I can't sleep, I'm afraid

God's Promise of...Sweet Sleep

Proverbs chapter 3 happens to be my most favorite chapter in the Bible, because it clearly states how to get everything you want out of life, what to do, how to do it and why.

Sleep is addressed in Proverbs 3 and that is the topic of today’s blog.  God says that we could and should have sweet sleep.

Children are often afraid to go to sleep and that is addressed in my book but we adults are also bothered by the same malady.

Now, since it is a desire of God’s for his children to sleep well, there must be a way of getting it other than from a prescription bottle.

God is always telling us not to fear as well, and so many times, lack of sleep and fear hang out together.

In Psalm 4 verse 8 the Psalmist says “I will lay down in peace and sleep, for You alone oh Lord keep me in safety” Then in Proverbs 3 verse 34 He says, “When you lie down, you will not be afraid: yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.”

How can we make this happen?

The answer to that question is “We can’t.”

Any more than we can MAKE the vitamin C do it’s thing from an orange when we eat it or a banana provide potassium to your body after it’s been eaten.

What we can do however is, EAT THE ORANGE and banana.  Purchasing Oranges and bananas and setting them on your counter in a lovely little bowl will not give your body what you need. It is a beginning and a must, you have to have the fruit to eat the fruit, but that alone will not nourish us. We do have to DO SOMETHING.  We must eat it.

Once we do, God set it up so that our bodies do the rest.

God says that His Word is food. “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)
Another reference is in Jeremiah 15:16, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart..."

Having a Bible sitting on our night table will not do its job just as the bowl of fruit on the counter will not.  We must eat, i.e. we must read.

Psalms 19:7 says: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."

The Law of the Lord converts the soul, it makes wise the simple.

It appears that we don’t have to do anything but ingest the Word of God to make His promises manifest. Our spirits are nourished and in turn so are our bodies.

There is nothing to lose in trying it, like taking vitamins. We put it in and the body does the rest. I say we read The Bible and let it do its job on us.

Thanks for sharing in the Word of God with me.

Kathy

A dark day? Think again!

A contrary thought can make you depressed. 

Change your perception, Everything changes for you.

Pages 6 and 7 - in "What Does God Say to You"

It is amazing how perception regarding anything makes a difference in our world.

Sometimes life seem so unfair. Please know that I get it.

Great debt, foreclosure, a love lost, and divorce are some things that can set us in a tailspin 

of despair. But please listen to me!

These are things, that if you are faced with other things... can not be altered.

You would feel like the things above are a snap. For example....

My daughter-in-law died at 25 years old. A beautiful, lovely very young woman.

Diagnosed with cancer, had surgery to desperately attempt a life save, to no avail.

If she or my son (her husband)  heard news of a foreclosure, or found that they both lost 

their jobs at this time, their heart would not even care. Those things are fixable, manageable.

In that regard, NOTHING is as bad as we think. Actually, any dark, cloudy dismal

day is a lovely day to live and breath.  

What is it that could be going on in your world that is bad enough for you to think...

"Today is a bad day" ??

Think what God says. Re-read Psalms chapter 1: 1-3 and realize that it doesn't happen

by magic. It is a conscious effort, it isn't easy to see what is physical and decide to 

contradict it, with what God says.

What are you doing otherwise? Letting your hair grow?

Believe God's Word. Meditate on it. "This is the Day that the Lord has made! I

will rejoice and be glad in it" Psalm 118:24

God's Direction for Happy!

Below is what is written on the first page of my book,
"What Does God Say to You?"

It is taken from Psalms chapter 1 verses 1-3

Very happy am I, because I don’t go along with
anything that is not of God.
I want God’s direction, and so I think about and 
talk about His teaching day and night.
I am like a tree that is planted by a river of water,
that gives fruit at the right time,with healthy leaves,
and continues on growing and prospering.

Here is the literal from the King James Version.

Psalm chapter 1 verses 1-3

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of 
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in
the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate
day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by the 
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper.

Those 3 verses are the basis for the entire book. 
"What Does God Say to You?"

That WE CAN BE HAPPY, healthy and prosperous! 

God gives us a formula for that to manifest in our lives.

In a nutshell: We are to think what God thinks and to take 
counsel with those who are godly, who think what God thinks.  

We are to be careful regarding who we keep company with. 

I know in sports, you either play up or play down. If you 
want to be a better baseball player, you play on a team who’s 
players are just a little bit better than your abilities. If you do, 
you will play up, you will get better.

It is the same in life. If we hang out with people who complain, 
who see the glass as half empty, who can not change their minds 
to agree with what God says and expect the best, we will just be 
as they are. Complaining, negative, hopeless. 

We are not only 'what we eat', we are who we keep company with.

Now for the next direction in living.  

This passage talks about delighting in the law of the Lord. Which 
is saying that we are to delight in what God says.

NOTE: We must know what God says to delight in it. So, reading 
His Word (The Bible) is an important thing. And with the internet, 
there is now no excuse to not doing so. 

We can have the Word of God on our ears, listening to it, while 
we exercise, clean house, or drive in our cars.

Next it says we are to meditate on it, day and night. That simply 
means that it is priority to think about what it says, what we have 
read often, and all the time.

Scientifically we know that what we think about most often 
creates groves in our brains and becomes what we believe to
be true. So it is no wonder why God has instructed us to do this.

Now for the Promise! Why? Why should we do this? Why does 
God instruct us to do what I have described above?

"He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water"

A tree is strong and lives very long, it is difficult to mess with 
a tree, and not only that, but the tree we are promised to be, 
is planted by a river.

If there is a dry spell, that tree is taken care of. No worries for 
that baby!

"his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper."

Physically that tree is taken care of! It is healthy! 

And on top of that, whatsoever happens, that tree prospers!

So we are talking spiritually “happy”, physically healthy in body, 
and prosperous in finance.

There is a portion of this scripture that talks about TIME. He tells 
us that there are seasons.

"that bringeth forth his fruit IN HIS SEASON" 

So... there is a catch... notice this. 

There is fruit,  something manifests, by living the way He
has directed. By delighting in the law of the Lord, by not 
taking counsel and hanging out with the ungodly, by knowing 
what to think based on what God’s Word says, and by 
meditating on it. 

PROMISE???? 

Fruit grows! but here me please, it grows, IN HIS SEASON.

This requires patience, if you are an apple tree and have no
apples yet because it is not the season it does not make you 
any less an apple tree.

An apple tree is not only an apple tree when apples are 
growing on it.

You are all that God says you are whether it is your season 
or not. No matter how you feel or what things look like.

Sometimes we are out of season because we have been living 
contrary to the instruction in Psalm 1: 1-3 and we need time to 
cultivate and prune that tree of ours into shape.

Sometimes we simply haven't matured yet, and due season 
will come.

Sometimes we just have to chill, living as God would have us live. 
Knowing who we are in Him, confident in His word that what He 
promised he is also willing and able to perform.

I encourage you to find a verse of scripture and meditate on it. 

Think of something you tell yourself in the negative often. May be 
“No one will ever love me” or “I will never get out of this debt.” or, 
“Nothing ever goes right for me.” 

Find a scripture to contradict what you are telling yourself and say 
it over and over again to yourself with emotion.

You will begin the process of obeying God’s Word to manifest 
the more than abundant life he promises in John Chapter 10 verse 10

Nurture your heart every day with that word, and grow into the person 
God has called you to be. He promises strength, health, and prosperity.

Who wants more than that?

Much Love!
Kathy

Click on the link below to purchase "What Does God Say to You?"
on Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGUHZHY

Diligent Seeking & How the Book came to be...

I was living a life that I was not happy with. As a Christian who believes that

God is the creator of the heavens and earth and that he wants the best for me

I knew that if I didn’t have the best it was not due to His neglect.

I knew that there were principals in life that I was not applying that would grant me the success God promised in so many scriptures that I read daily. 

When I read the verse Hebrews 11:6 that says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seeks him I decided to become a diligent seeker.

I asked him what I should be doing, what business should I start, what direction I should go in, in regard to a money making venture. (See Proverbs 31 regarding what it means to be a virtuous woman)

He was leading me to write. I felt that clearly, but when I sat down to do it, it was very bad to put it mildly. I kept asking him. “Are you sure you want me to do this? I stink at it!”

I wasn’t getting any answer to that question so I kept trying. 

(Back to the diligent seeking story) I had five children at the time when I began on this quest. That was in 1997, my youngest was just 2 years old.  I knew that the only way to get the time in to study and seek was to wake up early enough to get the study time in before my regular routine as a homemaker, wife and mother 
began.

So at 5 am I woke up and studied Gods Word.  My children knew of my quest and they were respectful of 
my “Bible time,” even the baby.  If they happened to wake early or they saw me during the day with my 
Bible out they did not interrupt me.

One morning Emily (the 2 year old) got up just after I had cracked my concordance.  She climbed up on my lap and grabbed my cheeks with her two little hands.

I was about to reprove her and put her down off my lap. But quickly I put that idea off, and allowed her to continue.  She began kissing my face so sweetly and deliberately.

She used her hands to move my head up and down so she could kiss the area of my face she deemed to kiss. My nose, my forehead, my chin my cheeks, until my face was thoroughly touched with that little girls kisses. 



I just smiled and looked in her eyes every moment that it was available, given the direction my head was in at the time.

She than got herself very cozy, sat on my lap and rested her head on my chest. I began to speak to her. 

“What does God say to Emily? God says today is a good day! This is the day that the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it!  What else does God say to Emily? God says Don’t worry I ‘m always here for you! Be ye anxious for nothing, but with everything, with prayer, let your requests be made known unto God. What else Does God say to Emily? God says You are beautiful! How beautiful are the feet that brings good tidings of great joy!” ...And I went on like that. 

When I was done, I laid her back down in her bed and went back to my Bible, knowing I did not have much time that morning to study, I opened it up quickly and then I gasped for air and my head shot up from my reading position. “GOD YOU GAVE ME A BOOK!” I said out loud! 

I quickly wrote it down in my praise and prayer journal and knew that something had happened.  That was 16 years ago...

Now... how I got it illustrated, formatted and ready for print as well as why it sat in my dining room drawer for so many years is a subject for another blog  :)