Letting go of gossip 8-26-04

All scripture is from the AMP version of the bible.

Today’s subject is gossip. One we have all been guilty of in our lives. There is a fine line between gossip and talking about things for edification and prayer. I thought I would put the definitions in and let the Holy Spirit convict you where it’s right.

Gossiping: a conversation that spreads personal information about other people

Gossiper: a person given to gossiping and divulging personal information about others

Gossip: a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others. Rumor or report of an intimate nature, chatty talk

To me it’s about spreading things others didn’t know for self gratification of being in the know, but not for the prayer or in the best interests of the one talked about. I found some scripture that deals with this, as always I believe scripture which is alive in Christ should be our definition in all things we seek the Lord about.

Leviticus 19:16You shall not go up and down as a dispenser of gossip and scandal among your people, nor shall you [secure yourself by false testimony or by silence and] endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord.

To me this says we shouldn’t go looking to tell someone something about another because others might view it as sensationalism. Like wow I didn’t know that type of talking. It also says if you know something where someone is endangered where the proper authority’s need to know or to pray for them then don’t be silent to their down fall or hurt.

Psalm 41:6 And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsehood and empty words, while his heart gathers mischievous gossip [against me]; when he goes away, he tells it abroad.

How many of us have had this happen to us, someone that appeared to be a friend but played false came to talk with us just for the express reason of going to others that either don’t care for or about us. They are telling these things for our down fall and spite. This kind of thing unfortunately goes far and wide a lot of times. Something if we do it, we should be praying and renewing our heart in the Lord against.

Psalm 69:26 For they pursue and persecute him whom You have smitten, and they gossip about those whom You have wounded, [adding] to their grief and pain.

This applies when you talk about someone you know to someone else. They look down on or persecute the one you are talking about making the person involved that you are angered at to have grief and pain that does not change or better the situation. It’s also referring to those that see the Lords judgment on another and feel this opens that person for ridicule. When in all reality that is holy from the Lord and He has a relationship with them, we do not and shouldn’t judge that in their life. The Lord is the final judge in all situations.

Proverbs 11:13 He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy and faithful in spirit keeps the matter hidden.

How many of us have told someone a secret for advice or guidance only to find it that it was so juicy to the one told to they had to spread it around? I guess when you think of saying something think about the ones who it will hurt. If you are a trustworthy and faithful friend in spirit you will keep the matter to yourself and pray for the Lords guidance in the situation.

Proverbs 18:8 The words of a whisperer or talebearer are as dainty morsels; they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

This reminds me of scripture that tells us to eat the word of God and chew it, meaning to think on it. We have all heard things that seem too sweet for words against someone we are angry with and have swallowed their problems and gave us gall or vinegar in our hearts in reality. They go down sweet in sin but come up bitter tasting when let out of our mouth.

Proverbs 20:19 He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore associate not with him who talks too freely.

To this person don’t mean to avoid or give a word from the Lord altogether with love but don’t be telling yours hearts secrets to this person. That is like tempting them into sin, something they have already jumped in with both feet and don’t need you pushing them in with yours also.

Proverbs 31:27 She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat.

This is good guidance from the Proverbs woman. If we are busy about our own business the Lord has for us, then gossip, discontent with our life and self pity because we are comparing ourselves with the Jones’s we don’t let eat our lunch.

2 Corinthians 12:20 For I am fearful that somehow or other I may come and find you not as I desire to find you, and that you may find me too not as you want to find me--that perhaps there may be factions (quarreling), jealousy, temper (wrath, intrigues, rivalry, divided loyalties), selfishness, whispering, gossip, arrogance (self-assertion), and disorder among you.

This to me says we don’t want to be found in the Lords service doing any of these behaviors. They are us at our worst and need to be taken to the Lord who does look at our hearts, I have need of it and feel more blessed taking these things to the Lord first.

1 Timothy 3:11
[Either their wives or the deaconesses, or both.] [The] women likewise must be worthy of respect and serious, not gossipers, but temperate and self-controlled, [thoroughly] trustworthy in all things.

In order to be worthy of respect we need to hold others in respect and deal with their problems as serious, prove ourselves trustworthy and take them to the Lord and see His will for them in the situation in their lives.

1 Timothy 5:13
Moreover, as they go about from house to house, they learn to be idlers, and not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not say and talking of things they should not mention.

This means when we go visit our friends to not do it to be telling everyone’s dirty laundry, but about things that either enrich our lives or are not dragging someone in the dirt to make ourselves feel better about ourselves.

2 Timothy 3 [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.

This talks of end days but tells me when we talk about others downfall, or poor habits we are without human affection and have become callous and inhuman to their problems and are only out to cause trouble. No good comes of this behavior.

I have learned a lot from the Lord in this, and pray it blessed you also.

love alicia

Lord we come before You asking that You cleanse this gossip out of us. We are all guilty of talking without a thought to others involved. Show us when its time to speak up for others benefit and when it’s best we keep our mouths shut and pray for them. We need to remember the grace You have so freely given us in our lives before we run our mouths laying judgment in their lives. Lord refresh our thoughts on this anew and show us clearly Your way and renew a right Spirit in us. In Christ Jesus name Amen.

If you enjoyed this and are not receiving the devotions please email me at:

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There are other devotions, email if you are interested in past devotionals.

Thank you,

alicia

Roles of a woman day 17 8-25-04

All scripture is from the AMP version of the bible.

Today is the final day of our roles. Tomorrow will be on gossip and next week I am in prayer over a couple of things. Today is our role as a mother and the spiritual side of this role as to how the Lord shows His love for all of us.

Job 1:21 And said, Naked (without possessions) came I [into this world] from my mother's womb, and naked (without possessions) shall I depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed (praised and magnified in worship) be the name of the Lord!

This is true and shows you how much possessions are really worth when looking at what you really get out of them. As the old saying goes you can’t take them with you.

Psalm 22:10 I was cast upon You from my very birth; from my mother's womb You have been my God.

We are God’s from birth from our mothers and its encouragement also that our children, no matter how much they act up or we mess up as mothers are also the Lord’s from birth.

Psalm 27:10 Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child].

For those of you that have had a hard life as children this is true. We are the Lord’s children as He is a father to the fatherless.

Psalm 71:6 Upon You have I leaned and relied from birth; You are He Who took me from my mother's womb and You have been my benefactor from that day. My praise is continually of You.

Let us praise the Lord for our children and us as the children of our mothers.

Psalm 139:¹⁴I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.¹⁵My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].¹⁶Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.

We are known before birth when we were created in our mother’s womb. Our children are known before we ourselves know them at birth. I find that a blessing!

Galatians 4:¹⁹My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,²⁰Would that I were with you now and could coax you vocally, for I am fearful and perplexed about you!

Christ will mold our children when we can’t reach them. All of us have times when they seem unreachable, just hold on to your socks and give them over to God the Father!

Scriptures for mother to represent the nation:

Genesis 17:16 And I will bless her and give you a son also by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.

I thought that was a fitting end to motherhood. Showing us that we can go back to the bible and it shows we all are sons and daughters of Eve. God is the creator of us all. Let the Lord bless you daughters in Christ now and forever more.

love

alicia

Lord, we thank You for showing us who You are and where we come from as women. We treasure in our hearts the lessons we have learned in this study of our roles to understand our relationship with You more. Let us renew our minds daily in scripture, let us pray without ceasing in the big and little things in our lives and let us know You more. In Jesus Christ name Amen!

If you enjoyed this and are not receiving the devotions please email me at:

livingwwaters@yahoo.com

If you are receiving this and don’t want to email me at:

livingwwaters@yahoo.com

There are other devotions, email if you are interested in past devotionals.

Thank you,

alicia

Roles of a woman day 16 8-24-04

All scripture is from the AMP version of the bible.

Today is dealing with our role as disciplinarian as a mother. Also, as a our child’s first disciple to bible story’s and love of the Lord by showing as well as enacting out our love of the Lord. Obvious place to start was Proverbs.

Instructions in scripture for discipline (from God so has to be better than Dr. Spock):

Proverbs 1:8 My son, hear the instruction of your father; reject not nor forsake the teaching of your mother.

Proverbs 6:20 My son, keep your father's [God-given] commandment and forsake not the law of [God] your mother [taught you].

Proverbs 10:1THE PROVERBS of Solomon: A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish and self-confident son is the grief of his mother.

Proverbs 15:20 A wise son makes a glad father, but a self-confident and foolish man despises his mother and puts her to shame.

Proverbs 23:22 Hearken to your father, who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

Proverbs 19:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left undisciplined brings his mother to shame.

Ephesians 6: ⁴Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to resentment], but rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord.

Which leads to how we should act in front of our children as they are mirrors of us, the good and the bad habits? Am I the only one that is saying ouch here?

Ezekial 16:44 Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you: As is the mother, so is her daughter.

One of my favorite scriptures is most appropriate to teach our children about the Lord. It is a part of my heritage I pass on down to my children. The best part as I look to clean my closet of my strongholds I have also. Strongholds are those things in our lives that are sin patterns that have become a part of us out of habit and need changing. Unless they are a stronghold in the Lord they are not a good thing. The more of a hold on us a sin pattern has the more strong the hold.

Deuteronomy 6: ¹NOW THIS is the instruction, the laws, and the precepts which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land to which you go to possess it, ²That you may [reverently] fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, and keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. ³Hear therefore, O Israel, and be watchful to do them, that it may be well with you and that you may increase exceedingly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁴Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord]. ⁵And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might. ⁶And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then] ⁷You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets (forehead bands) between your eyes. ⁹And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Don’t you just love this scripture? It blesses me considerably the joy of loving the Lord in this scripture.

love

alicia

Lord, bless us in our roles as mothers. We desire to discipline and disciple our children and ask You to show us the way. We try under our own steam to raise our children and need to ask You into the relationship of parent and child. You are the most perfect parent and we want to know Your way more. We are asking You in our parenting to bless our children to know You in Your will and way more. Let us talk about You in our sitting down and walking by the way and showing our children that You are the way. In Christ Jesus name, Amen

If you enjoyed this and are not receiving the devotions please email me at:

livingwwaters@yahoo.com

If you are receiving this and don’t want to email me at:

livingwwaters@yahoo.com

There are other devotions, email if you are interested in past devotionals.

Thank you,

alicia

Roles of a woman day 15 8-23-04

All scripture is from the AMP version of the bible.

The last role of a woman is that of mother. It’s amazing what the Lord has shown us in the past 3 weeks on our roles. I come away in awe of Him and changed. I pray you have also. Let’s start with the definition of a mother: female parent of a household. In a Hebrew household the mother occupied a higher position than women in many other nations. Her duties were primarily domestic, but she was held in high regard by her family and Hebrew society. In the bible nations and cities that represent a nation can be thought of as the mother role in that they nurture the society they live in.

Motherhood also means ancestry such as from Eve as the mother of all living.

Genesis 3: ²⁰The man called his wife's name Eve [life spring], because she was the mother of all the living.

Also the loving and nurturing nature of God is compared to the love and nurture a mother gives to a newborn child.

Isaiah 49:¹⁵[And the Lord answered] Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.¹⁶Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.

I find that amazing that God has us imprinted on the palm of each of His hands. Daddy’s (Abba {meaning Daddy} God) wallet of pictures of us, never forgetting us nor forsaking us.

New Christians are likened to babes in Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:⁷But we behaved gently when we were among you, like a devoted mother nursing and cherishing her own children.

This is the training of discipleship in the Lord for our children and others we foster in faith in Jesus Christ for growth. Bareness had a stigma in history all over the world. More than likely dealing with the scripture that says children are a blessing for the Jewish peoples. For those that are unable to have children, sometimes I believe the Lord gives them more children than they could have in the womb. I remember reading of a lady that had prayed for years (she lived in Africa) to bear children, but she and her husband were not blessed with any. In her 60’s much like Sarah in the bible it was apparent she would never bear any children, due to age and her husband had passed on. Only the Lord had a much bigger plan for her. Revolution broke out through her country and she started an orphanage for the children that were left without parents. This woman became mother to hundreds.

Psalm 113:9 He makes the barren woman to be a homemaker and a joyful mother of [spiritual] children. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

The bible refers to:

Conception:

Genesis 4: ¹AND ADAM knew Eve as his wife, and she became pregnant and bore Cain; and she said, I have gotten and gained a man with the help of the Lord.

Pregnancy:

2 Samuel 11:⁵And the woman became pregnant and sent and told David, I am with child.

Pain of childbirth: Genesis 3:¹⁶To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your grief and your suffering in pregnancy and the pangs of childbearing; with spasms of distress you will bring forth children. Yet your desire and craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

John 16:²¹A woman, when she gives birth to a child, has grief (anguish, agony) because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers her pain (trouble, anguish) because she is so glad that a man (a child, a human being) has been born into the world.

Now isn’t that amazing that we do, we forget how hard it was for the most part the pain in light of the joy of our children. Maybe that is how the Lord bears the pain of our sinful nature.

Nursing:

1 Samuel 1:²³Elkanah her husband said to her, Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the Lord establish His word. So Hannah remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.

Matthew 24:¹⁹And alas for the women who are pregnant and for those who have nursing babies in those days!

Mothers shared with fathers the responsibility for instructing and discipling children. Mothers have the same rights to obedience and respect as fathers.

Exodus 20:¹²Regard (treat with honor, due obedience, and courtesy) your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you.

Leviticus 19: ³Each of you shall give due respect to his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths holy. I the Lord am your God.

The virtues of motherhood the bible addresses:

Compassion:

Isaiah 49:¹⁵[And the Lord answered] Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Comfort of children:

Isaiah 66:¹³As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Sorrow for children:

Jeremiah 31:¹⁵Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. (Also found in Matthew 2:18)

Can’t bring up motherhood as a role with out recognizing Mary who was blessed with being the mother of Jesus Christ. I have found it interesting to think about the fact that Mary had to recognize her Son was the Son of God, and she also had to ask Jesus Christ into her heart! Now when you think about it, no wonder in scripture it says she pondered these things in her heart. She was a righteous woman with sin like the rest of us, raised our Savior and had to ask Him into her heart. I cant imaging what she went through with Jesus on the cross. This brings up the scripture that makes us all sisters in Christ.

Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place under these circumstances: When His mother Mary had been promised in marriage to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be pregnant [through the power] of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 12:⁴⁶Jesus was still speaking to the people when behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to Him. ⁴⁷Someone said to Him, Listen! Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.⁴⁸But He replied to the man who told Him, Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?⁴⁹And stretching out His hand toward [not only the twelve disciples but all] His adherents, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers.⁵⁰For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother!

Then when He was on the cross He took care of His mother. I find this great showing how children should have care for their parents as they age.

John 19:²⁵But by the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother's sister, Mary the [wife] of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.²⁶So Jesus, seeing His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, said to His mother, [Dear] woman, See, [here is] your son!²⁷Then He said to the disciple, See, [here is] your mother! And from that hour, the disciple took her into his own [keeping, own home].

Two more days left of the study on roles of a woman. I hope God blessed you richly in His word.

love

alicia

Lord, we want to be a godly mother and are looking to You and Your word to show us the way. Thank You for showing us all our roles as a woman in Christ. In Jesus name Amen.

If you enjoyed this and are not receiving the devotions please email me at:

livingwwaters@yahoo.com

If you are receiving this and don’t want to email me at:

livingwwaters@yahoo.com

There are other devotions, email if you are interested in past devotionals.

Thank you,

alicia