Category: Inspirational

Offerings Of Praise

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So when the thanksgiving celebration is over and the turkey is gone and the meal has been devoured are the hearts still thankful ~ or not? Do we still persevere and run the race in thankfulness or have we somewhere along the way picked up negative vibes of other stuff to slow us down, and push our gratefulness to the back burner? Pushed it to some out-of-sight, remote corner of our world where it’s dark and dismal? A place where anxious worry and fears, oh so real fears, tug at us from all the far corners of the earth and overpower our clear thinking? What is it that won’t let go of the mind so that you can find the peace you desire, and need? Yeah, we all have the moments when we forget to be thankful for the small stuff because anxiety trumps (no pun intended) our thankful spirit! Worry takes over life and we begin living in nooks and crannies of despair simply because it all seems so hopeless. There’s a whole bunch of us living there, in the crowded corners of fear, wondering our next move and what it should be! There’s no empty space! No clear way! No direct path out and so what’s one to do as a prisoner in your own body?
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Beautiful you ~ Track back to that corner of gratefulness, wherever you left it and find the blessing in the bleak! Track back to the good and yeah, even the not so good and find the golden threads of promise that have held you together this long. Untie them! Unravel them and take a good, long look at what you hold in your hand. Promises of God? His love, His guidance, His faithfulness, His Blessings? Yeah, so many, some mixed in with hurts and disappointment because life is life but things that God used to make you who you are today. He doesn’t waste pain! He uses every trace of it to strengthen our weakness and pull us out and up from where we are to where we can be. He still cares and that’s reason to offer praise from even a hurting heart! An offering of praise to our creator is the best antidote for anxiety. David lamented while hiding in a cave, fearing for his life, and writes his heart felt prayer in Psalm 142: 5, “I cry to your O Lord; I say ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison that I may praise Your name.” and then He does just that in Psalm 145:1, “I will exalt You, my God the King;…great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.”
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So yeah, today in that anxious corner find the blessing in the bleak and let praise pour out of your grateful heart to the One on the heavenly throne. The Sovereign One in charge and watch the fear dissipate and melt away from your mind! Enter into the land of the living once more and allow God to be your refuge and your portion!
~k
White Feather

#Soulfire

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Precision Perception

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So, sometimes our perception isn’t so precise is it? Sometimes how we view it, is just wrong on so many levels? Often we don’t see clearly all the detail of all the stuff in our way and so we make false judgement, wrong decisions , critical remarks and as a result we act and react on false pretences just because our vision is dimmed.
The other morning I noticed a spider in the bathtub, and you have to understand, we don’t get along well. No, spiders and me ~ well, we just don’t see eye to eye. Oh, I love the elegant patterns etched into their silken webs and for photography I find their amazing draping, spun creations fascinating as they glisten with dewdrops in a hazy, morning sun! However, the way the spider crawls about in mid-air and free-fall to spin it’s elegant design is frightful for one who’s standing in close proximity. Maybe it stems from baggage of a fear awakened in my childhood spirit, when upon awaking one morning, sleepy eyes met with adrenaline, widened and focused rather quickly to see a spider dangling from its web about two inches from my face! Did I say, I panicked? How does an eight year old figure this one out? Screaming wasn’t going to help! I gently blew him to the left in order to crawl out from underneath, hoping he didn’t drop further! Yeah, to this day, I don’t like them and I really dislike their spidery, leggy characteristics and the way they crawl about so creepy like. So, here we were and this spider who was found lodging in the tub just had to be got! I grabbed a very thick wad of paper to make sure he didn’t get away! Now, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be and without magnifying glasses all fine detail is a blur and a lot of things look the same to me. I sized up the moment as best I could and with bad eyes took him out! Upon checking to make sure I had him, he moved and fell back into the tub. I panicked and dropped the whole wad of nonsense, only to recoup to find to my embarrassment, it was nothing but nonsense as a clearer view revealed a fluffy fuzz of dog fur that floated off the wad, into the air drifting back into the tub. No damage done this time, just a wake up call to not be so anxious about things that might not even be. But how many times do I need to be reminded?

Do you do the same? Do you find yourself worrying about things that aren’t? Feel panicked about things that aren’t concrete? Anxious about issues that aren’t set in stone? I didn’t see clearly enough to know detail and so I had it all wrong. O.k so here’s the thing friends, physical eyesight isn’t always accurate and sweet and beautiful soul, neither is our spiritual insight? We are called to be discerners but we have to take care to see clearly before acting or reacting. In John 7: 24, Jesus rebukes a critical crowd in the temple courts, when He says to them “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.”

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Sometimes you and I and we and us, don’t we just get it all wrong and judge before we gather all the facts? We see, we perceive, we size up and we assume all manner of things! Our false perception leads us off track and our nonsense possibly leads many others astray as our false belief gives way to gossip and spreads like uncontrolled flames licking through a forest! Unlike the “no big deal” of it wasn’t a spider after all, we can burn valuable bridges causing a lot of damage to ourselves and to others because of anxieties and false perceptions.

Yeah, beautiful soul, you and I and we and us, we need to take care to give the heart magnifying glasses to see things through the eyes of spiritual discernment opened up in the Light of Truth, before we jump head-first into something that’s all wrong. Sometimes, we need to put our “holier than thou” caps on the hooks of challenge and seek to understand by joining the ranks of those living where the rubber meets the road so to speak. Walk in their shoes and carry their baggage! Not all things come together to make a nice, clean, tidy story of perfection but each one is writing God’s story for their lives as the divine and sovereign God heals, repairs and perfects that which concerns them. David knew His God well and reminds himself and us of His constant care in Psalm 138:8, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your love O Lord endures forever. Do not abandon the works of your hands.”

How’s our story? Not perfect eh? Rest assured God is working on you and He’s working on them! Who are we to judge then? In Proverbs 3: 13 we have a promise of blessing to the wise and to those who seek to understand. “ Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding…How then do we get wisdom? How then do we understand?

James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
~k
#SoulFire

White Feather

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Are The Rats Winning?


So ~ are the rats are winning in your life? Those icky, ugly subjects that just keep creeping into your world from all manner of corners? Are the enemies, whatever they might be, closing in on your space, leaving you feeling claustrophobic, maybe weakened and ready to give up? Addictions to sinful ways, that maybe you want desperately to let go of but can’t? Has some sort of failure left you ready to throw in the towel and forget life? Well, beautiful soul, if the rats are winning, stop feeding them, because you see, If we feed them with attention, negative thinking, fear, worry or maybe compromise, without doubt they will take the lead and eventually win! Rather than being caught and dealt with, they catch and deal. Ahh, yes, but the good news is this ~ as believers in a Sovereign God, full of grace and mercy, we have within our reach a potential and powerful element to aid us in dealing with the unpleasantries, addictions, hard places and hard knocks of life’s bad choices! As followers of Christ we are not vulnerable to the sin that tries to ensnare but we are totally secure in the one true God, who is over and above all, and we can know that we can know, that the Christ of the Cross has brought us victory over the evil one and his relentless counterparts. So today, yeah you, today ~ get up and face it head on! Do you know Him personally? Because if you do, there is not room for rats in your life and we need to clean up and out-smart them by using the right bait! Above all, Stand firm in the Light of Truth and claim the powerful words and promises of Christ! Submit to God and watch the rats scurry helter skelter to find a safer location far away from the victorious promises of God that threaten to take them out.

James gives us such powerful advice in his letter to the twelve tribes and to us today, in James 4: 7
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands , you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded…..humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.”
Just do it and beat the rats at their own game today.

White Feather

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Prodigal Victory

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
Proverbs 22:6

Parents are advised in scripture to begin training children in the things of God from their early days onward, because it establishes a firm foundation on which they can build their lives. As parents, we are to Saturate their lives with the things of God through example, teaching, prayer and the Word of God. We are to impress upon their mind the salvation story that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Yeah, we are, and that example simply means just that, how we live!

It pains me to see the choices that kid’s make and yes, sometimes adult compromise and friends lead them down the garden path of pleasure, quickly leading them astray and away from the truth that they once knew and maybe even treasured in their heart in their younger years. Even when they’ve been raised in a Christian home, sometimes kids just have to try their wings and go their own way for a time. There’s nothing any more difficult for a parent to watch than the consequences of children fulfilling their passionate pleasures, even though they know better. There is nothing like the school of hard knocks to refresh our memories of what we know to be right and wrong and thankfully God gets our attention when we refuse to live in obedience to Him. He may allow very difficult times, but He will get our attention. It may not be pretty, but it will be perfect and just the right thing, at just the right time.


It’s what we’ve taught our children that comes back to soften their hearts in their down and out moments…If they’ve not had the spiritual teaching and training or the example of godly living, life becomes seemingly futile without hope during the consequences of sinful living. Oh how we need to teach them the things of God, and pray for our kids that God will fulfill His purpose in their lives. If you’ve a child that has gone astray, You have to trust the Sovereign God to take that child under His wing of protection and then keep praying….Claim His promises and watch for the victory.

❤ ❤ ❤

White Feather

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