31 Days of healing Day 3 " Why are you downcast, oh my soul"

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
(Isaiah 60:1-3 ESV)

 "Arise, shine; for your light has come! After the thick and desperate darkness described in Isa_59:9-10, this is the glorious rescue from the Redeemer. Light has come - so God tells His people to respond to it, and to arise and shine!

 Darkness is for lying down; light is for rising up. Darkness is for gloom and sleep; light is for shining. When the light has come, we must respond, and arise, shine!
 First, we receive God’s light (your light has come), and then we have a service to put forth (arise, shine). You can’t shine until your light has come, but once it has come, there is something wrong if you don’t arise and shine!
And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you: This is no earthly light; this is light that emanates from the glory of the LORD. This is like the light of Jesus in the Transfiguration, when His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light (Matt 17:2). Sometimes harsh, bright light can be disturbing or uncomfortable - but not this warm, wonderful light that pulsates from the glory of the LORD".(Guzik)


 No Matter our current circumstances, we can trust God to bring us through it. Do not be deceived that you will not be healed by God. He has and HE will continue to heal us as we look to Him only for healing. Why are you downcast, oh my soul? Arise for your light has come!

31 Days of healing Day 2 "A careful examining of my heart"

This process is going to take a careful examining  of my heart. I wrote an earlier bog post that I reread a few days ago that really made me think about how I got where I am emotionally.You can read it here Beauty For Ashes.  My own words stung me.  I knew it was time to take a closer look at my heart and confess any sin that I found. One thing that jumped out at me was when we are hurt by our circumstances or people we need to choose how we respond in our hearts. When we hang on to the hurt and try to justify our anger or other feelings and allow them to remain unchecked then our thinking may become clouded and we will not see truth.  We will want to keep carrying our hurts like a prized possession instead of dealing with them. 

"Sometimes, the pain we have worked so hard to avoid is the one thing that leads us to where God calls us to go. Sometimes, feeling our need is the greatest work of faith we can surrender to". ~Bonnie Gray, Faith Barista

And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"
(Luke 9:23-25 ESV)

31 Days of Healing Day 1 "Intro"

I have endured many trials, tribulations and sufferings this last year. I will be writing for 31 days about my healing process. The road that is now required of me will require my dying to self and putting absolute trust in God and His absolute truth. I hope that you will join me each day as I travail along this path before me. I am excited about what God will be teaching me as I yield myself to Him. 


And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 
(Luke 9:23-25 ESV)

The Heart

Desperately wicked: The heart is not only deceitful, but also wicked - and desperately so. Many have been led to rebellion, disobedience, and great sorrow by following their heart, without challenging their heart and judging it by the measure of God's truth. "Follow your heart" is poor advice when the heart is desperately wicked. (Guzik)

Jeremiah 17:5-10
Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Below is commentary from David  Guzik on this pasage:

a. The heart is deceitful above all things: To this point the Prophet Jeremiah has given some reason to be cautious about the inclinations and direction of the heart. He noted how the evil heart of the people of Judah had led them astray.

·      Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart (Jeremiah 11:8)
·      They prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart (Jeremiah 14:14)
·      Each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me (Jeremiah 16:12)

b. The heart is deceitful above all things: Our hearts often deceive us, presenting heart-fulfillment as the key to happiness. What we desire is often not what we need. The advice "be true to your heart" fails when the heart is deceitful above all things.

i. "In the OT usage the heart signifies the total inner being and includes reason. From the heart come action and will." (Feinberg)

ii. "The pravity and perversity of the man's heart, full of harlotry and creature confidence, deceiving and being deceived, is here plainly and plentifully described; and oh that it were duly and deeply considered." (Trapp)

c. And desperately wicked: The heart is not only deceitful, but also wicked - and desperately so. Many have been led to rebellion, disobedience, and great sorrow by following their heart, without challenging their heart and judging it by the measure of God's truth. "Follow your heart" is poor advice when the heart is desperately wicked.

i. The sense of the Hebrew for desperately wicked seems to have sickness more than depravity in mind. "Unregenerate human nature is in a desperate condition without divine grace, described by the term gravely ill in verse 9 (rsv desperately corrupt, neb desperately sick)." (Harrison)

d. Who can know it? The heart's deceit and wickedness are advanced enough that even the individual may not know or understand their own heart, and outsiders have even more difficulty in discerning the heart of others.

e. I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind: Though knowing the heart of one's self or others is difficult and sometimes impossible, God searches, tests, and knows the heart and mind. It is wise to trust what God says about us more than what we think or feel about ourselves.

i. I test the mind: "A second word is here set in parallel to heart, literally, 'kidneys', hidden depths. These, Yahweh assays or 'tests'…the two terms 'heart' and 'kidneys' cover the range of hidden elements in man's character and personality. Nothing is hidden from Yahweh." (Thomspon)

ii. "The Lord is called by his apostles, Acts 1:24, kardiognwsthv, the Knower of the heart. To him alone can this epithet be applied; and it is from him alone that we can derive that instruction by which we can in any measure know ourselves." (Clarke)

Treasured

I  have a coaster that I absolutely love, that was recently broken. It was damaged, it will be cracked, but still usable. As I was gluing it together I had a thought come to me. I was reading the words on the coaster: Treasured: The Lord delights in those who fear him,who put their hope in his unfailing love. Psalm 147:11(NIV)    ... Although we are broken we are treasured. He loves us with an unfailing love We are damaged, cracked, but still usable...   He delights in us when we fear Him and trust in His unfailing Love... I needed this message. We can never get to the end of his Love!

For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

Underneath as the graphic the following song was printed :

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

Words: George Ma­the­son, in the Church of Scot­land mag­a­zine Life and Work, January 1882.