Purity 335: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Purity 335 02/06/2021 Purity 335 Podcast

Good morning!

Today’s snowy sunset photo comes from Taconic State Park - Copake Falls’ Facebook Page.  I love the peacefulness of this scene as the photographer captured the dwindling light of day, reflected on a frozen Rudd Pond, through the trees and over the snow.  

Photos like this remind us that we can find peace and beauty in the great outdoors, even in February.  I encourage all my friends to get out there and experience some of it and to share with us.  

Have a wonderful weekend.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 37:7 (NLT2)
⁷ Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.

 

When I committed this Bible verse to the index card that I “randomly” drew today, I apparently didn’t care for the second part of the verse as I had only written “Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act.”  

 I’m not sure why I did that quite honestly. 

 I would like to think that I didn’t commit the second half of this Bible verse to the index card because for the most part I “don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes”.   I really don’t.  The second half of the verse indicates a fearful or perhaps even an envious stance in regards to those “evil people who prosper”.  

 “Why don’t I prosper? Why do bad people prosper? What evil schemes are they going to do next?” 

 Thankfully, I haven’t been too affected by evil people and their schemes, unless we want to put on our tin foil hats and compare conspiracy theories or end times scenarios about governmental control. But I don’t do that either.  

  Any people I may have been associated with in the past that could qualify as even mildly evil, I am no longer in close relationship with and their schemes no longer involve me.   There is great peace from abandoning the “people, places, and things” of our broken pasts.  

 Also, I learned early on in my faith walk with Jesus Christ that even though we are to love our neighbors, my relationship with Jesus Christ is just between Him and Me.   My growth and maturity in the Spirit was about my personal experience and progress, not about how I compared to those around me.   The Holy Spirit impressed upon me that my walk was not about what everyone else believed or how they behaved, it was about what I believed and how I behaved.  

 So that comparison game and worrying about what other people were doing was tabled long ago. Occasionally, I’ll get a “woe is me” moment or two where I lament about the differences between myself and others, but I am quickly reminded in my spirit that “their walk isn’t my walk” and that any envious feelings I have are most likely built on faulty perceptions and encouraged by the father of lies.   

 So, maybe that’s why I only committed the first part of this verse to the index card.  

 It may have been an oversight, but I think the reason why I committed the first part to the index card was because I needed to heed that first part of wisdom much more than the second part.   To remind you it said:

 “Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act.” 

 Experiencing the presence of the Lord in our lives is a fundamental practice of our Christian faith and one of the ways that we can “hear His voice” is by being still.  In our prayer life, we should give some time to silently wait and listen in our spirits to see if the Lord is trying to communicate with us. 

 The Holy Spirit speaks in three ways:

 

• Communion -we experience communion with the Holy Spirit in times of prayer, Bible study, or in the midst of joyful worship when in our spirit we are given a revelation of His manifest presence, a remembrance from our pasts reminds us of God, or a “word” of affirmation or instruction that reflects God’s wisdom or is a verse from the Bible.   
• Intuition – Sometimes the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth of a situation that we are in through intuition. These intuitions usually lead us to do something righteous or that blesses some one else. Often, these leadings are not something we would normally do, but is always something good or that gives glory to God. The only regrets regarding these leadings of the Spirit are when we fail to act on them.
• Conscience - The Holy Spirit also convicts us of sin and shows us the right way to live our lives.  Many believers experience this when they first come to faith. Sinning just ain’t what it used to be because the pleasure we had in it before was due to our ignorance and our fallen state. But since coming to faith our sin isn’t really appropriate for who we are anymore. So the thrill isn’t the same and the guilt and shame are increased.  We can ignore it and deaden ourselves to those feelings and carry on in our sin but when we do that, our harmony with God is severely disrupted.  

 So being still in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him to act, or to communicate in one of these three ways, was an important aspect of our faith that I wanted to remind myself of.  

 Its also important to remember that being patient and waiting doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t do anything.  

 The key to waiting is to continue to walk with the Lord while we are waiting.  If you are actively seeking the Lord through a continuous daily spiritual practice, you will be supplied with His wisdom and guidance for what do while you’re waiting, and the Lord will be unhindered from letting you know that the time of waiting has ended.      

 I invite all to mt4chritst.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we will continue to share from Dr. June Hunt’s Biblical Counseling Keys on “Self-Worth: Discovering Your God-given Worth”.

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Hunt’s books for your own private study and to support her work:

E. What Is the Root Cause of Low Self-Worth?

Although Dorie never had a close friend at school, she tried. But even when she was out of the orphanage and in a foster home, she knew she looked different. One student pointed to her torn dress and jabbed, "Did that come out of the ark?" She forced a smile while the others laughed. Kids can be so cruel. Dorie confided, "How often I wished I could have spent the day in the restroom." She just wanted to hide. The truth is: Dorie was just trying to survive the impact of a callous, cruel world without taking on the cynicism and bitterness of the world.

Whatever the contributing factors to your low estimation of your worth, they are held in place by wrong beliefs that you have embraced over the years. But the low opinion of yourself can be overcome by replacing those wrong beliefs with right beliefs. ...

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will."
(Romans 12:2)

Wrong Belief:

"My self-worth is based on how I see myself in comparison to others and how others view me."

Right Belief:

"My self-worth is not based on how I see myself or how others see me, but on how God sees me, for I was created by Him in His image. Not only did Jesus pay the highest price for me by dying on the cross for my sins, but He also lives in me to fulfill His plan and purpose for me."

"We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

Biblical Counseling Keys - Biblical Counseling Keys – Biblical Counseling Keys: Self-Worth: Discover Your God-Given Worth.

-----------------------------more on Monday -------------------------

 

God bless you all!

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship