Give Me My Delight

Susan K. Stewart is an analytical woman, so it doesn't surprise me she took time to think through why she felt so aimless. In this Relationship with God UPGRADE, she shares how she learned to delight in the Lord, and how that helped her learn to walk closer to His will.

"I’ve been wandering aimlessly recently. So many good projects, so many good causes, so many good books." Susan says. "While wandering I’ve been unsettled—feeling as though no matter the way I decide to go, I only get to a roadblock."

I (Dawn) think all Christ-followers feel a little aimless and unsettled sometimes. In my experience, I've usually tried to fill those times with busyness, but I never felt satisfied. As Susan explains, there's something far deeper I needed, and perhaps you do too.

Susan continues . . .

Often, I find myself just sitting in the path crying, "God, what is it You want me to do?"

Too often, my cry is, "Lord, You promised to give me the desires of my heart."

But, is that really what He promises?

Most of us are familiar with this "promise" in Psalm 37:4–5:

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

Oh, so many times I'm guilty of telling God what I want—the plans I have—and then waiting for Him to fulfill those plans.

Once He's done his part, I'll do my part: delight in Him.

• When I look back at my journal, I find I ask God to be the center of what I do.
• I see now why I wander aimlessly. I need to be at the center of what he is doing.

That does sound very spiritual and heaven-minded, but how does being at the center of what God's desires look every day? I’m not sure it means quietly meditating all day long or spending most of the day reading scripture.

If that is what God is leading you to do, go for it.

Those activities don't work well for my soul or, quite frankly, my pocketbook.

About two weeks into my search for God’s desire—for the way for me to delight myself in Him—I began to read once again St. Augustine’s Confessions.

Right there in the first book, first writing, was the answer.

"The thought of you [God] stirs him [humans] so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you."

This section is accompanied with Ps. 22:26:

“The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever!” (emphasis added)

WHOA.

What does that say again? "Those who seek him will praise the Lord!"

If I’m to know God’s plans for me, the desires He puts in my heart, I must praise him.

I will find God in my praise.

According to Noah Webster in his 1828 Dictionary of American English, delight is "a high degree of pleasure, or satisfaction of mind; joy." He adds, "'Delight is a more permanent pleasure than joy, and not dependent on sudden excitement.' When we are told to delight ourselves in the Lord, it means, 'to have or take great pleasure; to be greatly pleased or rejoiced.'"

For some, this kind of delight does come with hours of long meditation or reading the Bible, or even retreating away from the everyday world.

I've learned delight is found in praising God, my Lord.

When I do that, I’m at the center of what He made me to do—worship Him. This delighting can take place anytime, anyplace.

I can tell you my path became clearer as to what project to go forward with, what to drop.

I can also tell you I have managed to leave the trail God so carefully marks for me.

How? I forgot to praise Him.

How easy it is.

I ended up where He didn’t want me to be. (I know, God. That's what You told me in the first place, right?)

Getting the reward of our desires is possible with a few steps. These aren’t always easy, but we can repeat them as often as needed.

1. Seek God.

We are told to "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).

We can’t receive from the Lord until we find Him, until we are where He is.

2. Love God.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37).

Once we’ve found God, we fall in love with him. Our natural tendency is to want to please those we love.

3. Commit to God.

"Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act" (Psalm 37:5).

For me this is pivotal.

When I trust God, and let him map the route, I don't have to wonder, "What next?"

4. Delight in God.

As stated in Psalm 37:4, above, delighting in the Lord is key to the fulfillment of desires.

5. Receive from God.

Too often we think the second half of the same verse means when we praise God enough, He’ll give us what we want.

I believe we're being told God will place a desire in our hearts to follow His lead, His plan.

Now that I'm seeking Him once again in my praise, the path is opening up.

I'm finding God's desires right where He left them for me—in praise.

Do you feel as though you’re wandering aimlessly? What do you need to do find God’s desires? How will you delight in the Lord?

Susan K. Stewart is Managing Editor/Nonfiction with Elk Lake Publishing where she teaches, writes, and edits non-fiction. Susan’s passion is to inspire readers with practical, real-world solutions. Her books include Science in the Kitchen, Preschool: At What Cost?, Harried Homeschoolers Handbook, and the award-winning Formatting e-Books for Writers. Her latest book, Donkey Devos: Listening When God Speaks, is scheduled to be released spring 2021. You can learn more at her website.  

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Barbara Jackson at Pixabay.

Lessons Learned on My Kneeling Prayer Pillow

Yvonne Ortega, author of a series of books—Moving from Broken to Beautiful®—wants women to know how to cope biblically when struggles come. In this Prayer UPGRADE, she encourages us to turn to the Lord when trials come.

Yvonne says, “I fell to my knees on my kneeling prayer pillow and said, ‘God, I feel helpless. What can I do?”

I (Dawn) have felt helpless many times. When alone in a struggle. When it seemed I was doomed to fail no matter my choice. After a terrible diagnosis. But in every case, time with the Lord lifted my burden and enabled me to move forward with peace and joy.

Yvonne continues . . .

“I had a radical mastectomy,” my cousin told me on the phone.

My mind went back to the wonderful visit we enjoyed the previous summer. I blew kisses to her and her husband and said, “I’ll see you next summer.”

Little did we know a pandemic would strike and change our plans. Her health would also change.

The following week after my cousin’s call about her surgery, I called to check on her. She told me her younger sister had something similar to a stroke. It caused weakness in one leg and difficulty speaking.

My cousin reminded me that her younger sister had been born with Arterial Vascular Malfunction, which caused the “stroke.”

“Without daily physical therapy and exercise on her own, she’ll be paralyzed.”

She asked me to call her younger sister “because she’s religious like you are.” Before I did that, I fell to my knees again.

“Oh, dear God, I feel more and more helpless. I’m a thousand miles away and cannot travel. Both of their parents passed away years ago. What can I do? What can I say? Please God, show me.”

That same week, I made numerous attempts to reach my elderly aunt and uncle. They live in a senior community in an independent living suite. When my cell phone rang, I could see they were the ones calling me. At the sight of a big smile on my uncle’s face, I smiled, too, and felt relieved.

Then, my aunt said, “We’re quarantined to our rooms again.” 

“What happened?” I asked.

“One of the residents died from COVID-19.”

My heart raced.

When we hung up, I headed to my kneeling prayer pillow again.

“God, if the coronavirus doesn’t end soon, I’ll wear out my kneeling prayer pillow and need knee replacement surgery. What can I do for my aunt and uncle? You must have something you want to teach me.”

Here are three lessons God is teaching me about how I am to pray.

1. I am to praise the Lord.

The psalmist wrote,

“Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life” (Psalm 146:1–2a NIV).

I noticed that passage didn’t read, “Praise the Lord only when you receive good news.” It simply told me to praise the Lord. I needed to spend time in praise to the Sovereign Lord because of who he is.

The passage also told me that my SOUL is to praise the Lord.

I wondered why it didn’t read body and soul until I read Matthew 10:28. Before Jesus sent out his disciples, he told them,

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

The soul lives on. It is eternal.

2. I am to sing for joy to the Lord.

When I read Psalm 95, I stared at it and read it slowly. I read it a second time and pointed to each word.

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Psalm 95:1 and 6).

I am not to sing for happiness but for joy.

Happiness depends on earthly pleasures or good luck. Joy is eternal. I can sing for joy because God is my Rock and my Maker.

And there’s that word, again, “kneel.”

I bow down in worship and kneel before him. He is the Creator. I am the created.

3. I am to pray with a heart of thanksgiving.

In Philippians 4: 6, Paul wrote,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

This third lesson is still in progress in my life.

Do I pray with thanksgiving because I expect God to say “Yes” to my requests?
Do I pray with thanksgiving so that God will think He must meet my expectations?

My answer is “Sometimes” to both questions.

• I struggle to surrender my will to His.
• I pray with thanksgiving because God knows the big picture.
• I trust Him to do what is best in the long run.

How will you pray this week?

Yvonne Ortega walks with a small footprint but leaves a giant imprint in people’s lives. She is the author of the Moving from Broken to Beautiful® Series through cancer, forgiveness, and grief. Yvonne speaks with honesty and humor as she shares her life and struggles to help women find peace, power, and purpose through God’s Word. She celebrates life at the beach where she walks, builds sand castles, blows bubbles, and dances. For more information about Yvonne, visit her website.

Graphic of Pillow Cover Case adapted (original without the words). It can be purchased — CaliTime Cozy Bolster Pillow Cover Case at Amazon.

Let's Change Friday the 13th

I (Dawn) have never liked the superstition involved around a simple Friday—Friday the 13th.

Secularists give lots of possible reasons for mankind's fear of that day and why people think it's so "unlucky."

Two examples:

• On Friday the 13^th in 1307, a raid on the Knights Templar took place, essentially wiping them out.
• Judas was supposedly "the 13^th person at Jesus’ table" at the Last Supper before Good Friday when Jesus died. (That’s a stretch, right?)

Crazy, huh?

I say, let’s turn this “unlucky” day into a day of “Unparalleled Praise.”

Stop right now and think of 13 character qualities of God—the members of the Trinity—and offer praise for them.

Worship Father God, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit for WHO THEY ARE!

Ponder their matchless:

• wisdom,
• mercy,
• kindness,
• power,
• presence,
• love, etc.

Scientists tell us what we think about will color our actions.

Dr. Caroline Leaf, in her book, Switch On Your Brain, wrote, "When you objectively observe your own thinking with the view to capturing rogue thoughts you in effect direct your attention to stop the negative impact and rewire healthy new circuits into your brain."

With directed—or rather re-directed—thinking, we can change our behaviors.

It's the concept of bringing into captivity every thought (2 Cointhians 10:5) and renewing our mind (Romans 12:2) so we will not conform our lives to the sinful and superstitious patterns of this world, but rather to God's will.

Consider these scriptures:

1. Whatever you sow, you will reap (Galatians 6:7-8). What are you sowing in your thoughts?
2. Turn away from foolish, evil thinking—don't be reckless and careless with your mindset (Proverbs 14:16)—if you want to please the Lord.
3. Don't feed on folly (Proverbs 15:14).
4. Take your thoughts "captive" to the Word of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), and stand against opinions that rise up against "the knowledge of God."
5. Make the best use of your time as a wise person, not "unwise" (Ephesians 5:15-16).
6. Don't waste time on Friday the 13th fears. God has not given His children a spirit of fear, but rather a "sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7) of power, love and self-control.

So forget about all the supposed "unlucky" superstitions. Don't give in to the mindless fears of Friday the 13th.

Instead, take time today to focus on and honor God.

It's a far better, far wiser and certainly more God-honoring way to use your thoughts and time.

Have you feared Friday the 13th in your past? Try the challenge to focus on 13 things about God's character today and watch this praise challenge feed your faith, not your fears!

Dawn Wilson, founder and President of Heart Choices Today, is a speaker and author, and the creator the blog, Upgrade with Dawn. She is a contracted researcher/reviewer for women's teacher and revivalist, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, at Revive Our Hearts, a blogger at TrueWoman.com, writes wiki-type posts at  Christianity.com, and is a regular columnist at Crosswalk.com. She and her husband Bob live in sunny Southern California, and she has traveled with Him in Pacesetter Global Outreach. They have two grown, married sons, three granddaughters and a rascally maltipoo, Roscoe.

Hope When It Hurts

I've read a lot of articles about hope lately, and many of them were "fluff," but Shonda Savage Whitworth's article is deep truth, because it comes from a deep rooting in the Word of God. In this Biblical Thinking UPGRADE, she encourages us to seek true hope when we hurt.

"My dreams for my family’s future shattered when my oldest son was sentenced to prison," Shonda says.

"His conviction demolished the good mother image I erected in my mind. With this image decimated, my emotions spiraled into a dark abyss."

I (Dawn) know several families with incarcerated children, and they all deal with tough issues, some struggling everyday with hope.

Shonda continues . . .

After my son began his life in state prison, my life of being held captive by guilt, shame, and condemnation started. Despair enveloped me like a heavy fog keeping the light from shining in my life.

We read in Proverbs:

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12, NLT).

The anguish gave way to hopelessness, and I was diagnosed “situational adjustment disorder,” which is a classification of anxiety and depression.

My personal life stalled while the world around me moved forward.

While the life I had and the future I expected dissipated, I knew I could not remain stuck in the sorrow. My family needed me to be present in their lives.

This realization allowed a ray of sunshine to peek through the fog of despair and I encouraged myself in the Lord, just as David did when he was greatly distressed. 

Here are three ways I found hope when it hurt.

1. Praising God

In my pain, I played worship music and sang along to praise the Lord. Many times, the words to the worship songs triggered tears, so I just cried out, “No matter what, You are God.”

Dr. John G. Mitchell wrote, “To give thanks when you don’t feel like it is not hypocrisy; it’s obedience.”

Hebrews 13:15 tells us, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (NKJV).

There are times when giving thanks out of obedience is a sacrifice, but the reward is worth it.

Through worship, my focus turned to the Lord and off of my circumstances. As a result, new hope poured into my spirit.

2. Meditating on the Word

A colleague told me, “Shonda, be sure you put your hope in God because man will fail you.” In hindsight, I realized that I put my hope in the attorney and the justice system instead of God.

To pull myself out of the darkness, I read the Bible daily and Scriptures about hope popped up. As I meditated on the word, I learned hope in God is our expectation in what He can do, not what I can do or what any other person does.

Then I came across Zechariah 9:12:

“Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you” (NIV).

At that moment,

I chose to be a prisoner of hope instead of a prisoner of despair.

As a prisoner of hope, I released my expectations of man and the system and placed my confidence in the Lord.

3. Praying

Before the tragic events unfolded that led to my son’s imprisonment, my prayer was “Lord, I ask You to hedge him in so he cannot follow his own path” (based on Hosea 2:6).

I believed my prodigal son would find his way home. Instead, he went to prison.

During the months leading up to the trial, I prayed for my son’s freedom. After his conviction, my hope dissolved and my desire to pray evaporated.

As I meditated on Scriptures, Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10) And Jesus prayed, “nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

My prayers were the opposite, so I began to pray like Jesus taught and modeled. As a result, my perspective changed.

I now see how prison saved my son’s life—both in the eternal and in the natural.

In my hurt, I found hope as I offered up the sacrifice of praise, meditated on the Word of God daily, and prayed God’s will.

Through these daily disciplines,

• the fog of despair lifted,
• my good mother image has been replaced with knowing who I am in Christ,
• and my life is moving forward filled with joy and peace as I know God, my source of hope.

If you’ve lost hope due to hurtful circumstances in your life, my prayer for you is from Romans 15:13:

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (NLT).

Are you struggling with hope today? Which of these three ways to find hope when you hurt is missing or lacking in your life? How can you change that today?

Shonda Savage Whitworth is the founder and president of Fortress of Hope Ministries, Inc., giving hope to those with incarcerated family members. She is a speaker and author who connects with her audiences through her transparent testimony of personal tribulations and triumphs in Christ. Her book, Appeal to the Courts of Heaven: Prayers for Prisoners and Prison Families, is scheduled to release in the fall of 2019. You can read more about Shonda’s unexpected prison family journey on her blog

Graphic adapted, courtesy ofLechenie Narkomanii at Pixabay.

Tough Choices to Live a Life of Integrity

Becky Harling is funny, insightful, and intensely passionate that women learn how to live in emotional and spiritual freedom. In this Character UPGRADE, she writes about the choice to live in integrity.

"We’ve all experienced the crushing disappointment of Christian leaders that we’ve admired who have failed morally," Becky says. "What exactly is a life of integrity and how do we insure that we live a life of integrity and finish well?"

I (Dawn) am heartbroken to know of Christian friends in places of leadership who chose sin over a life of integrity; but Becky's words of warning and encouragement aren't just for leaders—they are for all of us.

Becky continues . . . 

Steve’s parents came and visited us this past summer. Now near 90, their lives have been marked by steadfast integrity. As a result, the generations after them have been blessed.

As I’ve was thinking about how God has used their integrity, I read Psalm 101.

In this delightful, short Psalm, David gives us very specific choices we can make to live a life of integrity.

Now I have to warn you, some of these choices are TOUGH!

Honestly, they go against the grain of our human sinful nature; and at times, they’re downright inconvenient.

But, the payoff is the legacy of integrity that’s left for those who are following behind. I know that’s what I want to leave behind. What about you?

If you want to leave a legacy of integrity to those coming up behind you here are three choices from Psalm 101 that you can make now!

1. Praise God for His love and goodness continually.

“I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise” (Psalm 101:1).

The Hebrew word for praise that’s used here speaks to a celebration, praising God with song. Every day should be a celebration of God’s amazing love and goodness, but often that’s not the case, because we focus our thoughts on what we don’t have or what we wish we had.

What if you began every day by thanking God and praising Him for His love and goodness in your life? My guess is that you would live a more positive life, and you’d definitely be on your way to a life of integrity.

When we focus on God’s love rather than on all the things that go wrong in life, we’re more likely to make positive decisions. We’re not as grumpy and cranky.  

The next time you’re tempted to complain or gripe about something, shift your focus to God’s faithful love. Watch how your spirit grows more joyful almost instantly.

I’ll never forget when my friend, Jill’s, dad was admitted to assisted living. Often during that season of life, folks become cranky and resentful. But not Jill’s dad!

When Jill called Ed to ask how he was doing, he responded exuberantly, “Jill! This place is awesome! It’s like a cruise ship. I love it!”

Every time, we went to visit Ed, we left encouraged. Even during the last months of his life while he was enduring pain, Ed talked about the goodness of God and nurtured a thankful spirit.

I don’t know about you, but that’s the way I want to be, and that means I have to nurture a thankful heart now!

2. Be careful what you set your sights on. 

“I will not look with approval on anything that is vile” (Psalm 101:3).

Immoral choices don’t just happen. They usually start with lustful thoughts that have been nurtured.

We need to be careful and exercise a heart of discernment about what we gaze on and fill our minds with.  Sometimes even the news is so graphic and argumentative that we need to shut it off.

When you’re watching T.V. or a movie, ask yourself,

“Is this helping me follow Jesus more closely, or is it creating anxiety, worry, fear or lust in me?”

3. Walk away from gossip and dissention. 

"Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate” (Psalm 101:5).

It’s so easy—you’re having coffee with friends, and one friend starts to “share” how frustrated they are with a different acquaintance.

They need to process. So you listen, and soon you’re drawn in to something more deadly than just processing a frustration.

Here’s the thing: we’re called to not have any part in slander.

So, what do you do? You could say something positive and walk away. You could change the topic. Or you could say, “I’m not comfortable cutting that person down. I don’t have all the facts, and I don’t want to be guilty of gossip.”

Friend, these are sometimes hard choices. It may seem that they’re not very big choices, and what do they really matter?

But they DO matter.

By making choices after God’s own heart, one choice after another, you’ll be building a life of integrity. 

Which of the three tough choices do you struggle with most? What can you do to upgrade your level of integrity?

Becky Harling. Authentic. Passionate. Funny. Insightful. Becky is a frequent speaker at conferences, retreats, and other venues. She is the author of Who Do You Say I Am?, Rewriting Your Emotional Script, Freedom from Performing, The 30 Day Praise Challenge and The 30 Day Praise Challenge for Parents. Becky is married to Steve Harling and has four adult kids and five grandkids. Visit her website and blog.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of qimono at Pixabay.