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“In each journey of your life you must be where you are. You may only be passing through on your way to somewhere else seemingly more important — nevertheless, there is purpose in where you are right now.”
I am sharing a bit of an article I found because it gives a powerful example about the importance of visualizing life through our belief not our un-belief. We have been talking for some time now about how the word faith (‘emunah) and truth (‘emet) both come from the root word amen. If felt to share this pondering because as I read it I was once again reminded of the importance of believing that God is for us and not against us. Before moving on let’s recap what the Hebrew word “Amen” means. The word Amen means “surely” and “so be it” yet at the core meaning of amen is: firmness and support. It is used to describe a foster-father/mother or nurse who supports and nourishes a child.
The chassidic sage Rabbi Dov Ber of Radoschitz once asked his teacher and master, the famed “Seer of Lublin” about the right path to the service of G-d. Answered the Seer: “There is no such thing as the right path to serve G-d. Because there is a path of learning, there is a path of fasting, there is a path of eating, there is a path of meditation, and so on… Also, no two persons are the same. We each have our own appropriate path to connect with the Almighty. “But the path that you choose you must follow with all your might…” By Shoshannah Brombacher on Chabad.org
My friend sent me this sweet devotional where Max Lucado gives us five pointers on taking our enemy down. Enjoy. Take Goliath Down Goliaths still roam our world. Debt. Disaster. Dialysis. Danger. Deceit. Disease. Depression. Super-size challenges still swagger and strut, still pilfer sleep and embezzle peace and liposuction joy. But they can’t dominate you. You know how to deal with them. You face giants by facing God first. Focus on giants—you stumble. Focus on God—your giants tumble. You know what David knew, and you do what David did. You pick up five stones, and you make five decisions. Ever wonder why David took five stones into battle? Why not two or twenty? Rereading his story reveals five answers. Use your five fingers to remind you of the five stones you need to face down your Goliath. Let your thumb remind you of …
From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman: Know that there is no place outside of G-d, and rejoice in your task of uncovering Him there. Psalm 46:10 comes to my mind, “be still and know that I am God” however, sometimes it’s hard to be still when it feels like the sky is falling all around. Ironically we are created to do whatever it takes to survive yet everything that it takes to survive is knowing God. O’ how desperately we need to know God’s personality in the midst of trials. Moses desperately needed to know too. He begged God, “Show me Your Face!” The Lord did something better though, He showed Moses His Personality. He revealed who He was at the core of His being, His heart.
This is a beautiful excerpt on experiencing the depths of prayer from a book called “Making Prayer Real.” “There is a great teaching of the Maharal of Prague who says that we pray in order to empty ourselves of words, and the real prayer happens in the silence afterwards. Usually when I’m feeling heartbroken, I will pour our my heart, in the words of the Siddur (the Jewish prayer book) and in my own words, until I have no more words. Then I will just stand there, struck silent, and for me, that silence is as deep a prayer as any of the words I have said. And it’s an opportunity to be there with the One and receive whatever there is to receive.” The book goes on to say:
In her book, “Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ” Jeanne Guyon shares on what she calls the second level of prayer – a second level of experiencing Jesus Christ. This portion of her book fits with our topic of prayer regarding connecting with God through prayer. I hope you enjoy her insights and that they help you experience Him more. “Prayer is the true way, the real way, of finding God. And once you have found Him, you proclaim joyfully, “His name is an ointment poured forth.” (Song of Solomon 1:3)
“It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’” The Master Here are some neat little insights from Max Lucado on the prayer our Lord Jesus taught us to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread…”
This pondering that I felt was worth repeating is from the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebee. Words and condensation are by Tzvi Freeman on Chabad.org.
“Stick-n-stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” As a child this may have bandaged the wounds that words left but as adults we know this is not true and that words have tremendous power. In the following devotional, Max Lucado shares some insight into it in this through a lesson he learned while playing baseball as a young boy:
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Copyright 2010 Tiffany Ann Lewis | |||||||||||||
