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Looking Up

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 11, 2025 Respond
The last two months have brought some difficulties with people not following through on their promises. This failure on their part has put me into a  bind (actually several binds).
 In the midst of this I have sought to consistently offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, to trust God to work things out–and yet, on an emotional level, the dark shadows of worry were always lurking on the edges of my mind.
Then today the Lord brought a change of perspective. These “binds” are actually exciting opportunities to see God act into my life. These difficulties are actually invitations to join God in His great plans. They are the chance to live the truth that God’s power is made perfect in my weakness, it is the opportunity to let go and let God’s power carry me forward into the unknown, doing what is my part, not His!
This insight, this reminder and revelation rejuvenated my  joy. They nurtured my first love for God, and fanned  my flagging faith in the totally faithful One.
He is helping me to more deeply  live Psalm 50:23 where HE says, “he who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord!”
Picture: the path disappears, but God will reveal the next stage at the right time.
May be an image of road, tree and grass
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Dirt or Flowers?

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 10, 2025 Respond

It was a “bumpy” day with a lot of small projects not working out, couldn’t find the right tools, got parts that don’t fit, the pipes I “fixed” leaked, and it rained a lot! All reasons to be discontent, to complain, moan and groan. It seemed to be an appropriate time to talk about the terrible weather and the distressing events in the world (like the price of houses). So natural. Each of these negatives is like a rock and in complaining about them, we put them into a sack one at a time: by the end of the day we end up carrying a big burden.

But, in reality (spiritual reality), these little events (and they are little) are opportunities for good. Opportunities to trust God, to act in faith, offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and to honor God by doing so. What a difference that perspective brings. Each negative then becomes a step up in faith, in maturity, in usefulness for God. So at the end of the day, instead of being weighed down with a bag of rocks, we are rising above things, walking with Jesus and joining Him in His great plans.
The choice is ours, every minute!
“He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord!” Psalm 50:23
Picture: will we focus on the flowers or the dirt?
May be an image of scorpion grass and French lavender
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Blessed beyond measure

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 9, 2025 Respond

“Blessed is the man…”  Psalm 1:1

 

Praise be to you, O Lord God, for your desire is to bless people,

to bring goodness and grace into their lives,

to give them joy and satisfaction,

fulfillment and positive pleasure.

But this is not automatic, as the rest of Psalm 1 tells us. You give us the power to choose, power we can use to bring blessing or curses down on ourselves. It is like you give us a powerful machine which can lift gigantic blocks of stone: with the push of a button, the pull of a lever, we can move great weight and volume. We can use this power  to build up, or to destroy.

 

In the spiritual realm,

as we obey your principles,

as we submit to the clear directions of your Word,

as we obey the leading of your Spirit,

as we whole-heartedly embrace your commands,

then you move mountains to accomplish your will, you do great things in and through us, while bringing joy, grace, goodness, provision and safety to us and those around us.

 

As you said in John 15:10-11, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

In you, Lord Jesus, is all we need, we are complete and you have given us the privilege and power to access it all as we choose your way over that of the world, of our old nature and of the devil.

 

Help us to choose for you through each moment of today that you may be lifted up before humanity and the spiritual forces that surround us.

Picture: one of God’s blessings, the beauty of His creation.

May be an image of lake

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Wisdom when needed

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 8, 2025 Respond

Sometimes I am not sure what to do. The situation I faced this  morning had no clear connection to any biblical example or advice, but there are two conflicting possibilities. Which should I choose?

Well,  this was the time to utilize James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” I asked,  and shortly afterwards an event from far in the past came to mind, where I was faced with the same decision: should I just rest in the Lord and pray, or should I act into the situation. 
 
The past event occurred in the Middle Eastern country where we lived. A new team member came and as part of orientation, we helped him get a postbox at the post office. But several weeks went by and no mail. So we committed to praying about this, asking God to resolve this problem. Some weeks  more went by but still no mail. 
 
So I decided to go to the post office and ask, even though it was potentially inviting trouble. 
 
“Oh,” said the clerk, there was a sign on the box not to put any mail in it, so I’ve been sending everything back! I’ll take that sign off for you now.” Problem solved; God chose to answer it by my actions, not by prayer alone.
 
So today I implemented that, and took action, which brought the results I wanted. And  opened the way for further action, which will hopefully resolve the whole difficulty I am facing.
 
God is faithful: ask for wisdom and He gives it! The beauty of His love, like the flowers in this picture.
No photo description available.
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Delighting in God

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 6, 2025 Respond

Delighting in God

Praise be to you, Lord, for

your greatness and goodness,

your power and your patience,

your persistence and your passion,

your lavish love and your consistent correction.

You are our Rock,

you are our Salvation,

you are our high Tower of safety,

you are our Shield,

you are our Shepherd.

You are all that we need, for we were created to partner with you, to work with you.

 

Praise you for

your persistence

in pursuing us,

possessing us,

perfecting us for our future marriage with you,

the Lion and the Lamb,

our Lord and Leader,

our Liberator and Lover.

 

You have provided us with all we need to live for you;

you are so generous and gracious in your provision.

We praise you, the totally trustable God,

the fully followable King,

the completely compassionate Ruler,

and the wonderfully wise Leader.

Therefore, we can say without reservation, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Picture: Our God loves beauty and loves to share it with us.

May be an image of mountain-laurel

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Three ways to rejoice

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 5, 2025 Respond

Today seems to be the first day of summer here: clear, calm and 90+ degrees. People have already started to complain!

This, however, for a believer is the opportunity to practice three supernatural responses.
1. Think and live the verse, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
2. Offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving for being hot and sticky, thereby trusting God and embracing what He brings.
3. Use the second secret of happiness: compare down. Compare your situation with others who are much worse off. For instance, in the city of Sibi in Pakistan today the temperature is 116 degrees!! That’s 26 degrees hotter than here. So, we don’t have it so bad after all, a bit uncomfortable for some, but we have air conditioning in our homes, cars and stores. But I will guarantee  you that not one average person in Sibi has any air conditioning  anywhere. We have it good.
So, when you find yourself complaining, take these three steps, thanking God for it. And remember, you are not in the Ukraine, or Gaza, or Sudan, or 1000 other places with severe suffering and depravation going on. We have it good!
Memorize that verse and practice it:”This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Psalm 118:24
Picture: Rejoicing in the heat
May be an image of 1 person and grass
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This is the day

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 4, 2025 Respond

“This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

This verse is a comprehensive statement, including all kinds of days.

It points us to you, Lord, the Sovereign God in whose hands all days are made, whether they are in our eyes good or bad, restful or challenging.

You in your wisdom allow, create or send events which are going to be used in your great plan.

You allow people to carry out their schemes within certain boundaries, allowing evil people to do evil things, but only within certain limits.

You are able to use their evil to advance your plans and Kingdom (Rev. 9:20).

In the meantime, you continually pour out good on all your creatures, giving us air to breathe, food to eat, friends to share with, work to do, eyes to see, ears to hear, feet to walk, hands to use, skin to protect and feel—things we take for granted, but without them our lives would be very different!

In addition you give meaning, direction, provision and protection. You give grace and goodness in the midst of trials and challenges, problems as well as solutions. You use difficulties to chasten, punish, correct and restore.

Help us to remember this, to delight in you and your wonderful goodness, your beautiful creation, your power and plans for us, for history, for eternity!

May be an image of lake

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Maturity

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 3, 2025 Respond

In talking about drawing our significance and security from Jesus, we are really talking about moving into spiritual and emotional maturity.

Pete Scazzero, who is the founder of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, New York spent 26 years as pastor there. But, as
time went on, he found himself operating under a growing burden of stress. He was trying to earn his significance by achieving, and his security from what
people thought of him. He was living in the bondage of spiritual and emotional immaturity.
Fortunately God broke through and showed him he needed to stop striving and start appreciating what God has gıven him.
He found that drawing his significance and security from God brought a spiritual maturity that freed him from the fear of man, from the fear of failure, from the endless treadmill
of relying on himself rather than God. He moved into a healthy independence from people and  a deeper dependence on God.
Pastor  Pete has actually developed a course to lead others into the freedom he found. It is called “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.”
You mıght want to check ıt out. And you might want to move yourself towards emotional and spiritual maturity by focusing on what
Christ has done for you and in you.  Start by memorizing Ephesians 1:3-10 and bask in the truth of what Jesus has brought
into your life.
Picture: Jesus gives the humanly unimportant huge significance.
May be an image of 5 people
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Rising Above Out of Conflict

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 2, 2025 Respond

This evening a friend came to visit and told of a conflict he had  at work today.

He is employed in a large factory as a repair man and has a large number of complex machines to maintain. Today one machine was not producing properly, so my friend checked it and found it to be working properly. However,  the operator was not following proper procedures, causing a bad outcome.  A supervisor, however, disagreed saying that there was a malfunction and ordered my friend to fix it! The situation was explained again, but the supervisor refused to accept that, arrogantly saying he knew better and ordered him again to fix it!
Well, that was followed by 5 other mechanics coming over and checking the machine. Each one confirmed that the machine was fine, it was the operator who was the problem! But this didn’t make a dent with the supervisor, so my friend just walked away, but it did rankle him.
So what was going on? At the core this conflict was, of course, the lust for significance: the supervisor was new and young, inexperienced, but had a college education, while none of the mechanics did. He had to prove himself right and better, but in the process made himself ridiculous.Iin an earlier encounter my friend had said to him, “Of course you know more than I do, you’ve been here 2 years, while I’ve only been here 25!”
What about my friend? He, too, was struggling with significance: being treated like an idiot by someone who was is not pleasant. But as a believer, he was able to let go of this because he knew who he was in Christ. Let go of what you can’t change,  hold on to eternal truth and rise above. And as part of that rising above,  he will be praying for that supervisor.  A wonderful way to end a conflict, at least from one side!
Picture: let go, hold on and rise above.
May be an image of 1 person and child
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Wisdom and Resolution

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 1, 2025 Respond

Today an  example of a conflict defused with wisdom.

A potential conflict between my wife and me began with a discussion about how to hang up clothes in the closet.

Barb hangs them so the opening of the garment faces right; I have always hung them the opposite way.

One evening as Barb was putting freshly ironed shirts in the closet, she asked if I would start hanging my clothes the opposite way, the way she did.

I had had a day filled with details and pressures. I was not ready for a request that would add another duty to my already full plate,

and that demanded reversing a habit (and a harmless habit, at that!) which had seen 50 years of reinforcement.

“What difference does it make?” I asked.

“It makes a difference to me,” Barb replied. As I pushed her for a reason, she continued, “The shirts won’t hang into each other if you put them in like this!”  Well, that didn’t make any sense to me, so I began to let her know that.

“Fine,” Barb said quietly, “Do it as you want.”

That gentle reply cut through my resistance like a hot knife through fat, as the Lord brought to mind a prayer I’d offered earlier in the week: “Lord, help me to serve Barb with joy, to do things which will reduce her stress and help her to be more effective for you.” What Barb had asked for was very small, something that would make her life easier, and here I was resisting. How foolish!

I had actually given her two reasons to fight with me. First, I had cut into her security by refusing to listen to her; if I didn’t listen to this, what other situations would I fail respond to her requests? And I struck at her significance by implying that her request was foolish and unreasonable. But, in her  maturity and wisdom she  immediately defused the potential conflict by resting in the security and significance that God consistently gave her. Praise God for a wise, mature and spiritual wife!

Picture: wise, little Barbara

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