A Heart Untroubled

I totally forgot yesterday was Saturday, so I apologize for the delay in writing this.  It's been such a strange time.   We're in the little in-between bit from Christmas to New Year and here in the UK our area has gone into the highest tier of the lockdown system, meaning we can't socialise or do very much. It's a time when we could feel discouraged or hopeless; what will 2021 be like?  Are things ever going to be back to normal?  When will I be able to see my family & friends again?   BUT as we come to the end of what has been a very odd year, we of all people should have hope! David said in the Psalms:  Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? H ope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him,  who is the health of my countenance, and my God . (42:11) He looked at his soul (his emotions) and realised he was feeling down!  Most of us, when we consider how we feel would say 'oh I'm feeling down' and wou...

This year people are moaning about so many things: masks, vaccines, restrictions, limitations, the lack of travel... the list goes on, but  it's a good time to remember this verse:  John 4:10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew who I am and the gift that God wants to give you—you’d ask me for a drink, and I would give to you living water.” The New King James versions reads  Jesus answered and said to her, “ If you knew the gift of God... ” If only we knew (recognized) THE GIFT God has for us.   Jesus! At Christmas we celebrate his birth, but as Christian's it becomes easy to miss the great value of the gift of God during the rest of the year.   Jesus is so much more than a baby in the manager.  We probably would all agree, but if we truly knew what the gift God has given us really meant, we would live differently every day.   The gift of Jesus is for 365 days a year - he is our peace, our salvation, our deliverer, our counsellor, our provid...

  People these days love to blame everyone else for their own situations, but the truth is we each make choices every day that determine how our life looks. You may be saying "Abi, you don't know what so-and-so did to me" and that may be true, but what I do know is how we react to what is done by others is entirely up to us.  We get to chose!  And we determine how we look at life.  We can decided to look at life through our lack or we can chose to look at life through God's provision. In this well-known verse we have exactly that.  David chose to look at life through the perspective that the Lord was his shepherd - his provider, his guide, and his protection. He goes on to say "I shall not WANT". That word WANT means LACK.   You can look at your life and say 'I lack this or that', but I guarantee you, there is nothing you need that Jesus Christ did not provide for. You can stay focussed on a lack, or be like David and focus on things from God's p...

This week as I munch my way through the chocolates in my Advent Calendar, God has been really speaking to my heart.  I heard the Spirit ask "What are you preparing for?" Working for the Church of England, I've learned a lot about the Church calendar.  For Anglican's the, the Church Year begins in Advent.   It is a solemn season of waiting, of holding back the tinsel and brightness of Christmas for a time of waiting. Psalms 27:14 (KJV) Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. The Lord reminded me this week, that waiting isn't just a case of sitting around doing nothing.  Waiting in the bible verse above is about being expectant, looking for something eagerly, to hope for.  It is about expecting something to be at the end of the waiting.  In bible times, Anna and Simeon in the temple both expectantly waited for the coming Saviour. They knew he was coming!  There was no doubt.  We don't...

Last week I came across a new song (well new for me).  It's beautiful and has been really speaking to my heart since I heard it. I've included it here, because I just am loving it. The chorus says "All my life you have been faithful.  All my life you have been so, so good.  With every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness of God." As I sang along, the words filled my heart with gratitude, as I remembered time after time when the Lord has been good to me!  He has been good to me by saving me, filling me with his spirit, leading me, guiding me and most of all by his long-suffering love for me.  He has been good to me in my marriage, in our finances, in providing for us. He has been good to me in healing my body, keeping me safe, and bringing wonderful people into my life. Sometimes we can just narrow our field of vision to much until all we can see is the negative, the worry and the fear.  But when you stop and think over the journey you have...

John (my husband) always says that if God was water, how would people know that you had been with Him?  Well, the answer is, you would be wet.  The bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8) so in the same way, if we have been with God, that is the characteristic that should be visible to others.  In Exodus 34, we read that when Moses came down the mountain after meeting with God, his face shone.  There was tangible evidence that he had been with God.  In Acts 4:13  we read that "... And they realized that they had been with Jesus. " There was something about them that showed they had been with Jesus.  That verse mentions directly their boldness, but also one thing that the people marvelled at what that were untrained/uneducated and so I believe their passion and skill in proclaiming the Gospel stood out in the crowd.   The Passion Translations says that verse like this: Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by ...

A few years ago there was a man that attended our church. He couldn't read and he had very limited conversation, but every Sunday when we finished church, as we were packing up ready to go home, his parting shot would always be " Eat your greens! " "What has all this got to do with spiritual encouragement?" I hear you say, well I am glad you asked! Sometimes, we find Christians running around from this conference to that conference looking for that quick caffeine hit of spiritual input.  Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy conferences, but if we live for those moments that have months between them, we're going to struggle. It's like eating. You need to eat your greens! You need to put all the good stuff together with every meal, every day.   We need to put the word into our hearts. There's no short cut.  We need to to eat it up to give us life, strength, wisdom and heath (physical and spiritual).  Just as our bodies need all the good things to be hea...