Hi Sharon H and Everyone,

I like what you said.

One ting I struggle with, is that I want to do things for others, but 
I'm afraide that I might not do them right, or that I might not get 
the things done that I promise to do for others.

This is something that really bothers me a lot.
I can't say that I always follow through with what I'm suppose to, 
and that really bothers me.

I'm a bad procrastinator, and I don't like that, so I need to ask 
Holy Spirit to show me how to improve my life in that way.


Thanks much.

Many Blessings,

Pat Ferguson
"I can Do all Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me" Philippians 4:13.

At 06:07 PM 1/26/2016, you wrote:
>Wow Phil, you've asked a profound question that closely relates to 
>what I'm struggling with!
>I remember sometime ago saying something about God not needing our 
>help to re-create us, in the step we take to be born again and His 
>making us new creatures in Christ.  Perhaps we can say that the only 
>thing The Lord requires of us is to yield, stop fighting against 
>Him, to rest in him, cooperate and walk with Him, what we call obedience.
>
>My main issue that I'm struggling with, though, is my tendency to 
>feel it necessary to be sincere in my mind, that if I'm not, I'm 
>hopeless, not being willing to go through emotional withdrawal from 
>my mental sin.  However, it seems that The Lord is showing me that 
>my sticking with Him is more concrete than I think, like physically 
>taking medication and putting good thoughts in my mind, instead of 
>trying to refrain from yielding to the teptations I have.  This 
>makes it sound more possible to me, doing rather than trying not to 
>do.  There are other things I can do that will be effective.  I can 
>speak His Word especially those that comfort and strengthen me, 
>and  can express and sing praises and worship.  They're things I can 
>do as steps of faith.  A big example of taking a step without 
>worrying so much about sincereity was when, one evening, I was 
>looking for songs to direct in our small congregation the next 
>morning.  I thought, or perhaps was led, to have us sing "Open the 
>Wells of Grace and Salvation".  "I'd be a hypocrit if I sang that 
>one." I thought to myself, as I felt that I wanted nothing to do 
>with God.  Then I decided I would do it as a step of faith.
>
>The next morning, I led the congregation in that song.  Later, one 
>of my father's cousins by marriage  and a pastor who was visiting 
>along with his wife,  asked me to come forward.  In a nutshell, he 
>had a sort of vision in which he was in worship with me, and that I 
>was singing that very song, "Open the Wells of Grace and 
>salvation"!  The lord responded with,  "I am there."  He 
>described  details that I  either don't recall or did not hear.  But 
>there was another big thing going on: I just, "happened", to be 
>recording part of the the service!  I was thinking to try to 
>translate the sermon  into my broken knowledge of spanish for one of 
>the migrant workers who might be a believer.  I have kept this part 
>of the service.  But there is a challenge: this recording on tape is 
>of very poor quality, even when I transfered it to my laptop in 
>order to make a CD for his wife to listen to and  to possibly be 
>able to understand what was being said.  I was finally able to pick 
>out the confirmation that God was there when I tried to 
>decipher  this part  recently, so I'm so glad it is preserved!  But 
>I haven't sent a CD.  I hope that I will have the opportunity to see 
>her if or when she comes this way from Washington State.
>
>These things that I'm writing down are being reinforced in  my mind toward
>acting on them, and I thank you Phil for posing this question.  You 
>were surely led  byThe Holy Spirit to ask this!  If there's even a 
>small story of how it came about, I'd like to hear it please!
>
>Thanks again much!
>
>Sharon H.