Tag: christianity

Faith-filled Prayer

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Barbara Olsen on Pexels.com

Praying in Faith for our Children

I used to feel so defeated, so discouraged as I prayed for my children. When I prayed I had a picture of them in my head, but it was a picture of them as they were then, with all their struggles, trials, difficulties, misbehaviors, attitudes; I prayed what I saw before my eyes. God showed me that this was the wrong way to pray for my children. This is praying BY SIGHT not BY FAITH.

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1 New American Standard Bible:

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

So in order to have faith, we have to have “things hoped for”. What things do you hope for your children? As a mom, I know you can see the giftings and uniqueness in each of your children. I know you have dreams for them. THAT is a “thing hoped for”. Hoping for what they will be, who they will become, that is what you base your faith on. So when you pray for your children, have that HOPE and DREAM for your child before your eyes. That is praying IN FAITH for them.

One of our children at 5 years old, asked if she could look at a science book with nature pictures by herself instead of me reading to her for our before bed reading time. She had just started reading but still was so interested in that science book that she wanted to put all her focus into it. That was unusual for a child to do that. I took note. I treasured that in my heart. Today this child is a young adult who is in horticulture school and who has a job working with plants. She comes home from school with these amazingly beautiful flower arrangements as she is learning her craft. That was something I saw in her at a young age, that is something I prayed for her and hoped for her.

Many times as you pray for your child, you will be praying for things “not seen”. You might not see the character you want them to have when they hit their sibling. You might not see the steadfastness in their walk with God, when they are older and are not reading their Bible as much as you think they should. You might not see the kindness you think they should have, as they yell at you when they are mad. But good news! What you see today is not who they will be eventually. So instead of feeling discouraged by the things you are NOT SEEING today, or the things you wish were present now but are not there, pray and believe God that those NOT SEEN things will be there one day. Pray, believing that God can and will build in your child the things you HOPE FOR. That is praying IN FAITH.

And you can pray in faith and then EAGERLY WAIT for what you hoped and prayed for. Romans 8:24b-25 NASB shows us:

…but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

As you pray in HOPE for your children, you can wait eagerly for that hope to be fulfilled. It will happen. There have been discouraging times we have had with our children, but we kept praying, hoping, waiting, and God came through. We PERSEVERED in prayer for our children. Don’t give up hope as you persevere in prayer for your children.

For younger children, plant those seeds of the Word-lots of them! And pray for them to fall on good soil in your child’s heart. For older children, where you have planted seeds already, as you pray, talk to the Lord of the Harvest and ask Him to help those seeds grow!

So moms, as we pray,

LET’S PRAY IN FAITH FOR THE THINGS WE HOPE FOR OUR CHILDREN AND WAIT FOR THEM EAGERLY. .

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 23-24

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Shihab Nymur on Pexels.com

Search My Heart

How desperate are you to know God? Are you willing to let Him shine His light on your heart to reveal any dark areas keeping you away from Him. Remember that where He is, there is no darkness, because His light illumines any darkness it encounters. In Psalms 139: 23-24 New American Standard Bible we read:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

In verse 1 of this Psalm David asked God to search HIM. But after recounting the marvelous way God knows him, formed him, stays with him, planned his days for him, he goes a little deeper and asks God to search not just him, but his HEART and his THOUGHTS. If you really know a person well, you know their heart and you can almost anticipate their thoughts. My husband and I have been married 35years. We’ve spent a lot of time together. I trust him, because I KNOW his heart. And we often say the same thing at the same time, because we almost know each other’s THOUGHTS. David invites God to know him that well. Of course, God already knows our hearts and our thoughts, but He gives us a choice to go deeper-do we welcome Him into the deep places in our hearts and thoughts?

David wants God to know his anxious thoughts. “Anxious” H8312 means “disquieting thoughts” and comes from a root word that means “ambivalence, divided in mind.” When our heart is divided, James 1:6-8 says we are double-minded, and we sway “like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” We want God to show us if our heart is divided, so we can turn and instead be whole-hearted towards God.

And David must be very desperate to know God, because he even asks God to “try” or test him. That’s very brave! Asking God to test you is like playing with fire- because God tests with fire! And God allows fiery trials in our lives for a reason. In fact in Deuteronomy 8:2 New International Version explains that one of the reasons God tests us with trials is to reveal what is in our hearts as we see He did with Israel:

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

I remember one of my friends once told me that she was a really kind person until she had kids! She didn’t realize that she had some work to do in the area of being kind until her kindness was tested. And, yes, children will definitely test your kindness! In the same way, we often don’t know what is really in our heart until we are tested.

We need to keep our hearts open to God, as we ask Him, like the psalmist, to see if there is any hurtful way in us. Hurtful H6090 means “wicked, pain, sorrow, idol.” Hurtful or wicked ways only keep us apart from God. If we sincerely want Him to lead us in His everlasting way, then we have to ask Him to shine His light on the dark areas of our heart to reveal any idols we have there. If idols are taking up space in our hearts, then God can’t be in the same space at the same time. It’s one or the other. And we have to ask ourselves, which will it be?

So let’s run after God hard enough that we say

TEST MY HEART AND MY THOUGHTS, LORD, BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW YOU MORE.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 19-22

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by BOOM ud83dudca5 on Pexels.com

His Enemies, Our Enemies

It’s ok if you have enemies. In fact, God does. And He says we will too, if we follow Him. Psalm 139 takes a turn from addressing us and His plan for us, to addressing God and His enemies. Let’s look at Psalm 139:19-22 New American Standard Bible:

O that You would slay the wicked, O God;
Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.
For they speak against You wickedly,
And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
I hate them with the utmost hatred;
They have become my enemies.

In a world that seems to be wanting us to turn everything gray, God makes a clear distinction between those who love Him and those who hate Him. And those who hate Him, He calls His enemies. It’s one or the other, not both. David, the psalmist, is asking God to slay the wicked, those who take His name in vain, who cause bloodshed, and while God promises us that He will deliver justice to the wicked, He also instructs us in a different way to deal with our own enemies.

Yes, God does promise justice will be served (Luke 18:7-8), but He is also a kind God who draws us to Himself. When Jesus sent His disciples ahead to make preparations for Him and they did not receive the welcome they anticipated, they asked Jesus if they could slay the people. We read in Luke 9:53-56 NASB:

But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] 

While He could easily have slayed them, since He is God, He chose here to extend kindness instead. Don’t get me wrong, there will be a day when a person will stand either by their own works or by the blood of Jesus and receive the justice deserved (Romans chapter 2 explains this more). On that day, you want to be standing under the blood of Jesus, that washes your sin away and covers you with His righteousness. While God is just, He is also kind. But justice will be served in the end (see Revelation).

So how are we to treat our own enemies? It certainly is not easy to treat our enemies like God wants us too. His instructions for us are in Matthew 5:44-45 NASB:

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

We are to PRAY FOR our enemies, LOVE them, and even BLESS them (Matthew 5:44). Is there someone in your life that is your enemy, or if you don’t have an actual enemy, is there someone in your life who does not like you? Make it a point to start PRAYING for that person. Ok, good job! Now start LOVING that person. Could you take them a meal? or could you mow their lawn? Great! Now find a way to BLESS them. This includes how you speak about them to others. Ok, we are really getting into a challenge now. Is your mouth blessing them in front of others? Now you are getting it! These are Jesus instructions on what to do with your own enemies. Then when they ask you why you are treating them this way, you can say it is because you know Jesus and you are following His instructions!

I have issued you a challenge. The only way you can meet this challenge, is in the strength that Jesus gives you! So next time you are confronted with an enemy, a person who doesn’t like you, an unkind person, try to

PRAY FOR THEM, LOVE THEM, BLESS THEM.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 17-18

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com

His Precious Thoughts

If something is precious to you, what do you do with it? I have a heart-shaped necklace that my husband gave me on our 20th anniversary that I love (just celebrated 35 years yesterday!). I have several choices here. I could stick it in a lockbox and never take it out. I could wear it only on very special occasions. Or I could do what I have chosen, and wear it all the time and never take it off. In Psalms 139:17-18 New American Standard Bible we see that God’s thoughts are PRECIOUS:

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.

So what should we do with God’s precious thoughts? We find some of them in the Bible. Do we leave them in our drawer for safekeeping? Do we display them on a table as decoration? Do we only take them out on special occasions like Easter or Christmas? Or do we clothe ourselves with them every day because we cherish them so much? It’s our choice. What we do with His precious thoughts will indicate just how precious they are to us. Ouch! I know, I hurt myself there too.

“Precious” H3365 means “valuable, make rare, be precious, be prized, highly valued, be costly.” In terms of jewels, the more rare a jewel is the more valuable it is. The Hope diamond is very rare at 45.42 carats and this makes it the most costly diamond in the world worth $250 million dollars. God’s thoughts are also costly. In fact, for us to have His thoughts in our hearts, He had to redeem us and that cost Him His only beloved Son’s life. And 1 Peter 1:18-19 New American Standard Bible says:

…knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

At this point in Psalm 139, I can almost feel the psalmist’s bursting heart of gratitude after recounting throughout the Psalm how God planned ahead for him, intricately created him, brought His light into his darkness. It is an overwhelming thought just how much He loves us! Just how many thoughts must God have? We could not even count them because we are told that they would be more than the grains of sand. Scientists estimate there are 7.5 sextillion grains of sand in the world (that’s 21 zeros!).And God’s thoughts are more in number than that!

The last part of this verse, I love; “When I awake, I am still with Thee.” Yes, this is because God never went anywhere while you slept, since He Himself never sleeps or slumbers (Psalm 121:4). I like to picture Jesus, watching over me all night, then when I wake, He says, “She’s awake!”. I remember my parents telling me that they brought their first child (my sister) home from the hospital and the first night she slept through the night (Never heard of this before! None of my babies did that!). They were worried and hovered over her bassinet all night waiting for her to wake up. It appears that God does the same with us. He is watching over us while we sleep, and as soon as we awake, we can feel His presence, that HE IS STILL THERE.

Yes, He is ALWAYS with us and the best thing to do with His precious thoughts is to

TREASURE HIS THOUGHTS DEEP IN OUR HEARTS.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalm 139: 15-16

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Lovingly Planned Beforehand

You were never hidden from God. Earlier in Psalm 139:7-10 we learned that God is everywhere and even if you tried, there is no place you could go to get away from Him. In verses 11-12 we saw that with God you are not alone in your darkness, because even in the darkness, He is there with you bringing His light into that place. And even in the darkness of the womb, He could SEE you. Let’s look at Psalms 139: 15-16 New International Version:

My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in Your book
    before one of them came to be.

In the secret place of your mother’s womb, only God’s eyes saw your unformed substance, the body and personality He was forming for you, making you “you”. He could “see” H7200 you; the word “see” here means He “beheld, gazed upon, perceived, considered and enjoyed” you. It’s the same exact word used throughout Genesis as God was creating our world and in Genesis 1:31 New American Standard Bible (italics mine) where it says:

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

He saw His beautiful creation, then pronounced it very good. He saw you in your mother’s womb and enjoyed His handiwork, you, as He formed you. And you were “woven together” H7551 which means “curiously wrought, worker in colors, skillfully woven, embroidered, needlework” (this is a different word than is used in verse 13 for weave). Have you ever embroidered anything? I have. Embroidery is delicate and intricate work. Each embroidery piece has a detailed pattern that must be followed exactly. Each stitch forms the design. This same word “woven together” is also used throughout Exodus 26-39 for the intricate fine twined needlework in blue, purple, scarlet that was used in the Tabernacle. Just as God had a detailed plan for the colorful tapestries in the Tabernacle, He had a detailed plan as He wove you in your mother’s womb.

And before you even had one day outside the womb, He planned all your days. The days were in fact “ordained” for you. “Ordained” H3335 means “to mould into a form, especially as a potter, to determine, to fashion, to purpose.” Yes, your days on earth were planned for you with a purpose. In fact, your days on earth are so important to Him, that He wrote them down in His book even before you saw your first day!

There’s more! He even set things up for you, so you could do good works. Ephesians 2:10 NASB says:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

You are His workmanship, His creation, His woven and embroidered multi colored beautiful well planned handiwork. And not only did He ordain your days, He even prepared the good works for you to do ahead of time. All you have to do is walk in them. What a wonderful caring Father! Just like a mom and dad prepare excitiedly for their new baby, so your Father planned ahead for you. Can you see that all this planning-planning your form, planning your days, planning your good works-makes it clear that He was really excited for you to be here!

So mom’s please don’t forget that

HE LOVED YOU SO MUCH THAT HE PLANNED AHEAD FOR YOU!

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 14

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

My Soul Knows it Very Well

Have you ever felt like you were just DIFFERENT than everyone else? I find that I often view things differently than others. Even the sign on my rearview mirror that says, “Objects are closer than they appear,” seems backwards to me. I would have written, “Objects appear further away than they really are.” Seems much clearer. But that’s just me. I’m different. And we will find in our next study verse, that God intentionally made us all different, Psalms 139:14 New International Version:

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.

In this verse “Wonderfully” H6395 means, “to be distinct, marked out, be separated, put a difference, show marvelous, make wonderfully.” So you can see that part of the WONDERFUL God put in us, is in making us each different, marked out for a distinct purpose, not all the same. And that in itself is MARVELOUS!

And “Marvelous” H6381 means “wonderful, extraordinary, distinguished, great”. Think about that for a moment. Take a little time to let that sink into your soul. God made you marvelous. God made you wonderful. God made you extraordinary. God made you distinguished. God made you great. This is what He says about you. The question is-do you believe Him? Do you believe His Word about you?

The psalmist believes. And he commands his soul to give thanks to God for how he is made, saying, “I WILL give thanks to You.” So many of us struggle with our identity, our “different”-ness, but here we see that, like the psalmist, we can command our soul to praise God for how He made us. When we do this, we are exercising FAITH, TRUSTING that He knows what He is doing, and BELIEVING what He says about us-that we are wonderfully made. We aren’t going by what we feel, we are going by what He says. That is FAITH.

And our psalmist says his soul “knows very well” how wonderfully and marvelously he was made by God. But what if my soul doesn’t know this very well? What if I struggle to know this? I definitely have had times when I was down on myself, and I felt like I did not know this “very well” or even well. Let’s remember back at the beginning of this study when Satan attacked Jesus as He was in the wilderness for 40 days, and we saw that two of the three attacks on Jesus were making Him question His identity. God gave us Jesus’ example, so we have a heads up, and know that, yes, our identity will also be attacked and we need to be ready when these attacks come.

So if our soul does not know this “very well”, what do we do? We work at getting what He says about us in our hearts by studying what He says, by memorizing what He says, by praying what He says, by imbedding His truth about us so deeply in our hearts that we can stand strong against these attacks on our identity. It’s really just a matter of TRUST in His Word, FAITH and BELIEVING. Romans 10:17 NIV says:

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

If your faith in this area is weak (I am still working on this area!), then to increase your faith, you just need to HEAR MORE WORD. So get yourself some more Word! Read it, Listen to it, Sing it, Pray it! Then when attacks about your identity in God come, and they will, you can

STAND STRONG ON HIS TRUTH THAT IS ROOTED DEEP IN YOUR HEART.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 13

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Diana GP on Pexels.com

Intricately Woven

I am a seamstress. When I make a garment, say a dress, there is a lot of planning that goes into it. First, I look at lots of patterns to decide the shape of the dress. I have to make sure I have just the right size. Then I pick out the material, making sure the material I pick will work with the pattern. Each dress I make is a one of a kind creation. And when I am done making it, I feel a sense of accomplishment and joy.

It’s the same with a weaver. The weaver doesn’t just start weaving. The weaver carefully plans what design they want to make, what colors and materials they want to use. The weaver will research the right pattern to weave to make that design. Let’s look at Psalms 139:13 New American Standard Bible:

Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb.

God is a Master weaver! He carefully planned and designed you. He wove you together in your mother’s womb. “Weave” H5526 here means, “to weave together, to cover, lay over, to hedge or shut in, to protect.” Just like when I make a dress, God had a predetermined plan when He wove you into being. You are His one of kind creation.

This word for “weave” also has a sense of covering, of protection. It’s the same word used in Psalms 91:4 NASB (italics mine):

He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

He covered, protected and formed you inside your mother’s womb. The womb provides babies with nutrients, chemicals needed for the lungs, removal of waste products, antibodies to protect from infection, hormones for proper development and amniotic fluid to cushion the baby and protect from injury. Remember in Psalms 139:5 He encloses you behind and before and lays His hand upon you? This includes in the womb where He had you surrounded and protected as He formed, weaved and knit you together according to His plan.

And He formed your “inward or innermost parts,” H3629 which means the “seat of emotion and affection.” He formed your personality, your emotions, your innermost being, who you are. We have five children and each one was born with certain parts of their personalities that were already present from a young age. One of our children has a great sense of humor. When she was 6months old, I picked her up and she stuck her finger in my nose then flung her head back laughing hysterically. It was like a little joke-at 6months old! I did not put that in her personality, but God very clearly did! On the other hand, our son has always been technically minded. At 3 years old, he took a screw driver, took a toy completely apart and brought it to me. In high school, he built a computer out of a box. Now he is a mid level developer.

If God took so much effort to weave and form you in your mother’s womb, can you see how very treasured you are by Him? Your personality is not a mistake. It was carefully formed by Him. So when you are feeling down on yourself, can you please remember that

YOU WERE INTRICATELY WOVEN, PLANNED BY GOD, AND ARE TREASURED BY HIM.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 7-10

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Julie Zhu on Pexels.com

His Presence Holds You

Have you ever gone through such a difficult time that you just wanted to get away from it all? Or wished you could escape as far away as possible where no one could find you? You are not the only one who has felt that way as we see in Psalms 139: 7-10 New American Standard Bible:

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

So often when we are going through a trial, we feel like we are alone. But what we don’t realize is that even if we tried to be completely alone, we never could be, because God is always there with us. The psalmist asks two questions-“Where can I go from Your Spirit?” and “Where can I flee from Your presence?”. The answer is “Nowhere.” There is nowhere that God isn’t present. Even when we think He’s not there, even when we feel He’s not there, even when Satan makes us believe He’s not there, HE IS THERE. He is the God who SEES you, your every move, your frame, your ways, your thoughts before you speak them, YES, HE IS ALWAYS THERE.

In Genesis 16:6 Hagar was mistreated by her mistress after she was made to have a child by Abraham. Hagar chose to flee to the wilderness to die, but THE GOD WHO SEES met her there and she lived. In Genesis 21:14 Hagar didn’t choose to go but was cast into the desert and thought she and her son were going to die, but GOD HEARD them both crying and opened their eyes to see that He was WITH THEM and they lived. Whether you yourself flee to the desert or someone drives you to the desert, He will meet you there, He SEES you there and He HEARS you there. And just like He provided the well of water for Hagar and Ishmael, He will provide the WELL of HIS LIVING WATER, HIS PRESENCE for you in those dark and dry places, so you also will live.

From this Psalm, we see that when we feel like we are in heaven, on the top of the world, and everything is going well in our life, He is there. When we feel like things are so bad, like we are going through “Sheol” or Hell, He is there. When we just can’t handle our trials anymore and want to fly away from them as far as the dawn, He’s there too (Luke 1:78). When we feel like life it too hard, like we want to just camp out in the deepest darkest remote place at the bottom of the sea, Yes, He is even there with us. The Spirit of God moves over the deep waters (Genesis 1:1-2) and God Himself is in the deep places too.

Our scripture tells us that in those deepest hardest places, the places where we don’t think He is moving, where we don’t think He is present, even there He is leading us. Even in those places, His right hand “lays hold” of us. Why His right hand and not His left hand? My mother taught me this verse Roman’s 8:34 NASB:

Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

God’s right hand is so special because Jesus sits at God the Father’s right hand interceding for us. Take a moment, close your eyes and picture Jesus sitting next to God the Father and He is praying for you right now. That picture brings such peace!

In those deep and hard places, He is laying hold of us. “Lay hold of” means “to seize, lay hold of, catch, fasten” This isn’t a casual, light hold. This is a purposeful, tight seizing hold. So in those places where you think you have taken flight and flown to a place where He is not, or descended to a depth where you think He can’t reach you, even in those places, He has a tight hold on you. He is not letting go of you; he is seizing you. Here’s a final thought for you from 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.

So when you are in those deep hard places, please remember

HE IS HOLDING YOU TIGHTLY AND NOT LETTING GO.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 5-6

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Nothing Ahead on Pexels.com

Lovingly Boxed In

Have you ever felt boxed in by God. Whichever way you turned, He seemed to be trying to keep you still and tell you something and you just weren’t getting it. You know He could just let you do your own thing (well sometimes He does, see Romans 1:24). But the fact that He cares enough to not let you do that- well wow, that means something.

Psalms 139: 5-6 New American Standard Bible says:

You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

When I was in elementary school, we played outside a lot in our neighborhood-kick the can, hide and seek in the hay fields, adventuring at the pond. We took nylon stockings, bent a wire hanger into a circle and caught bull frogs with the net we made. We then took an empty coffee can, a metal round cylinder with a plastic top, and put the bull frog in it to see how long it took it to pop the top off-it didn’t take long! (I feel like I need to put a “please don’t try this at home” warning here, because this was rather cruel, but we were just being kids!). I think sometimes when God allows us to get “boxed in”, like the bullfrog we try to pop that top off. We buck the situation, trying to find a way out, struggling with everything in us to get free. But sometimes, He wants us to just TRUST HIM, to rest, to listen.

I am sure that Job felt a bit boxed in by all the tragedy, loss, destruction, sickness that was all around him. Yet God’s hand was still UPON him. His friend Elihu spoke the truth to him in this situation, saying in Job 36:15 NASB:

He delivers the afflicted in their affliction. And opens their ear in time of oppression. Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress, instead of it, a broad place with no constraint; and that which was set on your table was full of fatness.

“Fatness” H1878 means “fatness, abundance, ashes of sacrifices.” Isn’t it just like God to want to turn our ashes into fatness, abundance? But we must YIELD to Him in our affliction, in our ashes, and then we will find ourselves at HIS TABLE being filled by HIS ABUNDANCE. And this verse says that He uses affliction and oppression to open our ears to Him. If you are going through a difficulty right now, can you take a moment to stop and be quiet before Him, to listen and to yield to Him? What is He trying to say to you? He really is FOR you. He is leading you to HIS TABLE to bring ABUNDANCE to you. Can you trust Him in your suffering?

That God would care to rearrange the circumstances of our lives in order to point us to Him, is just TOO WONDERFUL! That knowledge is TOO HIGH and we cannot even comprehend it! The God of the universe CARES for us! He doesn’t just let us wander around aimlessly. He is leading us. He is the GOOD SHEPHERD. Again, if we persist in refusing to follow Him, He does some times ‘give us over’ to the lusts in our own hearts (Romans 1:18-32), but even in that, His heart is always that none should perish and that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

So when you are feeling ‘boxed in’, please realize that

HIS HAND IS UPON YOU.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 3-4

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Katerina Holmes on Pexels.com

Intimately Acquainted with All My Ways

Isn’t it nice to know someone cares? Like when you’re feeling down and someone close to you notices. God notices you too! Psalms 139 verses 3-4 New American Standard Bible shows us just how closely He notices:

You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.

So why would God scrutinize our path and lying down? Maybe, because He cares? My husband and I care about our children and you better believe we scrutinized their paths and lying down. When they were heading out somewhere and were dressed inappropriately, we might ask, “Just where are you going dressed like that? Go change please!” When they were ‘lying down’ too much as teenagers and wouldn’t get up to do chores, yup, we scrutinized their paths and they got to work on the chores! All this because we cared about them and wanted them to grow up to be mature godly adults.

So, yes, God scrutinizes our paths for the same reason, because He cares! Scrutinize H2219 means to winnow. And winnow means “to blow a current of air through (grain) in order to remove the chaff”. In Luke 3:17 NASB we read about how God feels about chaff:

His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

In this verse, the chaff are the wicked which God will thresh out. But from Psalm 139, we can see that God also winnows our paths. When He lets the winds of affliction, trials, difficulties blow through our lives, He is blowing away the chaff that we have allowed to accumulate. He’s getting rid of the waste that clutters our lives and makes us unfruitful. He wants us in His barn, but not our chaff.

And according to our verse, He knows all your ways. The way you twirl your hair. The way you get your sensitive feelings hurt so often (That would be me! Working on it!). The way you hate Brussel sprouts with a passion. He knows. You don’t have to explain yourself or your ways to Him.

That word on your tongue…Ever wonder why when you are about to say something that’s off, you get a little check in your spirit? Maybe I shouldn’t say that. Because He knows what you are about to say! Because He knows your thoughts even before you have formed them into words to speak out with your tongue. Wow, what a gift to save us a lot of trouble and to keep us from speaking hastily. If we would just learn to listen to His Spirit within us when He give us that little check! But praise God we have His forgiveness to cover any words spoken unrightly.

Remember the virtuous women in Proverbs 31: 26? She opens her mouth with wisdom. This means that there are times she will keep her mouth closed and it is wise to do so. Like if she doesn’t have control of her emotions in that moment- she may want to keep her mouth closed. Like if what she is about to say will not build someone up or give grace in the moment, she may want to keep her mouth closed. Like if what she is about to say, she will have to ask forgiveness for later (Yup! Done that many times!), she may want to keep her mouth closed. Still learning this personally!

So in that moment when you are feeling misunderstood, please remember that

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWS IT ALL, HE KNOWS YOU AND YOUR WAYS AND HE CARES.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139: 1-2

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Tanaya Sadhukhan on Pexels.com

He Knows Us Intimately

The ones He knows the best, He loves the most. That’s all of us. Psalms 139:1-2 New American Standard Bible says:

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.

Search H2713 here means to “to penetrate, to examine intimately, search out, investigate”. He penetrates our pretenses, examines us intimately, searches our hearts, and investigates our motives, seeing everything including the “yuck”. Everyone has things about themselves that they would rather other people not know. Your spouse probably knows these things. Your family likely knows these things. God definitely knows these things. He knows ALL the good and ALL the bad, yet He still wants to know us intimately.

Know H3045 is the same word used in Genesis 4:1 “And Adam KNEW Eve his wife.” It’s the deepest kind of knowing. This is truly amazing! Though God searches us, seeing both the good and the bad, He still WANTS TO KNOW US! This thought brings so much joy!

He knows when we sit down and when we rise up. I am a very busy person, so I sit down and rise up A LOT! He knows that I’m busy. My husband knows me well too and would like me to sit down and watch football with him, and I have a hard time sitting through a whole game. But I am working on it! God knows all this about me! I’m not proud of this fact, but sometimes God has to knock me down to get me to stop moving, so I can listen to Him better! Over New Years this year, I had the flu and was in bed for a week. It was actually a great way to start off the New Year, because it put me in a posture of listening to Him!

And as moms you sit down and rise up a lot. Actually, come to think of it, you probably rise up more than you sit down! He knows every time you JUST sat down, your legs barely touched the seat, and you hear, “Mom! Mom!” and have to rise up again. He knows every time you sit down to nurse that newborn baby-now that’s a lot of times! If you have littles, you may barely get to sit down to eat. He knows all your sitting and rising. Isn’t that comforting?

And He understands your thoughts. I don’t always understand my own thoughts, so it is comforting for me to know that HE DOES. Thought H7454 means “purpose, aim, thought’ in Hebrew and comes from a root word H7462 that means “to pasture, tend, graze, feed.” Yes, He knows where my mind and heart naturally wander, where I like to graze. Aren’t you glad that He is the Good Shepherd and He does not leave us grazing where we want to graze? Grazing in the same place all the time. We would eat up the grass in that place and miss out on grazing in the greener pastures that He has for us and the still waters He wants to lead us beside (Psalm 23:2).

And getting lost in our own thoughts is not always a good thing. Looking at Isaiah 65:2 NASB (italics mine) we see:

I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people,
Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts…

Back in our study verse Psalm 139 verse 2, the word “understand” in Hebrew means “to discern, understand, consider.” Can you even comprehend that the God of the universe takes time to consider your thoughts? He takes time to discern them, to understand them. That’s just how much your Maker cares for you!

So next time you feel that God may have forgotten you, and we all have those moments by the way, please go back to these verses and remind yourself that

GOD KNOWS YOU INTIMATELY AND CARES EVEN ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Psalms 139-Introduction

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by George Dolgikh on Pexels.com

Know Your Identity

Knowing your identity is so important! If you are not sure of who you are, then you can be swayed to be someone or something you were not intended to be. You can be swayed to do things you were not intended to do. The Bible teaches us just how important KNOWING YOUR IDENTITY is.

When Satan had his one audience alone with the Son of God Himself, he used his best tactics. What did this include? Let’s look at Matthew 4:1-11 new American Standard Bible (italics mine to see what satan’s tactics were)::

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”  But He answered and said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’’ Then the devil took Him along into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written:‘He will give His angels orders concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will lift You up, so that You do not strike Your foot against a stone.’’Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written: ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”Again, the devil took Him along to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to serve Him.

Out of the three chances Satan had to tempt Jesus, he used two of them to try and get Jesus to doubt who He was. Satan attacked His IDENTITY. If that is Satan’s best tactic against Jesus, why would Satan use anything less on us? This is why so may Christians struggle with their identity in Christ. Because Satan is after our identity! Identity is exactly where Satan attacked Jesus and it’s exactly where Satan attacks us.

So I don’t think we can expect that at some point we will ‘arrive’ and no longer have to battle with this. I think we should even expect that these types of attacks on our identity will continue and so this is a heads up for us to be on guard, to be ready! So “…be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” ( 1 Peter 5:8 NASB). DON’T LET IT BE YOU THAT IS DEVOURED! Be ready! Be on the alert! One way to be on the alert is to have His Word in your heart, so that you can be sure of who He made you to be, of your IDENTITY. Studying Psalm 139 will help!

Why is identity so important? Because it is out of knowing who we are, that we can give ourselves humbly to serve others, and this includes serving our family. Let’s look at Jesus example in John 13:3-5 NASB (italics mine):

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.

It was out of KNOWING HIS IDENTITY-that He came from God, that He was going back to God, that God had given Him the victory-it was out of this knowing, that Jesus was able to humbly lay it all aside and wash His disciples feet. Ok, sorry, but I am UNDONE by this! The King of Kings humbled Himself and washed the disciples feet. Can you imagine? I would have been like Peter and said, “No, Lord! Don’t wash my feet!” (that comes later in the chapter). And Philippians 2:6 says that Jesus did not have to “grasp” His equality with God or His identity. He already knew His equality with God. He was secure in it. Because He was so secure in His identity, He was able to humble Himself to wash His disciples feet and to humble Himself even to point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

As we follow Jesus example, if we also become secure in our identity, not needing to grasp for it, but firmly holding onto our identity as CHILDREN OF GOD, then we are able to humble ourselves and serve others, and put their needs above our own. That is why KNOWING OUR IDENTITY IS SO IMPORTANT.

So moms, let’s

KNOW WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST, SO THAT WE CAN HUMBLE OURSELVES AND SERVE OTHERS.

In His Love,

Suzanne

Christmas Devotion-Part II

~ Mom Morsels
Photo by Nikhil Singh on Pexels.com

Lessons of Faith

Going back to Luke 1:5-56, we can learn many lessons from Mary on how to respond in FAITH to God’s promises for us.

FIRST, WE CAN PONDER, YET STILL BELIEVE. We can ask “how” but not “whether” He will do what He has promised. There are many times that we do not understand what God is doing in our lives. Mary did not completely understand what would happen to her, but she knew God and so she trusted Him. Have you ever had the experience of going through a difficult time and not understanding why, only to find out after it was finished that God has taught you some deeper spiritual truth that you could not have learned otherwise? This is where trust in God comes in. We trust that He loves us and that He knows what He is doing in our lives. It’s not often that we have an angel talking to us, but we do have the promises in His Word and we can trust that He will fulfill His promises to us. Numbers 23:19 New International Version reminds us that God does fulfill His promises:

God is not human, that he should lie,
    not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does He speak and then not act?
    Does He promise and not fulfill?

SECOND, WE CAN PLACE THE DETAILS IN HIS HANDS AND STILL BELIEVE. Mary was not actually given many details. To her question of “how”, the angel responded, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” Ok, we like details, and this explanation did not give many! What we do know is that Mary trusted God. In response to the limited details, she offered herself up for His purposes, saying, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord,”; this was despite what these new circumstances could do to ruin her upcoming marriage, ruin her reputation, or perhaps cause her death (the punishment for fornication in that day was stoning to death).

THIRD, WE CAN PURPOSE TO KEEP BELIEVING DESPITE DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES. Mary said, “be it done to me according to your word.” I am sure when Mary was traveling the grueling approximately 4 day journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem while great with child, she may not have found it easy to trust His promise. Or when her husband was desperately looking for a place for her to labor and all he could find was a stable, she may have been wondering about God’s plan. Yet, what better place for the Lamb of God to be born, than in a stable? What looked like a mistake was actually an important part of God’s plan all along.

When your circumstances are not the greatest, resist the temptation to turn your back on your faith. Instead, keep trusting that though you cannot see or understand or make sense of what is happening, God is in control. Stand on the promises He has given you in His Word, and ground your hopes on those promises.

FOURTH, WE CAN PURSUE FELLOWSHIP AND BELIEVE TOGETHER. After hearing that her cousin Elizabeth was experiencing her own miracle, Mary chose to visit Elizabeth and received encouragement to stand in faith for her own promise from God. Mary could see Elizabeth’s promise coming to pass, as Elizabeth’s belly grew bigger and bigger, and this gave Mary faith to stand firm for her own promise.

Be careful! Like Job, we do not want to be around people who are going to tear our faith down. We want to be around those who are going to build us up, point us back to the Word (Bible), and encourage us to stand strong in our faith. We are encouraged in 1 Peter 5:9 that there are believers who have faced the same trials as we have but have already had the victory in those trials.

FIFTH, WE CAN PRAISE AND MAGNIFY GOD FOR THE PROMISES HE HAS GIVEN. Mary began to praise God at Elizabeth’s house. Even though she had not yet received the promise from God, but it was literally just a seed inside her, Mary began to praise God for the promise she had not yet received from Him (Luke 1:45). That is FAITH!

Praise is not always easy! Sometimes when things are not going well, praise is a sacrifice. In Habakkuk Chapter 3: 17-19 New American Standard Bible things are not going well, yet Habakkuk still chose to praise God despite his circumstances:

Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

So let’s be like Mary, and

LET’S CHOOSE TO HAVE FAITH IN HIS PROMISES AND NOT WAIVER,

In His Love,

Suzanne