God Goes Before Us

I wrote on my Instagram blog @Jesusdeevah today about how God's righteous right hand is on us. I explained that when a physical hand is needed to comfort us that God uses his children to do his work. We are his hands to serve others and we need to be attuned to his leading as we go through the day. There are people who need our compassion extended to them to show the love of God. I wasn't aware this morning that I would be that person who needed kindness.

My day started earlier than I wanted with someone who had an urgent request. As I tried to get this request accomplished I began to feel very overwhelmed. Multiple things were happening and my emotions got the best of me. However, God went before me and already had the blessings waiting! There was a lovey woman who saw the stress on my face and said, "It  looks like you need a hug." She gave me a tight, loving hug and her smile comforted me. Then, a clerk at the next stop saw that I had tears falling from my eyes and proceeded to empathize with me and gave me some tissues. I realized that God was saying to me that he had everything under control so I just started breathing steadily. The task still needed to be completed, after three attempts at other places that could not help I could have just gave up but God brought me a blessing. A young man came out from the back of the store and took an interest in the tech issue I was trying to accomplish. He quietly and patiently worked on the issue for longer than he should have but accomplished the task!

I gave God the time to work it all out for good rather than impatiently overreacting and quitting in discouragement. God goes before us and has our needs met if we just slow down and look for Him in our trouble. Learning and maturing in our faith is a beautiful thing. Practicing patience and trusting God with our issues brings us peace as it all works out. God does not bring us to it to not get us through it! The mind-set that we discipline ourselves to have as we trust in His promises is the key element. Think of some of the areas of your life where you're not experiencing God's peace and then search His Word for scriptures that counteract those doubts. Let His promises rule your mind rather than your emotions and you will come to find a new joy! It's a process but it's worth it!

Exodus 14:14, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Proverbs 16:9, "A mans heart makes his plans but the Lord directs his steps."

Colossians 1:11, "...Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience..."

Colossians 3:12, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience..."

Proverbs 16:18, "Pride comes before the fall.

Deuteronomy 31:8, "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you, He will never leave you or forsake you..."

Invite God to go before you and prepare the way. In His timing He will work all things together for your good. (Romans 8:28)

When He Speaks

When God speaks a deep message to my heart I write on this blog where I can expand on the teaching. However, if you want to read a daily post check it out @jesusdeevah on Instagram.

Luke 11:3, "Give us this day our daily bread..."

Asphalt Fall

I posted my daily blog on Instagram @Jesusdeevah this morning and it read, "Because He bends down to listen I will pray as long as I have breath." Psalm 116:2. After posting it I began to get busy and then I recalled the scripture and went and sat down to talk to God. There's a saying regarding working out that states, "You're never sorry you worked out." Well, that saying is true about prayer! "You are never sorry you stopped to pray." I know one of the prerequisites of prayer is to confess and repent before entering into praise, thanksgiving and petition so I began telling Jesus the sins that were weighing me down. I confessed the actions and words that I knew were not pleasing to him and the resentments I was harboring.... Soon, I was recalling some of the hard times that I've had in my life and he began to minister to me. The Holy Spirit filled my mind with a vision of me flying down a hill on my bike with my hands up in the air and my head swung back as the breeze blew through my hair. Next thing I knew I was rocketing over the handle bars and landed on the hot asphalt as I skid to a stop. My hands and knees were pitted with bits of black asphalt mixed with blood. Next, a memory of my father came to mind. He was picking the pieces of rock and tar out of my flesh with tweezers after I literally had a similar accident in my youth. The procedure was tedious, laborious and painful but it had to be done. I soon realized that God was telling me that those painful times in my life were not Him punishing me but healing me.

Certainly many of the hard times in life are self imposed by bad decisions and rebellious acts. However, we find ourselves victims to a sinful and evil world on occasions. I blamed God for years for my health problems, emotional immaturity and distraught spirit. I thought he was the cause of all my suffering and because I blamed him rather than submitted to him, the wounds became infected. Of course I blamed him for that too. It took YEARS for him to methodically pick all those pieces of asphalt out of my heart and mind after I surrendered to him and allowed him access.

Most of my suffering was caused by bad habits and decisions that I made but I never took personal responsibility. It was much more convenient to blame God. My stubbornness kept me wounded and angry and it wasn't until I began to read my bible, pray, go to church and have fellowship that I finally surrendered to him and let him begin to clean my wounds. The process has been long and hard but as he does his work on me I see a woman emerging that I love. I'm not the emotional, immature girl that I used to be. I have the scars from all the hard work that he had to do on me but those scars are my badges. No more open wounds that harbor infection, hyper-sensitivity or anger.

My dog had surgery yesterday and the doctor told me how stubborn and reactive he was. All I could think about was how I was the same way toward God. As I was sitting with my dog today I was gently petting the side of his face where he was sore and after a minute or so he just leaned his face into the cup of my hand and surrendered his pain to my comfort. That is what God is waiting for us to do. His desire is that we would stop reacting to our pain and just yield to his comfort, love and healing.

I want to encourage you today to give yourself up to the Great Healer. We all have bits of asphalt embedded in us from life's falls. Shards of unforgiveness, anger, self-pity, rage, pain from loss, victimization ..... and those infections must be healed before we can see clearly and love purely. It will take time for the cleaning and healing process but it is so worth it! God does not want to leave you wounded but he wants and needs your cooperation to do the procedure properly. The only way we can have a successful outcome is to surrender to him and trust him that he knows what is best. I've learned that his love for us is so great that even though he can't make us surrender because of our free will, he will find ways to get us to slow down. Humans have a way of avoiding stillness so God will let us wear ourselves out emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually until we collapse at his feet. I will tell you from experience that you will save yourself a lot of pain if you just trust him and place your pain in the cup of his hand so he can comfort and heal you.



Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

Who stood up for me against the wicked? Who took my side against evil doers? If the Lord hadn't been there for me I never would have made it. The minute I said, "I'm slipping, I'm falling!" Your love oh Lord, took hold and held me fast. When I was upset and beside myself, you calmed me down and cheered me up. Psalm 94:16-19

And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forgiveness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep me from deliberate sins and don't let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you. Oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:12-14