Streams in the Desert

And after the earthquake a fire; and after the fire a sound of gentle stillness" (1 Kings 19:12, RV margin.)

A soul, who made rapid progress in her understanding of the Lord, was once asked the secret of her easy advancement. She replied tersely, "Mind the checks."

And the reason that many of us do not know and better understand Him is, we do not give heed to His gentle checks, His delicate restraints and constraints. His is a still, small voice. A still voice can hardly be heard. It must be felt. A steady, gentle pressure upon the heart and mind like the touch of a morning zephyr to your face. A small voice, quietly, almost timidly spoken in your heart, but if heeded growing noiselessly clearer to your inner ear.

His voice is for the ear of love, and love is intent upon hearing even faintest whispers. There comes a time also when love ceases to speak if not responded to, or believed in. He is love, and if you would know Him and His voice, give constant ear to His gentle touches. In conversation, when about to utter some word, give heed to that gentle voice, mind the check and refrain from speech.

When about to pursue some course that seems all clear and right and there comes quietly to your spirit a suggestion that has in it the force almost of a conviction, give heed, even if changed plans seem highest folly from standpoint of human wisdom.

Learn also to wait on God for the unfolding of His will. Let God form your plans about everything in your mind and heart and then let Him execute them. Do not possess any wisdom of your own. For many times His execution will seem so contradictory to the plan He gave. He will seem to work against Himself. Simply listen, obey and trust God even when it seems highest folly so to do. He will in the end make "all things work together," but so many times in the first appearance of the outworking of His plans,

"In His own world He is content
To play a losing game."

So if you would know His voice, never consider results or possible effects. Obey even when He asks you to move in the dark. He Himself will be gloriously light in you. And there will spring up rapidly in your heart an acquaintanceship and a fellowship with God which will be overpowering in itself to hold you and Him together, even in severest testings and under most terrible pressures.
--Way of Faith

God Works Within Us..... Dr. Charles Stanley

God Works Within Us

Dr. Charles Stanley 

Ephesians 3:20-21

Let these words slowly sink into your understanding: “able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (v. 20). What an amazing description of God’s ability to work within us.

Yet so often our focus is mainly on what we want Him to do around us: If He would change this situation or fix that problem, then my life would be better. But He invites us to think and ask bigger—He wants to change us!

The Holy Spirit has more than enough power to transform lives from the inside out, but working change within is usually a slow process. Spiritual fruit takes time to grow and mature. That’s why we need patience and faith to believe He is working even when we don’t see the results right away. God is never in a hurry and will never give up on us.

The Lord has a purpose for your life, and He is constantly working to achieve it. Although He has an individualized plan for each one of His children, He also has an overarching goal—to conform every believer to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. In order to accomplish this, He may have to bring us through some struggles and heartaches. It might make no sense to us, but God knows exactly what He’s doing.

What would you like to see the Lord do within you? As you read the Scriptures, look for qualities that God considers precious, and ask Him to work them out in your life. Then rely on His wonderful promise to do even more than you have asked or imagined.

My Alien Brain..... by John UpChurch

My Alien Brain
by John UpChurch

“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” Colossians 1:21-22

The first migraine hit me in middle school. While wrapping up some pre-algebra problems, a fuzzy, white spot kept covering up the numbers. I’d blink and rub my eyes and try to work around it, but the spot hovered there for most of the class. Being the well-reasoned adolescent that I was, I naturally assumed what seemed logical: I was about to die of a massive stroke.

I obviously didn’t die. But when the spot finally did go away, I wished it had stayed.

Stomach-curling, fist-clenching, world-bending pain plopped down into my cranium and threw some sort of headache party. After an hour or so, I couldn’t take it anymore. I told the skeptical school nurse that I thought I had a “migration headache,” which didn’t ease her skepticism. Still, she let me go home.

Just to complete the headache humiliation, I got sick right outside the school (so that all the classes on that side of the building could watch), fell asleep as soon as I got home, and woke up with a throbbing head. Migraines don’t like to go without a fight. They kick and scream into that good night.

My own head revolted against me for several years after that. If I didn’t get enough sleep or got hit with too much stress, the spot would make a comeback. I did learn to lessen the pain sometimes by closing my eyes as soon as the fuzz sprang into view, but that didn’t always work.

Truthfully, the migraines were the least of my problems. My un-reconciled brain, the one that had no understanding of Christ, had revolted from God. Instead of fuzzy spots as warning signs, there were evil deeds, as Paul calls them. I played on others’ emotions to get my way, used girlfriends as my personal trophy case, spent hours and hours on the kinds of websites that wouldn’t make it through a work Internet filter, and generally wasted my gifts. The pain that resulted from those “spots” wasn’t just inwardly focused—it left quite the burning trail in its wake.

My alien brain knew nothing else then. It wanted nothing better. It was pretty much dead.

That’s exactly the reason Christ’s reconciling, restoring death still astounds me. This gray matter, so unresponsive to anything spiritual, came to life with God’s preceding grace. He kept hitting me and kept hitting me until I finally gave up, followed His Son, and stopped being an alien.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Before Christ, nothing works the way it should. Like the migraines that plagued me, our brains revolt against their Creator, and pain inevitably comes. Take some time to look back and who you were before Jesus pumped life into your body—not to turn around or go back, but to be continually blown away by how much He changed you.

Tuning into God’s Voice .....By Meg Bucher

Tuning into God’s Voice
By Meg Bucher

I sat on the beach, digging my toes into the sand and lifting them up to watch it all fall back onto the shoreline. There’s no telling how many grains of sand have been in between those toes over the years. And there’s no way of knowing how old each grain is. Where its started. How it got there …stuck between my toes.

Residing and vacationing by the water, we’ve carried a lot of sand away from the beach over the years in shoes, wagons, buckets and mini-vans full of sandy little butts. We all carry a lot of sand away from the shore.

But one grain of sand stuck in our teeth gets our attention, doesn’t it?

That one single grain stands out from all the other grains we’ve dragged around and played in… tossed about and formed into sand castles…

God’s voice is like that grain of sand. Unmistakable and hard to shake once we’ve turn up the volume on the voice of hope and love in our lives. We may be one person in huge world, but to Him, we are that grain of sand, too. Unmistakable. The one He calls His own… His friends… the one He loves.

Today’s verse begs us to listen to that single grain of sand.

In listening to Jesus we learn what love is, and how we get to know Love.

He walked out many days on this earth in sandals …with sandy toes. He’s not as far removed from understanding us as we realize …even when we do realize who He is. To listen to Christ is to believe and follow. To believe Him is to accept Him as our personal Savior. All it takes is a simple prayer and a willing heart. That one prayer, like one grain of sand among millions, will singly change life forever. A prayer just like this…

Father, praise You for Jesus. Thank You that He came to earth and died for me. Forgive me, for I have sinned, but through Jesus I have the hope of forgiveness. Today, as I accept Jesus as the Savior of my life, I pray for Your blessing to follow Him until the day you call me home to heaven.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

A Prayer for When You’re Stuck in the Waiting Place..... By Marlo Schalesky

A Prayer for When You’re Stuck in the Waiting Place
By Marlo Schalesky

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. – Romans 8:25

Waiting. I've never been a fan. But it seems I have a PhD in the art. Waiting for the results of infertility treatments, waiting for an offer for a job, waiting for a change in a relationship, waiting for a change in life.

And recently, waiting for test results that could mean cancer or mean nothing. Once again, I was in the waiting place, and while there, I wrote this:

I find myself here again, in this waiting place. The place where I know God is sovereign. I know He holds my life in His hands. I know He is there. I know He cares. I know the very hairs on my head are numbered… as are my days.

And yet there is a knot in my stomach and my eyes flicker to the phone. Again. And again. It does not ring. Not yet. Of course, not yet.

But I watch anyway. I swallow. And remind myself of all the things I already know.

Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? (Matthew 6:27, Luke 12:25)

When we're feeling stuck in the waiting place, our culture says, "Get out of that rut! Life's too short. Stop the excuses. Do something." You'll be told to smile more, care less, be happy, and think good thoughts.

Good advice, but sometimes change is outside our control. Sometimes we're not in charge. Sometimes we're stuck, just like Abram and Sarai were in Haran. On their way to the promised land, Genesis 11:31 tells us, "Terah took his son Abram… and his son Abram's wife, Sarai...and arriving at Haran, they settled there." Haran wasn't the promised land. But because of Terah, they got stuck there anyway, and Sarai didn't have the power to choose to continue the journey. God had to remove a barrier before she could move forward. In their case, Terah himself had to die.

If you’re in a waiting place, know you are not alone. God is right there with you. Let’s pray to Him now.

Father, can I be honest? I am tired of waiting. Waiting is hard, painful, exhausting. But I know that learning to wait well is a beautiful, sanctifying, hope-giving thing. So help me wait well. Help me cling to you as I wait. Please Lord, let your peace rule in my heart. Help me live by your grace each day of this waiting. And help me bring you glory as I wait expectantly. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!