Have you left your first love ?

Stay Focused

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Dear Father,

Help me to get “life” into perspective that everyday living may not consume my time leaving nothing for my unique purpose.

Dear Child, 

Do not loose focus!

Focus brings life into perspective.

Focus directs your steps.

Focus sets your boundaries and protects your treasure.

Without focus your time, resources and abilities just drift through an

hourglass like grains of sand, without

accomplishing eternal purpose.

Don’t pour out your life without focus and purpose.

Day by day stay focused and add daily to fulfilling your purpose!

To receive a calling takes a moment.

To fulfill a calling takes a lifetime.

                      Thus saith Papa

1 Cor 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Neh 6:3  And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

Nehemiah was enticed, misunderstood, questioned, lied about, offered a safer way, and even the religious leaders tried to fill him with fear, and yet he stayed focused and never once deviated from “his great work” of building for God!

Challenge: Oh Lord, may I have the same spirit of steadfastness of purpose that marked the life of  Nehemiah.

Personally I know this to be true. As a young woman I knew I was called to teach God’s Word. But it wasn’t until now in my later years I culminated this calling into a book. It has taken a lifetime of mountain top and valley walks with the Lord to have an authentic voice to pen the message of the book. “Developing a Secret History with God”. 

 

Are you too busy ?

The Secret of Contentment

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        Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have.

Dear Child,

It is right and good to give thanks, for My mercy endures forever. Through all circumstances My grace and mercy are available.

A thankful heart is an appreciative heart, and an appreciative heart is a soft heart, which I can work with and mold, but an ungrateful heart becomes hard and cold.

With appreciation comes contentment. Godliness and contentment are great gain.

So fulfill My will for you today by being be thankful and you will be contented.

                                                           Thus saith Papa

1Tim 6:6-8  But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 

Phil. 4:11 for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Heb.13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 

There are many things that money will buy but not contentment!

Money will buy:-

A bed BUT not sleep

Books BUT not brains

Food BUT not an appetite

Finery BUT not beauty

A house BUT not a home

Medicine BUT not health

Luxuries BUT not culture

Amusement BUT not happiness

A crucifix BUT not a savior

A church pew BUT not heaven.   

Remember:-

Haman had a great court position yet not content!

Ahab was on a throne yet not content!

Adam was in paradise yet not content!

Angels were in heaven yet not content!

Lucifer was the highest of the angels yet not content!

CHALLENGE: Don’t try to keep up with the “Jones” for contentment is not having what you want but rather wanting what you have!

Contentment comes not so much from great wealth but from few wants for he who is contented is rich.

 

The Beauty of the Thorns

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Dear Child,

 Can’t you see and understand with your heart that when you are admitting your weaknesses in trials and testings, you are humbling yourself. When you humble yourself before Me, My grace is available to you. That is how My strength is made perfect in weakness. So, child, glory in that weakness and need of Me, that My power may rest upon you.

Thus saith Papa

2Cor.12: 7-9…there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

“Paul recognizes not merely God’s strength but also his own weakness. Countless saints have been carried through trial and testings by means of this revelation of God to Paul. Oh, if we ourselves only knew how weak we are! For as soon as the weakness leaves us, POWER likewise departs! But what we go through perfects the words we utter. As we then rise up and admitting our own weaknesses, speak words that are tempered through trial, our brothers and sisters, themselves under testing, are given by God the grace and the strength to carry them through also.” Watchman Nee

Hebrews 2:18 Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

 “The thorns Christ wore for us, with which He was crowned, sanctify and make easy all the thorns in the flesh we may at any time be afflicted with. Temptations and trials are most grievous thorns; they are messengers of Satan to buffet us. The design was to keep Paul humble. Paul gloried in his infirmities… this does not mean sinful infirmities (those we have reason to be ashamed of and grieved at) but he means his afflictions, his reproaches, persecutions and distresses for Christ’s sake. These were opportunities for Christ to manifest His power and sufficiency of His grace upon Paul.” Henry Matthew Commentary 

The Lord not only took upon Himself my sin and bore my sickness, He also wore my thorns! Surely those thorns were a part of our Lord humbling Himself even to His death on the cross!

Phil 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

Even as a beautiful rose is displayed on the branches bearing thorns, even so the beautiful love of our savior is displayed beneath a crown of thorns.

The beauty of our lives is displayed when buffeted by those thorns of the flesh!

Those thorns buffet us to shine because they humble us in our weakness that His grace may shine through us. 

Challenge: Pray this prayer “Dear Father, Help me by your power to truly digest this truth, that you may be glorified in my life. That others will not see me, but rather your grace and power manifested. That your glory will shine through the cracks of my brokeness.”