Last night in our step study group, one of the men asked what the meaning of meek is? The lesson we were doing is lesson 6 which is ACTION. The principle for this lesson is Principle 3: “Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.” The scripture supporting this principle is: Matthew 5:5, “Happy are the meek.” I responded from what the lesson teaches in that meek is like humble. One recognizes the power to overcome is not within man, but is found in God’s Holy Spirit within us if we have accepted Christ into our lives. When we are meek we know our weakness and turn to God’s Strength within us through the Power of the Holy Spirit.

So, one can know this truth, but putting this truth into action is an entirely different story. We have to be honest with ourselves first and foremost. We also have to desire to have the struggle overcome. Sometimes one may want a struggle taken away, but then we come up against something in our lives and we quickly want to return to the struggle. We all know the consequence of doing this, but the temptations are strong.

In all of this, we learn the genuine meaning of “meek”. I feel like I’ve had to learn this several different times for just when I think I’m strong in the Lord, I find that this new day is now a new struggle. The Serenity Prayer is very true when it says, “…One day at a time, one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.” This sure isn’t a one time lesson!

Last night we had a quartet practice gearing up for a couple of events we where we are doing an hour long concert. One of the songs is “Through It All”. We have done this song many times in years past but haven’t sung it for 4 or 5 years. I happened to be signing it while I was mowing my lawn this past Monday. The words thank Jesus/God for the trust we can have in them, the hope we have, thanking them for the problems of life in order to build this trust. In part they say: “Through it all I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God…” As I was singing this while mowing I was overcome with thanksgiving. I hadn’t realize just how much I have learned to trust in Jesus until these past several months of counseling. I so often hear of one’s disbelief that Jesus truly cares for them or why would all of this be happening to them? I relate so well to this question for it was my own for so many years of my life.

The ordeals of life are overwhelming sometimes, but God’s faithfulness to His Promises are even more overwhelming if we will continue to stay with Him. He will kindly and patiently help us find Him in these awful circumstances and allow us to replace our questions of doubt with confidence in thanksgiving. I am a living testament of this and I am so very grateful!

Have you ever noticed the difference in people and their expression of “I love you”? This statement is one I never heard from either of my parents as a child growing up. I wouldn’t even of wanted to hear it from my dad. It would have only added fuel to my bitterness towards him if I thought he loved me on top of his abusive behaviors. However, my mom was such the opposite. She deeply cared for each of us kids from the physical standpoint. The girls talk about mom’s care for them from the emotional standpoint also.

My sis-in-law invited me to join them for dinner last night ahead of going to choir practice. This topic of love came up. She is one who never lets her kids or grandkids leave without them knowing she loves them. I have grandkids who are exceptionally good at saying this each and every time we are together. They prompt me to do the same. This statement is truly one of kindness and affection. I know that I am much more like my mom in that I can easily care for you, but saying this doesn’t come to mind unless I’m reminded by another one’s words.

God has not let this rest in my mind and heart since last night. I need to grow in saying this–I love you. Words are powerful. My heart is in this statement so I need to get better at letting others know.

Yesterday was such a nice day. One of my granddaughter’s turned 16 and she wanted her party to be at our home. Kathy was going to be gone but that was no problem. I enjoy hosting. My granddaughter wanted homemade ice cream which I have only frozen over the years, never made. I said we’d have to save this request for another occasion. However, the day after I said this I realized I can follow a recipe so I then said I’d make it. Well, it was a big success! Grandpa was happy along with my granddaughter and the rest of the family.

Have you ever noticed that when God answers prayer it is often so much more than the simple prayer was? My devotional this morning was pointing this out. It made me think all over again how I use to pray for God to remove the memories of my abusive past so I could live in freedom. Little did I realize that His plan was so much bigger and meaningful. He didn’t remove the memories at all. What He did was to replace the guilt and shame with the desire to use the memories to help others be free of their own bondage. I know I’ve written about this a lot, but it is worth writing about again. Our God is so much richer and bigger than our wildest dreams. He will complete them with His purpose in mind which is so much more fulfilling than than anything we might want.

As I looked up from my desk while reading a devotional this morning, I saw the most beautiful sunrise. The sky was brilliant with red hues showing through the pine trees bordering my yard. I quickly took a picture of it. In so doing I then noticed the daffodils in the flower bed the camera caught that I didn’t even see. In all of this I was quickly reminded that God is so much more than the eye catches. I wish I could place the picture here but I don’t know how this could be done? Hopefully you can close your eyes and picture it from these words!

God is so kind and good. His surprises like this morning are all around us when we take a moment to grasp them. How much I need to take a step back and reflect allowing God’s continuous masterpiece to simply be noticed. In so doing, I get filled with gratitude for the immensity of His blessings!

A few days ago I wrote about a book, Freedom Starts Today. The entry for today told of closing our garage doors. The author had forgotten to close his garage door one night and he panicked. His children were 4, 3 and 1 so he quickly checked on them and all other important items in the house. All was safe, but had been highly at risk. The author then relates this scenario to all of the garage doors we daily leave open: cell phones, computers, where our eyes look, what we purchase, what we choose to watch on TV and the list goes on. Part of our commitment to God needs to be the choice to close these garage doors so there is no conscious entry available for temptation. I say conscious here because we can prepare for what we know. The Holy Spirit will be on guard for the deceptions unknown to us for Satan cannot fool God’s Holy Spirit as he can us.

I truly liked this analogy. It is a great visual in my mind of easy entrance for temptations and what I can do to address them. As I’ve been working through this 90-day process, it is such a good way to stay focused on what easy prey we are when we do not make the choices to “put on the full Armor of God that His Holy Spirit provides for us as outlined in Ephesians 6:10-18.

It doesn’t matter what our struggle is, the steps for protection are very much the same. Today I commit to being humble, admitting my weaknesses and asking The Holy Spirit to be my STRENGTH for HE is GOD within us!

Celebrate Recovery uses the Serenity Prayer each time one meets. There is a powerful line in this prayer that I’ve always appreciated but only had limited understanding of it. This line is, “…one day at a time, one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.” Sobriety in anything: breaking a habit, changing what I believe, starting a new healthy habit, stopping an unhealthy behavior: i.e., swearing, being negative, etc.), and the list goes on. In all or any of these, we will only find success if we take them one day at a time, one moment at a time, as the prayer states. This much I’ve always understood.

What God is awakening in me of late is the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT within me. Whether I’m addressing a change of behavior, a habit or a belief (lie) that needs changing, the work I can do with it can only take place in the present because that is where I am today. Tying to this is the truth that God calls Himself The Great I AM. Since God is SPIRIT and I have the Holy Spirit within me, He works in me today. Tomorrow He will work in me when tomorrow is now today. This is so simple, but I’ve never seen it as simple. My “wants” have been to obliterate my bad habits. My pride has always wanted to not have to admit I’ve struggled with pornography, been sexually used by a gay brother, etc. I just wanted to be a nice, productive man who is happily married and has wonderful children and grandchildren.

God is patiently and kindly awakening in me the disgusting side of flesh when it comes to what I’m writing about. My reliance on Him is understanding and cooperating with Him and His Spirit within me. I can “do all things in Christ” if I understand the simple truth that I take it one day at a time! It has taken me a lot of years to come to this understanding, but now that I’m here–I want to stay and live this out the rest of my earthly life.

I’ve always been intrigued by The Holy Spirit. God is Spirit, He gave us The Holy Spirit when we accepted Christ into our hearts, we have spirit and our spirit will live forever with God upon death. But, what is spirit?

When I was a boy my dad use to tell me he had to kill that spirit of mine. He’d talk about breaking a horse’s spirit so it would obey the rider. That was what he was going to do with me and for each of us boys–break our spirit. Doing this counseling now, I see so many folks who have a broken spirit. This morning as I was journaling and had asked Jesus what He wanted me to know for today, He said, “Your dad never broke your spirit, he severely damaged it. You don’t break/kill something that is eternal, but you can easily damage it.”

As a dad, grandpa and now counselor, I find myself wanting to nurture one’s spirit and help them find the “gifts of the Spirit that are within them”. This is what God wants His children to do for their own children and He wants grandparents to do for their grandchildren. Helping children see who they are and respect who they are is a gift that carries right into eternity. The beautiful part of this is that understanding spirit has the help of The Holy Spirit within us. I have seen this help and experienced this help for myself through the years of my personal counseling, participation in Celebrate Recovery, and participation in the restoration classes I’ve had. I also now get to witness this help with others through the counseling process. It is humbling and fulfilling! Spirit is real and there is immense substance to Spirit once we tune in.

As I crawled into bed last night knowing it was likely going to freeze this morning, I asked God to protect the vegetable and flower plants I have in the greenhouse. I awoke quite early to hear the windmills whirling in the neighboring orchards so I got up to check the temperature in the greenhouse. It was right at freezing. I have a small heater in it, but…. I put a covering over all of the small plants with the heater under the cover. The plants were smiling as I left!

I so often write these days about the counseling program I’m involved with. I just can’t get away from doing so. It seems every day I am able to see God’s handiwork in the lives of those coming. One person who is coming is one I’ve known for 45 years. As they left yesterday, I was told how much this is helping them far above what they’d ever hoped. It truly is humbling and amazing to be in a position where all of your life events can be tools in God’s hands. I am a very grateful servant!

I have been looking for something to help some of the men I’m working with to address their need for sobriety. This is in a couple of areas of struggle. A couple of days ago I was looking at the books on one of the book shelves in my study only to find one entitled: Freedom Starts Today: Overcoming struggles and addictions one day at a time, by John Elmore. I didn’t recall having it but I found that I’d purchased it a year ago while attending the biblical counseling conference in Fort Worth, TX. (I came home from that conference with a suitcase and backpack filled with resources). As I read through its beginning I found it seemed to be exactly what I had wanted.

I talked with a close friend of mine and asked that he be my accountability for the 90 days the book addresses with the daily commitment to be sober for 24 hours. Each day you write out your commitment to God and then call or text your person letting them know the 24 hour commitment you just made. If you have stumbled in the past 24 hours you report that too. Each day the author has written a short devotional adding to the day’s start. I ordered the books for the guys and will introduce it to them next week. I’m so grateful for God’s Light that He gives. These men I’m talking about are not dealing with their “first rodeo” struggling with sobriety. This book is written just for them. I’m doing it along with them knowing I’m always one slip away from stumbling myself.

Our God is so kind and amazing!