Swallowing the Word

If we only admire the food on our Thanksgiving Table it will never bring strength or life to the cells in our body unless we eat it and swallow it.

Likewise we do not study the Word to only feed our minds, but we must swallow it that the Seed of the Word might germinate in our inner beings becoming alive as we live it.

As the word exhorts us in Ezekiel 2:8-10:

“But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. And when I looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein.”

According to Matthew Henry’s Commentary “to eat” in the verse above means “admit this revelation into thy understanding, take it, take the meaning of it, understand it aright, admit it into thy heart, apply and be affected with it.”

 

Excerpt from DEVELOPING A SECRET HISTORY WITH GOD page 12

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Make Your Centerpiece a Fresh Bouquet of Appreciation

As I was busy preparing a beautiful table for a feast for my family on Thanksgiving, the Lord reminded me to also take the quiet time to prepare my heart to offer Him a feast of thanks. In the busyness of the season I needed to be reminded to prepare a table for Him decorated with a bouquet of fresh appreciation, a heart full of gratitude and mouthful of praise as I reflected on His faithfulness during the past year.
We should always be thankful but it is also good at this holiday of Thanksgiving to stop and meditate on what we are truly thankful for lest we start to take His blessings for granted and find our beautiful tables lacking the luster of the joy of the Lord!

Contentment – Priceless!

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 1 Timothy 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Thanksgiving is a Faith Builder

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Dear Child,

Entering My presence with thanksgiving will build the faith you need to present your requests before Me, and without that faith it is impossible to please Me.

Without thanksgiving you will not have that ever increasing faith to believe that I am a rewarder of those who diligently seek Me.

Because thanksgiving brings to remembrance My faithfulness in the past and feeds your faith.

But ingratitude produces a complaining heart drowned in self-pity which will quench your faith.

An unthankful heart will be excluded from My presence.

In My presence is joy unspeakable and full of glory, a place you can only enter through the gate of thanksgiving! Child, be thankful!

                                            Thus saith Papa

                                              My Jehovah Jireh

Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

1 Thessalonians 5:18-19 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. 

Counting our blessings and remembering His goodness and faithfulness in the past feeds and nourishes our faith BUT being ungrateful and complaining will quench our faith and gratify the weeds that the enemy has sown.

An attitude of praise is the result of a thankful heart.

 Praise and thanksgiving are like Siamese twins i.e. they are inseparable.

Without thanksgiving we haven’t even entered the gate. Yet so often we try to offer praise in His court, and yet still find ourselves coldly on the outside. The only way into the warmth His presence is through the Gate of Thanksgiving. 

So often we come to church with a heavy heart because of circumstances. But if only we would spend a few moments reflecting as we declare  “I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.” Psalm 77:11 it would give us an appreciative and thankful heart and our attitude would change, preparing us to enter the gate and into His courts with praise. As the Word tells us “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”Isaiah.61:3.

Please note that I did not say our circumstances would necessarily change, I said our attitude to the circumstances would change. We will no longer be under the circumstances because our sacrifice of praise will raise us above those circumstances, and we will find ourselves spiritually seated in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Then in His timing we will see victory because He can work with those who praise Him. A grateful heart is a soft, pliable heart in the loving hands of the Master Potter. But hearts become cold and hardened when we murmur and complain.

Yes, it is hard when we are burdened and we just don’t feel like praising God.

But isn’t that what a sacrifice is all about? Something that is costing you! What is the cost? An act of our will to choose to offer Him a sacrifice of praise even when we don’t understand the “whys?” We are actually saying with that praise, “ God, I don’t know the future but I do believe that you hold my future and I trust you with the outcome.” We call that faith and without faith it is impossible to please Him.

CHALLENGEMay we all grow to the stature of the faith of Job who declared “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:” Job 13:15

Page 141 “DEVELOPING A SECRET HISTORY WITH GOD”

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A Christian Woman

 

IMG_0064The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian

BUT

The fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.