D Day

I've made a big decision. I have peace about it, but am still nervous because I have yet to carry out the action.

I asked God this morning what He wanted me to do. His simple answer was "Get out of my way."

Say a prayer for me, will you? That I do what I need to do and that I, indeed, get out of His way.

Thanks so much!

Be transformed

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12.2

I've been working on a post for the last week and I keep running into road blocks.  My thoughts are not coming out in understandable, written words.  I think it's a case of my heart getting something, but there just isn't any way to explain it.   It could be because I have more to learn on the subject and God wants me to be quiet until I get it fully.  He has a way of doing that to me, quieting me until my words are actually His words.  

So quiet I will be.

Moving on to something else.....

The verse above was my daily verse from my wonderful little smartphone app.  Love that little app!   It's called "Daily Bible" by JoanSoft...find it in your marketplace.  Okay, back to our regular programming....

I've read this verse many times, but this particular day something about it stood out to me.  It is the testing part.  

And it is leaving me a bit perplexed.  Are we talking about the testing that is done to us or is it talking about the testing that we are supposed to do?  (See 1John 4.1)

It seems to be pretty important, because this testing allows us to discern the will of God...what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So, I'm off for a few days to study this.  I want to do some praying about my other post too (should I give you a teaser?  Yes?  It's all about love!)

We are heading to our camper for the last weekend of the season.  Time to close it down for the winter.  

Can you see my sad face here?  

Until next week....

May the Lord bless you abundantly and may you feel His loving arms wrap you in comfort and strength.

Follow up

I just had to share this with you today.  It's a devotional from "Our Daily Bread" for today (September 21, 2011).  I'm copying it here in it's entirety, so I will have it for future reference.


Remember how I talked the other day about being told not to cry by my father?  Well, guess what my Heavenly Father had to say to me today. 

"Has your heart ever been broken? What broke it? Cruelty? Failure? Unfaithfulness? Loss? Perhaps you’ve crept into the darkness to cry.

It’s good to cry. “Tears are the only cure for weeping,” said Scottish preacher George MacDonald. A little crying does one good.

Jesus wept at His friend Lazarus’ grave (John 11:35), and He weeps with us (v.33). His heart was broken as well. Our tears attract our Lord’s lovingkindness and tender care. He knows our troubled, sleepless nights. His heart aches for us when we mourn. He is the “God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). And He uses His people to comfort one another.

But tears and our need for comfort come back all too frequently in this life. Present comfort is not the final answer. There is a future day when there will be no death, no sorrow, no crying, for all these things will “have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). There in heaven God will wipe away every tear. We are so dear to our Father that He will be the one who wipes the tears away from our eyes; He loves us so deeply and personally.

Remember, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).

Think of a land of no sorrow,
Think of a land of no fears,
Think of no death and no sickness,
Think of a land of no tears. —Anon.

God cares and shares in our sorrow."

So I share this with you, my friends.  Cry now, but be assured there will be a day when there will be no more tears!

I love you.  Have a blessed day!

I am Loved, I am Accepted

Two days in a row, I've had someone insult me, question my integrity and downright reject me with a completely callous attitude.

I was brought to tears.

When I woke up this morning, my heart was still hurting.  But I vowed to not let another person's rejection of me ruin my day.  My prayers this morning claimed a promise from God and that is what I am going to hold on to.

"Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."  "The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. "  Deut. 31.6 & 8

In Hebrews He says:

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,"

He loves me and He will never leave me.

What was even more wonderful, is that promise was confirmed on another friend's blog.

Isn't He wonderful?

So I'm writing today to tell you that you, too, are loved by God and He accepts you just as you are.  He loves you so much that He gave His only Son for you...long before you were born!  What a precious gift we have been given in Jesus.

My heart overflows with the realization that I am loved so much by the One who created me.

I also want you to know that I love you.  And I accept you, no matter what.

You are precious to me.

Reaching The Goal

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Phil. 3.14

I went for a walk tonight.  I hadn't taken a good long walk in quite a while and I felt a little push to go from that still small voice.  My goal was to to walk the entire length of the camp road; almost 1.5 miles.

I was enjoying the walk and spending some quality time in conversation with God.  Before I knew it, the end of the road was in sight.  I thought to myself "well, there is the end.  I've gone far enough I can turn around."

I stopped and my next thought was "huh?"

Since when is "almost" actually reaching a goal.

Never.  "Almost" is NEVER going to get you where you want to go.

I kept walking.

I was rewarded with a beautiful chorus of birds and a little babbling brook.

But God wasn't done with me yet.

As I was walking back, I could see the sign to our local YMCA summer camp in the distance.

God said run.

YIKES!

But I did.

I knew He was testing my heart and my desire to learn to trust Him.

I made it the entire way; praying the whole time that I wouldn't have an asthma attack.

I learned a lot tonight about trusting and believing that when He asks you to do something, He will empower you to do it.

Now I am off to drink my water and enjoy my porch swing.

God bless.

Angels

I often get sidetracked and overwhelmed by circumstances in my life.

It can really drag me down at times.

Then, along comes a perfect stranger. 

There but for a minute. 

They remind you of the why, whats, and who fors.

And all of a sudden your heart is back on track.

These people have no idea what they've done or who they have affected.  They have simply been living their life in a loving and encouraging way.

Yesterday, I sought consolation from God and yesterday I received it.

Yesterday, I sought rest and peace from God...and yesterday I received it.

Through an angel who didn't even know they were an angel.

Keep an eye out for them. 

They often pass through your life very quickly, but they have a lasting effect.

Live by Faith

I talked the other day about God Things.  In that post I referred to a verse and how it spoke about righteousness to me.  I have been studying and God’s word has been speaking loudly to me.  But my post today isn’t about what I’ve learned, I’ll talk about that in another post, it’s about another God Thing.

My heart and pride were hurt very deeply yesterday.  On the surface, it probably was a mild issue, but because of many things that have been happening in my life lately…it cut through my heart like a butcher knife.  It made me cry to think that someone could be so callous with my feelings. 

Then I remembered what I had been learning about righteousness; more specifically about living a righteous life and living by faith.  My eyes were opened to the spiritual battle that was going on.  

And a spark was born.

Instead of feeling sorry for myself, my back straightened up and I chose to fight back.  I now recognize just who it is that is attacking me and it’s not people.  They are pawns in a much larger war.  

And it’s a war I will not lose.  Because I have God on my side..and He will win the battle for me.

Yesterday I realized people close to me are being used by satan to break me down.  Today, God reminded me that He will use people as well…in order to bless me.

I have been worrying about how to put oil in the tank this month.  It wasn’t going to happen unless something else didn’t get paid or we ate a lot less than normal.

As I was going out the door to work this morning, I received a phone call from a family member who announced that he had some oil to give me.  You don’t need to know why or what the exact circumstances were.  It is enough to know that he thought of me and my family.  He wasn’t sure exactly how much it would be at the time, but it ended up being enough to get us through the next 4 weeks.

This family member didn’t know that we were struggling, but he thought of us anyways.

That’s what I call a God Thing.

Someday I want to be in the spot where my family member was today.  I want to be used by God to bless someone else when they least expect it.

Put on your armor, my friends.  Live righteously..live by faith.

It’s A God Thing

Ever had an AHA moment? Or maybe something strange, but wonderful, happened out of nowhere? I call those kinds of unexplainable and unexpected things a God Thing.

I just had a God Thing happen to me and I had to share it with you.

One of the relationships in my life has been very strained for a number of years. Trust has been broken numerous times and I have forgiven numerous times. God tells us to “turn the other cheek” and to forgive “seventy times seven.” I do my best to do that and so I have allowed this relationship to continue.

Once again, I have been lied to and trust has been completely shattered. I don’t believe it is something that can be repaired at this point and it may be time to sever ties. I’ve been having a conversation with God about it all day.

And then it happened.

I have an application on my android phone that provides daily bible verses. Normally, I would have to launch the application to read it, but today I received a notification that it was available…without doing a thing. That raised an eyebrow, but I thought the program must have updated and it’s a new feature. So I open it. Here is the verse for the day, exactly as it reads on my screen:

Isaiah 32:17
17 And the effect of righteousness
Will be peace,
And the result of righteousness,
Quietness and trust forever.

I don’t ever recall reading this verse (I probably skimmed over it, like many others). But it speaks loudly to me and my situation right now. It’s as if God has spoken directly to me and the key word is “righteousness.” From righteousness comes peace, quietness and TRUST…FOREVER. Wow.

I am off to do a study of righteousness to see what I may have been missing. He has my attention, my full attention. Will you say a prayer for me to not be distracted?

Thanks so much.

Keep your eyes open for the God Things in your life. Feel free to share them here with me; I would love to hear about them.

God bless!