Robert Reimer

Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” I have been through good seasons and bad, but I have discovered neither lasts. The good seasons still leave some things to be desired, and the bad seasons still have beautiful moments. My confidence isn’t in my circumstances. Jen and I have had seasons where we struggled financially and seasons of financial blessings. I hate financial pressure but we have always made it through. Having resources is a nice luxury and creates options in life, but you can’t put your confidence in wealth because the world is unstable. Peace that comes through temporal means and life’s circumstances never lasts. Jesus offered us his peace. He is the Prince of Peace. His peace doesn’t come from this realm, but is rooted in eternity. There is no peace without surrender and trust that brings our hearts into alignment with the Prince of Peace.

I used to go to the monastery in Petersham MA regularly for spiritual retreats. This is one of the guys that often made the trip with me, Bill Westman. Bill died a number of years back, but I still think of him often. He was a good friend. Often late at night, after spending the day alone with God, Bill and I would sit on the screened in porch off my room and talk. We would process life together, tell stories, cry and laugh together. But mostly laugh. Bill was safe. He was trustworthy. He was a kind-hearted, gentle man. When I went through my darkest seasons of ministry, I would share with Bill some of my heartaches. And he would empathize, sometimes get angry with me over the things people did, and then we would laugh together. He often said to me, “No matter how hard it gets, you never lose your sense of humor.” Laughing through the darkest valleys with safe people is one of the most important ways I know to replenish the emotional tank when hardship has drained. You have to find people who are good for you. People who are safe and loving, and make you laugh. It’s incredibly good for your soul recovery.

I was in one of my toughest seasons as a pastor when I read Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyon. I had been preaching on revival, because I felt God wanted me to and I began to receive a lot of attacks. Blogs, radio shows - someone even created a pseudo FaceBook account, friended people in our church and wrote against me regularly. As I went through this tough season, I felt prompted to read Bunyon’s classic. At one point Christian is imprisoned by the Giant Despair and every day the Giant comes in and gives Christian a thrashing. But then Christian remembers that he has a key in his pocket. He takes out the key and unlocks the door and escapes from prison. The key was called Promise. I cannot tell you how the promises of God have carried me in the darkest valleys of my life. I have held on to them, prayed over them, reminded myself of them over and over. They have bolstered me when I was weary, encouraged me when my heart grew faint, comforted me when I was heartbroken, and carried me when I had no strength. And there are promises that I have seen God deliver on, that I am certain God would not have delivered on, unless I held on to the promise. I have often said to myself, “Promise holds the key.” Hold on to the promises of God!

After a week off, I am headed to Toronto to speak to a group of pastors tomorrow. Wednesday I finish in Toronto and travel to Iowa for a Soul Care Conference. I come home for another week off and then I have a Soul Care Conference in Rockland County NY. I think that is the only conference I have in Iowa and in NY for the next year. So, if you live nearby one of those places and you were on the fence about going, you ought to make the effort to come. You can sign up for those conferences on our website under Upcoming Events. renewalinternational.org/upc…

“Nothing is more touching than to know that God hurries to help” ~ Fenelon. He comes to us in a multitude of ways. I have found God’s help through dreams; twice in recent weeks I have had a dream from God that offered specific help in a time of need. I have experienced God’s help through friends; I have had timely calls, texts, and prophetic words from friends too many times to count over the years. I have often known God’s help through the Word; daily I come to spend time with God and meet Him in the Bible and over and over He has given me timely wisdom, needed encouragement, precise advice, or the confirmation of his love when I needed it most. I have encountered God’s help through the Holy Spirit; He has comforted me, spoken a timely word to me directly, imparted strength to me, corrected me when I was off course, and guided me through some treacherous and dark valleys. The ultimate proof God rushes to our help is Jesus’ coming and dying on our behalf. God is for you.

Jesus was at a Pharisee’s house for lunch one day and there was a sick man there. Jesus asked the leaders if it was legal to heal on the sabbath. They wouldn’t answer. He healed the man and explained that if any of them had a child drop in a well on the sabbath, they would fish the child out. When you read this, it seems amazing that they are attacking and resisting Jesus for doing good. People are being healed. Lives are being changed, yet they resist, criticize, attack and ultimately kill him. The only way it makes sense is to understand that we live in a spiritual world with dark forces seeking to thwart God’s servants from doing good. And these forces rally people to oppose things that are good unwittingly. I was also reading in Acts this week where the disciples healed the man at the temple in Jesus’ name and they were arrested. When the religious leaders gathered to discuss how to deal with these men who preached Jesus and did miracles, one of the leaders urged them to be careful, less they find themselves opposing God. When evaluating someone’s ministry, first look at the message. Is God glorified? Is Jesus proclaimed with honor? Second, look at the fruit? Are people benefitting? Is Jesus given credit? No one can heal in their own name. Are people being drawn to Jesus through this ministry? If so, be careful what you resist. You may end up fighting against God.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4). There are plenty of things that can shake your confidence; there are many events that can destabilize your world. The news portends political disasters and world wars. AI has no guardrails and inevitably will be used for horrific evil. There are health concerns, marriage problems and kid concerns along the way. But God is unchanging, powerful, eternal and relentlessly loving. When I keep my heart steadfast on Him, my mind fixed on his goodness, and when I maintain an eternal perspective and shift to active trust, there is always a peace that passes human understanding. It isn’t a concept, a belief, or an idea. It is a peace that guards my mind from obsession and worry. And guards my heart from fear. It is a supernatural gift that I experience in my natural world so I can live free. It is a beautiful place to reside.

Soul Care is not a book to be read like a novel or a conference to be attended in three days. It is a lifestyle to be integrated and adopted. That’s why I wrote The Soul Care Workbook. It is a tool designed to help people process the book and apply it to their lives. It has lots of exercises, meditations, and questions to help you integrate the material and take it deeper. It has received excellent reviews on Amazon, like this one: “This is absolutely one of the most transformational tools I could have to direct me through practical steps for implementing real life change. I cannot recommend this highly enough! It’s the perfect companion guide to the Soulcare book.” If you haven’t picked one up, it is a helpful tool to go along with Soul Care!

I pray the Psalms a lot. Today I was praying Psalm 57 - David writes, “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me. He sends from heaven and saves.” I think God has a purpose for each of our lives, something He wants us to partner with Him on, something that will contribute to good and the advance of his kingdom. But the enemy of our souls wants to take us off that divine purpose and keep us from intimate partnership with God. He seeks to thwart our divine purpose. Ironically, if we keep our hearts soft when the attacks come, if we turn to God as our refuge and help, He redeems the attacks of the enemy. He uses those evil things that the enemy meant to thwart us to form us, shape us, draw us near to Himself, and out of the attacks we are formed to become the very people we need to be in order to fulfill the purposes of God for our lives. I have seen God do this over and over in my life. I meditated on this today with deep gratitude. The very thing that threatens to derail us, could be the very thing God uses to form us, so his purpose in us can be fulfilled.

“As Christians, sometimes we can end up doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons. We spend regular time alone with God, pray, and read our Bible every day, because that is what good Christians are supposed to do. Over time our motivation for our spiritual practices morphs from moved by love to motivated by duty, and we don’t even notice the subtle slide. We keep doing the right thing, but we no longer draw near like we once did. We keep on with the old activities, but we no longer have that fire burning in our hearts. When we continue to practice these disciplines devoid of the authentic encounters with Jesus that lead to deep, life-changing intimacy, our spiritual life often becomes dry and shallow.” ~ from my book, Authentic

It has been a busy month - it began in Columbus Ohio, then off to Bali and back in less than a week, before turning it back around and heading to Oregon for a week, Cleveland and now the last leg of the journey: Charlottesville today and tomorrow. Then I am home for a week off. It’s been a fruitful month and I am grateful I am still feeling good and healthy. Thanks for those who have prayed - I really appreciate you taking the time to partner with me. For the rest of the year I am off 6 out of 10 weeks. This is often the life of an itinerant minister - periods of intense travel and activity, and stretches of quiet and inactivity. When I was a pastor I looked at sabbath on a week to week basis, but as one who travels now I consider sabbath over the course of a year. Are you getting enough emotional, physical and spiritual replenishments and inputs over the course of a year as compared to the outputs? The truth is, while I have more intense months, I have a lighter work schedule over the course of a year. More time off, more sabbath, more retreats. So grateful for this month, and grateful for the rest that is coming.

Before every new level of intimacy with God is a fresh sense of purging. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Hebrews 12:14 says, “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” There is a sense in which these texts refer to the holiness, the right standing we gain with God through our faith in Jesus. That’s true. But there is also the meaning that before we can draw nearer to God, He takes us through a purifying process. We have to become holier to become nearer to Him because He is holy. I have often discovered this to be true in my relationship with God. These purifying times often involve trials and tribulations, pain and problems, sorrow and suffering, but God redeems these hardships and we end up knowing Him more intimately and becoming more like Him. While there are wrestlings and doubts and dryness in the difficulties, if we persevere, faith is forged in the darkness and we come out with a deeper, more active, less passive trust in God. No one likes these seasons of trials, but no one matures to their potential without them.

One of the greatest tests of my resolve to follow Jesus is loving my enemies. Jesus said that even the pagans could love their friends. You don’t really get any credit for being spiritually mature when you love those who love you. The hard thing is to love those who criticize you, slight you, and treat you without honor. I often find myself feeling defensive, irritated and impatient, and I am reminded again of my pride and weakness. The humility it requires to love your enemies, be patient with your critics, and be gentle with those who dishonor you is not acquired easily, at least not for me. So, when I am confronted with my pride and defensiveness, I cry out again to God to help me love and live like Jesus. Jesus is truly the most compelling, beautiful person I know.

John Wesley had an amazing capacity organize the First Great Awakening without quenching the Spirit. He was a strategic genius. He built vessels to capture the outpouring of the Spirit without hindering it. He created class structures (groups of 10-15) where people processed faith, leaders were developed and people were discipled & mobilized in evangelism. He had smaller groups called bands, that were 3-4 people, where people confessed with one another, and humbled themselves, so the Spirit wasn’t quenched. He also had congregational sized gatherings of 50+ where people could come and receive teaching from lay preachers and seekers could have questions answered. And Wesley preached to thousands in open fields, people who would never don the doors of church, people who were coming to Christ in droves. Wesley was an Anglican. He loved church, church buildings, and all the sacraments and ceremonies. It was his friend, George Whitfield, who started preaching in fields and Whitfield urged Wesley to join in this activity that was reaping a harvest. In my book Renewal Culture, I talk a lot about The First Great Awakening, and what Wesley did to host and sustain this renewal, surprisingly, you discover that Wesley was repulsed by the idea of open field preaching, he said that preaching in a field was like hugging a filthy man, but he did it because God was using it mightily. One of the reasons this Awakening was so powerful was because these guys got over their preferences, out of their comfort zones, mobilized people on mission and went where God called them to reap the harvest.

I have a few more conferences that are open and available for the remainder of this year. I am in Cleveland this week (Monday to Thursday) doing Soul Care for the staff at Grace Church and looking forward to spending time with Tim Meier. Then this weekend I’ll be with City Church in Charlottesville VA. November 2-4 - I am speaking to Pastors in the Toronto region at a District Conference. November 5-7 - Soul Care in Iowa November 19-21 - Soul Care in New City NY at Risen King (and looking forward to being with Gabe Tringale). December 3-6 - Soul Care in St Martin (anyone need a tropical Soul Care tune up?) December 11-13 - Holy Spirit weekend in Edensburg PA. That finishes up 2026. You can sign up for the open events on our website. renewalinternational.org/upc…

Years ago I was at a John Maxwell conference and I heard John say, “Never make a major decision in a valley.” When we are in times of suffering our perspective gets warped; we can’t see clearly. Pain taints the way we view our life and we are liable to make a poor decision. This has stuck with me over the years. I process more in the valleys of life, slow down more, consult with others more, and avoid quick pain-motivated, knee jerk reactions. Your mind is too unsettled to be trusted in times of intense pain and suffering. But if you slow down, center on God, process the pain, regain perspective, and allow God to redeem the pain, then suffering can make us people of wisdom.

I was with a group of people one day who were opposing a specific move of God, an outpouring of the Spirit. They were Christians, but they were opposing what was happening and mocking it a bit, because of some of the manifestations that were taking place, like holy laughter. I listened for a while and then decided to weigh in. I asked, “Do you think the First Great Awakening under John Wesley was from God?” They all said that they did. I explained that Wesley described the phenomenon of holy laughter occurring, though he didn’t use that name. I asked if they thought the Second Great Awakening under Charles Finney was from God. They were a little more circumspect but they said yes. I told them that Finney described that same phenomenon though he doesn’t use that name. The first time I can find a reference to it by the name holy laughter is from the American missionary to India, John “Praying” Hyde. He calls it holy laughter. Just because we have never experience something, doesn’t make it untrue. I was reading today in Luke 11:47f about how the Pharisees opposed Jesus - “they began a furious attack on him.” I never want to find myself opposing God because something is outside my comfort zone. I want to be sure not to resist what God may be doing. Look at the fruit. Is Jesus being honored? Are the people drawing closer to Jesus? Are they experiencing life change, bearing the fruit of the Spirit? You may not experience it; you might not understand it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t authentic.

I read this in Psalm 66 this morning: “Bless our God . . . Who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip.” It caused me to reflect with gratitude over my life and consider how many ways this has been true for me. There have been many poor choices, some sinful and some simply unwise, which could have done me in, except for God’s grace. There have been many who tried to do me in by their lies, attacks, deceit and cunning. But God saw me through. When I first started ministry a man started spreading rumors that I stole money from the church and was in an adulterous affair. He called the district office and tried to get me fired. But God protected me. I can’t even imagine how different my life would have been if he had succeeded in his evil efforts. But God. But for the ever watchful, relentlessly tender protective love of God, I would not be who I am or where I am today. That’s just one of the many reasons I am grateful, Lord.

God is faithful. What do we mean when we say that? God is described as “the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deut 7:9) God is true to his word. He is reliable. He will deliver on his covenantal commitments and promises. He is faithful to his word, his nature, his promises, his covenants. He is faithful and steadfast in love. It doesn’t mean God will do what we want; it means God will do what He says. God never said everything would work out. God said He would redeem everything that comes into our lives to make us like Jesus. God never said everything that comes into our lives is good. God said that no matter what came into our lives He could use it for our good. Over a lifetime of following Jesus, I have discovered that God is indeed faithful. To be with God, to know his faithful love, to follow Him through life, and have Him with me through it all is a much better way in life. He is trustworthy and good. He is faithful and true.

“The early disciples were Spirit people, and we need to become Spirit people. We clearly are not enjoying the success of the early church, and we could desperately use their supernatural empowerment. When the early church experienced the baptism of the Spirit, it created a spiritual earthquake that changed the spiritual landscape of the Roman Empire. We are desperate for that kind of impact today” ~ From my book, River Dwellers. Too often in the church we ask the wrong questions. If you begin with the wrong question, it is hard to get to the right answer. The question we ask is “Were you filled with the Holy Spirit?” But you could have had an encounter with God 15 years ago and now be far from God. The better question is “Are you currently walking in the fullness of the Spirit?” That is a question I ask and explore in River Dwellers. It is one of the things we desperately need in the church today.