06/23/2026
Number 793
June 23, 2026
I saw on the news where a giant tree had fallen on a 4-unit apartment. As they showed the split you could see where the tree was dead all inside. It was to be removed in a few days, but the winds and rain came, and it came crashing down!
This tree looked healthy on the outside but was dead on the inside.
Why? Maybe the roots were not getting water or maybe insects or something was eating on the inside, but the tree had lost strength!
In the Bible Jesus rebuked the Pharisees of looking religious on the outside but inward they were filled with dead men’s bones!
We have had the experience of many healthy trees coming down in a storm but a tree that is dead inside does not need much wind to just cause it to fall and destroy all that is in its way.
I want to compare the dead tree to our walk with Jesus Christ!
We can say all the right Christian words and attend church every week and still be walking around with no Joy, or Peace, or Power, or Satisfaction, or real life inside!
We can have hurts and failures eating away at us or we are not surrendering to all Jesus provides for us and allow Him to fill us with His presence!
Jesus declared it is from the heart that bad attitudes, actions, and words, come and they reflect what is inside.
He declared it is also from the heart that Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Mercy and Compassion, Praise and Encouraging words and actions come!
How do we stay health inside as a Christian?
We communicate, surrender, pray, read the word, and let the word read us!
As we open our hearts and let the Holy Spirit continually do cleansing work deep inside where the real us is, we begin to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit that gives us peace!
Just as Jesus came aside and prayed and communicated with the Father, we must do the same. We must spend time dedicated to listening, learning, and sharing our needs. We must listen, hear deep inside, and obey!
This cannot happen if you are trying to do it all yourself and are not allowing Jesus through the Holy Spirit to live through you!
The word that has been flowing through my prayers for a while now is SURRENDER!
The Father desires us to throw up our hands and surrender everything in our lives to Him! We must SURRENDER all we are and all we are not to all He is! He will take our surrender and give us the satisfaction we desire and will fill us with the peace that the world cannot give!
He will guide each day and fill us with wisdom to make right decisions and will do what we cannot do to solve every situation in our lives!
However, we are created with choice, and we must choose to spend time IN HIS PRESENCE!
A representative of a powerful person must spend time with that person to understand who he is and what he desires and to receive direction!
How can we walk each day trying to do all the task we need to do, and also represent Christ as we live our lives, without spending time in praise, worship, and listening!
If we do that, we can walk each day with the assurance that we are walking in the best way to affect others for eternity!
One of my favorite lines in a hymn says:
“He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His own!”
What a safe and satisfying feeling to know He is guiding and leading and loving us and we are His own!
That is being healthy deep inside where the real us is!
Let the few lines of this song be your prayer today!
“I SURRENDER ALL, I SURENDER ALL. ALL TO YOU MY BLESSED SAVIOR I SURRENDER ALL!”
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Father, how sweet it is when we surrender fully to your love and care and receive daily communion and direction and the peace that passes understanding. When we do not understand all that is happening to us and in the world, we can rest in you and in the power of your might! I pray that each one who reads this will be moved to surrender to you and you will walk with each of us and talk with each of us and tell us we are yours! I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Amen!
SURENDER!
Love MeMaw!
www.skydivingmemaw.com
