Inspiration and Hope -

Mind Noise

This morning, my mind was a jumble of unrelenting chatter and noise. Like the airwaves, the DJ announces a song. I begin to listen, but it is soon interrupted.

But I don’t turn off the station. I continue listening to the static and noise on the car radio, hoping that it might go away, but it doesn’t. As I continue listening, the air wave noise turns into an annoying “bzzzzzt-baba-bzzt-baba-bzzzzzzzt”. Isn’t it sometimes that way when we go to pray?

Crazy-busy thoughts infiltrate my mind at times and don’t let me have a moment’s peace. We are over-scheduled, over-committed and over-extended. Most people you will ask how they are, will reply that they are super busy or crazy busy. Nobody in today’s society seems untouched. As a result, when I go to pray, my mind continually flitters back and forth between God and my tasks for the day. This is not an uncommon problem; it is all too familiar.

Or perhaps the noise is of a different sort, a reminder of a difficult relationship, personal or professional failure, financial difficulty, or health concern. For some, when they find the time to be alone to pray, they tend to dwell on those things rather than resolving to hand over their burdens to God.

But how far will we allow our minds to wander and be distracted? Until we resolve to hand our schedules and burdens over to God, albeit difficult, these thoughts will continue to distract us and reverberate in our minds.

Nevertheless, there is hope. When we drift away from God, or when we fail to hear God, the Holy Spirit continues to tug at us, prompting us to “tune in” to His presence again. Sarah Young uses the analogy of a boat tied to an anchor. “An anchor on a short rope lets a boat drift only slightly before the taut line tugs the boat back toward the center.” Similarly, as we drift away from God, the Spirit within us gives a tug, prompting us to return to God in our thoughts and our prayers. As we strive to connect with God and learn to pray to God, the length of rope on our soul’s anchor is shortened. You wander only a short distance before feeling that inner tug – telling you to return to Him.

God’s tugs serve to remind us to relax and let Him lead us through the day. He reminds us that He has everything under control. He reminds us that those who seek Him will find Him. He reminds us that if we commit our ways unto Him, we will be successful. He reminds us that He is able to restore that which was lost. “You will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find peace when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29: 12-13).

“You are responsible to be faithful. God is responsible for outcomes.” – Quote by Jenni Catron

“Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God.” (1 Chronicles 22:19).

Prayer: Help me Lord to love You with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. Tug at my heart always to keep me faithful and return my thoughts unto You.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was first observed here in America following the arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. It was a time for the Pilgrims to acknowledge God as faithful, earnestly giving Him thanks for His abundant blessings. But it was neither a feast nor a holiday. When they arrived in the New World during the winter, it was very difficult for them to find food and shelter. Most of the passengers would not survive their first few months here in America.

In contrast, for most of us today, the Thanksgiving holiday is a time to celebrate with family and friends, to watch football, and to be festive. All well and good, but it is also a time to give thanks for our well-being, for all that has been given to us. It is a time to reflect, to gather in unity, to find hope, and a time of reconciliation. It is a time to give back in gratitude for all that we have received. It is a time to be thankful in all things.

The poem “Thanksgiving” by Ralph Waldo Emerson might, I think, reflect what many of us will say as our thanks to God this holiday.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

But do our thanks go beyond thanking God only for what we see as His abundant provision? It is a time to be thankful in all things the Bible says. This morning I opened a hymnal to “Thanks to God for My Redeemer” – song by John Hultman, 1910; words by August Storm, 1891. I thought about the words. Am I thankful to God only when things are going my way, or am I also thankful to God for the storms in my life, for the mishaps, for those things that are not always pleasurable?

The words to “Thanks to God for My Redeemer” reflect the heart of one who is satisfied always, in both abundance and lacking.

“Thanks to God for my Redeemer, thanks for all thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory, thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime, thanks for dark and dreary fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten, thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that thou hast answered, thanks for what thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered, thanks for all thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure, thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure, thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside, thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for homes and thanks for fireside, thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow, thanks for heavenly peace with thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow, thanks through all eternity.”

I wonder how many of us will “give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20), not only for what we see as His abundant blessings, but of sorrow and joy, through pleasure and despair, through lacking and abundance.

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Thanks be to God.

Am I crazy or did God just wink at me?

AM I CRAZY, OR DID GOD JUST WINK AT ME?
Sometimes God speaks to us in a small, still voice, or perhaps it is just a wink. It is not necessarily the same type of experience that Moses witnessed with the burning bush where God called out to him in an audible voice from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”. It is often times more subtle than that, and if you listen, you just might hear God speak to your inner spirit. In fact, I believe that many of us have been winked at by God, but have just not made the connection.

When God winks at us, it is His way of saying “everything is going to be okay”.
In the book “When God Winks at You” by Squire Rushnell it reads –
“You’ve had another one of those days. Everything seems uncertain. You think: Wouldn’t it be great to wake up one morning and have everything certain? Certain about your job? Certain about your future? Who could you talk to about this? Bigger question, who’d listen?
Tentatively your eyes drift skyward.
Hello?
Are You there, God?
Then your mind quickly assesses the immensity of your request. You want God to listen to you, right now. How ridiculous. There are six billion people on this planet. What if they’re all calling God at the same time?
You slump. Deeper into the dumps.
Then — something happens.”

Something small happens, like you open your Bible and a verse jumps off the page at you. It speaks directly to you. You ask yourself, could God be speaking to me? Is this one of those Godincidences, a wink from God?

“And why shouldn’t God speak to me?”, I thought.
The Bible is filled with examples of God speaking to man. Yet, my human nature tries to explain it away as coincidence as I try to make logical sense of it.

On one occasion, I started questioning whether or not my inner spirit had really heard from God. I needed reassurance. Was God listening?
When I opened my email Inbox, my eyes scanned the page and found an email sent by my brother Jamie. The email subject line was “The Voice in My Head”. “Uh oh”, I thought, without first reading the email, “I really am hearing voices in my head, aren’t I?”

My brother is the CEO of EDC Communications. It is not a religious article, but it starts out “I hear a voice in my head. No, I am not crazy … Sometimes it’s so subtle that we” (and I will finish the sentence in my own words), fail to identify the source of it or just ignore it out of fear of what other people might think. Perhaps that is what I was doing now, failing to identify the source of my messages as being from God.

That very same evening I felt led to turn on Daystar, a Christian broadcast station. At the very moment that I turned to the station, the Reverend Jesse Duplantis was speaking of hearing from God.
“What!?“, I thought. “A message about hearing from God?”
The message couldn’t have been more spot on.

Jesse was returning home from a ministry trip, and while just prior to boarding the airplane, God spoke to him and said “Jesse, do not board the plane as there will be trouble with it“.
Hoping that this was just self-talking, Jesse questioned God, and God repeated Himself.

If I were to surmise what was going on in Jesse’s head at that very moment after being on a speaking engagement road trip for 3 weeks, it most likely would have gone like this …
“Ahh, come on God, I am tired and worn out and just want to go home”
“Reeeeeea-lly?”
“Please tell me it is not true”.
Then, if Jesse were not frustrated enough already, God spoke again.
“Go and tell the person in charge of boarding the airplane that I told you that there would be trouble with the plane and that it was advisable not to board; that you would not be boarding, and that you wanted to take the next flight”.
I am sure that the person in charge of taking the boarding passes thought that Jesse was certifiably crazy.
Jesse did not board the plane as God had instructed him.
When the plane was taxiing on the runway, one of the engines exploded and everyone had to evacuate.

Every small miracle, every “Godincidence” or “God wink” that we try to explain away as coincidence may be God’s way of communicating with us, an answer to prayer, a word of encouragement or assurance. It is God’s way of reassuring us that He has everything under control, no matter how difficult the situation.

So when should you act on that voice, thought or feeling? Sometimes that decision will be easy, for it will be based on experience. Other times it might be when we are feeling the Spirit of God during worship or when we are rightly related to God and conversant with Him through prayer and praise.

Prayer: Lord, should You decide to wink at me, help me to discern when it is from You; and then once I am assured that it is from You, may I have the faith and courage to act upon it.

Coincidence or Godincidence?

MidAtlantic — Picture of me at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair

Do you believe that God can speak to you? Did you ever wonder why you opened to a particular passage in the Bible that was relevant, and wonder if it was because of divine intervention? Perhaps you are being divinely guided.

Looking back on the first day of the National Flute Association convention that I was exhibiting at in Chicago this August, I asked God to speak a special blessing to me. I was anxious, as is normal for a big show, and concerned that I might not recoup the cost of exhibiting, or of not making enough sales in a traditionally slow month to pay my bills at the end of the month. I own The Flute Loft, a musical instrument business.

So on day one, just before going down to the convention hall, I asked God to speak to me through His Word. I randomly opened my Bible and began reading. I opened to Psalm 150, a psalm of praise. Psalm 150:4 said “praise him with strings and flutes”. Was it purely by accident or coincidence that I opened to this passage? I don’t believe so.

For those of you that believe that I randomly opened to this verse was just coincidence, I will not convince you otherwise, but I believe God was trying to get my attention. The reference to the musical instrument flute, was I believe, divine timing, and really got my attention being that I was exhibiting flutes at a flute convention. However, whether it was a flute or some other instrument really doesn’t matter. What God wanted me to know from His Word was to always remember to praise Him in all things, and to trust in Him for my success. And with praise comes trust in God and God’s abundant grace.

How do we praise God? We praise God with strong faith, with love for Him for which He is delighted, and with the confidence that He is in control. So then, what God was trying to get through to me was, “Don’t be anxious. Don’t worry about what tomorrow will bring, but live for the moment. Relax in My presence and trust me for your fortune and destiny, for I will always be by your side. Now just trust me and let go. And remember to praise Me always for I delight in it”.

Things Aren’t Always As They Appear

No matter how obvious something seems, it just may not be what you think. There is an expression that says “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck”? And rarely, is what appears to be an obvious truth, not the truth. This humorous phrase implies that a person can identify a subject, without closely examining it, by its appearance only. But what if that duck looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but needs batteries? Is it a duck?

The following is a true story.
“A woman was flying from Melbourne to Brisbane …
Unexpectedly, the plane was diverted to Sydney.

The flight attendant explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft the plane would re-board in 50 minutes.

Everybody got off the plane except one lady who was blind.

A man had noticed her as he walked by and could tell the lady was blind because her Seeing Eye Dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of her throughout the entire flight. He could also tell she had flown this very flight before because the pilot approached her, and calling her by name, said, ‘Kathy, we are in Sydney for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?’

The blind lady replied, ‘No thanks, but maybe Max would Like to stretch his legs.’

When the pilot exited the plane with the lady’s Seeing Eye Dog, all the people in the gate area came to a complete standstill.
The pilot was even wearing sunglasses.
People scattered.
They not only tried to change planes, but they were trying to change airlines!

How many times have you jumped to a conclusion prematurely about something and were completely wrong? I would venture to say “a lot”. Proverbs 25:8 says“Don’t jump to conclusions – there may be a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.” – Proverbs 25:8 (MSG).

In the Book of Job, Job’s friends wrongly concluded that their friend Job suffered because he was being punished for sins he had committed, for they believed that God would not cause anyone to suffer innocently. But the Bible says that Job was a righteous man.

“Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly” (John 7:24,). Do not be quick to judge based solely by a book’s cover.

Origination of phrase:
The phrase,“when I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck”, is thought to have been coined by an Indiana poet by the name of James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916). The phrase is sometimes referred to as the “duck test”.

The more common wording of the phrase may have originated during a labor meeting of the United Auto Workers in 1946 accusing a person of being a communist: “I can’t prove you are a Communist. But when I see a bird that quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, has feathers and webbed feet and associates with ducks—I’m certainly going to assume that he is a duck” (Sentinel, John, September 29, 1946, “Communist Expose The Case of the Duck”).

Source of story herein:
Tall Tales … — Bell Air R/C Flyers, www.bellairrcflyers.com/about/tall-tales-truisms/

Prayer: Lord, help me to not judge the worth or value of something or someone by its outward appearance only, but help me to look more closely before making judgment.