Philippians 4:8-9

Yesterday I talked about four verses in Philippians 4 that I had memorized. If you didn't read that post, the verses come from Philippians 4:4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again-Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." As I opened my Bible up to the passage I need to read this month for my "Hidden Hearts" group, I decided to let God lead me as to whether or not there were more verses in this passage that He wanted me to memorize so I could hide them in my heart. His answer was a resounding 'YES!'

So, this morning, I memorized the next two verses in the passage: Philippians 4:8-9 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

The first thing that jumped out at me was the first part of verse 9 "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me - put it into practice." I am not only a mom to two kids, but I also teach them at home, so I was attracted to this verse because I want my kids to do what I tell them to do and learn whatever it is that I'm teaching them. Then I felt God gently point out that the verse says "whatever". Do I really want my kids to put into practice anything that they have heard from me or seen in me? Are the things I say and do always excellent and praiseworthy? Ouch! Sadly, the answer was no.

This morning I ended my devotions with a new desire to live my life in such a way that I am an excellent example of what a Christian should be. I want my kids and anyone who hears or sees me to know that they can put into practice whatever I have said or done. Who is watching what your say and do? Are your words and actions something you want others to put into practice? If not, why not make the same commitment I did and work harder at setting a better example to those around you?

Philippians 4:4-7

I decided to join a women's group at my church called "Hidden Hearts". At the beginning of each month, the pastor's wife will send an e-mail with a Bible verse to memorize. She also includes other verses that are in that passage so you can see the context where the verse you are to memorize comes from. We are to read that passage daily and journal what we feel God is telling us about the verse (or verses). I attended our annual church's women's retreat April 29-May 1 and that's when I first heard about this group. It had been formed a few month's before, but I hadn't been at the event where they first discussed forming it. Anyway, I thought it was a great idea when I heard about it at the retreat, but I forgot to go up after the meeting to sign up and get a journal. This past Sunday, it was announced again and they opened it up to all the ladies at the church. I was singing on worship team so I didn't have a chance right away to go up and get a journal. By the time I had a chance to do so, the journals were all gone. It's GREAT that so many women are interested in this group! Yesterday, I e-mailed the pastor's wife and told her I was interested in joining and she immediately sent me a message with this month's verse and surrounding text. I believe there are about 95 women now involved in "hiding God's Word in their heart". Isn't that awesome?!

The verse we are to memorize this month is Philippians 4:6. The passage is Philippians 4:4-20. I will continue to give the reference for any verse because I learned it is important to also memorize WHERE it is found when you memorize a verse because then you can tell others where it is found. The first thing I noticed when I turned to the passage this morning was that I had already had most of those verses highlighted in my Bible. I went to work on memorizing verse 6 and soon had it memorized. I will continue to say it every day to ensure it really is "hidden in my heart" because I know it can be easy to memorize something one day and not remember it the next! I then started to read the passage and felt compelled to memorize the first few verses. I did read the entire passage then, but I want to journal what I learned by memorizing the verses I did today. I do not have my Bible in front of me, nor do I have the verses written down anywhere in front of me either. This will all be from memory.

Philippians 4:4 says "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" It is easy to rejoice and praise the Lord when things are great, but how about when we are going through a painful or difficult time? How is it possible to rejoice ALWAYS? God brought to mind that He is always with us. We have the promise in the Bible that He will never leave us or forsake us. I have experienced many times that I am able to help someone us as a result of going through a difficult time myself. I especially like the poem "Footprints" because it describes how God carries us when we are going through difficult times. What better reason to rejoice is there than that?!

Philippians 4:5 says "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." I first had to say "OUCH!" when I read and memorized that verse because it is very hard for me to display gentleness when I am frustrated with my kids. When they are not listening or obeying me, it can be very easy to lose my cool and yell. I have been working on this and have made progress, but I definitely have a way to go. I know God doesn't expect me to be perfect because He knows I am human, but I want my kids to see Jesus in me all the time. If I didn't think it was hard to display patience and gentleness to everyone, this verse reminds me that the Lord is near. I took this two ways. First, the Lord is always near us. He hears and sees everything that we do, which is an excellent reminder of how important it is for me to be patient and gentle! I do NOT want the Lord hearing me not displaying gentleness to anyone! I also took "The Lord is near" as a reminder that the Lord will be returning again soon. I don't want to be the reason my kids don't make it to heaven! I don't want to be the reason for even one person to not make it to heaven! This verse helped me to see how important it is for me to really work on always be gentle so that others can see Jesus in me.

Philippians 4:6 says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." I'll be honest. After reading verse 5, I was a little anxious! When I read the first part of verse 6, I just had to smile. I don't think it was a coincidence at all that the words of this verse came when they did. It's a wonderful reminder that we don't need to be anxious about ANYTHING because we know we can come to God with our requests. We also can be thankful when we come to God in prayer because we know that He will hear us, and He will answer us in His perfect timing too.

Philippians 4:7 says "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." This is the perfect verse to summarize the previous three verses. If we rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, if we are gentle so that ALL can see it, and if we do not allow ourselves to be anxious about anything, but instead thankfully bring our requests to God in prayer....we will have the PEACE of God! I have experienced God's peace and it is indeed beyond understanding. I can't explain why I feel this indescribable peace in the midst of trials and difficulties, but I know it is there and I know it is from God. How wonderful to think that we can have this peace guarding our hearts and minds, so we won't feel worried about anything because we know God is in control. Instead of being worried, we can be thankful and rejoice!

I know this I hope that something I said will help someone see the wonderful promises that can be found in these four verses. I hope it will also encourage someone to decide to hide God's Word in your heart. How amazing it will be to be able to quote scripture whenever you need it because it is hidden in your heart. I will try to post the verse each month that I am working on as well as the passage to read daily that includes this verse in case anyone chooses to also be a member of the "Hidden Hearts" group.

Tear Down the Wall

In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul talks about how the Jews and the Gentiles are reconciled through Christ. I especially like verses 14-16 which say "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."

Yesterday, a friend of mine made a comment that hurt me. I could have decided to not say anything and just hold in the hurt, but I have learned that is not the best thing to do. Holding in hurt only gives the devil a foothold. He will cause that hurt to eat away at you, and a wall usually goes up between you and that person who hurt you. If you put up enough walls, soon no one can get close to you. That is NOT what God wants! There are always going to be people who disagree with you, and you will not always agree with others on all issues. God made each and every one of us and we are all different. There are definitely issues that are "hot topics" that people usually have passionate opinions on and won't be easily swayed to believe a different way. This was the case yesterday. I gave my opinion on an issue and my friend didn't agree with me. I admit that I was very hurt at first, but I knew I needed to address it with her instead of holding it in. I typed out a message to her and I really tried to make sure I didn't say anything to hurt her. After a little while, I hadn't heard from her so I went back and reread what I had said. I noticed that I might have said some things in a way that may have been taken wrong. I quickly wrote another note explaining that I hope I hadn't hurt her and I apologized if I had. My friend wrote back shortly thereafter and apologized as well. I don't think either one of us wanted this disagreement to harm our friendship.

There will always be something that you disagree with others on. How do you handle it when someone disagrees with you? What do you do if someone says something that hurts you? Do you confront that person or hold it in? If you confront, is it done lovingly or do you try to hurt them the way you were hurt? Holding hurt in builds walls, but so does constantly being hurt by harshly spoken words. Ephesians 4: 2-3 says "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Let's all work to build unity among others instead of walls. If you know you have built a wall between you and someone else, do whatever you can to tear down that wall. Go to that person and apologize. If they had hurt you, be honest about what they said and how it made you feel. Even if that relationship can't be saved, you tore down a wall that won't get in the way of another relationship. Don't allow those walls to be built!

Is There Light in Your Eyes?

This morning I read Luke 11: 34 which says "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness." Initially, I thought of how there are certain people that I can just look in their eyes and can tell that they are "evil". There is such a darkness in their eyes that I can tell that there is something very bad about that them. I then thought of this question: What do people see when they look in MY eyes? I know I am not perfect, but I am a Christian so I am sure there is more light than darkness. I could have allowed myself to say "Of course people see light when they look in my eyes!" and felt pretty good about myself. God had a way of putting this into perspective though by asking me another question that really made me think. He asked "How brightly is that light in your eyes shining?" Ouch! Yes, there are things in my life that I am struggling with. God is working on areas of my life that He wants me to be better in. I truly believe that sin in my life dims the light that people are able to see when they look at me. I made a new commitment to God to do my best to ensure that the light people see in my eyes when they look at me becomes brighter and brighter. What do people see when they look in YOUR eyes? Is there a light in your eyes? How bright is that light? What can you do to make that light brighter?

God's Perfect Timing

Yesterday I was made aware of how amazing God's timing can be. My husband works as a security screener at a nearby airport and therefore he's an essential government employee. He came home from work yesterday and told me that if the government budget is not passed by Friday, he will have to work for free. If an employee doesn't show up for work, they will be fired. Any time off that they did have previously scheduled and approved will not be allowed until the budget is passed. After the budget is passed, they will receive all the pay that they are due.

If this had happened just a month or two ago, this would have sent us into a panic. For the most part, we live paycheck to paycheck. We are a one income family and depend on his paycheck every two weeks. So why were we not sent into a panic? We received our income tax return the other week and have enough money in the bank now for awhile. The beginning of every year is always a scary time for us as we hope that we get that check from the government before our money runs out. As soon as I heard my husband's announcement, I just had to breathe a sigh of thanks to God that this occured at the perfect time. We don't need to panic because we know we'll be ok, unless of course it takes quite a few months before the budget gets passed.

I had read about the budget not being passed on Tuesday and, to be honest, I was actually hoping that the Republicans don't sign the budget if they are holding out because they know Obama has stuff in the budget that isn't necessary. I have confidence that they are trying to help decrease the enormous deficit instead of continuing to increase it like Obama has consistently done. I had read about the millions of dollars the president wants to sent to other countries who will never pay us back, and I have to believe that there are some intelligent men who are voting to not pass this budget because they realize we should be helping our country get out of debt instead of going further into debt giving money away to countries who don't need it. That may not be a popular opinion with everyone, but it is my opinion. Since this is my blog, I should be able to voice my opinion...so please don't attack me! LOL! Thankfully, my husband shares the same opinion as me and we are both praying that the budget gets passed only when it is the best for our country. It is a scary thought to think that it could take a long time before the budget gets passed and we could run out of money, but God has given me a peace by showing me that this happened in His perfect timing so I don't need to worry right now. He's in control and He will continue to take care of us!

The other day, I caught myself wondering how long things would be good between the neighbors and us. For those who may not know, we've lived here for 9 years and have had trouble with the one neighbor almost from day one. We have tried to be patient and kind, but it was not easy when the neighbor would consistently do stuff just to tick my husband off. My husband did lose his temper a few times, but he never hit the neighbor (even though he REALLY wanted to a number of times!). Most of the time, he'd come inside and gripe and complain to me about how mad or frustrated he was about something the neighbor was doing. I gladly listened and tried my best to calm him down. I was thankful I had a husband who was doing everything he could to protect his family. I understood his anger and frustration, but I also knew it didn't do any good to allow the neighbor to see that because it just made him try all the harder because he knew he was getting to my husband. Last year, the neighbor's mom fell and broke her elbow. She was laying outside yelling for help and I never heard her because she was at the back of their house and I was at the front of our house with the air conditioner on. When I finally did hear a commotion, I immediately went to see if there was anything I could do to help. It didn't matter to me that it was the neighbors who hated us. I simply asked "Do you need help?" Even though they had already called the ambulance and there wasn't anything I could do, it softened their hearts knowing that I had asked. Over the course of that week, I asked the son a few times how his mom was and he always spoke kindly to us. I brought them cookies at Christmas and the mom hugged me. My husband has been able to talk to the neighbor a few times in the last year and no arguing has occured. It startled me the first time I heard my husband talking outside and realized he was talking to the neighbor and no one was screaming or cursing (my husband doesn't curse but we sure have heard the neighbor use some colorful language!). Anyway, I caught myself wondering this week how much longer this friendliness between us would last. Yesterday, my husband saw an ambulance outside and I went to check what was wrong. I saw the paramedics at the neighbor's house. The son happened to turn around so I asked, "Is everything ok?". He told me his mom had fallen and hurt her leg. I said I was sorry and then went back inside. When he returned from the hospital, I went out and asked how his mom was. He said she had broken her femur near the kneecap and it would take about 6 weeks for it to heal. I told him I would be praying for her and he thanked me. I then went inside and thanked God for yet another opportunity to show our neighbor's that we care inspite of everything we have gone through with them.

This morning, I woke up and the first thing on my mind was how this situation with the budget and my husband possibly having to work for free for awhile was on my mind. I smiled as I again thought, "This couldn't have happened at a better time." I picked up my Bible to do my devotions and one verse really caught my attention because of one particular word in it: peace. Hebrews 12:11 says "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." I am fully aware how painful a father's discipline can be! My dad believed in spanking, and all I can say is OUCH!! I then thought of the two situations I shared with you above: finances and our neighbors. We have struggled for years regarding our finances. Has it been pleasant? No! But we always tried to stay faithful to God and trust that He would supply our needs, which He always did. Today, God showed me that because we are now experiencing the peace mentioned in that verse because we have gone through difficult times and stayed true to Him. We have gone through difficult times with the neighbors and even though we may not have handled things exactly the way He wanted us to, we tried our best to display God's love and forgiveness to them. We now are experiencing peace in this situation because we endured those difficult times and kept trusting that God would see us through and keep us safe.

I am so thankful for God's perfect timing and for the peace that only He can give. It isn't fun to go through difficulties or discipline, but we have God's promise that better times are ahead if we stay true to Him and learn from those difficult times or those times when God needed to discipline us. He loves us. He wants the best for us. It may not seem like it when we are in the midst of a trying time, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that He WILL allow you to experience a wonderful peace if you stay faithful to Him.

Asking for Help

I don't know how I did it, but the spine in my upper back between the shoulder blades must have a bone or two out of place. Last night was when the pain started and nothing I have done since then has eased the pain. Picking up my head, sitting up, and even taking a deep breath all cause a tremendous amount of pain to surge through me. My husband is at work so I had my kids try to massage it and apply as much pressure as they could to the area in an effort to try and pop the bone or bones back into place. My son even sat on my back and rocked back and forth to no avail. I finally told them to stop and then proceeded to try and get up from the floor so I could start my day. Once I finally was able to get up, which took quite a while because of how painful it was to move, I decided to start by doing my devotions.

I turned to the passage in II Timothy 2:1-7 and began reading. I actually laughed when I read verse 3 which says "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Yup, God has a great sense of humor sometimes. I finished reading the devotional and then picked up my journal to write. The first thing I said was how hard it was to concentrate on His word when I was in so much pain. I really thought I was just going to cry out to Him for healing so that my back would stop hurting, but He had something else He wanted me to realize.

He brought to mind that I didn't ask the kids to help me when I was trying to get up from the floor. They were both there and could see how much pain I was in. I know if I had asked them to help, they would have gladly done whatever they could have to help me. I don't even remember if one of them had asked "Can I help?", but I know my answer would have been "no" because I wouldn't have wanted one of them to get hurt or to feel bad if they weren't successful in their efforts to help me get up. I then had the dreaded "Why" questions pop into my head. Why had I not asked for their help? Why did I do it on my own and suffer with all that pain when I probably wouldn't have felt so much pain if I had asked for help? I'm sure you can see where this is headed too. God was using exactly what I was going through to teach me a valuable lesson.

Why had I not asked my kids for their help? I didn't want one of them to get hurt. I'm much bigger than they are and I don't know that they would have been much help anyway. Then God asked "Why don't you ask ME for help when you need it?" I certainly couldn't answer that the same way I answered the first question! God is so much bigger and more powerful than me. I realized though that there are times I do try to do things on my own and I struggle through it, when I could have had it so much easier had I just asked God for His help. That's when I realized that the second why question that had popped into my head could also be applied here. Why did I do it on my own and suffer with all that pain when I probably wouldn't have felt so much pain if I had asked for help? When someone assists you in getting up, your muscles don't have to work as hard and therefore the pain would more than likely have been lessened since my muscles wouldn't have been pulling on the bones that are out of alignment in my back and causing me pain. How many times have I tried to do things on my own and had to go through pain because I didn't ask God for help first? God doesn't want us to be in pain. He loves us! He wants to help us! WHY would I not ask for help from my all-powerful Savior?! Why would I choose to suffer and struggle to get through something when I could simply ask God to help me and lessen or even remove that pain?

I don't know what you are going through, but I do know that God is able to help. There is nothing He can't do. Don't struggle through it alone. Allow God to help ease the load. Be free from the pain that struggling through it in your own power causes. Feel God's power as He works. Don't be afraid to ask for help!

Look Ahead, Not Behind

I have become increasingly aware of the fact that I need to work on being more patient with my children, especially my strong-willed daughter. I also know that I tend to say things I shouldn't when I get upset, and then I go back later and apologize for what I said. I want my children to know how to handle difficult situations in a Godly way and I was not setting a very good example! The other Sunday, the pastor at church did a sermon and at the end, we wrote down our sin that we struggle with on a small piece of paper. We then walked up to a cross and nailed that piece of paper to the cross, putting our sin back where it belonged. I knew immediately what I wanted to write on that paper. I wrote how I needed to be more patient and watch what I say when I am angry or frustrated. It felt wonderful to put that sin back on the cross and walk away!

This week, God has been dealing with me on all of this again. On Monday, I read Philippians 2:4 in my devotions. It says, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." My first thought upon reading that verse was "Ouch! I hear you, Lord!" I knew God was reminding me of how I want my kids to listen to what I am saying, but I don't want to listen to what they have to say. If they are disobeying, I don't want to listen to their excuses. I just want them to listen to what I saying. It was clear to me that I needed to learn to listen to them more so I could show them that they are important to me. I know I am constantly telling my daughter that she needs to not talk so much and she needs to listen more. I remind her that she has two ears and one mouth so she is suppose to listen twice as much as she talks. I guess God was letting me know to take my own advice! I too need to learn to talk less and listen more.

Yesterday morning, my devotions were flooded with verses and statements that spoke so clearly to me. Proverbs 15:1 says "A soft answer turns away wrath." and James 1:19 tells us to be "slow to speak". At the very end of the devotional (I use Our Daily Bread) is usually a poem and what I call the thought for the day. Yesterday's poem was the following by someone with the last name of Hess:

Lord, set a guard upon my lips,
My tongue control today,
Help me evaluate each thought
And watch each word I say.

The thought for the day was "Bite your tongue before your tongue bites others."
Again I was amazed at how God made it crystal clear to me what He was trying to teach me. I finished up my devotions by praying and simply letting God know that I would obey His word. Little did I know just how quickly all this would be put to the test.

Yesterday, my daughter tested me to my maximum. In the afternoon, she did something that definitely deserved punishment. When I discovered what she did, I didn't use a gentle voice. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was so angry and so hurt by what she had done that I lost it. Later, I felt horrible when I realized that I had again failed God in the way I had handled things. Yes, my daughter needed to know that what she had done was wrong and she needed to suffer the consequences for her actions; but I knew I should have walked away until I could calmly and rationally speak to her about how wrong it was for her to do what she had done. I felt so defeated. Then my nephew Timothy called me. He had seen my status on Facebook that said I needed prayer and he wanted to make sure I was ok. We talked for awhile and one thing he said to me really stuck in my head. He said "God chose you to be Sarah's mom because He knew you would be the best person to teach her God's ways." I'm amazed at the wisdom of this young man, and I am truly blessed to be called his aunt! I'm so proud of the fact that he recently has accepted the call into the ministry! He's going to be an amazing pastor!

This morning, I picked up my Bible to do my devotions and quietly said "Lord, I need to hear your voice." My throat had started to hurt last night and it was still hurting this morning. I knew my cold seems to be coming back and I felt that this was my punishment for screaming at my daughter. God already knew how I was feeling, and that I needed to hear from Him. He answered me in such an amazing way that I could only cry out of thanksgiving for His love for me. A few verses in I Samuel 12 seemed to leap out of the page as I read them. The first verse I noticed was verse 20 which says "Do not be afraid, Samuel replied. You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart." Tears welled up in my eyes. I felt that even though I had failed, the Lord was telling me to not turn away from Him. He wanted me to just continue to serve Him with all my heart. The next verse that jumped out at me was verse 22 which says "For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own." Again I was overwhelmed. God wasn't rejecting me. I belong to Him! I am one of His people and He was pleased when He made me! Next came verse 23b which says, "I will teach you the way that is good and right." I cried again because that is my goal! That is what I want to do with my kids! I want to teach them what is good and right. It was just as if God was showing me that He would show me what is good and right so that I could accomplish what my goal is too! The final verse I read was verse 24 which says, "But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you." God was reminding me to remember all that He has already done for me. He has forgiven me before and He will continue to do so as long as I seek His forgiveness. I can continue to faithfully serve the Lord with all my heart because He is faithful to forgive me and show me what He wants me to do.

As if all these verses weren't enough, God continued to speak to me through the poem and thought for the day. The poem was by D. De Haan. It said:

Sins confessed you must forget;
Look not back to yesterday-
Full of failure and regret;
Look ahead and seek God's way.

Finally, the thought for the day was "Don't let yesterday's failures bankrupt tomorrow's efforts." Wow! I so needed to read that! God was so clearly telling me to forget about my failure yesterday. He had already forgiven and forgotten about it. I just needed to look ahead and keep trying my best to live my life His way. 

I don't know who else may read this, but I know that God wanted me to share what He has been teaching me. Usually that means someone else will need to hear these things too. No matter what your sin may be or what you struggle with, I know God will forgive you too. Don't give up! It's easy to get frustrated and feel defeated when you keep failing at something you are trying so hard to overcome. We are human and God loves each and every one of us just the way we are. Don't allow yourself to be defeated by your failures. Ask for His help and keep pressing forward!