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January 2021

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Be Still And Know

Be Still And Know

Psalm 46:10
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 32:8
The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.  I will advise you and watch over you.

Earlier this week I could not find the remote control to our TV.  I had looked everywhere, and needless to say, I was getting a little bit frustrated.   When my husband and daughter came in, they decided to help look for it as well.  We looked high and low with no success.

We had planned to watch a movie during our family time that evening.  In order to do so, we needed that particular remote control to get things going.  It amazes me, how you can have four or five remotes to one TV, and the one that comes up missing is always the one that you need the most.

After searching and searching, we finally just decided to watch something else that would not require the remote that we were looking for.   We were a bit disappointed that we could not watch the movie that we had planned to watch that evening.  After watching TV, we did our nightly devotion and said our goodnights.   When my husband and daughter left the room and everything was quiet, the Holy Spirit prompted me to look in the oddest place for the remote.  Very softly I heard “look in the fold of the recliner”. 

The way that our recliner is designed, there is a piece of fabric that connects the footrest to the recliner itself.  When the footrest is down this little pocket of fabric folds up into the chair.   Wouldn’t you know, that of all places, the remote had slid from the seat of the chair, and had fallen into the pocket and was actually folded up into the chair.  Had it not been for the Holy Spirit guiding me to know exactly where to look, I literally could have gone for days, possibly even weeks, not knowing that the remote was in the very chair that I was sitting in.   God definitely gets the glory for the retrieval of our remote control!

Now, this is what is amazing to me about this whole ordeal.   It wasn’t until everyone had left the room, and I said;   “Where on earth is that remote”, that a whisper came to me, telling me exactly where to look for the remote control.   As long as we were frantically searching, and trying to beat the clock so that we could see the movie by a certain time, we couldn’t find it.   We were trying to force its appearance.

When everything was quiet, and I got completely still, I was guided exactly to where I should look.   This made me wonder, how many times that I may have missed God’s guidance on other things, simply because I didn’t get still long enough to hear Him speak.   That night I thought of the scripture in Psalm 46:10 that says; Be still and know that I am God.  In order to know, we have to be still.  God reveals Himself to us and things that we need to know when we are still.

 Today I want to encourage you to get still when you need answers for your life, and you want to hear God’s voice.  He still speaks, but many times it’s in a whisper.  To hear His whisper you have to turn down the noise in your life.  Remember, your blessing is in His whisper.  May God continue to bless you as you still yourself, to hear your Savior’s guiding voice.

 

A Change Of Breakfast Plans

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

 

For years we have treated ourselves to a big breakfast on Saturday mornings.  Because our schedules are so different during the weekdays, everyone is on their own for breakfast.  For that reason, we look forward to sitting down together to break a little bread and catch up on Saturday mornings. 

Last Friday night my husband decided that he would cook the sausage for breakfast the night before. This was so I wouldn’t have so much to do on Saturday morning.  The next morning as I was removing the bowl with the turkey sausage in it from the refrigerator, I accidentally dropped the bowl onto the floor.  The sausage went everywhere!   I stood there in shock and I just wanted to cry.   I was not feeling well that morning, and this did not help the situation at all.   I was mad, sad, frustrated, upset, and whatever else you can think of.  I had to stop everything and clean up the mess that was on my kitchen floor before I could go a bit farther preparing our breakfast. 

I came to the conclusion that our breakfast that Saturday morning, would have to be cereal and fruit.  It was not what was planned, but it would have to do.   So I started to prepare our fruit.  As I was peeling an orange, can you believe that half of the orange fell onto the floor?  Seriously, by this time I just wanted to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. 

Called To Be Humble

Called To Be Humble

In light of all that is going on in our country today, I have seen 2nd Chronicles 7:14 posted several times on social media.  This scripture says:  If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

After reading this scripture several times, it made me wonder if people really know what it means to humble themselves, especially since we live in a world where everyone wants to exalt themselves.
The word humble means showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance.  It is just the opposite of the word exalt, which means to take on a higher status or position. In other words to think more highly of yourself than you should.   To be humble is not a sign of weakness; actually, it is just the opposite.  It shows incredible strength.

Humility comes from the Latin word humiliates, a noun related to the adjective homilies which may be translated as humble.  Humility is behaving in a way that you do not think that you are better or more important than other people.

The more I thought about these definitions, I concluded that to be humble or to have humility is simply to be Christ-like.

Although He was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Christ did not enter the world in a flamboyant manner.   His first place to rest His head was in a stable where he slept on hay.  Certainly, if there was anyone that had a right to enter the world in all manners of royalty, it was Christ.  He did not ask to be served, He served others.  Again, He was royalty yet He served.   There are examples of His servant’s heart all throughout scripture.

When Christ asked us to humble ourselves, He was asking that we emulate Him.

Philippians  2: 1-18
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.In your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,