Crossing the Line: Is God to Be Feared?

“You will never deny yourself if you don’t think Christ is worth it.”

Words hastily penned on a torn scrap of paper. I don’t know where I heard or saw them. I just knew I wanted to remember them, to move in the direction of believing in my heart Christ is worth it. To that end, I want to share another excerpt from my book, Holy His: Hope for a Life and a Nation Wholly His.

I believe the Lord is drawing a line in the sand right now, and we must choose whether we are entirely for Him or entirely against Him. With every natural disaster, personal disappointment, loss, frightening news report, financial threat to our security, and threat to our health, we must choose: will I believe, trust, and follow the Lord or not? We will either cross the line and determine to love Him and obey His word no matter the cost, or we won’t. There is no in between, and I am convinced that it is on the other side of the line that we become holy as He is holy. The journey across that line begins with the fear of the Lord and a love for Jesus that compels us to do what He says.

As a whole, the American church, and certainly America as a nation, has lost the fear of the Lord. A large majority of preachers have forsaken the fear of God for the fear of man and a message of love, joy, forgiveness, tolerance, and peace. Without the fear of the Lord, evil prevails, and that is what we are experiencing right now. Proverbs 6:27-28 warns, “Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared?” Messing with the wrath of God is playing with fire. If we continue in habitual sin, we will get burned. Regardless of how loud others shout a message of tolerance, as if sin is simply neutral, the word of God stands true: “He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded. The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death” (Prov. 13:13-14). We will either fear the Lord and His commandment, or we will despise Him and His word. Proverbs 14:2 tells us, “He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his ways despises Him.” There is no in between.

The answer, then, is to renew our fear of Him. Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 9:10 both tell us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is our greatest means for gaining the understanding we need to avoid sin and choose the way of life. If we look at the word fear in Hebrew, it is both a reverence or awe of the Lord and terror of Him. He alone must be the object of our worship, adoration, and amazement, and we must have a healthy fear of His wrath when we sin against Him. God is holy and just. He cannot tolerate sin, and Proverbs 16:6 clearly states it is “by fear of the Lord that one departs from evil” and preserves his soul (Prov. 16:17). When you fear the Lord, “your days will be multiplied and years of life will be added to you” (Prov. 9:10-11); you will have strong confidence, and your children will have a place of refuge (Prov. 14:26-27). Riches, honor, and life also come by way of humility and the fear of the Lord (Prov. 22:4).

So how do we fear the Lord? Proverbs 8:13 gives us the answer: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” When we fear the Lord, we will hate what He hates and depart from it. We will not tolerate it. We will not even let it be named among us.

In my walk with the Lord, He has peeled me like an onion. He deals with me in layers. Each time He peels away a layer of disobedience or a layer of lies I’ve believed or a layer of worldliness, there’s another layer ready to be peeled away. The same has been true of how He has revealed His truth to me. He has dealt with the “big, obvious stuff,” and then He has continued to give me a deeper understanding of His word, along with a greater responsibility to continue to purify my thoughts and actions. Gently, lovingly, and firmly, He has led me to a few key verses that have opened my eyes to understand in a new way what it means to be holy as He is holy. One of those verses is 2 Corinthians 7:1, which says, “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (NIV).[1]

I remember the moment the Holy Spirit revealed the heart of this scripture as it applies to my life. One of the things that stood out was the fact that we are told to purify ourselves. Previously, I thought only the Lord alone could purify me, but this verse makes it clear that I have a part in purifying myself through the choices I make. The word contaminate stood out and really convicted me. To contaminate is to defile, pollute, or stain something. We are not to allow anything into our thoughts, bodies, or spirits that would defile, pollute, stain, or make them filthy before the Lord. That is our part in cleansing or purifying ourselves.

Starting in my teens, I battled bulimia. In the beginning, and for a good eight years, I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually a prisoner in my own body. In college, I reached the point where I knew I was on an irreversible path of destruction. I realized the physical danger I was inflicting on myself, and I stopped physically engaging in the behavior of the disorder. But I remained entrapped in the spiritual and mental bondage of it. The Lord has been faithful to deliver me, slowly and tenderly peeling back the layers of this onion. In my mid-thirties, I lived in freedom like never before, but there were still times when I would fall back into the debilitating cycle of focusing solely on my body for my value and worth. In these times, I became obsessed in my thoughts with what I ate, how much I exercised, whether or not I felt or looked fat, etc. It affected every area of my life and my relationships because I was consumed with the things of this world as it related to my body and how I looked.

During this time, the Lord showed me through 2 Corinthians 7:1 that when there is anything I know to be a trigger, I cannot allow it to contaminate my body and spirit. If straying from habits that keep me close to the Lord, stress, other sin in my life, certain foods, certain circumstances, or certain activities cause me to stumble back into this battle, it is my responsibility to purify myself of those things. As the Holy Spirit reveals and convicts us of the things that contaminate us, we become holy as God is holy when we purify ourselves of those things – when we deliberately choose to no longer allow them in our lives – out of reverence for God. The word reverence in this verse refers to the fear of God. The original Greek meaning of this use of fear is terror or dread.

God is a holy God. He cannot tolerate sin. We will be motivated to perfect holiness in our lives when we are terrified of God’s holy wrath. If we don’t fear Him, what motive do we have?

Actually, there is another motive. Read more Thursday.

Lord, renew our fear of You! By the power of Your Holy Spirit, give us the ability to live our lives fully on the other side of the line. Teach us what it means in our personal lives to be holy as You are holy, and give us wisdom to purify ourselves daily as we become wholly Yours today.

Shauna Wallace

Holy His

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[1].      Blue Letter Bible. "Paul's Epistle - 2 Corinthians 7 - (NIV - New International Version)." Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. Accessed July 14, 2011, http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=2Cr&c=7&t=NIV.

Help for Holding Fast Our Hope to the End

Reaching a goal is easy at its inception. Enthusiasm fuels our momentum and paints a romantic picture of victory. Decisiveness produces determination, and we’re convinced we can do this thing (whatever this thing is)! We can practically reach out and touch it from right there on the starting line.

Then difficulty derails the dream. Our mental mood music screeches to a stop. The slow-motion prance through the Swiss meadow, hair floating behind like a Pantene commercial, ends with a face plant in an ant pile. Suddenly, our goal and all our good intentions seem a million miles away, and we wonder: Can I really do this? Do I really want this? Is it worth it? What was I thinking?

We look for things to comfort us in the here and now, ways to make ourselves feel better. Countermeasures of compromise. We give up and embark on a new journey of justification.

Does this sound familiar to anyone but me? Because of my frequent failures to stick goals out to their glorious end, I get a little restless and uncomfortable when I read scriptures like Hebrews 3:6, which says we are a part of the house of Christ “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end,” and verse fourteen, which talks about becoming “partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end” (emphasis mine).

What does it mean to hold my confidence steadfast to the end? What about in the book of Revelation chapters two and three when Jesus repeatedly refers to “he who overcomes” when describing eternal rewards? Will I be one who overcomes? Will I make it to the very end?

Mercifully, God offers us the chance to learn from someone else’s mistakes. When things got tough and didn’t go the way the Israelites wanted, time and again, they grumbled against God, longingly looking back at their slavery as a place of comfort, convenience, and familiarity. They witnessed repeated demonstrations of the mighty power, provision, and faithfulness of God only to stand at the precipice of His promises and reject Him.

“Beware,” Hebrews 3:12 admonishes. We are just like them! We must be on the lookout, eyes open and mind alert, vigilant to carefully weigh and examine the condition of our hearts for any sign of unbelief. “But,” as verse thirteen begins, we can’t depend on ourselves alone to effectively do the job or keep the faith to the end. Second only to the work of the Holy Spirit to convict and empower us to stay the course is the need for other believers to help us.

“Exhort one another daily,” verse thirteen continues. In the Greek, this means “call to one’s side, address, speak to, entreat, comfort, instruct, admonish, console or receive consolation or be comforted, encourage, strengthen; command” (Strong’s G3870 www.blueletterbible.org).

If we expect to hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, we NEED our brothers and sisters who have been adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ to come to our side when we call for help. How often? Every day that is called today!

When we struggle and waver, we need them to encourage and strengthen us. When we can’t see our shortcomings, our part in our own misery, or our own sin, we need trustworthy, God-fearing, truth-speaking Christian friends who will lovingly confront us. We need them to address what they see and warn us. When tragedy strikes or our faith fails us, we need others who will console and comfort us.

It is a matter of survival.

It’s the reason we are told in Hebrews 10:23-25, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

As the day of Christ’s return draws nearer, our fellowship needs to grow stronger. God set it up that way for our own well being. Otherwise, we risk getting caught up in the domino effect described in Hebrews 3:7-19, whereby sin deceives us, our hearts grow hard, we draw away from God and His fellowship because of unbelief, and we find ourselves deprived of God’s rest.

The devil would love to isolate you because he wants you to fail. He wants you to turn from your  faith just as you approach the finish line. He wants to keep you too busy, too indifferent, too insecure, too ashamed, too hurt by something a Christian did to hurt you, or too offended by hypocrites in the church.

Churches, like every place on this earth, are full of humans who sin and disappoint. The only one who will never disappoint is Jesus. Look to Him to be perfect, which frees you to live in fellowship with imperfect Christians, offering and receiving forgiveness when we fall short. That’s the difference.

Instead of expecting perfection, look for pursuit. Is the group of believers assembled in that place seeking the Lord, studying His word, and striving to obey, even though they mess up at times? Are the people gathering together, exhorting one another, and addressing sin in a loving manner? Is there evidence of the Lord at work in them in spite of their weaknesses? Signs of progress toward holiness? If yes, come alongside them, that all of us would be able to hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Lord, help us to trust You in our relationships with other Christians, shortcomings and all. Help us to focus on your faithfulness while exhorting and being exhorted, that together we might endure to the end. When we are tempted to give up and lose our faith, help us to push on together as we become more wholly Yours.

Shauna Wallace

Holy His

No Rest for a Hardened Heart

Everywhere I go, talk of the election and the church prevails. As the dust settles and the initial shock subsides, people are somber. Similar sentiments weigh heavy: heartbreak and mourning for America’s glory days and what appears to be the beginning of the end of the principles that made her great; anger and sadness for the millions of self-proclaimed evangelical Christians who simply chose not to make their voices heard November 6; and, a keen awareness that perhaps we got exactly what we’ve asked for in generations of compromising before a holy God.

My pastor happens to be teaching through Hebrews this semester, and Sunday’s passage was Hebrews 3:7-19. As the congregation stood while he read the passage in its entirety, its application for this exact time, not even a week after the election, could not have coincidental on God’s part. Its relevance for the church right now jumped from the pages of my Bible. Attempting to listen with one ear to what my pastor was teaching, I furiously scribbled what God was speaking directly to my heart.

Here’s what Hebrews 3:7-19 says:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'”

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?

So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Right now, in the aftermath of the election, will we hear God’s voice? This scripture is not talking about our ears actually detecting the audible voice of God. Most of us will never experience that. Hear in this instant refers to what we do with a message once it is received. It is the part of hearing that involves purposefully and eagerly seeking out knowledge and instruction from our Teacher, alertly paying attention with the intention of comprehending and heeding what is said. In the same way, voice is not referring to detectable words from God’s mouth, but instead implies God bringing something to light, making it evident. When His “voice” speaks, it is often through something striking us as true or evident or when He causes something to become clear in our minds.

The question or challenge, then, is this: As God sheds light on what He is doing through current political events and what He wants us to do now, as He causes things to appear to our minds and makes things clear to us, will we seek His “voice,” His teaching and instruction, with the intention of doing what He says?

The author of Hebrews then warns us: “Do not harden your hearts” (verse eight). Picture your child, or remember yourself as a kid. You’re being confronted for something you’ve done wrong, but you don’t want to hear it. You don’t want to admit it, and you don’t want to make it right. You are full of pride, and any attempts to draw you in are met with a stiff back. I know you can visualize the scene: the parent reaches out to hug their child and they might as well be hugging a two-by-four. Obstinate and stubborn, your will, thoughts, character, desires, and passions are for your self-interest alone. You have hardened your heart.

The question or challenge, then, is: What is the Lord revealing that you don’t want to change? Something you know needs to be addressed but you’re reasoning it away? Something you excuse every time the Holy Spirit tugs on your heart? I know exactly where my heart is hardened; the things I reason away so I don’t have to change. The ways I’m trading all God has for me for the temporary yet instant gratifications of this world. He is speaking. Will we hear?

Hardened hearts result from the “deceitfulness of sin” (verse thirteen), when inside or outside forces swindle and entice us to wander from God’s ways. We miss His target for us; our wrongs lead us away from righteousness, and we find ourselves withdrawn from God. Separated. Fellowship is destroyed, and as verse twelve cautions, we risk “an evil heart of unbelief.”

We have a weak faith or lack it altogether and fail to trust God. As in the rebellion, when the Israelites provoked and exasperated God, driving Him to a place of indignation, we risk grieving Him to the point of excluding ourselves from His rest.

Do you see it? His rest is available to us here on this earth as He leads us to a quiet place, causes us to cease from striving, and embraces us in His fellowship and peace. And it is also “the heavenly blessedness in which God dwells, and of which he has promised to make persevering believers in Christ partakers after the toils and trials of life on earth are ended” (Strong’s G2663, www.blueletterbible.org).

There is a snowball effect at work here. Deceitfulness of sin causes hardness of heart. We are drawn away from God and His fellowship because of an evil heart of unbelief. And because of our unbelief, we cannot enter God’s rest.

In God’s goodness and faithfulness, this same passage contains the solution for holding “the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end” (verse fourteen). I hope you will read part two next week.

In the meantime, I pray that the Lord will protect us from the deceitfulness of sin. If we are victims of deceit, by its nature, we won’t know it. As the Lord to expose the lies we believe, to forgive our unbelief, help us to overcome it, and keep us from hardening our hearts.

Lord, we are desperate for your rest as we become wholly Yours today.

Shauna Wallace

Post-Election Action: Ostrich or Outreach?

The day after. Early-morning emails confirmed late-night projections. Not only did Barack Obama win his re-election bid for the White House, same-sex marriage was legalized in two states by popular vote rather than by court action, and marijuana was legalized for all uses, including recreational, in Colorado and Washington state. Not a good news day.

I haven’t turned on the television or radio since Tuesday. (Honestly, I kind of like it!) I have no desire to immerse myself in post-election postulation as some celebrate promises of a rosy future guaranteed by government while others detail the devastation that is sure to come. One event, two diametrically opposite outlooks. Some welcome the pending change. Many cringe. Any attempt on my part to hyper-analyze the national, international, economic, military, and moral ramifications is sure to end with a prescription for anti-depressants. Worse yet, tranquilizers.

I’m not attempting to bury my head in the sand or deny the reality of the ramifications of the results of this election. Rather, I am overwhelmed by a sense of peace and joy that I serve the same God today, a few days after the election, as I did the day before the election. Or four years ago when this administration first took office. Or four years before that, when we elected our last Christian president.

Instead of depression and disgust, I find myself praising God.

He is the Lord. The one true God. This election doesn’t change who He is. He is good, and mighty, and sovereign. He is the only one who is all places, knows all things, and has all power. He IS the Alpha and Omega. President Obama didn’t sneak up from behind and surprise him with his re-election. He sets all things in order, controls all things, and accomplishes all things according to His will, even in government. Barack Obama is president because the Lord stationed him there. Unquestionably, “there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1).

So what now?

Four years is a long time to wait for another chance to change the leadership of our country. A lot has happened in that time, and now, as the president was overheard saying to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he has a lot more “flexibility” since he doesn’t face re-election. I don’t know about you, but I find myself in the same place as four years ago when President Obama won his first term.

The answer for this nation then and now is for God’s people to become holy as He is holy. It is for us to see our sin as God sees it and place our faith unwaveringly in His word, who He is, and His faithfulness to do what He says He’ll do. It is for us to obey without compromise because of His grace that saves us and keeps us turned toward Him and His ways.

As the Holy Spirit enables our obedience to what seem like impossible standards, God blesses and moves and shows Himself off in such a way that others will know He is God. Because of His love for us, we love Him, and that genuine, life-changing love spreads to those around us. All of a sudden, others have a chance to see a Real Savior and the government is no longer the only tangible solution to the world’s hurts and needs. As we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus and exist in irrevocable covenant with Him, and as our obedience positions us for God’s use, our prayers avail much.

This nation desperately needs God’s church to enter the battlefield armed and ready to fight for souls not morals. Salvation, not economic and national security. When we do, the other naturally follows as God does what He says He’ll do, giving us credibility as we do our part as citizens, bringing us full circle to putting our faith unwaveringly in Him and His word.

Holy His: Hope for Life and a Nation Wholly His (see image/link in above right sidebar) is a scripture-packed how-to for doing just that. I pray this doesn’t come across as shameless self-promotion, but I can’t help but wonder at the timing its release. When the publisher dragged its feet and my Bible study was released six weeks before the election instead of the six months I desired, I was immeasurably disappointed. In my mind and according to my plans, the purpose was to get a message to Christians for this election. Now I see it very well could be for such a time as now.

It’s a line-in-the-sand moment. Time to choose. Time to step completely over and choose faith. Either that, or stay in fear and unbelief, tossed about by every latest news report or dire prediction. Worse yet, remain straddled over the line.

And whatever we do, we cannot share a doomsday outlook as those without hope! No matter what, life is not doomsday for the child of God.

He promises to never leave or forsake us EVEN IF HE LEAVES AND FORSAKES A NATION THAT TURNS ITS BACK ON HIM. Historically, He has shown Himself ever faithful, singling out His people, singling out a remnant, even as judgment and destruction descend on the unrighteous all around. And there’s the key. Righteous or unrighteous. Holy or unholy.

It is even more obvious now.

We must live the message of the gospel. It is the only message of hope for individuals, families, and our nation. In order to be holy His, we must be wholly His, obeying  the word of God out of love for Jesus Christ. When we do, the evidence of His mighty hand upon us will give our words credibility and our lives will become a powerful platform for preaching a believable message of salvation.

It’s a narrow road, but it leads to life!

May we find it today.

Shauna Wallace

Holy HIs

The Discipline of the Pause

I’m on a quest to lose what seems like an eternal five pounds. Actually, it’s more like eight. Five just sounds better. It’s a good round number. I’m not terribly serious about it, or else I would have done something radical by now. I’ve already bought roomier clothes, temporarily, of course, so I could be comfortable while dropping the extra weight. Now that I’m comfortable, what’s the rush? Some days I’m not bothered by them at all; others, they cling like unwanted leeches, creating just enough snugness in just the wrong places that I want to scream! I am determined, however, to lose them without doing anything extreme, like giving up chocolate or bread or exercising like a maniac for an hour or more every day. I just don’t have the discipline to maintain such difficult standards. I’ll find success for a time, the pounds will eventually fall away, and I’ll celebrate with chocolate, bread, and a few days of much deserved respite from rigorous physical activity. And I’ll end up right where I am right now.

Consequently, I’m resolute to take reasonable measures. That mentality in and of itself has to be a work of the Lord in me. I don’t ever do anything reasonable. I’m way too all or nothing for that! So instead of imposing a diet of deprivation upon myself and running until my joints scream with agony, I have decided to work out with weights, because muscle burns fat (so says Chalene of ChaLEAN Extreme, anyways), and think a little harder about my food choices throughout the day. Some days, I think hard about chocolate. Others, I truly consider the nutritional value of my choices. The weight is not falling off. Slowly, though, I think I’m getting a little more lean. The beautiful thing is I’m okay with it either way. The evidence of God’s deliverance is in the absence of the obsessive-compulsive desperation that used to drive me. It feels good. Unfortunately, all this balanced thinking vanishes with hunger!

The other night, about 10:30 p.m., my hollow stomach drove me to the pantry. My body clock was off from a long weekend getaway to Arizona, and dinner was long digested. Standing in the kitchen, cereal box in one hand, bowl in the other, I paused. “People who lose weight are willing to go to bed hungry,” whispered the voice of conscience.  So simple, yet so profound.

I shared this epiphany with my pastor’s wife as we ran together a few days later, and as I confessed a different area of indulgence I really don’t want to admit because I’m not sure I want to change, it occurred to me in my self psychoanalysis that the forces behind both are the same:  I want what I want when I want it without restriction or consequence so that I can be happy. Not surprisingly (even though it seemed quite remarkable in the moment), the answer to overcoming both is the same: the discipline of the pause.

When I stopped before thoughtlessly consuming that bowl of cereal, it gave me just enough time to think about the consequence of my choices. Whether or not I have a late-night snack may not have spiritual implications, but in how many other areas of my life would the discipline of the pause make all the difference in the world? Stopping long enough in my hectic life to truly consider what I’m doing, why, what God wants, and what course of action is pleasing to Him. Honestly, I don’t think He cares if I eat a bowl of cereal before going to bed. But if doing so sets me on a course of self-loathing that interferes with my intimacy with Him, then all of a sudden the spiritual implications are significant. For me, mindless living results in all manner of self-indulgence, which is essentially selfishness, which is at the root of most sin. To pause is to take enough time to make a right choice. It interrupts the momentum of the flesh and cracks the door for the power of the Holy Spirit.

The discipline of the pause has endless implications. What if I paused before every response to my kids? what if I paused every time James asked me for help? What if I paused before every online purchase I made? What if I paused before every commitment I made, including the ones that result from my own ideas? What if I paused before every television show I watched, every phone call I made, every mindless time waster in which I engaged?

“Consider your ways! ‘You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Consider your ways!’” (Haggai 1:5-7). My selfish pursuits will never be enough, just like the Jews to whom Haggai is speaking! Without the pause, I am a hamster spinning my wheels.

In my cereal moment, I’d love to say I was super spiritual. I wasn’t. I simply stopped long enough to make a choice to be hungry and perhaps a step closer to my goal. I missed it. The pause is an opportunity to consider my ways. To pray. “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise” (Proverbs 12:15). In that suspended moment, we can heed the Lord’s counsel. We can be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). Be still and know what it is this God wants of me. Be still and harness the power of the Holy Spirit within to follow His will in that moment. Be still, that God may be glorified.

Will you join me in learning the discipline of the pause? Life is hectic. I think the devil likes it that way. When we’re mindlessly rushing from one commitment to another, one deadline to the next, we often don’t take time to consider the people we could be loving along the way. The lives we could be touching. The gospel we could be sharing. Whirlwind living is great for Satan.

Lord, please work in us to pause. To be still and consider You. To consider our ways. To receive the power we need to know what You want and how You would have us handle people, circumstances, commitments, conversations, and time. Accomplish Your work in us that you may be exalted among the nations as we become more wholly Yours.

Shauna Wallace

Holy His