I’ve got my own giants.
We had a pastor who used to say that you need to get out of only praying for yourself. But that’s hard. We pray for other people’s problems, but we become distracted by our own problems. Our giants are big too.
We worry over ourselves because we are on the frontline of our own lives. We don’t feel what others feel, but we definitely feel what we feel. Then, one day, a person goes through what you have been through, and you pray harder for that person than for any of the others because you understand. You have met their giants, and you know how awful they are. Sometimes, God let’s us go through things so we are prepared from the battle to help others with their battle. Perhaps God knows that we have the strength to endure with only Him, and the person we will meet will need a physical hand to hold. It’s what is grown in the battle that makes us who we are. But we get to choose if anything grows. Do we turn to binge watching TV? I know I do more than I should. Do we turn to friends? What is your escape plan for when the fight comes?
It is when we turn to Jesus that we grow. When we say, “I’m fighting through this because God is on my side!”
We say that you can do anything you put your mind to, but the fact is no, you can’t. There are things you can not do on your own. But there is nothing that God can not do. It’s when you give the battle to Him and follow behind His sword and shield that you see victory. We have our own giants. But don’t go saying that your sling and stone won the fight because you were a great shot. Or because you had better technology than the dead champion who had won countless battles and most likely met fighters as good as you and sling shots as fast and powerful. When you walk away from the fight, know it’s because God walked with you into the fight. Your giants are big. But your God is bigger.
Category: Prayer
What does it mean to trust?
What does it mean to trust?
I was asked recently how to release all one’s fears to God and to rest. In truth. I was in a dark space and the typical pat answers we usually give people did not feel like enough. I said, “I don’t really know. I’m still figuring it out.” For me. If I go out for a hike or a long walk and put on my power praise music I find the Holy Spirit’s presence drives out the dark. But as soon as I go back inside and turn the music off the clouds come again.
Recently I had a terrible case of covid. This new strain is no joke. I truly felt I would die about four times before the sun started peaking through and I began to recover. My case has been so bad that for a week I physically did not have the strength to move around much. I was too dizzy to do anything for myself and I spent two weeks on the couch watching Christmas movies and sleeping. Never have I been sick like this. Next week I have my first math exam for my college courses. It has been a terrifying challenge for me and the reason I fell into such a slump of depression. Over Christmas we were supposed to study for our exam. I couldn’t. I tried to. Really hard. But I was too sick. I couldn’t figure it out. Why would God let me get sick? Yet during this time of forced rest I learned the answer to the question I had been asked earlier. To truly let go and rest in God’s peace, you have to actually let go. Release it all. Stop striving and let it slip into God’s hands. A devotional I read once said, to rest is to trust God. We feel rest is lazy. We feel we should be doing something. But rest is letting God take over, trusting that God will take care of it all even when we do nothing. Does that mean I am not studying hard these days to make up for the time missed? No. But I am not trusting in myself for the success. I am trusting that God will help me succeed with His power. I am doing what I am doing because I trust His will. It is in His hands.
To trust is to rest in God’s peace and strength. He does not need our fear and striving. He wants our trust.
How many times
How many times has God heard me say, “I can’t go on! I am so scared.”? More times than most who know me would imagine. Fear is such a constant thing in this life. Recently, my dog started stress chewing his feet. They are raw, and I have to stop him when I see him doing this. Why does he do this? Because we have had anxiety in our household, and he reacts with a stress release. The thing is, if we don’t turn to God when fear or anxiety hits, we will turn to something else. It might be harmless like chocolate or something dangerous to our health or spiritual health. To turn to Jesus means to face the fear head on, and none of us want to do that. To give it to God means to talk about it with Him, it means letting Him know how we feel and that involves acknowledging those feelings. If we don’t turn to Jesus, we will fall into a dark place. Turning to Jesus is turning toward the light. So many things stress us out and scare us. Exams, a scary boss, a health problem, financial issues. Go ahead, Add to that list, I’m sure there are plenty are more that could be brought up. There was an old song, I believe Andrea Crouche wrote it, it said ‘give them all to Jesus. Shattered dreams, ruined hearts, broken toys. Give them all to Jesus and He will turn your sorrow into joy.’ It hurts and scares us sometimes, just going through this life, but the answer is not to find a paw to chew, we need to turn to Jesus and let Him show us the answers that He has planned.
I feel…. but.. it’s Christmas
Dear friends. Christmas is a time when we feel all the feels, and I mean ALL! We feel happy and sad and stressed and at peace because Christmas reminds us of what we love and who we have lost over the years. Just now, I almost cried because an image of a dog came onto my phone, and it was one of my Nana’s favorite breeds, and suddenly, I missed her. Why am I saying this? Because it’s okay to feel. Feel all of it and then let it go. The thing that makes that tangible and important is making sure that you don’t feel alone. Feel those feelings with Jesus. Rest in His embrace and let Him heal you. Panic comes, but Jesus calms the storms. Pain happens, but our Lord is healer. We have lost… sometimes more than we can bear, but God has prepared a home in Heaven. We feel peace at Christmas because the light of the world came. His angel said, “Fear not.” Jesus said, “peace I leave with you.” Why? Because He knew who we are. It hurts sometimes. We see no light at the end of the tunnel. But God. It will always be Jesus who shows us the way. We may think we cannot do it. But all things are possible through Him. Don’t feel guilty about having all the Feelings at Christmas. Just make sure you leave those feelings in the hands of the Messiah.
He is always with you
Jehovah Shammah, He is the God who is always there.
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more wonderful than knowing that God is always there. Always! I was reading a book on studies of the Bible that my dad gave me. I really enjoyed the part that spoke of God’s character. In summary, it said, “We know from the Bible that God loves us and is holy and all powerful. If we know this, then why do we assume that the God who loves us will leave us in confusion? He will guide us and show us and give us understanding because He loves us.”
When we hit hard times, we become confused. Terribly confused sometimes. We become confused about life, about ourselves, even about God and who He is. But God is always with us even in our confusion. He helps us and guides us. He will show us His path and will help us take it. He is not surprised or annoyed by your confusion, He gets it. He understands that when we are confused we are also frustrated. He gets that we need help. He let’s us know the He always with is because sometimes we forget that He is here. Sometimes we face great enough of pain that we think He has left us. Sometimes we think He is angry and is ignoring us. Sometimes our confusion and frustration blinds us to Him. He knew that would happen, so He let us know that He is always with us.
God’s names all contect. He is our provider, our healer, our banner, our shelter. Every name God calls Himself is a name that shows us His love and security. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is our peace. And He is our righteousness. He is the great I Am!
Even the flowers grow tired.
Even flowers have days when they are tired. Even the strong and resilient daisy has times when her petals droop.
Whenever a hard time comes, I think of the verse in Matthew that says
Matthew 6:28-30 ESV
[28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
But there are days when even the flowers look tired. They have no though or feeling, yet circumstances make them droop. We we think when we come to know jesus that all of the hardship will be gone and will never suffer again.But that’s just not the way it is. We forget that we have an enemy and that our enemy is like a prowling lion and will attack and devour. We feel like if we were just a little bit more diligent, if we just prayed a little harder, maybe we we’d be better off.Emprayer does help but hard times will come.Because God has warned us that they will come. The earlier verse ends with, “O you of little faith.” Whenever we listen to the Bible read aloud, the speaker will more often than not quote the O you little faith versus with an angry tone or a disappointed tone. But I don’t think that that’s what jesus is saying, when he warns us of having a small faith, it’s not because he’s mad that our faith is still small and it’s not necessarily because he’s disappointed, he knew we would have a small faith.Why else would he have said with faith like a mustard seed. When I read Jesus saying you of little faith. I hear it with a tone of that of somebody correcting perhaps a small dog. I’ve had this experience with my own dog where he will do something and I will try and help him or stop him or save him. And he will fight against me, and then he will hurt himself and i’m not mad at him, but I will say, why wouldn’t you have just trusted me and listened to me?Then you would’ve been fine. That’s what I hear when jesus says you of little faith. You of little faith, if only you would have trusted me.If only you would listen to me, I can help you and take your anxiety, your fear and your pain away. Jesus is called.
He is our peace.
Jehovah Shalom.
When the monsters come around at night, it’s Jesus who protects us. It is because of him, we lie down in safety. That doesn’t mean there won’t be times when something evil crashes through your gate. I recall a great missionary speaking on a time when he was in.I believe it was africa, but it might have been india. He was sleeping in a tent like they all did, and in the middle of the night he woke up with a crazy need to pray and he spent the entire evening lying in his bed, praying the blood of jesus, the blood of Jesus. In the morning, he woke up and there was a deep trench around his bed, and if I recall what he said correctly, he said the lord spoke to me and said the devil came to attack you.But because you spoke, my name, all he could do was pace.Around you all night. It’s only in the blood of Jesus that we are safe and protected. The devil can come, but he can’t get through when we are covered in the blood of Jesus. Gods angel, that’s swept through and took the first born child in Egypt. It was the blood on the door that made it so that the angel passed that house by. There will be times later on where the same people who had been under that blood would then doubt God or deny God and maybe some of them were ones that were killed in the desert by disease or by the sword because of the way they had turned from Jesus and God knew full well when his angel passed. Them by. That they would turn from him later and that they would possibly die in the desert, but it was still the blood of Jesus, the blood of the lamb on the door now, I should specify that that’s symbolic and not every lamb’s blood is the blood of Jesus, however, God still permitted those people to be. Left to live when his spirit went through because of the blood on the door. The blood did not blind him to who was inside. He knew full well and he also knew what the outcome would be later, but the blood of Jesus protects you. It’s once you let go of his hand release the hem of his garment and are no longer washed in his blood, but then the monsters can come through. But while you are with him and you have him by your side. And you trust him and love him and speak to him daily. The monsters might show up, but god will give you a safe place where they cannot get at you and that safe place.He’s in the palm of his hand. I speak of monsters, but what is a monster? The monster might be the new diagnosis from your doctor the monster might be the terrible thoughts or horrifying dreams that come in the middle of the night. The monster might be an addiction. The monster might be a person. The monster might be a fear or even a desire. And they will come because the devil doesn’t want you belonging to his enemy. But Jesus is your friend and he is fighting on your side, and he will never let you go.
Do we seek Him?
The Saints did not often pray for more bounty. For answers and help to their needs. They did pray for these things, but they mostly prayed for more of Jesus. For more of the presence of the savior. Give me more of Jesus. The tractor broke down. They prayed for Jesus’s presence. A bone was broken. They prayed for Jesus to be near. Finances were failing. They prayed for Jesus to show Himself. The Saints prayed mostly for the presence of God and they knew that everything else would fall under His presence. Every need would fall under God just being near. We forget to seek His presence. We forget to look for His face and that everything else falls under being with God. It’s the moment when we want Jesus more than anything else. Even if He does not heal. Even if He does not provide. Even if the brokenness lingers. Do we seek for Jesus? Do we say, “your will God. I know you still have me.”
It’s not about all He does, it’s about who He is. Seek Him and all will fall in place under Him.
Come as you are
We all speak of come as you are. We speak of it as though it is written right there in the Bible. The thing is. Those words are not exactly there, but the idea is. Come all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Mathew 11:39
Some want to stand and say ‘God does not say that!’ Because we have had people who claim that God does not care what they live like because He says to come as you are. But that is not what God is saying. He is saying come to me and let me change you.
If the leper had chosen to heal himself before going to Jesus He would still be sick.
We cannot heal, clean or save ourselves. Only Jesus can.
Now. Come as you are does not mean ‘stay as you are’. We come to Jesus, not so we feel all good and fluffy, we come to Him because we are broken amd need healing. Because a battle rages within us and we need saving. Because we are lost and we need finding. We come to Jesus so we can be changed. He is the great healer and defender. I feel all of us want to come to Jesus. If you look at what people chase after in this world it is clear that their souls are trying to find their way back to the savior. But the devil gets in the way amd distracts and pulls away those who chase Jesus. He throws shiny things on the ground for us to follow and we forget that true treasures are buried deep and do not simply shine on the surface. It makes me think of a geode. The surface gems are pretty and sometimes quite large, so you spend all your time cleaning them up and polishing them. But under the surface there small gems you must chip away at the stone to reach, small gems that do not sparkle as brightly and harder to reach, but are worth so much more than the large surface gems. Don’t settle for shiny scatterings on the ground, seek for the Treasure that only a few find.
Bridges
We are all walking along a long, wood plank bridge. A chasm stretches out under us and as we strain past the lurch in our stomachs to see the bottom we find that all we see are the tops of whispy clouds. A gust of wind blows and the bridge sways, causing us to grasp the sides and close our eyes.
But who made the bridge? Where did it come from? It is the only way to travel unless you go back, and you know that you can’t go back. Someone must have built it.
The bridge is the path we follow. God made it. It began in Genesis 1:1. Then came the snake in the garden and pieces were lost from the bridge. But God would not let our path to Him be fully destroyed so He made a way. He was always making a way everytime we broke a part of the bridge. But those sections that were replaced were quickly old news as a new section was destroyed. It was never enough. So finally God made a stability chord that ran the length of the bridge from one end to the other. A chord that could not be broken. A chord that looks very much like a cross.
People still break sections out of the bridge, but the chord holding the bridge to the other side will never be broken.
Now that the chord is there to keep the way secure God let’s the travelers repair the broken slots. Where the world has thrown a rock that breaks a plank from the path and creates a pitfall, God has provided is with the way to repair the hole. The deciples began by reinforcing the rope sides and adding stable blocks that connect the path to the chord. But people have tried to break away those blocks. They have tried to destroy everything that connects the path to the chord, to Jesus who is the stabilizer and strength and hope and purpose of every path. They knew they couldn’t break the chord, they could never destroy Jesus. So they have tried to destroy everything that connects to Him and leads to Him. But we as Christians have the task of repairing all that the world has destroyed. We wear our tool belts as we walk this narrow way. When we see a hole in the bridge or a Crack in the bonds, we kneel down and take out our tools. The Bible has equipped us with all we need on our journey, not only to help ourselves but also to help others.
As we repair the places where people have tried to destroy the path we kneel on sections already repaired by others, knowing that someday someone will step on the repair we have made and find it solid.
We are all sojourners together and the devil attacks us all in different ways making pit falls in our path, but God has given us the blessing of each other. We pray for each other, guide each other and help each other, even if all we do is quietly hold hands in the presence of Jesus. Sometimes we can’t fight the wind. Sometimes we have fallen through the cracks and cannot pull ourselves back up. Sometimes our questions and doubts are too loud. But Jesus is the chord stabilizing our path and our walking companions on the road are there to repair the gaps and to take our wrists and pull us to safety.
You may never see how the work you have done for Jesus has blessed or helped others, but nothing you do for Him is ever a waste. Keep repairing the wounds and the gaps and the needs in the path before you. Someday, someone will be able to keep going because of what you have left behind for them.
Hate looks strong, but God is stronger
Today I have been reminded of the old Christmas song that says but hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on Earth Goodwill to men. Then rang the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead nor does he sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail. With peace on Earth, Goodwill to men.
When you are hated openly for being a Christian on the same sites that promote everything else, from witchcraft to pride parades, you can’t help but wonder. Why just me? I will go out and see these people and they will ve nice to my face but they show their true colors when hidden behind a laptop. The thing is, they hate your light because it shines on their darkness and these people cannot handle that. They are promoting bills that will make public Christianity illegal and instead of being fired for public religous discrimination, they are patted on the back. It is easy to see this and feel hurt and abandoned. But the Bible speaks constantly about not letting yourself get down when you see those who have declared themselves your enemies prosper. If you were a Christian who never felt hate and who never saw cruelty simply due to the fact that you were a Christian, then you wouldn’t be living as a proper Christian. It hurts. It makes us angry. Yet God told us these days would come and these things would happen. He also told us to keep on the Narrow Path and to fight to win the race, to keep the faith, and someday we would see right prevail and wrong fail. Hate maybe strong but God is always stronger. God is not dead and he does not sleep he will save us.
Carried in the cross 