Tag: Christian encouragement for today

Cultivating Slow Living

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If you have ever spent time in a garden, you know to get the most out of what you are planting, you must first spend time cultivating the soil. This involves preparing the soil to support the life of the seed or the plant. It is about nourishing and amending the soil. This ensures it will have all the healthful benefits needed to reach full maturity and fruitfulness.

Many want fruitfulness. However, the way we have been pursuing it has left many less than satisfied. They feel deflated, worn out, and frazzled because of all it takes to reach it in this world of demands.

Our modern culture allows us to do many things. This increase in perceived productivity has been helpful in some areas while taking its toll on others.

The physical, emotional, and mental burnout that people have come to equate with success has created dissatisfaction. This has awakened a not-so-silent call for a better way to live. There must be more than this constantly rushing about.

Many have become aware of the unhealthy way our over-rushed and overworked culture has pushed us forward and the term “slow living” has regained our attention. Dealing with constant busyness and hurried lifestyles has caused some to take a step back. In this, they reflect and reevaluate what is really a priority for them to have a wholesome, balanced, and healthy life. And what many are finding out is that there is a real need to put space on the calendar or the everyday routine of life to let go, and get slow.

Slow, misunderstood, and used wrongly, can be viewed as laziness. But slow can be beautiful because you are deciding to be purposeful with your life. Moving forward at a hundred miles an hour is not your goal, rather you account that people and life, in general, are made for so much more than mere zooming by without the time for deep connections. So, you take the time to love, nourish, be intentional, and simply live and enjoy all the ways God has blessed you.

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You are cultivating, on purpose, the ground of your life to support more than agendas and achievements. The abundance you are desiring cannot be confined to such trivial things. The greatest example is in our relationship with Christ.

Jesus promised us an abundant life (John 10:10). That abundance is not about forcing or focusing on things we can gain in this world or material wealth. The richest thing one can invest in to be more intentional with the life they have been given is more of Him. That cannot happen if we are always distracted by constantly doing and never taking the time to sit and be where He is (Luke 10:40-42).

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10).

Cultivating slow living is not about shirking responsibilities or approaching life with a lackadaisical attitude. This is about valuing everything I have been given, especially the people in my life, and I want to care for each and honor each in a way that lets them know I esteem them, I am here for them, and I love them. I want to use this life in a way that pleases God by stewarding well what He has given me and not have my focus continually on climbing some invisible ladder of success.

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Think about what pursuit has you running about at a hurried pace today? The Bible tells us, “He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour” (Proverbs 21:21).

It is so easy to get caught up in what has been dubbed “the rat race,” but our daily living is made for more. These days, people, and moments are gifts to us by our Heavenly Father and we are encouraged about how we spend our time with each (Ephesians 5:15, 16).

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”
Ecclesiastes 3:1

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Changing what we pursue and how we pursue it will make our lives a lot less stressful. Take time today to slow down, prioritize, and recenter on what matters most. There is so much more to life, and we don’t want to miss it.

So, how do we make this change?

  • Prioritize – Look where you are now and what you want your tomorrow to look like. To achieve your desired outcome, what can you let go of or shave down some so that you don’t always feel at your wit’s end. I can attest to the fact that often we take on more than we are capable of in any given season. Laying something aside right now doesn’t mean it’s not important; it just means it doesn’t fit in with the season of life I’m in right now. So we prioritize, bringing out the best without being overburdened with things that can wait.
  • Recenter – Once you have strained out the main priorities for your right-now season, you can recenter and mark your path forward. When using a GPS, sometimes I look at the overview screen of the trip to see the highways and streets we must travel ahead of us. But when I need to get back to dealing with where I am currently on my journey, I need to hit the recenter button. While it’s okay to think about the future (the Bible encourages this often), we must also pay attention to where we are in our present moment. What needs our immediate attention right now? How much strength, time, and commitment can I put into this right now? These are important questions to ask. We often get hurried and over-stressed because we want to deal with all the right-now stuff the along with the what-ifs of the future stacked on top of it. Most of the daily things we deal with can be broken down into more manageable tasks and delegated to other times. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing (an attitude that overworks us).
  • Go slow – take a deep breath and move forward at a manageable pace. There have been times I have prayed and asked God to help me steward this day or for the best way to handle the tasks in front of me. He, who is the “Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:9), has the wisdom and strength your day needs. Trust Him with your schedule. We are given gifts to be productive, but remember, God, who is the Author of those gifts, is also the Author of rest (Genesis 2:2,3). Not just with the Sabbath, but throughout Scripture, His call to rest is a call to trust in what He is doing in your life during this season. We become filled with ideas and inspirations and want to put the pedal to the metal and give it our all. And that’s fine. But if you are feeling burned out and extremely overwhelmed, you have to question is this what God has for me in this season, or is it me rushing ahead? And if we feel it is the Lord’s leading, perhaps we need to revisit steps 1 and 2 to be sure we have shaved unnecessary things away for now.
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Don’t be disheartened. Schedules often need to be revisited to see if everything we have going on right now is for our optimal good. Recently, I have personally had to revisit how I approach certain tasks, and it is helping me see that although I love my routines, some routines or expectations may not work for certain periods of life. We must be willing to move and adjust when feeling led or if we feel like this particular thing isn’t working for now, and trust God with the outcome.

We want to cultivate a life where we are productive under God’s grace without completely feeling exhausted and stressed as if we are being buried under the burden of each day’s demands. Sometimes, slowing down will help us to do just that. Enjoy this life God has given.

Blessings ~

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Quiet

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Friends, there is a stillness of heart and soul one must appreciate and long for. When the world demands noise and roars its desires, the Lord beckons us to steal away in His presence and just be still (Psalm 46:10). It is in the quietness of this moment where we shut out the world’s demands and wrap ourselves in the familiar embrace of knowing our God.

~Word for Life Says

Conversations of the Heart

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“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

Conversations of the heart. What is your heart speaking or what is speaking to your heart today? What inner dialogue is taking place? Is it a place of questioning? Is it a pondering some great point? Is what is being spoken there offering you peace and comfort for the days you are facing?

There, in the deepest recesses of your being, in the only place God and you know of, is an exchange of ideas, intentions, thoughts, opinions, and beliefs.

It’s where we form a picture of our lives. It’s where we store wisdom to draw from, love to explore, feel, and give, and it is also where we find encouragement for those less-than-perfect days.

Our hearts need a constant filling of the things that will nurture the inner man. For the soul of a man is fed from the fruit thereof.

Today, I offer you encouragement that will help strengthen the conversation of your heart. May the voice and power of Scripture speak where you need it most.

Blessings~

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.” Psalm 31:24

“Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Psalm 37:4

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” Mark 12:30

“My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” Psalm 73:26

“Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.” Psalm 119:2

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Her Name Was Deborah!

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I bet you’ve never seen a bee like this one before, but as sure as this is the meaning of her name, this industrious lady of the Bible took care of her hive.

Wayward in heart and misdirected by sinful intentions describes the children of Israel after prominent leaders such as Joshua passed off the scene. It was then, that the people found themselves in a vicious cycle of sin, repentance, and deliverance, only to be repeated over and over again.

When they continued to travel out of the will of God, God would allow His people to experience times of adversity through the means of some outside force, usually via oppression from other nations.  During this adverse period, the people would humble themselves before God, and God would extend His mercy by sending a deliverer their way in the form of what we call “judges.”  These leaders of the day would not only be conveyors of what God had to say to the people at that time, but they would also be the instruments God would use to orchestrate their deliverance and bring them out of whatever trouble they currently found themselves in due to their disobedience.

When the judge God used for a particular deliverance passed off the scene, the disobedient hearts of the people usually found themselves entangled once again in idol worshiping and sin, and suffered another set of adverse conditions until God called another judge into action to rise and bring the people out once more.

The choice of discipline the people faced in Judges 4 was through “Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor” (Judges 4:2) who for twenty years “mightily oppressed the children of Israel” (4:3).

It was then, the Bible notes, that there was an unusual woman in the land of Israel.  She was not only a wife, being married to “Lapidoth,” but she was a judge, a leader, and considered a prophetess.  Her name was “Deborah” (Judges 4:4).

Not much is known personally of Deborah outside of Judges 4-5.  We are not exactly sure how she received her calling from God to step into this place of leadership, but we do know that her ears and her heart were opened to God and He used her in a mighty way to not only bring about deliverance for the children of Israel but to also effectively lead them when they “came up to her for judgment.”  She was likened, in her and Barak’s song found in chapter 5, as a mother who arose in Israel (Judges 5:7); a woman who cared for her people and her God, and believed through His leading and power they could do what God said they could do.

So, there she was found “under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgement” (Judges 4:5).  I wish we had just an inkling of Deborah’s age (Was she aged with wisdom, or was she young and spunky, or was she somewhere in the middle but not given to mediocrity?), but we are not privileged with that information.  Her story is not about statistics or the status quo (of which she was not).  Her story was of faith and longing to do right for God and man.  By gender, she may not have been the typical deliverer for Israel, but by faith, her story shows that God doesn’t put limits on who He can use or not.  Sometimes, He thinks outside of the box and throws off the stereotypes to use the one whom we may least expect.

Are you a Deborah? Called into an unusual position during an unusual time?

Do you carry the burden of people and situations in your heart? Do you care about what God wants to do through the lives of others, and even your own life? Do you seek to be open to His services and to be helpful to those around you? Then, you may be a Deborah.

While your name may differ, the stirring in your heart is the same. While the roles you are functioning in may not look the same, the fact that you are seeking to function in His will for the benefit of God and man may qualify you as a Deborah.

In her, we see leadership.

In her, we see motivation.

In her, we see an open vessel ready to be used by the Master.

In her, we see a heart that will not fear or back down from the challenge.

In her, we see poise and caring, but she is also a force to be reckoned with.

In her, we see a faith that refuses to be extinguished by the circumstances of the day.

For one whom we don’t know much about, can we glean a lot from her short story represented in the pages of Scripture.

Unlike some around her, she was not a hesitant leader (Judges 4:6-8).  Her name may call her as a bee, but she was lionhearted, sure, confident, and decisive and she literally rose to the occasion when her people needed her the most.  She was a spiritual champion.  I don’t believe she would wield a sword, but she sure wielded her faith.  She had no qualms about going where God already told them they would have the victory (Judges 4:9-10).  She could readily agree with the psalmist, saying, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” (Psalms 118:6).

Her confidence in God showed through her decisions, leadership, influence, judging, and prophecies (Judges 4:14).  “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe,” (Psalms 29:25; see also Psalms 118:8).  She may have been a woman, but she was not a wavering woman.  She stood flat-footed and held on to the Word of God.

Through her guidance and encouragement as a godly leader, her people gained the victory over their oppressors and lived in peace for the next forty years (Judges 5:31).

Her name is Deborah. Read her story in Judges 4-5, and be encouraged by the tenacity of her life.

“The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.” Judges 5:7

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Everything Healed

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The world we live in currently bears the scars of the travesty that has taken place. When sin entered, it did more than cause our separation from God (which was the worst). It also caused hurt, disorder, dysfunction, and disease where there was only to be peace, love, harmony, and health.

Our Garden of Eden has become a briar patch of thorns and pain that hurt and hinder where the Word was spoken for good. The truth of this condition is told in Scripture as the Apostle Paul says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:22, 23).

When something is groaning it means something is not right. Think along the lines of an upset stomach. People tend to groan and hold themselves tightly to express their utter discomfort at the wrong they feel going on inside themselves. Their body is in pain until that which caused the discomfort is cured and eased.

In the above verses, there is groaning seen in the state of man and creation alike. But the promise for those in Christ is that it will not remain as it is now. Healing is on the horizon. Nature will regain its right order. That which was called good will shine brighter than its original beauty before. And we, my friends, who have experienced and lived through the turmoil of this world, will finally find the ultimate peace and completion of true wholeness.

That which is flesh will be given over to the Spirit. That of the world will dissipate before glory. The enemy you see today, you will see no more for everything will be healed. You will be freer than you have ever been before as the burdens of this life are laid down once and for all, as the culmination of everything we have maintained this hope for comes to pass.

As we carry His Spirit in us today, we carry it with the knowing that our faith, although it has seen many trials, is not in vain. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

The promise is there, and the promise is real. Everything not fitted for the purpose of that glorious Kingdom will be done away with. Tears and death, hopelessness and despair, pain, and suffering – all will be passed away (Revelation 21:4). “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new . . .” (Revelation 21:5). What was wrong will be righted. What was broken will be fully and completely healed as groanings are replaced by glory forever.

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” – Isaiah 65:17

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” – 1 Peter 5:10

“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” – 1 John 5:4

Daily

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“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11

The soul must recognize, and the heart acknowledge, there is not a day that goes by when we don’t need the holy provisions that come from on high. The hope, joy, and peace of heaven – every good, and every perfect gift from above – all of it we need daily to feed this spiritual life (James 1:17).

You, O God, are the one true source of all. To look anywhere else to nourish our souls for these times would be a futile pursuit. It is in You that we find the freedom we so long for. It is before You, we lay our cares, our thoughts, our burdens at Your holy feet.

Whatever we place there may feel like a lot to us, but it is never too much for You. So, daily You invite us to come, ask, seek, knock, and believe in faith (Matthew 7:7-8).

Today, and every day, we know that we need You. You, who were the manna in the wilderness, are the daily, living bread we need for this life right now (John 6:47-51). As a man starved in appetite, let us look to You for our heavenly sustenance (Matthew 5:6). You are the hope we lean upon, daily.

Friend, go to Him, daily.

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We Will Get There!

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“But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.  And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.” Acts 27:14-15, Read Acts 27

Tempest-tossed and storm-worn.  The waves of this world crash about us, around us, and sometimes within us.  What do we do?

When we did not heed proper directions, but sailed the course that we thought was right.  What do we do?

When considerable time has passed and many days have been spent in the dark, and the helps that we use is no help at all, what do we do?

Our Euroclydon may not be wind-driven, but it is just as opposing and just as fierce as if we were upon that boat drifting at the mercy of the raging waters.  We try to redirect.  We try to fight our way through, but we can’t seem to catch the way on our own. 

In our own power, we run, strike the sail, and even try to lighten the ship.  Everything we try is to no avail but then God steps in to send a word.

For Paul, it was through an angel.  For us, it can come through a preacher, a friend, a song, or from the authority of His Holy Word itself. 

Belief sets in and courage is awakened in the storm. 

Soundings are then made – let’s see how deep this goes.  Anchors are dropped to hold her steady from the motion of the raging seas.  The day comes, and while we may not recognize the place where we are, the morning light shows us the safety of the land ahead. 

Raise the anchors and commit to moving ahead! The shoreline is coming close and if we persevere, we will get there. 

Don’t give up, dear one.  And stop trying to do it on your own or figure it out on your own.  We will never see our whole life from the perspective that God sees it, so we must let it drive forward in faith (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Friends, we have all had storms to ride out or weather through, but our God is faithful to His promises.  If He declared we will get there, we will get there.  Even if tempests, storms, disruptions, and brokenness is the route, we will get there. 

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Try Him for Yourself!

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“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” Psalm 34:8

Experience is everything.  Many people can talk about knowing God from an external point of view, but they don’t know Him for themselves deep on the inside.  They haven’t experienced the depths of intimacy involved in being in a real relationship with God (for more encouragement see my article, The God We Feel).

David had experience with God.  Before he ever faced Goliath (1 Samuel 17), and even before he was on Saul’s radar, who now counted him as an enemy and was in the process of hunting him down, causing David to flee for his life, act like a madman, and hide (see 1 Samuel 21), he had encounters that let him know that God was there for him.  There was even a time when he faced a bear and lion and came out victorious (1 Samuel 17:34-35).

God, Himself called David “a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will,” (Acts 13:22) because of his walk with Him.  David was not a stranger to God.  He was a frequent worshipper, a frequent prayer-er, and frequently inclined to look to God, do what He said, walk with Him, and guide his life by His holy standards.

David knows what it’s like to get hooked up with God and let that hookup be your life foundation.  With that, he calls others to reach out and try Him for themselves.  Don’t let this moment or day go by without knowing and experiencing God on that same personal level David did.  He encouraged them to, “Taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (compare 1 Peter 2:3).

God is good (see Psalm 100:5; Nahum 1:7; Matthew 19:17) and God does good (see Psalm 119:64; Genesis 1)!  God cannot separate Himself from who He is and what He does.  And, David wants people to know it, taste it, and experience it for themselves!

Those who put God at the focal center of their lives and decisions, those who recognize the sovereignty of God over all, will be supplied by Him.  God provides for His people.  God cares for His people.  “He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them,” (Psalm 145:19; see also Psalm 23:1; Proverbs 10:24).

David has experienced the hand of God’s care over and over again, and he assures others they can too if they follow Him.

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Like a Tree!

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“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Psalm 1:3
 
Father God, We are praying today for the fruitfulness of Your people. May Your hand of prosperity be upon them. May You cause the works of their hands to increase and bring forth abundance. May the increase of their ministries, work, and lives be forever blessed, in Jesus’ name, AMEN!

Copyright © Word For Life Says.com articles/lessons/worksheets may not be copied or redistributed without the express written permission of WordforLifeSays.com.  Please see the COPYRIGHT PAGE for more details.  Blessings to you.

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