4.19.25

Good morning!

Thank you for all your prayers, phone calls, text, pictures, and encouragement on the way back to Michigan from the wonderful, warm and loving trip in Florida. The past 9 days have been amazing and the seven days celebration of the feast of unleavened bread was definitely unleavened..the only problem I have now, besides my normal many, is I can't get that 'shanty' tune out of my mind (hehe)!

Last night when I Had a few minutes to think, like 24 hours worth of thinking (lol), I was contemplating thoughts in my mind that were deep and significant, and would be life transforming when it came to truth regarding the counting of the omer. When I got back to the cottage, I stayed up to write and pray, knowing, however, that I needed beauty rest...and after a few hours of sleep, I woke up with a mindset that was more practical, probably much simpler and hopefully way more relevant.

In the seven weeks of Counting the omer, those seven periods of seven days, we are focused on evaluating parts of our life; specifically seven areas of our soul to get ourselves prepared for the cyclical download of God's Spirit into our lives at Pentecost.  Each of those 7 areas are to be examined with a Multifaceted approach. I’m not quite sure the direction I’m going to go with you this year, but this morning, I’m 100% convinced of what I’m supposed to share.

It's not hard to figure out that we live in a society that is driven by lust. As we’ve talked about in times past, lust and anger are two sides of the same coin. When I’m driven by lust, my anger towards God because He didn't give me what somebody else has, deep down what I’m really seeking is union with another person not with random strangers.

We live in a society that is gluttonous: the over consumption of food, alcohol, and substances of various kinds (including social media). What we are really craving in reality for the soul, is a desire to be nourished, but society wants you to over consume...we call those addictions.

There is a profound air of greed rampant in capitalist society where we are craving more and more material things. When this becomes our focus, it’s truly just a replacement inside of us for generosity. That’s what my soul really wants. It doesn’t want more stuff stockpiled in my closet, it's screaming out to me to experience giving.

Envy manifests itself with jealousy and wishing ill on other people. Ouch!  Whoever (speaking of me, myself and I) has hurt (and we all do) it's so easy for us to be envious. However, deep within what our hearts really want is we just want love. To love others. to have true genuine, reciprocating, love.

Wrath is the anger that we project onto other people. Instead of using our voices for justice, for what is right, for the passion within us, which is what we really want to express, we waste our energies. Too often, we don’t realize how we have substituted what’s society promotes into us as a their propagated norm, for our true desire

Slothfulness. Oh my, it is the over usage of sleep. But you might not get enough sleep. You might love to hustle and grind and you find yourself constantly going at mach speed. If Satan can’t grab you in sloth, then he will grab you in performance. Deep down inside what your soul is really craving is peace/shalom.

In the final thought for this morning, on this beautiful Sabbath morning, the seventh day of counting the omer, is pride. The overconfidence of the ego that you are constantly right. But deep down you have self-hatred. Yet, all you truly want is to genuinely love yourself.

When you identify which of these “seven soul areas' you are heavily committing, you are able to instead apply the opposite of what your soul is actually craving.

Shabbat shalom

We did not have our Sabbath morning Zoom call as is regularly scheduled, but we will zoom this afternoon at 2 PM Eastern standard time. “Don’t let the flame go out“ (Lev. 6:13)

Today is the seventh day of counting the Omer. Have an amazing day.

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