Greetings in the name above all names, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! I trust that you had a great weekend and Monday. It was good not to have to scrape car windows before setting off. I suppose that there is a mixture of emotions around you today depending on your political persuasion, depending on which baseball team you cheer for, and depending on your world view. We are living in unprecedented days. A prophetic voice had declared that yesterday’s election would be a “tipping point” in Canadian history. According to Scriptural direction…Romans 13:1-7 ; 1 Timothy 2: 1-3, our responsibility is to respect, submit to, and pray for those elected leaders of our country as God has established this process. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to surround with love, peace, and joy.
The opening to my daily devotional reading goes like this: St. Teresa of Avila was depressed one day. It seems she had forgotten the many deliverances and blessings that God had given her. In the midst of her darkness God came to her and said:’When did I ever fail thee? I am today what I have always been.’ Her depression quickly lifted and her heart was full of praise. Selwyn Hughes, Every Day With Jesus-October 20th. As I pondered that, remembering that I had challenged people to keep a daily “Thank You List”, God said to me: ‘That is good but add something to the exercise…every time you write a blessing down to remember – deliberately erase a negative remembrance that you have been hanging onto. Don’t keep track of the wrongs…they will weigh you down. Let the remembrances of blessings lift you. Don’t keep going back to the hurts and pains and junk of the past…that is unnecessary!.’
I suppose that there are times when we keep asking God for help or deliverance or justice…to a situation or event that He has already taken care of. As Joyce Meyer says: ‘It is like trying to sit in a chair that you are already sitting in!’ Another way to describe it is – over exposure to the things of God – Bill Johnson. We can experience so much of God’s blessings and answers to prayer and kindness and grace and mercy that we build up an immunity to his active Presence in our lives. Perhaps at the end of the day or whenever one does their “Thank You List” – there is a need to make a fresh surrender to God. We need to keep ourselves open to the things of God so they can transform us. Holding on a list of past hurts, pain, and hardship, that God has already dealt with, really ‘hardens the heart’ – deforms it.
If we were closer to each other, I would get you to sing a chorus with words of surrender: ‘Spirit of the living God, fall afresh one me – Break me, melt me, mould me fill me – Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me.’
Something to ponder…enjoy the blessings of this day and let yesterday go!