In Repair

Do you ever think about the roads you travel on everyday, what kind of shape they are in? Are they in need of repair, maybe with lots of ruts and holes? Or, maybe they are being repaired right now. Where I live they are in the process of chip sealing every major street I need to travel on to get to work and back home each day. Some of the roads are in the first stages of repair...all gravel...bumpy, rough and dusty! Some are covered in fresh oil. Still others are actually having the finishing touches put on...the lines being repainted on them. Anyway you look at it though...they are still in the state of being repaired. To me it seems like it takes them a really long time just to finish one section. Really, that's a bit like life. We are either in need of repair or we are being repaired right now. Whichever it is...sometimes it seems to take forever!

You ever notice how in the first stages of your repair it's kind of like God is putting down a foundation. He sort of spreads gravel all over you. It makes you bumpy, rough and sometimes just a bit hard to get on with. You just don't have that smooth...got it all together...look and feel about you. But, the more God works on your foundation the smoother you get. Pretty soon the ruts and the holes are all filled in with the gravel and packed down tight. That's how He begins to heal you of all those things that have caused the ruts and holes in your life...pain and hurt. Then He starts pouring His fresh oil all over you. His fresh oil is like balm. It seeps down into all the cracks and crevices that the gravel couldn't get into and starts sealing them up...then it goes right down into your very soul. Before He's done He puts the finishing touches of His Love all over and in you.

Just like road work God's stages seem to take forever too. In fact, He is never through working on us. It can be hard at times to not give up and quit when this is all going on. I think you just have to remember to keep looking at the big picture. If we never have pain...we never grow. Pain is for a reason...it only lasts for a season...we just have to keep believin'! We really do have to trust and not doubt that everything will be okay. That no matter what we're going through...how much we are struggling...God will make a way of escape. We just have to place our trust and hope in Him and not doubt. Then we will have peace.

Proverbs 3:5 (NLT)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
      do not depend on your own understanding.

James 1:6 (NLV)
You must have faith as you ask Him. You must not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like a wave which is pushed around by the sea.

Jeremiah 17:7 (NLT)
“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
      and have made the Lord their hope and confidence."

Psalm 29:11 (NLT)
The Lord gives his people strength.
      The Lord blesses them with peace.

Distractions

Where do distractions lead? To not being focused. Not being focused causes one to take steps in the wrong direction. That would be a step...or maybe a few steps...backward. Usually you can get back on track before too long. Then again...maybe not. Or maybe...it will be too late.

What happens when you lose your focus? Could be it's a little like stepping out into nothingness...

into the unknown, if you will. Maybe it's a bit like free falling. Your up in the plane and it's your turn to jump. So, over to the door you go. You look out...close your eyes...and take that step into the unknown. Next thing you know you're falling...falling...faster and faster! You open your eyes and things below are getting bigger. You thought it would take longer...that you would just stay in a floating stage for awhile. Kind of suspended, not going either up or down. That's not the case. You really are falling faster than you think. And, just like what happens when you step out of a plane without opening your chute, losing your focus could send you on a free fall and put you in a tailspin...

you to start falling faster than you thought you would. Closing your eyes to it works for a while but you have to open them sometime. When you do, you find you are spinning out of control. A lot of your old problems seem to be flying around in front of you. You can't seem to be able to get your head up and your feet facing towards the ground. Your head, and your heart, is reeling as you are grasping for anything to slow you down. You know that somewhere within reach there is help but...you can't quite get there! What are you going to do...? You better figure it out before you actually hit the ground!

“When you come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly.”  Patrick Overton

Thoughts

Have you ever noticed that when you just can't seem to really connect with God that...everything in your life is off. You can switch that up as well. When everything in your life is off...you just can't seem to connect with God! So who's fault is that, ours or Gods? Well...I'm going to step out on the limb and say...it's ours. We spend so much time trying to get our lives together...without asking for His help...that we just sort of become disconnected with God. At least I believe that is what I do.

I always think that I can handle everything on my own. Deep down I know I can't but I really just don't want to give up control. Why?? Probably fear. Fear of the unknown. Maybe God will not handle my life the way I think He should. Maybe He'll do something I'm not comfortable with. Well, let me tell you right now. Whatever God would decide to do with me has got to be better than my choices have been. I'm only comfortable with the choices I make right at the moment I make them. Later when I have to pay the consequences for my choices...it's usually not a real comfortable place to be. 

How can we expect to have peace when we ourselves cause nothing but turmoil in our own lives. For example...Think about the thoughts you have. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, thoughts that really don't make any difference at all. But these thoughts just keep your mind in a jumbled up mess! Then what happens? It's different for everyone. You might start letting temptations get the best of you. You think about them long enough and you will eventually give in to them. You can fight them for days...weeks...or even months. But the inevitable will happen if you don't get back on track. You will give in to temptations unless you just turn your jumbled up mess of thoughts over to the Lord and let Him help you.

You have to let God control your thoughts. Let His peace...comfort...strength...love...take control. Don't let the devil win the fight for your mind.

Just some thoughts I've been having today.

Ephesians 6:12-14 (NKJV)

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Time To Refocus

This is another post that is hard for me to write. But...here it is...

Today I read my Jesus Calling devotional and it really rang true for me. This is some of it...

I continually call you to closeness with Me. I know the depth and breadth of your need for Me. I can read the emptiness of your thoughts when they wander away from Me. 

That last sentence really said it all for me. That's exactly how I have felt all week. As if my head was completely devoid of any good thoughts. My brain has been like a barren land...untouched by most good thoughts. I have let the stress and craziness of life really get to me. When I go there it is so hard to get back to where I need to be. Here is the next line...

I offer rest for your soul, as well as refreshment for your mind and body.

As Christians we know this! I have just been thinking...if I could only get my thinking back where I know it needs to be...on JESUS! HE is the only one that can make a difference in how I feel. HE can give me true rest and peace. I know this. And yet...

sometimes I listen to the wrong voice...the devil. He works his way in through issues in our lives. When he does that it just causes all kinds of havoc. I get my mind and my heart off what I know to be right...JESUS!!
This makes me think of a passage in scripture...

Philippians 4:8-9

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

We all need to fix our thoughts on Him. We live in a tough world sometimes. Things are going to go wrong and affect how we think and feel. We have to remember to not let those things affect our relationship with the one who has given us everything.

Another thing Jesus Calling said today was this...

Waiting in My Presence keeps you connected to Me, aware of all that I offer you. If you feel any deficiency, you need to refocus your attention on Me. This is how you trust Me in the moments of your life.

This week, I have so much been trying to do that. It is so hard when all the thoughts I used to have resurface in my day to day thinking. But...I know that God is good and He is faithful. If I keep fighting and striving to do what I know is the right thing...He will help me. I just have to refocus on Him and think on Him.

Psalm 37:7a

Be still in the presence of the Lord,
      and wait patiently for him to act.

Psalm 46:10a

“Be still, and know that I am God!

Only A Few Find It

Do you like poetry? I really had never liked poetry very much until the last few years and now I find it really kind of relaxing to read. I even try writing some occasionally but I don't think I'm really very good at it. But that's okay. There have been, and still are, some great poets out there already. Robert Frost is one I like...

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

This is the last few lines in the poem by Robert Frost called; Road Not Taken. Do you know it? It's about a traveler who comes to a fork in the road and has to decide which road he is going to chose to continue on in his journey. It's an important decision because he may not pass this way again. He thinks about it for awhile and decides to take..."the road less traveled by." That always reminds me of something else I have read...

Matthew 7:13-14

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Just like the fictitious traveler in the poem, we too have a choice to make. If we choose the wide gate...yes, life is fun for awhile. But eventually, partying gets old and we start looking for a way out. The bible talks about that in Hebrews 11:25..."enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin".  We travel that broad road for a long time and just when we think there is no hope for us, God gives us a second chance to enter in through the small gate. We look at that narrow road on the other side thinking...I can't stay on that path, I'll never be able to make it. But we know if we don't change paths...we may never pass this way again. So we take a chance...and by the grace of GOD...we are making it! This narrow road could also be called "the one less traveled by" because the bible says..."only a few find it."

This verse applies to all of us. It doesn't matter how long you were on the broad road. All that matters is that at some point...you have entered in through the small gate and you are traveling the narrow road...the road to true life.

Aren't you glad you are one of "the few"? Now think about this...

Many people we know are still on that "road to destruction". From experience, I know that it's really hard to get off of that road and leave it all behind. We need to do all we can to point people we know, and even people we don't know, in the direction of the small gate and the road to life.

Defined

Define: to determine or set boundaries, to limit.

Have you ever been talking to God and just asked Him why your relationship with Him seems to be just stuck? Well...I did. I have been frustrated with where I seem to be and this morning I decided to talk to Him about it. He was probably glad that I finally got around to asking Him...talking it over with Him. That's always a good thing to do...talk to God about things that are bothering you. He didn't explain in detail to me but this one word came to mind, defined...

Immediately in my thoughts...I have defined Him. I have put Him in a box and tried to define my relationship with Him.

Now that's really not a good thing to do. I know that. I don't want to have a defined relationship with God because He's not just any god...He is "the GOD"! So I'm thinking...how do I put GOD in a box?! My answer...I will only allow Him to do some things in my life. Just the ones I'm comfortable with. If I'm afraid to let Him into some areas...I define Him. Set boundaries...lock Him out! I try to limit God as to what He can do in my life. I didn't realize I was doing that. I came to the realization that I have to be "all in with God" or not at all. If you aren't it's as if you are sitting on the fence. Half on Gods side and half on the devils side. That's no way to live. In my way of thinking there is only one way...

In Total Dependence on HIM!!

We all need to allow ourselves to be completely dependent on Him. If we do we won't be as apt to try to define Him and box Him in. When something goes wrong in our day to day we just need to let Him in. Talk to Him and ask for His help. If He wants to change something in us we need to let Him. Don't fight it...allow Him to work in our lives. He wants to bless us. He loves us. We need to trust that He is working everything out for us in the best way...HIS way.

Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Psalm 28:7
The Lord is my strength and shield.
      I trust him with all my heart.
   He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.
      I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

Does GOD Have Something For You?

Before I start this post I would like to thank Pam from http://2encourage.blogspot.com/ for featuring my blog this week. I'm not sure what God has for me to write so we will just have to find out together!

Today didn't start off as I had planned. This being Sunday I was expecting it to be something more than it was. You know how it is...

On Saturday you go to bed thinking you will get up in the morning, have some coffee, go to church and get all your inspiration...encouragement...just plain, good time feelings for the week!  Doesn't always happen like that though. For me...

I woke up with a migraine, had to iron something to wear, and didn't have any coffee!! Should of known right away that something was off. I haven't had a migraine in sooooo long I can't even remember when the last time was. I get too church and all is good until  worship started...it was really loud and I only knew one of the songs! Then when Pastor got up and started talking I knew almost immediately it was something I didn't want to hear. Not that it was a subject that I disagree with...just a subject that is hard for me for so many reasons. But...God is good. At the end of the service someone prayed with me and things were better. The funny thing about all of this is that we have two services...I stayed for the second as well! I kept thinking I should leave but God kept saying...you need to stay. In the past I have left when I knew I should stay and just had to turn around and go back, so...today I stayed! What he talked about still wasn't working for me but I know that someday it will.

Sometimes it's just hard to get yourself out of old mindsets...no matter how much you want too! I know that the Lord will help us to change our way of thinking if we will allow Him to. Sometimes, I think God wants us to hear things that make us uncomfortable just so He can get us thinking about it more. The more you think about something, the more curious you are about it...the more you want to find out about it. For me it raises as many questions as it does doubts when it's a subject I'm not real comfortable with.

 I know that God only wants what is best for us. He wants us to have all the good things He has to give us. Is there something you know that God has for you to experience that maybe is just hard for you? Some gift that He wants to give you that you might think you just aren't good enough to deserve? If there is I can only tell you what I know God is telling me...

Get your bible and read it. Ask Him to help you deal with whatever the problem is so you can open your mind and your soul to what ever change He is trying to make in you.

Ephesians 3:14-20
Amplified Bible (AMP)
For this reason (seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ], I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

For Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named [that Father from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name].

May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].

May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,

That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];

[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]

 

AUGUST 10

You know how people say things like...

Yesterday was a day I will never forget. Everything was going along fine and then Wham...everything in my life went crazy. My whole day just turned upside down!

Or maybe they say something like...Everything has been going good and then my whole day just took a turn for the worst! Then they go on to tell you the horrible thing that just happened to them.

Well, I have a story something like that.

Four years ago today...August 10,2007...my whole life was already crazy and upside down! It wasn't going along fine and it just didn't take a turn for the worst. In my mind...my life was already pointless. It had been that way for as long as I could remember. So, sometime between midnight and 6am I came up with a plan to see if I could change my life...or so I thought then it was "my" plan. I know now it wasn't. I believe that everything that happened that whole week was because God had planned it. He had a plan for my life whether I had believed He cared or not.

Jeremiah 29:11

New Living Translation

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

So I went to work the morning of the 10th. When I got off I set "my" plan into motion. My plan was to go and talk to someone just to see if there might be a chance that God cared about me at all. I really believed that He didn't. I thought that when I was a kid God had decided He didn't want me and that the devil could have me. But, for some reason that I didn't understand then...I went to someone I kind of knew and started talking to them more than I had ever talked before. I remember having a hard time breathing and thinking I wasn't going to live through it and thinking I was just going to be sick! It was one of the hardest things I had ever done and yet, I had to do it! That's when my whole life...not just day...begin to turn upside down! 

On August 10, 2007 I prayed the prayer and asked Jesus to forgive me and come into my life. There was no big, instant change in my life that I could feel. I didn't immediately become ecstatically happy or feel like a tremendous weight had been lifted. In fact, at first I wasn't really sure if the prayer had "worked" at all. I do remember being able to breathe normally again though and the sick feeling leaving. I was happy about that! LOL 

Since that day it has been quite a journey. The Lord has done many, many things for me. Changed me in ways I never thought possible. He has really done what I consider to be miracles in my life! He has done many healings in my mind and in my body. But most of all...HE has been, and still is, healing the holes in my soul. I can never thank HIM enough for all that HE has done for me!! 

The reason that I am writing this post today is to just say thank You. Thank YOU JESUS for coming into my life. For saving me and giving me a new life. For giving me hope when I was most hopeless! For giving me strength when I need it. For helping me to just get through one more day...more times than I care to remember! For loving me when I couldn't even like myself! For putting amazing people in my life that actually care whether I'm here or not and talk to me and pray with me when I need them to.  Thank you JESUS for being LORD of my life!!

I really like the 18th Psalm. Here is just a portion of it...

¹ I love you, Lord;
      you are my strength.
 ² The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
      my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
   He is my shield, the power that saves me,
      and my place of safety.
 ³ I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
      and he saved me from my enemies.

 ⁴ The ropes of death entangled me;
      floods of destruction swept over me.
 ⁵ The grave wrapped its ropes around me;
      death laid a trap in my path.
 ⁶ But in my distress I cried out to the Lord;
      yes, I prayed to my God for help.
   He heard me from his sanctuary;
      my cry to him reached his ears.

¹⁶ He reached down from heaven and rescued me;
      he drew me out of deep waters.

Three Bridges - Nothing Like The Presence

Get Back In The Game

The last few days I have been feeling as if I'm floundering about...just kind of an uneasy feeling on the inside. Kind of like I'm struggling to stay on top of it all. I haven't felt this way in a long time. There's been no putting my finger on what the problem is. Friends keep asking me if everything's okay and I keep saying yes. Really it is. The eye surgery went great...doc said it went perfect and he couldn't have asked for better. Praise God! It was all because of Him! I keep thinking it's because I'm so tired from just not sleeping well. Maybe it is the reason. But no...I don't really think so. Then today something just sort of "popped into my head"...

It's time to get back in the game. Get back in the game!!...I pondered that for a while. I haven't been really sloughing off what I should be doing...just been slacking a bit. Oh...I have lot's of excuses. Eye surgery...it's been very hard to see clearly. Really tired...lack of sleep for 8 days. Can't concentrate...same reason. All just excuses. I am so good at making them. So, today I believe that the thought that just "popped into my head" was put there by the Lord. He wants me to get out of this funk I found myself in the last couple of days and...Get back in  the game!

Get back in His Word! Even if I have to listen to it on my IPad and not read it out of my Bible! Do what it takes to get His Word going back into me. Get back to talking to God on a regular basis...not just when I feel the need! Get back to His blog and reading the posts all of you write...they always help to encourage me. Talk to friends. Just really...Get Back In The Game!!

Satan likes nothing more than to get us discouraged when we are already down. Like myself...sometimes we don't even know something is wrong until...it just really goes wrong! We just blame all of what we are feeling on the life circumstances we are going through at the moment. For me, once I hit that edge and start going over it's kind of like a slip and slide effect...my feet go out from under me, the uneasy feeling begins...then floundering about starts.

So...today I have made a new commitment. Get back to God and everything I know He has called me to do. If I can't read...listen. If I'm floundering...due what I need to do to stop it.

Get Back In The Game!!
 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (AMP)

¹⁶Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.
    ¹⁷For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!],
    ¹⁸Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.