Category: Moms

Faith Series- Part II

~ Mom Morsels
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A Genuine Faith

Have you ever faced diffiucult circumstances in your life, and said to yourself, “I wish I could have faith in this situation”? I know that I have. But here is some good news for you! If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and been born again, then you already have the FAITH you think you lack! We see this explained in Ephesians 2:8-9 New American Standard Bible (italics mine):

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It was through your faith that you were saved, so you actually do have some faith. It is God’s gift to you by His grace, not by anything you did. In fact Romans 12:3 New American Standard Bible clarifies this further (Italics mine, again):

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

Yes, everyone of us, who trust in Christ as our Savior and Lord, have been given a measure of faith by God. Measure G3358 is translated as “a measure of (“meter”), literally or figuratively, by implication a limited portion, a portion measured off.” Looking at the Greek, it is not clear whether this is “a measure” or “the measure” of faith, but what is clear from this verse is that God determines that we each have at least some measure or portion of faith. I found this fact encouraging! I do have faith! and so do you! The question is, what do we do with our measure of faith?… We have to grow it!

So how exactly do we grow our faith? This is the hard part, because in order to grow our faith, we have to go through trials, difficulties, hard situations. Think of it this way… in order to keep our bodies healthy, we have to exercise. Most of the time, exercise takes effort and often, if we really want to get in shape, some pain is involved. “No pain, no gain” is the saying. It’s the same way with faith. In order to grow our faith, we need to exercise it and often this is a painful process..

If our faith is never exercised, is it really genuine faith? If our faith is never tested, then it’s just an idea or a thought. We really only know our faith is real, if we go through a trial, and we realize our faith in God has carried us through. Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:6-7, and I like the New International Version for this verse:

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Our heavenly Father is concerned about eternal matters. What matters to Him is that our faith is GENUINE or REAL. And how will we know whether our faith is real, unless it is tested? In fact, to God, the genuinessness of your faith is MORE PRECIOIUS THAN GOLD. Wow, that’s very precious! And did you catch the last part of this verse? When our faith is proven genuine, more precious than gold, that in turn brings GLORY and HONOR when Jesus Christ is revealed. God has done so much for us, so it is a great honor for us to be able to give something back to Him, to be able to bring glory to His name.

So moms, please don’t get discouraged when your faith is tested, and remember that

TO GOD YOUR GENUINE FAITH IS WORTH MORE THAN GOLD!

In His Love,

Suzanne

Faith Series-Part I

~ Mom Morsels
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What is Faith?

We could study what faith means for the rest of our lives and never stop learning about it. Faith is a central concept in the Bible, and so much is said about this important subject. In our Faith Series, we will only try to offer a simple definition of faith, and hopefully this will spur you on in your own study of what the Bible says about faith. According to Quora* the word “faith” is mentioned 254 times in the New International Version Bible. Obviously, faith is something God wants us to know a lot about! With such a big concept, we might feel intimidated to even study faith at all, but we are compelled to study faith, because of the importance God places on this concept in the Bible.

Let’s start with a verse that is the closest the Bible comes to a definition of faith, Hebrews 11:1. In our Hope Series, we looked at this verse in the New American Standard Bible version as it related to hope, but I also like how the New International Version Bible is phrased:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you know where we will go from here. Faith in the Greek G4102 means “persuasion, moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation, assurance, belief, faith, fidelity.” And faith comes from a root word G3982 that means “to convince, to assent, to rely, agree, assure, believe, have confidence, make friend, obey, persuade, trust, yield.” There is a lot to faith! In the root word G3982, we can see that faith is related to trust.

So, let’s say you have a trustworthy friend. You know this person’s character, that they are truthful, that they are trustworthy, that they love you, that they are for you. Then circumstances arise which make it appear that this person has stolen something from you. Will your trust in that person override the incriminating evidence you see before you? If you really trust this person, you will be convinced that the evidence may be wrong, that there must be some explanation for your friend’s behavior, since you know your friend is trustworthy. FAITH would believe the friend, not the circumstances. It’s the same with God. FAITH believes that God is truthful, that He is trustworthy, that He loves us, that He is for us, despite our circumstances, difficulties and trials.

If we know God’s character, if we trust God, if our hope is in Him, despite what we may see around us, we can have FAITH in God. We will believe in God no matter what we see. We know God and His character, so even though it may look to us like He has abandoned us, we choose to trust Him anyway and have FAITH in Him. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 4:16,18 New American Standard Bible for more insight: .

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day…. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Many of us lose heart so easily when we encounter difficulties in our lives (you can see that I have included myself here!). But God tells us in this verse how we can avoid losing heart, and it is by fixing our eyes on what is unseen not on what is seen. What is seen are the circumstances that surround us-the amount of money in our bank account (yikes! there have been times with five children that we have lived pay-check to pay-check!), sickness, job loss, appliances breaking down, misbehaving kids (We’ve been through every one of these!). What is unseen, is what God is doing for us behind the scenes, the plan God has for us in these circumstances, how He will either rescue us out of them or help us endure as we go through them. FAITH focuses not on the temporary, ie our earthly troubles, but on the eternal, God’s eternal plan for us. FAITH focuses not on the seen but on the unseen. We stand firm in FAITH, if we keep our focus on God.

So moms, don’t lose heart, instead

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE UNSEEN AND YOUR HOPE IN GOD, SO YOU CAN STAND IN FAITH.

In His Love,

Suzanne

* https://www.quora.com/How-many-times-is-faith-mentioned-in-the-Bible#:~:text=The%20word%20%22faith%22%20appears%20336,Good%20News%20Bible%20(GNB).

Immanuel-God with Us

~ Mom Morsels
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His Presence-Our Greatest Gift

Immanuel means God with Us. This name for Jesus, encompasses God’s will for us from the beginning of time-He wants to be with us. Matthew 1:23 New American Standard Bible says:

 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 

God set up the garden of Eden like the biblical groom sets up a house for his beloved. Eden was the perfect environment for mankind to grow, trees flourishing, lush fruit for eating, no rain needed because a mist came up from the ground and watered the earth. And after He set up this home for man, he placed man and woman in the garden to meet with them in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8), to be with them. It’s so clear that He has always wanted to be with us.

Of course, the perfect garden became imperfect when Adam sinned, but even then, we find that God had a plan in place to rescue us and bring us to Himself through Jesus. Through Jesus the world was reconciled to God and fellowship with our Maker was restored. .If we accept Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are back where we were meant to be, in communion with God.

Often we seek after the things God can offer, but it is in seeking God Himself, His very presence, that we are most fulfilled. Psalm 16:11 NASB says:

You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Fullness here means “satisfaction, abundance, fill, full, be satisfied.” You know that feeling after you have eaten a good meal, not too much, but just the right amount to have a nice full and satisfied feeling in your stomach? It’s that kind of full, a completely satisfied kind of full, a not needing anything else kind of full. And at His right hand are pleasures forever. God’s right hand is where Jesus sits interceding for us. No wonder there are forever pleasures there!

So how do we get more of His presence in our lives? Getting more of the Word in our lives. My husband likes to listen to the Bible; I like to read the Bible. Singing the Word helps me retain what I hear. I also, ask the Holy Spirit to interrupt my day. I love to go on walks, but half way around the lake path, I often realize I left Him 1/4 mile back. I am a busy person, so I ask Holy Spirit to interrupt my life with His presence. A favorite book of mine The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence * says,

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great a tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

Oh to be able to be like Brother Lawrence! It takes practice to remember to acknowledge God in each moment of our day. We invite Him into every area of our lives, not just the “sacred” moments, but the every day moments, the busy clattering moments which are to Him just as precious, because He wants to be with us ALWAYS AND FOREVER.

So this Christmas season, let’s remember to

PRACTICE HIS PRESENCE IN OUR EVERYDAY MOMENTS.

In His love,

Suzanne

*Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, (Old Tappan: 1958), p.8

Psalm 121- Part VI

~ Mom Morsels
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Protected, Kept, Guarded Forever

As we look at our last verses in our study, we remember that SIX times in this psalm the same word for WATCHMAN is used ( v.3, v.4, v. 5, v. 7 x 2, v. 8). God wants us to know without a doubt that He is our WATCHMAN. We see “watchman” three of those times in Psalm 121:7-8 New American Standard Bible (I italized the words for “watchman”):

The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

I am going to admit that I really wrestled with this verse. That word evil H7451 means, “evil, adversity, affliction, calamity.” Will God really protect us from all evil? It depends on our perspective. If we look at this verse from a human perspective, then, No, He will not, but if we look at this verse from God’s perspective, then, Yes, He will. You see, God has given us some promises, and we know that He will keep them. We know that God is just and He will not allow any evil to go unpunished (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8). We know that in the end God will right every wrong done to us, and in that way, God is protecting us from all evil (read Revelation for some insight on this point).

God has not deceived us. He has already told us that we will have difficulties here on earth, that evil will touch us. We read in Psalm 34: 19 NASB:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.

When God makes a promise, to Him it is already done (1 Corinthians 1:20). So although we face afflications in our life here on earth, we know that God has an eternal plan to deliver us from every evil that we have faced. In our eyes, that deliverance is in the future, but in God’s eyes, that deliverance is already accomplished, because Jesus already paid the price for it on the cross. So though we are touched by evil while here in our earthly bodies, that evil will be wiped away for all eternity when we are in our heavenly bodies. God will even use the evil that has touched us for our good, as we see in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NASB:

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

From His perspective, God calls our afflictions here light, but they do not always feel light to me! Yet, according to this verse, that light affliction also accomplishes a purpose. It produces an eternal weight of glory for us! I want that, don’t you? And that glory is far beyond all comparison. God knows that something good is coming for us, if we just wait on Him, if we just trust in Him, and He will work everything out in the end.

And GOD IS WITH US in our trials, as we face the evil in the world, promising that He will KEEP OUR SOUL (v.7). Keep is that word for Watchman. He guards our soul. Our bodies will fade away, but our souls, spirits, and very life are eternal. God is more interested in our eternal destiny than in our earthly comfort.

As we travel through this journey called life, God watches over us as we come and go. The last few verses of Psalm 121 are the conclusion of this psalm. God promises us the He will be our WATCHMEN both now and forever. What a promise! To have the God of the universe watching over us, guarding us, keeping our soul NOW AND FOREVER is such a comfort.

So moms, remember that

GOD IS YOUR WATCHMAN, GUARDING AND KEEPING YOUR SOUL BOTH NOW AND FOREVER.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalm 121- Part V

~ Mom Morsels
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Your Shade on Your Right Hand

We learn more about God, our Watchman, in Psalm 121:5-6 New American Standard Bible:

The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

Again, we are reminded that God is our KEEPER. And He doesn’t just give you shade on your right hand. He IS your shade on your right hand. When you’re in the scorching hot sun, the shade is near you, and if you are fully in the shade, it is actually on you. This shows us how NEAR God is to us. God is so near to you, and He refreshes you with His NEARNESS.

As God is your shade on your right hand, you are under His shadow. We read in Psalm 91:1 New International Version:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

To dwell in God’s shelter is to obey His Word and to walk with Him. As you dwell in His shelter, He provides REST in His shadow. Rest H3885 means “to stay, abide, dwell, lodge, remain, tarry”. Dwelling is staying in His presence, living in it. Rest doesn’t necessarily mean we are not busy. Mom’s are always busy! Rest means that in the midst of our business, we can ABIDE in His presence, close to Him, knowing that He is always working on our behalf, always good, because GOD IS GOOD.

Your right hand symbolizes your working hand. We all have work to do. As you do your work as unto the Lord, He sees you. He sees your right attitude. He sees your service. He sees how you lay your life, your time, your energy down for your family. Moms work a lot! …at home, at work, always “on call.” God will REFRESH you with His presence, moms, as you faithfully serve your family, as He Himself is your shade.

Your right hand also symbolizes your hand of intercession. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us (Romans 8:34). As you intercede for others, He will be close to you, because He is the well of living water inside you (John 7:38), REVIVING you as you serve Him interceding, praying. You can intercede for others as God brings them to mind, in the midst of your business.

As you journey through this life, God will keep you from the dangers of travel. Whether you realize it or not, we travel a lot during our lives. If you have a fitbit or apple watch, in fact, you can know exactly how many steps you travel each day, and Google maps can tell you how many miles you travel in a year and exactly where you have been (it’s kind of creepy, actually!). As you journey through this life, you will face dangers now and then. God is your KEEPER and He will be with you. He will not forsake you.

Because God Himself is your shade, the light from the fierce hot sun will not hurt you. Just as the shade protects you from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun, so God PROTECTS you. God sent the cloud to shield the Israelites as they traveled through the wilderness. Have you ever been at the beach and you are sweating profusely in the blazing sun? Then someone comes with an umbrella, and you feel so much better after you are under it. In His shade, you are sheltered, protected.

The night has its dangers as well. At night the dangerous animals come out, and the wicked can use the cover of darkness to hide their evil deeds. When the Israelites traveled through the wilderness at night, God sent a pillar of fire to protect and lead them. Animals won’t come near fire. Fire also keeps you from the danger of the stark cold temperatures at night. God didn’t let the moon smite the Isrealites, as He protected them with the light and warmth from the pillar of fire, and He will not let the night smite you either. He is your KEEPER.

So moms, be comforted today that

AS YOU JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE, GOD IS YOUR SHADE TO REFRESH YOU WITH HIS NEARNESS AND HIS PRESENCE.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalm 121- Part IV

~ Mom Morsels
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Feet Unmoved

In our next verses of our study, Psalm 121:3-4 New American Standard Bible, God reassures us as to what kind of watchman He is:

He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

A slip is an accident. There are no accidents with God. Anything that comes to you has to pass through His hands first because He is sovereign. Remember Job? After all he endured, he said he now saw God, instead of just hearing about Him from others (Job 42:5). God had something more for Job than just letting him live the good life. God wanted Job to know Him more intimately.

When I was on a Ugandan Missions trip in June, we went hiking at a series of waterfalls called Sipi Falls. It had been very rainy with the trail to the waterfalls much slipperier than usual, and we weren’t wearing the correct shoes. Also, the trail was much steeper than what was anticipated. But we were very careful and we had wonderful GUIDES helping us. And no one fell. We were being watched over carefully. If we even tottered or started to slip, there was our guide’s hand stretched out towards us to steady us and keep us from falling, to keep our feet in place.

This phrase referring to the foot not slipping H4132 in Greek actually means to not “waver, slip, totter or be moved.” Your feet will not be moved. Why? Because your Watchman is watching over you and guiding you. This reminds me of the house that was built on the ROCK in Matthew 7:24-27. It got hit with the same storms that the house on the sand did. The house on the sand slipped and fell, but the house on the rocks DID NOT MOVE. If we build our lives on the Word, then when storms come (and they will!), we also will not be moved.

And if we come close to slipping, God is right there. He is ALWAYS NEAR. We see what happens in Psalm 37:23-24 NASB if we start to fall:

The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.

Close your eyes and picture a parent holding their toddler’s hand. Just learning to walk, the toddler is a little wobbly. The toddler starts to fall, but the parent pulls the hand up, and though the toddler may falter, the parent’s action helps them place their feet square on the ground again. That is what God does for us. Because He is always holding our hand (if we let Him!), when we begin to falter, He pulls us up, so we don’t fall “headlong”, so we don’t fall on our face ,and so our feet stay on the ground.

When a person is tired, they are more prone to accidents. They might be drowsy, doze off or slumber. Did you know that driving while drowsy is just as dangerous as drunk driving? So I told our kids, don’t drive if you are sleepy! (they knew not to drive drunk). In reference to God not slumbering, the word slumber H5123 is used once in verse 3 and a second time in verse 4. He’s making a point. He said it twice. He does not slumber. He does not get drowsy. He does not miss anything. He is ALWAYS watching over us!

Our verse also tells us that God DOES NOT SLEEP. We need sleep to keep us alert during the day. God doesn’t need sleep to keep Him alert. He is always alert. Good night-watchmen don’t sleep. They stay alert all night looking out for danger lurking in the night. God is our GOOD WATCHMAN, always alert, never sleeping, never letting things slip by Him.

So moms, remember that

GOD IS ALWAYS WATCHING OVER YOU.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalm 121- Part III

~ Mom Morsels

Look Up

God has brought Psalm 121 to me several times over the last six months, also bringing deeper understanding along the way. At the end of this six months, my husband and I ended up in Banff, Alberta, Canada in the midst of the Canadian Rockies. The picture above is from our trip. Mountains were surrounding us everywhere on every side and we could not help but look around at them; we could not help but LOOK UP.

The first two verses of Psalm 121 encourage us to LOOK UP. Psalm 121:1-2 New American Standard Bible says:

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

In verse 1, the psalmist is making a choice to lift his eyes up. He says “I will” which indicates a definite choice that he is making. Yes, it is our choice where our eyes look. We can choose to look at our circumstances or we can choose to look up. We live in a broken, sin-filled, hard and difficult world. I don’t know about you, but when I choose to look at my circumstances, it often makes me feel discouraged. If I choose to look up, to focus on Jesus, to lift my eyes to Him instead, it always encourages me.

Jesus is our example. He went through some very difficult trials including torture and death on the cross in order to save us, but Jesus was looking beyond His present trials. Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB says (italics mine):

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We are instructed to FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS. I always cheer up when I fix my eyes on Him. When I set my eyes on encumbrances and sin, I am taking my eyes off Him. Jesus focused on the “joy set before Him” in order to endure the cross. What joy was it that He set His eyes on? It was the joy of sitting at the right hand of the Father- the joy of being right next to the Father again. Likewise, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, we can endure the trials that we go through while living in this imperfect place called earth. If we trust in Jesus as our savior, we too have the joy of knowing we will live in HIS PRESENCE with Him in heaven throughout eternity.

So it really matters where we focus our eyes! Where we focus our eyes, will indicate where our help comes from. In verse 2 of Psalm 121, we are reminded that OUR HELP COMES FROM THE LORD. So I find that if I am looking at my circumstances, my trials around me, I am trying to fix things myself. I am then relying on my own way to figure things out, rather than looking to God for His solutions or even just for His presence to comfort me. When we choose to look at God instead of circumstances, Psalm 42:5b NASB reminds us:

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.

Yes, our hope is in God and we have the GREAT HELP of HIS PRESENCE whenever we need it. And why do we look to God for help? The psalmist tells us it’s because God is the Creator of heaven and earth. Do we really need any other reason? Sometimes when we ask for help, we forget who God is. We forget that He spoke the world into existence with HIS WORD. Recently my husband and I visited the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum in Kentucky. This visit reminded us even more of just what a wonderful and utterly magnificent Creator we have!

So moms, when you are in the midst of your trials, don’t forget to

LOOK UP TO GOD FOR YOUR HELP, FOR HE’S THE CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH!

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalm 121- Part II

~ Mom Morsels
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God our Watchman

Psalm 121 provides so much comfort to me. I just love this psalm! Let’s look at Psalm 121 together in the New American Standard Bible (italics mine):

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

We’re going to look at each verse in this psalm together through this series, but first, there is something very important that I want to point out. Throughout this psalm a single Hebrew word is used no less than six times- each use of this word is italicized in the verses above. I have said this before, that if I want to make a point to our children, I might say the same thing twice. If they aren’t listening, I might say it a third time. If something is said to us SIX TIMES, I think we should notice what God is highlighting to us! Don’t you agree?

The Hebrew word that appears six times in this psalm is H8104. This word H8104 is translated several ways in this psalm and in the Hebrew it means “to hedge about (as with thorns), that is guard; generally to protect, attend to, take heed (to self), keep, preserve, regard, watch(-man), keep watch, take care.” There is a lot of meaning in that word! It’s clear that our GOOD SHEPHERD is pointing out the importance to us that HE IS OUR WATCHMAN. I know at times it doesn’t feel that way, though. Perhaps you are going through some difficulty or trial. When we are passing through those hard times, it can make us doubt that God is our watchman, but you will see through our study that He truly is!

In the New American Standard Bible version, in verses 3, 4, 5 and 7b of Psalm 121, this word for watchman is translated KEEP or KEEPER. Yes, God is also our KEEPER. You can be reassured that He will not let you go. As we see in Isaiah 41:10 NASB:

Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

God is keeping you; He is upholding you with His righteous right hand. That word “uphold” H8551 gives us even more insight into just how God holds onto us. It means ” to grasp, keep fast, help, follow close, retain, lay hold of, to be seized.” Seizing is forceful! It sounds like He holds onto us pretty tightly!

He keeps us, but we also must make a choice to faithfully hold onto Him. Despite your circumstances, HOLD ONTO JESUS AND DON’T LET GO! In Jesus’ love song to the church and to us, Song of Solomon 3:4 NASB, the bride (the church and us) speaks to the Bridegroom (Jesus), encouraging us to hold on like she does:

When I found him whom my soul loves;
I held on to him and would not let him go.

Going back to that Hebrew word “to keep” H8104, farther down in our psalm, it is interpreted in verse 7a as “protect” and verse 8 as “guard”. Doesn’t it provide so much comfort to know that God is protecting and guarding you? And as we saw above, that He is your watchman? Watchmen in the Bible times, stood on the wall that surrounded the city to protect it. They warned the people of approaching danger and could see trouble coming from far off. God does this for us also, if we choose to listen to Him. To us, it may seem that at times, He is not watching over us, but we will see as we study further that He truly is our WATCHMAN and we can trust Him. We do have to choose to believe Him, though.

So moms, you can rest in the knowledge that

GOD IS OUR WATCHMAN, WATCHING OVER US, UPHOLDING US AND KEEPING US CLOSE TO HIM.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalm 121- Part I

~ Mom Morsels
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He’s with You in Your Uphill Battles

Psalm 121 has become very meaningful to me. I found Psalm 121 in my mother’s Bible. My mom passed this year and I really miss her, but the Good Shepherd has been close and brought comfort to me and my family. In the past 6 months since I found this Psalm that was so dear to my mom, four different times it has been brought back to me.

I went for prayer at my church, and one of the ladies praying for me, said she had a scripture for me that had come to her mind-it was Psalm 121. My husband and I went to see a movie and this psalm was quoted in the movie. In June, I went on a missions trip to Uganda and a friend left me a card with scriptures on it, and yes, there it was again Psalm 121. While in Uganda, I got to share the messages on hope from this blog. After I shared, I asked the believers present to gather in small groups for prayer, and I also joined a group. One of the men in our group suggested we pray for the person to our right. When my turn came, the person next to me said, “I don’t have a prayer for you. I have a scripture.” And, yup, there it was again, he gave me Psalm 121!

In July, my husband and I went on a silent retreat to the North Georgia mountains for a time of prayer, scripture meditation, and reading. While there, it dawned on me that since God brought this psalm to me so many times, maybe I ought to study it! You think? …sometimes I am a little slow. I even wondered if God might be sitting up in heaven saying, “Well, it took four times, but she finally got the message!” He’s such a patient and loving Father. So I want to share what I learned as I studied this psalm.

This psalm is part of a group of psalms, Psalms 120-134 that were written as a “Song of Ascents”. Scholars have different theories on when these songs were sung, but many commentaries agree that one of the times they were sung was as the Israelite worshippers traveled up the high hills of Jerusalem to the Temple for the three pilgrim festivals. This reminds me of times in our Christian walk, when we feel like we are in an uphill battle, yet we proceed with hope in our hearts, knowing Jesus is calling us higher, knowing He wants us closer.

ASCENTS H4608 means “elevation, that is the act (literally a journey to a higher place), a climactic progression, degree, go up, step, ascent.” This is so true of our walk with Christ, as He is always drawing us higher; He is always drawing us closer to Him. I have often looked back after going through a difficult time, and felt that I have grown so much closer to God through the struggles. The journey may be hard, and walking up hill takes more effort. In fact, we might even complain as we struggle to make it up the hill; we might even have to stop along the way to rest and recover our strength, our will to continue. But when we make it to the top, to where He leads us, we can look back and see He has brought us to a better place.

My husband and I recently went to Banff, Alberta, Canada in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. We had the opportunity to go up to one of the mountain tops in a Gondola. What a view! The Gondola made it easy to get to the top, but there was also a winding path that you could walk up, and some folks did walk to the top. It would take a lot of effort to walk to the top, but the view was absolutely breathtaking and would be well worth the effort!

Can I encourage you today, not to give up? Can I encourage you that there are times in our Christian walk, when we feel like we are going uphill? PLEASE KEEP GOING. I want to reassure you with this verse Psalm 9:9-10 New American Standard Bible:

The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed,
A stronghold in times of trouble;
And those who know Your name will put their trust in You,
For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

He is our STRONGHOLD in times of trouble. Stronghold H4869 means “high place, refuge, secure height, retreat, stronghold, cliff or lofty inaccessible place, altitude.” He lifts us up ON HIGH when trouble surrounds us. Recently there have been a lot of floods from tornados and hurricanes. The devastation has been terrible-please pray for those who have been affected. When the waters of the floods surround us, where do we want to be? We want to be up on HIGH. That is where God takes us when we are in times of trouble. He takes us up ON HIGH. Who else is on high- He is! As this verse states, He will not forsake us in times of trouble. Though He might seem far away-He isn’t. Hang onto His promise, that He is there with you, because He has said He will never forsake you, if you seek Him.

So moms,

BE COMFORTED THAT AS YOU JOURNEY THROUGH HARD UPHILL BATTLES, GOD IS THER WITH YOU!

In His Love,

Suzanne

Counting on His New Mercies

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Daily Mercies !

When I read the Bible, I sometimes read it like any other book I would read. I realized recently that this is not the best way to read the Bible. The Pharisees read the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) this way, and it didn’t do them any good, because of the state of their hearts when they read it. Jesus said their hearts were hardened and their ears were dull. So I ask myself what is the state of my heart when I read my Bible?

If I read my Bible with a soft heart and my ears open, then I realize how UTTERLY AMAZING all that I read in the Bible is. As I read my Bible with a heart full of faith, I stand in AWE of all that God is speaking to me through His Word. It’s the difference between reading the Word objectively and subjectively. Am I reading the Word like a list of facts or am I reading the Word, knowing that God wrote each Word to speak to me? The Bible is a love letter to us from God. How will we let this letter from God affect us? If we read His love letter to us with a heart full of FAITH, then His letter to us will truly change us.

Here’s an example of what I mean. In Lamentations 3:22-23 English Standard Version we read about what God’s heart towards us is:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is Your faithfulness.

If we really believe that His mercies are new every morning, then with faith in our hearts we should be looking for them. If indeed we receive new mercies from God every day, then at the end of the day, we can look back and see His mercy to us for that day. I have started making this a practice for myself. At then end of the day, I look back and I ask God to show me, where was Your mercy for me in this day? He always shows me something, even on my very worst days.

This word mercies is translated as “compassion, by extension the womb (as cherishing the fetus), tender love, mercy, pity.” Yes, God’s heart is tender and loving towards us, showing us His compassion. He extends His mercy to us in so many ways! It’s so interesting that this word mercies at it’s root means WOMB, because who is more helpless than the baby in the womb, totally dependent on it’s mother for everything it needs to grow and develop? In the same way, we are so helpless and NEEDY, much more than we realize (much more than I realize!). We depend on God for everything we need; we’re so helpless and yet He shows us His compassion and mercy.

I love this verse in Psalm 103: 13-14 New American Standard Bible, which explains His compassion for us:

Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.

If He knows my frame, then I don’t have to explain myself to Him. I don’t have to explain to Him that I am very emotional and tend to overreact to things-He knows my weaknesses, because He made me. If He knows I am dust, then I don’t have to explain my helplessness to Him. I don’t have to explain how utterly NEEDY I am, how dependent on Him I am for EVERYTHING. He knows that I am helpless without Him.

And if we can’t find any other mercy from Him in our day, then we can find His mercy in sending His Son Jesus to rescue us from our poor dust-filled state and in REDEEMING us! We can thank Him daily for that mercy.

So moms, let’s

LOOK FOR HIS MERCIES EVERY DAY AND WE WILL FIND THEM!

In His Love,

Suzanne

In the Wilderness

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Does God Still Care for Me in the Wilderness?

It’s so wonderful to feel blessed. It’s even better to not just feel blessed but to KNOW that you are blessed! If the Creator of the universe speaks blessing over you, then you do KNOW that you are blessed! At Jesus baptism, God the Creator, God the Father, pronounced a glorious blessing over His Son J also spoke identity over Him. In Mark 1:11 New American Standard Bible, we read:

…and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

Almost like when we boast about our children to our friends, God spoke this blessing over His beloved Son in front of a large crowd, so all could hear, saying He was well-pleased with Him. Well-pleased G2106 means “to think well of, approve, be well pleased, take pleasure.” Father God took pleasure in His only begotten Son. I know this same feeling, when my husband and I take pleasure in our children, simply the fact that they are ours (well, on loan from God!). We look at them and smile, enjoying who God made them to be. When you realize that God takes pleasure in you-well, let it sink in, bask in it, like when you bask in the sun and let its warmth penetrate your skin. Yet after God spoke over Jesus that He was HIS SON, confirming His identity and blessing Him, in the very next verse, we read in Matthew 1:12 NASB:

Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.

Why would God speak a blessing over His Son, then let the Holy Spirit “impel” Him into the wilderness? “Impel” G1544 means “to cast out, drive out, to expel a person from society, to compel one to depart, to draw out with force, to eject” and comes from a root word meaning “to throw or to thrust”. So God the Holy Spirit drove, cast, expelled, thrust Jesus into the wilderness. Doesn’t that seem to be the opposite of what a loving Father would do to His beloved Son, who He just said He was pleased with? Yet, God did just that. Perhaps the blessing that God the Father spoke over Jesus, was to prepare Him to stand strong in the wilderness, so that He would know for certain His identity as the Son of God in the midst of the temptations that He was about to face.

So many times when we are in the wilderness, things aren’t going well, or we feel like God is far away, we think that God does not care about us or love us. But the Holy Spirit (God) drove Jesus, God’s MUCH BELOVED Son, the Darling of heaven, His one and only begotten Son who He was well-pleased with-into the wilderness. He literally threw Him there. This was done to God’s Son. If you are in the wilderness at this moment, do not believe the lie that you are there because you are not well-pleasing to God. Be reassured that God can still be well-pleased with you and love you, even though He is allowing you to be in the wilderness and even though He may have thrust you there. He may be thrusting you there, so He can bring you to a place of victory over the devil, just like He did with Jesus!

Don’t let the enemy rob you of your identity in Christ! We let the enemy hijack our identity way too easily. Satan’s aim is to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10), so if we let our guard down even a little, we need to know that the enemy is going to be right there to snatch it away. Don’t let Him do that! This is why we need to STAND FIRM in who we are in Christ. This is why we need to get in His Word and KNOW what He says about us deep our hearts. The truth of our identity in God needs to be firmly planted there. When the storms come and the winds blow, we need a house that can stand strong on a firm foundation, on the ROCK, on CHRIST (Matthew 7:24).

So mom’s

BUILD YOUR IDENTITY ON THE ROCK, SO IT WILL STAND STRONG.

In His Love,

Suzanne

A Sincere Faith

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Faith that Dwelt in Your Mother and Grandmother

As mothers and grandmothers we have a great responsibility before God to pass on our faith to our children and grandchildren. Timothy acquired his faith from his mother and grandmother, and Paul recognized that Timothy’s faith came from them. We see in 2 Timothy 1:5 New American Standard Bible, where Paul writes to Timothy:

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.

How did Timothy obtain a sincere faith from his grandmother and mother? This faith first DWELT in them. Dwelt G1774 here means “inhabited” . This faith INHABITED them. Noah Webster 1828 dictionary defines “inhabit” as:

INHABIT. to live or dwell in: to occupy as place of settled residence…to live, to abide.*

Yes, Timothy’s mother and grandmother LIVED the faith that they taught him, and he saw that their faith was REAL as they walked it out before him every day. Their faith was a PLACE OF SETTLED RESIDENCE in them. Their faith did not just come and go, but through day to day life, through storms and trials, their faith was SETTLED in them. Their faith ABIDED in them. John 15: 4-5 NASB explains further how we are to abide in Christ:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

The key to abiding in Christ is in that last sentence- apart from Christ we can do nothing. But with Him… Ah! That’s where we want to be found ABIDING IN CHRIST! Both his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois had learned how to abide in Christ. When we abide in something, we STAY in it. We are single-minded, focused on Christ. We are not going anywhere else; we are staying in Christ.

Let’s look a little deeper at the faith of these women and why it so powerfully influenced their son / grandson. Sincere G505 here means “unfeigned, undisguised, sincere, without hypocrisy.” In his mother’s and grandmother’s lives, Timothy saw real faith in action. They didn’t speak one way and live a different way. No, they lived what they taught and thus it was SINCERE. As they chatted about their neighbors, Timothy heard faith, love, godly attitudes. As they walked through trials, Timothy saw faith in action, trusting God as their Good Shepherd. Timothy saw that what they believed is what they lived. In the same way, our children and grandchildren are watching as we live our lives before the Lord. We pray they see our walk of faith as we live with INTEGRITY before Him, and we live with INTEGRITY before them. .

Cruden’s Complete Concordance says of the word SINCERE :

The Latin word, sincerus, is derived from sine and cera, without wax, honey separated from the wax, or pure honey. In the scripture sincere signifies pure, or without mixture… Sincerity is opposed to double-mindedness or deceit, when the sentiments of the heart are contrary to the language of the mouth, 1 Cor 5:8. **

As our faith is sincere, pure before God, it is not mixed with the world or worldly thinking. As pure honey, our faith is WITHOUT MIXTURE. What we teach is how we live. No impurities in our living. Those who live with sincere faith, live their lives in the sight of God. They know that God SEES all they do, and they live to please Him at all times, especially when no one is watching, when only He sees what they do. They live according to 2 Corinthians 2:17 NASB:

For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

Yes, we must also live our lives IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. And God is not the only one watching or listening to us. Our children and grandchildren are watching and listening to how we live our lives before God. I have sung “Jesus Loves Me” to our grandson since he was born. I was not sure he was even listening when I sang it. I sang the version which ends with “Oh, How He Loves You and Me.” He is now 3 years old and recently at Sunday School, they sang this song. When they were finished, he piped up and said, “Oh, Yes, that is what Mimi says!” He then told them that they were singing it wrong, because they forgot a verse and did not add “Oh How He Loves You and Me” at the end. Our daughter-in-love sent us a video of him singing this song for the whole class. Apparently, he was listening all that time!

Moms and grandmoms, you are commissioned by God to teach your children and grandchildren your sincere faith. And even if you don’t think they are listening, please do it anyway. Remember that any Word that you put in them will not return void. So go ahead

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN ABOUT GOD, BOTH WITH YOUR WORDS AND WITH YOUR LIFE.

In His Love,

Suzanne

*https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/inhabit#:~:text=To%20live%20or%20dwell%20in,a%20place%20of%20settled%20residence.

** (1986), John Sadie, D. D., LL (Ed.), Complete Concordance to the Bible, (pp 601), Dugan Publishers

A Determined Destiny

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He Maintains Your Lot

Are you worrying and wearing your self out trying to determine what your calling is? Trying to make your destiny come to pass? Thinking if you don’t find out what your destiny is and make it happen, then you might miss it? Psalm 16: 6 New King James Version says:

O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.

The word “maintain” here means “keep fast, help. grasp, hold fast.” And the word “Lot” means “casting lots, portion, destiny”. God maintains or HOLDS FAST your destiny. You’re not missing your destiny. It’s in His hands. This is so comforting. In the past, I had heard teachings that I was supposed to go after my own destiny and so I wore myself out trying to determine what my calling was. While it’s true, I can’t just sit still (unless God guides me to) and expect everything to come to me, it’s also true that I don’t have to strive after my destiny. Let’s think about some Biblical examples.

Abraham was living his life and God came after him, told him to move to a new country, chose him, and Abraham obeyed God and moved his whole family to Canaan. Moses was living a life of luxury in the palace of Pharaoh, privileged as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, when God redirected him. He ended up in the desert and then God appeared to him in the burning bush establishing his calling. Joseph was living his best life in his multi-colored robe that pronounced to his brothers that he was his father’s favorite, when God allowed him to be thrown in a ditch, then become Potipher’s servant, then get wrongly imprisoned, then get elevated to ruler of Egypt in order to save his family. Can you see a pattern here? Each of these people did not seek their own destiny. It was not their responsibility to figure out their own destiny. God directed their lives, leading them into their callings. It’s the same with us. We don’t have to stress ourselves out looking for what our destiny or calling is. We follow after God and He leads us into it. What a relief! This really takes the pressure off us and puts it where it should be-on God.

There isn’t anything left to chance when you are His. We read in Proverbs 16:33 New American Standard bible:

The lot is cast into the lap,
But its every decision is from the Lord.

Decision means “verdict, determination.” In Acts 1:21-26 the disciples cast lots to see who the next apostle would be to replace Judas Iscariot. God is the one who decided which way the lot would go, which one would be the next apostle. In the same way, God is the one who decides the outcome of our lives, the destiny of our lives, the calling of our lives. Not sure about you, but at varying times in my Christian walk, when I have focused solely on figuring out my own destiny, it has made me focus on myself, taking my eyes off Jesus. But if I focus on the Lord, and just follow Him with each step, it is easier for me to keep my eyes on Him, then He leads me where I am to go and leads me into my destiny.

So I don’t have to feel this great pressure to find what I am supposed to do. Instead I can follow after God, as did Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and He will lead me into my destiny as I keep my eyes on Him. He will MAINTAIN MY LOT. He will keep my destiny, my calling and lead me into it. My responsibility is to keep my eyes on Him and follow closely after Him. And it’s the same for you. You can relax and

TRUST GOD WILL LEAD YOU INTO YOUR CALLING OR DESTINY AS YOU FOLLOW HIM,

In His Love,

Suzanne

Perfectly Imperfect Devotions

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Simple Devotions with Children

I am sharing my journey through devotions with our children in the hope that it will encourage you. I did make some mistakes along the way. Does everyone struggle with doing regular devotions with their children? I know I did. I did what I would call bus-stop devotions. I read a devotion book with Bible verses and a lesson to our children while we waited for the bus. It was very hard for me to be consistent and I did not do devotions every day. Working against me was the fact that I am a perfectionist (God is working on curing me of this!). At one point, because I couldn’t do the devotions every day, I gave up and stopped doing them at all.

About two weeks later, I heard a little whisper from the Lord saying, “Who won that battle?” … the battle for devotions. Well, I stopped doing them, so I realized that satan totally won that battle! And I realized that even if I wasn’t perfect at doing devotions with our children, if I just did devotions a few days a week, that was better than none! So I went back to trying again.

I used to use devotion books with our children, but I learned a lesson here also. One time I picked up a cute little purple devotion book from the grocery store that was on a Christian book turnstile. It had pretty pink flip flops on it and since I was doing devotions with our girls (our son is the oldest and was in high school), I thought it would be just what we needed. We began to do the devotions but the book was talking about parents who got drunk, lied or left home. Finally, my little girls said, “Mama! This book may be for some little girls who have parents like this, but this book is not for us!” Out of the mouths of babes. Around this time, a woman came to our church and taught us on how to teach the Bible to our children. She said all we needed was the Bible! Imagine that! She taught us to go through the book of Proverbs or Psalms with our children, so that is what I began to do. I have to say that kids have the best insight into scripture, if you just give them a chance to think about it! Our girls thought of insights I had never thought of! And so went our devotions.

Here are some practicals for having devotions with your kids:

  • You have a commission to teach your children the Word (I will post more on this commission soon!), so go ahead and teach them.
  • Don’t nag your husband to do it, if he doesn’t feel led to. Do it yourself.
  • Pick a regular time and try to stick to it.
  • Start with going through Proverbs, just a verse at a time.
  • Ask your kids what they think about the verse and listen to their answers. You will LOVE this part!
  • Realize that your kids will fight you on devotions-they’ll say they don’t want to do it, that it is boring, they’ll get distracted, wiggle around… DO IT ANYWAY
  • Let yourself not do it perfectly!

I do believe in SEED STUFFING. Get as much of the Word in your kids as you can when they are little. There will come a point where they will not listen as well anymore (this is a natural process of childhood as they turn into teenagers, don’t panic), so get the Word in them while they are listening still. The Bible promises that any Word you get in your kids hearts will not return void without doing what God intended it to do in them (Isaiah 55:11). What a promise! Doesn’t that just make you want to get even more of the Word in their hearts? It did me.

God may lead you a totally different way to do devotions with your children, and that is ok. This was just our little journey with devotions. You do what God leads you to do. But if you are struggling to find time to do this, then ask the Lord to help you. He will show you practical ways to work the Bible into your daily life with your kids (I’ll also give you more ways to do that in future posts!)

So when it comes to devotions, my best is advice is:

JUST DO IT! START DOING DEVOTIONS AND GOD WILL HELP YOU!

In His Love,

Suzanne

Our Merciful Vineyard-Keeper

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What Grace He Shows Us!

I’m not sure anyone really likes discipline, whether doling it out or receiving it. It isn’t fun to discipline our children, but I know it must be done. And when I am receiving discipline from the Lord, it always seems hard. Yet, in Hebrews 12:5-8 New American Standard Bible, God tells us that HIS DISCIPLINE shows us many things about His love for us:

…and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

According to this verse, it is God’s very discipline that shows His love for us. It is His discipline that proves we are His sons and daughters. This verse even goes so far as to say that if He does not discipline us, we are illegitimate sons/daughters. He disciplines us, reproves us, and scourges us. Let’s look at the meaning of these words for further insight. Discipline means “Tutorage, education, training, correction, chastening.” I wouldn’t be a good mom, if I didn’t teach and train my children or correct them when they go astray. In fact, it might even be dangerous for them if I did’t teach them, for instance, the dangers of running into the street. Reprove means “admonish, rebuke, reprove.” If I didn’t rebuke my children when they did wrong, they wouldn’t learn the correct attitudes in order to have the fruit of the Spirit and godly character in their lives. And scourge means “to flog” and comes from a root word meaning “to whip”. Yes, God may also allow us to be “whipped into shape” but always through His loving hand.

In Luke 13: 6-9 New American Standard Bible (italics mine), we gain some insight into our wonderful VINEYARD-KEEPER who tends His vineyard:.

And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

This parable actually makes me cry. The vineyard owner was DONE with the fig tree that was not producing fruit as it should. As an aside, have you ever had any non-fruit-bearing times in your life? I have. He said he looked for 3 years for fruit and did not find any-that’s a long time to wait for fruit! Pretty patient, actually. The vineyard owner was ready to tear the fruit tree down and give up on it, BUT the vineyard-keeper showed GRACE! Oh, how thankful I am for the grace God shows me in my life! The vineyard owner gave the vineyard-keeper more time and the vineyard-keeper went to work.

What did the vineyard keeper do? He DUG up the ground and put on more FERTILIZER. When God is dealing with me, digging up the fallow ground in my heart, I usually don’t like it that much! But don’t you realize what GRACE this is that He gives us?! He could choose not to dig. He could choose to just leave us as we are in our unfruitful state. But HE LOVES US TOO MUCH to do that! Instead, He takes the time to dig up our fallow ground, so that we can produce fruit. And the fertilizer that he adds after he tills the ground is the food that makes the tree full of nutrients to form the new fruit. Perhaps the fertilizer is the Word that though we have read it previously, we were not able to receive it because the ground around our tree was hardened. Hardened ground cannot absorb either rain or fertilizer; the ground has to be broken up and softened to receive it first.

So when we are going through a time of disciplining from the Lord, we really ought to rejoice that

OUR MERCIFUL VINEYARD-KEEPER CHOOSES TO INTERVENE SO WE CAN BE FRUITFUL!

In His Love,

Suzanne

Kindle Your Gift

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Fan the Gifts God has Given You

Every one of us has been placed here by God for a reason. We each have unique gifts. How do you know what your gifting is? You will feel His joy and pleasure over you when you use it. You may get feedback from others that your gift blessed them. What are you good at? What are your skills? What do you enjoy doing? Your giftings are hidden in your talents and interests. Our son is really gifted with computers, so when we have a computer or technical problem, we go to him for help. He built us a computer from an empty box when he was in high school and that computer ran for many years. That is what you call a gifting, a talent that my husband or I definitely do not have! He is now a mid-level developer.

The Bible tells us to 2 Timothy 1:6 New American Standard Bible to KINDLE our gifts:

For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Yes, kindle the gift of God in you. “Kindle” here means “to kindle up, to stir up, to inflame one’s mind, strength, zeal” and comes from a word that means “fire”. How do you kindle a fire? Maybe you haven’t even started the fire to begin to kindle your talents. So start with some tinder- this is the smallest material, like small shavings or shreds of material to get the fire going. It’s ok to start small. I started using my teaching gift in a very small group of women who met for potluck lunch and enjoyed hearing me teach. We only had about four to six ladies. This allowed me to practice my gift. If you are not using your gift anywhere, ask God to show you a small place that you could start.

Next add the kindling. Kindling is larger than tinder and includes dry wood, tree twigs, branches, pinecones, whatever is around that you could use. My next step in using my gift was in our small group Bible study. This was a little bit bigger step in using my gift to teach. After the kindling gets the fire going, you add the logs and the fire flames up. What might be your next step in using your gift? For me, it was to begin my blog in order to share what I had learned over the years and what I am currently learning from the Bible.

All fires will eventually die out unless you keep feeding them. Keep feeding the fire of your gifting by using your gift! Add more fuel to your fire. Keep stoking your fire. Blow on your fire to add oxygen to it and increase the flame. There is a lesson here-if you don’t use your gift, it may fade and it is certainly not going to grow. If your gift is teaching, not everyone can be the main preacher or teacher in a church, but if you seek and ask God to help you, I know He will find you somewhere for you to use your gift. So in order to kindle your gift…Use it! Grow it! Develop it!

Where could you use your gift? Maybe start there. In 1 Peter 4:10 NASB, we read more about a great way to use our gifts::

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the multifaceted grace of God.

Use your gift to serve others! If you love to work with children, try volunteering in your Children’s Church. If you are great at administration, ask if anyone at your church needs help with organizing. Maybe you love to cook, so ask who is having a hard time in your neighborhood and cook them a meal. You don’t have to wait for a BIG opportunity to come to you before you start using your gift; you can find a small way to start using your gift. Remember the tinder? Start small and fan the flame and your talent and gift will grow!

So moms, don’t wait for a big opportunity before you use your gifts, go ahead and start small and this will

KINDLE YOUR GIFT SO THAT IT WILL GROW!

In His Love,

Suzanne

Serving from a Place of Identity

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Alexey Demidov on Pexels.com

Freely humbling Yourself to Serve

Jesus knew who He was and out of that place, He chose to lay down His life and serve. There is an example for us here to follow. Our serving comes out of knowing who we are -knowing our IDENTITY in God. When we are secure in the knowledge that we are valued by Him for WHO WE ARE, then we can serve others because we know, that our value does not change with WHAT WE DO. Jesus humbled Himself out of HIS SECURE IDENTITY in John 13:3-5 New American Standard:

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

This happened right before Jesus was about to go to the cross. He knew He came from God and was going back to God and He knew what He was about to go through. He is all knowing. He knew the physical suffering He was about to endure, yet He still chose to sacrifice Himself, to serve, to love, to humble Himself to bless others. It was out of this knowing He came from God, knowing His identity, that He washed the disciples feet. By the way, feet were really dirty back then.

Further, although the physical suffering that Christ endured on the cross was immense, I don’t think it compares to the separation from the Father that He endured. Think about this-through all eternity, from before creation (it’s hard to wrap our finite minds around this!), God was in unity-God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. It wasn’t like a marriage which involves fallible humans, differences, learning to build unity. This was PERFECT UNITY. They were NEVER separated. They PERFECTLY loved each other. Jesus chose to set that aside. I am not sure we can even fathom this sacrifice. Yet, Jesus knew where He came from and He knew He was going back, so it enabled Him to endure this awful separation, to set aside His desires and obey the Father perfectly.

If we follow Christ’s example, we can also choose to serve out of knowing our identity. In Philippians 2:5-8 NASB, we are told to have Christ’s same attitude:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Jesus didn’t grasp at His identity. Grasp G725 means “the act of seizing, robbery, plunder.” This comes from a root word that means “to take by force.” Jesus wasn’t forcing God the Father to make Him His equal or seizing His identity. He wasn’t plundering His identity from God, like a pirate with stolen treasure, taking something that was not His. Jesus KNEW who He was. Often, I find myself grasping at my identity in Christ. When you grasp something, you are trying to hold onto it but it seems to slip out of your hands and is not securely held. Jesus didn’t have to grasp at His identity, instead He knew His identity in God BELONGED to Him. Just the same, our IDENTITY IN GOD BELONGS to us. It is rightfully ours. Our identity in God can be SECURELY HELD. So reassuring!

Yes, we can HOLD FIRMLY our identity as His daughters and sons. If we are holding firm our identity, then we know that if we take a place of service, it does not demean our value. Our VALUE is the same no matter what we do. Our VALUE is WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST.

Jesus emptied Himself for us. He not only came in the lowliest form, a helpless baby, but then He became obedient to death. Jesus was God. He didn’t have to obey death. He Himself was not ruled by death. He CHOSE to humble Himself and obey death, in order to set us free from it. If we have the same attitude as Christ, we will also choose to humble ourselves for others without worrying about it devaluing us in others’ eyes. We too will be secure in the identity of who we are in Him, and this will enable us to freely serve.

So, when God asks you to humble yourself and put others first or serve others, you can

BE SECURE IN YOUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST, SO THAT YOU CAN FREELY HUMBLE YOURSELF AND SERVE.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Sifting

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels.com

Sifting is good!

A good shepherd will guide a wayward sheep with his rod and staff. The rod and staff are not padded! When we are wandering or going the wrong way, and God is redirecting us or disciplining us, we are going to feel a little pain from the firm rod and staff. This is not a bad thing because God is refining us! But it can be uncomfortable. God allowed Peter to be sifted, tested, purified but it was so that Peter could be prepared to be the leader that God knew He could be. Let’s look at Luke 22:31-33 New American Standard Bible:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”

Wait! I wanted Jesus to say NO to the sifting here, but He didn’t! …because Peter was boasting in his own strength. God knew that if Peter put his trust in his own strength, he would fall and would not be able to stand firm and lead God’s sheep. We all have to learn at some point that GOD IS OUR STRENGTH and that we cannot trust in our own strength. So SIFTING is actually not a bad thing, instead it’s the work of a loving Father-a Father who wants us to STAND FIRM. We gain more insight into how grain is sifted by looking at Amos 9:9 NASB:

For behold, I am commanding,
And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations
As grain is shaken in a sieve,
But not a kernel will fall to the ground.

How is grain shaken in a sieve? You can look it up for yourself. It is shaken VIOLENTLY. When I’ve been through trials, I have sometimes felt like I was being shaken violently. I didn’t like it! During those times, it is not easy to do, but we must choose to have faith that God still loves us, that He is still at work in us, that He knows what He is doing.

There is a song that says, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me” (written by Civilla D. Martin, composer Charles H. Gabriel 1905). When I first heard this song, I had a picture in my mind of God catching the sparrow and keeping it from falling. This was actually a false picture of God that caused me a lot of anxiety. Whenever I or a family member went through trials, it made me doubt, because I thought God was supposed to catch us and keep us from falling at all, to keep us from going through difficulties.

We get a true picture of the sparrow when we read in the scripture Matthew 10:29-31 New King James Version:

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Did you notice that? The sparrow FELL TO THE GROUND in this scripture. It was not caught. My picture that I had formed in my mind of the sparrow being caught was not correct. I had faulty thinking. What this scripture actually says is that not one of them falls “apart from your Father’s will”. We already know about Job, that satan asked to test Job’s faith, and that God allowed it. And in this scripture about Peter, satan is asking to test Peter’s faith, and God allows it. Jesus does not tell satan “No”, instead Jesus tells Peter that He is praying for Him to stand strong in faith so He can then encourage others after He has overcome.

In Psalm 1, the psalmist describes the righteous, how they stand strong if they seek after God. Then he contrasts the wicked in Psalm 1:4 describing how chaff is removed:

The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

At times in our lives, God will allow the wind to blow. He will allow our lives to shake or be sifted. These times are not without purpose, but they are allowed in order to remove the things that can be removed. Yet what God has done in our lives, the work He has done to bring character in us, will not be able to removed by wind or shaking or sifting. Remember the house built on the rock in Matthew 7:24-29? It stands in the storm. But sometimes we have things in our lives that are unnecessary, they may be distractions, these things may pull our affections away from God, and so God will allow them to be blown away. He will allow us to be sifted. This is His mercy towards us! Because He wants us closer to Him!

So if you are going through a difficult time and feel that God is allowing you to be refined, please remember

HIS MERCY ALLOWS YOUR SIFTING, SO THAT YOU CAN STAND FIRM IN YOUR FAITH.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Hope Series- Part VI

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Our Living Hope

Our hope in God is a LIVING HOPE according to 1 Peter 1:3-5 New American Standard Bible:

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Looking at the Greek root of “living” gives us a lot of insight into just how rich and full our LIVING HOPE is. “Living” G2198 means “to live, breathe among the living, to enjoy real life, living water, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul, to be full of vigor, fresh, strong, active, powerful.” Wow, there’s a lot in that one little word!

Our LIVING HOPE enables us to BREATHE. When we are overcome by trials and difficulties, it feels suffocating. But God can breathe His life into us during that time, if we just chose to look to Him. Our LIVING HOPE, allows us to enjoy REAL LIFE. We get so caught up in what we think is life-comfort, pleasure, entertainment, prosperity, worldly goods, health, fame-but God wants to give us His real life-His presence. Our LIVING HOPE gives us LIVING WATER, the constant refreshing of His Spirit, His mercies that are new every morning, His LIFE. Our LIVING HOPE brings us new VIGOR, HIS STRENGTH, HIS POWER in our lives.

The word “HOPE” is mentioned 146 times throughout the Bible. Do you think God is trying to tell us something? That is a lot of teaching on hope. As mentioned before, we need hope in order to have faith. Hope is that expectation that God will come through for us, in His time, in His way, as our GOOD SHEPHERD. It’s the spark of faith. Anne Graham Lotz defines hope as:

“Biblical hope is absolute confidence in something you haven’t seen or received yet, but you’re absolutely confident that whatever God has said is going to come to pass.”

She also declares that “Jesus is your hope for the future. One day Jesus Christ will come back, and He will set all of the wrong right. Good will triumph over the bad. Love will triumph over hate. Righteousness will triumph over evil. He’s going to make it all right, and you can have absolute confidence that that’s going to take place. That’s your hope.” *

Jesus Himself and His work on the cross and resurrection are our HOPE! We never have to stop hoping-we can always hope! When we falter, we just have to look at Him again and He will guide our hearts back to hoping in Him. He is always there for us. Like David, we may sometimes have trouble hoping, but we have a choice and we can choose to place our HOPE IN HIM.

Our ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE is in Him! Our hope is in Him! So please don’t forget that

WE HAVE A LIVING HOPE, JESUS, WHO BREATHES HIS LIFE INTO US.

In His Love,

Suzanne

  • quoted from Through a Season of Grief: 365 Devotions for Your Journey from Mourning to Joy
    By Bill Dunn, Kathy Leonard

Hope Series- Part V

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Norma Mortenson on Pexels.com

Telling Your Soul to Hope in God

In our day and age, if you are seen talking to yourself, someone might think something is wrong with you. But the Bible actually teaches us that we should TALK TO OURSELVES! Sometimes our soul needs to be encouraged and we are the best ones to do it. It’s biblical to talk to yourself!

When you are down (noticed I said “when” not “if” because everyone feels down at times!), the Psalms are a great place to go for encouragement. The Psalms are basically statements reminding us why we should hope in God. And we also see the psalmists talking directly to themselves a lot! Telling themselves to hope in God. Many times David himself told his soul to hope in God as in Psalms 62:5-6 New American Standard Bible:

My soul, wait in silence for God alone,
For my hope is from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
My refuge; I will not be shaken.

Yes, he’s talking to his own soul. David did not try to hide his emotions, negative or positive, but he was very open with God as to exactly how he felt about his circumstances. He often described feeling discouraged, down, distraught, angry, forgotten by God. He brought his emotions to God and was honest with himself and with God.

Three times in the Psalms the following verse is found and repeated almost verbatim ( in Psalm 42: 5, 11; 43:5). When God says the same thing three times, I think He wants us to listen. Here we see in Psalms 42:5 NASB::

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

Despair H7817 means “to bow, cast down, despair, sink or depress, bend or bow down, be low, stoop.” Doesn’t that just describe so well, how you feel when you’re in despair? It feels as if there is a weight on you, pushing you down, or like you are sinking/ drowning under the weight of your circumstances. But we don’t have to feel that way! God wants us to encourage ourselves to hope in Him. And Disturbed H1993 here means “to make a loud sound, be in great commotion or tumult, to moan, clamor, cry aloud, rage, roar, be troubled, be in an uproar.” Again, such a good description of how we feel when trials are all around us. We feel as if we want to scream, like everything is in commotion, warring at us, tumultuous like in a raging storm. But we don’t have to keep feeling that way either! We can make a choice to speak to ourselves and tell ourselves to hope in God (Note: sometimes we need help with this and seeing a counselor helps!).

David had a lot of things go wrong in his life. God had promised he would be king but it took a long time and he was persecuted even by his own family before he was actually made king. Then after he finally became king, his own son Absolom turned against him. Later his own people wanted to stone him! In 1 Samuel 30:6 NASB we see:

Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

Sometimes when no-one around us is encouraging us, we need to encourage ourselves. We need to strengthen ourselves and tell ourselves to HOPE IN GOD.

So mom’s don’t forget to

TALK TO YOURSELF AND TELL YOURSELF TO HOPE IN GOD!

In His Love,

Suzanne