Choices that Feed Our Spirit and the Faithfulness of God – Purity 1809
Purity 1809 11/08/2025 Purity 1809 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of the a pair of stacked park benches and a black iron fence in the foreground of the Hudson River as the sun blazes its glory through an gray and overcast sky comes to us from yours truly as I took a few moments to “come and see” what Greenwich NY’s Hudson Riverside Park had to offer.
Well, it’s Saturday and I am rejoicing this morning because even though I was mildly depressed during yesterday’s afternoon visit to Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, (which I went to before my brief visit to Hudson Riverside Park) by the obviously past peak autumn foliage and the signs of dwindling life of the year 2025, I was able to turn my frown upside down as I received a refreshed revelation of how to find the peace that the Lord has for us, regardless of the circumstances tat surround us.
Call it an early case of seasonal affective disorder, but yesterday as I went for a walk at Hudson Crossing Park, I was happy to be back on the grounds I love to stroll through ( the park has more than two miles of nature trails with panoramic Hudson River vistas and Champlain Canal overlooks, after all ) but I was also depressed about the grayness of the day and the way the autumn foliage was almost completely gone. Looking at the mostly stripped bare deciduous trees in the park, “Winter is coming” wasn’t some empty threat, it was a promise. If I was going to find my joy in the experience of God’s creation, I would have been sunk by the prospect of trying to appreciate the beauty of a dying season. However, even in the darkness of a mostly grey afternoon, the sun did peak its way through the clouds, as if to remind me that the sun, and the Lord, hadn’t left me. Even that little bit of sunlight was enough to brighten my spirits but that’s not the reason I am rejoicing this morning.
After I returned to my countryside home, I read through the last chapters od Trevor Hudson’s In Search of God’s Will, and I was given, or reminded of, the secret to finding the abundant life of purpose and joy that God wants us to experience. I highly recommend that you read Hudson’s book, slowly, to unpack all of what I am about to summarize briefly but I am rejoicing this morning because it has opened my eyes to the error of my ways lately and filled my heart with hope.
Through my recent experiences of “laxness” – as I have been carless or negligent in administering wise “self-care” to myself in terms of what I have allowed into my body (poor nutrition) and mind (binging secular entertainment) – and through Hudson’s teaching on spiritual consolation and desolation and illuminating the importance of aligning our decisions with God’s will for our lives, I have come to the simple yet stunning realization that my decisions – all my decisions – have a major impact on whether I am enjoying my life with God or am inundated with feelings of condemnation and worthlessness.
Hudson, sharing the truth that God is involved with every aspect of our lives and summarizing Ignatius’ theories of spiritual consolation and spiritual desolation, showed me that there are thoughts and activities that bring me closer into God’s will for my life and thoughts and activities that take me further and further away from God’s purpose and peace. After examining my feelings of condemnation, that I exorcised through receiving God’s forgiveness yesterday morning, in light of Hudson’s teaching, I realized that in the midst of my life and ministry (while enjoying my life and purpose in Christ, mind you) I had simultaneously been making poor decisions in my “down time” that were leading me away for the Lord’s will for my life in terms of my physical, mental, and emotional health.
While I was doing life giving spiritual work and ministry, I was choosing to “relax” by feeding on the world’s garbage and I was reaping the harvest of iniquity that I had sown – with weight gain, feelings of condemnation, and a mild form of hopelessness. I had believed the lie that my periodic (which had in fact become regular) poor choices didn’t matter. I had wrongly assumed that “my good” would outweigh the bad and that the poor choices wouldn’t have any lasting negative effects. But those poor decisions compounded and after I introduced them into my routine, they became habitual and even more difficult to stop. During my time off from work over the last couple of months binging food and secular entertainment became the norm rather than the exception, and my soul thankfully cried out for God’s forgiveness and help yesterday causing me to repent.
But I have to tell you the truth, the cravings to do the wrong things were still there yesterday after forgiving myself (receiving God’s forgiveness) and I honestly worried about my ability to make it even a day without sabotaging myself in some way. However, Hudson’s book opened my eyes to the fact that every decision we make matters and it led me to see that I just had to lean on the Lord to help me make the right choices from moment to moment for me to be restored to sanity and spiritual health. To borrow from Ignatius, I needed to do the things that would spiritually console me and avoid the things that would lead to desolation. I had been deceived into believing that the things I chose to eat, or watch didn’t matter when the truth is that the wrong types of food or entertainment can slowly lead us into spiritual desolation – right where the enemy wants us. So, I am rejoicing this morning because yesterday I was able to submit to God and to resist the devil by turning towards the things that would feed my spirit and turning away from the things that would drag me down. Even though I had been pretty faithless with these aspects of my life, God was faithful to help me when I listened to His voice.
Speaking of God’s faithfulness, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for this weekend talks about that topic so I am sharing it on the blog today to celebrate God’s loyal love for His children. David Jeremiah writes:
“LIVING A GREAT-FULL LIFE:
HOW GREAT IS HIS FAITHFULNESS
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. – 2 Timothy 2:13
Nelson Glueck was a twentieth-century rabbi, Hebrew scholar, college president, and renowned biblical archaeologist. Among his many books, he wrote an entire volume on the meaning of one Hebrew word: hesed. The last sentence in Hesed in the Bible says this: “The significance of hesed can be rendered by ‘loyalty,’ ‘mutual aid’ or ‘reciprocal love.’”1Many Hebrew scholars translate hesed as “loyal love.” An even shorter translation would be “faithfulness.”
If agape (unconditional love) is the most important theological word in the New Testament, then hesed(loyal love, faithfulness) is the defining theological term in the Old Testament. For example, the phrase “his steadfast love endures forever” occurs in all 26 verses of Psalm 136 in the English Standard Version. Hesed always stood for God’s faithfulness and loyalty to His chosen people Israel. Even if they sinned, God was faithful to keep His covenant of promise with them. The idea of faithfulness translates easily to the unconditional love of the New Testament: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful.”
Remember today that God’s faithfulness is never-ending. Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39). – David Jeremiah
All I have needed thy hand hath provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Thomas O. Chisholm
Amen. This is what makes the gospel not just the good news but the GREAT news for our lives! God’s loyal love, His faithfulness, is what truly saves us. Our salvation stands on His faithfulness and not our own.
If we are faithless, He is faithful!
If our salvation was based on our performance, we would have great cause for worry because, let’s face it, sometimes we are not so faithful. To be totally honest, sometimes our moods, attitudes, and actions look more faithless than faithful.
Amazingly God allows us to decide the course of our lives and we often don’t make the right decisions. Sometimes our choices move us away from God’s acceptable, good, and perfect will for our lives. Sometimes we just go the wrong way and if we were left to our own devices, we might never see the light and realize our mistakes.
But God is faithful. He doesn’t give up on us and patiently waits until we damage ourselves enough to finally ask Him for help, guidance, and strength.
Unlike man, who may quickly tire of our foolishness and abandon us, God remains faithful and welcomes us back with open arms and comes along side us to help us, even when we don’t deserve it.
So, if you’ve wandered off the path, call out to God and trust that He will be faithful to help you. God’s loyal love for us never runs out, but make sure that you are staying with Him with the way you live your life to continually experience it.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Persecution.
1 Peter 4:12–16 (NIV) Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
Today’s verses fall under the eighth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Persecution.
8. Those who suffer for the sake of Christ will be blessed and should count it an honor to do so.
Today’s Bible verses tell us that we will experience ordeals that will test our resolve to follow the Lord. They indicate that we will suffer for our faith. But Peter encourages us to consider things from the spiritual perspective of the God’s kingdom and to consider that any suffering that we go through on this earth is evidence for our connection to the Lord and that is to be praised.
Suffering for our own mistakes is understandable but when we suffer for following the Lord we should understand that what we are going through has little to do with us, even though it can feel highly personal. The world hates us because it first hated Jesus and when we suffer for our faith it means that the world sees Christ in us and they are afraid that others will see it too and it will cause them to surrender to the Lord.
So let your light shine and endure the darkness of persecution, because the glory of being connected to the life of Christ lasts forever and no amount of suffering that this world can dish out will compare to the goodness of God that you will receive when you follow Jesus.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 308
And when Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me …” – Acts 12:11
Herod Agrippa did everything he could to cater to the Jews so as to remain in power. He found a way to appease the Jews—to abuse Christians (v. 1). So, when he discovered how much killing James the brother of John the apostle had pleased the Jews, he determined to eliminate Peter also (vv. 2, 3). Do you sometimes just look at circumstances and fail to realize that God has His own agenda which, more often than not, does not correspond very closely to man’s? Looking at the circumstances, you would have said, “Well, Peter is as good as dead.” But he wasn’t. God had other plans. Don’t second guess the future. God’s answer to prayer made the difference. The church was praying for Peter; God freed him and delivered him from harm. When you think, “There’s no hope,” do you mean that the situation is too far gone for God to do anything about it? Don’t assume God will deliver you as you imagine he might (you do not know the future). But have faith that God, in answer to prayer, will answer that prayer and may do all sorts of unexpected things to change the circumstances and the people who face them![1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 316.
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