paravanes:meditations

Image: Window in the kitchen of the Daggett Farm House at  Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan Photo by Deborah Evans If you are seeking to hear from God, you must rest.  What does this mean? This means you must intentionally move yourself out of emergency panic mode. This means you must determine to align your emotions with the serenity and power of God.  This means you cannot live on a wavelength of stress, uncertainty, and frustration. This means you must know beforehand God will answer your prayer for guidance. This means you will align yourself with the purpose, power, and peace of God.  You will rest your mind, body, and emotions in preparation for hearing, understanding, and believing in the guidance of God. If you want to be guided by God,  first   you must rest .  

  (c) Deborah Evans Nehemiah 8:10: "Do not grieve...the joy of the Lord is your strength." What does this mean? Read the book of Nehemiah, not a long book, if you want to understand the historical context of this statement. What can it mean for us in 2023? We were created for joy and happiness. The joy and happiness experienced in our creation was based on our close, uninterrupted connection to God. We cut that connection in the early days of humanity (see Genesis, the book of beginnings) and God restored to us the option of that connection through Jesus Christ.  As Christ followers, we can now honestly say "the joy of the Lord is my strength." What does this joy look like in our life experiences? We have the security of knowing in this life we walk a road prepared for us and will have a safe, final arrival in God's kingdom in a place made specifically for us. See John 14:2. We have the certainty of knowing we don't exist through a random process of chance, ...

(c) Deborah Evans When Jesus says you cannot follow him unless you "deny yourself" (Matthew 16:24+25), he doesn't mean for you to neglect your well-being, your fitness and health, or your mind. What he does mean is you must give up the life this broken world wants to give you: the life you have when someone is more important than Jesus, the life you have when there's no time for the Bible and fellowship with other believers, the life you have when you're too busy to pray. Denying yourself means ripping the unholy (habits, people, priorities) from your life and keeping the unholy out of your life. Self care isn't sinful. Your body and mind are designed by God and are gifts from God. Designed to glorify God and to house other gifts of God, your body and mind require self care in order for you to carry out God's will for you in this life. Rest, good food, exercise, positive social connections, and life long learning are all forms of self care that...

Fatigue often accompanies the struggle for renewal. Choosing to go against "the grain", against an established pattern, calls to the deepest parts of our hearts. Rest, a coming away from daily demands and routines, is a requirement for growth. There is no virtue in refusing to accept and embrace a time of renewal and refreshment. Jesus, the God-Man, regularly stepped away from the crowds for a time of prayer and quiet reflection. In this practice,  I will follow my leader.

“Can I say I have been warned of God, and moved with fear, to fly to this Ark? Have I discovered my shelter-less state by nature, the waves and billows of wrath rising and rolling against me? Have I seen my own inability to provide an Ark for myself, and the excellency and fitness of the Ark of God’s providing? Have I been made willing to abandon all false arks, and [made] inquisitive [of] how to get into the true Ark? Have I been made willing to use all appointed means for this end, to read, hear, meditate, pray, repent, believe, essay [try] to climb up the sides of the Ark, and press to get in at the door thereof? Have I been willing to venture my all in the Ark, like Noah, notwithstanding the discouragements, scoffs, and hatred of the world for so doing? Have I willingly acquiesced, sheltered, and lodged my soul in God’s Ark, and been made to say, “This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell? Come what floods will, Christ shall be my Ark, His righteousness alone my refuge and ...