Today as I began my devotional time I opened youtube so I could play worship music. There was a grouping of songs I began to listen to only to find out they were a compilation of individual songs I personally love. I’m unsure how this happens, but it is as though God just assembled them for me this day. He knows technology MUCH BETTER than I ever will!

Tomorrow morning I have a solo in our choir number. The song is NOT ONE WORD. The lyrics emphasize the truth that God’s Word is true and miraculous today as it was when it was first written. It will remain this way until Christ returns. Even more, what hit me is that I can believe it is as real for me as it is for everyone else. There are so many promises in scripture I had wanted to be true for me throughout my life, but I couldn’t find the truth in them at the time. The problem was I was controlling what I wanted the miracle to look like rather than letting God gift the miracle for me. When I finally let go of the control switch so God could do His work, only then did I begin to experience the beauty of God’s miraculous healing.

I asked our choir director last Monday night when we had choir practice if I could have one minute to introduce our song Sunday morning. I want to emphasize once more our need to TRUST GOD and HIS WORD for HE IS TRUSTWORTHY to heal and never harm His kids! Our part–let Him do it His Way!

Today is one of those when I’d like to skip writing this entry. I have things on my mind I don’t want to do but I know I’m suppose to. I suppose we all fall into this at times. When I do I just like to get through them and keep it quiet about how I actually felt ahead of time. I know God isn’t wanting me to regret getting ready for the event. It is a men’s retreat we are having later this month. I was asked to be part of the planning for it months ago. I said I’d be willing to do this, but attending it meant i’d have to skip the sessions I have on Friday and Saturday. I didn’t think that was right. However, in the weeks after I’d said this I was asked to be part of the worship team and to lead a discussion group. I had said to God that I’d be willing to attend if there were a purpose for me in going. So, I’m going and still struggling about it.

As I write this I am choosing to thank God ahead of time that we are finally having a men’s retreat again at our church. It has been way too long since this has taken place. I know its value. Well, doing God’s will isn’t always my first choice but in this case, I know better than to be selfish. I’m going to quit giving thought to “what I have to” and make it “what I get to”. I smile as I write this knowing it is the right thing to do.

God is amazingly good! Satan is not. In a session yesterday with a couple of men (we are working through a curriculum addressing addiction to pornography) the topic was spiritual warfare. One man made the statement that we give too much credit/power to Satan. I’ve heard this line before in years past. I’ve even tried to believe this since he isn’t almighty like God. He isn’t all knowing like God and more. Yet, I brought out that he may not be as powerful, but look at our country’s culture and how it has moved away from following God’s Word as our morality to man’s ever-changing definition of morality. Satan has manipulated our entire country’s culture.

Power lies in the privilege God gave to man–Choice. Satan influences choice and man falls prey to it for the desire he has for instant gratification. I write this and could add so much more to it, but what I know is that Satan wants us to believe he’s not powerful. The grip of sin is powerful as it uses our emotions to control the steps we could take towards God. Satan’s deceptive ways are powerful for they tie directly to our vulnerability. Maybe he himself is not so powerful, but there is power in his brilliance of man’s sinful nature. We can never lose sight of this or else we once again fall prey to sin.

The title of our lesson was spiritual warfare. If power isn’t significant in Satan’s ways, there would be no need for war. War comes about when power meets power in opposing ways. I’m staying on God’s side! He’s already the VICTOR!

Today is my youngest brother’s birthday. He and I are the same age until my birthday on July 1. As we were growing up, many times folks thought we were twins. I’m not sure why that was true. He is dark haired and green eyed while I was almost white haired blonde and blue eyed. He and I were very close emotionally as brothers and witnessed life in our family together. All the physical abuse of dad and his verbal abuse could be processed together with one another. We witnessed our older brother’s rebellion and consequences of it so we made a pack we would endure dad’s treatment without rebellion. We didn’t want to live through the consequences we saw them experience. Ron is gifted in talents dad had. He’s great at fixing whatever is wrong. He is my first call when something like this happens to me and here he comes with his toolbox. I told him a few years ago how inferior I feel to him and he said, “Good grief, you don’t see me working with people’s problems like you do. I admire that about you.” We are different and respect one another this way. I thank God for him. It is his son who is battling brain cancer and is in the midst of treatment. We are trusting God in this.

I write all of this today with thanksgiving in my heart. God is so, so GOOD!

Words are powerful! These three words pack such truth. Now that I am much more awake to the truth of this, I can’t help but see this in every session of counseling I encounter each day.

As a child growing up, I truly hated hearing the ugly things my dad would say about others and about me. I would think that I would never talk like that about anyone, and I don’t. What I do however, is talk like Earnie. When I was meeting with my prayer warrior a few years ago I used an ugly phrase to describe the wife of a man I was working with. She was falsely accusing him and he was desperately trying to make his marriage work. As I stated the ugly phrase I used to describe her, my prayer warrior said with emphasis to immediately asked for forgiveness. She said that words can be prophetic and I should never speak this way of anyone. I knew she was right and I did seek forgiveness.

The power of communication (words) is in every aspect of our lives: family, work, friendships, casual encounters and anywhere else where we are. It is especially critical between God and us. We never hear God belittling us and He sure doesn’t want us to do that with anyone else. Instead, a genuine complement, a reassuring word, a note of encouragement, and more, are like a refreshing stream in a parched desert. Lets try this route!

“God never wastes a hurt.” This line has come up a few times of late and last night as I was meeting with the small group of men for our Step Study (Celebrate Recovery group) it surfaced again. One of the guys was stating how much his ugly past has helped others when he began to let God use his past hurts. One of the other guys is very new to his recovery. He is also seeking counseling as well as this study. He is speaking his own past for the first time working to find his own freedom from it. He said it sure helps him to know that God not only heals our hurts, but He can even use them to help others.

Words are powerful. When we share our story, the words we use are alive and powerful in God’s Hands. I see this with much clarity now. As the group last night was just finishing, my phone rang. It was a client I’d met with earlier in the day. He is going through an ugly divorce and has 2 young girls. I called him when I was driving home so he could talk. As I got up this morning I already had a message from him saying how God had spoken to him through his devotional time. Words are powerful. We should never forget this!