t fatal, that like success, it’s temporary. It says this too shall pass. It refuses to embrace a storm for its pity producing presence saying “I can't stay here." this mindset let's purpose fuel it's perseverance. A storm steady mindset also realizes that sharing your situation/circumstances must be done with those God assigns to you in your storm. Few want to share your blues and hear your woes, and nothing brings worse injury to a hurting heart than an insensitive, bible quoting, they’re not in a storm so they don’t feel you “friend.” It’s best to ask God for that person HE’s assigned you to carry you through to the steady shore. Everyone else is just fine watching you row (or walk on water, which ever you preferJ)

KNOWING from past experience that God is fully aware of the storm He may have sent the storm for His glory and your deliverance (storms clear and cleanse away clutter) but assuredly He is allowing it because He is in control. Rest assured, sent or allowed, GET THE LESSON FROM THE STORM. You will either learn the lesson of the storm before it passes you by or you may see that same storm again and again. God is a master teacher. He repeats until learning occurs and He sees a storm steady mind in His child, you. When a storm descends upon my life I’ve learned to silence myself and others and listen in to God’s teaching. What is He saying to me in whatever is happening? God is still speaking loudly even today and knows all about your situation. He wants you better tomorrow than you are today.

Beloved, I am praying with and for you!

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Equanimity-Faith not Feelings!

Isaiah 59: 9-10 So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.

Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

What do you do when life implodes? When the job and its income disappears, when the child or spouse dies, or worse--rejects and leaves you, when health fails and disease rests. When all you work for is stolen and the thief gets away...what do you do? Bills are due and friends are few, family lets you know everything that's wrong with you. What do you do when life goes dark and God has gone silent, His heaven as brass above you? Most of us react emotionally. We open the door and tell misery, disappointment and hopelessness to come on in. Depression and isolation soon join and bitterness takes root. We are angry at God. We waffle between times of praise and intense spiritual practice, reading the word, quoting scripture and sowing financial seeds to sit back and wait on the payday that never comes. We then flat out ignore God right back and like two year olds acting out, we will show Him...we drink, sex, smoke, snort or party our way to temporarily feeling good. This was not supposed to happen. It’s not fair. This hurts. I am suffering, doesn't God care? Yes He does, and you know that but you don't feel that emotionally or see it intellectually. Yes, even after your heartfelt pleadings you serve a God that could choose not to respond! Beloved, do you not know that God will crush your pride and humble you? He will allow your every gift and ability to become a circus of inability. Your understanding will be darkened; every plan and purpose will seem at best confusion magnified. And it is here that naked faith and equanimity (evenness of mind especially under stress; balance) are all the Believer has to anchor them from drifting into disbelief.

Listen to how Madame Guyon describes this period of time in her book Final Steps in Christian Maturity:

"There comes a time in the believer's life when the Lord withdraws the joy. He will seemingly withdraw the graces. At the same time, the Christian may also find himself in a period of persecution-persecution, no less, than that coming from Christians in religious authority. Further, he may find much difficulty in his home or private life. He may also be experiencing great difficulties with his health. Somewhere there will be a great deal of pain or other losses too numerous to mention.
"The believer may also be undergoing experiences which he feels are totally unique to himself. Other Christians, in whom he has put his trust, may forsake him and mistreat him. He may feel that he has been very unjustly treated. He will feel this toward men and he will feel it toward his God, for-in the midst of all this other pain and confusion-it will seem that God, too, has left him! Even more believers give up the journey when the Lord seems to have forsaken them in the spirit and left their spirit dead-while the world and all else is crashing in on them, friends forsaking them, and great suffering and pain abounding everywhere in their lives. But, the true land of promise always lies beyond a vast wasteland. Promise is found only on the far side of a desert."When you can go beyond that place and, not seeing your Lord, believe He is there by the eyes of faith alone; when you can walk further and further into Christ when there are no senses, no feelings, not even the slightest registration of the presence of God; when you can sit before Him when everything around you and within you seems to be either falling apart or dead; and when you can come before your Lord without question and without demand, serene in faith alone, and there, before Him, worship Him without distraction, without a great deal of consciousness of self and with no spiritual sense of Him, then will the test of commitment begin to be established. Then will begin the true journey of the Christian life."

This is truth and a higher reality than is taught these days of selfish success oriented living, where being blessed means you have no stress ( I vow to never say that stupid chattering ever again)--"The devil has nothing to do with (these dark times). God has brought us to this experience. He wants [simply] to replace us with Himself" (Alan Redpath). Get that. GOD WANTS TO REPLACE YOU WITH HIMSELF. He will forcefully rid you of any and everything but Him. Why? Love. Eternity. He loves you with an everlasting love which wants to fill you with the fullness of Himself. In you dwells no good thing apart from Him and yes, He is willing to make no sense to you, utterly confounding all you trust and believe because no matter how long you serve Him on this side of heaven you at best know OF HIM but cannot ever grasp the totality of KNOWING HIM. So what to do? Sit in silence. Be still and know, He is at work in your night season. He guides us as much by what He doesn't say to us as He does by what He does say to us. When He wants you to know He is done replacing you with Himself, He will open the door and your darkness will become marvelous light. You would do well to deeply and completely believe that. Beloved, I am praying with and for you.

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DESIRES DICTATE!

Psalm 37: 4- (The Message) Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your hearts desires.

Psalm 40:8- (ESV) I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.

James 1:14-18 (NIV)… but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

What do you desire? Wish for? Want desperately? These are common conditions familiar to us all and we mistakenly use desire, wish, hope and want interchangeably when DESIRE is the root for all that we hope for, wish for and desperately want. We also frequently confuse desire with passion and reduce it to sexual feelings, but true desire is so much more and, in fact most often intrinsic. Desires are not as voluntary as we choose to believe and they make us crave meeting them from our core. Genuine desires are most deeply innate, they just ARE and were with us from birth. Actions arise out of desires and we do what we want to do unless crisis or need supersede our desires (which is a most unsatisfactory way to live).

Truth told, desires are dictators.  They are non-negotiable. They will tell you how to feel, how to think and how to act. Desires won’t listen to God, need, other people unless you force them to and they frequently render you powerless to do so by hiding/submerging and squishing themselves under accomplishments and achievements--that's why we so frequently go down a course in life and then once we arrive what we get isn't really what we thought it would be or want, and why the rub in life is not just getting what we want, but wanting what we have. 

Desires especially run amok when unattended and show up in the form of addictions and obsessions. They're an important part of our emotional make-up, our soul. They sit on the seat of our well-being and are a catalyst to will, want, accomplish and fulfill your purpose and reason for existence. You have to pay attention to your desires and learn to meet them in a beneficial way. For successful living you must come to terms with how you let your desires dictate your motivations, pleasures and rewards. You must also submit your desires to God and pray for Him to reveal what they really are because most often we’re in denial or ignorant about what is really dangling below the surface dictating our behaviors.   

Getting insight into your own deepest desires is a worthy pursuit. Turning off life, settling into silence and counting your life worthy of examination is a most difficult discipline but is needed. Receiving His loving answers about what you’re truly desiring, wanting and needing will bring you such peace and put your life on a path to authentic living you won’t regret. Beloved, I am praying with and for you.

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KILL PRIDE!

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

PROVERBS 16:18-19 -Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

PROVERBS 29:23  A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor

 Pride is at the root of all sin. God hates pride in any shape, form or fashion. He even hates a prideful or haughty look.  In the Believers life pride is a serious matter and a formidable foe. One that you can’t fight, trying to lay it aside or hide it. You have to kill it. And, it has an amazing ability to resurrect and disguise itself. Its the houseguest who will not leave. Its always hanging out and around somewhere in your life. Few recognize its presence because it rarely shouts (we’ll see it then). It merely whispers “I am not here.”

 What is pride you ask? PRIDE IS FAITH IN YOUR SELF.  Pride is belief in your own ability to think, say, do whatsoever you will to do.  Pride is being arrogant: exaggerating or disposed to exaggerate one's own worth or importance in overbearing manner arrogance: a feeling of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or presumptuous claims; inordinate self-esteem; conceit. Pride dresses beautifully but acts ugly. Pride thinks it’s better than anyone else.  Pride is very, very busy because it has to do everything itself, on its own because no one else can do things as well as pride can.  Pride is critical of others, judging the speck in their eye while dismissing or excusing the log in its own eye and making sure any fault or short-coming another may manifest is simply not possible, could never happen to them.  It doesn’t submit to authority, won’t listen to a word someone else says because after all, what do they know and how could they be right when Pride is never, ever wrong? All is someone else’s fault with Pride; it’s never the blame or cause for anything…its THEIR FAULT. Pride is just hard. Never tender. Nothing is precious to Pride. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is safe.

Pride lies and hides. Throws rocks and hides its hands. You will never see it to kill it. Hidden pride must be revealed by God Himself. He is quite capable of doing it in advance of having to humble you if you will ask Him for this. You must pray Psalm 139:24-“Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”  The path of everlasting life is parallel opposite to the prideful path. It is narrow and at times hard and full of suffering (Matthew 7:14-But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it).  To kill pride, ADMIT YOU HAVE IT (and you do). Refuse to believe in yourself over believing in GOD IN YOU. Trust Him, His word and His way as best. Pray about pride in your life often. Submit to God. Obey Him. That’s the only way to kill the insidious and ruinous enemy of Pride. Beloved, I am praying with you and for you.

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You Are Not Ruth

2^nd Timothy 2:15-Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

Ruth 1:16-But Ruth replied, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

More than a few women are waiting on a Boaz, sitting and daydreaming of the man God will send and the love and protection that He will provide.  Here’s the rub…God never promised you a Boaz. He gave a Boaz to Ruth because she was prepared for him specifically.

 I get the sentiment behind the desire (I am a single woman desirous of marriage too) but we’re as off on this whole mindset as we are with “Jesus is my husband.” It’s a mindset wise women must resist and  get rid of and instead study the book of Ruth in context. Study it and examine what made Ruth a woman prepared to be wife to Boaz. Read the entire book of Ruth and you will see that Ruth:

• Had a  loving and kind servant’s heart and was living a submitted life to lawful authority.
• She did not leave her responsibilities when things got rough.
• She did as guided experience told her to not as she wanted/thought.
• She had a loving, kind personality and expressed herself with respect.
• She worked hard on her own, needing no motivation save her love for her mother-in-law.

Is that you “waiting on Boaz” woman? Examine your life today. Are you able to be rescued and then add to not subtract from a Boaz?  Look at the man Boaz was. Read about him and you will see:

• He was a business man, on assignment and BUSY.
• He knew what to do and what was right by law, was and could exercise lawful authority.
• He told Ruth what to do from the minute she was presented to him.
• He took time to consider the right way to bring her into his life and cover her.
• He respected her and did not take anything from her, he gave.

In studying the word it’s easy to take from it what appeals to our comfort and leave all that other stuff alone. Few desire delayed gratification, discipline, submission, humility and WORK. We want it easy breezy and that’s why so many of us lack peace and fulfillment in life. We take things out of context and build an entire theology around that which is what we want, set not promised expectations on God and get disappointed when He doesn't do as we want, praying despicable prayers to Him that He does not hear nor answer--- if we’re not careful. Not studying and desiring proper application and knowledge of what God's word is saying to YOU personally will make you guilty of not “correctly explaining the word of truth.” To fulfill your desire for a mate/marriage you must be the person the person you hope to attract is attracted to.  You must be prepared and that won’t happen automatically. Get and submit yourself before God and learn the lessons of Ruth in its totality. No longer settle for or parrot the “Boaz for Me” theology.  It’s putting you in a daydream that's not real...which may be why you’re disappointed in God and daydreaming instead of living life as He really has promised you. Beloved, I’m praying with and for you.

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I See Beauty

Isaiah 61:3
..and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

John 8:36
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Isaiah 50:4
The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.


I see beauty
Within not without
Beyond physical
Attributable
Internal
Eternal
Beyond
Irrespective of presentation
Covered, stained, thick -skinned, in pain
Bound, imprisoned,without liberty
He wounded me skillfully
Using me
Trained humane eyes
TO SEE
A display of His splendor
Hidden beneath
Weight, care, despair
I see beauty
Possibility
I see you
FREE


RightwordsbyCheryl


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Flee to Be Free!

2 Tim. 2:22- Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.

Proverbs 6:5- Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

Romans 8:6- For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace"

How free are you? By free I mean “having personal rights and liberty; not enslaved, not imprisoned, not restricted, independent, spontaneous, not busy, not used, not obstructed, not containing, not fastened, without obligations, not costing any money, lavish, frank, fiving a general idea; not literal, informal, not combined with any other foreign or chemical substance.” Are you that free?

If questioned and the truth was revealed, could you say your daily activities (thoughts/words/deeds) inhibit or free you? Master you? Call and compel you and you come every time? Are you mobile, agile in life or are you encumbered about with many things as Jesus described Martha (Luke 10:40)? The truth is many of us are parked in the past waiting on God to move us, to transition us forward. He’s waiting on us to cooperate with Him and free ourselves from what we know isn’t good for us but we still persist in doing. A lot.  Beloved, self-control mixed with love equals FREEDOM WITHOUT LICENSE. You can personify 1 Corinthians 6:12   "Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything.” But you’ve got to know what to flee from and run to and that requires knowing what has the potential to pull you to excess. It can be obvious or hidden. Pray about that. What's your 'pull or bent' that makes you want to over-indulge? That's what you may have to flee to remain free.

The saddest state known to man is the perceived freedom that isn’t but they've made themselves believe it to be so.  Deception about your true state occurs when you’ve disobeyed so long you’re insensitive to what you’re really doing to yourself, its such a looming presence in your life you can't make a decision about it to benefit yourself. IT/THEY are the boss of you and run you.  You’re stuck as if in quicksand and eventually you’ll go under/reach crisis. Doing whatever you want, however you want, with whomever you want isn’t freedom or pleasure, at least not real freedom/pleasure that won’t leave a mark when you’re done with it. Being unrestrained, knowing the cost of something and not its value is immaturity and to make yourself truly free (unfasten, disentangle, relieve, make available, release) question and FLEE (Run away from a place or situation of danger) RUN (move at a speed faster than a walk, never having both or all the feet on the ground at the same time) from anything or anyone that makes you weak-willed. If you just have to do it, you're not free, you're bound and running in place. To move/go forward you have to get from where you are to where you should be by LEAVING. You have to flee HERE to GET THERE. Beloved, I'm praying with and for you.

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