Tag Archives: desires

Morning Musings

Have I REALLY Handed it all to Him?

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     On one of my morning trysts with my Lord in the living room before anyone else was stirring, we were reading together His promises about me in abiding in Him. I was sure I WAS abiding in Him….after all, here we were together enjoying fellowship together over His Word weren’t we?    Then He turned me to that verse in the Old Testament where the psalmist was asking God to search his heart, and know his thoughts, and try him to see if there was still some wicked way in him (Psalm 139:23-24).    I started to squirm as I thought how scary it would be if He turned those pure and holy eyes on my innermost being! I couldn’t trust myself to be totally one hundred percent honest. I knew what I ought to be, and I knew that I wanted to be that, but WAS I? I knew that my heart was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked  and that only God could know it (Jeremiah 17:9-10).  I didn’t even know it myself! ” I know that you want to follow Me with all your heart”, Jesus said, “Would you mind giving me your smart phone for a while?”

What would I do without it? I shrunk back, keeping it in my pocket. What if he went on to the log, and saw what I’d been looking at? And read those catty comments I’d put onto Facebook? And read some of those suggestive remarks my friends had sent to make me laugh?     Suddenly those things didn’t seem quite so clever or witty as I’d thought they were when I got them! Besides, what would I do without the phone there at my fingertips? Someone might try to get hold of me, or worse still, maybe the Lord would answer for me! What would my friends think if they got Him on the phone?

   It came on me in a flash, that He already knew all those things! There was nothing at all that I could hide from Him! He didn’t need to get the phone to know those things…the point was, was I ready to hand all those things over to Him too? Those little resentments and excuses that I always made, refusing to take the blame. Being offended if I thought I was being overlooked? “Oh Lord”, I cried in repentance, “You can see me through and through, you know every little rotten thought I’ve ever had. Help me to walk in Your way everlasting, beginning now so I won’t be ashamed before You as I go into eternity!” “My child”, He said with that beautiful smile of His, “That is what I’ve been wanting to hear from you all along!” He handed me my phone back again, “Now use this for My glory, speaking of the things of Myself to build others up, sending words of encouragement to them, and praising others”.

My desires were now what He desired, and He was giving it all back to me! What joy! What blessings He bestows!  “Oh Lord!” I cried, “Help me to be each day what You want me to be, and to do only what You want me to do!”

 

Morning Musings

My Dining Room.

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          From there we went into the dining room, the room of appetites and desires. I spent a lot of time and hard work here trying to satisfy my wants. I said to Him, “This is one of my favourite rooms.  I am quite sure You will be pleased with the food we eat!” He sat down at the table  with me and asked, “What is on the menu for dinner?”  “Well,” I said, “my favourite dishes are money, academic degrees and stocks, with newspaper articles of fame and fortune as side dishes.”  Those were the things I liked – secular meals.       When the food was put in front of Him, He said nothing, but left it on His plate uneaten. I said to Him, “Master, don’t You like this food? What’s the matter?” He said, “I have food to eat that you do not know of. If you want food that really satisfies you, you must do the will of the Father. Stop seeking the things you want, your own desires, and satisfaction. Seek to please Him. That is the food that will satisfy you.” (John 4:32, 34)     It was there at the table, that He gave me a taste of the joy of doing God’s will. How full of flavour it was! There is no food like it in all the world. It alone satisfies. As I began to delight myself in Him and His things, I found my desires were changing, and He gave me every one of them!!  (Psalm 37:4)

Morning Musings

My Heart is my House.

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      I came across this story the other day of our heart being like a home for God. It was written just as if Jesus  was walking through our heart with us as though it was a house. In fact, the Bible bears this thought out. In the book of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we read, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? You have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”.

    We tend to forget that what we do with our bodies is what reflects to those watching us….if we make even the smallest slip up, it gives them a chance to point the finger. There is no mercy for the believer who does wrong, and as it was said to David when he got Bathsheba pregnant, “You have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord  to blaspheme, and because of this, the child also that is born unto you shall surely die.” (2 Samuel 12:14)

     For a building to be strong, it must have a good foundation, as well as be properly built. These things don’t just happen, they have to be properly prepared, so we must see that our foundation is strong, stable and level. We have to see that it is built on what the Bible tells us…..

 In Ephesians 2:19-22, we read…..  “Now you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom you are also built together into a habitation of God through the Holy Spirit”.

     And so as we go through each room together, I suddenly see it as He sees it all, and I see what needs to be altered, things to be got rid of, and other things added that I had no idea of before. I find that as I begin to delight in Him and what He wants for me, so my desires  change to what He wants to give me, and I find that all that I want is what He gives me! (Psalm 37:4)

    So our house is built strongly on a good foundation, and we have been living in it for a while. Now we have invited the Lord to be with us in our home, so we will see just how this works out as time goes by…….the house is good and strong, but what have we put in it???? We will find out in the weeks to come.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Pride Comes Before a Fall…..or…. What are Your Desires?

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David LivingstoneDavid Livingstone had a burning desire all his life to preach the Gospel to people in a country which had never had the chance to hear it before. I read a bit about him recently and it reminded me of the time we had been taken to see the cottage in Scotland where he was born and grew up . David and his brother Charles were born in this cottage which had nothing at all to commend it except that it was the birthplace of David Livingstone the great explorer. When David was a young man, he told his brother Charles, that he planned to become a medical missionary. His brother scoffed, saying that he was going to stay in England and get famous and wealthy…this was his desire. He wanted recognition from the people around him, and that wasn’t possible, he said, for a missionary in Africa.

David went to Africa where he worked among the people as a doctor and preacher. The Lord gave him the desires of his heart, and many people came to know Jesus Christ through his humble ministry. His brother, who stayed in England, did indeed find fame and wealth, and became very well known.

But when David Livingstone died, his heart was buried in Africa… ..his African people said that his heart must stay there, for that was indeed where his heart was all his years there. His  body could be shipped home to England which it was, and was buried in Westminster Cathedral among other well known people. Later, his brother was buried next to him. It is very touching to see the  inscriptions on the brothers’ graves. Above David Livingstone’s burial vault was this poem:

DAVID LIVINGSTONE
He needs no epitaph to guard a name Which men shall prize while worthy work is known;
He lived and died for good-be that his fame:  Let marble crumble; this is Living-stone

.The inscription above David’s brother’s grave simply states: “Charles, the brother of David Livingstone.”

They both received their hearts’ desires in ways they could not have imagined… David whose desire was to preach the Gospel left  his heart in Africa and became well known for his great explorations in that continent, and Charles whose only claim to lasting fame was the fact that he was brother to David Livingstone!

This illustration, more than any I know, reflects the truth of 1 Peter 5:6-   “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due