Be Still And Know That I Am God

Isaiah 30:15b In quietness and trust is your strength.

As I lay in the MRI machine (an enormous noise making monster) I tried to put my anxious thoughts behind me.  What was the doctor looking for that would cause her to order this test on my head?  Was there something terribly wrong?  I was wearing head phones to dampen the unrelenting noise.  I decided to pray and praise the Lord to ward off the “vain imaginations” I was plagued with, but it was impossible to concentrate, to focus on God.

Then God spoke to me....causing me to correlate the noise surrounding me with the noise of the world that keeps us from focusing on Him.  Worries, anxious “what ifs,” concerns about our finances, our health, or our loved ones can consume us and leave no room in our minds for Him.  There are so many things clamoring for our attention.

Jesus told Martha in Luke, when she was anxious about many things, that “only one thing was necessary” and that was turning our attention to Him. I have learned through the years that there is room in our minds for only one thing at a time.

We must make a quiet place in our heart and mind where nothing else can intrude and spend time with Him; shedding all our concerns and laying them at His feet where they belong...for He is capable of dealing with them and we are not.

He says “Trust Me. I love you. My purpose for you is not to be a “burden bearer” but to be a lover of  Me.”  We must learn to shut out the continual noise of the world and listen for His voice. It brings about the “peace that passes all understanding.”

 He is constantly thinking about me; should I not direct my thoughts toward Him?

Phil 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Our Misplaced Trust

Our Misplaced Trust

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Prov. 3:5-6

As I drove on one of our city’s six lane expressways going sixty-five miles per hour I was awed by the fact that  all these cars going around me at breakneck speed and there were no accidents. I remembered driving through Atlanta at rush hour with six lanes going both ways at eighty miles per hour. No one hit anyone else; everyone stayed in their own lane unless there was an opening and they wanted to move over or someone needed to exit. How did this “mass of moving of metal” do it? What was the key? Then it dawned on me! Trust!! I trusted the driver next to me to remain in his lane; we all had a common direction; we were all maintaining the same momentum. I trusted people I didn’t even know. I trusted the laws we were obeying. I trusted my vehicle to perform as it was supposed to. As I turned off the expressway and drove on city streets I trusted that the other driver would stop at the red light or a stop sign at the intersection as I went through.

So much of our lives is based on trust. We trust the pharmacist to fill our prescriptions correctly. We trust food manufacturers to package safe food. We trust the gas we put in our cars is what is advertised. We trust the water piped to our homes to be safe. We trust the bank to take care of our funds.

Why do we not trust God???  This is the God who created us.   Psalm 139:13 For Thou didst form me in my mother’s womb. This is the God who loves us.  Jer.31:3a I have loved you with an everlasting love;  John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.

Why do we trust everything and everyone but God?  Is it because we can’t see and hear Him?

I see Him! I see Him in His Word. I see Him in Gen 1 as he creates with such planning and purpose for a perfect place for man. I see Him rescuing Israel from slavery in Egypt. I see Him providing for them for 40 years in the wilderness...guiding,  leading, feeding, and keeping their clothes from wearing out. I see Him feeding 5000 people who had followed Him into the countryside to listen to His teaching. I see Him turning water into wine to keep the bridegroom from being embarrassed. I see Him lifting a woman who had been accused of adultery and sending her on her way forgiven and cleansed.

I see Him changing my life of emptiness into an exciting life of learning and teaching His Word and watching Him work in so many lives. I see Him bringing me through changes and challenges with peace and confidence and poise. Trust Him??!!?? Yes!! I trust Him!!

I hear Him speak to me through His Word...words of encouragement, comfort, conviction, love. I hear Him in my heart when things are changing. He reminds me that “I change not...Malachi 3:6; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Heb 13:8; He is...”the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. James 1:17

What a God!! I trust Him!!

My Psalm

My Psalm

How my soul desires complete communion with Thee, O LORD!'

How the world crushes in to destroy that union.

It unties the cords of trust that bind me to You.

It rushes in to fill the gap between us with concrete,

Which must be chiseled out with determined prayer.

It seeks to blind me to Your glory, with pride colored mist.

It is only when I wrap the arms of my heart around You,

And keep the eyes of my mind upon You

That I can withstand the world's invasion of my soul.

SIGHT AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled......

As I lay on the table with the cardiac technician, Janet, rubbing her stylus over my chest to record the shape, movement, and sound of my heart, I was reminded of how everything in my body is dependent on the function of this organ.  I began to compare this to our Christian life in which every part of our life with Christ is dependent on the condition of our spiritual heart.

In our culture the biblical “heart” can be translated mind, will and emotions, the seat of our being.  We live in a world of “heart trouble” for sin damaged our heart from the beginning. People’s minds are full of lies; their wills are enveloped in “I can’t,” and their emotions control them instead of them controlling their emotions.  Until we transfer our heart to Jesus’ control we will continue to have this “heart problem”....seeing everything from our selfish me, myself, and I perspective.  Until my heart beats in rhythm with His it will never be completely healthy. He tells us in Proverbs 4: 23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life.”

What does God see as He looks into my heart? One likeminded, whose heart beats in rhythm with His or one whose heart beats in rhythm with the world around me? 

Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Devotions For Different Occupations

The Nephrologist

II Cor 5;17  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

My training has given me ways to treat kidney diseases.  Many times the disease destroys the kidney to the degree that it cannot function enough to sustain life.  In our lifetime we have been privileged to be able to put our patients on a life support called kidney dialysis. The patient is put on a machine for 4-6 hours on several days a week.

One day while reading Ezekiel 36: 26-27 about God giving us a new heart, I was reminded of the great joy our patients experience when kidney transplants became available. It is a wonderful analogy of the Old Testament sacrifices and temporary cleansing being like a dialysis machine and the contrast we have in the New Testament of God giving us a new heart being like a new kidney with a onetime placement of internal continual cleansing...free from a machine or continual animal blood sacrifices.

Just as the donor of a kidney (living or dead) offers a onetime sacrifice for the patient’s internal cleansing, Christ offered Himself for our continual internal cleansing.

Heb 7: 26  For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;  27  who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

NEW WARDROBE

Col:12  And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;  13  bearing with one another, and forgiving each other.

My dear friend has lost a considerable amount of weight and her old clothes don’t fit her any longer. She has to shop for a complete new wardrobe with a much trimmer look.

Jesus tells us to “put off” many old characteristics which don’t fit us anymore as Christians.

But like my friend as she went through her old wardrobe, we may be reluctant to part with our old favorites or garments that cost us greatly.  But with a fresh new look and a healthy new life style before her, she is doing just that.  She is also not settling for just any new garment, but choosing ones that enhance her new look and feeling about herself.

Christ tells us to put on the very qualities He wears and walk among others with a new heart and harmony in our relationships with others: family co-workers and other relationships.

Just as she adds tops, dresses, slacks, underwear, and even pajamas to her shopping list, we have to add compassion, kindness, humility, patience, gentleness, and love to our moral wardrobe. This new underwear will not be seen by others, just as our some of our new characteristics and attitudes from the Holy Spirit may not be seen by others, but they are the foundation on which we build our new wardrobe to be worn at home, at work, everywhere we goes and our new characteristics will be “worn” as we walk before all the people in our lives.

 Eph 4:23  and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,  24  and put on the new self, which in [the likeness of] God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

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All It Takes Is a Word

ALL IT TAKES IS A WORD

Have you ever had a word grab you?  Yes, I mean just grab your attention and compel you to look at it.  Maybe out of a conversation or something you are reading?  It startles you and you begin to roll it around in your mind and look at it from different perspectives.  It begins to change shape and fit in different places and you begin to build around it.

This is what writing is to me.  I heard the word “continuing” this morning in a conversation and I don’t know where it will go but I will be expecting God to build on it as I listen quietly for what He gives me to put around it; just as a child builds with Lego pieces, fitting them here and there until they suit what is in his mind.

This afternoon I read another word that halted my reading...”answers.”  I had just finished a devotion in which I used the words “God answered” and I began to remember how many times He had answered me, sometimes long after I asked the question...more words!

Thank You, Father for words.  They are the “things of life.”  They wound; they encourage; they create tears and laughter; they entertain; they reveal truth; they show emotions; they show love and hate.  Sometimes they reveal your age.  They cause trust and distrust.  They prod us on; they convict; they condemn; and they show forgiveness and grace!  They swirl around in our minds like ice skaters.

I love them for what they do in my life.  I am reminded of John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”    Who is this Word that was with God and was God?  It was Christ Jesus!

How appropriate that You, Lord, embody man’s way of communication, with words!  Even sign language has word meanings.  Without them, we are isolated; Without You we are isolated, unable to communicate fully with one another or with You.

Thank You, Lord, for words!!!