Author Archives: Becky Pliego

About Becky Pliego

I am grateful because God, in His grace, called me out of darkness and into his admirable light. When I did not look for Him, He found me. When I was in a pit of sin, He rescued me. I am not walking this road alone, my family is always with me, and we love Him, because He loved us first.

Praying Ephesians -Ephesians 4:1-16-

Posted on by
2

 

@Katie Lloyd Photography

Father, thank you for your Word which is perfect and pure, and which teaches us how to walk as Christians in this fallen word. Father, I ask you to forgive me because many times I have not walked in a manner worthy of the calling to which I have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience.

Oh Lord, help me, through the Grace that saved me and sustains me, to walk every day with all humility. Forgive the many times I have looked down on someone; forgive when I let pride and self-righteousness have dominion over me. Forgive me when I walk haughtily, with a heart blind with arrogance. Give me a humble heart, a teachable heart, the heart of a servant.

Forgive me when I don’t walk or speak with all gentleness. Forgive me for my harsh attitudes, for my rudeness. Work in me, Oh Lord, and create in me a humble and gentle heart. Let my words be sweet to you and to those around me.

Father, forgive me when I lose my patience, when I want things to be done promptly and my way. Lord, help me! That I may not see my loss of patience as something that is not grievous to you. Help me to see how it shows the condition of my heart that doesn’t want to wait for your perfect time. Father, help me to wait in silence knowing that my hope is in you. Help me to trust in you at all times knowing that you are sovereign over the time frame in which we live.

Lord, teach me to bear the burdens of my brothers and sisters in love, help me to persevere in prayer for them, to intercede, to remember with a compassionate and grateful heart those who are going through trials. Help me to reach toward them in love to help them with their burdens. Help us, Lord! Forgive me, O Lord, when I have turned and have decided not to bear with my brothers in Christ with love. Give me a heart that reaches in prayer and hands that reach to serve promptly and with a joyful heart.

Father, that I may eagerly seek to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That I may not forget that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. That I may not forget that you alone are over all, and through all and in all. Help me, please, Oh Lord. Help me, to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace without compromising the Truth as revealed in the Scriptures. Lord, help me, because this is so hard to do in this era in which many voices are raised and a dense cloud of confusion makes it hard for us to discern how to do this. I need you, Lord. I need you, so much!

Father, thank you for the grace that you have bestowed upon each one of your children. Thank you for the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, all given in time to equip us for the work of the ministry, to build up the body of Christ until we all -each one of us- attain the unity of the faith and come to the full knowledge of your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, thank you because in the Word, in the prophets and the writings of the apostles, through the exposition of your Word, we can grow in grace into mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Graceful Father, help me to hold fast to the Truth, to the words that have been revealed in the Scriptures, deliver me, deliver us from an apathy towards your Word, which will restrain us from growing in grace. Help me, Lord, to hold fast to your Word in a time in which deception keeps knocking at our door disguised as piety and is adorned with seductive words. Help me, help us, so that we may not be like children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried away by every new wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes that seems so inviting.

Oh, God, help us, help me! That I may dare to speak the truth in love for the sake of building and not tearing down. Help us, help me, to hold fast to your Word, to the unchangeable Truth in a time in which people, even in the Church,  are trying to redefine what your Word clearly teaches. Lord, it would be so easy to fall into deception, help me!

Father, this Lord’s Day I intercede for your Church. Help us grow joined and held together by your Truth. Help us, work properly and function as one body. Make us grow in all submission to our Head which is Christ Jesus, and help us build ourselves in love to bring glory to your Name.

In Jesus’ Name, our Lord and Savior,

Amen

Becky

Declaring War on Anxiety -A Meditation on Job-

Posted on by
2
Canon Press

Continuing with more wise words from Toby J. Sumpter’s book, A Son for Glory (the context is Job 2-3):

 

 “Paul himself disagrees with a stoic passivity to every event in our lives, and he does not contradict himself. He says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). Paul does not say that we should not be anxious because God is in control and does whatever he pleases (though there is a sense in which that is true). Paul says that we should not be anxious because we are constantly pouring out our anxieties to God. Paul instructs the Philippians about how to fight anxiety through prayer. This is the same exhortation that Peter gives his readers. They ought to cast all their anxieties on God, because He cares for them (1 Peter 5:7). Paul is making the same point. There is to be thanksgiving, but faithful prayer does not ignore anxieties and pain. Faithful people will let their requests be made known to God; they will cast their anxieties upon Him. Also notice the goal of voicing these fears and pains and anxieties to God: the peace of God… Crying out to in anguish and fear to the God of heaven is not giving in to anxiety; it is declaring war on that anxiety. It is refusing to give up the fight.

Job is going to go on fighting for the rest of the book. Job is a warrior… Faith looks to God in hope, but faith is not blind, and faith is not lifeless. Faith doesn’t pretend it doesn’t hurt, and faith isn’t apathetic about the gifts -friends, family, health- that God has given us. Faith loves those gifts of God, and when they are threatened or taken away, faith cries out to God, “Why are you doing this?” Faith is hungry for goodness and justice and mercy. Faith is the woman who won’t stop bringing her requests to the master, because he is the master and because he is the Lord.”

Praying without ceasing and giving thanks…

Becky

Job Consecrated His Children Daily to God- A Meditation-

Posted on by
1

“His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.” Job 1: 4-5


Jim LePage Art and Design

Toby J.Sumpter in his book, Job through New Eyes: A Son for Glory says,

” [S]in is also a directional thing, a geographical reality, a sort of teleology. Literally, the verb in the Hebrew means “to sin” means “to miss the mark”; it means you’ve veered off the path. To sin is to be going in the wrong direction, to be in the wrong place.


So what does Job do? Job is saying, God, I’m not sure what my sons have been doing, but want to reorient them to you again. I’m not sure where they’ve been , I’m not sure what they’ve said. I’m not sure what’s going on their hearts, so I’m offering them back to you again. This one for my firstborn son, this one for my secondborn son, this one for my thirdborn, and I am offering them up to you. I remind you of them. Consider my sons, and draw them into your presence…Job did this regularly.”


And so do I.


Amen.

Becky

Elisabeth Elliot and Nancy Wilson on Journal-Keeping

Posted on by
4

This very much summarizes what I believe on journaling…

“I was very cautious about what I put in the journals. I don’t think it was because I feared someone else would discover my secrets. I think I was afraid to articulate, even for myself, feelings I might have to get rid of. Better to stick  with what God was saying to me than what my heart was saying. It seemed the safer course. I do not repudiate it now. The only way to build a house on the rock is to hear the Word (I couldn’t have heard it if all I listened to was my feelings) and then to try to do it…”

Elisabet Elliot, Passion and Purity (p. 54)

Nancy Wilson also wrote a while ago two posts on journal-keeping that are worth considering:
Part One. Part Two (if you only have time to read one, read part two. It is excellent -a must I would dare to say-.

“[W]e should and must guard our tongues in all things spoken and written: “He who guards his mouth preserves his life” (Prov. 13:3). Psalm141:3: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Our pens need watchmen and guards just like our mouths. And the fact that a journal is “private”does not mean the words can be left unguarded.” -Nancy Wilson

 

“Life is short. Write good words.” -Nancy Wilson

Becky

Because of Easter… I Can Wait

Posted on by
Reply

 

Albrecht Dürer, The Entombment (1504)

 “But God works in surprising ways, and sometimes he demonstrates his love by delay.” D.A. Carson, Scandalous (p. 121)

Whenever I read of the days between the death of our Lord and His resurrection, I find it easy to understand the weariness and disappointment in the hearts of the disciples. How many times we have been there, between the promise and the fulfillment of it? The waiting, the days in between, when heaven seems closed and we just don’t know where to turn because all the roads seem closed and all hopes appear to lie dead behind huge rocks. In those days of waiting we must not despair as if we didn’t know that our Lord lives, that His promise to conquer death and sin was fulfilled on an Easter Morning.

Continue reading at Desiring Virtue…

Becky

On Living Quietly – Quietness of Heart-

Posted on by
3

I came across this short meditation by Ray Ortlund at The Gospel Coalition today and I just needed to share it with you. It ministered to me as I am -slowly- learning what it means to Live Quietly.

“In quietness and trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15

The greatest power in all this world is not military or political or sexual or commercial. The greatest power, which will outlast all others (“above all earthly powers”), resides deep within the simplest believer. Quietness of heart before God, trusting in him, is our strength, and there is no greater strength.

Alec Motyer comments insightfully, “Quietness is the absence of panic and restlessness. It is the product not of refusal to face life but of insistence upon taking God into account in trust.”

This quietness is not denial but indeed its opposite. It is facing God, taking God as God fully into account, treating God as more real than everything so firmly set against us, including our own needs and sins, because he is more real.

Quietness of heart is not outwardly impressive. Which is why we sometimes get nervous, why trusting in God can feel like skating on thin ice. But it is God’s good wisdom — and there is no other — for the display of his all-sufficiency.

Quietness of heart before God is where fugitives stop running, and start resting, and become stalwarts and overcomers, because God himself is there.

Learning under His sun and by His grace,

Becky