An Attitude of Gratitude

The Holy One calls me this morning. News of a world gone crazy filters into my mind through the TV and other media along with conversations with others who are grieved by what we hear.

Put the world events together with the personal trials I have been facing and the picture can be quite dismal.....

But for GOD....

And the Lord must be factored into each and every detail of what I see unfolding. This is what the Holy Spirit calls to me to discuss this morning in our early time of meeting together.

I have felt the pressure mount up in the details of life trials to the point that I am beginning to feel very much under the rock rather than on the Rock. The volley of enemy arrows has been relentless, spiritually, mentally, physically, relationally, and financially. Discouragement abounds as evil plays it's hand. Expectations fall hard on my mind. It is in the mental trauma of unmet expectation that faith becomes a challenged issue.

As I look at the trail the journey has taken us down, I begin to see that the provisions were always there. Manna appeared when we needed it, but we had hoped for a banquet table.

Today, the Holy One speaks to an attitude that needs to be corrected. He asked me "why do you despise My provisions? You have a pride that needs correction, and a despair that is unwarranted".

As I look back at where I have been to the place I find myself today, I can clearly see how I am guilty as charged.

Phil 4:6-8, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, WITH THANKSGIVING make your requests known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus".

Thanksgiving and gratitude is the key. To have an attitude of gratitude helps keep us in a humble and peaceful state of mind. We can look at life seeing all the problems, full of despair for what isn't right, or we can ask the Lord to show us His Divine fingerprints often invisible to the naked human eye.

That God has His hand on on our lives is a fact. But as facts can often be overlooked or missed until a light reveals truth, We can go and form a judgement that God has forgotten us or that evil is more powerful than the Creator of all things.

The enemy of our souls is constantly trying to separate us from the Love of our Father in Heaven. It's a mental game filled with lies, deception, and a tweaking of truth.

The Word of God is our standard against all the lies. Has God truly forgotten me? His Word says different. Can we expect trouble in this world? His Word says we will have trouble. But in that trouble, His Word also says we can have His peace.

Today, the Holy Spirit speaks to my troubled mind and says, "a thankful heart is a peaceful heart".

Today I need to look through different eyes and see all there is to be thankful for and about. Right "focus" makes all the difference "in the world". What in the "world" is causing you despair? Look instead to all that is good, noble, praiseworthy, excellent and concentrate on these things.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Clock Is Ticking

The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning and I "feel" a sense of urgency in my soul. This seems to be a re-occuring theme in my life right now. There is so much in life happening so fast. The clock is ticking, time is wasting, the decisions are needed......fast, and the "window of opportunity" seems to be closing. Or is it?

 The Holy One speaks to slow down my racing mind. I am thankful. A few minutes in His Presence and I re-set my thinking....

He re-sets my thinking. The world and all its whoop-la fades away and it's just "us". I hear Him say, "Be aware of the enemy's trap". 

I Peter 5:6-9, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering." 

Persecution takes many forms, but the enemy's goal is to get us to deny our faith. Backsliding can be rightfully described as taking matters into our own hands, refusing to allow God to bring forth His purpose in and through the trials. When we take our eyes off Jesus, our Lord and Master; when we seek to find our own answers and human resolutions, we open the door the devil needs to come in and destroy us. That is in part why the volley of enemy arrows is so fast and furious and relentless. He is baiting us to return fire in our humanity. 

 The devil is no match for Jesus Christ. He is no match for Jesus inside me, but he can easily defeat and conquer the human. His game plan is to bait me into a human reaction, outside of Godly wisdom. He strikes when I am most tired, weary, sick, weak, angry, bitter, frustrated, hopeless or proud. 

 The Holy One tells me to slow down, wait patiently for the Lord and His resolution. "Be still and know that I am God". Refuse to react to the "tyranny of the urgent". God's timetable is eternity and I am to be living according to His timetable. While the human clock is ticking, do I respond in haste or wait upon the Lord? 

 The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

 

In The Heat Of Our Trials

The heat is on, the temperature is rising, life in these end times has become like a furnace. What does God want from His people, ordained to be alive and with feet on planet earth for such a time as this?

The echo in my mind are the words of Jesus in John 15:16, "You did not choose Me but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then will the Father give you whatever you ask in My name. This is My command: Love one another."

We are all facing trials of various kinds. No one is exempt. So long as we have a breath in our body, we are undergoing trials. How we face and endure those trials become the issue, not how to avoid them, for trials are inevitable.

As the Spirit calls me this morning, I am emerging from a battle for marriage and family so fierce that the hours and days seem to have no beginning and no end. The sense of time has been lost, and it has been one long, dark night in my life and in the life of my family.

The Holy One reminds me that He has never left my side. He will never leave me nor forsake me, yet the preoccupation with the incoming firey arrows has made it hard to concentrate on His voice.

Today there is a peace. I pray the dark night is over, but in the peace I need to understand what I am to glean, what I am to learn in and from this trial.

The words of my Savior brought to my mind by His Spirit, tell me to look closely at the fruit I have been bearing during this trial. Jesus is The "Fruit Inspector" over all who are called by His name.

It is the Spirit within who will bring us into the conforming image of Christ Jesus, our Savior, so long as we co-operate and yield to His rule in our hearts and lives. And it is the Spirit within who must manifest His fruit, (His nature) in, to and through us as we face all the challenges this life has to offer.

So what purpose in our lives do trials fulfill? "Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts...see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." When I look closely at what the trial has revealed, I see that the conflict has exposed some pretty rotten "fruit". God already knows what lies buried deep within my heart but it's through the trials that I begin to see what the Lord already knows is there.

When things are moving smoothly in my life, I can control my reactions, but when the battle rages and the heat gets turned up, I react spontaneously and I confess, I am shocked by how I react and what comes bubbling up to the surface.

The old nature is truly still alive and well. Gone is the self-exalted pride in my personal righteousness. I am humbled by the reality of my responses and broken by how far I still am from the mark. The Holy One brings me to awareness and repentance in our time together this morning.

He asks me to consider what fruit has been challenged in the trial and what rottenness has been revealed. That becomes the point and lesson I must focus on.

The fruit of the Spirit...(I.E. His nature) IS love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. His Presence brings all these character qualities to life in me. What has been challenged? Where do I need the work in surrender?

Today there is clarity and I praise Him for it. The heat of the trial is having it's perfect result in me because it brings me back to Him, the only source for the fruit I am to bear.

What trials are you facing today and what "fruit" is being challenged?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?