Category: Christian growth

Christian growth · eternal · Life,

Time for a Check Up

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You put on your favorite jeans and notice that you have to take a really deep breath in to get them to button up.  An alarm goes off in your head telling you that a couple pounds need to come off!  So, you turn down dessert, say “no” to your coffee treats, and eat salad for lunch for the next week or two. You make another trip into the closet to try the jeans on again and you smile as they button up just fine.

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That little exercise is necessary, if you don’t want to have to buy the next size up in clothes, and you’re going to stay the same healthy weight. It’s a “check-up” that can pay off, if you pay attention.  It’s up to you, isn’t it?  No one is going to tap you on the shoulder and tell you not to eat potato chips and chocolate bars.  We do it for ourselves, if we want to stay fit and healthy.

What about spiritual check-ups?  How do you know when you need to lean away from the worldly influences and lean in harder to what will contribute to your spiritual health?  Reading and hearing God’s Word is one way we determine that, and I pray that even this blog and its simple posts will serve to push you a little closer each week to the God who made you and loves you.

That said, let’s try to “button up your spiritual jeans,” if you will.

  • Do you have an appetite and longing for God’s Word, or is it a duty you’re checking off each day?
  • Are you spending time truly interceding in prayer for your burdens and for others’?
  • Do you love to be in God’s house, or are you making excuses to avoid attending?
  • Are you serving the Lord faithfully at your church and with a right heart (not out of duty or with a critical spirit)?
  • Are you regularly seeking opportunities to share the Gospel with others?
  • Are you spending more time reading/listening to, and watching things that are of no spiritual benefit than you are things that will encourage your walk with God?
  • Are your friends and close companions pushing you closer to the Lord?
  • Are you aware of your sin – mental, attitudes, actions and words?  Do you feel the Spirit of God convict you when you sin?
  • Is your heart and attitude pleasing to God today?

These are questions that I ask myself regularly.  I am reminded that, just like a day or two of eating poorly, it only takes a day or two of disregarding spiritual things to get me away from where I should be – where I want to be, and where God wants me to be.  It’s then that I refocus and I:

  1. Confess the areas the Spirit of God points out to me.
  2. Ask for the Lord’s help to turn away from the things that pull me away from being close to my Savior.
  3. Make changes and say “no” to myself.

Mind you, these things don’t get me to heaven – I have an assurance of that based on God’s Word, that when I called on Him, He saved me from sin, eternal death and hell. But as His child, when I feed on spiritual food, I live out the truly fulfilling, joyful life of a child of God! That’s even better than fitting back into my jeans!

So, have you done some checking up on your spiritual life?  If you don’t have a relationship with God, that’s the starting place!  Here’s a great video that can explain what that means.
I’m so thankful to be a Christian – it’s the joy and delight of my heart!  How about you?  Are you enjoying your Christian life today?  If not, it may be because you need to do a little checking up on your spiritual waistline.

With love,

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Staying Charged
Christian growth · Uncategorized

Staying Charged

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One day I got a message on my phone saying,

“When You Version (my Bible app) is open on your phone it drains the battery.  Dismiss app?”

I use that app every morning for my Bible reading. I realize that it’s true that my battery is really drained at the end of my Quiet Time, but seldom do I think to take my charger with me to the place where I have my devotions.

As I head to the shower and leave my phone on the bathroom vanity, it continues to drain.  Then after I’m dressed and ready to head out the door for an appointment, I see that my phone is at 39%!  I think to myself, “Oh well, I have a charger in my car…I’ll just plug it in as I drive.”  It may go up to 41% by the time I reach my destination, but I find that all day long, because I let that battery drain down, I’m trying to keep it from going dead the rest of the day!

That phone battery is much like my spiritual heart.  If I get up and run on into my busy schedule and fully packed day before I “recharge” in God’s Word, it seems like I’m constantly on empty.  I have little strength to fight off the enemy.  I have nothing to say to someone who needs spiritual encouragement.  My own heart is hungry and seeking for what I should have given it when my feet first hit the floor – the honey of God’s Word.

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Psalm 119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

A drained battery is hard to charge, and an empty heart has little to give.  Don’t be in such a hurry to start your day that you miss filling up on what you need the most! Sip from the Honey and be filled! I’ve learned to plug the phone in while it’s helping me do my tasks in the morning, and I’ve learned to charge my spiritual heart before it gets drained, too!

Lovingly,

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Christian growth · Uncategorized

Give It Away

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To a believer of the Lord Jesus Christ a Bible is a really precious Book, and your own personal Bible becomes a treasure as you read, study, underline, mark, highlight and make notes.  You know just where your favorite verses are.  You even know which side of the page it’s on! The worn, jagged pages welcome you, like an old friend, each time you sit down and open  its cover.

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In 2015 my husband presented me with a new Bible for Valentine’s Day.  How sweet!  I knew I needed it.  My current Bible was literally falling apart, but I had put off getting a new one because I hated the thought of parting with what had become my dearest earthly possession.  Now, here laid its replacement, all stiff and unmarked with pages sticking together like staticky socks on knit pants.

Reluctant, but appreciative, I began using the new copy of God’s Word.  It wasn’t long until I realized that I had become dependent on my old Bible.  Because I was so familiar with it, I didn’t need to really know chapter and verse.  I could locate it because of its highlighted color or placement on the page.  I had become a bit of a lazy studier.  Now with a new Bible, I was forced to search and dig – which of course was a really good thing!

It was then that I realized that I must not get into the lazy habit again.  Now instead of holding onto my Bible until it was falling apart, I decided to use it for a couple of years, and then give it away.  I would offer it to my daughters, or a young believer.  Perhaps they could learn from my notes and be encouraged with a relatively new copy of the Scriptures.

At a ladies’ retreat this spring, I encouraged the ladies to share their Bibles with others.  Were you at the retreat?  Did you feel the Lord encouraging you to give your copy of God’s Word to someone?  Have you obeyed?

Yesterday I took my own counsel and gave away my Bible Valentine’s present to my older daughter.  It’s only a year and half old, but it’s time to mark up another one.  Time to dig again – so that I might grow spiritually.

Don’t hoard God’s Word or become lazy as you read it.  Share your copy of God’s Word with someone else so you can be a blessing to them, and also challenge yourself in your study of this Treasure!

To whom have you given your Bible?  Have you been a recipient of one?  What did it mean to you?

Lovingly,

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Christian growth

Don’t Swallow a Lie

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I feel like I’m just not doing a good enough job.

I don’t feel like I know how to effectively minister to people.

Those words (and others like it) poured from my mouth yesterday.  I began preparing lunch while mulling over my  feelings.  Disgusted with myself, discouraged, and feeling like I should just go crawl back to bed, I stood at the counter and prepared veggie quesadillas for my husband and me.  The assembly had been done; now was the mindless task of grilling them on the stove.  My mind wandered back to my words, and the Spirit of God rebuked me, using His Word.  The verse He used was Philippians 4:8 – perhaps you have wisely memorized it:

 

If I feel something, does that make it true?  No.  So I had to remind myself of what I knew to be true.

  1. God works in me to will and do His good pleasure.  If He’s doing the work, then it’s good.  Period.  
  2. When I give someone the Word, it is always profitable – even if my own words are not.

I let it go.  I knew better than to hang onto my feelings, but here I was doing just that.  I had to shake my head at myself – just hours before I had given that very advice to someone else.  Now here I was having to tell myself the same thing!

If you’re using words today like,

  • “It seems like…”
  • “It appears…”
  • “I think…”
  • “I feel like…”
  • “She looks like she…”

Stop.  Run to Philippians 4:8 and tell yourself only the Truth rather than believing the lies the devil is feeding you!

I have to say, lunch was a whole lot sweeter without the bitterness of those lies in my heart!

Believe the truth, friend!

With love,

Christian growth

Letting God’s Word Dwell in You Richly

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A young friend of mine, Christa Threlfall, is the author of a great blog, Brown Sugar Toast where she writes about adding sweetness to the mundane,  what she is learning about the Lord, about being a Christian wife and mom, and about how to live to the glory of God.

Christa longs in her own heart to be a student of God’s Word – that’s evident when you read any of her posts or her profile.  Her life has been Word-filled, but she’s still hungry to do it better and to know how to dig deeper, especially in the hard days of mommy life and ministry.

Recently she interviewed fourteen different women to get some detailed answers about their personal study, memorization and meditation of God’s Word. She sent a list of twelve questions and asked the interviewers to choose 5-7 to answer.  I’ve been blessed reading the first two interviews!  The series, called, Dwelling Richly, is posted weekly.

Dwelling Richly Series

I was honored to be interviewed by Christa for her series.  The good questions made me sit still and really think through how God has used His Word in my life.  How thankful I am for His Word, and how desperate I am for it every single day!  You can go here to read my answers  to her questions.

I hope you’ll keep going back each Wednesday to read the next interview.  We all should have a hungry heart to learn from others and be better students of God’s precious Word so that His Word will Dwell in us Richly!

Lovingly,