Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is 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 loving and forgiving journey of exploring God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering we examined the wondrous work of our Beautiful God. This week we will continue by exploring the wonder of God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness. 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 your love and forgiveness.”

PROMISE: Ephesians 2:4-6 The Message

2 ^1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

God’s promised, unmerited, incredible, and wondrous love (1) deliberately offers saving grace and eternal life (John 3:16-18) even to those who  reject it, (2) gives forgiveness to those who continually sin against Him, and (3) recklessly and radically lavishes us with the privilege to be called His children (1 John 3:1).

PSALM: In the song How Great thou Art Carl Boberg ponders the question, How could it be God’s pleasure to sacrifice His only Son for sinners to make them saints? He writes:

And when I think of God, His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin

The song writer confesses that he cannot sufficiently comprehend how God, in His loving devotion, sacrificed His perfect son without scrutinizing our imperfections and merit. He can scantily conceive that because of Jesus, the price of our sins are exchanged for the Divine, liberating, reconciling, and eternal, life-giving righteousness of Christ (2 Corin 5:21).

How could this be? It is because God’s reckless LOVE promises us radical forgiveness. The term reckless here focuses on God’s LOVE that breaks the stronghold of sin so we can live free of condemnation (Romans 8:1). It indicates that God was not concerned about His hurts and His loss because His love for us is greater than our sins. Reckless is the closest term human diction provides for there are no words to articulate such a divine covenant love. Take a moment to thank God for such a love and ask Him to help you to accept, with pleasure, His reckless love and radical forgiveness.

PARABLE: 

Keeping ourselves in the love of God ( Jude 1:21) will help us to not use grace as a license to sin but will also help us to not let sin hold us captive. Because of the reckless love and radical forgiveness of  God we receive absolute pardon with no strings attached, we are liberated from the bondage of sin with no condemnation (Romans 8:1), we are reconciled by and with our Father, and we are welcomed into the inheritance of God.

The fatal dilemma is resolved. The Spirit of Life in Christ has freed us. The dilemma is not if God showers us with His love and grants us His forgiveness. The dilemma is that we do not live in His love and forgiveness.

Take these three steps to Live in the Reckless Love and Radical Forgiveness of God

1. Reframe the Story (John 8:36). Live on God’s terms in His liberating and redemptive love that unquestionable frees you from sin.
2. Tell the Story (Ephesians 2: 4-6). Share the testimony of the tyranny God’s love has freed you from in your life.
3. Live the Story (Jude 1:20-21). Build your life on the holy faith of Jesus with your arms constantly reaching for and receiving His saving grace and mercy, anxiously awaiting eternal life.

Walk HEAVY in freedom and forgive yourself! The price of the forgiveness for your mistakes, regrets, sin, and shame, hurts, habits, and hangups  were already purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.

PONDER and WANDER:

Ponder the question:   How will I reframe, tell, and share the story of God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness for me?

Take time to allow the Holy Spirit to show you how to develop a 30 second elevator speech that summarizes your story of the wondrous work of God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness displayed in your life. An opportunity is awaiting for you to share.

PRAYER: How great you are God! Your wondrous love is greater than my sin. As your child (1John 3:1), there is NO-thing, NO-place, NO-story, NO-feeling, and NO-sin that will keep me from your marvelous love.  Undo my perceptions until I remember the wondrous works of your radical forgiveness freely given on the cross and fully encounter your reckless love (Psalm 77:11-12) as your beloved child. In the 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 thank God for radically paying the price of your forgiveness with His reckless love!  Let the work of your wandering fill you with the assurance that our Great God has empowered you to live like the chains of sin were broken with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

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.

PERSONAL BONUS: I constantly struggle with living in the forgiving love of God. I continue to define His grace and love with my minimal vocabulary and conceptions. God has challenged me to surrender my misconceptions and allow Him to undo me. The lyrics of the song help me with the process. If you choose, when you have time, you may take about four minutes to listen to the song  Undo You and allow God’s reckless love to free you to accept His radical forgiveness.

Image and reference attributions:
Reckless love and Radical forgiveness: https://pixabay.com/photos/hawaii-kauai-rainbow-nature-284611/ with text added
Wondrous cross: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/assembly-graphics-abstraction-image-1479723/
Reframe tell Live: https://pixabay.com/photos/church-cross-christian-religion-2853687/ with text added
Undo You: https://pixabay.com/photos/violin-violin-bow-instrument-4216384/ with text added
Reference: Tipping, C. (2011). Radical Forgiveness: The direct path to true self-acceptance. Boulder, CO: Sounds True with adaptions.

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is 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 Bea-YOU-tiful journey of considering the awesome wondrous works of God.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering we explored the awesome Covenant love of Jesus. This week we will examine the awesome wonder of our Beautiful God. 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. Illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter your holy, glorious beauty. Prepare my heart to consider your wondrous works.”

PROMISE: Our beauty is in the eye of God, our Beholder and Creator.  Psalm 139:14 reads, I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well (Amplified Version).

You are a wonderful creation of The Lord, Our God. When you consider all the works created by God, do YOU come to mind? Are you convinced in your soul that our Beautiful God made Be-YOU-tiful you in His image? If so, whisper with certainty, “Beautiful God created Bea-YOU-tiful Me.

PSALM: In the song How Great thou Art Carl Boberg marvels at the works of God our Creator. He says:

O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

The psalmist took time to contemplate ALL the daunting, impressive, and unexpected beauty of God’s sovereign creations. We can also observe the evidence of God’s amazing creations all over the world. In awesome wonder take a moment and consider the majestic power and beauty of God displayed through the white chalk, soft rock cliffs on the Mediterranean Sea in Israel and the red rock formations of Colorado. Now, take a moment and glance into the mirror and see the wonderful and marvelous creation of YOU.

PARABLE: We come face to face with God’s power when we see the twinkle of a star or hear the roaring of thunder. It is easy to consider and marvel at God’s hand in nature because it has an innate way of beckoning our attention to His astounding works. It is not as easy to see ourselves as astonishing, wonderful formations of God. How do we know that we are one of God’s wondrous works? We can be assured of this because:

1. Our Beautiful God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1-2).
2. Our Beautiful God created YOU in His beautiful image (Genesis 1:27).
3. Our Beautiful God created YOU as a wonderful, marvelous work (Psalm 139:14).
4. Our Beautiful God created YOU as a beautiful masterpiece to do His good works (Ephesians 2:10).

As a Christian what an incredible empowering truth to believe that Our God the Creator of  the moon and mountains, stars and seas made Bea-YOU-tiful you.  The YOU in Bea-YOU-tiful is speaking to God saying, I can be full of beauty because YOU made ME in Your image.

PONDER and WANDER:

Ponder the question:   Do I believe that I am a beautiful reflection of God’s wondrous work and image? 

On the website of the Creation Museum located in Kentucky the first words you see are “Prepare to Believe.”  This indicates that the thought of acceptance of creation has to be formulated. This implies we may also need to prepare to believe we are made in the beautiful image of God. It is understandable that we don’t always feel beautiful or believe we look beautiful. It is comprehensible that we don’t always believe that we are marvelously enough. Nevertheless, the truth is God formulated you as one of His wondrous masterpieces and you are created new in Jesus for His planned good works (Ephesians 2:10). If you have not prepared to believe you are a beautiful reflection of God’s wondrous work and image, take time today to construct this belief in your mind and allow that truth to be manifested.

Start with pondering the thought that Our Beautiful God made all things good. Next, deliberate on the idea, God must have made you beautiful because everything He creates is of high quality and superiority. Then, ruminate on the truth that you are the reflection of HIS beautiful image.  Now, wander back to the truths that the Word of God declares and let them resonate in your heart. Finally, say with conviction “I am beautifully and wonderfully made.” If you choose you may meditate longer on this truth by clicking on the the link and listening to the declarative song and reading the lyrics by Leah Smith.

PRAYER: Father God, the Creator of the Universe, How great thou art! Yet, I admit that I don’t always accept the great truth that I am Your beautiful and wonderful creation. One day I will be transformed and stand face to face with the beauty of Your holiness and all my disbelief will cease. Until then, when I can’t trust my view of who I am and whose I am let me gaze upon the beauty of Your creations. Help me to pay attention to Your wondrous portraits of nature and know if they are reflections of Your beauty, I am more so because I am Your image. Help me declare even when my eyes don’t see it and my heart doesn’t believe it that I am bea-YOU-tifully and wonderfully made in Christ Jesus. In the 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 thank God for making you beautiful and marvelous in His image and for His purpose. Let the work of your wandering fill you with the assurance that our Beautiful God made Bea-YOU-tiful You!

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.

Image and music attributions:
Grottoes: Photo by Mary Shortreed
Garden of the Gods: Photo by Troy Woods
Creation reflection: Pixabay photo
Beautiful You: Pixabay photo with text added
Beautifully and Wonderfully made: Leah Smith

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is 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 of examining covenant love.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering we examined The Language of Love.  This week we will explore Covenant 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 where your covenant love can empower me. Illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you. Prepare my heart to focus my attention on loving you eternally.”

PROMISE: Love is a promise. Jesus demonstrated His Covenant to us when He offered His life on the cross. Out of  God’s love, He sacrificed the life of His only son. John 3:16  reads, “For God so (greatly) loved and dearly prized the world, that He (even) gave His (One and) only begotten son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him (as Savior) shall not perish, but have eternal life.

This promise of eternal life gives us a reason to live the covenant of loving Jesus in life and death. 

PSALM: In the song My Jesus I love Thee William Ralph Featherstone shares his vow to live in love with Jesus.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
  And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
  If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

The love of Jesus is an uncompromising, unconditional, unwavering, gracious, and redeeming covenant. Our sin may interfere with how we love Jesus but it does not interfere with how He loves us. At some point in the psalmist life, he realized that God sacrificed His son so that we could live graciously forgiven of our sin and live life IN Covenant love with Him. I wonder what prompted the psalmist to pledge his love to Jesus?

PARABLE: We are more prone to approach our love affair with Jesus as a contract opposed to a covenant. What is the difference between contractual love and covenant love? Contractual love says, “Because I did this for you, you should do this for me.” Covenant love says, “I will love even if you don’t. I will love especially when you won’t.”  If the love of Jesus was contractual, every time we sin, the contract would be voided. Instead Jesus died to offer us covenant love. What is the covenant love of Jesus and what does it do? 

1. 

   The Covenant Love of Jesus is inseparable. Romans 8:38.  It promises that NOTHING can separate us from the love of Jesus.

2. The Covenant Love of Jesus is  immeasurable. Ephesians 3:18. Jesus pledges to love us beyond an identified width, length, height, or depth.
3. The Covenant Love of Jesus is indisputable. 1 John 4:9-10. Jesus’ sacrificial life and death substantiates that God gave His son’s life to pay the debt of our sins.
4. The Covenant Love of Jesus is everlasting. Jeremiah 31:3  It swears that His love has no expiration, is steeped with lovingkindness, and is faithful.
5. The Covenant Love of Jesus empowers: Romans 8:37. It guarantees that in Christ we are more than conquerors of the guilt, shame, lies, and strongholds of sin.

Covenant love is not about us. Covenant love is all about Jesus who lived just to die for our sins. The lie of shame says “We are wrong.” The truth of God’s promises says “We did wrong” but the love of Jesus permits us to repent and be cleansed by His redemptive blood. We can live a life in covenant love with Jesus because His unconditional covenant love is patient, kind, does not count our wrong, and is enduring(1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Will you choose today to live a powerful, thriving, and lasting relationship with Jesus by choosing to live IN COVENANT LOVE?

PONDER and WANDER:

Ponder the question: Has my contractual view of love interfered with me living in the unconditional, gracious, redeeming, and saving covenant love of Jesus Christ?  

Perhaps you have not made a covenant vow to Jesus but rest assured, Jesus has already made a covenant to you. On the cross, He said, “I choose you!” and He will continue to choose you over and over.

If you choose, when you are ready, you may take a few minutes to repent of your sin and renew or establish your covenant with Jesus. Invite the Holy Spirit to use the prompts to guide you to declare your love. You may select which one(s) you would like to include in your vows of love and complete the sentence(s) with your promise.

Jesus I love you…
Jesus I choose you…

PRAYER: Jesus, with every breath you provide me, I will choose to love you without my hurts hindering my view of your Presence, without my sorrow sabotaging your joy, without holding on to my habits tighter than I cling to you. In life, in death, with every breath, I promise to love you. In the loving 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 offer Him your gratitude that He chose you. Let the work of your wandering fill you with the assurance that God loved YOU enough to give His son without hesitation.

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.

PERSONAL BONUS: If you would like, you may watch the below video and share an experience that helped me to make a love covenant to Jesus.

This video reveals the moment I touched The Stone of Unction, also known as the Stone of Anointing located in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (The Church of Resurrection) in Jerusalem. This limestone slab of love is where Jesus was laid to be prepared for burial after being removed from the crucifix (Matthew 27:57-60).

It was at this stone that I gained a new perspective of how Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection paid for the consequences of my sin and cancelled the terms of my contract. It was at the tomb where Jesus was buried and resurrected that my guilt and shame, especially of those from my sins of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and performance vanished. It was at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where I realized that though my sin (some of them I was too ashamed to share with anyone) is great, the love of Jesus is greater! Touching that stone where He laid, reframed the meaning of reckless and undeserving Covenant Love. I can relate to Featherstone’s pledge of love to Jesus. Touching this stone, my heart cried “If ever I loved thee my Jesus, tis now!”  Invite the Holy Spirit to search your mind and recall a time within your relationship with Jesus that prompted you to say, “If ever I loved Thee my Jesus, tis now.”

Image Attributions:
I choose you: Google Image
Live in love: Belovedwomen.org
Covenant love: Google images

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is 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 conversation 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 of exploring the language of love.

PREPARATION: 

In our last Wandering we examined talking and hearing.  This week we will listen in on the psalmist conversation of adoration and investigate the languages of love.  When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus by stating:

“Jesus, I invite you to help me to wander into your Presence where your everlasting and reckless love can influence me. Illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you. Prepare my heart to focus my attention on loving you with my whole being.

PROMISE: Love is a demonstrated and expressed language between lovers. In Matthew 22: 37 Jesus commands us to convey our love to the lover of our soul, holistically. He states, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (New International Version). Our devotion to God is considered the first commandment. We are instructed to withhold not one ounce of affection and to lavish God with a cumulative love of our heart, mind,and soul. The song writer is living out this commandment and transparently shares his adoration to Jesus.

PSALM:  My Jesus I love Thee was originally a devotion poem written by William Ralph Featherston around 1864. In this poem, Featherston shares his love language of affirmation in his transformational conversation with Jesus.

Chorus:
Lord Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou,
If ever I loved Thee, Lord Jesus, ’tis now.

Encounters with Jesus grow like roots within the soil of our heart, mind, and soul. When we spend time with Jesus the seeds of our will, understanding, and affections bloom into an anthem of adoration. As each day passes, our soul has an unction to obey the commandment of Matthew 22:37 to love Jesus MORE with all passion, prayer, and intelligence. This is evidenced when our worship and praise grows into a field of loving devotion.

PARABLE: The psalmist uses the love language of affirmation to declare his love for Jesus. The word NOW jumps out of the lyrics in real time.  Notice that the proclamation of the writer’s love comes after the pronouncement that there is a personal covenant love with Jesus (I know Thou art mine) and after a promulgation of the characteristics of the love Jesus has committed to displaying (gracious, redemptive, and saving love). What makes the love that the writer has so present and profound? I don’t know the answer to this question but I do empathize with an intensified love that is occurring NOW. 

Time is a stimulant in the language of love.  The more you experience time with Jesus and the more you come to understand and receive His endless love, the more your heart responds and reciprocates the love. After graciously being redeemed from a two-year post-traumatic stress disorder battle, now more than ever I understand the ever-present healing love of Jesus. The love language I speak in response to the love of Jesus is now different.

Have you considered that love is a language? Gary Chapman describes that God speaks all Five Love Languages fluently. 

The Five Love Languages are:

1. Words of Affirmation (Hebrews 13:15 communicate love through praise and thanksgiving)
2. Quality time (Deuteronomy 17:18-19  communicates love by spending time in God’s word and with God)
3. Receiving gifts (Romans 12:1 communicates love by giving ourselves to God)
4. Acts of service (Matthew 25:31-40 communicates love by loving and serving others)
5. Touching (Mark 10:13-16 communicates love through physical touch and acceptance of others)

Do you know your primary love language? If not, you may take the 5 Love langauge quiz to learn your primary love language. Most likely the love language you communicate in with people is the same love language you will choose to communicate with God. The song writer reveals that his primary love languages through the lyrics indicating that he was spent quality time with Jesus and his response was to affirm his love for Jesus.

PONDER and WANDER:

Ponder the question: What love language do you think Jesus speaks? Jesus also speaks every love language and is an interpreter and translator of our love language. He understands every word, thought, and emotion behind each act of love. He individualizes His love language to each believer. As He speaks to us we experience the unconditional, gracious, redeeming, and saving love of Jesus and it provokes a response within us to express our language of love to Christ. Each time we wander in the Presence of Jesus and encounter His love, we become more fluent in our love languages.

This week our wandering will assist us in growing our emotional relationship with Jesus by strengthening our expression of love in the areas of quality time and affirmation.

Like William Featherston, you may chose to set aside some quality time to write a devotional poem affirming your love to Jesus. If you choose to write your poem, keep in mind that it is your personal expression and is not confined by length, rhyming, or any other myths you have about poetry.

When you are ready, you may begin by taking a moment to breath in and out inviting the Holy Spirit to activate your spiritual senses. Next allow the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind what words will best express your adoration for Jesus based on your relationship with him in time.  Consider your love affair with Jesus in:

• The Past
• The Present
• The Future

When you are ready, let the Holy Spirit guide your pen as you write a devotional poem of adoration to Jesus expressing your love to Him for the gracious love He has given you in the past, for the redeeming love He is giving you in the present, and for the saving love he will give you in the future.

If you prefer technology over the traditional method of paper and pen, you may choose to contemplate expressing your poem in emojis. When you are ready, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, ponder what emojis represent your relationship with Jesus in the past, present, and future. Now select the emoji’s and craft a love text to Jesus.

PRAYER: My Jesus how I love THEE! Let me count the ways. I love thee with my affection. It exceeds that which I have for any other. I love thee to the point of exhaustion. My whole self is spent in my love for thee. I crave thee. Refresh the cravings of my mind, body, and soul with your everlasting and ever-present love. I love thee in other tongues. Help me to seek opportunities to diversify my language of love. I love thee with everything. You are my everything and my everything is YOU! In the name of Jesus who is the Lover of my soul I pray, Amen.  

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to offer God your gratitude. Let the work of your wandering fill you with the love of Jesus and utter a word of thanks in the love language of affirmation.

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.

Image attributions:
Love Jesus with all: Google images
Love blooms: Google images
Love is a language: Google images
Love letter: Belovedwomen.org
Love Emojis: Pixabay

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is 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 conversation 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 of examining what it means to Have a little talk with Jesus and tell him all about our troubles.

PREPARATION:  In our last Wandering we explored Mind Talk. This week we will investigate what we can expect when we tell Jesus about the troubles we battle in our feelings, thoughts, sensations, and memories. When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue of having a little talk with Jesus by stating:

“Jesus, I invite you to help me to wander aimlessly into your Presence where my troubled mind, body, and soul can be transfigured. Illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you. Prepare me to talk and then to be still and listen.

PROMISE: Jeremiah 29: ¹² Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear (your voice) and I will listen to you. (Amplified). When we choose to pray to Jesus we can be assured that He will hear us with His heart. Psalm 34:18 promises us that Jesus is near us when we have troubles. When our thoughts, feelings, and actions are troubled, we can have a transformational talk with Jesus.

PSALM:  The song writer of Just a Little Talk with Jesus  invites us to join him in having a transformational conversation with Jesus.

Chorus:

(Now let us) have a little talk with Jesus
(Let us) tell Him all about our troubles
(He will) hear our fainted cry
(He will) answer by and by
(When you) feel a little prayer wheel turning
(And you) will know a little fire is burnin’
(You will) find a little talk with Jesus makes it right.

The songwriter begins the chorus with NOW because he knows that when we are in the midst of trouble, there is an urgency to talk and to be heard. Jesus is an active listener. Jesus listens with his heart. When our heart bellows for help, His heart is actively  listening to learn, evaluate and analyze, and to understand our troubles. In response, His love translates our troubled cries, interprets our incommunicable moans, and deciphers our distressed tears.

PARABLE: The songwriter instructs us to have a little talk with Jesus and tell Him all about our troubles because he has been a recipient of the scriptural outcome.  Psalm 46:1 promises us that God is our refuge and strength (mighty and impenetrable), A very present and well-proved help in trouble.

We learn from this psalm that there are three immediate benefits we receive when we share our troubles with Jesus.

1. We receive refuge because God is our shelter in distress (Psalm 27:5).
2. We receive strength because God is our security and power in despair (Psalm 138:3).
3. We receive help because God is our remedy in difficulty (Psalm 54:4).

When we have a little transformational talk with Jesus, our thoughts that are guided by our feelings are HEARD because Jesus is an empathetic listener. He is attuned to our sound, our feelings, and our emotions. Jesus is a responsive listener. Not only does Jesus detect the faintest whisper, discern the slightest groan, and perceive the softest sigh but He responds and intentionally delivers us from our troubled thoughts, feelings, memories, and sensations (Psalm 34:17). Jesus is a proactive listener. Jesus implements a safety rescue plan. Jeremiah 29:11 affirms that God knows the plans He has for us and that even trouble result in a bright, hopeful, prosperous, and non-harmful future.

Transformational conversations are about t.a.l.k.ing and h.e.a.r.ing. When in prayer we Tell Jesus about our troubles, Acknowledge our sin, he will Listen and guide us, and He will Keep His word. When we cry out, He will Hear and discern our need, with Empathy he will feel our emotions, Answer by responding according to His plan, and Rescue and deliver us from our troubles.

PONDER and WANDER:

In Psalm 116, David declares that because God is an empathetic, attentive, and proactive listener, he will pray as long as he has breath. Are prayer and breathing connected? Yes. Breath is essential to our mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Therefore, it seems natural that it be intentionally included in our wanderings and transformational conversations with Jesus. Breath prayers are a contemplative practice. Normally the practice is done by selecting a scripture and breathing in the first portion of scripture and breathing out with the next, and repeating this pattern over an extended period of time.

Today we will practice breath prayers slightly differently as we accept the invitation to wander with Jesus and ponder what we are in need of right now. For example, I need help in this moment. As I breath in I am visualizing the research article that I need to complete, as I exhale I am crying out to Jesus the word help.

When you are ready, take a moment and breath in and out inviting your spiritual senses to activate. Next, allow the Holy Spirit to help you identify right NOW which promise you need to receive. Do you need refuge? Do you desire strength? Do you want help? After you are aware of what you will focus your attention on today, practice doing a breath prayer. Breath in and as you exhale, say the word that is the focus of your intention several times until you experience the peace of God’s promise.

Continue to practice this breath prayer and to create new breath prayers in the days to come. Know that whatever your trouble, Jesus is waiting to listen, hear, and answer you if you will take the time to Have a Little Talk With Jesus.

PRAYER: Father, thank you that you are our Avenger and will defend those who cry out to you. Help me in the midst of trouble to come to you. I know that You are for me but sometimes my doubts and fears and emotions grab hold of me. Translate and interpret my silent cries and transform them to shouts of praise as I focus on the promise that even trouble MUST work out for my good. In the name of Jesus my Savior I pray, Amen.

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to offer God your gratitude. Let the work of your wandering fill you with hope and the assurance that Jehovah Shammah our Lord will be there listening in your times of trouble.

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.

PERSONAL BONUS: If you would like, you may  Listen to the three minute prayer as I share my experience with the Resonant 7 Community.

To wander and ponder is a part of my personal life. Wherever I go, I look for opportunities to encounter God. During my visit to Old Jerusalem this spring, I visited the Western Wall a.k.a. the Wailing Wall, and considered to be the most sacred place in the world. Regardless of the beliefs, there is a unified understanding of all who gather at the wall that the prayers they offer will be prayers heard. The prayers of a Christian believer are like a run on sentence that God never grows tired of hearing. We can pick up the conversation at any time.