Trusting

Oh, don’t we all need a big heap of God’s love today? Just to wrap us up tightly and carry us over the rough spots that come along. All the things hoped for seem to transfer to the back burner while things not hoped for, nor even asked for, come a calling.

Yeah, the enemy can throw some pretty difficult stuff into our pathway and it keeps us on our toes for sure and makes us wonder how we’ll make it through. But remember, our faithful God is so faithful and walks the same road with us. He’s rich in mercy! He’s compassionate in care and perfect in love. His eye is on you and You are highly favoured in His economy. He heals! He mends! He repairs, and He protects and that’s what we need today for sure. Just one big heap of it all to take its place right in our midst and give us a springboard to propel us on for His glory!

So, beautiful one, whatever has you down ~ whatever has come a calling that wasn’t asked for, you might not realize it yet, but it’s been perfected just for you and customized just for your needs today. He’s got it. Enjoy God’s faithfulness through it and let Him direct your path. Be blessed under His divine protection through the testing time and watch His miracles unfold.

“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.”

James 1: 12

“The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture and the hillsides blossom with joy.”

Psalm 65: 12

Be Blessed: The Beauty of Giving Without Expectation

❤

All We Need

We need a big heaping dose of God’s grace today. His grace for the journey! His grace for the road! His grace for the difficult choices, hard decisions of life and the just plain troubles! They come, don’t they? They stomp in uninvited and rudely parade around our little selves making us feel very small in our little worlds. And yeah, Some days, just when we think we’ve managed five baby steps forward, we find ourselves regressed ten giant steps backward, plunged neck-deep in the muddied waters of self and consequences. The enemy is advancing and we can’t see clearly, nor can we swim in what appears to be a threatening situation! The hope, that faintly flickered in the heart, just flickered for the last time and there we wrestle the high waters of bad choices, troubled relationships, financial pressure, addictions, loss and on and on it goes, as we sink lower, yet try to keep our heads above the mud and mire. We feel even God has forsaken us and left us to drown in our circumstances. Oh, but we can know that He hasn’t left us at all.

In Judges 6:11 we find Gideon having a very bad day. He’s threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide grain from the enemies, feeling very discouraged, very inadequate to face the situation at hand and forsaken by God. Sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it?

In this most unlikely moment, God sent him a message, no, not a text and not by phone, but by angel.

THE MESSAGE? “Things are going to turn around for you Gideon. The Lord is with you!” Powerful words for one threshing grain at the bottom of the wine press to stay hidden from advancing enemies or for one who wrestles in high, muddied waters.

Gideon’s circumstances were not lining up with what this angel was saying…and Gideon wasn’t impressed, nor was he hopeful. So he complained to the Angel about his weakness and the hopelessness of the situation, until the Lord Himself spoke.

You Gideon, “Go in the strength in you have and I will be with you. You will defeat the enemy as one man.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 is a promise that we might want to tuck into our hearts for safekeeping……

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12: 7 “So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I asked the Lord to take it away. Each time He said (here’s the verse to tuck away verse 9) “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

The Lord first served up this promise of powerful Truth to Gideon and He still serves it to us today. Right there smack dab in the middle of our highs and lows! At the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, and In the middle of our difficult choices and tough decisions and when we’re drowning in the muddy water. When the choices are hard and the battle is raging …and you’re exhausted from it all, The Lord says…“Things are going to turn around for you Gideon. The Lord is with you!” ”Go in the strength you have and I will be the strength you need.”

My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

When the battle is hard yeah, we PRESS ON!!

#Safeinahardplace

Mom’s World

So you’ve just wiped up spilled milk, scrubbed crayon off the wall, threw in your fourth load of wash for the day, wrestled up a quick, nutritious lunch for your hungry brood, kissed a hurt and sealed it with a band-aid! You’ve rocked, and lulled, and sung sweet lullabies, while all the while just wanting to have a spare minute for yourself but you can’t find one anywhere. The day wears on and the hours are tedious and so the same with whines, and cries, and fussiness and wet diapers, and quarrels, and how come no one ever told you that motherhood assigned you referee credentials? So, you’re a mom, and when you signed up for parenthood, you were unaware of its strange mix of excitement, fear, joy, panic, happiness, sorrow, fun, or anxiety. But it is and there you are right up there in the top ranking of it all, and it’s awesome but it’s scary, and it’s sheer delight but it’s frustration, and it’s rewarding but it’s so time-consuming. Oh, so time-consuming!! Yeah, motherhood; there’s really nothing like it on the planet! Its challenges are out of this world and it’s rocked yours to the moon and back. It’s got you booked solid ~ hook, line and sinker and drowning in its many demands! The hats you wear are ridiculous and next to impossible and your sanity? Well, it’s gone south for a break and right now as you think you might go under for the very last time, know that you won’t! You won’t because your job is the toppest of the top-notch jobs in the whole wide world.

You’ve been entrusted with gifts from heaven, all ‘little life’, wrapped up and so tenderly placed in your lap. And there you are!! Smack dab in the middle of days that don’t end and nights that don’t sleep. Those gifts of life are yours to cherish, to love, and to nurture, guide, teach and train and when that journey overwhelms your beautiful soul, remember King Lemuel’s mom had some good words of advice for him in Proverbs 31: 10, 17, 25, 26, 28. She told him exactly how fortunate he would be to find a woman of noble character just like you. You may be tired and exhausted but your value is outstanding… “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies…….she sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks…she is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue…Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her.”

God hasn’t promised pastel rainbows for your days of motherhood, in fact, some days might just well be purple and red, but He has promised joy to the mom who seeks Him and grace for the one who walks the ho-hum of the daily journey by His side. No, your rewards won’t necessarily be seen nor given out today there in your little kitchen nook, but your loyal works and your tedious steps will etch their memories into little hearts that will grow big and strong to become mom and dads of their own little gifts of life. So mom, take heart! Your tasks performed faithfully today will navigate back and will find their way into your seasoned heart of hearts when all you have left are the memories of the long lost, good old days. So yeah, beautiful Mom, enjoy these joyous but trying days of motherhood. They’ll be gone all too quickly.