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Jonah 2:1-10 [RSV]

1. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2. saying, “I called to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and thou didst hear my voice. 3. For thou didst cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me; all thy waves and thy billows passed over me. 4. Then I said, `I am cast out from thy presence; how shall I again look upon thy holy temple?’ 5. The waters closed in over me, the deep was round about me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6. at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me for ever; yet thou didst bring up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God. 7. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to thee, into thy holy temple. 8. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their true loyalty. 9. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to thee; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!” 10. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

God told Jonah to go warn the Ninevites to repent or they would be destroyed. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? The problem is the Ninevites were about to defeat Jonah’s homeland–and Jonah really wanted God to go ahead and punish them, so his people wouldn’t be defeated in the war. Jonah did what I’m pretty sure most of us would have done: he ran away!

He told God, “No way am I going to help my enemies. Not in this lifetime will I warn them to change their wicked ways and be saved by God’s mercy and love. Nope. Not gonna happen!” And who could blame him? And what happens? God let’s Jonah know exactly who is in charge! He sends a huge fish (a whale?) to swallow him up — to give him some “time out” time to think about his decision! The prayer in today’s scripture is what Jonah prays after he’s had some time to think about it.

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“Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice for the Lord has done great things! I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.”- Joel 2:21, 25-26 [RSV]

I think these verses are so beautiful and full of hope and peace of mind, it kind of makes me take a deep, cleansing breath every time I read them. How much our God loves us! Not only will he forgive us our past sins, he will restore what was lost! We may not have those years back, but we will have a right relationship with Him as if we never strayed or defied or sinned. Wow. And we will live abundantly at that!

As I think of my own redemption story, and listen to others begin to unfold theirs, this is the one verse that comes to mind. One of my dear friends told me a couple of years ago that this is “his passage.” It resonates with him because he said he does look back with regret on the years he was not in a right relationship with God. It resonates with me too. And, I imagine with all of us. We all have times in our lives that were dark, and empty, stripped of joy and feeling lost and alone. We didn’t know through it all that God was there. We didn’t feel Him, but He was there. He was just waiting to tell us He restores what the locust has eaten.

Locusts are frightening to farmers, because of their ability to wipe out every green thing in their path. They are specialized, too: “the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter”. Some of them eat the seeds, some the stalks, etc. And they invade a crop or a field of grass like an invading army. The once green pasture appears to turn black because of the massive numbers blanketing their prey. They destroy everything in their wake - down to the dirt - nothing is left when they have finished. They are fast and efficient due to their massive numbers. The world feels that way sometimes, too. We are bombarded with so many messages–it’s hard to drown them out and shut them off in order to just rest in God.

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Psalm 37:1-11

1. Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers! 2. For they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb. 3. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security. 4. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6. He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as the noonday. 7. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over him who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 8. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. 9. For the wicked shall be cut off; but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land. 10. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look well at his place, he will not be there. 11. But the meek shall possess the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

Psalm 37 begins with one of my “favorite” words. Fret is to worry and fuss and fume and not “let it go.” Fretting is not like anger—it’s more insidious than that. It sneaks up on us and has the potential to invade our thoughts—and worse—our actions. It makes us “snippy” and colors our view of how things should be working in the world. Fretting is the opposite of trusting God.

It’s pretty easy to fret just living in the world these days! There seems to be so much evil, sin, so much prosperity for the corrupt, so much gain for the dishonest and so much success for those who lie and cheat! But David is cautioning us not to fret over all that. He tells us to be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Trust that God has a plan for our good. Our future as God-fearing, good, just, honest, gentle, loving believers is secure—no matter what happens here on earth!

No matter how things may seem, we must believe that God will deal with each of us according to how we live our lives. If we waste our time and energy worrying about what someone else deserves, we potentially lose an opportunity to demonstrate our own righteousness and faith! David is saying we should focus on ourselves and on what we know to be right and good and true. God will take care of the rest. Look around this world—there’s plenty to do to make things right—and fretting about those who don’t see things as we do, is not the way to do it!

Take delight in the Lord. Trust in Him. Commit your way to Him. Fret not yourself. Don’t let your hard feelings smolder and smoke and for heaven’s sake, stop adding fuel to the fire! Take delight in the Lord. Trust in Him. Commit your way to Him. Maybe if we say those three phrases over and over again, they can become like a mantra for us! Next time we’re irritated, aggravated or righteously indignant—we’ll fret not—we’ll think of all the ways God has blessed us, of all the joy and peace we’ll experience in heaven; we’ll try to imagine eternal life!

I hope you spend your day fretting not, delighting and trusting in the Lord and committing your way to Him.

Mary Moss is the Founder and Owner of Divinely Designed, a ministry fueled by inspiration, imagination and faith. She and her husband of 30 years have two college age children.

Mary believes each person is uniquely and divinely designed for a specific purpose on this earth. Mary is called to create opportunities where people can experience how their stories interconnect with God’s story. She lives this out through writing, sermons and storytelling. Her desire is to encourage, support and uplift others on their journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and their pursuit of their own divine purpose. You can find Mary on the web at Divinely Designed.

I love the story from the book of Matthew when Jesus and his disciples arrive in a particularly pagan area. At that time Jesus asked his followers, “Who are they saying that I am?” The disciples answer with a variety of names given by a mixture of ideologies.

Jesus then presents his twelve with a single pop quiz question asking, “But who do YOU say that I am?”

Most everyone has a favorite scripture, and this is the one I call my “signature scripture”. Several years ago, I found myself in a place of searching. I had known and revered the Lord since I was a small child, but had grown complacent in my faith walk. In fact, I had become quite stagnant. So, I began to pray and ask that God would create a hunger in me, not only for His Word, but simply for the things of God.

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Though my mother held no college degree, she was an amazing teacher. At a very young age, I became enthralled by her ability at the sewing machine. So, little by little, she began instructing me in the craft of sewing. As genetics would have it, Mom and I were both sticklers for detail, so were a good match as teacher and student. I learned to pay attention to every notch and marking and to follow the pattern guide precisely. Most important however, was preparation and layout of the patterns, in order to have the best possible foundation for my creation. In addition to that - pin, pin, pin and pin some more - in order to hold my project together until it was permanently stitched.

But the greatest thing she did as teacher was to trust me completely. She would make sure I had everything going in the right direction and before walking away, she would always add, “You can do it!” She did not stay and hover over me. Instead she went back to the work she was engaged in. I remember at times being somewhat fearful at her leaving, but I also remember feeling empowered. I truly believed that if she trusted me enough to leave, she must also believe I could handle the challenge. My mother did well in teaching me a powerful principle. She trusted me and I trusted her, and followed all her instructions, knowing that I could still call on her at any moment and she would be there.

Scripture also teaches us a powerful principle. God will not allow anything to come into our lives that we are not capable of withstanding.

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Each and everyone of us can surely say at one time or another we have been tested, tried and pushed into situations we weren’t proud of. In spite of what the situations have been - we have to learn to hold onto our peace. Going pass peace will cause frustration and a lot of time results in a moment of resentment. Having our buttons pushed is not a pleasant thing, however continually speaking God’s Word to any mountain in our life, will allow maturity in that area of our life. The Word is the beginning of everything! Planting the Word in our mouth and our heart results in transformation.

When we learn to hold onto our peace, it is a sure sign of maturity and growth. Everyday is not going to be the same. The enemy will surely try his game. Even if it results in an unpleasant situation, we have to remind ourselves who we are in Christ. We can’t let condemnation take root in our life.

Holding onto our peace will allow us to go to another level. It will cause advancements and promotions to come our way for the mere fact that we surrendered to the Word of God. The peace God gave us is for us. It is not intended for issues to rob us instantly of our peace. Losing our keys, hung-up in traffic, and the children acting like they have lost their mind is just a few situations that sometimes come upon us. God will allow us to continue to go around the same mulberry bush until we totally surrender and show we are ready for the next level.

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Renewing Your Mind

Do you struggle with Anxiety? I want to encourage you that you are not alone. It is more common than people realize. First we want to look at what anxiety is before we can address how to deal with anxiety. A summarized definition of anxiety is: Having a uneasy, overwhelmed, apprehensive, fearful, concerned, and worrisome state of mind with the feeling of inadequacy to cope.

Anxiety also affects us internally to where we can become physically ill if untreated. There are different levels of anxiety but we will be dealing with anxiety in general. If you feel you are dealing with severe anxiety I encourage you to see a doctor who can give you a full diagnosis.

Now that we have established what anxiety is, we now have to look at the core of the problem which is what causes anxiety. The key of understanding the cause for anxiety is in the above summarized definition which is that it is a “state of mind”. The root of having any particular state of mind begins with our thoughts. Our thoughts whether good or bad lead our mind into a direction, and how much thought that goes into that particular direction affects not only our minds, but our point of view, our feelings and our emotions and that can then turn into our actions or reactions.

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On Podcasting His Beauty we have special guest Spensha Baker who is a 15 year old rising gospel artist. Tune in as we learn a little bit more about her.

You can also visit her on the web at www.spenshaonline.com

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 Interview with Spensha Baker [10:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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