October 25, 2010, "Ears as the Tongue, The Mind as The Stomach"
Triumphant Victorious Reminders
Inspired by the Holy Spirit
Written By: Teresa Criswell
"Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge."
~ Proverbs 23:12 ~
A beautiful Puerto Rican woman who works at the corner dry cleaners and whom I have been able to pray with.
This woman is overwhelmed by life and life's circumstances...on top of it all, she speaks of hopelessness only intensifying the hardships taking place in her life. Her son's father died from cancer a year ago. Just a few months ago her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Her son is overtaken by fear that his mom will soon be diagnosed; and in that fear, totaled her vehicle. She is now without a vehicle and borrows her oldest son's vehicle until she saves up enough to buy another vehicle.
The fear of loss, fear of 'what if', fear of "what will be?" She surrounds herself with negativity, negative thoughts, negative everything. She is surrounded by the natural and has secluded herself from the cheerleaders of life and in this realization, as I looked into the mirror, Compassion overwhelmed me as I was compelled to pray.
As I prayed for her, I received a visual or an analogy:
The ear is like the tongue and our mind is like our stomach.
Our mind will receive and digest whatever we feed it ~ our ears will crave whatever it is use to hearing.
What do my ears crave?
For what my ears hear, is what my mind will receive.
What my mind receives and digests will come out of my mouth which reveals my heart.
As the heart is revealed, is my heart of belief or unbelief towards my Awesome God?
We need to fill our minds with the Word. The Word is not a few collective letters making up a word that we call The Word...it is The Person...The Only Jesus Christ!
A great man of God, Roger Richter reminded us on Sunday with God's Glorious Triumphant Victory upon Whom we get to call upon and whom we receive our Salvation from and in Him we must work out our Salvation daily with fear and trembling! When Jesus said as recorded in John 14:6, "I Am The Way, The Truth and The Life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me"...it was a statement that made all of creation tremble with great reverential fear!
Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and The Life!
Jesus isn't showing us a path, or a bunch of facts or a way to live when He made this statement. He revealed that The Way, The Truth and The Life are Him!!!!! The Way, The Truth and The Life are A/The Person, Jesus Christ! So powerful!!!!! Hallelujah to the Great I Am! Hallelujah to the Resurrection and The Life! Hallelujah for He is Who He Says He is! He is Faith! He is God! He is Plan A and that plan will NEVER FAIL!!!!
Hi Teresa,
ReplyDeleteThat for sharing these words of insight. The question, "What do my ears crave?" -- Demands an answer.
What messages am I constantly hearing and replaying in my mind? Are they messages of strength, inspiration, encouragement, faith and hope or are they the message of defeat, failure, hopelessness, despair, discouragement, doubt, worry and fear?
"We need to fill our minds with the Word." This is so true!
Why?
Because, "Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and The Life!"
Praise God! May we walk in faith and victory.
Blessings and peace.
MTJ
Teresa - What a great message. It convicted me (in a good way) - to make myself more responsible about what I "eat" and what I "listen" to.
ReplyDelete"Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Thinks about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8)
Bread of Life, and Living Water - that's what I want my diet to be!!
GOD BLESS!
Great post, Teresa! I'm so sorry for all the trials this woman is facing. I'll pray for her. Blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteTeresa -
ReplyDeleteHow desperately this woman in your post needs Jesus. But just by turning to Jesus, doesn't remove one from the difficult circumstances of life.
The difference comes from arriving at a place in your life where 1)you know that God will never leave you or forsake you and 2)you recognize that, like Paul, contentment with godliness is great gain.
I'd like to say that I'm there, but I'm not. There is great difficulty in this life and it's worth noting like you said, "Our mind will receive and digest whatever we feed it ~ our ears will crave whatever it is use to hearing." As Christians, we need to take captive every thought. We are to fill our minds with stuff that are wholesome, just, godly, and of good report.
There are choices that despite our circumstances, we must decide what direction we will choose to follow. The choices are, like you said, "What do my ears crave? For what my ears hear, is what my mind will receive. What my mind receives and digests will come out of my mouth which reveals my heart. As the heart is revealed, is my heart of belief or unbelief towards my Awesome God?"
Great post and much to contemplate. Have a great week! God bless!