Bitter Waters

                                   

Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Yesterday I found myself in an emotional battle between hatred and forgiveness. I cried out to God for help, please protect my heart from hatred. Before I became a Christian I was full of hatred and a unwillingness to forgive. As God healed the hurts in my life I learned to love and forgive.Why was it a struggle now?

God did not answer me right away, maybe he expected me to know what to do. I begin to think of all the life lessons I experienced recently. I was franticly searching my mental life lessons log, nothing came to mind. God this is a new one and I am going down, please help me.

I was surrounded by people and could not get alone with God to cry out. I am sure a few people thought I had lost my mind. And one women asked “Honey are you OK?” “No, I need God to keeping me from hating these people.” God got my attention by her reply “Me too Honey, and I am not a hateful person.” It was time for a prayer meeting, We bowed our heads and prayed.

The Lord spoke to my spirit “ Do not let hatred conceive in bitter waters, let love abound.”

The scripture that came to mind was John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

                                               

                   

I believe the Lord was telling me that the living water in me was bitter, with hatred trying to increase. But the Lord gave me a way of escape. Hallelujah. He said “Let love abound.” Not my love towards these people, but His love for them.

He asked me “Did I die on the cross for them?” Yes, Lord. “Was it enough to cover their behavior?” Yes, Lord.

I released them to the Lord, He paid the price for their life. I agreed with the Lord let your love abound in this situation right now. It did not turn out the way I wanted it to. However I turned out the way the Lord wanted me to.

Are you faced with a difficult situation in your life that has caused bitter waters ? Trust in the Lord my dear friend and let His love abound. 

Be Blessed.

The Gift of Peace

 

John 14:27

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

 What does peace look like in a storm? I remember driving up I 29 towards South Dakota, the skies were clear one minute than black as night the next. It was like someone was pouring buckets of water on my windshield. Then it stopped....... I thought I died. I did not have peace in this storm, I was blindsided. All I could do was hold on and ask God to please help me. He did, the storm passed over.

Not all storms are this obvious and sudden. Some storms are more covert, one thing after another goes wrong until we're swept up in a whirlwind. Not all storms come and go rapidly. Sometimes storms take awhile to build up and take even longer to pass over. I believe God in His great love for us has equipped us to weather every storm.

As I walked through a recent storm a dear Sister stopped by to bring food for our family. Before she left she prayed with me and left the gift of peace. The gift of peace calmed the storm and settled my heart. As I put things into perspective and trusted God each situation worked out for our good. Praise God. I took my eyes off the storm and put my eyes on Jesus the Prince of Peace.

This reminds me of Mark 4:35-41 in the Bible, when the disciples woke Jesus because they were afraid of the storm. Why were they so afraid when He was with them? Because they were watching the storm.

Jesus tells us in John14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” He knows that our lives will have storms. The good news it that we do not have to let them trouble our hearts or make us afraid. We have the gift of peace. That is exciting. Jesus gave us a gift that we can give others.

My dear friend we can go through every storm in our lives in peace. When we walk with Jesus, peace is always with us.

If you experiencing a storm in your life today, accept the gift of peace to weather any storm, JESUS.

Avoiding the "too"

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on You. Because he trusts in you.

 
Recently life threw me several curve balls, my plate was too full. This reminded me of a self care tool used in recovery programs called H.A.L.T. When you are too hungry, angry, lonely or tired you make poor choices.

For me poor choices include overeating, road rage, isolation and no sleep. I am a H.A. L.T poster child. I have battled an eating disorder for over twenty years. I have questioned God more than once “how is my eating destroying my witness?” Food is my addiction of choice. It is the safe acceptable addiction. Right? With my weight maintained at less than one hundred pounds most of my youth through my mid twenties. The last twenty years  being over two hundred pounds has been a nightmare. When life is too hard, food is my first choice for comfort. The guilt turns into anger and isolation mixed with the lack of sleep leads to more eating.

As I begin to seek God for help, and reached out to other believers to pray for me and my family. I asked them to pray for the issues on my plate, the curve balls. Not my addiction. Why? Because it is embarrassing. I would have to fight this on my own.

I could not escape the too. So, I ran towards it. The bible says in Jeremiah 32:27 “ I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? My spirit answered “No God, nothing is too hard for you.” God cares about every detail of our lives. This scripture reminded me that God is the creator of all mankind and that there will be hard situations in our lives. When things seem too hard for me and I fall back into addiction, He is there and He cares. My addiction is not too hard for God.

This revelation brought me comfort, but my mind was still embarrassing the too. In the midst of this power struggle I was depleted. Startled awake by my own snoring, “God please help me to H.A.L.T. and to trust you with my plate.” The scripture that came to my mind was Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on You. Because he trusts in you. God I want that perfect peace. Help me to keep my mind on you and not the plate. My soul cried out to God and He answered and I received His peace. Praise God He answers our prayers and comforts us with His Spirit.

Everything on my plate is still there, but now I am trusting God to take care of it. And by putting H.A.L.T into practice by avoiding the too.

When life throws you a curve ball, what do you do?

If your life is overwhelming today H.A.L.T and trust God to work it out for your good. Be blessed 

My anchor holds

Ponder. What's that?

Got Faith?

Sure as the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. God plans are sure for your life. If that takes you back a step. Don't worry, no judgment here. There are only a few people who become Christians today and seem to be walking by faith tomorrow. For the majority of us, it is a process. That process general looks different for all of us. The bible says work out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling.(Philippians 2:12-13) This is awesome considering we all have had different life circumstances. Even when our poor choices land us in the same place, we may not have taken the same route to get there.

For me the process started with changing the look on my face. I was so full of anger and unforgiveness I made Attila the Hun look like a prom queen. The love I received by accepting Jesus as my Savior put a smile on my face. With the smile came a new attitude.

God knocked the chip off my shoulder. This made it easier to build relationships with others. Being a lone ranger is for the birds. The bible says that the Shepard leaves the ninety-nine for the one.(Matthew 18:12) Praise God. If a sheep is alone without a Shepard or a flock they are easy pray for the predator. That is true for people too. When we separate ourselves from other believers, doubt, fear and unbelief can settle in our hearts.

Attending a bible study class or a small group in a grate way to build your relationship with God and others. For me bible study and Sunday school was a wonderful place to learn and ask questions. It also encouraged me to study at home so that I could participate in discussions.

So was I ready to accept the fact that God had a plan for my life? Nope. The bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. O.K. What does that mean to me? To me it was putting my trust in God to take care of my life. That was a problem. My life circumstances had taught me not to trust anyone. Could I trust God? The scripture that I was lead to was Proverbs 3:5-8  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil it will be healthy to you navel and marrow to your bones. I memorized this scripture and with all my heart I started to believe it.

My faith started to bloom like a flower starting to bud. When life gets hard doubt,fear and unbelief wait in the shadows for me to separate myself from the fold. I remember Proverbs 3:5-8 and stay close to God.

Do you know someone who needs your help building their faith?