Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is biweekly and a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.

Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the journey with Jesus.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering with Dr. Sherri, we examined The Fire of Love. This week we will examine Consistent change and constant compassion.  When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive, and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”

PROMISE:  Lametations 3:23 Amplified Bible

It is because of the Lord’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed,
Because His [tender] compassions never fail. ²³  They are new every morning; Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.

Great is Thy faithfulness

O God my Father

There is no shadow

Of turning with Thee

Thou changest not

Thy compassions they fail not

As Thou hast been

Thou forever wilt be 

PARABLE: India Aire on her soundtrack Acoustic Soul begins with a prelude entitled Growth where she sings, “The only thing constant in the world is change.” If there were one word to describe 2020 I would select the word change.  The culture of the world has changed. Kindness, respect, and peace seem to be foreign vocabulary words. The political arena is more intense and treating others with basic respect seems to be unique. The safety of individuals has changed. We are being exposed to physical, emotional, social, and spiritual threats to our well-being. The educational system has changed. The education system as we know it has changed. The classroom can range from a school classroom half-filled with shields and students in masks to a student sitting at a collapsable table in the corner in the dining room across from a mother or father at the dining table on a Zoom meeting.  The count of deaths is now a regular part of our vocabulary. We can’t believe what we hear or see in the media. Fact checking has become an expected occurrence. Every day we awake to another change and nothing seems to be the same. EXCEPT the faithfulness of God. God is ALWAYS true to the facts of His promises. His loyalty, steadfastness, and compassion will not permit the changes of life to consume us.  GREAT–significant, substantial, and sizeable is His faithfulness.  Change is constant but God’s compassion is consistent. We can be certain of God’s lovingkindness, mercy, love, compassion, and peace forever.

PONDER and WANDER:  If you choose, take time to ponder the question: What do I need to remember about God’s faithfulness?
Soul care training exercise:  If you are experiencing doubt and need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness,  Invite the Holy Spirit to quiet your mind, search your soul, and reveal to you the faithfulness of your Father. I invite you to take some quiet time and ponder and/or journal the below questions.

• What circumstance appears to be consuming my thoughts?
  • Search your mind and let the Holy Spirit replace these negative thoughts with the truth of God’s faithfulness.
• Where in my life am I doubting God’s faithfulness?
  • Express to God where in your life you need to have His faithfulness magnified.
• What do I need to remember about His faithfulness -beyond measure – to me in the past?
  • Focus on how this memory can encourage you today.

PRAYER: Abba, you are faithful. When I reflect on my life, even in the trials and temptations, I can trace your hand. During this season of constant change, help me to remember that though change may be constant, your compassion is consistent. You are unchanging. Restore my confidence today that you will be my Faithful Father forever. In the unchanging name of Jesus I pray, amen. 

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to breathe in the constant compassion of Christ and let the work of your wandering fill you with hope.

Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

The post Constant Change Consistent Compassion appeared first on Resonant 7.

Image attributions:    Beyond Measure Google image with text added. Faithful Father taken by Renee Morgan and text added. Seasons change taken by Sherri Woods and text added.   

BONUS REFLECTION: If you choose click below and take five minutes to experience the guided Faithfulness meditation.

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is biweekly and a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.

Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the journey with Jesus.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering with Dr. Sherri, we examined Light outshines Darkness. This week we will examine the Fire of Love.  When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive, and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”

PROMISE:  1 Corinthians 13:1 Amplified Bible

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not ^[a]love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction].

What is in our heart will be reflected in our speech. The fire of the Holy Spirit living within us will help us to speak love and show love.

PSALM: Revive us Again By: Mackay, William Paton, M.D. (1839-1885)

PARABLE: Honestly, I need a re-boot. I need the flame of the love living within me to be re-ignited. I need my ears re-tuned. I need my mouth re-fueled. I need my mind re-focused. I need my soul re-kindled. There seems to be an undeniable divide within the universe. The government is divided. The news is filled with hate being spewed from our Christian mouths. Social injustice is paraded and mockery is made of the under-resourced and under-represented. My organization is divided. I am in the midst of a strike for basic rights. In the fight for justice, we have removed the one who is JUST. Our words are not speaking love and our deeds are not showing love. We have misunderstood the command to Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength AND our neighbor as ourselves. We have misinterpreted the conjunction AND.

To say we love God and to display lukewarm love to others means our flame is distinguished. It means we may have stopped loving ourselves. Perhaps, we mistreat ourselves so when we speak harm to others we ARE loving our neighbor just as we love ourselves.  With barely lit flames we have accepted striving instead of thriving, sought fuel in food, jobs, people, places, and things to heal our hurts instead of turning to God as our Source and fire of love. How do we return to being guided by the light of love living inside us that directs us to show and speak love? We ask God to fill each heart with His love and to rekindle our souls. When we allow the flame of the fire within us to shine, the light of our hearts will be displayed in word and deed. 

PONDER and WANDER:  If you choose, take time to ponder the question: In what areas of my life is the flame flickering? 
Soul care training exercise:  If you need the fire of love re-ignited within you, I invite you to complete the B.U.R.N. soul training exercise.

•  First, Be still.
• Next, invite the Holy Spirit to Unveil where your fire of love needs re-ignited. Is it in the are of patience, kindness, forgiveness, endurance, love of self, and/or love of others?
• Then, Receive God’s fire of love within your soul.
• Finally, Nurture the flame by basking in God’s presence. 

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, set a fire within our souls. Re-vive us with a love that is patient, thoughtful, slow to anger, unsettled with injustice, and hopeful in crisis and let it burn within us. Fire of love BURN! In the healing name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to breathe in His loving fire and let the work of your wandering fill you with hope.

Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

The post Fire of Love appeared first on Resonant 7.

Image attributions:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Speak and show love: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/clef-music-love-heart-treble-clef-1439136  with thext added                                                                                  Love is: Google pics                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Fill each heart with love: https://pixabay.com/photos/agree-agreement-asian-black-1238964/ with text added

BONUS REFLECTION: If you choose click below and take five minutes to experience the Fire of Love Meditation.

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is biweekly and a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.

Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the journey with Jesus.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering with Dr. Sherri, we examined Seeing the glory and Giving the glory. This week we will compare and contrast light and darkness.  When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive, and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”

PROMISE: John 8:12 Amplified Bible

^{12 Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, “[a]I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”}

Jesus identifies Himself as the Light of the World and promises that as we follow Him, we will not walk in the darkness.

PARABLE:  Darkness and light are opposites. Yet, you can’t know one without the other. It is light that chases darkness into the shadows. It is darkness that attempts to overshadow the light. Darkness can represent depression, death, danger, and detours.

Jesus promises that if we follow Him we will by no means walk in any form of darkness but will have the Light of Life. There is no type of darkness including detours to sin that the Glory of God and the Light of the World cannot outshine. We detour to sin because we allow someone or something other than Jesus to guide us.

Darkness cannot take the Believer by surprise because when we are approaching darkness, we are provided a way of escape. The Holy Spirit tells us the truth about our darkness. However, we may choose to ignore His warning. 

Whether your current darkness is depression, you are walking through the shadows of grief, you are in an unhealthy and unsafe relationship, or you have detoured and are sinking into unhealthy hurts, habits or hangups, the Glory of God is pointing you to the Savior. Jesus, the Light of the World, can rescue you and scatter the darkest rays of night. Hallelujah, Jesus is the Light of the World. So be it that His Light can cleanse us from sin and revive us from the breathlessness we experience in the darkness. Darkness will continue to tempt us but GREATER is the light within us than the darkness that is in this world.

PONDER and WANDER:  If you choose, take time to ponder these questions: Is there an area in your life in which you are walking in darkness? Is there someone or something other than Jesus that I am following into the darkness of sin?  
Soul care training exercise:  If you would like to bring light into any darkness that is present from a detour to sin in your life, I invite you to complete the L.I.G.H.T. soul training exercise.

• First, Listen to the truth the Holy Spirit is revealing to you about the dark areas in your life. Perhaps it is a secret sin, a habit or hangup that no one but God sees such as lust or pornorgrapy; a sin of omission such as unforgiveness; or a sin of commission such as gossip, drunkenness, racism, or violence.
• Next,  Investigate where those areas are rooted. Where do they stem from? What is guiding you to choose this area of darkness as an option for your life? What do you need to do to walk away from this darkness?
• Then, Give God permission to shine the light of His Glory into this darkness and direct you on what you need to do to walk away from this darkness.
• Now, Have an open mind and heart to make the changes necessary to walk in the light. 
• Finally Take the necessary steps to change your actions. 

PRAYER: Jesus, Light of the World, overshadow my darkness. Save me from the shadows of things that appear to be options in my life and return me to truth of your Presence. Revive me again. In the name of Jesus, the LIGHT I pray. Amen. 

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to breathe in His Light and let the work of your wandering fill you with hope.

Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

The post Light outshines the darkness appeared first on Resonant 7.

_{Image Attributions:
Pixaby with added texts}

BONUS REFLECTION: LIGHT guided meditation. If you choose click below and take five minutes to experience the LIGHT guided meditation.

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is biweekly and a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.

Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the journey with Jesus.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering with Dr. Sherri, we examined hope. This week we will compare and contrast  Seeing the glory and Giving the glory.  When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive, and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”

PROMISE: John 11:4 Amplified Bible

 When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death; but [on the contrary, it is] for the glory and honor of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.

Even trials come to glorify God and provide an opportunity for us to give God glory and to see and experience the Glory of God.

PARABLE: 

It is easier to give God glory when we are experiencing joy. It is challenging to give God glory when we are experiencing grief and trials. Over the last few years, as grief has become my travel companion and visited me as if we had a shared vacation agreement, I have often sought God’s glorious presence to clear my mind of sorrowful thoughts and open my heart to His healing love.

Yet, I have to admit that I have not always given Him glory and honor FOR the sorrow. While preparing for this blog, I had an aha moment. God’s glory and Giving glory are traveling companions. They share a space. I have been guilty or separating these privileges.

I desire to make giving GLORY an act of worship. This will entail me pairing giving God glory and encountering His Glory as partners (the same way I acknowledge grace and mercy as partners).  Whether this is an old concept, you need a reminder, or if it is a new one, I need to illuminate the truth for my own sake.

The more we practice seeking His Presence, the more we receive the presents of His being– such as joy, peace, love, compassion, and hope. As we receive His Presence, we offer Him Glory. This allows the cycle of giving God glory to continue. I realize that if I reframe my perspective that when trials and temptations occur in my life and when grief visits me again (and it will) that my default will be to glorify God in the circumstance and then receive His Glory as a result of glorifying His being!

Because Jesus IS the GLORY of God, He deserves the GLORY regardless of our circumstances. I now see this as a spiritual equation. Give God Glory = Experiencing God glory. Are giving God glory and experiencing God’s glory synonymous in your life?

PONDER and WANDER:  If you choose, take time to ponder these questions: Do I seek to give God glory and experience God’s glory? Have these been a both/and in your life or an either/or? 
Soul care training exercise:  If you would like to move Giving God Glory and Experiencing God glory into a synonymous act of worship in your life, I invite you to complete the below G.L.O.R.Y. soul training exercise.

• First, Give God glory because He deserves it regardless of your circumstance. 
• Next,  Let His presence fill you.
• Then, Offer your praise and worship for His Presence.
• Now, Receive His joy, hope, peace, and compassion. 
• Finally surrender your Yes to the process.

PRAYER: Lord of Glory, forgive me for oftentimes seeking to experience your Presence without offering you the Present of giving you glory. I desire to encounter you in my giving your glory and in your being the Glory! In your loving name I pray, Amen. 

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to breathe in His Glory for His Presence is with you and let the work of your wandering fill you with hope.

Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

The post See the Glory Give the glory  appeared first on Resonant 7.

_{Image Attributions:
Pixaby with added texts}

BONUS REFLECTION: GLORY guided meditation. If you choose click below and take five minutes to experience the GLORY guided meditation.