Psalm 141 reads like a person who has a settled heart, a settled mind, and settled soul toward our God. It humbly starts with when I cry to you oh God immediately hear me. Let my prayers be incense to you and the lifting of my hand as a sacrifice. What a posture to put ourselves in when we come before the living God!
Next, it asks God to watch over his mouth and keep the doors of his lips. I presume this is to not say anything bad about anyone to someone else. Further, the next sentence is asking for his heart not bend toward any evil thing. As to not to practice wicked works with people who work in iniquities or sin. Furthermore, he does not want to partake in any of their schemes. What good advice for us, right?
As this Psalm concludes it asks to be corrected and reproved by the righteous in kindness as it should be an oil of excellence for him. This gives us an example of our hearts, mind, and soul being open to correction especially when done in kindness, which is a Fruit of the Spirit. When corrected in kindness our hearts, our mind, and our soul should be open to hearing our faults and errors.
Lastly, this Psalm ends on keeping our eyes upon on God. We cannot go wrong when we keep our eyes on God. It is when we start gazing at the world and what it is doing that we start sliding on a slippery slope. As this Psalm indicates when we do this it keeps us from the snares which the enemy lays before us. Ultimately, the wicked will fall into their own nets while we will escape free when we stay humble and keep our eyes on our living God. This is a Psalm to live by! Love & Blessings
Last week I talked about Psalm 71. This passage in the Psalm was so powerful that I will continue talking about the amazement of this Psalm. As I shared last week, it is a prayer of deliverance from the wicked. I believe it is a detailed description of how we should handle the wicked, evil, cruel, unrighteous, toxic people we encounter in our life.
First of all we have to realize we are not dealing with flesh and blood but against principalities, powers of the darkness and wickedness of this world (Ephesians 6:12). Furthermore, what we are experiencing is real. Regrettably, the mistake that most of us make is we want to fight against the flesh and blood, the people, we see in front of us that are causing our problems. However, spiritual warfare is a higher level and how we should be handling the wicked. Thus, if you did not read last week’s blog, I encourage you to go back and read it. Thereupon, you will be up to speed with the half of how we should conduct ourselves.
As we progress through this Psalm, it further instructs us on how we should exercise spiritual warfare and fight like a Christian. Once again, it says our mouths should be full all day long with praise and honor for God. This is how we fight the wicked! When the wicked speak and conspire against us, we ask God for strength and to stay near unto us.
Well, He has already promised He would never leave or forsake us; therefore, what a wonderful way to pray. Further, we ask God to confound and consume our enemies… Confuse them, Lord who try to hurt me! This is powerful! Additionally, pour out more and more praise unto our God by talking about His righteousness and salvation all day long. Moreover, it reminds us we do all of this in the strength of the Lord. Again, this is a high level of fighting our battles.
This is spiritual warfare against our enemies. Then we remind God of how he has taught us and for some of us it has been since our youth. Wherefore, again we rely on those things God has taught us in the past. But then it goes on to say now that I am old and perhaps gray head how we are still relying on our God.
This prayer ends in a masterful way. We not only continue to praise God with our words, but we use our songs to sing his praise. If you have no words to say, go back to your childhood songs such as, “Yes, Jesus Loves Me.” If you play a musical instrument, play your instrument unto God. Yes, this is spiritual warfare to fight the wicked.
The beauty of this prayer of asking God for the destruction of the wicked is our tongue is never used to TALK ABOUT THE WICKED. Sometimes we want to go into details of what somebody did to us. Grant it, it you must get it off your chest and you need a human to tell, find someone you trust explicitly who can keep your confidences. In honoring God, our ranting is best to be taken to the Lord. He knows. He sees. And He has already said vengeance is mine (Romans 12 :17-21).
The last verse in this Psalm reiterates, as throughout this Psalm that our tongue should talk about God’s righteousness and when we do this… the wicked, our enemies are confounded and brought to shame who tries to hurt us. Psalm 71 tells us how to pray for the destruction of the wicked. This is spiritual warfare! Love & Blessings!
My journey of reading the Bible has taken me to the book of Psalms. Surprisingly, I am finding much of what I am reading is my sentiments EXACTLY. Additionally, I must admit, it does make for fascinating reading compared to some of the other books in the Bible. Undoubtedly, Psalm 71 is a prayer for the destruction of the wicked. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we do have wicked people in the world. They are all around us… SMILE! In all seriousness, wicked, evil, and as Psalm 71 says, cruel people in the world.
This is a powerful prayer on many levels. First, this prayer is powerful because it is asking God for deliverance from these toxic, dark people. Second, it acknowledges God as our strong habitation, our rock and our fortress. Next, it talks about our hope in God and how we have trusted and relied on him, for some since our youth. Then we establish that our praise shall continually be in HIM! How powerful are these verses!
Verse 7 in the Psalm was so striking to me… It confesses that I am a wonder unto many! As Christians we should immediately relate to that. I have felt like a wonder to many. Have you? I remember my travels in Kenya. I was traveling alone on a safari. My driver and guide, James, said to me midway through our travels throughout Kenya, “You are different.” I quipped and asked him what he meant. He said to me you are peaceful and don’t use any curse words. I laughed out loud.
The Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit and said that is because you are representing me. That is our purpose on the Earth. We are God’s ambassadors. He uses us to get His work done on the Earth. As I have said before, it is a very humbling experience to know that the God of the universe can use us. It is truly a privilege. Be a wonder in the world. Be a wonder for God. Love and Blessings!
Easter! It brings many emotions. Commercially, we think the Easter bunny, Easter eggs, Easter candy, and all the fun it brings. Spiritually, it brings mixed emotions, right? Jesus, our Lord and Savior, is murdered on the cross. Our God, in the flesh, murdered! Yet, there is so much love in that, too, that God sends His only begotten Son to die for our sins… Oh, what LOVE for US!
When Jesus dies it saddens us. Undoubtedly, the treatment He receives is unfair and unjust, yet planned by the Father. Jesus demonstrates in His humanity this is a burden and sacrifice He did not want to endure. Furthermore, He asks the Father if He can pass this bitter cup; nevertheless, not mine will but thine be done (Luke 22:42). In contrast, God will ask us to make sacrifices and bear burdens we may not want to do in the flesh. However, we know anything God asks us to do is ultimately for our own good. So, Jesus’ death serves as an example to us in trusting God and doing His will for our lives.
The resurrection of Jesus brought us an eternal JOY! Jesus’ claim of being the Savior is true JOY! Jesus defeating death, as we will defeat death, too, for those who believe upon Him brings JOY! The Joy comes so that we may have the abundant, victorious life God has promised US! What a gift that is given to US!
Today, as modern- day disciples, we should have a burning excitement for what Jesus did for us on the cross. We escape hell because of Jesus! We have eternal life because of Him! It is a privilege of sharing what Jesus did for us on the cross and the encounters we have with Him personally in our lives which is a beautiful thing! Because of Easter, we are the hands, mouth, and feet of Jesus… Amen! Love & Blessings!
Is this you? Furthermore, are you happy that you are not walking in the counsel of the ungodly? Resoundingly, YES! HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD! Now, if you have to hesitate and think about your response on this, there is possibly some Holy Ghost work that needs to be done…SMILE. In all seriousness, if you are struggling over this then you need to ask, who’s got me? Who gets my attention, the world or God?
Happy is he who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly (Psalm 1.1). Explicitly, what a striking way to start the Psalms! Emphatically, Dane C. Ortlund says the Psalms reflects God’s beauty and how he wants to enchant, allure, woo, and draw us up into Him! Reflectively, do the Psalms enchant, allude, woo, and draw you up by God’s magnificence? I hope so! I am often swept up in God’s ways and how he loves and cares for us all, even the creatures of this world. Often, my mind cannot truly take in all of Him and who He is. I love basking in just who He is!
Surprisingly, this first Psalm in Psalms caught my attention immediately. Refreshingly, it was so wonderful to read that we should be happy because we do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful! That means I am on the right track! Furthermore, it talks about how we should delight in God and His law meditating on it day and night. Additionally, there is a comparison drawn between the godly and ungodly.
Magnificently, how encouraging and uplifting to know our God knows and sees all and calls us happy for those who choose His ways. As the Psalm points out, we have a choice to be happy and righteous or ungodly and perish… I choose happy and righteous! Which do you choose? Love & Blessings!
Life can and will be depressing at times. It happens to all of us. We all have stuff, situations, circumstances, conditions that happen to us. We do not like them when they happen. It has the capacity in some cases deplete us of all of our joy, happiness, peace, and contentment. It can leave us bewildered. This is what happened to Job. The same can and probably will happen to us, too.
I love, love, love, the Bible because it gives us so many examples of how we should handle our lives. We get instructions on what to do, what not to do, how to cast our cares on God because he careth for us. So, Job was stripped of everything except his life. After Satan got through with him, he had wished he was never born (Job 3:1-3.) I have had days and moments like this. Have you?
Job did not know Satan was behind the wretchedness that was happening in his life. Some heartaches we go through is self-inflicted, sometimes it is because of other people’s actions. But sometimes it is Satan himself on our trial trying to kill, steal, and destroy our faith. This was the case for Job. Satan told God if everything was taken from him, he would curse God (Job 1: 10-11).
I believe we can learn from Job that life can have some depressing events. It is normal for us to grieve, question, wonder, cry, and become silent, because truly sometimes it can leave us speechless. However, also recognize Satan is coming in for the kill. He used Job’s on wife to try and get Job to curse God and die (Job 2: 9). He had a profound response of shall we not receive good from God and not evil? (Job 2:10)
When life presents with depressing events, as with Job, stand on your faith. Even when you do not understand and not make sense of things, stand on your faith. This is one of many lessons we learn from Job and probably the most significant one.
Life can be depressing when things start to happen, but recognize our perspective and how we choose to take things in will determine if we will overcome the depression or if the depression will overtake us. We never like those depressing events, but we have to continue to keep our eyes focused on God to help us through the maze of depression. He will lead and guide us through as he did with numerous people in the Bible. If he did it for them, he certainly we do it for us. He will specialize for you what you need for your situation to be able to move forward… Harken unto him. Love & Blessings!
What are your David and Goliath moments? God LOVES to show up and show out in our situations, when we invite Him into them. The Bible says we should acknowledge God in all of thy ways and He will direct our path. The times He shows up in our lies we have instant experience with Him. We should recall these experiences constantly. Why? Because stuff is always happening in our lives.
At the beginning of 2022 I was battling with a huge financial institution that was trying to steal my money. God showed it to me. Then he showed me how to get it back. It was a long arduous process, but He led me through it VICTORIOUSLY! So when another company tried to bully and intimidate me here at the beginning of 2023, I knew that God had my back when I IMMEDIATELY took it to Him. Once again He lead me through the ordeal VICTORIOUSLY!
My experience with God gives me a comfort level of knowing when stuff happens, I can cast my cares on Him. Why? Because the Bible says He cares for me so and through my experiences, He has taken care of it. I have found the key to all of this is to continue to walk in the spirit. Continue to reflect Jesus in your life to the point no one knows you are battling a trial. In actuality, they should not because God is doing the fighting not you. He will tell you somethings to do. We do them and take our hands off of it. He may give us more things to do. This is the importance of us LISTENING to Him. I say God speaks to us all the time. It is up to us if we are paying attention.
Let God lead you in your David and Goliath moments. Love & Blessings!
During my last visit with the lady inmates, God impressed upon me to share with the ladies the practicality of our faith. God LOVES to get involved in the details of our lives, if we let Him. He has done this repeatedly in my life. Just recently it was a 60-day battle with a company that everything the company told me they were NOT going to do, God in His AWESOMENESS reversed everything and I got everything what I initially requested and more! The BATTLE was God’s and not mine. I just did what He told me to do!
Upon sharing the practicality of our God and Him wanting to work in the details of our lives, the ladies interrupted me when they saw a male deputy walk into the room to let him know their dorm rooms were cold and they needed more blankets. The ladies shared when they asked before they were told they only could receive two sheets and one blanket. However, the blanket that they received was designed with holes and it does not keep them warm at night. They described their nose, hands, feet and whole body still being cold. To try and keep warm, they place one of the sheets on top of the blanket to keep a tad bit warmer.
The deputy went to the back where the dorms were. We continued with my visit talking about God and how practical He is in working in the details of our lives. Twenty or thirty minutes later we see two male deputies usher in a cart full of charcoal colored blankets! The Holy Spirit struck… We all got happy! LOL! God worked in the details of these ladies’ concern of not having enough blankets to keep warm at night. What a perfect example for the ladies to SEE how God works in our lives, if we let Him!
The deputies did not know what my topic was for the evening. They did not know what God had me to impress upon the ladies before I got there. But God knew why He wanted me to share this with the ladies, because He wanted to SHOW them the practicality of our faith.
Folks, this is a beautiful thing to watch our God at work! One of the deputies had a bewildered look on his face when he and his partner brought in the blankets. I explained to the ladies, God can use anybody and anything to get His work done on the Earth. If He used Balaam’s donkey to speak to him, he can use anybody and anything. God can change the hearts and minds of people without them even knowing why they are doing what they are doing.
This was such a priceless and powerful demonstration of our God at work that I wanted to share. Continue to keep ALL inmates and sheriffs departments around the world in your prayers. Yes, God is getting His work done in the jails and prisons! Love & Blessings!
Many of you asked that I share what is happening or stories about the jail ministry. I share this with the permission from the ladies I meet with on a weekly basis….
The question is, is God in the jails and prisons? The answer is a resounding YES! Excitingly, it is a beautiful thing to see the Holy Spirit move within the jail not only with the inmates, but with the deputies and other staff members. Some of the deputies have shared their testimonies with me about our Lord. Moreover, the inmates are very much familiar with our Lord, too. Admittedly, this was somewhat perplexing to me when I saw it because one would ask, how did they end up here? They each shared their story with the group.
Observably, I noticed each of them had two denominators, Satan and drugs. Truth be known, Satan is a denominator for all of us. The second denominator could be anything for anyone of us that would push us over the edge and we find ourselves locked up in jail or prison… But by the grace of God go I. This is a glaring reminder our relationship with God is more than what we know about Him. I often say Satan knows God and can quote scriptures! It is about our heart attitude toward God. It is the foundation of our intimacy with Him. Furthermore, it is also a sober reminder why we need God’s help EVERY DAY through Jesus Christ…Amen.
Valentine’s Day was February 14… Happy Belated Valentine’s Day to everyone! In honor of the day of love and our God, the ladies had a ceremony to celebrate! The ladies do not have a lot of supplies, but they created this program that you see for each of the ladies. You can read the order of the program and what was included. Arguably, I believe they gave God their best that day. Additionally, it speaks volumes of what the Lord is doing in the jails and prisons across the country. It is good news! Subsequently, the next day when I visited them, they shared with me their celebration and presented me with a handmade rose (see the attached picture). I believe their actions put a BIG smile on God’s face!
I ask that you continue to pray for our ladies and gentlemen in the jail and prison population. Undoubtedly, they do have a long road ahead of them, but they are planning and preparing for their new beginning when they are released. As with all of us and keeping God first, they will make it. We all take it one day at a time. Invariably, God is working with those whose hearts and minds are open to Him. Thank you for your love & support.
Job teaches us it is possible to have great grief and maintain our integrity with the Lord. The first two chapters of Job spells out his fate. I believe the saying, “When it rains, it pours,” is very fitting for what happened to Job. He loss EVERYTHING that was meaningful to him except his wife and his life. Ironically, his wife encourages him to curse God. So, in retrospect, maybe he loss his wife too as she was no support to him. The Bible describes this at the end of chapter two, “Job suffered great grief.”
Job loves God. He does not understand what was going on and why all hell breaks loose in his life, but he still loved God. What an example for us. Job’s life was not put in the Bible by accident. It is purposely put there to encourage and inspire us, that no matter how hard it gets, no matter how bad it gets, no matter if all hell breaks loose in our lives, at the end of the day, WE STILL HAVE GOD! In essence that is all that we need. We sometimes forget that. We cherish our treasures, things, people, family and friends in our lives, but at the end of the day, they are all temporary. What is lasting is our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We all this building your hope on things that are eternal.
If you are living and breathing and happen to be reading this, you will have great grief in your life. It will be different for each of us. It may come in multiples like it did for Job, but you will have it. What will you do? Will you take Job’s wife advise to curse God and die? That death does not have to be a physical death. It can be a self-imposed separation from God by denouncing your faith or having a pity party of what has happened to you. Or, will you maintain your integrity before God?
This is not to say you do not hurt, you do not cry, you are not baffled. You experience the great grief that you are in, but your comeback is, “Lord, I trust you; Lord, I love you.” Grant it, Job did not say these exact words in the Bible, but it is implied. God knows Job’s heart; therefore, He allows Satan to wreak havoc in His life. The story of Job is an example of how we should handle our great griefs in life. Love & Blessings!
