Stone Collecting

This weekend I went to our church sponsored women’s conference in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Our speaker was Shiela Breazeale who hails from Louisiana.  She brought wonderful teaching from first Samuel regarding slaying the giants that are in our lives.  Let’s face it, we have some pretty big giants that inevitably emerge in the course of our journey in this life.  Like David, we have to fill our pouches with stones to cast against these trials.  We must amass our own arsenal so that we can combat the effects of these giants.

In our second small group session, we came up with suggestions of the various stones that we could collect in or bags.  Faith was the first stone mentioned and it is an important stone to acquire.  It’s of great importance for our spiritual well-being.  Faith gives us hope when the tough times of life arrive.  Sheila stated in one of her teaching sessions that “Faith sees the invisible and believes the impossible.”  I wrote this down in my notes, because I thought how true this statement really is.  Faith often operates on the principle of invisibility.  That principle usually means that if we can’t see it, we won’t believe it.  Remember the old adage, seeing is believing.  That is not so with faith.  We realize that the enemy relishes the opportunity to raise a giant sized trial in our lives.  We are good at evaluating the circumstances and the potential damage caused by the disturbance of a giant, because  we see the challenge.  Although,  in our minds we can’t determine the victory without knowing or actually “seeing” the victory.

So, I invite you my sisters, to come along with me on a little field trip.  We are going to take a walk and collect some stones along the way, just like my kids did when they were little.  Don’t forget to bring your pouch so that you can fill it with all kinds of spiritual stones to build your supply.

Take your pouch and loosen  the drawstring.  Now, drop that first stone of faith in there, and pull the drawstring tight!  We don’t want it to accidentally fall out!  Congratulations, we now have our first stone!  That giant is going to shout out to us while we are on the battlefield of life that God doesn’t care about us.  When that happens, we are going to pull out that stone of faith and hurl that bad boy of a rock and hit that giant right smack in the forehead!  That giant will be down for the count!  We are going to kill that giant and cut off  its head!  Just remember when you put that stone in your spiritual slingshot, you are in essence hurling that stone proving that you have faith in the invisible and the impossible!

“When my spirit grows faint within me it is You who knows my way.” Psalm 142:3

Has your spirit ever felt faint?  Do you feel you just cant’ go on?  Feeling lost and confused?  I sure have!  It’s comforting to know that God knows our way, even when we don’t.  Just as this verse states, He knows just how every situation will turn out, and He is there for us providing us with the strength we so desperately need. 

David was in the cave when he wrote this psalm.  Are you trapped in a cave right now?  Do your enemies seem all around leaving no room for escape?  Each one of us at some point in our lives enters a cave.  Some of us choose to stay in the cave and many times we enter multiple caves in our lifetime.  Perhaps you are in the cave of loneliness or the cave of unforgiveness.  Or possibly, the cave that traps you is the cave of depression.  Financial problems, abuse, or disobedience.  You name it there is a a “cave” for it. 

Be encouraged, dear one, God knows the way out!  He knows the path you need to take to exit that cave!  Ask Him for guidance and wisdom, because He liberally gives both.  The “caves” of life seem to oppress us and liberation doesn’t seem to be an option.  Even when the darkness of the cave envelopes you, know that God’s light will always shine bright and illuminate your way out!  He knows the way for your life!

Are you Perscriptive or Descriptive?

This might sound like a strange question.  I too thought these words were odd when our pastor, Dr. Drew Landry,  talked about the subject of trust in one of our Wednesday night church services a while back.  He did a  series on trust and he  preached  from Exodus.  First and foremost we need to know what the heck these words mean as they relate to our faith and our prayer life. 

Prescriptive means that I set the conditions within my spiritual life and the outcome of my life.  Basically, this theory states, “God, I will trust You if You do what I want You to do.  We remove God from His throne and plop our little selves in His place.  When things go our way, which might consist of a fat bank account, angelic children who never would dream of getting in trouble, and a spouse that always does what we want , we are happy and fulfilled spiritually speaking.  We want it to go our way.  I don’t know how many times I have prayed to the Lord or more aptly put, bemoaned to the Lord “Why can’t things ever go my way?”  Why can’t things just go smoothly?  Why do these things happen to me?  Why do I struggle with things and that other family never does?  Ever been there?   Then you have a persciptive outlook, especially when it comes to prayer.  We prayer for this and that and when we don’t get our way, we want to pick up all our marbles and go home.  That is a prescriptive way of looking at things!  I am the first to admit, shamefully so, that that is how I have looked at the things that have occurred in my life way to many times. 

OK, now we have to define the converse of prescriptive, which is descriptive.  This means that we say to God, “Lord, I have no idea, but I will trust you.”  Whew!  That’s a biggie!!!!  We need to remove ourselves from God’s throne and let the rightful Owner reign.  He is the Blessed Controller of our lives.  He knows what’s best.  Why do we struggle so much with control?  We seem to think that we have “control” when in reality we have none.  God has that job.  Let it go!  Just let it go!  We have to get to the point in our spiritual lives where we just cry out to God!   We have to  adopt a descriptive approach to our prayer life, our spiritual life, and our everyday life.  All three encompass our one LIFE!  We only have one life and God is in control of it! 

Do you really trust God?  He will have His way regardless if you trust Him or not!  Are you really happy in your life as a perscriptive?  Isn’t is hard to keep all those balls in the air when you are juggling so much?  Isn’t it exhausting  “trying” to play God and trying to control every situation?  I have found it is so freeing to be descriptive in my approach to all things as it relates to my life.  I don’t have to worry or be anxious, because He is with me.  I can’t say that I always live this way, but I am learning.  OK, so here’s the question are you persciptive or descriptive?  Which one will you choose today.

“You, O LORD, remain forever; Your throne from generation to generation.” Lamentations 5:19

I have been thinking a lot about our country lately as I have read through Jeremiah and Lamentations.  I read today in Lamentations a particular verse that really calmed my anxious heart concerning the changes our country is going to go through regarding the election tomorrow, and possibly the direction we are headed.  Those “what ifs” seem to dog me and really create unrest in my soul.  I was thankful that the Lord led me to read this certain verse on the eve of this election that is so pivotal in our country’s history.

“You, O LORD, remain forever; Your throne from generation to generation.”  Lamentations 5:19

God reminded me that He is in control, and He will remain from my generation to my children’s generation and the generations to come if that is His will!  No matter who wins the presidency, that man will not remain forever.  The “throne” of the presidency will most certainly not be sustained forever.  It will pass away as sure as this earth will.  I need to stop putting my focus on the earthly and start putting my faith in the Eternal One that REMAINS and SUSTAINS me!

He has a hold on you

A couple of weeks ago I received some pretty devastating news regarding one of my family members.  I cannot express the sense of abandonment of the One who had always been there for me.  I felt like I had truly slipped through the grasp of My Father in Heaven.  How could such a thing have happened I wondered?  I had dropped my son off at school that Friday morning and on the way home I had a conversation with God to tell Him how I felt.  I told Him that at this pivotal point in my spiritual life, I needed a clear indication of His love for me, and that I was aching for encouragement of some sort.  He delivered that and more to me that morning on the way home.  I was listening to the local Christian radio station and a song from Mercy Me came on called “Hold Fast”.  These words seemed to reach right into my soul and warm the coldness that I had allowed to seep in from the enemy.  The words are as follows:

To everyone who’s hurting
To those who’ve had enough
To all the undeserving
That should cover all of us
Please do not let go
I promise there is hope

Hold fast
Help is on the way
Hold fast
He’s come to save the day
What I’ve learned in my life
One thing greater than my strife
Is His grasp
So hold fast

Will this season ever pass?
Can we stop this ride?
Will we see the sun at last?
Or could this be our lot in life?
Please do not let go
I promise you there’s hope

You may think you’re all alone
And there’s no way that anyone could know
What you’re going through
But if you only hear one thing
Just understand that we are all the same
Searching for the truth
The truth of what we’re soon to face
Unless someone comes to take our place
Is there anyone?
All we want is to be free
Free from our captivity, Lord
Here He comes

The chorus resonated within me.  The words seemed to be just for me when they sang “Hold fast. Help is on the way.  One thing greater than my strife Is His grasp.”  I kept envisioning His grasp on me, and  I could not help but tell God that I just couldn’t hold fast to Him, I just couldn’t, the pain was to much for me to bear.  I reminded Him of the hurt and the sheer anguish that I had within me.  I told Him that I didn’t even want to hold fast.  He gave me a thought or a vision of His hand holding fast to me. His fingers were wrapped around my unresponsive hand.  I heard Him say that even when I let go of my grasp on Him, He still holds fast to me.  It was incredible moment for me.  He had communicated to me the truth that I knew in my head but didn’t hold in my heart.   I don’t know if that powerful picture can translate in these words that I type, but for me I saw His hand holding onto my hand even though my hand was not holding onto His.  He holds onto us even when we can’t, or don’t feel like holding on.  We all have problems, trials, and tribulations that come into our lives.  We all struggle with worries such as the financial uncertainties, the election, and those things that come out of nowhere that blindside us.  Some of us may be dealing with the loss of a loved one or a cancer diagnosis or possibly the repercussions of sin, but just remember that He is holding on and His grasp is firm.  He has a death grip on me and you and He will NOT let go even when you do.

If God has your heart, He has all of you.

Our church is having our fall revival.  The speaker is Dr. Fred Luter from New Orleans, Louisiana.  I have enjoyed his messages.  He made a statement last night that has just stayed with me.  He said, “If God has your hear, He has all of you!”  He said this in response to a church member commenting that Rev. Luter had “stepped on his toes”.  Rev Luter in turn responded by replying that he was no aiming for his toes, but he was aiming for his heart.  That began my journey of examining my own heart.  This statement struck me and even pierced my soul.  God ws speaking to me, and more importantly I was listening to Him as He spoke.  That’s the whole point of revival, realizing that you need a fresh word to revive your heart and rejuvenate your spirit.

I have been pondering this statement ever sisnce last night.  The Lord brought to mind the scripture from Deuteronomy 6:5 which states “You shall love the LORD your God with all your soul and with all your might.”  That’s the command plain and simple, but yet I tend to complicate things, as usual!  The Lord has shown me that I am holding back part of my heart.  I am not fully committed to Him.  I have withheld my trust from Him.  Oh sure, I say I trust Him, but do I really?  Take for example today on the news, I have been hearing about the bailouts of AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the collapse of these financial institutions, and I become anxious and scared.  This anxiousness and fear soon snowballs into all out worry, and then the worry becomes an obsession with the economy.  One thing after another begins to bombard my mind.  I lose my heart to my worries.  I just flat out lose heart, and I take my heart back from the Lord.  In essence, I say, you know what God; I can figure this one out on my own.  BIG MISTAKE!  I need at that very moment that those worries creep back into my thinking to surrender to the Lord, heart, soul, and mind.  All I have to do is give Him my heart and leave it there in His very capable hands.  He knows what He is doing.  My trust is intertwined with my heart, given to God.  I received an e-mail from one of my prayer partners regarding the shaky economy and she reiterated a wonderful truth to me.  She said that we must remember that this is God’s economy.  The world may think it’s theirs, but it is most definitely God’s.  That has become one of the first phrases that I repeat to myself when I begin to get anxious.  I just have to trust Him with my heart.  Do you trust Him with your heart today?

 

Cling to what is good!

Romans 12:9

“Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil.  Cling to what is good.”

When I read this verse in my daily Bible reading a while back,  I had to examine how I love people.  Do I truly have a genuine love for them or do I love them for what they can do for me?  That is hypocritical love.  I say one thing but yet that’s not how I really feel.  Let’s be honest.  It’s hard to love people sometimes.  I can love people who are nice and sweet.  That’s easy.  It’s those “unlovable” people.  Those people who enter your life to test you to see if what you say is really what you do.  I have to deal with the public on a daily basis in the job that I have.  In twenty years, I have seen almost every kind of person under the sun!!!  The grumpy, the flighty, the mean, the sweet, the genuine, and every one in between.  It’s hard to love them, especially when they are disgruntled.  Fortunately, that has not been the case very often.  But, the beginning of that verse really pricked my heart and made me examine my view on love.  My love for people must be filtered through Jesus Christ and it is only through His power that I can love people the way He does. 

Also, I had to ask myself if I was truly abhorring or hating what was evil.  At first glance as a Christian, I thought this is really a no brainer!  Of course, I thought, Lord, I hate and abhor drugs, profanity, stealing, cheating and things of that nature.  But, don’t I lie sometimes, don’t I become envious, or don’t I sometimes not even trust God?  Of course these things are evil too.  I become judgemental  and think that I know best.  I forget whose I am and that He is a part of me.  It is through the Holy Spirit that I recognize the evils of this world and through His power, I can learn to combat those things that I should abhor or hate.  The problem comes when I decide that I am the judge of that, not God.  

The second part of this verse is just as convicting to me.  “Cling to what is good.”  I had to ask myself, what am I clinging to.  Honestly, I had to admit that lately I have been clinging to worry and anxiousness.  These “worries” become larger than life and larger than Jesus who came to this world to save my soul.  How can I do that?  Easy.  I take my eyes off Jesus and place emphasis on myself.  The worries take over and I begin to ruminate or think about these concerns constantly.  That is what I have been clinging to.  I am holding fast with a death grip on my anxieties.  Worries about my children, our finances, the economy, the election ect.  That my friend, is not good.  So, what’s the answer?  What is good?  The Lord Jesus Christ, He’s the answer.  Also, the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God can give us insight into the solution. (Romans 12:2).  The answer is always Jesus.  I MUST, MUST lean on Him in my time of trial.  I must cling.  I must give up my death grip on worries only to exchange that grip for something, no SOMEONE else.  I must cling to Him.  According to Miriam Webster online dictionary, cling means to hold on tightly or tenaciously.  Also, it means to have a strong emotional attatchment or dependence.  I can take this definition and apply it to this verse.  Do I have that sense of clinging?  Do you? 

Life is like a roller coaster.  I like roller coasters, or I used to until I got so old!  But, in my youth I did love them!  Just imagine you are on a roller coaster riding through life.  You are feeling good and having a jolly ‘ole time.  Then suddenly out of nowhere, there comes a huge hill that you can’t see what is beyond it.  You panic.  You get anxious and your palms begin to sweat.  If you haven’t guessed yet, that huge hill is a problem that happens in our lives.  What do you cling to?  Or better yet, who do you cling to.  Remember our definition, who or what are you holding on to with a fierce tenacity?  Who or what are you dependent on?  Can you see where you are going when problems or trials arise?  Not generally.  It’s scary stuff this roller coaster thing called life.  We need to learn to cling to Jesus with such vigor that we never, ever let go.  That means we depend on Him, not our own devices or our own solutions.  Only when we let go and grab hold of Him will we ever find peace and security.  Who or what are you clinging to today?

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!