Dear Lord; Happy Tuesday Father!<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, I\u2019ve been contacted by a number of friends and readers who\u2019ve been going through some struggles in their Walk, and who were seeking perspective and encouragement.\u00a0 And while I\u2019m always happy to bring Your Message of Hope to the table Father, it did get me to thinking about ways that we can strengthen and temper our Faith in times of trial\u2026<\/p>\n
Stillness Sabbaticals<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n As we discussed a couple weeks ago Father, I\u2019ve found that one of my most effective methods for communing with You is to block off some time, find a very quiet spot, and simply focus on Your Presence.\u00a0 We live in an exceptionally \u201cnoisy\u201d<\/em> world, and with a seemingly constant deluge of activity and information surrounding us, Your Voice can sometimes be more difficult to distinguish in the chaos.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s to spend time with Scripture or simply to pray in silence for guidance, that respite from the auditory onslaught can become a powerful, spiritual time.\u00a0 \u201cBe still, and know that I am God\u201d (Psalm 46:10)<\/strong><\/p>\n Songs of Praise<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Music has a way of reaching into us and touching places that few other things in our lives can.\u00a0 One of the best tools I\u2019ve found for helping to keep my focus on You is listening to the positive and encouraging messages contained in Contemporary Christian Music.\u00a0 Be it listening in the car on my way to work, playing it in the background while making dinner, or streaming it from my iPod while mowing the lawn, today\u2019s talented Christian artists bring the Joy of Christ to my heart every time I listen.\u00a0 \u201cHe put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.\u00a0 Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.\u201d (Psalm 40:3)<\/strong><\/p>\n Scriptural Mortar<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Without question Father, the Bible is the most important book ever written.\u00a0 Through Your Divine Inspiration to those penmen, You\u2019ve Blessed us with the ultimate \u201cInstruction Manual\u201d<\/em> for our journey while here on Earth.\u00a0 It contains a treasure trove of wisdom, encouragement and rules to live our lives by so as to grow in Your Kingdom.\u00a0 One of the most powerful and compelling ways to nourish our Faith and bring our Walk closer to Christ, is to spend time absorbing Your Word and praying on It\u2019s messages.\u00a0 \u201cFor the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.\u201d (Hebrews 4:12)<\/strong><\/p>\n Fellowship<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n One of our best sources of encouragement, enlightenment and inspiration can be found in the interactions we have with our fellow Christians.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s spending time together in worship and study at Church, or conversing with other Believers across the globe via the Internet, the support and assistance of Your Followers are wonderful resources to help steady us in our spiritual journey.\u00a0 \u201cAnd let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,\u00a0not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another\u2014and all the more as you see the Day approaching.\u201d (Hebrews 10:24-25)<\/strong><\/p>\n Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your continued and faithful Presence in our lives each day.\u00a0 Please help focus our hearts to best receive You, and to support others in their Walk as well.\u00a0 Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, and strengthen our resolve to live for Your Kingdom instead of focusing on the chaos around us.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n ~Phather Phil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Lord; Happy Tuesday Father! In recent weeks, I\u2019ve been contacted by a number of friends and readers who\u2019ve been going through some struggles in their Walk, and who were seeking perspective and encouragement.\u00a0 And while I\u2019m always happy to bring Your Message of Hope to the table Father, it did get me to thinking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[202,724,326,359,168,256,1299,634,772,1044,722,219,701,657,915,282,1369,487,361,1371,173,6,1235,220,42,844,228,24,769,966,1332,21,916,1298,592,1370,109,222,1368,104,682,760,133,355,1364,824,65,1372,509,55,572,1373,217,253,1326,1358,1366,1301,70,66,1304,86,777,362,1363,114,1365,1265,1367,1319,142,379,1302,604],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-absorb","tag-actions","tag-attitude","tag-bible","tag-bless","tag-blessed","tag-book-of-hebrews","tag-chaos","tag-christian","tag-christian-artists","tag-christians","tag-church","tag-communing","tag-contemporary-christian-music","tag-dear-lord","tag-divine","tag-divine-inspiration","tag-earth","tag-encouragement","tag-encouraging-messages","tag-father","tag-fear","tag-fellow-christian","tag-fellowship","tag-focus","tag-follow","tag-friend","tag-friends","tag-giving","tag-god","tag-gods-voice","tag-guidance","tag-heavenly-father","tag-hebrews","tag-holy-spirit","tag-instruction-manual","tag-journey","tag-joy","tag-joy-of-christ","tag-light","tag-listen","tag-listening","tag-love","tag-message","tag-message-of-hope","tag-messages","tag-noisy","tag-noisy-world","tag-nourish","tag-perspective","tag-powerful","tag-praise-music","tag-pray","tag-psalm","tag-scriptural-mortar","tag-scripture","tag-songs-of-praise","tag-soul-and-spirit","tag-spiritual-journey","tag-stillness","tag-stillness-sabbatical","tag-strength","tag-struggle","tag-temper","tag-tempering-our-faith","tag-thank-you","tag-times-of-trial","tag-treasure","tag-treasure-trove","tag-trust","tag-wisdom","tag-wonderful","tag-word-of-god","tag-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-hz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1091,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}