The Abundant Life Center

by Dona Hake

Matthew 6:19-21  (Darby)

“Don’t pile up treasures on earth, where moth and rust can spoil them and thieves can break in and steal. But keep your treasure in Heaven where there is neither moth nor rust to spoil it and nobody can break in and steal. For wherever your treasure is, you may be certain that your heart will be there too!”

There are so many things in this life that can serve to distract us from what is really the most important things in life.    Many may feel that if they only had more money or if they were more beautiful that everything would be better.  You could be the richest and most beautiful person in the world yet  have an empty and lonely heart.  The things in this world cannot compare to those things  that proceed from the windows of Heaven.  We need to remind ourselves to be in great gratitude and thanks to our Lord for how He has touched in our lives.

When we start to accumulate the beautiful treasures that only Heaven can birth in our hearts, we will know and understand that they cannot be taken from us.  His Word should be our greatest treasure and we need to guard it with all diligence.

Proverbs 4:23 (Amplified)

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

Today I encourage you to look up!  Look up and remind yourself of all the wonderful things that He has touched your heart with.  There are blessings all around you and He desires that you embrace a heart of thankfulness and that you would never take any good thing for granted.  It is God that is the giver of all good things and today we can praise Him for that!

~~~~~     ♥    ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

Proverbs 19:21  (AMP)

“Many plans are in a man’s mind,

but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand.”

We can all have our plans that are for a specific day and then there are the plans and dreams that live in our hearts about our life in general.    The questions I think are good for us to ponder throughout our days and lives:

What would the Lord have me to do today to bless Him?

Are my plans fittings His purposes that He has for me?

A purpose is the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.  I think it is the most wonderful feeling that you just know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are flowing in the perfect will of God.  I absolutely hate when I feel like I do not know if I am supposed to be doing something or not.  As I have shared before there may be times you may even be  doing a good thing yet it may not be the Lord’s will that you are  doing it.  All these types of good works can merely rob you of your time and energy.  We should always desire that our days be fully productive for Him and those around us.

As you begin your day I encourage you to seek Him and know that your heart is toward Him and your ears are as well.  He desires to speak to your heart while you are at work, home or whatever you may be doing.    Maintain a readiness of heart at all times to be used by Him.

I chuckled to myself the other day.  I was in a store and a mother was struggling trying to carry something and she looked at her child and said, “Don’t just stand there, make yourself useful!”  (I can remember my mother speaking those words to me.)  How true this is for us.  As we stay aware of how He desires to use us we will not just stand empty handed, we will allow Him to make us useful!

~~~~~     ♥     ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

Love conquers all and God’s love covers all things. God desires that His conquering love flow through us yet there are times His love is not able to flow freely.  If we do not desire to look beyond our own little world how is He able to love through you to a lost and dying world?  There is a cost to loving like Jesus and it is a matter letting go of that which is holding you back.  In the book of Luke he wrote “If you love only someone who loves you, will God praise you for that? Even sinners love people who love them.”

“Love,

to be real,

must cost –

it must hurt –

it must empty us of self.”

Mother Teresa

God is calling us to the high places of love.  A wonderful place to meditate is 1 Corinthians 13 because this simply spells out what God’s love is and what it is not.

Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious,

doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about.

There’s no arrogance in love;  

it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—

it’s not self-absorbed.

Love isn’t easily upset.

Love doesn’t tally wrongs  or celebrate injustice;

but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight!  

Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along;

it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what.

Love will never become obsolete.

Let us desire today that God’s true and real love flows through us in every way possible.  Lord help us to desire to pay the cost even when it hurts.  Cause us to see that which hinders us from loving like You and empty us of those things!  We are believing that you are well able to do above and beyond all we dare ask or think regarding Your love operating through us!

~~~~~     ♥     ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

“Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light”

(A portion of lyrics from “Be Thou My Vision”)

Just a few verses from the beautiful hymn “Be Thou My Vision.”  I believe the more we purpose to keep our eyes steadfast on Him, the more we will see clearly and see as He sees.  As we take hold of His commands we can begin to walk with more courage and confidence.  Many times if things seem foggy and unclear to us we can fear making one step in front of the other.  Yet the more we have clear understanding we know by His Word that He will broaden our path and we can run the race with joy and purpose in our hearts!

Psalm 119:32 (CEB)

” I run the same path as your commandments
because you give my heart insight.”

Today my prayer for you is from Ephesians 1:18…

Ephesians 1:18 (CEV)

“My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that you will understand the hope that was given to you when God chose you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all of God’s people.”

~~~~~     ♥     ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

Psalm 1 :2-3  (TLB)

“…but they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely.

 They are like trees along a riverbank bearing luscious fruit each season without fail. Their leaves shall never wither, and all they do shall prosper.”

There is great reward for being diligent in embracing the Word of God.  As you daily follow Him and purpose to put His teachings first and foremost in your life, He has promised that your life would be prospered.  As we stand as trees along God’s riverbank we will begin to see things grow and develop within us.  Let us always be mindful that our fruit is not for us alone to survive in this life but rather to be a blessing to those around us.  Let us purpose to be used by Him and to be willing to bless those He puts in our path as we live and abide in Him.  As we proclaim His Word many will be blessed and nourished from the  fruit that our lives bear.

I’m feeling blessed today knowing that I am standing strong in His promises.  I love that He has promised that my life would bear fruit all the seasons of my life and all that I put my hand to shall prosper!

~~~~~     ♥     ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

As a very young believer I can remember having conversations with my Daddy about his spiritual condition.  He did not know the Lord and his first and biggest reason was he felt he did too much wrong in his past and God would never accept him.  Over and over I would try to tell him that God is forgiving and He was able to wash his past clean and give him a fresh start.

You see my Daddy was  a perfectionist.  Everything had to be exact and perfect.  He was a very  intelligent man yet the perfectionist thing became his snare.  The Lord had showed me many times that because of this snare, his conversion would be a death bed experience and so it was.  Sitting beside him in his final hours of life he laid motionless and very unresponsive.  I was growing weary and hopelessness was beginning to try to grip my heart.   I thought how can I communicate with him now since he is almost in a non responsive state of mind and his body was not moving.  Quietly I whispered in his ear, “This is it Daddy, you have very little time…you are going to die…if you want me to pray with you…do something…flutter your eyes…just give me some way of knowing you want me to pray”    Many moments passed and then I was stunned as I saw him slowly moving his hand toward me to embrace mine.  It was his way of communicating that he wanted me to pray.

I will never forget how precious he was as I looked into his eyes and I asked him if he knew Christ.  I held a picture of Jesus in front of his face and said, “Do you know Him now?”  My father nodded and indeed my heart was full of joy to know that when he took his final breath that he went to be with Jesus.   Did he leave a perfect life behind?  Absolutely not.  Did he leave forgiven?  Oh yes he did!!! His thoughts of thinking his life had to be perfect robbed him of his life on earth.  I encourage you today to know that God is not looking for you to be perfect.  He is looking for the heart that knows that it has need of Him and His forgiveness!

Psalm 103:12 (CEB) 
As far as east is from west—
that’s how far God has removed our sin from us.

~~~~~    ♥     ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

As I was driving the other day I heard a young man testify of a victory in his life.  He was making emphasis on the power of keeping his  heart and eyes set on what was before him.  He also was declaring the importance of understanding how our past can affect us if we do not deal with it properly.  He spoke these words and I spoke the words over and over in my mind till I could jot them down on paper…”The past is not really the past if it is impacting your present.”

I thought this was a powerful thought to ponder.  Of course we understand that what happened twenty years ago or even yesterday is over and done with.  What we need to understand though is  if we dwell on any negatives in the past  and allow it to hinder us it will influence and affect our life in a very negative way.  Memories can serve to torment us IF we allow them to do so.

Paul wrote in the Corinthians and he exclaimed that those in Christ are more than conquerors but in Philippians he brought to us that in the “race” in this life we need to stay focused, strong, and purposed to continue in momentum, and he still did not consider himself a winner.

Philippians 3:13 God’s Word Translation

“Brothers and sisters, I can’t consider myself a winner yet.

This is what I do:

I don’t look back,

I lengthen my stride,

and I run straight toward the goal

to win the prize that God’s heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus.

Whoever has a mature faith should think this way. And if you think differently, God will show you how to think. However, we should be guided by what we have learned so far.”

Paul was proclaiming that until he crosses the finish line he needed to run with the good mental and spiritual habits of a conqueror.  The heart of a conqueror does not look back.  He spoke of lengthening his stride or running a steady pace or course.  We must continually keep in front of us all of our goals both spiritual and personal and run toward them with all of our hearts and strength that comes only from God!

~~~~~     ♥     ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

I find it so vital in knowing that I am being completely honest with God about every area of my life.  In order to do this I must ALWAYS be honest with myself.    When one fails to be honest with themselves they enter into one of the most dangerous things ever and that is self deception.  The Devil has a hay day with this one!  If he can get you to think you are just fine when you really are not…his work is done.  He has convinced you that there is no need for you to humble yourself and get help and guidance from the Lord .

“Self” has a voice that will try to distract us at times and we need to know when this is happening.  The Psalmist prayed in Psalm 119…

Psalm 119:36-40   (NIV)

“Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.
 Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
preserve my life according to your word.”

This is a beautiful prayer that will keep you on track.  As you sincerely ask Him to keep your heart turned in His direction you will quickly recognize when fleshly desires are trying to get you off the right path.  He will faithfully  reveal to you the things in this life that are of no worth so you can look away from them before they grip your heart.  It is as we look to Him in this way that our life will be preserved blameless before Him.   Praise the living God today and purpose to keep the eyes of your heart toward Him!

~~~~~     ♥     ~~~~~

by Dona Hake

Psalm 139:17-18

“Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them!
How grand in scope! How many in number!
If I could count each one of them, they would be more than all the grains of sand on earth. Their number is inconceivable!”

The Psalmist speaks in this chapter of how God has explored his heart and knows exactly who he is.  The God of heaven and earth also knows each one of us down to the smallest of details.  He observes our coming and our going, He watches over us as we sleep and He is there when we rise in the morning.  He knows what we are going to say long before we say it because He knows our every thought.  What an amazing feeling we should all have knowing how deeply He loves us and knows us inside and out.  It really is beyond comprehension!

As I read this Psalm and think about the sands of the ocean it causes me to realize that I really cannot fathom how many thoughts the God of heaven has thought about me.  In saying that it reminds me as well that His thoughts are different than mine because He sees us through His pure love, and His thoughts and ways will always be higher than how my mind thinks.

Isaiah 55:9 (ASV)

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways

higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

He sees our future through His eyes and He desires that our faith rest in Him.  I am thankful that I serve such a loving God that loves me so much!

~~~~~♥~~~~~