I decided to start this blog (2010) because my son, John-Robert gave me a One Year Bible for Christmas, the New Living Translation... reading it has changed my life... I post a daily Bible verse on my Facebook page every day and it has been well received... I thought that this would be a wonderful way to share part of what I read each day!... I hope that you enjoy it.



This Year 2012 I am going to do things a little different... not much...just a little. I am again reading through my One Year Bible (for the 3rd time). But I am also using "The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word" by Joyce Meyer. This book is divided by putting scriptures under different categories so they can be used to speak over our life situations. Each day I will read a category of scripture and pick a scripture in that category to write about.



Hugs

Jeannie







Monday, June 3, 2013

6.3.13

Psalms 119:162 I rejoice in your word like one who discovers a great treasure.

My Thoughts
This verse really got me to thinking today.  About how God gives us freedom...and Satin loves to make us a prisoner. God's word is full of promises... and when we do what it says there are so many treasures we can add to our lives.  But we have to know what it says to do what it says. 
 
Satin on the other had loves to trap us with distractions.  If he can get us distracted from doing what God would have us do then he has at least succeeded in keeping us from growing roots in God.  As scary as dangerous people are...so many of us will never, ever become dangerous (thank God!).  But we don't have to become dangerous to loose out on God's promises, we just have to become distracted enough that we forget that God's word is a treasure. 
 
In my childhood I saw how destructive alcohol addiction can be. How it can draw a person in with the lure of relaxation...or a good time only to send people down a dark, lonely, destructive path.  I have also witnessed what drug addiction can do to a person...it can take a perfectly normal person from a "normal" (what ever that is) family and turn them into somebody that you would not even recognize if you saw them walking down the street.  Aging them way past their years, making them paranoid and self-destructive. I have stories of what gambling addiction can do to people.  All because people get lured in by something that feels "good" at the onset.
 
But so many of us are not effected by that kind of destruction either.  I avoid those things like the plague...I have seen what they do to destroy lives.  So Satin comes at me from other, simpler forms  of addiction.  Just to get me distracted.  Because if I am distracted I become ineffective.  If I am distracted I am not growing. If I am distracted I am not praying.  If I am distracted I am not praising. If I am distracted I am not thankful.  If I am distracted I am not noticing the thoughts Satin is putting in my head... so before I know it I have not fought those thoughts with God's word and they are running wild and destroying my peace, my sense of being loved. Slowly I start loosing my ability to get focused on God's promises.  When I get distracted I am not feeding my roots, I am destroying my roots. 
 
I have been distracted the past week... it really started about three weeks ago with a Lupus flair... I lost my focus a little bit.... I was too tired to do very much of anything except in little spurts of time.  When that happens I find myself with lots of time on my hands where I am doing nothing because I need rest so bad.  Lupus can be painful at times and it can also zap  you of every drop of energy over the simplest task.  So there I was doing a lot of sitting, tried of resting yet needing rest so bad.  And I did something I knew that I shouldn't, because I do have a bit of an addictive personality.  I played a game of Candy Crush.  A distraction from my physical pain it seemed. Harmless? Apparently not.  It has also distracted me from those moments of sending up short prayers, from being thankful and saying so out loud to God.  It has even got me so occupied in the morning, my Bible reading time, that I used up that time this past weekend and ran out of time to do my Bible reading.  And guess where I found myself this weekend? I find myself deep in anxiety... anxiety that brings me to tears. I wondered where that anxiety was coming from and this morning God gave me the answer... it is coming from my distraction!!  Thank goodness I had spent time growing my roots deep enough that I could still hear the Holy Spirit talking. Saying don't get so distracted you don't feel... because you never stop really stop feeling.  That feeling of not feeling is actually feeling empty.  Don't get empty remember where your treasure comes from.  Proverbs 16:17 reminded me this morning that wisdom is more precious that silver or gold...and David reminded me in Psalms that God's word is a reason to rejoice.  Candy Crush told me that finishing a level would be a reason to rejoice..then just put a newer harder level in my path.  Making me feel empty. 
 
I have been reminded this morning that I never walk away from God's word feeling empty.  If I need rest  I can find it in God's word.  We think we need distractions...but distractions do not ever bring about peace.  I have learned from the last week that distraction can lead to empty anxiety in the span of only one week. 
 
I am not picking on anybody that plays games...I am just sharing what I have discovered about me over the last week.  I hope to forever forward see distraction as Satins way in.  And I will tell him...I am taking the advice of a dear friend... any "distraction" that takes up more time that my Bible Study needs to be avoided. 

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