Make My Heart be Still

"Though oceans roar you are the Lord of all 

The one who calms the wind and waves and makes my heart be still

The earth gives way 

The mountains move into the sea, the nations rage

I know my God is in control

Make my heart be still..."

 -Misty Edwards, Psalms 46 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1gOEH2wPP4

New Mercies

Have you ever thought:

    

    ....I have used up my lifetime worth of grace or mercy from God, and I've got                                                         a lot of years left...

           

                    ....Mountain #??? that I have to round. I've lost count...

A couple years back I decided I would read the Bible through chronologically.  Loved it!! I know that it is growing more common to find those who know the Lord, or been a Christian, their whole lives, yet, the grand task of taking on this ONE BOOK seems daunting.  The overwhelming thought we  must understand what we read.  Crazy right!?!?  The truth is, He is the truth. His Word is truth!  

I found this great resource a couple months back.  It's copying scripture daily, maybe 10 min of my time.  Simple and short enough, my kiddos even join in.  I decided I would dive in this year.  Filling notebooks with the Word.  Allowing the Lord to fill my heart as I fill the pages.  Words I may or may not fully understand.  Trusting He will fill the gaps of my understanding.

  

I started a little late, but, better late than never...sometimes Mondays never come if we don't make them today!!  

Today I decided I would double up to catch up on the writing.  Lamentations 3:22-26 was one of those passages.

 v22  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end

 v23  They are new every morning great is your faithfulness

 v24  "The Lord is my portion" says my soul "therefore I will hope in Him"

Many times we can feel like we have done so much wrong and made so many mistakes that He must be exhausted from our continual return to seek His mercy, His grace.  BUT did you see what it says??  His mercies never come to an end....forever...always enough.  And beyond this, they are NEW every morning.  Yes, LORD!!!! New mercies.  Just as He provided a way out of our sin by His son, He provides a way to return to Him daily.  His love never ceases!! It is steadfast.  And not only does His mercy never end....they are new every morning!!!!  

Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and MERCY shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This comes just a few scriptures after walking though the valley of the shadow of death.  

The darkness of the night, or the season you are walking in, can't overshadow the new mercies that await in the morning!!!  His provision of more mercy, new mercy is already there.  Push through...seek Him, His faithfulness is great. Call on the Lord!! He is your portion!!

Birth of Christ....best. gift. ever.

I was sitting in church the other day, maybe 2 weeks until Christmas.  Reflecting on the miracle that is the birth of Christ.  I've seen the movie, The Star of Bethlehem, and see even more the beauty and miracle that that day brought.  

But then it hit me...

The spark, that set the rest of history into a spin.  The birth of Jesus.  The prophecies made flesh.  

Many tend to see the birth of Christ and the death of Christ as two separate events. The world even celebrates them differently.  And then the biggest lightbulb went off....

The redemption of the cross, the grace that it brings, all started at the birth, even before that, when the very words were prophesied hundreds of years before that.  It is the day of His birth that began a tailspin of prophecy after prophecy being fulfilled...leading to the cross.  The culmination of the greatest story of redemption and grace. 

The birth of Christ, the promise waited and hoped for, finally made flesh.  No longer a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled, but being accomplished before their very eyes.  HERE!! The spark that spun all things into a beautiful story that continues to unravel for all of eternity.  

I can only imagine the elation of those who were hoping and praying for the Word to be fulfilled, pouring over the Old Testament. The promise, the hope of all mankind.  To be there when they saw God initiate the greatest story ever told, with the birth of a baby boy. 

Christmas, the day redemption and grace was birthed in the earth, made flesh. No longer hoped for, to be fulfilled, waiting on a timeline, but...HERE! 

Glory to God in the Highest!!  

Bask in His Promise that is fulfilled, and have faith in His promises that are not yet seen with the naked eye.  He is faithful!!  Do not lose hope.  He is our hope, our future, our Promise!

Blessings,

Rhonda

Being Fruitful

The Lord reminded me this morning of a friend's house we visited a few days ago.  We went to spend a day with our dear friends before our upcoming 2 month trip to Mexico.  I always love to see her garden she has planted and see how it's doing.  She always manages to pack a lot of garden in a little space.  And, despite the critters that nibble away at her food, there is abundance.  So I began to ask what this was and that was, and then I noticed a pretty big space that lay open.  I assumed it was something that the seed didn't take, which happens, but it wasn't that at all.  She had a plant that started to come up that looked a lot like some kind of squash.  It wasn't one she planted, it had been dropped there from the neighbors garden. (Nothing more than a chain-link fence separate the gardens.)  She was excited that she was going to get squash.  If any of you have grown squash, you know it takes up a lot of space.  She cared for it, moved it to a larger spot so that it could really take off.  It got bigger and bigger.  Then the flowers began to come on.  The signal that the fruit of that plant is on the way.  The flowers came and went, and came again and died.  Finally, after realizing the plant was never going to produce the fruit, she pulled it out and threw it in the compost pile.  Slightly disappointed, but also wishing it hadn't taken up all that space in her garden.  She could have used that space to plant other things that would have produced fruit.

This reminded me of the time Jesus cursed the fig tree.  There was no fruit that was being produced, he cursed it, and it died.  How many times, if we are honest, have we not been producing the fruit we should be producing?  The Lord posed some hard questions to me this morning.  Have I been producing fruit, or just the idea of fruit on the way, the flowers? Do we only get as far as the promise of fruit, but it never comes? Are we taking up space, and taking away space from those that will be producing fruit?  

It's not easy to take the time to look, I mean REALLY look, in our hearts and pose the hard questions.  Force our flesh to be challenged.  See beyond our pride.  Have a kingdom perspective. 

I'm not saying we all need to be yanked out of the ground if we are not producing fruit in our lives, but instead, make the changes so that there is fruit, and in abundance.  We don't want to be like the "squash" plant.  Taking up space, giving the appearance of fruit but never delivering.  I have been around people like that and situations like that.  The time that is invested feels almost wasted.  I am grateful that God continues to tend the garden of our lives.  When we allow Him to prune, through the pain, producing more fruit.

So the questions I have been confronted with today will be the same I challenge you with:

What areas of my life have not been producing the fruit that it needs to be producing?

Am I in the place where God wants me to produce, or taking the place of others that need to be there?

The fruit I am producing, is it after the Spirit or the flesh? (Everything we do produces fruit.)

And don't forget, when the Vinedresser brings the pruning sheers it's a good thing.  He will only prune where He sees fruit, that it may produce even more!!! 

Blessings,

Rhonda

Beginnings

I read this passage, Zechariah 4:10, the other day and it really struck me.  It says, "For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth."

Who hath despised the day of small things? I think that is a question we can all answer honestly. We all have.  At least I know I can emphatically say "YES".  It feels so little at times, the small beginnings, the menial tasks, the basics.  But what is it that lays the foundation, if it's not the small things?

It made me think of this gardening season.  Here in Wisconsin, planting started much later that what I am used to, but it finally came late May/early June.  There is a joy when you plant a seed into that dark, rich soil. Water it. Care for it. Then one day you begin to see a sprout of green pushing through the soil.  I don't know about you but I act a bit silly.  There is such excitement over the fact that the seed I planted germinated, took hold, then began to produce and be what it was created to be.  Then the ultimate joy in partaking of the fruit.

It made me question a few more things.  Why do we despise the small beginnings? The tasks that we think no one sees or the thanks we never get (and "think" we deserve).  What do you think is really going on behind the scenes?

Immediately the Lord showed me that there is great rejoicing in our dying in the soil, germination, rooting and our sprouting.  Just as we rejoice over seeing that first sprout from the ground, knowing that there is life coming forth and we will soon enjoy the fruits of our labors; so is our Heavenly Father rejoicing over our "sprouting", our small beginnings.  He is seeing that there is fruit that will soon be produced from our lives.  We have died to ourselves, surrendered to His perfect process, care and tending to what He has already placed within us.

I like how it's put in Job 8:7 "Though thy beginning was small, yet they latter end should greatly increase."  The increase is His, and what a joy to be part of that increase.  The small things and the small beginnings are part of it.  We often times want to grow quick and strong, but that's difficult.  To handle the weight of the fruit that is produced you must have a strong stem, branches and roots.  It takes time, care and patience.  The willingness to submit and move at the pace that the Lord has given for each of us will bring much fruit and blessing in our lives and the lives of others.  

I'm grateful for the small things, the small beginnings, the pruning of the Lord.  Rejoice in the time the Lord has taken to care for you; to see that the fruitfulness of your life be full!!

Blessings,
Rhonda

The FRUIT of the Spirit is....

I don't know about you but I have had many prayers with the Lord that were more of petitions asking/needing more peace, love, joy, etc...  Spent time looking up individual scriptures on how to have more of all these things.  Even finding books or devotions on how to have more joy or walk in more love and so on.  

It feels like there is a constant pressure to walk in a way that seems so difficult for our very flesh, our human nature.  Swimming upstream.  We become so focused on the individual character victories or over-focused on the individual character flaws that we miss the point completely.  

There is a much simpler way.  A way that can achieve so much more than one trait at a time or one attribute at a time.  That is the Holy Spirit.  What if we worked more on our relationship with the Holy Spirit.  What if we focused on filling ourselves with more of the Spirit.  

Many of us that grew up in church know by heart Galatians 5:22-23. We have memorized and repeated or made cute crafts for Sunday school these two amazing verses, but do we really believe every word it says? vs 22, "But the FRUIT of the Spirit is..." Did you see that?  How exciting!!! The very fruit, result, of the Holy Spirit living inside of us is "...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." 

It's like a fruit tree.  It's planted and grows.  What it has inside of it, the very things that makes up the very essence of the tree, causes the fruit to come forth.  It doesn't have to work hard at producing fruit, it is just a result of what it is and what it is created to do.  But, if it's not watered or pruned or receive sunlight it won't produce much fruit.  It may even stop producing fruit altogether and die. I am grateful that the Lord uses all His creation to speak to us!! 

The Holy Spirit is there that we may have this fruit in our lives, BUT if we don't water or feed the Spirit in us what else could we expect but a shortage of fruit.  His goodness to give us what we need to produce the amazing fruit we want to see in our lives is amazing.  The Holy Spirit that was given to live in us when Jesus ascended to Heaven.  He knew we would have need of the Spirit to produce fruit.  He gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us, to guide us, to speak to us and tell us of things to come (John 16:7-15).  And the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)!!  God has set us up to not only survive in our earthly bodies and here on Earth, but to succeed.  We have everything that we have need of, there is nothing we lack, we are fully equipped.  

The only thing that may be lacking is our relationship with the Spirit.  I find that it is an ever deepening relationship.  The deeper your go, the more your allow the Spirit to guide your life, the more His fruit shines through.  It's a process with sweet rewards. 

I am on a journey that I know can only get better with time.  A journey to continue to die to self and allow the Holy Spirit be my guide.  A journey that will only enrich and strengthen our family, my marriage, ministry and relationships.  You can't beat a deal like that!!

So, how is your relationship with the Spirit?

Mine, getting better every day :)  

I Corinthians 3:16 "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"

Blessings,

Rhonda

Where Do Our Real Affections Lie....

We were recently at a conference where the topic was I Cor. 3:10-15 about building with gold, silver and precious stones and not wood, hay and stubble.  Building with eternal treasures and with our minds set on eternal things.  Then my thoughts drifted to the parable in Luke 12:13-21, the parable of the rich fool.  In order to hold more of his earthly possessions, grain, he pulled down the old barns to build new, bigger ones.  Hold more "stuff".  When that night his life was being demanded of him, everything stayed here on earth.  It says in Luke 12:15 "Take care! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."  Was the things this man was storing up bad?  No.  It made sense to him.  It was useful things.  But, the real matter lies in the heart.  In verse 34 of the same chapter of Luke the Lord says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  

Luke 12:29-34 and Matthew 6:19-21 they speak of not storing up treasures on earth, but to store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.  I know there have been times in my life that the Lord has asked of me things and some of my first thoughts have been about my stuff or my earthly possessions.  There are times that people I know have not been quick to do what God has asked them to do, or put it off, because it interfered with their mountain of activities, busyness, and stuff in their lives.  It's not about having things that I feel we need to be on watch for, but, the things having us.  If the things in our lives keep us from being obedient to the will of the Father, then our hearts affections are not towards God.  Not fully at least.  

I know for our family, had we been in debt to stuff in our lives we couldn't freely have moved to other countries to fulfill the will of the Father for those times in our lives.  Had we been too busy or over scheduled, we would always have found reasons or ways that we couldn't do what God had been asking of us.  

In July of 2011, God asked us to come back to the States from Nicaragua.  It was a hard move for us and for our family.  We had not been in the States for 9 years (living here at least). We sold or gave away most everything we owned and our kids had to make the same difficult decisions about their stuff.  It was not an easy transition.  But wouldn't you know it, 2 1/2 years later, we have stuff.  It's amazing how quickly you can accumulate things, useful things, but it's still just things.  Also living here in the USA I have realized how everything revolves around more things/stuff.  The commercials, seeing others homes, lifestyles all lend to the desire for more.  

But, the questions we must ask ourselves are real, necessary and need to be confronted:

Where, now, does our desire for more of the Kingdom fit in?  

Where is our desire for more of God?

Desire for the things that moth nor rust consume and where thieves do not break in and steal? (Matt 6:20)

I believe that God is causing us to turn our affections towards him...not out of fear, but out of love for our Father.  Not because the economy or future is unknown or seems uncertain...but because the one rock we can stand on, the one true foundation, that does not change, shift or shake is Jesus Christ and the faithfulness of the Father.  In Him we have the strength to do all that He could ever ask or require of us.  

Matthew 6:25-33 and Luke 12:22-34 encourages to trust in the Lord and not worry.  He knows what we have need of.  He is a good Father!! All He desires is we follow Him with our whole heart, obedient to His call.  Matthew 6:33 says,  "But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" Many of times we have put our focus too much on the latter part of that verse...all these things will be given to you as well.  Things, amazing how our focus can shift.  But the true focus should be on the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.  It even says that we must strive, put great effort forth, first for the kingdom of God. 

Have we spent enough time daily focusing on the kingdom of God first?  

I encourage you, forget putting all your thoughts and emotions into the things of this world, the busyness, accumulating more stuff/things.  Seek the Kingdom first!!! He is a good Father, He promises to take care of us, and He will.  

Take some time and search your heart.  Where do your affections lie?  Have there been times that things of this world affect your ability to do the things God has asked of you?  This is a daily dying to our flesh, the ways of man, but the results are worth it.  Fully submitting to the Kingdom of God and receiving His full Kingdom backing in return.  God is good, faithful, eternal. 

Let's dwell on the eternal!!