Day Twenty
Dependable - Honest
Proverbs 31:25...Strength and dignity are her clothing and her position is strong and secure; she rejoices over the future [the latter day or time to come, knowing that she and her family are in readiness for it]...
Honest...frank...sincere...according to truth...upright...proceeding from pure or just principles...honorable...suitable...faithful...straightforward...candid...pure...reliable...what definitions...what a risk!
There is a woman who is very special to my heart, my cousin, Cindy Dove. Her risk to be honest, dependable and straightforward - proceeding from pure and just motives, literally changed the course of my life and that of my family. At a time when I called myself a Christian, yet lived for myself - at a time I was obsessed with thoughts of suicide, and insanity danced all around my mind, this precious woman spoke to me and said, "Patti, if you will_____, God will heal you." What a risk! What Truth! As stated before, I had been diagnosed with Manic Depression/Bi-Polar Disorder and took heavy doses of medications. In my mind, I could not help the way I was, because after all, I had a disease, a sickness. But as Cindy came to me with a word from the Lord, which required action on my part - the action of stepping past myself and reaching out to God, a miracle of deliverance happened and I was completely healed. Cindy has told me what was going through her mind when she spoke that word from the Lord, and it was no picnic for her, because I was full of rage and anger. Yet, she pressed through in obedience because God had given her a message of Truth to speak, and it brought change.
It is not an easy thing to speak in Truth to someone. We, as people, tend to shield ourselves from anything that might prick our hearts too much. We want to protect ourselves from pain. We are quick to quote scriptures on love if the truths we are hearing expose our hearts too much. The following is an excerpt from a study called Spirit of Truth, found at www.artkatzministries.org, and it speaks to the issues of love and truth...
"It may be objected that too much is being made of truth when love is what is most crucial to us both as individuals and as the Church. After all, didn't Jesus say, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another' (John 13:35 NAS). Love is crucial - and sadly lacking - but the reason it is lacking has largely to do with how we conceive of it in relationship to truth. The world is desperate for love and obsessed with seeking it. There is an incessant flood of talk about love in music, in literature, on talk shows, yet has the world ever been more vulgar, more violent, more sick and obscene than in our day? We are always in pursuit of love but never able to find it. What men call love is always breaking down under pressure, degenerating into lifeless duty, or lust, or sentimentality. Real love has proven impossible for the world to achieve and the reason why is not that hard to discover. Jesus said,' I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him'...(John 14:16a NAS)...We cry out in desperation for love. What we get is false comfort, superficial hugs and say, 'God bless you' to one another, calling that love, and go on pretending that all is well, when all is not well. The gnawing hunger in our hearts persists. We begin by insulating ourselves from truth in order to protect ourselves. But we end up insulating ourselves from love. Shielding ourselves from truth does not protect love; it suffocates it." And the day that Cindy and I talked for the first time in a long time, she spoke the word that God gave her, honest words that bean to chip away at he cocoon of depression and suicide that was spun around my mind and heart. It made me angry, it brought reality into the delusion of self focus, and it brought healing! This does not mean that we have a license to go around being brutally honest with each other. There is a difference between speaking out of what we see with our eyes and speaking a God-given message of Truth. One will bring wounds and the other, if we allow it, will bring lasting, effective change.
One of my cousins, who was only 26 , committed suicide. He died without hope. And my heart feels heavy that he would take his life. I can tell you without reservation that the Father's heart is grieved over the loss of this little one, because He sent His Son to die, that we might have life. And not only to have eternal life with Him, but that we might live our lives on this earth, in peace through Him, no matter what circumstances come our way.
I tell you this day, there is an urgency, a call from God, for men and women to know the Father's Word and will, and to be doing it, whether that is speaking a truth to someone's life or bowing one's knees in earnest prayer. Oh friends, there is an urgency to not be afraid to do and speak what God leads us to do and speak. There is an urgency to break through cocoons of self preservation and to see people being set free from bondages of depression and pain, anger and sicknesses, hate and apathy, delusions and lusts, religions and traditions. Jeremiah 6:14 says...They dress the wound of My people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace...(NIV). We do not need Band-aids that placate people in the form of religious cliche`s, like...'God is still in control'...'Well, He knew this was going to happen'...'These types of things happen in life'...'How sad'...'God is still on the throne'...and many numerous other sayings. We desperately need for people of God to walk before this world, being reflections of the Truth of God's Word, speaking and walking honestly. It will be risky. Many will not want to hear. Many will hear and choose to go their own way. However, some will hear, and their lives will be forever changed and healed.
My 26 year old cousin is not another statistic in the annals of life. He is a man who died with no hope...and God's heart grieves...because His Son died...that we might have hope...
Matthew 18:12-14...What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray and gets lost, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that is lost? And if it should be that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost. Just so it is not the will of My Father Who is in heaven that one of these little ones be lost and perish...
A hearts' cry...Oh my Father, may we understand the importance of walking in obedience in love and truth, in a world that desperately needs hope...