A Heart Untroubled

2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith and not by sight. Sometimes though, it's really hard not to look at the circumstances around us and let them tell us how we should walk. In Mark chapter 8 we read the story of Jesus healing the blind man.   He takes the man out of Bethsaida. Jesus spits on the man's eyes and then asks him if he can see anything. The man responds by saying he sees men like trees.   Jesus puts his hands over the man's eyes, and then the next thing he does is he makes him 'look up'. In Acts 7:55 Stephen is facing a raging mob. They are stirred up by his message, and yet, being filled with the Holy Spirit it says " And he l ooked steadfastly u p to heaven " Even the Psalmist wrote " I will lift mine eyes up to the hills  from whence cometh my help ." (Psalm 121:1) What is the significance of 'looking up'?  Jesus is asking the man to look beyond where he saw 'men like trees'; Stephen is taking hi

I've been involved in a few of conversations from various places over the last few weeks, and I've noticed a common theme: People look at their past experience and use it to colour their perception of their present selves. What do I mean?  Well, we have a tendency to run into a situation and say thinks like "Oh I know I just won't be able to cope", Or we say "I'm not good disciplined. I've never been able to do that". Or "I'm never any good at anything". We base this kind of thing on nothing but the past.   I understand why we do it, but don't realize a) the power and ability we have inside us and b) the power of our words. When we got saved, we became totally new creatures; not just a refurbished model, but totaly reconstructed.  In his second letter to the Corinthians Pauls says this: 2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT) Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the

I think many of us recognize areas within ourselves which aren't the way we want them to be.   We embark on many schemes; self-discipline, will-power, deliverance or self-help groups to effect change in those areas. We pray for God to change us and beat ourselves up when we fall short (again). The word has something to say about every aspect of our lives and change is no exception. The bible says in Roman 12:2 ".. .be transformed by the renewing of your mind ".   God's way of change is not from the outside, but starts on the inside of us. We often want our character flaws, or what I call 'symptoms' to change, and if they don't we become discouraged.  It's a lot of effort for really ineffective results.  Behavioural change, isn't tackling the root issues, just the result of those issues in our hearts.  The difficulty is that just like a cobweb, getting rid of the web doesn't change a thing; tomorrow the web will be back -instead we nee

I n the Disney movie "Lion King", the character Rafiki (the baboon), strikes a baffled Simba (the Lion) on the head with a big stick.   The conversation goes as follows: Simba "Ow why did you do that?" Rafiki "It doesn't matter. It's in the past.  The way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it." He goes to hit Simba again, but misses because Simba ducks. Many years ago, long before we went to bible college, my husband and I got involved with a cult.   It of course didn't have a banner outside saying "All Welcome to Join Our Cult."  Rather, it appeared to offer an opportunity to pursue the things of God, which excited our hearts.   As our time in the group continued, it became increasingly obvious that it was not a Godly organization.  It's a LONG story, but the short version is, we recognized it for what it was and we left.  This experience had some painful times with it, but i t taught us a lot, most sign