Good morning Zebras,

Yesterday I went through my Bible page by page, reading all the notes I have written over the years.

I didn’t used to write in my Bible, it is a long story which many of you might already know, involving a stranger telling me I had a disobedient spirit because I refused to mark in my Bible even when I was directed to do so by someone who had authority over me.  A remark that changed the course of my life. 

Six months later I was at Mt Hermon praying and preparing for the “Be Still” retreat, the first retreat that God had allowed me write, and I knew the last thing I wanted was a disobedient spirit so I went to the bookstore and purchased a Bible marking pen, went back to my room and carefully highlighted a single verse.

Seven years later my Bible isn’t a book it is a testimony to my life with God. All the prayers for all the events and all the promises God made to me on this journey.  And I realized I could say with Job: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.”  Not because He granted every request but because He didn’t.

When you love someone you always hope that they will do the “right” thing even when they prove you wrong.  And when you love God, you still believe He is good, loving and kind and that He will answer your prayers “correctly” even if His answers in the past were painful. 

Paul wrote: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. “

And I yesterday I realized that it is life itself that most often separtes us from God, not because He quits loving us and turns away, but because we get beaten down by life and quit loving Him.

Read this definition of love and see if it matches the way you feel about God. 

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I love you Zebras, so much, God loves you more, and nothing that happens in life changes that.

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I love you.

When my kids were younger and they would ask me where something was, after I gave them directions to find it, I would add, “look like you believe it is there.”

I think God has told us the same thing about prayer: “pray like you believe I exist.”

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And if at first you don't see what your're looking for, try, try again.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

George Muller built his orphanage not to take care of orphans but to demonstrate to God’s people that God could be trusted to fulfill His promises, including this one:

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

He thought if he could give people something physical to look at, something built entirely on faith, then they would be willing to trust God to provide for the needs in their own lives.  That is why he never asked for money, or even shared his needs with others.  He was hoping, through his life, others would see that God was real and could be trusted.  

Like Abraham, Muller believed God and acted accordingly. (James 2:14-26) 

A noble goal for all our lives.

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

An interesting except from “Touching the Invisible: Living by Unseen Realities.”

“We see the blind eye, the withered arm: Christ saw the will and power of His Father to heal, and spoke the word, “Stretch forth thine arm,” “Receive thy sight.”  We see the five loaves and the multitudes and say, “What are they among so many?” Christ saw His Father’s invisible and unlimited supply, gave thanks for it, acted on the full assurance of it, and faith was seen to be “the giving of substance to things hoped for.” 

He goes on to say that we have one great enemy of faith, the fear of the visible.  We focus so much on what we see, we forget that another world exists.   Tozer would agree, an excerpt from “The Pursuit of God.”

“God and the spiritual world are real. We can reckon upon them with as much assurance as we reckon upon the familiar world around us.  Spiritual things are there inviting our attention and challenging our trust.  Our trouble is that we have established bad thought habits.  We habitually think of the visible world as real and the doubt the reality of any other.”

Two worlds, existing side by side.  One we see with our eyes, one we see with our faith. And every man must choose his world.   

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I love you.

Recently I bought the coolest plant.  It takes the water I give the roots it and transfers it up and out the tips of the leaves leaving little drops of water on the table.   It is the perfect example of how God’s people should be, so full of the living water of Jesus Christ that it just naturally comes out our pores.

From the introduction to “The Autobiography of George Muller”: “Muller never studied the Bible for others only for himself to find out what His Father required of him.  He became so impregnated with God’s truth that when he spoke of God, his listeners would be reminded of the words of our Savior in John 7:38, for from him seems to flow ‘rivers of living water.’”

Oswald today is saying the same thing: “Stay at the Source, closely guarding your faith in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow into the lives of others with no dryness or deadness whatsoever.”

It is our faith we need to guard, not our family, our money or our time so that God can use our life to water others.  Not because of what we do, but because of who we are.

Tozer: “if my fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.” Amen. 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

Every moment spent worrying is a moment lost. 

Matthew 6:25-33 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.      

Remember the old V-8 commercial, where the person after drinking some inferior beverage slaps their forehead and realizes they could have had a V-8 instead? 

That’s how it is with worry and prayer, after you waste time worrying you want to hit yourself when you realize you could have been praying instead because as James says the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.   

I love you Zebras.  The world does not need any more people to worry, it has plenty of those, it needs more righteous people to pray. 

Love,

Jill

Good morning Zebras,

I love you.

Satan’s favorite battle ground is our mind. 

We let him in when we choose to let our thoughts wander to things unrelated to God. Just like Eve we begin to doubt what God has said, and disobedience and sin follow. 

Philippians 4:4–9 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

If your life is not marked by the peace of God, check to see you are allowing your thoughts to run amok like a poorly behaved child in a restaurant, and then reel them in by taking every thought “captive to Christ.”

Whatever is true, noble, right, lovely and pure those are the things we should be thinking about if we want God’s peace.

Remember, God is always there, He never moves, He can’t because He is everywhere.  We are the ones who choose to look away.  (Psalm 139)

Love,

Jill