An excerpt from my book...

I long ago realized that my little dog was a gift from God created specially for me. I frequently let her know that, so often in fact that it is quite possible she associates the words “special gift from God” with receiving affection. In fact, when she had first been diagnosed with cancer, during a time of tearful heartfelt prayer on her behalf, the word “oxytocin” popped into my mind. Now I understood the word to be a bonding hormone which is released during breast feeding which enables mother and infant to establish a close bond. What I did not realize until an internet search, was that oxytocin is released in a human’s and a dog’s blood stream within 15 minutes of starting a petting session. So it led me to wonder if oxytocin could possibly help fight cancer. Further research revealed that dogs who are loved dearly have a 50 percent higher cancer survival rate than those who are abandoned AND that oxytocin indeed can help fight cancer! I can tell you with complete assurance that the Holy Spirit was responsible for whispering the word oxytocin in my ear when I was praying for my dog. Once again, the timing had been perfect!

I share all of this to make the point that prayer is the most important thing we can do. The bible admonishes us to “pray without ceasing” which I believe means, among other things, that we should do so in good times and bad. Rather than engaging in vain imagination…futile and “what if” thinking and allowing them to run the show, run to your Father in Heaven. Live under the shadow of His wings because God is in your circumstances…He is not in your “what ifs.”

“Let my shoulder fall from the socket,

And my arm be broken off at the elbow.” Job 31:22

The above verse was in my scheduled reading the day after I posted about a crisis of faith I had briefly experienced.  A disc herniation in my neck masquerading as a heart attack had led to excruciating pain in my left arm that sent me scurrying to the ER by way of ambulance.  At first I laughed, because I thought, what are the chances this should be in a scheduled reading right after I experienced arm pain that was so bad I actually wondered if God really was with me?  Then I realized....God not only provided me with a bit of comic relief, He reminded me that I was not the first one to experience such pain!

Thinking back on it, my heart is now warmed by the fact that He had NOT left me nor did He judge me for having doubts when I believed that He had.  Best of all, He set it up with a perfectly timed verse of Scripture to prove it. 

Lord, if I shout with all my breath for all of eternity, I will never be able to say enough good things about You!  Thank You for loving me enough to continually remind me that You are there....and for giving me more stuff to write about!!!!

“Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?  James 4:5

James describes God as one who wants more than anything else, to be in relationship with us. A truly sad revelation came to me this morning as I read the above verse.  How God must miss us since mankind fell in the Garden!  Adam and Eve walked in constant, perfect unity with Him but after they ate of the Tree of Knowledge, things were never the same.  While it is true that Jesus died to restore that severed relationship, even among saved believers today, how often does knowledge get in our way? How easily faith can be replaced with fear and doubt!  Though perhaps only temporary lapses in faith, it is certainly not the constant unbroken spirit to Spirit relationship that God had with the first couple.  How terribly sad for God and for the first time since I met Jesus, I believe I actually sensed His loss and wept bitterly for the Father.

If we are brutally honest with ourselves, most of us would have to admit that from time to time our minds get in the way of our faith as we wonder, however briefly, if God is real.  For Adam and Eve, there was never any doubt.  In fact, it was not doubt about God’s existence that got them into trouble. Even satan never suggested that God was not real, only that He had not really said that they would die if they ate the fruit. Once they succumbed to that temptation, head knowledge has plagued us ever since.  Mankind may not have died physically, but the unbroken relationship with God most certainly did.

When I read James 4:5, the word “Spirit” jumped out at me. God jealously desires the “Spirit which He has made to dwell within us.”  This of course refers to the Holy Spirit, but I wondered ...well I am not sure what I wondered, but in a nutshell, God desires the Spirit within us to connect with His, unfettered by knowledge, cares, desires for worldly things, etc. 

This would seem to be born out by the context of chapter 4 because James also describes friendship with the world as causing enmity with God:

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4

And in verse 3 he describes our wrong motives:

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasureTherefore I can only conclude that asking for things for my own pleasure and being a friend of the world just might prevent the Spirit who dwells within me from fellowshipping with the Father. The good news is that when Messiah Jesus  returns that will all change!  But for now I must do the best I can by keeping my mind off the world and onto the higher things of God, as much as possible.

Father, please help me desire only the things which I need and that You want me to have. Let me not fall victim to the worldly trappings and concerns that interfere with the perfect relationship which You desire me to have with You. May anyone who reads this prayer and desires Spirit to spirit relationship to You be granted such.  In the mighty, glorious name of Jesus.  AMEN!

There is  a shore bird called the Avocet, who has an endearing quality which I have always found fascinating.  When danger threatens, Avocet chicks instinctively know to seek shelter beneath their mother’s wings.  As each chick pushes his way through her feathers, the mom gives a gentle prod with her beak, to make room for them all and to hasten the process along.

Unlike the Avocet chick, who is guided by instinct, I often need more than a gentle prod to remind me to run to the shelter of my Father’s wings.  He longs that I do so at the fist sign of danger however great or small.  How often I try to handle things in my own strength, or go with the flow only to find myself mired in the dried up delta of a stream which runs dry?  

I mutter to myself, "I feel blue today, but that is just how it is.”    No it is NOT!  I need to run to my Father and ask Him to replace the sadness with overflowing joy!  And I must do so before it turns to depression. 

Lord, please help me to be more like a baby bird and teach me to seek refuge under the shadow of Your wings.  May I be mindful and discern potential threats long before they turn to danger.  In Jesus’ mighty name.  AMEN!!