Quiet Me With Your Love

As I worked my way through some devotional readings, I came across this passage: "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

 

I thought of my life. I thought of what the passage says about God and how He feels about me. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in me. He will quiet me with his love. He will rejoice over me. I confess that although I do not know if I fully understand what it means to be quieted by His love, I do know that there is something inside me that says, "I need that, Lord!" As I pondered more, I prayed, "Lord, please quiet me with Your love."

 

"Lord, please quiet me with Your love."

 

"Lord, please quiet me with Your love."

 

"Lord, I get loud sometimes. Not so much verbally loud, but my spirit gets loud. My heart gets loud. My mind gets loud. The world around me gets loud and the loudness overwhelms me to the point that everything within me and around me seems to be loud. So, Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

 

In these times of unrest and confusion in our nation and world, I need to be quieted by your love, dear Lord. Decisions are being made that may well change the way we live and function as a people. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

 

As the years pass more rapidly than my mind can comprehend, I need to be quieted with Your love.

 

I cannot keep up. I try, but I seem to fall farther and farther behind. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

 

In times of discouragement when I fail to live like You have asked me to live, I need to be quieted by Your love.  In times of disappointment over dreams that have faded and when other people have failed to live up to my expectations, I need to be quieted by Your love.  Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

 

In times of loss and my heart has been broken, I need to be quieted by your love. In times of sadness when a joyful spirit seems too much to consider, I need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

 

In times of frustration when I try so hard to reach a goal, and I fail again and again, I need to be quieted by Your love.  Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

 

Be quieted by His love, and have a wonderful week!

 

Wait!!

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried,
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait."

"Wait? You say, wait! " my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By Faith, I have asked, and am claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me to WAIT?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

And Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, "You must wait."
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting ... for what?"

He seemed, then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And he tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want - But, you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You'd never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and I save... (for a start),
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.

You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that "My grace is sufficient for Thee."
Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come true,
But, Oh, the Loss! If I lost what I'm doing in you!

So, be silent, My Child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, "WAIT."

Love and blessings to all,
Have a great weekend!!

God's Will

While watching the World Series, I was reminded of this wonderful devotional thought...

 

During the late 50's and early 60's, a man by the name of Bobby Richardson played second base for the NY Yankees. Bobby Richardson was nominated as MVP of the American League nine times. He played in seven All-star Games. He won five Gold Glove Awards. And he was the only man in baseball history to ever win the World Series MVP Award while playing for the losing team.

In the later years of Bobby Richardson's career, he coached the baseball team at Liberty University. The reason such a great player was willing to coach at a Christian university was because Bobby Richardson was himself a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

During a speech at a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bobby Richardson was called upon to pray and here is his prayer:  "Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen."

May that be your prayer today.  "Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.  Amen."

 

Have a great weekend!!

Finding Deliverance In The Lions' Den

So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, 'May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!' (Daniel 6:6)  
            
No question,  Daniel got a raw deal.  He was set up by jealous, lesser men who wanted him out of the way.  It seemed like they succeeded, except for one thing ... they overlooked Daniel's trust in God. 

The interesting thing, however, about Daniel being thrown into the lions' den is that God didn't deliver him out of the den before Daniel found deliverance in it.  Imagine if Daniel had fought against being thrown into the den (which he would have been justified in doing) and gone into the den fighting against it every inch of the way, chances are the lions would have torn him to shreds before he hit the bottom.  But Daniel didn't. He accepted his lot and trusted his life to God who shut the lion's mouths. 
            
On more than one occasion I have asked God that if I am not going to be delivered out of my "lion's den" (naming the  situation I'm in), would he please deliver me in it.  Here I have to remind myself that "I am convinced He is able to keep all that I have entrusted to Him until that day." (2 Tim 1:12)

Sometimes, like Daniel, God has a lesson for us to learn in our present difficult situation and before he delivers us out of it, like Daniel, we need to find deliverance in it. 

Have a great week!

"And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matthew 13:58)


It sure was frustrating, but it turned out to be my own fault. Let me explain. I was standing in front of the television set trying to get a new DVD to play. The DVD began to play, but when I would walk away, it would abruptly stop playing. The power to the DVD player would turn itself off and the entire screen would go blank.

I walked back to the silly thing and tried it again. And again the process repeated itself. It worked fine for a while, and when I walked away - it shut down once more.

Finally, I was determined to get the thing working right. I stood there and turned the thing on again. (I was getting pretty good at it by now) I watched the FBI copyright warning scroll across the screen. The Menu Window appeared. I selected a scene. I pressed the Play button. And I watched for a full 30 seconds to make certain it really was going to work this time. The video was now in full swing, so I walked away.

And the power shut itself off and the screen went blank once again! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! If I had any hair left, I'd pull it out. I looked at my wife -- who by now was bent over laughing herself silly -- and then I looked over at my desk. And then I saw it. I had inadvertently laid my laptop down on top of the DVD remote control.

And it was pushing the OFF button.

When I walked to the television set to turn the DVD player on, I walked into the path of the remote control, thereby blocking the OFF signal it was sending. Everything worked fine until I moved out of the signal path and the OFF message was once again transmitted. I had gotten in the way -- and that caused my frustration.

You know, sometimes we get in the way of God, don't we?

We do it when we have a lack of faith.

In the Bible, we read of a specific incident where the people doubted the power and authority and position of Jesus Christ. And the Word tells us "And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matthew 13:58)

I think that happens a lot in our lives today. God wants to do mighty works in, through and around us - but we get in his way by doubting. Think about it. How many times have you heard this... "We've never done it that way before" or "This is how we've always done it in the past."

That's another way of saying "We're going to limit what we allow God to do by putting guidelines on how He can work - He's got to do things like we've always done before."

Or, how many times have you felt the Lord leading you to do something, but you don't do it because reason says it's illogical and doesn't make any sense at all to us.

That's another way of saying "We're going to limit what we allow God to do by only attempting human-sized tasks that make sense to human's logic and can be accomplished by human's ways."

God is a great big God and He wants to do "mighty works" -- but sometimes we get in the way. We think in terms of the traditions we've gotten accustomed to, or we analyze things by man's abilities instead of God's. And then we wonder why the screen goes blank and the power shuts off.

Maybe it's because we stopped believing that God can accomplish the miraculous.

Our God is an awesome God. And I believe He wants to do "mighty works" in our midst even today. What about you and I? Will we put our complete faith in Him and see what He will do... or will we get in the way?

Have a great week!!

You Can Be A Lion Tamer!!

A first grade teacher seated her students in a circle. She asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. One by one, each child got up and announced, "I'd like to be a nurse like my mother," or "I want to be a banker like my father," or "I want to be a teacher like you, Miss Smith."
The last child to speak was the most shy and timid little boy in the class. He said, "When I get big, I'm going to be a lion tamer in the circus. I'm going to face those animals with my whip and chair and make them leap through hoops of fire and obey all of my commands."
Seeing the disbelieving looks on the faces of his classmates that he could ever act so boldly or bravely, he was quick to reassure them, "Well, of course, I'll have my mother with me."
We are sometimes shy and timid about standing up for Christ in the midst of an immoral society. We keep quiet when we ought to speak up. We cower when we ought to take a stand. Where do we get the inner strength to be bold and brave? Only through the assurance that we have Christ by our side.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil. 4:13).
With that knowledge, take courage today to do something great for God that you've been hesitant to do. In His strength, there's nothing you can't do!

Have a blessed and courage-filled day!!

God IS Good

Have you ever been in need of an encouraging word from God and gone to the book of Nahum looking for it? I didn`t think so; neither have I. Well, surprise, surprise, there is certainly one there, and God led me to it this morning – Nahum 1:7, which reads, “The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him.”
Isn't that good? Well, it gets better when you dig into it a little. There are three things I want to share with you from this little verse...

THE LORD IS GOOD

“THE LORD IS GOOD” - period. Everything about God is good, including everything that is related to me - His thoughts about me, His plans for me, His actions toward me, His guidance in me, His blessings to me, His protection of me, His purposes fulfilled through me and His ordained circumstances that surround me at this very moment in my life. They may not look good, seem good, sound good or feel good – but because they are ordained of God, they ARE good. Colossians 3:3 says that “your life is hid with Christ in God”. Every detail of your life is contained in Him, including your present circumstances, trials, needs, etc.

When I first woke up this morning and looked at the circumstances facing me today, I did not immediately think of them as good, but when I thought about the fact that every path God has led me down has brought me to where I am right now, I realized that where I am right now is not just okay, it is GOOD. Why? How? Because, I arrived at where I am today (right in the midst of a BIG storm) by doing all I know to obey the will of God.

Are you in a storm today? Are you in a crisis? Are you facing some very adverse circumstances? Are you going through a severe trial? Well, take heart – it may not seem good, but as part of the “life that is hid with Christ in God", it IS good, if for no other reason than to demonstrate the second point I want to share with you.

THE LORD IS A STRONG HOLD IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE

The words strong hold mean a fortified place, a defense, a refuge. You may very well be in a very tough spot right now, but you are not helpless or hopeless – and – you are not alone. There IS a place for you to go to for comfort, help and assurance. “From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” The word trouble means adversity, anguish, distress and tribulation. If you have today landed on one of those squares on the board, then you will certainly be encouraged by this third truth from this little verse.

THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT TRUST IN HIM

The word, "know", means to understand as a familiar friend. Hebrews 4:15 assures us that, “we have not a high priest (Jesus) who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” Jesus not only knows about and understands your situation, but He even FEELS right along with you. Now, lets look at the word "trust". Here, it means to confide in, have hope in and to take refuge in. He knows them as a close friend who confide in Him, who hope in Him, and who run to Him to find that place of safety.

Are you in trouble? If so, don`t make the mistake of trying to figure it out or work it out on your own. That is a trick of the enemy and will only lead to disappointment, frustration, fear and exhaustion. Oh, I know, as a “responsible” person you feel you must DO something. Well, you are right.

What you must DO is go to Jesus, confide in Him and take refuge in Him until the storm passes – and it will. No matter WHAT you are facing today, no matter WHAT your circumstances are, no matter WHAT your need is, you can lift your head in confidence and praise the Name of Our Great God! Why? Because THE LORD IS GOOD – and He is good to YOU!

Have a great day and know that the LORD IS GOOD!