Marriage. There are a few around me...marriages I pray for, worry about...wives I want to take under my wing to calm their anxiety. Guide them away from mistakes I made. Teach them what I've learned.
The Lord presses into my heart to put our experiences to use....sometimes it aches. When I am the most discontent with some area of life.....I know He is about to move, or move me. I feel it now. Wives, marriage, mentor....it presses. "train the young women to love their husbands and children" Titus 2:4
Teach them.......I'm trying.
The most dangerous prayers are the shortest. Teach me. Use me. I'm Yours.
In the last few days, despite the chaos and the cold that has been clouding my head and making me exhausted.....He has been so clear. Like a puzzle there are little pieces coming to mind that I haven't thought of in so long. Phrases. Stories. Comments made to me so long ago. Write.
For a long time now He has been teaching me about the power of the written word. Come to My Word, come to Me. Much as I love scripture, its been a battle to change the feelings of it as a text book into seeing it as a love letter. My entire education was scripture based but in those days, it was education without emotion. It was the details and the history that was taught, not the love and the reason behind the details. He has been working on changing that for a long time. I see it now, but many times it is a battle to pick it up for Love, not study. Oh how the enemy knows our weakness.
I used to be an avid reader. Not novels....no, but non-fiction. I have book after book on spiritual disciplines, humility, spiritual gifts, christian living, prayer, reference book after reference book....anything I could get my hands on that could teach me. I did this intensely for many years......but in the last few....He pressed. Not their word but Mine. Stop relying on man to teach you what He already has. Each time I would try to pick up a new book....I couldn't finish it. I couldn't get through a whole page without being distracted.....reminded. I've spent the last 3 years (or is it 4? I've lost track now...) with very few books I felt I had permission to read. So many books have been suggested to me and in my heart I hear the whisper......No, not that one. Only Me. I can only smile and agree.......thanking the person with a transparent look that clearly says I won't be reading that book. I can hide nothing....I am an open book.
When you give something up, suddenly it seems to have a spotlight on it. If you diet, suddenly everyone on the planet has chocolate. You see it everywhere. In the last few years I've felt like a watcher...an observer of scripture, the presence or lack of it, has had a spotlight on it. People share enthusiastically about books they are reading and I hear the weight they are giving to the words of man. They speak of an author as if they have heard the Word of God itself......the Lord can use mere man, yes.....but what I don't hear is discernment. Have they weighed the words against The Word? A nugget of truth can so easily be manipulated into looking like a boulder. In church, sermons sound different, I notice clearly if they are based on the Word or if the Word is used as a prop to support the message they want to deliver. If it's full of God's Word or void of it....so much so that at times, I get distracted by verses flooding my mind that could have been used. Verses used out of context screech like an alarm. I hear talk of modeling things after another church and I hear idolatry. Please, follow Him not them. I see church classes and themes built around books.....and how they aren't the minority but the majority. It isn't inherently wrong to teach based on some book but what I notice is how off balance it is. Stack it all up on a scale and it will tip to the worlds side. People rely too heavily on someone else to teach them about the Word instead of trusting the Word itself. The Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edge sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb. 4:12
When did He become not enough?
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." John 15:4-11
Blessings of Sonshine and whispers,
the Mrs.
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