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 3/31/99 Good Morning.... +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ +†+ God is God. He knows what He is doing. When
you can't trace His Hand, trust <>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§>< Hi Dear Friends!! Happy Resurrection!!! Hope this finds you doing wonderful in our Risen Christ!! Today's devo deals with, in my opinion, some deep heart issues. So, hold out your cup and open your eyes, and allow God to bring spiritual enlightment as He continues to artistically chip away at everything in your heart that is not Him, yet filling your cup to the brim with good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over! Please, be blessed and read on.. See you at the end!! ( smile )
From the time I was small, nothing about me had ever been quite right for her---my hair, my speech, my manners, my clothes, my children, or anything else. And how did I respond? For years, I just tried harder. I spent so much of my life in a constant struggle to live up to my aunt's impossible standards. I would visit the hairdresser and have my nails done before a visit. She would give me the number of her hairdresser and manicurist. I would scour the stores for just the right birthday gift. She would return it. I would choose my words and my grammar with care, trying so hard not to say anything wrong. She would still find something to criticize. And then it finally hit me. All my life I had been holding out my cup to my auntie, waiting for her to fill it with encouragement and praise. And she couldn't do it! Her own cup was too full of a critical spirit to pour anything different into mine. Holding up a bigger or better or more beautiful cup wasn't going to make any difference. And Satan was still using her poured-out criticism to make me feel inadequate and insecure and thus damage my ability to share Christ's love. If I wanted my cup to hold anything other than criticism, I needed to stop holding it out to my auntie so trustingly. When she poured the criticism in anyway---as she was bound to do---I needed to take what I could learn from her critical words and then dump the bitter brew down the drain. But it wasn't enough just to empty my cup. If I did, my aunt or someone else would fill it up again. What I needed to do was to keep my cup filled with love and acceptance and affirmation and encouragement from a dependable Source. I had to decide who I wanted to listen to---who was going to have power over me. And making that decision is what would enable me to empty out the criticism, wash out the cup, and then get it refilled from God's bubbling bounty of encouragement. ....I pictured myself slowly turning over that cup of criticism, and pouring it out, wiping it clean, holding it up again. And I prayed, Please, Lord, fill my cup with your love. Let me respond to her criticism with gentleness. Even though she fills my cup with criticism, let me fill her cup with encouragement. And please Lord, I added, don't ever let me act like that to others. Teach me to see and express only what is good and and healthy in my friends and family. How often, I wonder, have I filled others' cups with my criticism by stressing the negative and not focusing on the positive? Whether I liked it or not, I was trained by an expert to look at others with a critical eye. And when your cup is full of criticism, it's so easy to let it overflow into the cups of those around you! That's another reason it's so important that I keep emptying the cup of criticism and filling it with positive things----so I can fill others' cups with encouragement instead of criticism. From: "Fill My Cup, Lord" <>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<> Out of the mouths of babes.... A little girl had great desire to join the church and
the Pastor asked if she had experienced a change of
heart.
-From: "Which Way Are You Running?" <>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<> Reach Out And Touch Him Have you ever been lonely?
<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<><JE§U§><<>@<> Me again! Got plans for the next few minutes? If not, I'd like to take you on a visual tour and show you my favorite quiet place, and lay out a picture of what I "see." My favorite quiet place is outside. I have several places that I stash myself for prayer, including my bedroom, my closet, a utility building that we use for recreation, and even my living room. But my FAVORITE place, is my back porch. I haul my rocking chair out there, and sit, and watch God. "Watch God? Why, what do you mean, Carol? How can you watch God?" I was hoping you would ask!! ( smile ) I will give you a fresh example. This morning, after my Sweetheart went to work, I sat out there, and basked in the Presence of God. Soon, He sent me a flock of birds. I watched as they danced merrily around the yard, and then swoop into formation, putting on a show just for me. I had a front row seat, and the awesome knowledge that the air shows at the nearby army base had nothing on these critters! Then as I observed the budding blossoms on the trees that indicated new life, new beginnings, and a new season, I had a greater understanding of the resurrection of Christ. New Life!! Is it a coincidence that the resurrection of Christ is celebrated during this season? In those quiet moments though, something greater hit home. New life is forming within me. These things are not only taking place in my surroundings, but within my own heart. How can this be? How can I sense the new life, the peace, the fruit budding within me, when all around havoc and turmoil prevail? I am mindful of a powerful word Jesus gave.
How does one acquire a "good eye?" Come on, take my hand, and let's go a lil farther.... When I went outside, my natural eyes "focused" on the things I mentioned above. I saw "evidence" of things that God desires to show me with my spiritual eyes. I remember before I became a Christian, I had such a desire to appreciate nature. I even attempted to do so in my own strength. It just wasn't what I was grasping for, though. Something was definitely missing. My "eyes" were not opened yet. I was like a puppy that was in this world but my "eyes of understanding" were not yet enlightened."
If I stepped outside this morning, without my "new eyes," then I would have "focused" on the fact that it was cloudy, humid, and a bit drab. But, because of my new birth, and new focus, I saw way past the negative areas of the natural, and that can only be revealed through the Holy Spirit that Christ has imparted unto me. It's like a special ingredient that enhances the visual perspective. Are you a Christian, but things haven't changed much in your walk, since your salvation? Let's go back to the puppy example. Perhaps you see no real development, and your eyes are seeing more than they used to, but not as much as they could. The things of the Spirit seem a bit out of focus, but the darkness still prevails and the light is very dim. Can a puppy force his eyes open so that he can see? Of course not. It is a process. One that takes time. But, there is one thing this puppy does, while he is allowing this natural process to occur. He continues to focus. "Hmm...that old shoe is becoming a bit clearer now. Hey, there's mom! She sure tasted good, and now I can see what she looks like!" When I asked Christ into my heart, I had no idea about anything. I just knew that my own way was no longer working, and I yielded and abandoned my self to Him. As one new Christian recently put it to a friend of mine. "I asked Jesus to let me come into His life." At that point, there was a crack in the slits of my spiritual eyes. I could make out something that was not a part of this world, yet something that offered great hope. My job, at that point, was to FOCUS. The view was not yet clear, but I sensed it was going to be clearer with each passing day. Yes, there were some days that it seemed I was back at the breast, groping blindly, and fighting the other puppys for a taste of satisfaction. But, those were the days I was not FOCUSED. Sometimes my emotions dictated this decision, and sometimes it was the size of my circumstances that won the prize. However, I always found, that the days I chose to focus on Christ, and allow His Spirit to open my eyes as I could bear it....I had victory, because this focus helped me to see far past what was really happening in my life, and it strengthened my faith. It literally fueled the flames of my faith, and I really began to grasp His Word with a different view, and His heart with a different heart. No matter what lay before me, my eyes assured me that there was something out there, that was not quite clear, but it was more real than what was happening around me. And the only way to get the picture a lil clearer each day, was continual focus in spite of the odds. Sometimes this focus may take the form of praise and worship. Or maybe just being still before God, as He performs heart surgery. Sometimes it means opening our eyes to the needs of others, and putting them before ourselves, thus removing the focus from "poor ole me." It's incredible what God can do in us, when we take our own eyes off ourselves, and focus on Him and others. So, as you go forth this week and remember that Christ is risen from the dead, I offer a challenge. If you sense a staleness in your walk, ask Him to roll that stone away from your heart, and then take a peek out, and watch the Daystar rise within. Be that dependant lil puppy that trusts he is being fed, and knows there is more to "see" that meets the natural eye. As your spiritual slits open a little more each day, I urge you to keep the focus on the only One that can bring the best that is yet to come.
God Bless You All!! In Christ!!
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