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You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my brimming cup runs over.

Psalm 23:5

God’s love is so abundant that he has ‘prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies’. Some versions of the bible called it a feast. So, picture this for a minute. You are on a battlefield; you are tired and weary. The King of Heaven comes and sits you at a table in the middle of the battlefield. Your enemies can do nothing but stand and watch. The word presence means a front or counterpart. God is preparing a table in opposition to the enemies or Daunters that want to destroy your life.

Now it says He prepares the table BEFORE me. So God isn’t bringing us to an already prepared table, He is doing it in front of us, on the battlefield, in real time, so not only can our enemies see how much our God loves us and how much He has deprived them of their power to harm us but He is doing it so we can see how tenderly and lovingly He cares for us. He wants us to see all the things He is doing to give us the strength, nutrition, and ability to keep fighting.

David’s head was anointed by Samuel to show that He was God’s anointed replacement as King of Israel. Anointing with oil was a sign of honor or consecration. The Priests in the temple had to be anointed. God will always show up in the middle of your battles with your Daunters and let them know in a very real way that you belong to God. I’ve had that happen a few times in moments where I was surrounded, and God just showed up in such an overwhelming way that my Daunters had to be quiet.

Now whatever God is preparing on this table is not just going to give you the strength to keep going on the battlefield but your ‘cup runs over’. This means that all the strength, blessing, encouragement, joy, love you will receive will be so abundant that it will be so much that it will flow out from you to the people in your life.

Sweet sister yes you may be walking through the valley of the shadow of death but Jesus is right there with you and His love for you is so abundant that these Daunter enemies will have to sit there and watch as God strengthens you and anoints you.

Lord God, I pray You open our eyes to see the table You are preparing for us in front of our Daunters. I pray You help us to take our place at that table in the midst of our battle and let you strength, refresh and anoint us. Let what You do in us be so abundant that the excess flows out and to those around us. In Jesus’ mighty name! Amen

Yes, though I walk through the deep, sunless valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil. For You are with me: Your Rod to protect & Your Staff to guide, they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4

Some of the hardest times in my life really can be described as deep, sunless valleys of the shadow of death. I don’t necessarily mean death as in the end of life but more death as in that finality, that complete end, that nothingness, that empty space. Depression is one of the hardest Daunters to deal with. Depression is often described as a shadow over your life. But a shadow is all depression is. It isn’t who we are and it isn’t who God is.

In this Psalm the author is ‘walking through’ not getting stuck in it, not setting up camp in the valley, not laying down in defeat, no they are walking through. We know that there is no guarantee of the perfect life and that we will find ourselves in these sunless valleys.

There’s an interesting war the Israelites had with the Syrians in 1 Kings 20. The Syrian King Ben-hadad had suffered a massive defeat after trying to attack the Israelites, it was true Daunters style attack and true Undaunted Victory. The Daunter King’s advisors decided that the victory only happened because it was a hilltop battle and then their theory about God. Their arrogant theory! Remember God is very serious about His glory and letting Daunters know Who is in control. So a man of God went to the Israel King and gave him this word from God.

Thus says the Lord: Because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills but He is not God of the valleys, therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hands, & you shall know & recognize by experience that I am the Lord.

1 Kings 20:28

You see the Syrians made a fatal flaw in their thinking that the lying deceivers Daunters have convinced so many women of God. That God isn’t the God of the valleys. They try to lie that God isn’t in the deep sunless valley. We place our ‘experience’ that God loves us on the hilltop and mountains but we don’t see that it is in the deep, sunless valley that we will know and recognize BY EXPERIENCE that Jesus is Lord and that He had deprived our Daunters of the power to harm us.

By all measure of military strategy, the Israelites should have been defeated. In verse 27 it says “The Israelites encamped before the enemy like two little flocks of lost kids, absolutely everything against them but Almighty God, but the Syrians filled the country.” Do you ever feel like that? A lost child with absolutely everything against you but God and the Daunters are filling every part of your life?

Listen to me, and I am saying this to myself today too, yes you may be a lost child with absolutely everything against you but He is with you! HIS ROD to protect you and HIS STAFF to guide you! We need to let that comfort us. This is only a valley and you are walking through it. Take hold of His hand and let Him guide you.

We have the most beautiful promise about the New Earth that is coming and what will happen to deep, sunless valleys.

And there shall be no more night; they have no need for lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will illuminate them & be their light, & they shall reign as kings forever & ever through the eternities of the eternities.

Revelation 22:5

Let that promise warm your heart today as you walk through this valley, that one day there will be no shadow of death to fear.

Lord God, I pray you fill our hearts with so much hope and promise in You that will help us walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Comfort us in these deep, sunless valleys with Your Rod and Your Staff. May we know and recognize through our experience in the valley that You are the Lord our God. In Jesus’ name! Amen!

He refreshes & restores my life, my self; He leads me in the paths of righteousness, uprightness & right standing with Him – not for my earning it, but for His name’s sake.

Psalm 23:3

There’s a lot of talk about self these days. We are a selfie world. So I guess I wonder how so many of us moms lose our sense of self and who we are in the throws of motherhood.

For the last few years, I’ve been part of the movement that Heidi St. John started Momstrong International. The mission is to get women back in the Word of God. I’m so thankful for the community that it is because I’ve formed some close relationships with women around the country that are desperately seeking God. It’s not about home education, careers, hobbies, demographic, it’s just about women encouraging each other to be all they can be in Christ.

It is refreshing in a world where they tell us to wash our face (which is good skin care is important), call themselves nasty women (I’m still trying to figure out how that is positive reinforcement for women), and the never-ending pressure to look, be, act perfect! We aren’t perfect. We won’t be perfect until we see Jesus face to face! So let’s just put perfection back in the box of that belongs to Eternity and not in a fallen world.

Lean on, trust in, & be confident in the Lord with all your heart & mind & do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

This is how God restores and refreshes our lives and our sense of self when we lean on him and not our own insight or understanding. Let me tell you the minute we start relying on our own insight, watch those Daunters get lined up!

I read an article this morning about how the biggest risk to women post-natal is Chronic Sleep Deprivation. Man, I can attest to that being the truth. After my youngest was born, I stopped looking at what my FitBit told me my sleep was the night before because it was alarming. Yet my own understanding and insight were that I needed to keep forging out and doing EVERYTHING. Queue the Daunters!

There was nothing refreshing or restoring about that whole period of my life. I completely lost sight of everything. It took a major hurricane to stop me in my tracks. We lost power for 8 days and during that time the noise from the Daunters stopped. I had no phone, internet or cell service. It was exactly what I needed.

I was on the Launch team for Heidi’s book Becoming Momstrong and I had got behind in my reading. The storm had shut life down temporarily so I could hear from God. In Chapter 11 she had posted 3 prayer points that I need to sit and really pray about.

1. Pray that God will show you what needs to come off your plate so you can say yes to the most important things (see Matthew 5:37)

2. Pray that God will help you to rest in Him (see Matthew 11:28-29)

3. Pray that God will enable you to model healthy rest for your children (see Hebrews 4:9)

Two words stuck out “God will'”! He refreshes and restores our lives!!! We just need to ask Him to show us how and then not let our own understanding get involved and then trust Him. That’s when we can walk in His righteousness and be in upright standing with Him. Remember it’s not about us it’s about His glory!!!

He loves you so much and He has such beautiful plans for your life. Let that refresh your heart today!

One last thought, “He leads me in the paths of right standing with Him”. Standing, not sitting, not curled up in a ball hiding, not fallen down, STANDING. You aren’t standing alone either you are standing WITH HIM. So don’t let those Daunters lie to you. Get up! Take your sword in your hand and go fight for the Kingdom of God! As Heidi always says “It’s time to get off the bench and into His word sweet mama!!!”

Lord God, please restore and refresh our lives. Remove the lies of the Daunters has caused self-focus and help us to see our true self, the self that is You! I pray that You help us to not lean on our own understanding but to trust our ways to You. Lead us in paths of righteousness and let us all walk in a manner that is upright in You for Your glory. In Jesus’ name! Amen!

If you would like to find out more about Heidi St. John’s ministry Momstrong International and join the amazing community on her website click here. Monday, May 6th, 2019 is the start of a new Bible study for the month of May called Deep Waters: Speak Well.

He makes me lie down in fresh, tender green pastures; He leads me beside the still & restful waters.

Psalm 23:2

Man I needed this scripture today!

“He MAKES” not He invites, not He asks, He MAKES!!! One of the definitions of ‘make’ is to alter something so that it forms or constitutes something else. I don’t know about you, but I need Him to alter my Daunters into fresh, tender green pastures. As for laying down, well I’m a mama so any opportunity to lay down is luxury (can I get an amen from all the toddler mamas out there!)

Last year we bought some land and are slowly turning it into a small farm. It’s been a process, one that God is speaking to me daily about. I often wonder what it must have been like for Adam in the Garden before the fall when he walked with God every day.

We had lots of pine trees on the land and we needed to remove them to make way for pasture and gardens. It was a messy process and left a large section of exposed dirt. As Spring approached we planted grass and clover seeds. The wonderful Spring rain has caused the seeds to produce this pretty fresh green. What is interesting is the marked difference in color between the establish grass and the new grass. The new grassland is a vibrant green. It is the same in our lives the new things God plants in our hearts provide a vibrancy that wasn’t there before.

“He leads me beside still and restful waters”. Do you ever get tired of the noise from the Daunters? I know sometimes my head is so full of noise that I’m like the meme says, a browser with a million tabs open and I can’t figure out where the music is coming from! Daunters create noise where there was peace.

For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful matters against those who are quiet in the land.

Psalm 35:20

Some of you may know what I’m talking about here. You are serving God in the place He has put you, you stay out of the drama and the nonsense, head to the plow. Then BAM, in comes the parade of Daunters with their accusations, lies, noise and ‘deceitful matters’. These are the one that in the NKJV in Matthew 5:44 are described as ‘those who spitefully use you and persecute you’. We all have consumers in our lives. We can all be consumers in other peoples lives too.

It is so hard to not let human emotion get involved. It’s so hard to stay laying down by still, restful waters when you feel spitefully used. When you see a Facebook post of an event you were excluded from, a person taking credit for your hard work, gossip about you gets back to you, the list is endless.

I wish I had an answer to how to not let it get to you. In Psalm 35 David is pleading with God to remove these people from his life. We have all been there. I don’t think God gets mad at us, I do think He wants us to be careful that our response to someone else’s sin doesn’t cause us to get in the flesh and end up in sin ourselves. Paul had a thorn in his side to stop him from getting caught in pride. Maybe sometimes we need a good old thorn to keep us close to the Shepherd.

So I guess the question today is will we let Jesus, our Shepherd, make us lay down by restful waters or will we get caught up in the craziness of the circus the Daunters have devised? He can change the form of that circus into fresh peaceful pastures of rest if we let Him!

Lord God, today I ask that You make us lay down in the fresh, tender green meadows You have before us. Help us to let go of the Daunter circus that has been deceitfully devised against us. Help us to take hold of Your hand so You can lead us by the still and restful waters, where we can be quiet and hear Your voice. In Jesus’ name! Amen!

Growing up I only ever heard the beautiful Psalm 23 at funerals. I think when specific scriptures are only read at specific events, we tend to not look at them in depth to do with our everyday lives.

As I have grown up Psalm 23 has become so important to me, especially over the last few years, as I have found myself on a battlefield with Daunters. So, for the rest of this week, we are going explore this beautiful Psalm because I think it speaks more about His Undaunted Love than it does death.

The Lord is my Shepherd. It’s interesting that David used this illustration. He was a shepherd, so he understood the position and the job. He knew sheep weren’t the smartest or the strongest and just how vulnerable they are. We really are sheep, so it is a good illustration.

I believe that Shepherds have a special place in God’s heart. He mentions them so much. It was shepherds in the field that the Angel of the Lord appeared to and announced the birth of Jesus to first. He calls our spiritual leaders shepherds, but He doesn’t always have good things to say about them, but that’s for another conversation.

Jesus even called Himself the Good Shepherd. “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd risks and lays down His own life for the sheep.” John 10:11. He truly has been the best shepherd for us by what He did on the Cross.

Matthew 18:12-13 He uses the illustration again, “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray and gets lost, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that is lost? And if it should be that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost.”

Do you really understand how important you are to Him? Do you really understand that He will come after you? Do you understand that as your Shepherd He will feed, guide and shield you? That means He will be your provider, meeting every need you have, back to the sparrows and if He loves them how much more does He love us? He will guide you!!! Oh, the traps, snares, and detours we could avoid because of Daunters if we would just let Jesus guide us. And He will shield you!!! So even if you do wander off like the one lost sheep, He’ll find you and protect you from the danger. He will deprive of the power to harm you.

We only lack when we get out of the Shepherd’s reach. Maybe some of the things that we feel we lack are lies from the Daunters. There is so much pressure on us as women today to be it all and have it all. But maybe we aren’t supposed to. We lack in spiritual health because we are so focused on this world and all the shiny objects in it. Daunters love to blind us with shiny objects, busy schedules, overloaded days and abundant stress.

I know I am having to do a massive stock take of my life and see what is from God and what is from Daunters. Luke 10:41-42 was an interesting encounter Martha had with Jesus. She was mad because her sister wasn’t helping her serve everyone and she was just sitting at Jesus’ feet leaving Martha to do all the work. Listen to Jesus’ reply “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; there is need of only one or but a few things. Mary has chosen the good portion, that which is to her advantage, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Daunters tell us we need to be and do many things but if you pause for a moment and let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart, you will hear what the good portion for your life is, what is to your advantage. Jobs, homes, careers, possession, vacations, clothes, schedules, activities, they aren’t always for our advantage and I know from personal experience they can be taken away from us in an instant. But that good portion, that time with Jesus, that sweet fellowship in a prayer closet or moments of sitting at His feet resting, what we gain from them can never be taken away from us. Those are the things that will give us the advantage over our Daunters and deprive them of their power to harm us.

Lord God, please help us to trust You as our Shepherd, help us to see that You are feeding, guiding and shielding us and that we do not really have a lack in our lives. Help us to choose the good portion and not let the lies of Daunters cause anxiety and worry about many things that we shouldn’t worry about. Help us to only do the things that are of advantage to us spiritually so that we can sit at Your feet and let Your love pour out over us. In Jesus’ mighty name! Amen

I hope you enjoyed the journey through Undaunted Worship in April. For the month of May, I want to explore Love, not our love for God but His love for us.

Recently during a sermon, my Pastor was talking about loving your neighbor as yourself. I don’t know about you but that’s one scripture and concept I struggle with. It wasn’t until recently I figured out why it was a struggle. He said, “Some of you aren’t loving your neighbor in a Christlike way because you aren’t loving yourself in a Christlike, you have no idea how to love yourself.” It hit me hard.

I started thinking about it a lot and then I started to ask God if I really understood His love either. I think the starting place to healing love for ourselves starts in understanding God’s love.

Undaunted Love is love that is still determined despite problems or no success. God’s love was never and is never dependent on anything in us. I hope like me this month you will let God reveal the depth of His love for you and then let His love deprive your daunters of the power to harm you and give you victory to walk with a cheerful, courageous, confident, certain UNDAUNTED heart!

Here is the scripture schedule for the month if you would like to follow along. Sign up to receive the emails of the blog.

Therefore know, without any doubt, & understand that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who is keeping His covenant & His steadfast loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him & keep His commandments.

Deuteronomy 7:9

In the Amplified Classic version, it says “know, recognize, and understand” and I really do think there are three levels to God’s love from our perspective.

Knowing God loves us is elementary. Most of us grew up singing Jesus Love Me as a child. You started singing it didn’t you! But do we know He loves us WITHOUT ANY DOUBT? It’s easy to know God’s love when everything is ok but what about when everything is not ok?

I remember when my youngest son was just a few weeks old and it was January time, even here in Florida it gets cold. The heater was blowing cold air so I went to check and the unit outside was completely frozen. I just stood there sobbing, yelling at God, do you not love me? Do you not care? I was already on the edge but now the basic comfort of heat was gone too. Those are the moments we need to know without doubting.

I love the story of Doubting Thomas. I always heard it as a child as a cautionary tale to not doubt God. Thomas was struggling with the whole situation and even though the disciples had told him they had seen a risen Jesus, he needed to see with his own eyes. Jesus comes back to them and his first words are “Peace to you”. PEACE! Then He goes straight to Thomas and all the conditions Thomas had listed to the disciples, Jesus tells him to do and then He says, “Do not be unbelieving, but stop doubting and believe”. Jesus gave Thomas what he needed to KNOW WITHOUT ANY DOUBT.

This lead to the moment when Thomas RECOGNIZES Jesus for who He was “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:29). At that moment as he touched His hands and His side I think Thomas would have had flashes of Calvary and what love did for him. All that Jesus had spoken of before His death had come to pass. He understood the depth of God’s love. He had watched the whole horrific event take place and saw the suffering but here now in front him He understood without any doubt that He was a saved man and loved by God.

In the NLT it says God “lavishes His unfailing love on those who love Him and obey His commandments.”  Lavish means to bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities on. So God’s love is not just unfailing but it’s lavish and extravagant. His kindness is loving too.

It will take us walking through some dark times and wrestling with Daunters to be able to know, recognize and understand God’s love. It’s only in those places that we can truly see what it means to be loved by God.

Is there something, like Thomas, that you need from God so that you can know Him without any doubt? Ask Him and just like He showed up in that room for Thomas He will show up and ask you to stop doubting and believe.