Yesterday as I was waiting for the kids to get home from their work I was nudged to create a chart separating the differences in spirit vs emotions. I had just finished reading the chapter in the book, The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee, and I couldn’t get this off of my mind. I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to remember these differences? They seemed to be so very true, but I needed some way to grab ahold of them so I could use them meaningfully for myself as well as with others I work with. The chart seemed to be the answer.

A couple of differences which stood out are:

Our spirit identifies our wrongs/sins while our emotions will try to defend them. Another is our spirit will wait for our emotions to submit knowing that our emotions can be an enemy to our spirit. Lastly, our spirit will wait for God to speak while our emotions want us to act quickly.

There is much one can glean from waiting on God in our spirit for God is Spirit and His Holy Spirit resides in us as believers. It was very good for me to spend time allowing these differences sink in. This morning as I was reflecting on this the chorus Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus came to mind. The lyrics are: Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the Light of His Glory and Grace. These words describe what happens when our emotions are submitted to God and His Holy Spirit can take charge of our own spirit. Wow, God is so, so GOOD!

It is incredible how quickly the time passes when you’re away. Just writing this makes me realize that time passes quickly no matter where I am. It has been the right thing getting away for this week. I had no idea how much I needed this break. God is so good!

It seems God is challenging me with the idea that life on earth has a couple of options when we get to the age I am. It seems a lot of folks have “worked” all their lives and they are done with that. I find that I’m a lucky one. I spent my whole life in education and never felt as though I was working. I was getting paid for what I felt God led me into. Today is no different than that. I have the freedom to walk away from what I’m doing to do what we are now, seeing family, but when we return I get to go back to it.

I’ve never thought too much about this, but I have had a couple guys I know tell me how fortunate I am to have worked all of my life and never felt like it was “work”. It was something I get to do rather than something I have to do. Today I’m thanking God for this goodness!

Well, I can tell I’m on vacation. I was scrolling through Facebook and enjoying the entries when I suddenly realized I hadn’t written my morning blog. As I was having my devotional time I had things hitting me I wanted to write about, but by the time I’d prayed it all seemed to have vanished. I must be relaxing!

I spent a good deal of time yesterday reading The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. I purchased that book about 10 years ago and had read about half of it. I had gotten to a place where his writing was simply beyond me so I had quit thinking I’d finish it at some point. Well, recently I had begun to read it again. Amazingly, it is now making very good sense. God has been awakening in me about The Holy Spirit and my own spirit. I have written about this recently. The amazing power of God is found in His Spirit, and certainly not in our flesh. Our flesh loses to temptation when fought in flesh. However, learning to surrender flesh and to obey God’s Spiritual nudges allows victory.

This comes out often when this process is applied. The reality sure does expose man’s selfishness. There are those times when one just wants to be selfish in spite of nudges from God’s Spirit. Today’s message brought home the truth that we can never know the gratification of obedience if we only surrender to selfishness. I want to stick with obedience!

What a blessed time it is to come and visit our family in OKC. The first full day, Sunday, we got to hear our daughter preach the sermon, our son-in-law teach the Sunday School class and then spend the rest of the day with them and their friends. These friends are like family members since we have been coming here for over20 years now. All of them have kids similar in age. It is just a fun time and always very memorable.

Our granddaughter and her new husband have been accepted by their denomination to become missionaries. They will be going on a month long trip this summer. Once Julia graduates from college they will begin to pursue full-time missions. This is all a few years away, but it is so rewarding to see God working so well in the lives of our family.

God is always at work everywhere but I sometimes forget this when I’m so caught up in the work I’m connected to at home. Things become about what I’m doing instead of what God is doing (even though what I’m doing is what I believe God has me doing). Our basic nature is so selfish centered. It is a breath of fresh air I’ve needed to get away and see the refreshing work of Jesus taking place. God is so loving and amazing!

The amount of moisture here in Oklahoma City is so great that the current rain just stands on top of the ground. It would be nice if they could share this with S. Idaho where we pray for sufficient rain/snow each winter. It is nice to be here with our kids. It is always a mental/emotional vacation to come here. They, along with their friends, are so fun to be with.

I don’t often point out someone who connects to this blog, but this morning I want to do that. My brother-in-law, who is a real brother to me, sent a text message yesterday with a song attached to it. He said he had felt the sadness in last week’s post connected to the genuine sadness I was experiencing with the family news of late. Hope seemed very distant for a few days there. The song he forwarded to me was like the sweet aroma of God’s Holy Spirit. I just love how God uses one another to lift spirits when one is needing just that. The added blessing is knowing that God’s Spirit prompted it and my brother obeyed the prompting.

For so long I thought the language of God’s Holy Spirit seemed like a foreign one. But, today this is all changing. God is awakening me to His Precious Gift in remarkable ways and I rejoice in it over and over again. It is just another proof of God’s Intimate Love for you and me. How I love Him for this!

Several months ago I booked the tickets for Kathy and me to fly back to Oklahoma City today. Our granddaughter has her college, singing recital next Thursday and I didn’t want us to miss it. Well, into the week while we are there, the same granddaughter has a college choir concert on Tuesday night, our grandson has a district track meet and our daughter is preaching tomorrow at their church. God is so nice to put all of this into the week we are there!

I love how God works!

It often saddens me when I realize all over again how much my flesh rules how I live. Growing up in my family with dad’s emotions ruling how he most often responded to us made me despise man’s emotions and how he let his emotions treat others. I made up my mind even as a child that I was never going to live this way. I was going to be Christ-like as best I could. Dad is long gone and I’m soon to be a quarter of a century old. I all to often let my emotions/flesh take charge of my reactions. No, it doesn’t look like my dad, but it sure does look like me.

My entries of late have defined the battles of flesh and living life in the past week or so. My nephew’s cancer, my brother’s cancer (even though it was not severe as his sons), my older brother’s heart condition, the crazy social media hack, all was making me wonder where God was? Am I falling back into all of those years when God didn’t care for me as I believed for way too many years? I knew better, but my mind still wondered into these thoughts.

Today’s time with God has confirmed all over again for me how much I need to TRUST and put this TRUST ahead of any of flesh’s responses. To recognize the attack, reject it and then replace it with the TRUTH of God’s promises. So many of God’s promises are found in the Spiritual realm not in our flesh. That is why TRUST/FAITH/BELIEF have to stay grounded as I live each day in my flesh. I thanked God for these reminders this morning for HE IS GOOD not matter what life in our flesh offers!