Daily Deprogramming

Listen to the beautiful words of the old Hymn, “Day by Day”   “Day by day and with each passing moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here;  Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.  He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, Gives unto each day what He deems best. Lovingly, it’s part of pain or pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest.”   This is just the first verse. Isn’t it comforting?

The person who wrote the above hymn knew the Lord as her Heavenly Father.  She got her strength from Him  day by day and she trusted Him.  You can feel the love she has for Him in her writings. It is easy to te the reationship went both ways , and she had some personal  experience being  loved by Him.

Sad to say, Ardith Keef’s devotionals have none of the above  tenderness and treat people as if they are  cold steel robots with no heart or free will ,  who have to go in the way they are programmed.  Today she says, “He has designed you to have a relationship with Him. He has designed you to follow Him.  He has designed you to be in love with Him. He has designed you to believe Him.”  Think of a Star Trek episode with robots talking ,and repeat what I just quoted. Then you’ll get the picture.

Ardith Keef then tries to keep her poor robots from having any feelings. “if you deviate from any of these vectors, you will become myopic and fearful. You will need assurance of things that have already been resolved.”  Heaven forbid you actually feel anything or think with your own mind! 

 If there are people still suffering from pain  you have caused in the past, those abuses  are not resolved until you ask their forgiveness. Ardith says, “The issue is, are you able to believe Him?  Are you able to obey Him?  Are you able to worship Him? Are you able to Love Him? Are you able to share Him?”  In my opinion if one is not able to do these things , there is most  likely some kind of sin blocking the way.  Sometimes it is  an old unresolved issue that the Lord has brought to mind that must be resolved with the other person involved  before our normal relationship with Him  is reinstituted.

This is not to discount the necessity of daily, and moment by moment heartfelt  prayer .  But prayer leads to our recognizing our need to make things right when we sin.   If we do not follow the lead of the Holy Spirit to  repent and make things right with those we have wronged , we will be become “myopic and fearful” , and we are sinning against God as well.

So, prayer in itself produces nothing unless we listen to the still small voice within and follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit.   The Pharisees prayed regularly and diligently as do many who have no living relationship with the Lord.  They pray in the hopes of getting something from an unknown god. They pray sometimes just because they are afraid of the future; death, sorrow and sickness and it is better  to at least try to call out to someone, in hopes maybe someone is there.   Jesus said, “You worship a god you don’t know, but we worship a God we know.”  John 4:22

True prayer is a two way street.  It ’s a relationship between us and God (our Heavenly Father.)  We are not some robot  he has designed , but we are his  individual children, with hearts, minds and souls and He has given us free will to obey, believe Him, worship, Love and share Him with others.   He speaks to us through prayer , and if there is something we need to take care of, even from a long  while ago,  we will not have peace or rest  until we do it.  We can bury our heads in the sand for a long time,  or cover the sin over with good deeds , spiritual knowledge  or fantasy , but in the end there will be the same problem facing us , unresolved.  It will not go  magically away.  We have to face it head on!

Here are the last 2 stanzas of the hymn, Day by Day.  What comfort!  What Truth!  Someday in Heaven  we will meet the lady who wrote these true and comforting words .

 ”Every day the Lord Himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour;  All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me, He whose name is Counselor and Pow’r.  The protection of His child and treasure is a charge that on Himself He laid; “As thy days, thy strength shall be in  measure.”  This the pledge to me He made. ”Help me then in every tribulation so to trust Thy promises oh Lord, that I lose not faiths sweet consolation offered me within thy Holy Word. Help me Lord , when toil and trouble meeting; Ev’n to take as from a Father’s hand. One by one the days the moments fleeting, till I reach the Promised Land.” Lina Sandell Berg 1832-1903