What Are You Reading? – Inhale & Exhale

well hey ladies and good morning and happy monday morning so i have a slight little confession to make normally i tend to record these during the week but it's actually sunday morning and i'm recording this and part of the reason for that is because um while i've had really good times with the lord i haven't had this overwhelming powerful thought or something that has been just really deep on my heart that I wanted to share with you or something really neat and inspiring but at the same time there was something that the Lord did remind me of because I was like Lord just give me a word give me something and it was almost as if it's like you've already been meditating on this for weeks at a time and so why not talk about that. So if you have your Bible with you i want you to turn to matthew 5 but i want to just take time today to encourage you to spend time in prayer and um not just prayer but to meditate on a particular scripture and i kind of got this word picture in my mind um this past wednesday we had an evening of prayer and within that um psalm 96 and beth fritz read psalm 96 but then pastor was talking about it and in giving praise the lord it says verse 7 ascribe to the lord all you families of nations ascribe to the lord glory and strength ascribe to the lord the glory do his name and that ascribe means give you know give him praise and it just made me think you know how often you know am i giving him praise am i pondering his majesty am i thinking of those things and so um that just just that meditation of ascribe, give, think about the Lord over and over again, it started to make me think, and I want you to kind of go with this thought with me here. It made me think of the ocean. If you know me, the ocean is probably my favorite place to be, mainly because there's just something about it that is so peaceful and there's something so constant and faithful about The waves are crashing over and over again, and even if nobody's there, the waves are still crashing, right? And so what I want you to do this morning is I'm going to read the Beatitudes from Matthew 5, and I want you to picture as I'm reading them, I want you to picture a wave cresting up and then crashing down, and it crests up and crashes down. and the reason i want you to think of that is because sometimes when we are so desperate we're so desperate for something you know when we're blessed are the poor in spirit we're just struggling and then there's this release for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and so i want you to just picture that in your mind as i read this and then i want you to take time to pray this morning and whatever it is um i know jacqueline talks about you know you breathe out anxiety breathe in jesus so whatever it is just say jesus over it speak jesus over it you can go listen that song or speak jesus but speak jesus over speak yeshua over your situation so um i'm gonna read these and i want you to feel the crest of it and then dropping down into the wave that takes kingdom ground the wave that moves forward there's movement that's happening here and the movement is all pointed back to the Lord so I'm going to read I almost said Psalm I'm going to read Matthew 5 verses 3 through 11 and I want you to just picture this in your mind and you can even after this I want you to picture whatever it is that you're walking through maybe it is you know it could be so many struggles or maybe you're in a really great place it could be that but it could even just be you know motherhood's difficult or you know widowhood is difficult or you know being a grandmother and your children live a long ways away is difficult or you know you're just in a season of grief or you're in a season of anxiety depression you know whatever it is i want you to see which one of these you feel that you are um embodying right now and to know that there is movement there is a promise that comes with it so and blessed by the way means seen by god so just keep that in mind so here we go so matthew 5 verses 3 through 11 and remember this is Jesus speaking he said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you so do you kind of get that feeling of inhale blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so just take your bibles today and um if you're able to just take time to pray over that i don't have an overwhelmingly deep insight this morning other than to just encourage you to just deeply look at scripture breathe it in and breathe it out and that's my encouragement for today that's what I've been reading and what I've been meditating on and so I hope that you have a wonderful wonderful Monday morning and the rest of your week and I hope that you also find a breath of fresh air if you're walking through something difficult so you have you have a great rest of your day and um yeah i'll see you guys hopefully next week bye

Originally published at warren.church.