Patricia's Principles for Living

I’ve been praying the Lord ’s Prayer since I was a little bitty girl. Over sixty years later I still pray it from time to time. This week as I was meditating on the prayer I started to think about the phrase, “Deliver us from evil.” I examined my concept of being delivered from evil. I began to realize that deliverance doesn’t always look that way in the immediate circumstances. Sometimes it is in the hindsight and reflection that one sees the deliverance. I thought of the following Biblical examples where being delivered from evil came wrapped in various packages that on the outset didn’t look like deliverance. Sometimes delivering us from evil looks like being sold as a slave by your brothers who betrayed you - Joseph Sometimes delivering us from evil means a coat left in the hands of our false accuser- Joseph Sometimes delivering us from evil means being held in a jail cell when you are not guilty - Joseph Sometimes delivering us from evil looks like God coming in a dream telling ...

Have you ever been so lost in prayer or praise until people are looking at you calling you names? Or are you so wrapped up in what people think that you will not enter fully into prayer or praise. The pastor, actually Eli was the priest in the temple, called her a drunk and made a special visit to the place where she was praying. Hannah did not get offended and storm out. Hannah stayed at prayer and got her answer. She was a woman who would not be denied. She was on a mission. Hannah was a woman of great faith in God. She made a promise to God to give her son to God forever. I'm sure that she heard of the evil doings of Eli's own sons. Who on earth would have blamed her if she reneged on her promise based on that alone. Or who on earth would dare assail her character if she procrastinated saying I better keep him at home until he is a little older to make sure he's strong enough to face the kind of behavior that's going on around him. After all what kind of evil influen...

It’s worth noting that today almost no one is silent. Blue tooth in ears,ipods on blast and televisions going 24/7 leave no time for silent contemplation. Can anyone still hear the still small voice of God? Is God’s voice being drowned out with all of the constant noise known as entertainment? We do not serve a boisterous God. God moves silently almost imperceptibly. Look at the dawning of the day or the coming of the sunset. No great thunderclap announces their arrival. As you sit and look at these events one can hardly determine how it happens. Yet the night turns into day, and day turns into night. God moves mysteriously and silently. Even Job acknowledges this when he says that if God was to move right in front of our face we would not know it. Who can actually see God’s hand? Yet God’s hand is directing our lives. God is a silent God. Doesn’t Elijah tell us this? Elijah is sitting in the opening of the cave. He sees the fire, feels the earthquake, but God was not in those things...

Ask King David does the end justify the means? I believe that across the river of time he would shout emphatically, "NO!" Look at II Samuel 6. Here is the story of David's plan to bring back God's symbol,the Ark of the Covenant. David went with 30,000 men to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant from Gibeah. David had just come from a victory over the Philistines where God showed His mighty power. Maybe David was feeling too certain of himself. One thing I've seen over and over to watch is, after a great victory one must be prayerful and hide under the protection of God's wings. It seems to be the place where one is the most vulnerable to Satanic attacks or moral failings David had the Ark of the Covenant put on a new cart to transport it back to Jerusalem. Can anyone tell me why there was a place among God's people called Baale of Judah? I think they had gotten a little too close to the idol worship to have named an Israeli town Baale. A sign of callousness an...