It is easy to do things by rote. I do. I have exercise routines that I don’t have to think about. When I am doing my dishes I can think about other things. When it comes to reading my Bible, praying, or being still before the Lord, I need to be present.

What happens in relationships when we nod as though we are listening, but really we are not present? I was reading Job yesterday and this verse just stopped me. It caused me to reel in my mind and be present. What did the Holy Spirit want to speak to me?

Job 4:6 was something Eliphaz asked Job. It says, “Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your ways your hope?” Eliphaz was questioning Job’s true reliance.

Psalm 62:5 says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.” I asked myself: is my hope truly in God alone, or does it cross over into what He might do for me?

I think it can easily become a trap of the enemy. Proverbs 25:19 addressed the issue of reliance on someone or something. It says, “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.”

Psalm 31:24 says, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” When we hope in God alone, He will support and stabilize our heart in times of trouble.

Being present is being fully aware of our thoughts. When they start to look at man or things, we need to reel every thought back in. Moses allowed the symphony of complaints to fill his mind. He acted on his thoughts. He was not present with what the Lord had specifically instructed him to do. It cost him dearly.

Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.”

I love Psalm 18:30. It says, “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” Yesterday morning our pastor was speaking from Romans 9. He reminded us that in all things God is perfect. Some He allows sickness, and some health. Yet in both He is perfect in all of His ways.

Even though we may make our own wilderness through disobedience, He will use it in His perfect way. Psalm 18:32 says, “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.” Nothing is in vain in God’s economy. He will do whatever it takes to conform us to His image.

Yesterday I read Philemon and Esther. In each book I read of God’s miraculous way. He doesn’t change His ways to fit our situation. Rather, He changes us to fit His ways.

As I ate my breakfast this morning I was dwelling in His Presence. I was thanking Him for His perfect way through my trials. He intercepted my thoughts with this: when you don’t know, stand in what you do know. So profound.

God uses everything in our lives. He perfectly orchestrates times, people, circumstances, spiritual barrenness, or mountain top experiences. In Psalm 138:8 David said, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever…” To perfect means to fulfill. As we face what we don’t know in our nation, may we stand steadfast in what we do know about the Lord.

There is the wilderness of our own making. It is uncharted, and we are on our own with our fleshly choices. Proverbs 13:15 Amplified aptly described it. It says, “Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the transgressor is hard (like the barren, dry soil or the impassable swamp).”

Proverbs 29:1 says, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” Stiff-necked means stubborn. 1 Samuel 15:23 says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord…”

There is God’s purposed wilderness. It is also uncharted to us, but the Holy Spirit is there to lead us through. 1 Corinthians 10:11 says of the children of Israel, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition…” Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

Exodus 13:17 says that God took them the long way because they were not ready for war. Verse 18 says, “So God led the people around by way of the wilderness to the Red Sea…” The Red Sea was their first obstacle. What did they do? Panicked. What did God do? He used the impossible as His vehicle to destroy their enemies!

There are no street signs in the wilderness, nor are their street lights. It is all barren land that looks the same. Yet God miraculously provided for their every need. He was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Their clothes and shoes did not wear out, and He fed them with manna for forty years!

Deuteronomy 8:2 says, “…the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has not changed His method of testing our heart. Our trials are like a wilderness. They are full of obstacles, hardships, and impossibilities designed to expose our hidden dross. God’s wilderness is a refiner’s fire. His purpose in them is to train us for war, develop His character in us, that we may endure and He is glorified.

Aaron and Moses forfeited the opportunity to go into the promised land. They were not the only ones. Ten of the twelve spies died right away as a result of giving a bad report. They forecasted defeat because of their fears. It caused all of Israel to complain.

Numbers 14:29 says, “The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.”

Their consequences carried over to their children. Verse 33 said that their sons would bear the brunt of their father’s infidelity, until the father’s carcasses were consumed in the wilderness.

What a warning to us. I do not want to waste my life wandering in a wilderness of my own making. Paul is a great example for us. He started out persecuting the believers. God intercepted his way to redirect him into His way.

We continually feast on the harvest of good fruit from Paul’s life. 13 books were written by him. He fulfilled God’s purpose for his life. 2 Timothy 4:7 says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

My cousin gave me a verse when I was in high school. I am going to write it out. I encourage you to turn it into a prayer for yourself and for those you know.

Psalm 20:says, “May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose.” God’s purpose to be fulfilled in our lives is being accomplished through progressive sanctification. The more our trials conform us to His character, the more our desire changes to fit His calling on our life.

Fulfill, to me, means to carry out to the finish. We have that promise from God in Philippians 1:6. It says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in your will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Yet, as in salvation, it is all by grace and faith.

Psalm 57:5 and 11 have the same exact wording. “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be above all the earth.” Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens declare the glory of God.

When the Lord does wondrous works, we glorify Him by making Him known through our testimony. We also glorify Him when we bear much fruit. Jesus glorified God the Father when He finished His work.

I want to share a bit of my epilogue in my book “He Drew Me Out Of Deep Waters: encouragement for hard trials.” I stated at the beginning of the epilogue that I wrote it to declare His wondrous work.

1/2/17 I had a brain injury. When I looked in the mirror the next morning, my pupils were small and out of round. My eyes looked pathetically sick. Everything was blurred. I opened my Bible and could read nothing.

Fast forward as I quote from my book. “Ten months later I was fixing my breakfast on this particular morning of October 6. The sides of my bones on the outside of my eyes began to spread. It felt like everything was moving.
When I opened my eyes after giving thanks for my food, my blueberries seemed really purple. The yolk of my egg was so yellow, and the apricot jam on my pancake was very vivid orange. I raced into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My eyes were big, round—normal! That was a 10 month and 5 day miracle. He miraculously centered my vision!

I began to read a little. I had to read conversational stories. Facts were too hard for my brain still. It was four months later that I was able to begin reading Psalms. I read them for six months.”

Moses made a severe error that forfeited him and Aaron from entering the promised land. In Numbers 20:11 he disobeyed the Lord’s command. He was to speak to the rock, but in his anger against the people he struck it.

Verse 12 says, “…Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

Moses lost sight of God’s glory. He acted out in his flesh. To hallow the Lord means to make Him holy in the eyes of others. We do that when we declare His wondrous work through the cross. He saved us when we were dead in the trespasses of our sins. As His redeemed ones, we glorify Him when we emulate His character of holiness. May He be glorified through our thoughts, words, and actions today.

Psalm 26:7 says, “That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works.” Psalm 86:10 says, “For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.” Psalm 145:5 says, “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works.”

Psalm 119:18 is a deep dive verse. It says, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” We cannot plumb the depths of the revelation hidden in God’s word. He mines it out for us as we seek to know Him.

Judges 13:19 said of the Angel of the Lord, “…He did a wondrous thing…” The Hebrew word means that it is something beyond the human ability to grasp, do, or achieve.

As I read through my five Psalms yesterday I thought back to the beginning. If I think about it for more than a few minutes, my brain just tilts. Genesis 1:1 declared that God always was. He has no beginning like you and I, nor does He have a past.

Then I go to verse 2. It says, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep…” Verse 3 says, “Then God said, Let there be light; and there was light.”

Here is a wondrous truth. 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Salvation is a wondrous work. It is solely God. Man has no part but to believe. Jesus died so that we might have an eternal relationship with Him. He bore the sins of the whole world. Everyone’s past, present, and future sins were paid for and forgiven. That is amazing love. Let’s spread this wondrous truth so that others may believe and partake of His gift of eternal life💜

Yesterday I read Psalm 25, 55, 85, 115, and 145. There are some deep dive verses. I love Psalm 25:14 in the Amplified. It says, “The secret (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner) meaning.”

This verse always takes me to 1 Corinthians 2:10. Paul had just written about how that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor has it entered the heart of man.

Right now, as I was typing my post, the Holy Spirit stopped me. Until now I never saw this. Man or mankind does not know what God has prepared for us, who love Him. I always read it as ‘us’ being included in man! Verse 10 is written to believers.

The Amplified says, “Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny).”

Daniel 2:22 says, “He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in darkness, and light dwells with Him.”

Our relationship with the Lord is supernatural. The Almighty, All Powerful, All Knowing God, Infinite, and Eternal chooses to dwell in us and commune with us in our hearts.

I love to read Job 38 when I feel perplexed or stopped in my tracks. It brings me back into the right perspective. God questioned Job. Here is one. Verse 16 says, “Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?”

Romans 11:33 says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! We will only ever know what He reveals through His word. We have no human ability, yet 1 Corinthians 2:16 says that we have the mind of Christ.

1 Peter 1:8 says, “Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of joy.” Today I encourage you to deep dive into your relationship with the Lord. Let nothing on this earth rival your time with Him.

Hosea 14:2 is in the context of repentance. I want to capture the first four words which say, “Take words with you…” Now I am turning to the context of ministering to someone who is overwhelmed.

I have been an online mentor for a while. I recently had someone write, “I don’t want to live anymore,” and that was all. I didn’t know anything other than that. I had to totally rely on the Holy Spirit to lead me. He did! We had many email conversations. Though I could not directly speak about the Lord because of the country they are in, He helped me weave the principles in His word into my counsel. His Presence was very evident.

I love Job’s words. Job was reproaching his ‘friends’ who he called his miserable comforters. Job 16:5 says, “But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.” His words are timeless that we can take to heart.

Ephesians 4:29 is a great parameter. It says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

Paul was in dire straits. He pleaded with the Lord three times to take away the thorn in his flesh. The Lord spoke grace-words. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul received such a revelation from those words that it turned his perspective around.

When we are speaking to one who is overwhelmed we desperately need the Holy Spirit to put His words in our mouth. We do not know their heart-thoughts, but He does.

2 Corinthians 1:4 gives us clear direction. It says, “Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

We may not understand the complexities of the one who is overwhelmed. We don’t need to. We need to listen with our heart, and tap into how the Lord comforted and sustained us when we were overwhelmed. We direct our heart to empathize. We identify with their pain as though it were our own. Maybe that is what Paul meant in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another’s burdens.

Taking heart-words requires us to totally yield to the Holy Spirit’s leading. We must incline our ears to hear every whispered word. It may be that we just need to be present, like Job’s friends who sat still with him for seven days and seven nights. We serve the God of All Comfort. We have the Comforter dwelling in us, therefore He will use us as the need requires.

It is good to remember that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are. Hebrews 4:15 says, “…yet without sin.” He totally understands what we are going through when we feel overwhelmed.

Jesus prayed in the garden. Luke 22:42 says, “…Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done.” Verse 43 says that the angel came and strengthened Him.

What did Job do when he lost everything in a day? Job 1:13-22 was one report after another. The words, ‘while he was speaking’ occurred on the same day! Verse 22 says, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” We know from Job 2:13 that when his three friends saw him, they sat down with him for seven days and nights. No one spoke a word.

What did David do when they arrived at Ziklag bone weary? His men talked of stoning him! I am sure that they were all overwhelmed. Their wives and children were gone and the city was burned with fire. David was distressed. 1 Samuel 30:6 says, “…But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” Being overwhelmed can derail us or set us on His path of righteousness. David’s men derailed, but David course corrected.

Ziklag was not an isolated case. David wrote several Psalms that spoke of him being overwhelmed. Psalm 143:4 says, “Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed.”

When we are in a spiritual fetal position, the Lord is there. He surrounds us with His Presence to comfort and sustain. There are times when we are unable to feed on His word. That is alright. He understands.

The Lord has a wonderful course of action for one of His who is distressed, dismayed, overwhelmed, barely functioning, or has given up. The Holy Spirit brings a phrase of a verse, or a verse into our mind. He uses His word to strengthen, reinforce, and fortify our heart.

Psalm 37:3 says, “Trust in the Lord…feed on His faithfulness.” As the Holy Spirit ministers to our heart, trust will awaken. Our thoughts will turn to the Lord. Through our heart we will taste His goodness once again.

After David expressed how he was overwhelmed, he prayed a prayer we can all adopt. Psalm 143:8 says, “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk.”

The Lord has made our physical body with many parts. Each part is essential to the whole. I have recently been learning about how our good gut bacteria thrives on diversity. Each plant has its own fiber. What we eat affects our health. Dairy and meat has no fiber.

The body of Christ is very diverse. 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 aptly described the power of diversity. His body, the church, has many parts. Verse 14 says, “For in fact the body is not one member but many.” Verse 27 says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”

Verse 4-5 says, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.” Verse 7 is key to understand the power of diversity. It says, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”

Therefore, God has set out a table abounding with a diversity of foods. They all are essential for the health of His body, the church. Hebrews 5:13 says, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” Milk, in this sense, is like the milk we drink. It has no fiber.

Verse 14 says, “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Spiritual solid food has to be chewed slowly and thoroughly. Then we ruminate on it over and over so it can be digested and incorporated in our walk with the Lord.

Paul said in Acts 20:27, “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” Ephesians 1:11 says of God, “…who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

How do we know His will in every type of situation if we are only drinking milk? We need the solid food of doctrine to understand what the will of the Lord is.

Daily consumption of His word, verse by verse, gives us His whole counsel. We won’t grow spiritually without it. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”