Repellant

​Love you all, praying for you,
 
I just love God’s Word – the things that it tells you are timeless, they are for your good, they are truth, and truth in practice.  It’s practical.  For those who have ears to hear, and a heart to obey – the path the God will lead you in, is amazing.  There are two kinds of miracles.  Those that happen in an instant, like the healing of the blind man, and those that happen after steps of obedience, like Naaman, his miracle came not in an instant, but the instant he decided to lay down his pride, humble himself and obey – and dip in the Jordan those seven times.  Like when the walls of Jericho fell down on the seventh time around.  Sometimes there are steps to take – to see your miracle come.  Praise God – He’s the miracle worker, and the step revealer.  It’s just up to us – whether we will hear, and whether we will obey.  The devil will first try to prevent us from hearing, then obeying.  Doubt that God spoke, or doubt that you heard him, or doubt what He said, as if He would lead you into something that is not good.  Praise God He gives the miracle and He gives the steps.  I just love God’s Word – it gives you steps.  Psalms 37 – have you ever noticed how easy it is to worry?  Perhaps next to grumbling and complaining, worry is the easiest thing to do… Have you ever noticed how easy it is for doubt, fret and fear to creep in?  It’s the opposite of faith – without which it’s impossible to please God.  God gives a clear worry repellent - in five simple steps.  Not easy but simple.  Step One:  Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Trust means to hie for refuge – to run to first, not as the last resort.  Run to him, first and quickly, before things get out of hand, get in that habit of running first to him, to see what He thinks and what He says.  That’s what trust is – making him always your first mental option.  Putting your full weight on His love and faithfulness.  Along with trust is do… Do good – Jesus said, the only one good is God.  So to do good, you have to do what God tells you – not what you want to.  That’s how do good.  PiVAT is important – if you know what God told you to do today – you can do good!  Run to him first – that’s trust, do what he says – that’s good.  Step 2 of worry repellent – verse 4 - Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Not delight in the desires, delight in the LORD.  I always thought that meant be happy in Him.  That’s good too, but that’s not what that word Delight really means.  Delight –  pliable, moldable.  That means don’t delight in your desires – delight in Him.  Don’t let worldly desires mold you, let Him mold you.  He’ll give you His desires which are infinitely better for you anyway – like night and day, heaven above earth – so He can give them to you!  You’ll never get His desires to be your desires, so you can get them… until you are pliable  - delight yourself in the LORD.  Run to him first, and do what he says (good) and be pliable – Delight yourself in Him (PiVAT is pliable practice, it’s giving up your desires for His, every day before dinner for tomorrow).  Step 3 of worry repellent  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this; He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.  There’s another one of those words again – Like The Princess Bride – Fessick, you keep saying that word, I don’t think it means what you think it means.  Commit – most people make their plans and say “I commit them to you.”  That’s not what Commit your way to the LORD means.  Commit here means to roll down together with, to wallow, like a pig wallows in the mud.  It means roll down together with the LORD – wallow in His Spirit – until His plans become your plans, and then He can bring you complete success!  Once again it’s that PiVAT conversation – that change of direction – giving up your plans for His – the best trade ever.  So Trust (Run to first), Delight (be pliable), and Commit (wallow, roll down together with) and Step 4 of Worry repellent – Be still – before the LORD and wait patiently for him; (verse 7)  Just be still – let him do the work, Give him a chance to work things out.  You can’t do it anyway – certain things are beyond your control – Be still, wait patiently (not complacently, patiently.)  Just do what He told you to do today, and trust Him to do the heavy lifting.  He will.  Final Step 5 – Refrain -  refrain from anger, wrath and fret.  That means stop.  Don’t allow yourself to get angry, enraged, and do not fret – choose to do something else – like praise, like thanksgiving, like speaking and declaring His truth, and His Word and His promise over your situation.  Go serve somebody else, get your mind off of it.  Praying that you will Trust, Delight, Commit, Be Still, and Refrain.  Praying that your faith will please God  – that worry will never be a choice.  That you will not fret but rise up in faith.  So He can shine! 
 
Love you all,
dad