I love to read early in the morning. It is when my head is clear and my heart is open. There is just something wonderful about starting your day with the Word of God.
The Bible is more than a source of information, it’s about messages that can help you forge a new day or encourage you. When your heart is open, the Lord gives you messages. If you are looking, he will even give you confirmations.
For me, going the right direction means spending time in prayer and reading. I don’t have to search for his message, he freely gives it. Often God will put a song or chapter/verse in my mind first thing when I wake up. It is the very first thought of the day. The verse might not even be one I know.
If I receive a verse, I pray and then read it. If it is a song, I try to focus on the key words that stuck in my head. Then I pray what is on my heart; ask for direction and then God allow the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and understanding. I then close my eyes and randomly open my Bible and point and start reading. There it is! It’s a verse that is related in some way.
These moments in the morning help me with personal things I struggle with. It might be something I see others struggle with. But in any way, shape or form it is about something that is relating to something important that I have experience or am about to.
There is always confirmation that happens in the next day or sooner. Plus the bonus of sometimes weeks later, he might throw in another one to remind me to reflect on the first ones. That gives me chills.
The morning of May 5th was a very special personal message. It is encouraging and a warning. I have battled with stress for years and even though I have faith that God works it out. I still worry about the little things. BAD KIMMY! I hear everyone tell me “all the normal Christian things”. But this morning God took my open heart and put a very special message inside.
I woke up with the song “Love has Come” by Mark Schultz. The words and tune rang like a bell in my mind, and heart. I could not shake it! I found a very deep emotional feeling within me. The words are “Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess. That God is love and love has come for us all”.
When I got up and made lunch for my husband, the words still were stuck in my head. I have to admit I have had some serious stressful days lately. So I sit down with my Bible and start to pray. Out of my heart comes a prayer:
“Strip off the years of stress that make me feel old. Make me young and that I glow for you. Let my desire be that I inspire others to seek you, Lord”. My life lately has been overwhelmed by needs with my business, home, family and just about anything that pops up. My frustration has not been a picture of inspiration by any means. I know that all these needs have a reason. Inside I know that God wants me right where I am. The stress and frustration is me and I don’t know how to make it right.
So this morning I allowed God to show me something about myself. The key here is that I allowed. Now, if you really believe in God, you know that he can do pretty much anything he wants. You might even laugh at my statement “That I allowed God”. But the reality is that we often choose to have a deaf ear to Gods special messages he sends us. For years, God talked to Israel. You can read chapters on how Israel chose not to listen. It’s like your child who hears the words from your mouth, but they just plain choose to do the opposite. You acknowledge you heard, but you just don’t apply it, why? Because there seems to be this spirit of deception weaved into our thinking and society. If we go back to Adam and Eve, it was pretty simple; love each other and do not eat that fruit right there. But in comes the deception, convincing us we know better, that God does not have our best interest. So what happens, you bite the fruit. I really think the statement “You know them by their fruit”, was created on that day in the Garden.
With an open heart and my prayer said, I closed my eyes and opened my Bible (NLT). I laid my hands on the pages and the thought “Thumb” went through my brain. I had a thumb on the page, I lifted it off and under it was the words “Primping”. Do you remember my prayer of being young?
I was in Jeremiah 4:30; stating Beauty, primping, jewelry, and mascara do you no good. If you read on, you realize these things did Jerusalem no good, because in the next verse it talks about Jerusalem being destroyed. When I got to Jeremiah 5:5, I realize his message for me.
“So I will go and speak to their leaders. Surely they know the ways of the LORD and understand God’s laws.” But the leaders, too, as one man, had thrown off God’s yoke and broken his chains.” Jeremiah 5:5 (NLT)
Jerusalem is being destroyed by their lack of understanding or desire to understand God’s message. To the point they throw off God’s yoke. They are choosing to depart from God’s message. This morning I woke up with a song in my heart and mind. If I did not have the desire to open my heart and see what God wanted to tell me, then I’d be like Jerusalem allowing it to fall on deaf ears. We are creating for the purpose of Love and Worship to God. When we choose that, then peace and joy follow, no matter what is going on around us. My desire to be young and glowing is a good thing, if I don’t confuse it with what the world sees and young and beautiful. No jewelry or how I shape my body is going to matter; it does not make us young. It is good to take care of our bodies, specially guarding our hearts and the things we choose. But to be young and glowing requires me to spend time with God. That means listening and acting on that. God puts in our open heart the Holy Spirit and no words can describe that feeling. You just glow.
If I really want to shine and strip off those years of stress, then I have to keep forging this path of reading, praying and listening. Just like jewelry, primping and beautifying our body did Jerusalem no good. Well stress does me no good either. God has proved it over and over to me, how it works for me to get his message. Waking up and listening for the first thing I hear. If I am not hearing it then I am obviously stressing over something else less important.
I find it interesting that the song words; “Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess. That God is love and love has come for us all”, was the inspiration for me this morning. I know that no matter whom we are or what we do, in the end, we will be on our knees and confess that Jesus is Lord. That God is love and that because of his love he sent Jesus. Now that‘s the inspiration and because I do accept Jesus as Lord, I now have a direct line to God. All the things and actions that separated man from God are wiped away, if we believe that Jesus is Lord. Spending time with God is my battle plan and guarding my heart from the deception is a fight that I will win with God’s warnings, guidance, comfort, love, and protection. God used that song as if he was knocking on my door saying: I have an answer to a question you have not asked me yet. Do you want to hear it?
I am glad I chose to sit down this morning, because I got more than just one simple answer. I got a life time plan to help me succeed.
Shortly after I finished my reading, I sat down at my computer. I opened Itunes and typed in the words “Every Knee Shall Bow”. The song “Holy is the Lord” by Chris Tomlin popped up on my screen. Guess what I already planned today to talk to a person with the last name of Tomlin.
I played the song and these words stuck with me:
We stand and lift up our hands
For the joy of the Lord is our strength
We bow down and worship Him now
How great, how awesome is He
This is how I need to be, so that I can be young and free of my stress. Changing your life is hard to do, even with God’s help. But the key is we need to have an open heart, pray and seek the message God wants to share. Crack open that Bible and pray before you read, let him guide you and allow the Holy Spirit to bring the wisdom to you.
I had to write this down; no one may ever read this. But it will serve as a reminder to me. AMEN and Thank you God for today. You are my inspiration.
Something to think about – Today is May 5th (5/5) and the last verse I read that clicked the message all together was Jeremiah 5:5! Not 5:6, Not 5:4, but 5:5!
Do you want to challenge yourself? Before you go to bed, pray for forgiveness of anything you have done wrong. Ask that God give you a message in the morning. In the morning listen carefully what is on your mind. Say a prayer and read for 5 minutes. Just open the Bible up and point and start reading. Then think about what you read and see how it relates to your day or surroundings. Make sure you look for confirmations too. It just sweetens it all even more.