She worked each day doing all she could lay her hand to. Her body was worn as she finally sat in the yard and sighed, there was too much. Then out of the snow a small dog manifested, he couldn’t help because he had no hands, his small body couldn’t pull the wagon or rake the wood shavings, but he could make her smile and that he did with all his heart.
Sometimes all we need is someone to bring us joy. We can also be that someone for someone else! Have a great weekend!
What’s your favorite way to spend time with God?
I enjoy worship the most. The words and the music feel like they are drawing me closer to God’s presence. Some prefer their prayer time, sitting down at night and talking with their Father. Or reading the Bible and studying God’s word.
Whatever you enjoy the most it’s good to remember that the others are also vital to your relationship with God. Don’t forget to spend time praying, reading God’s word, and worshiping. All make God happy. But it’s also fine to spend the most time doing what makes you feel closest to God. Not everyone can pray for two hours, not everyone loves the feeling of in depth worship, some get a little lost when studying, so if one makes you feel closest to God then feel free to focus on that one, just don’t forget to include the others.
When doubt calls up more doubt.
Doubt sounds like such a tiny word, it’s barely more than a syllable long, and yet…. doubt is the great destroyer. It destroys our dreams, our ambitions, our families, and our relationship with God. Doubt. It’s such an ugly word! I doubt that will happen. Stop. I doubt your words. Stop. I doubt God can do it, I even doubt He cares. Stop it! Can’t you hear God crying out amidst your doubt? Can’t you hear those who love you begging you to stop doubting and start living! Start trusting God! Stop using doubt as an excuse to run away! Stop using it as a reason to give up! Doubt doesn’t exist where there is Faith, doubt has no place at the throne of God! But it’s such a small thing, who cares if I doubt? God does! I do! It hurts those around you and causes you to want to give up when you know deep down that you should keep fighting! I don’t doubt that you can do it, I don’t doubt that God can help you! You don’t need the faith of Moses or David or Joshua, you only need faith the size of a musterdseed to move past this! God can’t work if you don’t let Him, so let God and blindly follow until He lets you see what He is doing. Doubt only leads to more doubt and soon it will drown you, but faith leads to more faith that will raise you up to fly on your battered and tired wings! God will carry you, but you have to trust Him and ditch your useless doubt!!
Day of tears
‘Today is my day to sorrow’, thought the tiny flower growing beside a rock. ‘Last night a great trouble came over me as a man, or something more than a man, sat by my side and wept. His tears were so great that when they splashed upon me I felt sick and my roots were weakened. I tried to reach out to the man, but I am just a flower and cannot draw attention to myself like a bird can with her song. He cried and screamed and begged and pleaded, but no peace came to this man. I hoped that He would look at me and I could make Him smile. He left and then returned, even sadder when He came back. All I could do was sit with Him. Then I sensed a resolve in His being and He went to stand once more. He stumbled and His hands landed near me. I tried to be radiant to bring Him comfort, finally He saw me, He smiled very gently, then He rose to His feet. “Thank you my radiant flower.” He said, then He left.
I feel that something great and tragic happened that night. Today I feel as though a friend is calling out for mercy. Today I feel sad. But being a flower, I know that tomorrow will bring new joy and hope.’
Stormie Omartan once said that she didn’t truly feel open to God even though she had let Him into her life. Then she realized that the problem was that she had only let Him into one section of her life. He wanted all of her and so she had to start opening the doors to other parts of her life. Finances. Family. Loss. Gain. Relationships. Work. Dreams. Each time she opened a door God would embody that part of her and then knock on the next door. What about us? Are there doors we are keeping closed to God? What are you afraid to let Him take control of in your life? What am I afraid to let Him take control of in mine? Don’t forget, not ever! God loves you! He wants you and wants to take care of you! It’s His choice, and He chose to create you. Don’t forget that.
God made everything to work within his purpose. I brush my horse in the spring, his hair covers the ground with a blanket of fluff, then the birds collect the hair and line their nests with it. Everything has a purpose, and everything works according to his will. A person is born with epilepsy, suddenly the parents of that person see the world in a different way and create a clinic to help other children with the same disease. A brother with depression tries to commit suicide, his family suddenly see the pain in those around them that they hadn’t noticed before, so they start a Reach Out Ministry to help others who are struggling. You don’t know why you are suffering, you don’t know why those around you are suffering, but God has a purpose, if you open up to him. You may never even see that purpose fulfilled in your lifetime, all you can do is know God makes no mistakes, and that even your pain has a purpose.
Christianity isn’t always clean and straight forward. There are times when we truly aren’t sure what we should do, what is right? That is why we need the presence of God. God could have simply left us with His Bible and said ‘good enough, they should be able to figure this out.’ Instead God left us with His Spirit. He left us His Spirit because He knew we would need an aid and a guide because things wouldn’t always be hot and cold, sometimes the answer to our situation wouldn’t be clear cut. God has the answers. They say listen to your heart, but most don’t really understand how true that is. That pinch in your chest from the Spirit telling you what to do and what to avoid is vital. Do I cross into the promised land when there are giants? My head says ‘not a chance!’ My heart knows that we can take that land because God says we can! Listen for the Spirit when you are uncertain. God sent Him so that we would have the answers to the unclear questions. Trust Jesus and follow His guiding, even if it doesn’t always make sense.
Spring has popped up and now we have the pleasure of bees. I feel like bees are in the ‘super misunderstood’ club of the animal world. Bees stingers hurt so they get a bad reputation, but they truly just want to do their jobs. They collect pollen and cause plants to grow. In fact bees have an intricate system that they live in and even have their language, which is super cool! But they buzz and that makes people dislike them. There are many people out there who are like bees. They work hard and do important work, they are unique and wonderful people truly… but there is something about them. The way they talk or how they dress make them unappealing. Why? Good question. Why? These are people just like us they’re just unique. There isn’t any real reason to not like them but because of a judgment we choose to avoid them. Like the bees they are misunderstood. Maybe you are one of these people. If you are, remember, Jesus’ followers were odd in the eyes of many, even hated, but Jesus loved them and helped them do great things! Even if you are misunderstood, Jesus gets you and He loves your unique oddities.
The struggle is real.
We all have seen the sign, T-shirt, Facebook meme, “the struggle is real”. It’s become a joke in many aspects, but how many have lived it? I know amazing people who have lost jobs, spouses, children, homes, and eventually their faith. We say Job testing, but thank God that most of us have never been that far down the broken road. Not because Job did anything wrong, but because his suffering was unmatched, there were times when I assumed God was speaking in parables but no, that amazing man truly went through all that. I know people who have been as close to a Job suffering as I have ever seen, and yet they never gave up or lost hope. These people have felt weak, like being strong hurt too much, but in those moments they chose not to be strong but to still be brave, because it takes courage to trust God. We can be weak, strength wasn’t what God told us to have, Faith is. Don’t give up!
Imagine what Jesus felt as He walked the road to The Skull? Do you think He felt strong? No. But He had Faith is His Father! Jesus knew that in the end God would be waiting with open arms, so He stumbled forward bravely. Thanks to Jesus we also get to have Him waiting for us at the end with open arms. He knows weariness and pain, don’t think that He doesn’t understand because He does. Only Jesus is worth our Hope, and because of Him we have hope.
Just because you fail, doesn’t make you a failure.
Just because it hurts, doesn’t mean it can break you.
Because you cry, doesn’t mean you’re weak.
Sometimes being a hero simply means standing back up after you’ve fallen down. Sometimes the strongest thing you do in a day, is get out of bed.
Moving forward doesn’t always mean big steps, even if you fall onto your hands, you are still going forward, just stand back up and you’ll be further forward than you were before you fell. God has never turned away from the broken, or the hurting, or the lost. God has never turned away from the unsure, or those who simply don’t know what to pray, or those who don’t have it in them to pray that day. Jesus is the friend who walks beside you through the pain He never lets you go through it alone, give it all to Him and trust Him.
Carried in the cross 