Reflection

Proverbs 27:19

Just as water mirrors your face, 

so your face mirrors your heart. 

We would like to believe we can mask who we are and what we believe. We like to believe our hurts and disappoints don't effect the decisions we make today. 

Often times I would like to believe that I can hide who I am and pretend to be someone I am not. I might try and be stronger, I try to be happy when I am feeling sad, I try to be spiritually high when I am in the midst of questioning God's presence in my life. What I often fail to realize is that I have surrounded myself with people who know my heart and know when my face tells a different story. 

Yesterday was Mothers Day. I had spent the entire weekend teaching at Canvas's first Women's Retreat. When the kids met me at church they had brought me flowers and beautiful hugs. I was having an amazing day. Exhausted from a long few days with no sleep had me emotionally a little raw. I made my mothers day phone calls and continued to go one with my day. Immediately one of my friends asked my if I was okay. No matter how hard I tried to hide my sadness, I was transparent. They knew something was wrong. It was on my face. After talking to my Grandma, I was just so overwhelmed with how far away that I live when she is fighting cancer. I want to be there to help her and give her more strength. I just hate Cancer. I hate that it holds her back. I feel sad that she does her best to sound strong in the midst of the fight for her life. Most of all it reminds me how helpless life can be and how not all things have answers or fixabilities.  

My friends know me well enough to know my hearts response. They supported me, loved me and helped me spend the rest of the day enjoying my family, my kids and their friendships. I am so blessed that they see through me.

I know that most of us have our things that we do our best to hide. I wanted to hide my sadness so that I wouldn't ruin the day we were spending with friends. If I had been successful in my venture, I would have buried the pain and had to come home and deal with it alone. We are meant to depend on others, God created us to need people. We need to have friends that see through our pretend faces into the very heart of who we are. It is healing. It is loving. It is life changing. 

Heavenly Father~ Thank you for your amazing presence at the women's retreat this weekend. Thank you for your desire to live in our hearts and be in relationship with us. Lord, I thank you for the friends who see my heart written on my face. I pray that in my life I can learn to be more transparent and when people see my face, they see that I have a heart purely for You. ~in Your Precious Name

Pray for Dale C this week

The O's of God, Day 2

The O's of God, Day 2

Omnipotence is defined as the almighty God's expectation for human beings to obey Him, and He holds them responsible for their thoughts and actions. He has created all things and sustains them by the Word of His power. He is the all-powerful Lord.

Interesting how our thoughts are just as important as our actions. That God can sustain all things by the Word of His power. Are there things that have died because of our words? Are there things that are being sustained because you speak life into them? Who speaks life into you, who sustains you?

Omnipresence is defined as the nature of God who is not like the other idols and God's that can only be worshiped in one place or that are dead and buried. God reveals Himself in the Bible as the Lord who is everywhere. God was present as Lord in all creation, and there is no escaping Him. He is present in our innermost thoughts. Even as we are formed in the womb, He knows all the days of our future.

Omniscience is defined as the knowledge of God, who knows our thoughts from afar. He is acquainted with all our ways, knowing or words even before they are on our tongues. He needs to consult no one for knowledge or understanding. He is the all-knowing Lord who prophesies the events of the future.

The following Psalm is one of my favorites. Take a moment to read it. If you can print it out, put it somewhere that will remind you of who God is and who you are because of Him. Read it often, commit it to heart, believe it.

Psalm 139

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Please Continue to pray for Kathy L. this week.

Lord, today I pray for the elections. That you will be in this moment with us, our thoughts and our actions. Will you hep us to focus on you and your Word. If we haven't voted yet, Lord, I pray that you will help us to vote so that it pleases you. Lord, I pray that we understand our importance as Christians in deciding who will be our leaders. Mostly, Lord, I pray that you be honored in this election.

Mind, Day 3

Mind, Day 3

Spirit of Mind

Jesus promised us that he would send the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him. What separates us from doing right is our mind. If we allow the Spirit to control our mind and our thoughts, we will be better off than if we were to try to do good on our own.

Romans 8:5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life[a] because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,[b] you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature,[c] you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children[d] of God.

The Holy Spirit is sent to us to guard our hearts and minds. Do you know if you are a Christian? Do you have the Holy Spirit living in you? If you are not sure, then you can ask the Spirit to reveal itself to you. You can be assured that if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is your salvation, then he has sent you his Spirit. The Spirit reveals itself in everyone differently. Through dreams, prophecy, the language of tongues and other ways. I will always remember when I truly believed and received the Spirit. Subtle, yet the confirmation I needed. Give yourself a moment to receive him, even if you already have, reunite yourself with the Divine power of our God.

Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Please pray for Debi.

Lord, I thank you for your Spirit that lives in me. I am so blessed by the relationship I have with you. Please continue to guard my heart and mind. Lord, I ask that you hear those who are reading this. Confirm to them the indwelling of the Spirit in them. I am so thankful for what I am in you and what you are in me. May we turn from the patterns of this world and find strength in our renewal of our minds to overcome the temptations of sin. Amen.

Mind, Day 2

Mind, Day 2

Our minds and hearts

Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

My daughter, Hayley, attended a Christian School for 4 years. Every week there was a new memory verse, she was required to memorize all of the verses by the end of each week. On Saturday, over 1 year of public school later, my daughter competed in her first Bible Quiz meet through our church. There were 4 sets of 20 questions with a break in between each. After a long snack break, the quizzers started to drift off. not as focused as before. The first thought is "what is she doing, where is her mind!" How could I help her to refocus. I couldn't concentrate anymore, my mind was stuck on what she was doing. She missed 6 more questions during those last 2 rounds. The reader kept reminding them to shake it off, if you miss one, don't let it get to you. At the end of the quiz meet, the score keeper came up to me and said, " Hayley would have got more right, she only missed 8, but what she did was interesting, she listened to the question and when she heard the right answer she turned her mind off, not realizing that others might be right as well. She missed the questions that had multiple right answers."

How often do I do that? When I know I am right or have the right answer, I turn my mind off to the possibility of another answer or one that would be the better answer. Do you do that too? Another thing that it helped me to see is that 4 years of memory verses have inscribed his word on her heart, just as yesterdays definitions stated. The two are closely related.

Society today talks about our minds being crazy, disturbed, imbalanced. Many times requiring treatment to "fix" them. When we loose a family member, or hear something bad, our hearts ache and our minds close. So I think our mind or "heart" is not physical, but more emotional. While our brains and hearts are physical. I am interested to see what the Bible says about our minds. The Bible talks about our minds being either good or evil, hardened, blinded, corrupt, debased, renewed, pure, loving God with all of their minds, mind of Christ, united in mind. Which one of these best describes your mind? I can answer that I have probably had most all of those words define my mind at one time or another.

I believe God has prepared me for this week more than I knew when I started. The verse he brought me to was one that my husband used this weekend. Read it carefully.

Romans 7:21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what it right, I inevitable do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to Obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

The mind is so powerful. It can cause us to question our inner most being and the things we can not fully comprehend. Whenever we feel we are going to loose our minds, we should remember that Jesus Christ was the only one without sin and that we do have a sinful nature about us, within us. Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ are still "close-minded" because the devil is at work to keep them from the truth.

Luke 8:12 Thus along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Thank God that we have an opening of our mind when we receive Jesus Christ as our gift. It doesn't mean we will no longer sin, but it means we will have a better understanding of our sins and truly be sorry, hopefully be less willing to sin and to be an example to others so that they may come to know our Lord as well.

Luke 24:45
Then he opened their minds to understand these many Scriptures.... With my Authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: `There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.' You are witnesses of all these things.

Please pray for Debi.

Lord, thank you for helping me to see how close our hearts are to our minds. How they are separate from our brains and beating hearts. You are amazing, Lord, thank you for your reminder that we are forgiven when we repent. Thank you for knowing our minds and hearts.