Women’s Retreat September 2011

Retreat has come and gone as we knew it would. This year I got to sneak in with a salad in one hand and my camera in the other. I couldn’t stay long but I got pictures this year! Nanner nanner nanner. I’m excited anyway. I wish I could have stayed longer than I did. What I heard from the speaker on Friday she really had a good message to tell. It looked like there were lots of women intensely enjoying it as I was.

Thanks to the host church who put on such a successful event.

Now on to the pictures!

One of several speakers chosen for the 2011 Women's Retreat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class time full of listening ears

Sword of the Spirit-God’s Holy Word

3. May 17^th sword of the day.  Today the sword I draw from my Bible reading comes from Psalm 31:19. It talks about, “Great is God’s goodness which He’s laid up for those who fear Him.” Did you hear that? Great is His goodness. God’s goodness isn’t limited. It isn’t restricted to some who fear Him and not others who fear Him also. It’s great, enormous, tremendous, spectacular, huge, and immense, It is something that will never run out. Satan will try to tell us otherwise. He will tell us we have been excluded from God’s goodness. Don’t believe the Father of lies, Satan. As long as we fear the Lord His goodness never runs dry. It’s not a matter of being afraid of God but fearing Him is an act of respect knowing He is the superior one. Knowing He could end the existence of the earth and its entire context in a heartbeat if He wanted. A Heavenly Father capable of punishing us when we do wrong, loving us when we mess up, and forgiving us when we come to Him on bended knee. His goodness is our reward for doing our part. Praise the Lord.

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Sword of the Spirit

All throughout the Bible are promises made by God. They are ones that have or will eventually come true. They are the fighting tools we need to use to stand up against Satan to fight our way to victory in Christ.

Promises such as the one in Psalm 2:12b “Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” That is a promise to us that those who put their trust in God will be blessed. We need to claim that promise, believe in it, and use it to fight against those moments in our lives when we aren’t feeling so “blessed.”

During the time of my cancer diagnosis the last thing I felt for a moment or two was blessed but I was. God hadn’t forsaken me. I didn’t show up on His hit list of people to bring down. He was there all along; I was just temporarily distracted from that truth.

This is why we need God’s Holy Word to keep us aligned with His thinking, His perspective of things. When we do this we have our fighting tools in place to fight against those temporarily distracting moments and get back to where we need to be. To the place surrounded by God’s promises, His strength, love and mercy.

According to Ephesians 6:17 The word of God is the Sword of Spirit. It is what Christ used to fight Satan when He repeatedly told him, “It is written.” It worked for Christ and it will work for us. Just like any tool it is one that is often abused. We like to pull out scriptures to prove our point or make ourselves look good but that is not their purpose. His words are there to guide us, to strengthen us, to use against Satan and his filthy lies.

Therefore ladies say what Psalm 45:3 says, “Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, with Your glory and Your majesty.” Then pick up His Word and fight along beside Him to a victory yet to come.

If you watch anyone conducting a sword fight the tools they use are sharp and strong. They have the ability to pierce anything. That is the way the promises of God are. We need to use them as a sword with the ability to pierce anything that goes against God. We can’t use it as a noodle that is flimsy as a nerf toy for a three-year-old child.

When we use these swords we need to say them like we mean them as we wag our finger in Satan’s face and firmly repeat God’s promises to us. So let the sword fight begin, dust off your Bible’s, open it wide and draw out the swords with me that we can use to stand our ground against the attacks of Satan.

Sword Archive

Sword #1

There is no want to those who fear the Lord.           Psalm 34:9

Satan would love nothing more than to tell us there is a lot of our wants that aren’t being met. That Christ doesn’t care about us. We could all sit down and make a quick list of all our wants that God has filled.

The want in this promise is far different that want we list as our “want list.” I want to be cancer free. I want to be skinny. I want to have a great singing voice. That’s my want list but what God is telling us that if we fear the Lord we don’t need anything else. We don’t need to “want.”

Our biggest want, whether we know it or not is a spiritual want. A want that is built in to us that we seem to search to fill all our lives. With God in our lives that want is filled. It won’t get rid of my cancer or make me skinny upon demand but it takes care of something far more important, my eternal salvation and the health of my soul.

Whenever Satan tries to trick us into thinking our want list is more important we need to stand up to him and tell him to his face, “There is NO want to those who fear the Lord.” In other words, I have all I need in Him. The rest are mere blessings that can come my way.

 Praise you Jehovah Jerah, our provider. The source of all we need!

Sword #2 for May 3^rd  Today the sword I got out of my devotional reading is the fact that the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. (John 3:6) Too often in life Satan tries to convince us we are stuck in the life we have that there is no such thing as a “new life.” We also fall too easily for the trap that once we do accept Christ into our lives that instantly we change into something of spectacular measures.  Our new life is born when we accept Christ and it takes time to develop like our physical life does. Claim that new life, claim that promise, and draw that sword whenever you think you’re stuck where you are with no hope for something better. In Christ, we have something better. A new life worth reaching for, custom designed just for us.

A Checklist for Our Soul

“If we’re going to become the women God wants us to be, we’re going to have to begin being consciously selective, which means we ask ourselves questions like: Is this the best use of my time, money, energy, and resources? Is this God’s highest and best for me? Is it the healthiest thing for my spirit, soul, and body? … Do my daily choices reflect my true values or am I taking the path of least resistance simply to avoid the hard work of making conscious selections?” by Donna Partow, Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be: A 90-Day Guide to Living the Proverbs 31 Life

 Years ago when trying to sort out the question in my mind about “What would Jesus do?” I found myself hung up on the question in certain situations. There were things going on that I didn’t have a clue what Jesus would do because He never would have allowed Himself to get into the siutation in the first place.

Over and over again I tried to figure out, “What would Jesus do?” After several attempts of trying to figure it out I began to look at it from a different angle. In the process of studying the stories of Christ in our Bible study and looking deeply into the characteristics of Christ I soon found my new approach. I started asking myself after I did something, “what characteristic of Christ is that?”

Talk about bringing a conviction to my heart. If I couldn’t instantly name what I did, thought, or said as a characteristic of Christ I knew I had just been busted for wrong behavior. Indeed for me as hard as it was to try and name what Jesus would do I found it easier to label what I just did Christ-like or not. I even made a bracelet that had WCOCIT on it to remind myself to ask that simple question in all I did and said.

Too often we think that being a Christian comes to us the minute we arise from the waters of baptism as if it was projected to us by some type of osmosis. As much as we would like to believe otherwise it’s not that simple. It takes a conscience effort on our part. We need to stop and think about what we are doing. We need to ask ourselves some questions. It doesn’t matter if it’s the questions Donna has given us in her quote or ones we come up with ourselves.

One Christian speaker I listened to once referred to this as “accountability” questions. His recommendation was to make a list of questions and give them to the accountability partner of your choice to ask once in awhile. Taking on the challenge I wrote down my questions and picked my accountability partner. Too bad the list of questions never got to her. Hum, no wonder one of the questions on the list was “did you follow through with what you started this week?”

We question God, we question where we think earth came from, we question our spouse’s behavior and what are kids are thinking but we don’t question ourselves enough. We need to live intentionally especially in our Christian walk and that takes effort on our part. Some of that effort can come through the questions we ask ourselves. “Did I glorify God today? Did I walk in His will? Am I doing all I can to further His kingdom? Is that really a characteristic of Christ?”

We have checklists for our groceries and bills why not a checklist for our soul and spirit. All it takes is a simple inventory that will tell us where we are and where we are likely to go if we don’t pay attention.  Its not a checklist to use as evidence against us but one to further our walk towards the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Walk, listen, and learn, it often starts with a question. “Where do I want to go in life?” Towards Jesus is my destiny of choice.

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

The Bridge of Comfort

 “Sufferers want to be ministered to by people who have suffered. They are suspicious of people who appear to live lives of ease. He (God) has given a role to messy, wimpy people like me. He has made us His ambassadors of reconciliation, and suffering gives us credibility with a hurting world and demonstrates God’s sufficiency to meet our needs.”

by Stephen F. Saint in his essay, “Sovereignty, Suffering, and the Work of Missions”

Not long after my 2^nd brain surgery that took care of the remaining 10% of my epileptic seizures I thought, “Wow what a wonderful thing it would be if what I went through cured all epileptics world wide.” It wasn’t a thought of heroism but one of pity, concern, and comfort contemplating only one person having to go through what I did in order for all epileptics to be suddenly cured.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way and to this day my niece still suffers herself from seizures. What I went through cured only me but there is something I can do. I can comfort others dealing with similar situations and minister to them. Since we learn and mature from our struggles perhaps that is a better way to go.

Those who have survived the storms in life whether it is marital problems, financial difficulties, prodigal children, health issues and such make good bridges for those coming along similar roads. It’s our job once we are through to turn around and lend a helping hand to those who have yet to cross. One of the biggest things it does for them is to let them know they are not alone.

As fellow sufferers it becomes our task or witness to show others they can make it across. The example we set before them in this Suffers Anonymous club are part of the planks laid down to help others across.

Years ago when man was heading West the best way to go was to find a scout who had been there and done that and knew what to expect. It had to be extremely comforting to know that the scout leading them knew what they were doing because they had been through it before. Having an experienced scout never stopped a lot of the tragedies and heartaches that would occur but it helped in difficult times.

Once we have gone through our suffering of whatever kind we don’t have to go out looking for a little old lady to help cross a street or anything, the opportunities will come. In the midst of my greatest marital struggles I was surprised to see and hear from people I never even knew traveled the road I found myself currently lost on. They took me by the hand and guided me through some pretty rough waters.

Their suffering didn’t set up a cure for all married couples who followed them but what they got out of their own journey would help another along. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians told them, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Cor 1:3,4 (NKJV).

Believe it or not our idea of comfort in suffering is to not have to suffer. We figure if God really loves us and wants to comfort us then He should take our troubles away. People, people, people when will we ever learn.

Suffering needs to be used as a tool to teach us what we need to learn in order to pass on that knowledge to others traveling down similar roads. It’s not a time to kick those who are down and think of ourselves as a failure. A failure is someone who when they fall they stay down. Comfort sets us up on our feet again, it’s the pit stop needed to gain strength in order to finish the journey not quit it.  It’s the mile-marker used to see where we are and how far we have yet to go. It’s a light in a dark tunnel that gives us hope.

Comfort can go a long ways, may we use it wisely but most importantly may we accept it just as well. Too often we want to wallow in our self-pity and refuse to be comforted. Boy, I’ve been there and done that and it didn’t work. No, the better thing to do is to accept it, use it, and make a bridge out of it to help others across life’s roughest waters.

The only toll on this bridge should be the price we had to pay to learn what we did in order to pass it along. 

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Go With the Heart

One of Eve’s biggest mistakes was she stopped and started to think about what Satan was saying and it made sense to her.  Not everything God tells us makes sense but that’s where faith comes in.  We need to learn to be lead by our hearts and not our heads.     Joyce Meyers

Just the other day some co-workers and I were talking about the balance between those who think too much and the ones who don’t seem to think at all.  On one extreme are those who think things out to a great deal of extent while at the other end of the spectrum they lack a good thought session before they jump into things. I don’t know but maybe our ancestors Adam and Eve were the ones who started that ball rolling, don’t you think.

Yes indeed Eve was the first one to try out this concept of “thinking outside the box.” She didn’t do too well as we all know. She made the mistake of stopping long enough to think about what Satan had just told her. Being the sly character he is it didn’t take much convincing to get her to see it his way. We like that. We seem to feel more comfortable when things make sense to us.

My grandkids try this tactic on each other as they say things to their siblings that may not be all that nice to hear. Soon I’m the one who hears, “Grandma! Brooke just said this to me or Aubrey said that about me.” My first reaction with them always has been, “And you listened?! That is your problem, pilgrim.”

For some reason I get quite the reaction out of them as they think I should be first going after the one doing the talking. If you think about it I can see God reacting in the same way to us, “And you listened!?” We are way to gullible to fall for what makes sense but when it comes to accepting what doesn’t make sense from God we often falter.

I must say when I was told to never have kids because of my epilepsy, that didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t care what the doctor’s said. I got pregnant anyway. During the pregnancy things started to make sense why they didn’t want me to get pregnant. Luckily it turned out okay but after that I knew better than to even try.

Isn’t there an old saying that goes, “More dollars than sense?” Or was that suppose to be “more dollars than cents.” Oh well it sounded good, as having “more faith than sense” sounds good too. Instead of spending our entire life questioning what doesn’t make sense we need to trust that the Lord knows what He’s doing. We may never see or understand what He’s doing but that needs to be okay with us in our hearts.

Somewhere along life’s rugged trail we got the impression that things needed to make sense to us. We rack our brains till we can’t think no more trying to make sense of stuff. Back when I had epilepsy people would ask questions about how I felt about coming down with it at the young age of 19. At the time to me it didn’t make sense why it happened but I did know one thing. I knew that God wasn’t out to try and fill a quota on a certain number of epileptics in the world. I had it and what I was going to do with it was what I needed to make sense of.

Recently I’ve been going through a situation that for the life of me doesn’t make sense either. No one should ever have to endure the pain I’ve been feeling, the tears I’ve shed, and the sobbing I’ve done. Looking at it through my eyes it just doesn’t seem to have any great purpose other than the purpose of giving me either a heart attack or a bleeding ulcer.

Indeed I know, as I’ve learned from the past, the best thing for me at this moment in life is to learn to be led by my heart instead of my head. My heart tells me everything is going to be alright. My head tells me it’s a lost cause. My heart tells me to keep on going. My head tells me to quit and give up. My heart tells me to trust the Lord. My head tells me to trust in my own instincts. My heart tells me to be patient and wait accordingly for God’s plan. My head tells me I have better plans God can use since the current design doesn’t seem to be working out.

If we try to make sense out of everything God does we will soon find ourselves “over-thinking” it to death, our own spiritual death because the lack of trust needed to allow God to work in our lives. The only thing that needs to make sense to us is God’s love for us. The love He demonstrated that doesn’t need explaining.

We need to go with the heart and trust the promise God has given us in Jeremiah 29:11 when He said, “I know the plans I have for you…” He never said, “I know the plans I have for you will make sense.” Remember that trust today leads to further faith tomorrow.  Go with the heart, instead of the head.

  © 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Let the Gardening Begin

 

“Oh Lord, take Your plow to my fallowed ground; let Your blade dig down to the soil of my soul; For I’ve become dry and dusty, Lord I know there must be; Richer earth lying below; For I’ve been living in Laodicea; And the fire that once burned bright, I’ve let it grow dim; And the very Word I swore that I would die for all has been forgotten; As the world’s become my friend”    Lyrics by Steve Camp      “Living in Laodicea”

Reading this quote and looking at my dry and rugged hands from the weekends planting of the garden I see the two coming together with a lesson for me to learn. In order for my garden to produce anything this year it needed to be re-plowed. But we just plowed it last year, that doesn’t seem to make sense. That’s just extra work!

 

Like it or not the plowing began. Calling in our friend who had the proper equipment to do the task we asked him, “Loren could you come over and plow up the garden area?” Coming to our rescue he loaded up his equipment and did just as we asked. Sure enough the plowing of the garden area brought up new rocks and old weeds that had come to occupy our area of harvest.

How pathetic can we be? We are quick to call someone to plow up our garden in order to start fresh with a newly planted crop but we fail to call on God to do the same with us. Deep down in the soil of our soul is richer ground that needs to be worked, re-planted, and harvested from on a regular basis.

Over the years I’ve seen many a Christians who once shined brightly for Jesus start to go dim. The flame that formerly was there to serve the Lord was forgotten as the world became their friend. To them it was all in the name of, “well God wants me to be happy.”

We need to learn to recognize what lights the light and keeps it going. Our love for Jesus, our desire to serve and please Him is the match that lights the flame. It’s not “whatever makes ME happy.” But it doesn’t stop there. We need to keep the flame going like the trick candles you can buy for a birthday cake that can’t be blown out. We need to make the decision in our life that we are going to be that kind of candle for Jesus, one that Satan can’t snuff out no matter how hard he tries.

The way to accomplish this is through asking God into our lives frequently to plow up the old ground of our hearts and replace it with richer soil.  Richness that comes from watering ourselves well using God’s love, His wisdom, strength, and guidance via His word in order that we will never dry up.

As we keep an eye out on our garden, yard, or flowers we need to keep an eye out on our spiritual hearts. Is it dry? Does it need more of the Living Water from Jesus? What nutrients can I add to make the soil of my soul richer in Spirit for Jesus? It comes down to just what kind of harvest we want. We get to pick and as we put all sorts of thoughts into what we want to grow in our garden let us do even more of the same regarding our Spiritual garden. Once we make that decision for Jesus, let the gardening begin!

Mary when she returned to the tomb after the crucifixion thought who she saw was the gardener but it turned out to be the resurrected Jesus. If you think about it Jesus is the gardener that wants to show up in our hearts if we would just call Him up like my husband and I did with Loren and say, “Can you come and plow up the garden of our hearts today?” It’s from there…. once again…. that the gardening begins!

  © 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Exchanging Tricks for Trust

 “God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in His extraordinary provision. He stands ready to allocate His power to all who are radically dependent on Him and radically devoted to making much of Him.” by David Platt in Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

  I had come to the end of my rope. The last bunny had been pulled out of my magician’s hat to try and deal with life as it was. Crying out to God one day I sobbed out the words, “I have no more tricks left. I’ve tried everything I could.” Perhaps I had but that was the problem. “I” had tried everything. “I” did all I could. “I” had no more tricks to pull out of my magic hat. “I” was at the end of my rope.

 There I stood with a dumb look on my face and eyes so full of tears they couldn’t focus on anything but the “I.” Although I thought I had trusted in God all along it appeared what I trusted in Him for was to make my magic work. Enough playing around at last it was time to trust in Him and His extraordinary provision to work. No more of Karen’s plan B, C, D, E, and so on.

 What a fool I was and I had the rope burns on my hands to prove it. I was hanging on so tight to the rope I forgot to let go and trust God. The picture I had painted in my life came out looking like the time I tried water skiing for the first and only time. As I managed to get up on the skis for a short distance when I fell I refused to let go of the rope. As the boat dragged me across the lake everyone on board shouted, “Karen, let go!” Smart and tough me, I held on for all I was worth. Finally drained of strength to hang on I let go. Oh, what a novel idea!

 Wow, how crazy can we get? Sorry I just dragged you into the equation. Think about, we all do this with God as I did with water skiing. The time is now to let go of the rope and trust that God is there to catch us when we start to fall. It’s time to go radical. Not the radical path the world seems to go but radical for Jesus. Radically dependent on Him, radically devoted.

 I hate to think of the many times He has been there close by and I never even noticed.  Unfortunately being too preoccupied with our own agenda will do that. Such as my agenda of trying to look into my magician’s hat wondering what trick I could pull out next to deal with my marriage, my financial problems, health issues and more. I didn’t need another bunny, another fuzzy set of ears to grab on to I needed the cross and the one once attached to it, Jesus Christ. I was so worried about doing my part that I missed the first part I needed to do and that was to be drastically dependent and devoted to Christ.

 Coming to the end of ourselves can be a good thing. Especially when we allow it to be the beginning of something better as we rely on God’s tremendous power instead of our own tricks to see us through life’s journey. The cross is our trading post where we get to exchange our tricks for trust in Him, our doubts for His wisdom, and our weaknesses for His strength.  Praise the Lord!

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

On Overflow

May 25, 2010

Our view of the Holy Spirit is too small. The Holy Spirit is the One who changes the church, but we have to remember that the Holy Spirit lives in us. It is individual people living Spirit-filled lives that will change the church.”  By Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.

Looking over the quote for the day I think of the advertisement you hear regarding feeding kids in Africa or other areas. They are always talking about how just .50 cents a day will feed a child and care for them in tremendous ways.  When you listen to them talk it doesn’t seem possible that my contribution of .50 cents a day can make that much of a difference. The difference comes when you put all those .50 cent contributions together and make them work together in an amazing fashion.

That’s the way it is with the Holy Spirit. We should never think of the Holy Spirit as being too small.  It is that Spirit working inside of each individual Christian that when put together can really make a difference. My contribution is not too less, your contribution too great. They work together to make a difference.

Think about it. With the .50 cents we can put it in our pocket or take it out and make it work for us and others. The Holy Spirit is no different. We can lock It up in our hearts or take It out and make It work for God and His kingdom as well as for ourselves.

Reading through the New Testament it’s awesome when they talk about various people being filled with the Holy Spirit. In John it was even given the name, “The Helper.” We have that opportunity to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we should never doubt it. We need to learn to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit and not snuff it out with church politics or individual disobedience.

Jesus is temporarily gone from earth but He left something behind to help us through and nurture our walk towards God’s Kingdom. It’s not a plaque on the wall, a certificate in our baby book, it is real. How active it is in our lives is up to us. We are the ones who get to choose whether we are going to stuff Him in our hearts only to be let out at our convenience or open up to be filled.

What shows the most that something is filled is the overflow. Every sink comes with one; there are all sorts of provisions made for when something overflows. Our churches should have to do the same thing. There should be such an overflow of the Spirit that multiple provisions are needed to handle the tremendous overflow.

It starts with each individual person. We get to choose whether we are going to stuff It in our hearts, hide it behind our attitudes, actions, or behaviors or put It on overflow working daily for an awesome and wonderful Kingdom. We get to choose. Am I wearing out that phrase? I hope not because it’s true, we are the ones who get to choose how full we want to be. Empty or overflow, which is it going to be?

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Via the Voice of God

May 18, 2010

“God whispers to us in our pleasure, but He shouts to us in our pain.” From Daily Hope Devotion by Rick Warren titled “Turning in to God”.

Reading this quote from Rick Warren reminds me of a story in the Bible, The story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11. God told Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord and wait for the Lord to pass by. As Elijah stood there a great and powerful wind came but God wasn’t in the wind. Then an earthquake shook the ground but God wasn’t in the earthquake. After that a fire came but He wasn’t in the fire either. After the fire along came a gentle whisper in which the voice of the Lord was in.

If Elijah hadn’t been paying attention he would have missed God altogether thinking once the gentle whisper showed up that must have been it but it wasn’t over. Too often that is what we do. God doesn’t show up in the fashion we think He should so before He even has a chance to get there we’ve walked away and we miss out on His presence.

In our flawed logic we figure God isn’t present because pain is. After all, if God was such a loving God then I wouldn’t be in this pain in the first place so He must not be around. From there the only shouting we hear in our pain is the groaning of our own complaining heart. The sounds of pity parties being thrown, “why me” lists being checked off. We get overwhelmed with the noises we are making to the point we miss the voice of the Lord.

We think He’s shouting at us alright! Yelling at us and punishing us for some reason as being the source of our pain. Boy do we have it all wrong. In our pleasure we can be heard celebrating and gloating over all that we have done and the whisper of God’s voice goes by unnoticed. On the other extreme in the midst of pain we continue to try to “out voice” Him by complaining about our hard times.

God is shouting to us to get us to hang on, to reach out to Him, to learn and to grow from our experiences. Constantly He’s doing all He can to get us to find right paths down narrow roads. He’s shouting to us to get us to follow His voice home. He’s not shouting, “You no good fool, you made your bed now lie in it.” He’s shouting, “Take up your mat and follow me.”

Whisper or shout it doesn’t matter God’s voice is there and we need to be like Elijah and stand there waiting for it to pass by. If it passes by unnoticed that’s our fault. We need to be listening and stop demanding it come packaged in the wrapping of our choice.

Silence! God is speaking and all we have to do is listen.  You can’t get any simpler than that, via the voice of God.

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

The Correct Equation

May 4, 2010

 “Prayers arising from my needs are preparations for future mercies; Help me to honour thee by believing before I feel, for great is the sin if I make feeling a cause of faith.” From the book, “The Valley of Vision” a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions.

I love reading the prayers of the Puritans. They are so full of worship, humbleness, and awe and centered around God that they don’t even tell you what Puritan said what prayer because it wasn’t important. It makes me stop and wonder about my own writing and how I go out of my way to take credit for all I write.  Wrong formula!

Whoever said this particular prayer doesn’t matter as much as the words they said in it. Some day I’d like my writing to be that good, something that the words matter more than who the author was.

No surprise to God but a big surprise to me the Chritian growth I’ve experienced over the years came from the prayers that arose from my needs. With my eyes squinted tightly shut to prevent even an ounce of sun from entering and my hand in my Heavenly Father’s hand I finally cracked an eye open long enough to peak out to ask “Is it over yet?” When I did I found I was in those “future mercies.”

Over the years as I have cried out to God many times, sometimes in a gentle way, most the times in tears. Other times the nature of my prayers was pleading harsh words. At the time the prayers were said I had no idea the prayers arising from my needs were indeed preparing me for future mercies. They taught me how to reach out and keep my arms open wide waiting for God’s answers. Some of the verdicts of my prayers are still out but some day they will all be answered.

It’s so important to our spiritiual well-being that we do honor God by belieieving before we feel. Too often we turn away things because we just don’t feel like it. We don’t “feel” God’s presence therefore we don’t believe He’s there. We don’t “feel” like He’s listening to our prayers so we don’t believe He ever did. We don’t “feel” like God is real so we don’t believe He ever existed. We don’t “feel” like going to church to worship God so we believe it’s not necessary. We don’t “feel” God loves us so it must not be true.

What a sad thing it is when we make feeling a part of our faith. No, no that’s not what the Puritan said. He said, “It was a SIN to make feeling a cause for faith.” Our feelings are too fickle to give them such a tremendous task as basing our eternal life on them. Our feelings change with the wind, the time of month, the hour of day, the circumstances pending. When we believe, truly believe that doesn’t change. We can anchor our life on that where our feelings allow us to drift all over the place.

Recently I didn’t “feel” like going to the mother day’s tea at the church but I went because I had a task to do. I walked away from it totally ashamed I didn’t “feel” like going as it turned out to be the most awesome worship of God I’ve experienced in a long time. Afterwards as I walked around Wal Mart doing my shopping I looked at the women who were there thinking about what they missed out on. Women doing their Saturday shopping without a clue to what was going on down at the local Christian church.

Instead of waiting to believe when we feel like it let’s get the equation right and put believing first. Feeling God’s presence will come, feeling He does answer our prayers will come. Feeling I need to go to church to worship God will come. Feeling loved by God will come.

God is coming back. We may not feel like He is but we can believe He is and we need to be ready. We need to be using the correct equation. Believing first and letting our feelings follow its lead not the other way around. Wow, what an honor to God is that, the true author of our faith instead of letting our feelings do it. Sign over the copyright to Him today and get going on the correct equation.

Ó 2010 Jesus Christ, thanks Jesus for making my life your writing board to a bigger story yet t be told 

**In the typing of this message no keys were injured, no nails broken but I did a typo you didn’t see. Only one? Okay enough of that smarty pants. I typed sign without the “G” in it and the word you get is……. Yeah you’re right, “sin.” Interesting without the “G” for God it becomes sin. Without God in our lives doing the leading what we end up with is sin. Unfortunately it’s our human nature, we need God. That’s probably not where the Puritan got his statement about sin, feeling and faith but I thought that was interesting.