Soul Sister Time

            I’ve been a Christian for almost fifty years.  I’ve done a lot of praying over those years.  I can’t tell you the number of people for whom I’ve prayed for all their cancer cells to miraculously die and for their health to be restored.  I’ve diligently prayed for certain souls to turn to God.  I’ve begged God for doors to open for a certain blessing.  If I could remember every prayer I’ve prayed and calculate the number of times I got what I asked in prayer, I would have to conclude that prayer doesn’t work.  Prayer isn’t given as a magical remedy to the part of life that I don’t accept.  God doesn’t bid us to pray so that we can order up our wishes like we choose a snack from a vending machine.  Rather prayer is about intimate connection.             The greatest prayer that was ever prayed was from the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus came there to ask God, His Father, for something very specific.  He asked in great faith.  He believed that God could answer His prayer. 

            Anxiety is that feeling that makes you have to decide to breathe in and breathe out.  It makes you sick to your stomach; sometimes your head feels like it is going to explode.  All you want is relief.  The physical sensations desensitize you from the issues that make you anxious, and you become anxious about your inability to control your life.  Eventually, anxiety can overtake your walking, breathing, and living of life.             It is for just those reasons that God draws your attention in the opposite way that your anxiety directs.  God boldly says:  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you ( 1 Peter 5:7) .  Letting God care for you in the midst of your anxiety-causing circumstances is a giant spiritual step.              I am constantly bemused when I see this action in process.  In my personal life and with those I minister to, I witness that the life-giving remedy to anxiety is knowing how much you are loved by God.  It is only through His love

            Do you know when the Holy Spirit is leading you?  How can you discern the differences between your own ideas, feelings of guilt and the Holy Spirit?  When are you confident that you have done what the Lord has asked of you and not just followed your own way?             It’s not the easiest lesson to learn.  It has taken me years to recognize the Holy Spirit; and I’m just now somewhat confident.  I don’t always know for sure that it is the Holy Spirit, and I often question myself. When I sense Him asking something of me, I think it might be God; but I never know for sure until I do it.  A lot of times it just comes down to a feeling of supernatural peace after I do something, which is irrational from my human perspective.             1 Corinthians 2:14 says: The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit .  I often c

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.   Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.   Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you . (James 5:1-6)             No one would want to be rich if they read this advice from James the leader of the church in Jerusalem.  These are harsh words that make the steak you may have eaten last night sour in your stomach.  How do you define if you are rich anyway?             I know that I am rich compared to the rest of the world.

            The weary need rest the most yet they are the least likely to recognize it.  You actually have to come to in order to recognize your need for rest.  I love the way Jesus’ words are ordered in Matthew 10:31:   Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest .  When I need rest, I literally need to follow Jesus’ instructions word by word.             First, I need to come.  Rest doesn’t just happen.  I have to come away from what I am doing to find rest.  I have to cease the frantic direction that consumes my current focus.  I am constantly going unless I am coming.  I’m going to places, people and things that promise contentment but never satisfy.  It takes a lot of work for me to stop and rest, and the only reason I even give it a try is because I come.              In the act of coming, I come to.  I come to the awareness that I am actually weary.  I get tired of carrying the load myself and trying to make life work on my own.  I get tired