Ok, so whatever it is you’re going through, or whatever it is that you’re about to face, or wherever you’ve been or whatever’s goin’ down, you know He’s still faithful! He always is. He’s always giving over the grace and handing out the mercy and yeah, you know God won’t let you down no matter the situation or the circumstance! Oh it might not be easy street and it might not be simple but He’s got it and He’s got you and He’ll see you through it and strengthen you in it. Just realize today, that your situation and circumstance doesn’t have you, but God has ‘it’ and He’s the Master of all creation and the Master of all of our stuff. So ~ beautiful soul, lean in closer when the going gets tough and gather up the grace that He gives and soak in that sweet, incomprehensible and unconditional love that He’s so faithful at lavishing on us. He’s got it for you today and tomorrow and the week ahead. Trust Him! Just trust!
He’s got your today, your tomorrow and your next week, all planned. Just trust Him ❤
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16: 33
"Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;..
Deuteronomy 7:9
Little Thoughts For Big Days
So you know the journey ahead might be challenging. The summer is over and Autumn is approaching just as it always does. After the fall ~ the winter and the struggles and the cold, forked roads and if it’s not colds and flues to get you down, it’s the winter of life and the hard times and the long, ‘n lonely stretches of ‘more than difficult’ things to endure. Yeah, the winters of life wrap their icy fingers around our beautiful souls and sometimes we long for the sweet, n’ light, springtime, when the snow’s blowin’ and the blizzards raging on, but yet we must get through the cold and the ice and when the slope is slippery we must hang on and we must hang on with all that we have within us.
So what’s your plan? And what will you hold on to during those trying times, when they come? Do you have an steadfast security and someone you can trust and go to and work with? Oh it’s sad and sorry but friends will let us down! Families ~ well, they might be there for us, but they might let us down too just because they can, ‘cuz after all they’re just like us ~ human!
God is a good choice! “Cuz, He’s sovereign and all present! ‘Cuz that next hurdle there in the road ahead, He’s already there. He sees it coming and He’s lighting the way, if you’re looking for His Truth. Oh yeah, you might be tempted to throw in the towel and give in or let go! But don’t do it! Our God is faithful and sees it all! Remember the past? He was there too just when you needed Him and He saw you through! He knows it all, and He not going to give more that we can bear. He will lead you out and hold you up. He’s promised that, so rest in that thought and beautiful you, when you feel you might break under the load, know that you won’t, because you can handle your lot with God holding you up under the weight of it.
Yeah, winter’s a comin’, so refresh yet still in the summer of your life. Spend it with God and go deep with Him now while you can. Let the tender, fragile roots be spiritually nourished in the good times, and harvest the fruit because the winter approaches quickly now and the stormy days ahead will need divine stability that only God can provide. Go deep today with God. Walk on in peace and safety under His divine protection. Be strengthened in His Truth! Lean on His promises! Hide them in your heart! Trust them in your soul! Remember ~ this too will pass and in those icy, cold winters of life remember summer will come again and it will be beautiful just as you remembered it to be.
❤ ❤
"There hath no temptation taken hold of you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful; He will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which ye are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
1 Corinthians 10: 13
"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;.."
So, we’re all in this together ~ you and I. There’s a new day a dawning! The morning comes and brings its moments with it. Little moments, big moments, happy and sad moments and so many moments that we have to encounter along the way. We can choose to make the best of them or we can give up the fight and crumble beneath them. We can sit and toss it all through our minds with worry while we miss the blessings or we can simply trust God for the outcome and enjoy the minutes as they present themselves.
A bad hair day after the bath 🙂
So yes, beautiful you ~ Here we sit ~ together ~ you and I, in our little corners of the world ~ our far corners of the world, each with our stuff and some happiness and some heaviness of heart. Financial pressure, friends, relationships, church issues, work related situations, ministry situations, family issues, time pressures, kid problems and the list is long and the battles very real in our little worlds. But, it’s also a new day to praise the Lord ~ and beautiful soul ~ it’s a new day to be thankful in that heart of yours for all that you have and all that God will do for you today. There are sweet miracles tucked into unhappy corners and hopeless corners and tight spots that you just want to disappear from your life and dissipate into oblivion. So ~ stand firm, hold fast, and hang on to the promises of God! Claim the victory. Walk on undaunted by the unexpected events that may come along to discourage and defeat. Ask God for His direction in this moment and toss the worries aside to find the joy of divine miracles in your journey with God today. Going deeper with Him allow Him to serenade you with sweet serendipitous through the daily moments. Look under the rocks, the stones and the just plain difficult places! You just might find something awesome directly from His hand! That’s what he does! I love how He does it!
Psalm 72:18
“Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.”
Psalm 77:14
“You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.”
So you and I, and we and us and everyone, we all sit in our places of accusations don’t we? Those places where those critical words are thrown at us and though, we might not want to admit it, those places where we throw ’em out with snide remarks and judgemental airs about us! Oh those judgement calls, are catchy aren’t they? Sometimes they trip us up. We dangle a trap for those we think deserve it and sometimes get caught ourselves. What goes around, comes around they say and so often it does, so we need to practice daily the golden rule and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Matthew 7:12, says it this way, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them…” . With that in mind, you and I and we and all of us, need to practice grace calls instead. We need to be givers of grace ‘cuz we don’t know when we’ll need the grace coming back to us in and through and during this long journey of life.
Accusations? Yeah…The Pharisees relentlessly threw them out all over the place with their smug, religious attitudes, proud of their knowledge and strict rules under the law! ~ Nope ~ no grace there, not in their circles of influence. Oh such strict rules they lived by and without a hint of mercy, caught anyone who didn’t oblige or fell short. They were good at deceit and twisting words for their own agendas and so they did. They baited a subtle, sly trap for Jesus upon confrontation with Him in the temple courts, where they presented before Him a woman caught in adultery. According to the law, she needed to be stoned but what would His answer be? John 8: 6,7,8, “They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.…” We don’t know what He wrote, but I don’t think it’s important for the lesson hidden here, or we would have been told. What I love is the fact that Jesus stooped or bent down before these “high in religious authority” types. Jesus, the divine Truth and the Light bent down low enough to write before His accusers, but we don’t have any record of what He wrote.
How dare they try to undermine His credentials and His authority! How dare they try to trip Him up with their manipulative techniques and trick questions. Yet, don’t we? Don’t we undermine His authority, as the one and only True judge, when we pass judgement on others? It’s really not our place it’s His. In spite of their attempts, Jesus would not be tripped up. He knew them! He knew their hearts and was familiar with their secret agendas and I love it, love it, love it how He didn’t react in any kind of human stereotype to such a scandalous scene. What a divine example when, instead of throwing insults back with His perfect and True authority, He stooped and bent low to the ground before the woman’s accusers and those who set Him up! I love the true, gentle humility that Christ always exemplified, always displayed, and always acted out. True humility! It was just His nature. It is His nature and we are so needy to be more like Christ in our reactions to unfair circumstances. True humility is a difficult thing. It’s not an easy action to bend and flex in our attitude before one who accuses and one who lies and one who tries to catch us off guard with their own selfish agendas and plans. Our “default” nature is to “Rise up” and accuse back with anger and fight back with words and could or should we use the catch phrase of sticks and stones? Oh…so often we throw them don’t we? But…. Who could throw that first stone in that scandalous scene there in the temple courts…no one! Absolutely no one, and so they left one by one and they left quietly and they left the woman alone with her Savior and the Saviour of the world and our Saviour ~ the one who saves us from the sin and ruin of our own lives.
So for all the accusations that come our way, for the rumours, true or untrue ~ let’s be honest and face the music, if need be, but let’s face them with true repentance and true humility, “cuz there is God’s grace for our mess ups for sure. True repentance will receive true forgiveness and find God’s sweet grace there. And let’s remember ~ before passing on a rumour or harshly handing out a judgement call ` to check our own hands for cleanliness, ‘cuz the sand that we throw into the eyes of others will stick to the hand that throws it! Instead of judgement, give a grace call, just one more time, ‘cuz down that long road ahead, we might just be thankful for it!
Romans 2:1
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”
So, we’re all in this together ~ you and I. There’s a new day a dawning! The morning comes and brings its moments with it. Little moments, big moments, happy and sad moments and so many moments that we have to encounter along the way. We can choose to make the best of them or we can give up the fight and crumble beneath them. We can sit and toss it all through our minds with worry while we miss the blessings or we can simply trust God for the outcome and enjoy the minutes as they present themselves.
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 