Thieves Were Here

February 9, 2022February 8, 2022 RefreshHer2 Comments

I’ll never forget the sinking feeling I had one summer day some years back. I had gone out to get something out of my Jeep, and when I opened the driver’s side door there were my cassette tapes (my model was old!) strewn all over the seats of the car. My first thought was that my husband had made a mad search for something he needed. I came in and asked if he’d been looking for something in my car.

His reply was, “No, why?” After I explained what I’d found when I went out to my vehicle, it was obvious to us both that someone else had been searching through my car in the night. The thief had to be sorely disappointed, because I had nothing of value kept there, and the only tapes they found (and left) were Christian music tapes.

It gave me a truly strange feeling to know that some stranger had been rummaging through my car and my belongings, right outside my bedroom door while I slept! We learned that our neighbors had also been burglarized, some losing valuable possessions. We all began taking precautions against this happening again. I began locking my car and we left on a flood light through the night. These were things that we should have been doing all along, but instead we had left ourselves open to the thief because we thought we were safe.

I think how often I’m robbed of other things – things that I leave unprotected and unguarded, and as a result they are stolen away from me in a moment of distraction.

I’m robbed of joy when I am not walking in the Spirit due to unconfessed sin.
Galatians 5:22a – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, genleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance… When we are in fellowship with God, we have ALL of these!
I’m robbed of what the Lord wants to teach me if I don’t discipline myself and make time to be in the Word.
Proverbs 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
I’m robbed of sweet time in my home when I choose to tear down instead of build up.
Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.Proverbs 14:1
I’m robbed of peace when I don’t hide God’s Word in my heart. Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

I have a choice now – to lock up my car and also to leave the light on in hopes of discouraging thieves, or I can leave everything as it was on the day the robbery happened. An even greater choice is the decision to lock up tight, and “leave the light on” in my spiritual life so I’ll be very aware of the thieves that desire to steal precious possessions the Lord wants me to enjoy!

Are you safeguarding against the thieves of your heart?

Biblical Womanhood · joy · peace · Truth About Women

How Can We Biblically Deal with our Emotions?

January 19, 2022January 19, 2022 RefreshHer2 Comments

Part 2 (You can find Part 1 here)

A good day can turn into a very bad day in a matter of minutes. Here’s how it goes –
1. I allow my feelings to dominate my thinking – (“This is the worst thing ever! I shouldn’t have to deal with this!” Neither of these statements are true.)
2. My reactions then reveal the emotional tidal wave by spilling from my mind into my heart. (I pout, am angry or I retreat)
3. My mouth speaks what I’m thinking. (I may accuse, complain or verbalize in other ways the things I feel)
4. The result is always regret. (Hurt feelings of others, distance in relationships, or spiritual coldness in my own heart)

However, when I begin to feel those emotions (and we will all feel things about our situations or relationships), I must make the immediate choice to deal with it in the three ways I mentioned last week. Then the blessed results of choosing right thinking will follow!
The results are…

Joy – Eve lost her joy when she went on her feelings and failed to trust God. But we can follow Paul’s admonition and “Rejoice in the Lord always.” If there’s no one else or nothing else to think about with joy, our dear Savior is always the best place to meditate. In Him we have so many reasons to rejoice!
He loves us unconditionally!
He will never leave us!
He lives within us!
He’s made a promise He’s coming again!
He’s praying for us!
He has provided us access to the Throne of God!
For this and so much more, He is the center of our joy.

Peace in your own heart and peace with others. Eve, lost peace with God when she sinned. Her relationship with Adam was scarred, too. Paul reminds us in Philippians 4 to “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” This literally means “don’t worry about anything.” That “feeling” you have can become a fretful thing. Pray instead and let the peace of God rule in your heart!
Spiritual and emotional health – Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.Prov. 31:25 If we want to be strong spiritually and emotionally healthy, we simply live in the strength that comes from resting in the Lord. We can be like the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:25 and have strength when we don’t lean on our emotions, but on our God Whom we are in awe of. We must realize that we can rest in His sovereign care for all that touches our lives and our feelings. When we have this kind of strength, we won’t end up an emotional wreck – no matter what we “feel.” Instead, we will be a woman of strength and honor.
We hear a lot about emotional health. Here’s how to have it –

For good emotional health,
don’t depend on your emotions!

I don’t know about you, but I never like it when I’ve had times of emotional upheaval. Thank the Lord for His Divine help that enables us to mature in regards to our feelings.

If this post resonates in your heart at all, and you deal with fluctuating emotions as I have, make it a matter of prayer, asking God to help you apply #1-3 in the first part of this post.

Emotions are part of our make-up as women, but they should never be the boss of our lives! Let Truth override anything you may be “feeling.” Dig to find it in God’s Word. Ask loving questions of others. Then meditate on that truth instead.
You won’t have regrets for doing so.
Ask Eve.

Biblical Womanhood · joy · peace · Truth About Women

How Can We Deal Biblically With our Emotions?

January 12, 2022January 12, 2022 RefreshHer1 Comment

Part 1

I love that God made women to be emotional beings. We feel sentiments, we sense problems, we discern issues. Sometimes we are spot on. Sometimes that intuition and sense of sadness, trouble or even excitement were all correct and we nod our heads, thankful that we followed through to care for ourselves or the other people involved.

However, because we are far from perfect, we don’t always get it right. Let’s face it, sometimes we can be totally off. On those occasions, we can also track our incorrect feelings to our incorrect responses. Been there? Me too! We are not alone, though.

When we open to the first Book of the Bible and see Eve in the garden, we are met immediately with a woman who missed it. When Satan showed her the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Scripture says,

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

She was looking at this whole situation and feeling that God had not been fair. He had withheld something that was good. Next we see that her wrong thinking/feelings, led her to act out her incorrect discernment when she took of the fruit and gave some to her husband, Adam.

There are several ways we can avoid jumping to conclusions as Eve did.

Don’t go solely by your emotions. “I feel like…” Yes, sometimes we get it right, but emotions aren’t called “roller coasters” for nothing! If we go by what we “feel,” we’re very possibly going to end up with more than a crick in our neck. Like Eve, we will injure others in the process. Not going on our emotions is absolutely essential – especially when we are feeling things about God that are unlike His character!
Elizabeth Elliot said, If you dwell on your own feelings about things rather than dwelling on the faithfulness, the love, and the mercy of God, then you’re likely to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Our feelings are very fleeting and ephemeral, aren’t they? We can’t depend on them for five minutes at a time. But dwelling on the love, faithfulness, and mercy of God is always safe.
Seek out the truth. If your feelings are pushing you to do something, find out the truth before you do anything. If Eve would have gone to the Source (God Himself), she would have been spared the awful consequences that followed. Ask loving (not accusatory) questions. You might say something like, “I’m feeling like this is happening. Am I correct or am I in error?”
Believe the truth. It’s easy to ask someone that question, but we can be so convinced we’re right about what we’re “discerning” that if they refute what we’re feeling, we refuse the truth when they state it. Perhaps it’s out of a desire to be right. Or perhaps we’re so sure of our feelings that we think we need to inform the other person.

The truth of this situation is found in Genesis 2:17

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Eve needed to believe that God was so good to her and Adam. He had kept the evil from them! She found that out very quickly, didn’t she? You and I will often invite hardship, too, when we keep pressing into our emotions. What do we do then if we’re told that our feelings are inaccurate? We make a choice. We go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help us replace our feelings with right thinking. Philippians 4:8 Every time the emotion rushes in, we choose truth instead. It’s like choosing to eat something sweet and delicious, or picking up something disgusting from the sidewalk and popping it into our mouth and chewing on it. It’s our choice to choose.

Next week I’ll continue this post and I’ll be sharing the result of choosing right thinking over our emotions. For today, ask yourself:

Am I going solely on my emotions about the issue bothering me?
Am I willing to seek out truth?
Will I believe the truth when I hear it?

The roller coaster of emotions make for dizzy days. Guard your heart by seeking out the truth.

Bible study · Biblical Womanhood · Fear · peace

Safe Am I

August 19, 2020August 19, 2020 RefreshHer5 Comments

When our daughter and son-in-law brought their precious twin boys home from the hospital, I watched with intensity as they got the babies ready to go to sleep in their bassinets. They would lay down a blanket on the changing table, set the baby at an angle in the middle, and then bring each side in very tightly. Finally the bottom part of the blanket came up and was tucked in securely. it was like they were ready for shipping by UPS! There was not chance for flailing arms or legs – every part of the boys was tucked safely and securely inside.

This was a whole new approach to me, since my last baby came more than 25 years before. I felt concerned.

“Won’t the boys need to stretch?” I asked.
“This swaddle will keep them from jumping and alarming themselves while they sleep” my daughter explained.

True to its word, that tight little swaddle kept them snug and sleeping soundly until their tummies woke them up with hunger.

Little babies have it made, don’t they?! To be wrapped so safely and snuggly and allowed to rest like that would be like….well, it would be just like what Christ does for us as His children. As a matter of a fact, there’s even a reference in Scripture to the Lord doing that very thing for David.

We’ve been taking a look at the story of Nabal the fool and how he angered David by refusing to feed him and his men after they had treated Nabal’s sheep shearers kindly. David decided this man and all his household would die as a result! A wise servant of Nabal’s hurries to Nabal’s wife, Abigail to tell her what has taken place and also of the sure destruction that was coming soon unless someone stopped David.

Wise and beautiful Abigail stepped in by sending a huge gift of food to David and his men. (Wisdom fed the men before talking!) It was sheep shearing time, and there had been lots of preparations, so she was well able to load the donkeys with the best of food to fill the appetites of these hungry soldiers.

But now David needed to be addressed and Abigail had the godly character and wisdom to know just how to speak the truth into his heart. You can read exactly what she said here. She simply reminded David that if he killed these innocent men, he would have a blight on his name, but if he would trust the Lord, God would take care of wicked Nabal.

As I imagine this scene in my mind, I see David’s hand drop from his sword and hang down at his side. His shoulders relax and his head drops as he realizes the foolish decision he had been spared.

Abigail reminded David of a truth that is especially beautiful for each one of us who know Christ and could feel like some threat or danger is before us ~

But the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God;

She was saying that David was safe in God’s hands, that God would watch over and protect him, just like a traveler who carries their precious possessions bundled up underneath their robes.

Friends, that is our position in Christ! We are bound up in His bundle! It’s like He has us wrapped up in a swaddling blanket and carries us close to His heart.

When I was a girl we would sing the song, Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand. There’s no better place to be than safe in Christ!
(Here’s a recording of the song made by The Dayspring Quartet.)

Whatever trouble may be around you today, stop and realize that if Christ is your Savior, you are safe and secure in Him…all day and all night, too. Like those little baby boys wrapped so tightly, there’s no need for us to jump or be alarmed!

Now rest peacefully.

Christmas · peace

The Reason He Came At Christmas

December 19, 2018December 18, 2018 RefreshHer4 Comments

On our drive through our country roads this week we saw the sign,

Live nativity December 22

My mind went back to the last one I saw years ago. There was the sweet little baby Jesus lying in the manger bed, wrapped in soft white cloth while His mother Mary, dressed in blue sat smiling down on her sleeping child. Joseph stood protectively alongside while little sheep were baa-ing and cows were mooing in their stalls only feet away from the manger scene. Little girl angels stood above in the barn loft, their tilted halos shimmering from the gold garland from which they were crafted. It all seemed pristine and perfect.

But at that nativity we didn’t get a picture of what the scene of this baby’s life would look like in thirty years. Now His garments are stripped from Him in a mocking. cruel fashion. No adoring glances were given by those nearby, only daggers of hate and scorn. The swaddling cloth at His birth is exchanged for a purple robe and a blood-stained cross on which He was hung.

Cruel.

Bloody. But also perfect.

Perfect love.

This was the reason He came. He came to die. It was the only answer for our sins to be forgiven. Perfect blood had to be shed and He came to die in our place.

People lined up to stand and stare at the scene at that live nativity I attended. It was the Story of stories come to life. A baby born of a virgin and announced by angels. Everyone loves a story of a baby’s birth, but who will follow Him to the cross? The crowd was very thin. Oh friends, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the purpose of His birth was so He could die for broken sinners like you and me. That is why we have Christmas.

The following video is about three wonderful results of pondering why He came.

What has brought you peace instead of chaos this Christmas? If you can’t find peace, please watch the other two videos in this series. I pray it will encourage you!

Merry Peaceful Christmas!

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