Your Yard

Mt. Moriah Ministries

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Your Yard

by Meredith Giles

December 15, 2024

Give

Your Yard

I Thessalonians 4:4

That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.

No one can be responsible for you. Here’s a good way to illustrate this. We each have our own yard. No one else can step onto your yard and plant flowers or shrubs just because they want to. No one can decide to dump their garbage each week on your lawn, or let their dog do its business there. This is your yard and they have no right doing anything on it. You, on the other hand, can plant flowers and shrubs, choose to dispose of your garbage properly or let it pile up, and if you own a dog, you can let it do its business anywhere on your yard you choose or not. It is your yard. Our feelings and attitudes are ours. If we will take responsibility for them, we can solve problems with them and make powerful decisions for our life. Whoever makes us angry is not responsible for it. Our anger is a sign that someone has sinned against us. Matthew 18:15 tells us, “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.” Moses also wrote in Leviticus 19:17, “Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.” If I am the one dealing with these feelings, I am the one responsible for them. Moses tells us we can reprove the one we are angry at, or allow this anger to turn into bitterness and hate. The anger will be resolved if we can talk it out with the offender and the relationship be healed and better. “Iron sharpens iron.” Each of the persons who have been in the conflict will be better for working it out. If we choose not to deal with our feelings, they can turn into bitterness and hatred and continue to fester. Back to our analogy—it is our yard. We can choose or not choose to deal with whatever is happening in it. It’s not someone else’s responsibility. Likewise, you are not responsible for what is going on in someone else's yard. You’re not responsible for others’ attitudes. Putting expectations on others is not our job in life. We usually end up complaining and becoming disappointed with them. When we begin to take responsibility for our own attitudes, then we begin to be set free from the expectations of others who try to put them on us. A pattern of thinking that is not healthy is to play the victim because of others’ expectations of us. Slow down and figure out where that attitude has come from, and process how you can be freed from the expectations of others when they try to put expectations on us. God has healing and health for you in every area of your life. He has great freedom and blessings as well.

What about you? Are you free and at peace in your feelings and attitudes in your life? Do you have healthy boundaries where you are free to live your life led by the Lord and not others? Take some time to be with the Lord today, and let Him talk to you about any areas of your life that you may need healing. Rest in Him that He will speak and lead you to a healthy, balanced place in your life. Blessings on your day.

My Presence Will Go With You

December 22, 2024

My Presence Will Go With You Exodus 33:15 KJV Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” I have heard it said, “So much of what we do is done out of ministry principles instead of out of the Presence.” I have lived my whole life in church. From my earliest memories to my present life, I have spent a good portion of my time in church from dead, dry services where a boring form was followed, that seemed like to me, it had be done a million times with the same outcome. There have also been seasons of my daily personal time with the Lord that was as dry as burnt toast. I don’t like it. I know there are times when God withdraws His Presence, I believe so that we will run after Him, press into Him and do what it takes to find Him. It’s a learning and testing time before Him to trust Him in the dark and a time for Him to access the hunger level we have for Him. I’m with Moses. What’s the sense of doing life in our own strength. We only receive back our own human reasoning, relying on our own intellect, still coming up empty. I am asking and seeking Him today to increase my awareness of His Presence so I can move with the utmost sensitivity to Him, the Prince of Peace. He says He will never leave us nor forsake us. Its true, He always is near. My heart needs to settle into the understanding of this and practice it, not from my human emotions, but from my spirit as I learn to receive Him by faith, quiet myself and listen and watch expectantly for Him. He will speak. He will guide and lead us. He will come in whatever way we need Him to come. Maybe its just that we need to quiet enough, slow down long enough and trust in faith long enough for Him to do His thing. What’s the sense of pushing on without His Presence, without His direction and His sense of wellbeing that He places on our lives? I, for one, am so done with manmade ideas, good ideas, maybe, but not God breathed direction. Wouldn’t it be much better to lay out our life situations before Him, not coming to Him, telling Him what and what not to do, like He doesn’t know anything about what the challenge may be? Then practice listening carefully to what He will say and direct. Yes, this means we have to slow down and really watch and listen in faith that He will speak, that He will guide. I’ve gone down too many roads of good ideas to only come up empty when its all been said and done. I have a certainty in heart now because of many learning experiences, that our heavenly Father will show Himself faithful, if I will but trust Him. Don’t move forward today in your life without His Presence. It leads to nowhere you really want to be. What about you? Do you have areas of your life you need to talk to Him about, people you need to surrender completely to Him, and then listen and watch for what He will say and for how He will lead? Let me reassure you, He can always be trusted. Let His Presence guide you today.

In Wisdom’s House

December 21, 2024

In Wisdom’s House Proverbs 21:20 TPT In wisdom’s house you’ll find delightful treasures and the oil of the Holy Spirit. But the stupid squander what they’ve been given. There are those specific people who you meet in life who you can be at ease with. You can laugh deep belly laughs with them at some hilarious story, and you can also cry hot, gushing tears with them over a traumatic happening in your life. They don’t have to fix you or have all the answers. Just their presence and real transparency of heart bring great peace and solace to your needy spirit. They are a treasure. I have had a few, very few souls like this in my life. Some are now home with the Lord, and oh, how I miss them and their sweet, priceless fellowship. Full of wisdom and delightful treasures, they were wells of sweet, sweet water. They were lamps whose precious oil of the Holy Spirit never ran dry. I want to be just that. Not someone who points a judgmental finger at someone going through rough waters, or a person who turns their back to those who need them at critical times, when instead, a delightful treasure needs to be brought to the forefront to encourage and comfort. We, as Christians, can sometimes come across as “better than thou” in our actions and words when we don’t even fully know someone’s story or heart, or what they’re living through in this season of their life. I believe our criticisms of others come from our own insecurities, when consciously or subconsciously we think we are so much better, and far more mature because we are not in the kind of situation and ramifications of poor choices, such as the ones we are presently criticizing. Wow! This for sure is not wisdom. Can we discipline ourselves to not judge others so quickly, functioning in our “know-it-all” fashion? In wisdom’s house, there are delightful treasures. Wisdom would reach out in gentleness and kindness, not in harsh criticism from a scoffing posture. If we have been in the Presence of the Holy Spirit, soaking, listening, learning, would it stand to reason that we would illuminate the essence of Him rather than our own fleshiness? Sometimes to say nothing is the wisest posture one can take. Whatever an individual’s challenges may be, whatever the mistakes one has made, the poor choices taken, wisdom says it is not helpful to lay layer upon layer of inflated, belligerent “know-it-allism,” but to be a listening ear and a neutral sounding board for this struggling soul. Here you have an opportunity to be healing balm and a refreshing spring in the midst of turmoil. Wisdom says—be that! Remember, God sees and hears all. Let’s not squander the wisdom He has afforded us. Be wise for this day and every day. What about you? Would you consider yourself “wise?” Do you just have to state your opinion and “get everyone told?” Are you gentle and kind, or quick to judge and respond in harsh ways to someone who is struggling? Don’t squander the wisdom God has made available to you. Be a conduit of His love and mercy today and every day. Value the wisdom He has given you. Blessings on your day.

According to His Will

December 20, 2024

According to His Will Ephesians 1:11 NKJV In Him also we obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. When the Word of God speaks about “the counsel of His will,” it is telling us that God has an eternal and unchangeable plan. There is a pretty heavy thought in theology and doctrine that can take us years, (and may not even then), be able to understand it completely. The word for this is “predestination.” Ephesians 1:5 speaks of God, “having predestined us to adoption.” Also we see this thought conveyed in Ephesians 1:9, “Having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.” Father God’s thoughts and ways go far beyond our human finite ability to comprehend. Isaiah 46:10 says, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and ancient times things that are not yet done saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure. 11b Indeed I have spoken it. I have purposed it; I will also do it.’” Romans 8:28 which is a very much quoted verse in Christendom, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” God has a deliberate plan, a proposition, an advance plan, an intention, a design for our lives. As we stay in His Word, and have tender hearts and listening ears for His voice, He will give us wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. He will direct our paths. The eyes of your understanding will be enlightened. This simply means that there will be a “thinking through” the challenges of life and the decisions that will need to be made. Father God goes before us and prepares the way as well as comes behind us and brings up the rear, so to speak. He knows all of the things we have lived through—the good, the bad, and the ugly. He wants to heal us from all of those rough things that have happened in our lives. He knows just how to do that. He was there with you all the time. Someone may be questioning today, “Well, if He was there, why didn’t He stop these hard, harsh things from happening in my life?” Here’s the answer: God has given man a free will; he allows man to make His own decisions for good or bad; for kindness or cruelty. It’s up to each of us how we will live and treat others. I believe He weeps when He sees people suffer in such hard ways. But I also know that He is the Healer and Comforter and will restore us from those devastating crises we endured. Our verse today tells us that “He works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Joseph in Genesis 50:20, told his brothers, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” There is a freedom and release that comes to the heart of man when we understand the truth that God has a specific plan for each one of us personally, and that we can rest assured that in the times of affliction and struggle, He is building something in us, causing us to gain strength and wisdom for the upcoming plan God has for our lives. Are you at peace today? Do you have inner struggles over life’s situations? Can you ask God to give you a glimpse of His future for you and embrace it by faith, knowing He is teaching you and preparing you for His purpose to come to pass in your life? Be strong and restful in the Lord today.