Orange Moon Friday, November 14, 2025 “Determined To Be Pleased”

    

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

   "Determined To Be Pleased"

    

    My wife Frances lives by an adage she gleaned from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" that does not directly appear in Scripture, but has Genesis to Revelation infused in every word and letter.

     "I am determined to be pleased."

     Frances means by this she is determined to please God by being pleased in Him and His doings.

   "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more" (I Thessalonians 4:1).

    "I have learned in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content" (Philippians 4:11).

    To please God by being pleased in all things does not mean we avoid experiencing and feeling the often greatly challenging difficulties of life.  Regardlessly of how closely we walk with our Lord in this life, pain will be pain, sorrow will be sorrow, and heartache will sometimes be heartbreak.  No less than the Lord Jesus confirmed this: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matthew 26:38).  Determining to be pleased means that we make the choice to believe that God is precisely who He declares Himself to be in the Bible, and does exactly what He promises to do.  We may not feel such confidence, but emotion is far from that which constitutes true faith.  Trusting God rather involves the depths of the heart, wherein determinations are made in response to the moving of the Holy Spirit and the truth of Scripture.  "I will trust in Thee" declared the Psalmist of a chosen confidence that pleases the heart of God because He made us to "live by faith."  Moreover, He knows that in all things He can keep trusting hearts in the truest pleasure of "peace that passeth all understanding" (Roman 1:17; Psalm 56:3; Philippians 4:7).  

   Somewhere just now, a trusting believer kneels in great challenge, pain, and difficulty.  He kneels in a holy place, a most holy place, as a Heart and a heart meet there in the loving devotion made possible and actual through the presence of the Lord Jesus  in both parties.  The Heart, the heart of God, deeply empathizes and sympathizes with its hurting child, but is pleased to hear "I trust You, Father."  He well knows the peace with which He can keep those who trust Him.  The heart of the hurting supplicant experiences a deep pleasure of spirit that far transcends earthly sensibilities as a miraculous "joy unspeakable and full of glory" fills its being with light  (I Peter 1:8).  "Determined to be pleased?"   Yes, God is so determined,  rejoicing and moving within us at the sight of but a mustard seed of faith planted in our hearts.  The believer joins Him, making the choice to rejoice - to determine to be pleased - in valleys no less than mountaintops.  Thank you, Jane.  Thank you even more, Frances.

"Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice."

(Psalm 63:7)

"As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing."

(II Corinthians 6:10)

Weekly Memory Verse

   But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared. 

(Psalm 130:4)

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Orange Moon Thursday, November 13, 2025 "Call Unto Me"

    

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

   "Call Unto Me"

    

   God desires to be known.

    "Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jeremiah 33:3).

    We do well to approach life with this awareness and sensibility.  Our Lord calls to us, beckoning that we call to Him for His self revelation and the discovery of His doings in our hearts, lives, and the world.

   "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (I Corinthians 2:12).

   God gave Himself to us through the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He also gave accompanying gifts according to this measure…

    "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).

   The determination to live with expectation of God and His provision establishes our hearts and minds with the ongoing opportunity to behold "great and mighty things" of our Father and His doings.  Lack of such anticipation constitutes disregard or disbelief of the Bible's plain and often stated declaration that our Father seeks to reveal Himself and His goodness.  Of course, He determines the display of such blessedness according to His perfect wisdom, which may come to us through both the pleasant and the challenging.  Our calling involves the chosen confidence that the illumination of God shines in both light and darkness.  Certainly we will see our Lord in obvious blessing.  However, the prophet declared "I will look for Him" not in happy, but in harrowing circumstances (Isaiah 8:17).

   Let us look also, basing our confidence on God's great desire to reveal Himself and His doings.  We may not perceive ourselves as particularly skilled in the seeing, which is definitely the case for all of us.  Our Heavenly Father, however, is infinitely skilled in the revealing.  He calls us to believe in both His willingness and ability to fill our spirits and our pathways with the light of the Lord Jesus.  But a little faith in such grace, and the accompanying request to behold will illuminate both the center and circumference of our existence.  Yes, in this day and this hour, the Spirit of God and the Word of beckon us from the Father and the Son, "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

(Ephesians 3:14-19)

Weekly Memory Verse

   But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared. 

(Psalm 130:4)

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Orange Moon Wednesday, November 12, 2025 “Bugsy’s Prayer?”

    

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

   "Bugsy's Prayer?"

    

   Perhaps you've heard the story about Bugsy hesitating as his accomplices jumped out of the car to rush in and rob the First National Bank.  "Mugsy, Thugsy, wait!" shouted Bugsy.  "We forgot to pray for God's blessing on this caper!"

   Maybe you didn't hear about this (likely not).  Bank robbers rarely seek Divine aid when plying their nefarious trade.  Even if they believe in God, they realize He would not involve Himself in anything so obviously contrary to His will.  They are correct about this, and the extreme scenario imagined illustrates a vital truth.  Namely, prayer, while involving our requests, actually serves to fulfill the will of God.

    "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" (I John 5:14-15).

    True prayer requires devotion to the glory, will, and eternal purpose of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.  "Thy will be done" comprises the holy atmosphere and attitude of genuine communion with our Heavenly Father (Matthew 6:10).  As a good friend often suggests, "The Lord is not our concierge, waiting to serve us at our beck and call."   Believers are rather His servant sons and daughters who seek His guidance in all things, including our prayers. This does not preclude our own desires, even as the Apostle Paul taught the Philippians: "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).  We recognize, however, that not all our desires coincide with the will of God.  "The flesh lusteth against the spirit… Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your own lusts" (James 4:3).  We must therefore fill our hearts and minds with the Scriptures if we are to avail much in our praying, seeking to know the will of God in accordance with the Word of God.  

   The latter point cannot be overstated.  We read and ponder the Bible for many reasons, none more important than discovering how and what to pray.  Indeed, the effectually praying believer and the Biblically astute believer are one and the same.  Motivation, guidance, and enabling to commune with God await us in the sacred pages that lead to prayer in accordance with truth and reality.  This promises a life of communion with our Heavenly Father whereby new pathways of prayer and old pathways re-traveled consistently bless us, and even more, bless the heart of He who "delights" in "the prayer of the upright" (Proverbs 15:8).

    The Bugsys, Mugsys, and Thugsys of the world don't do much praying.  They know better.  We must know better also, seeking to avoid asking for God's blessings without first considering in the light of Scripture who and what His character and purposes will allow Him to bless.  Prayer requires the seriousness that leads us to consider our requests in the light of our Lord's revealed truth and will.  Just as we wouldn't  expect Him to bless bank robberies, we shouldn't expect Him to bless that which fails to accord with His Biblically revealed glory, will, and eternal purpose in the Lord Jesus.

"He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth."

(Luke 11:2)

"Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day."

(Psalm 25:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

   But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared" (Psalm 130:4)

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