The power of God’s Holy Word–“God’s Word is very important to Him. The Bible says in Psalm 138:2 that He has exalted above all else His name and His word, and He has magnified His word even above His name.” This is a direct quote from Joyce Meyers written in the preface of the Amplified Bible I am reading.
I am finding as I read through Psalms God is wanting me to bury once and for all the thoughts I’ve had all of my life about our relationship. I’ve known now for several years that I am a new creation. I know that this new creation I am is a growing, living being. Even though the flesh man I am is well into his life, My new creation life is young and yet, eternal. God is showing me that as I have learned to trust Him, it is now time to fully Trust His Word. I have always believed the Bible as being the Word of God. However, believing that God’s Word is magnified above His Name? Well, that truth is just starting to take root.
God’s Word is the tangible part of God I can grab and hold. I know that God’s Spirit lives in me but when I want God to be tangible, I turn to His Word. The Psalms are filled with promise, fulfillment of promise and direction for each day’s living. I am so grateful that the relationship God is growing in Him and me is taking me to this Truth in His Word. How I love our Wonderful God!
Today is a day of celebration. Our step study men finished our journey last Sunday. Tonight we are gathering at a restaurant in Nampa to celebrate. Tomorrow night at Celebrate Recovery we will give a step study chip to each participant for their diligence in completing this huge step of healing. In addition to this, a lady in our CR group is having a prayer warrior pray over her this afternoon along with her group leader. There is a darkness they are praying to uncover. She called me yesterday asking that we be praying today for her as this transpires. Satan hates to have his darkness penetrated by God’s healing, brilliant LIGHT, yet that is what is taking place today and I am celebrating what God’s Light has already done in the lives of these step study men and also what God’s Light is going to do today in the life of this lady!
God’s Love for His children is not just kind, but it is also POWERFUL and PENETRATING! Today darkness is being destroyed and we celebrate!
I will never again say that the Psalms are anything but a tremendous help and Light for us as we journey through life. I cannot believe how long I’ve struggled with them. In reality, I struggled to keep my own emotions checked so I didn’t sound like the troubled David or any other writer for them. I wanted to “look like” I was in better control of my life or that the problems of my life didn’t have such a grip on me that I needed the help for which the Psalms are crying. I have been in such denial of my real self!
Today as I was journaling and asking Jesus what He wanted me to know for today, it was clear I needed to address this selfish side of me. Selfish in the truth that I struggle a good deal and don’t want to share that part of me. I’d much rather have those struggling share their burdens with me and I can then be a helper for them. Yes, I go to my prayer warrior with burdens, and I do share them with her. Yet, I tell myself that I need her to pray for the “others”. I also write this blog daily and I express my need in it. Yet, I tell myself I do this so my “little need” will help someone’s greater need.
So, this morning I asked God to forgive this selfishness of mine confessing the sin of it. I want to be an open book for God to use fully for His Kingdom. The Psalms are a genuine example of man pouring out his heart to God and then receiving God’s direction and peace in doing so.
I’ve said earlier that the Psalms have been a struggle for me to read. They are filled with the burdens of David and him pouring his heart out to God asking for help. David isn’t the only author of them, but he is a dominant one. Well, there is a totally different message coming to me from the Psalms as I read them this time. It is the message of PRAISE and WORSHIP. In the deeper areas of my soul there has been a longing for love–to be loved. It goes right back to my earliest memories where I was ridiculed for being the soft-hearted, less than manly boy. I recognize all of this as a lie today. However, as I was reading the Psalms this morning they were declaring into existence what isn’t real as of yet. Psalms 16:10 starts with, “I believed, therefore I said,….” I was challenged to fill in the blanks with what God is wanting me to believe. So, as I began to do this I was inspired to start with praising Him for what He is going to do ahead of it happening.
I am a realist by nature. Something has to be existing or close to it for me to be grounded in it. However, God is wanting me to know that in His Spiritual World, existing is different than in our world of flesh. The healing for the young man I mentioned yesterday is yet to take place but it is going to. I can praise God now for this. A young man who has a job interview today, I can praise God for what will take place with it. I can praise God for another man who is troubled about the role he plays with our Celebrate Recovery ministry. God will be working this out. I can praise God for replacing the inner longing of my soul with His Love.
Psalms 111:10–“The reverent fear and worship of the Lord is the beginning of ‘Wisdom and skill’….” This verse was the foundation of my devotions this morning and then it was part of the scripture reading as I continue to read through the Psalms. God is emphasizing a point for which I (and we) need to pay close attention.
Yesterday was the graveside service for a wonderful lady who had taught for me 20 or more years. She and I had also graduated together from college. At the service I saw a few people I hadn’t seen since my retirement from the district 13 years ago. One was telling me of their son who is struggling a great deal. In fact, they said I am the first person they’d shared this with. I told them about our Celebrate Recovery program and invited them to come. As I began my prayer time this morning I was about to pray for this son and a couple other young men who have been on my list. I was going to ask God to intervene in their lives awakening them to Him and His healing power. However, God reminded me to Praise Him first for what He is going to do in their lives ahead of any asking. I had started my prayer thanking God in general, but praising Him specifically for these men and their recovery hadn’t been on my mind until God planted the seed.
As I began to write this entry the verse above resonated. God is wanting me to grow in wisdom and skill from Him. The big one for me as been learning to Trust Him ahead of any visible actions. The wisdom to TRUST is huge in God’s Kingdom Work. That means praise needs to begin each moment of each day. This is another big step for me.
Once upon a time I had one of those moments where March 13th was St. Patrick’s Day in my mind. I prepared myself for the day putting a green M&M on my sports jacket lapel. It turned into one of my more embarrassing moments/days. I won’t tell the story here, but every time I write this date that memory returns and I chuckle inside.
Yesterday was a blessed day. My second oldest grandson who is a junior in high school has had his own battles to address in life. I have wanted him to know there is a huge opportunity for becoming much more than one might believe (at the age of 17) if only you can be exposed to a sliver of them. So, with permission from him, I arranged for him and his best friend to visit a college close by yesterday afternoon. I was able to accompany them too which was a treat for me. My grandson is a “star” basketball player (which is really true). The college had arranged a portion of the tour to be with the head basketball coach. This was a 30-45 minute block of the afternoon. He and his friend hugged me at the end of the time saying this was the best day of their lives! It was one of my better days too just being a mouse in the corner while they kept exclaiming, “how sweet!” and many more exclamations of praise and wonderment.
Once in a while the journey has a day in it like yesterday. I keep smiling and thanking God for it. God truly is AMAZING!
The time is set. I am meeting the gentleman who contacted me a week from today. This is the one I mentioned in yesterday’s entry. I am grateful for this and I pray for him to sense God’s peace knowing he will be exposing things from his past which have haunted him all of his life. I understand this all to well. When I had published my book, The Journey from Error to Heir, I was expecting to have ones contact me knowing now there is someone with a similar background they could “trust”. This didn’t immediately happen and one individual at Celebrate Recovery who I’d shared my thinking with said, “Would you be sharing with someone who wrote a book if the shoes were on the other foot?” Of course my answer was that I hadn’t thought of it that way. I would never have done that! God has to prepare the person’s readiness to speak out and that is what He does.
I was recently told of a man who had read my book and had told his wife that it gave him hope. That was a “praise God”. Yesterday late afternoon I received a text message from the gentleman. He said he would like to meet so we could talk. That was another “praise God”. I have been on this journey long enough that I hadn’t thought about my first time to reach out for help. However, in receiving this text message I instantly felt the fear and anguish behind it and within it. This morning I prayed for him and for his courage to continue to take one step at a time. There is nothing like the vulnerability in taking a step to find there is no condemnation in taking it. When this happens long enough the fear eventually begins to be replaced with trust. Boy, do I know this well. God is so good at staying right along side of us in all of these trials and struggles. For years I didn’t recognize it because the fear was screaming too loudly. Today, I know beyond a shadow of doubt how intimately close He was and how tenderly HIs Holy Spirt stayed right there. What a loving and gracious God we serve.
The meeting I mentioned yesterday regarding the testimony of one of our Celebrate Recovery men took place last night. Both of the men who met contacted me separately following the meeting. The one who conducted the meeting said it had gone very well. The one being threatened said, “my family has no power over me any longer. I am fine.” I couldn’t thank God enough for this tremendous outcome. God is so GOOD!
This morning’s devotional reminds me to praise God in the midst of trials. If I trust God in all things I will do so outwardly in praise even in the midst of storms. I have to confess I was very worried about my friends’ meeting. God had already told me to let Him handle this because it is His Work. I didn’t interfere like I wanted to. However, God was wanting me to know to praise Him for the outcome which I didn’t do ahead of time showing my trust. I want to use this as a good lesson and reminder to demonstrate my trust with praise and adoration ahead of and during any storm.
Yesterday was a great day in many ways. The work with the school district went well. As I got home and walked into the house my phone made it’s text ding. I looked to see who had sent one to find my prayer warrior had sent me a text. It said that she had met with a prayer group yesterday afternoon. One of the ladies told her that her husband had just read my book. She’d been praying for his healing for many years. He told her he now has a deep desire to find healing. It was such a nice thing to hear. It is so nice to know that God is using our journey to help someone along their own path to healing. He is such an Amazing God!
As I went to choir last night the other message was given to me. I was informed that one of our men in Celebrate Recovery is being threatened with a lawsuit if he gives his story. His own story has childhood abuse similar to my own. The abuser is attempting to halt any sharing of this by threatening with a lawsuit. The one being threatened is celebrating his 10 years of sobriety in another week. Six of us are going out to dinner to do so. I told Kathy last night that this is nothing more than a satanic attack and we need to stand up in the Powerful Name of Jesus and declare it for what it is. God’s penetrating Light will destroy any darkness.
This morning as I prayed, God asked me to let Him fight the battles which are His to fight. I needed to hear this. I also know He uses all things to His Honor and Glory. So, I’m praising Him today for the Glory He is going to bring from all of this. God is so GOOD!
Earnie Lewis 