Worries, overwhelmed by “what ifs”?

There is one whose life is consumed by hate for us.

 He surrounds us with destruction – 

 destroying our peace of mind, taking delight in replacing calmness with chaos.

 His goal is to keep us uptight,

 depressed,

 stressed out and

 consumed with worry so we are of no use to the Lord,

 let alone anyone else who needs us.

He constantly whispers the “what ifs”, the “I should haves”, the “I can’t believe I did or didn’t . . .“. He brings the shovel of pain and digs up those buried fears and old tapes – inadequacy, not smart enough, not good enough, not worthy and failure.

He plays to our weaknesses and  slyly says :

“You know better, God needs to do it this way . . .”

 “Where is God? He isn’t listening . . . “

 “He doesn’t really want to answer you”

“You have prayed and prayed for  . . . and still no response , it is hopeless” 

“You really want this, it is for the right reasons, then why did He say NO!”.

We crumble.

Our shield of faith lies on the ground with our helmet and sword. We sit there in tears and misery, self pity and despair. 

He laughs!

He then triumphantly looks to the King and points out our complete failure of our faith and trust, boasting loudly to all of Heaven and Hell of his accomplishment.

The King looks at Satan,  then stands. He smiles and says, “Listen, . . . listen to my child!”

Satan is hushed and looks back and forth in consternation, “What?” he exclaims and covers his ears!

“Satan, I  rebuke you.”

A trembling whisper is heard throughout Heaven.

 The angels clap and praise God!

“Satan, I rebuke you.” stronger now with confidence. 

The angels worship at the King’s feet.

“Satan, I rebuke you! I resist you in the wonderful name of my Jesus!!!” 

All of Heaven erupts in praise and song!

This triumphant shout resounds in all of Heaven and Hell.

Satan cowers, looks for the crumpled victim . . .  instead,

before him stands a warrior,

 fully dressed for battle,

 shining brightly with God’s reflected glory!

and Satan runs!

Distractions vs Treasure!

 Spending time with Jesus . . .

We see Jesus,

our Savior

and struggle with distractions.

 We see Jesus,

our Counselor -

 trusting His grace, love and mercy,

 we bring Him our tears, frustrations and concerns

and grow in overcoming the distractions. 

 

We see Jesus,

 The Christ, King of Kings and Lords of Lords . . . 

we fall on our knees at His feet in worship,

as we keep our eyes on Him and

 shut out distractions.

What is a distraction? Anything that takes and keeps our eyes off Jesus!


Do you ever wonder why there are so many distractions?


Why do so many things in life demand our attention - pleasurable or not?

What are these things keeping us from? 

Why is it so easy to embrace these distractions, to dwell on them? Who's behind the pull and tug? Why the battle?

The reason?

The treasure that is ours in saying "NO" to all the distractions and spending time at the feet of Jesus!

We touch Jesus' heart and become saturated with His love,
We become like Jesus!

We are filled with Jesus' power and His character,
We become like Jesus!

We see things from Jesus' perspective and trust Him,

We become like Jesus!

We stand firm in Jesus' love during the hard times,
We become like Jesus!

Unconditional Love

I turned on the TV yesterday morning to see a screen filled with top ranked anchors on a popular morning show, sitting at their desks with silly smiles on their faces, each holding a sweet, precious puppy.

These accomplished professionals melted in their seats with joy holding puppies that asked nothing except to be loved and in return gave love freely without any demands.

Wendy, our precious poodle, has taught us much about unconditional love in the last 10 years.

She is sad when we leave her but greets us enthusiastically with squeals, sneezes and yowls when we come home. We have explained to our worried neighbors "it's her happy sounds". Not a day goes by that she doesn't look at us with "love eyes".

Not long ago I came home from an unexpected 6 day "vacation" in the hospital. She never left my side. She cuddled up with me in bed that night with her paw draped across my chest. I woke up several times to find her big brown eyes looking at me to make sure I was really home and well. She then would sigh contentedly, lick my face and drifted off to sleep, inching closer and holding me tightly with her paw.

Jesus paid the debt of our sin on the cross- past, present and future.

Our Father sees us full of His righteousness, already perfect and holy in His sight. We please Him because of His Son.

Each day He showers us with unconditional love.

Each night He sings over us with unconditional love.

Total acceptance - no barriers - nothing but love!

Unconditional love - No condemnation! - nothing can separate us from this love!

There is now no condemnation 

for those who are in Christ - Romans 8:1

Neither death nor life

neither angels nor demons

neither the present nor the future

nor any powers

neither height nor depth

nor anything else in creation

will be able to separate us 

from the love of God

that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!-Romans 8:37-39

For God so loved the world

that He gave His one and only Son,

that whoever believes in Him shall not perish

but have eternal life.

For God did not send His Son into the world

to condemn the world,

but to save the world through Him.

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned!-John 3:16-18

Reflection! again . . .

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you

for My power is made perfect in weakness."
 2 Corinthians 12:9

And we, who  with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory,

are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory

which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
 2 Corinthians 3:18

We are sponges.

Human beings reflect what we are exposed to frequently.

So what we read, watch often, listen to influences us directly. Who we spend time with, what we do repeatedly, what takes up our thoughts -  impact us in a much greater way than what we realize.

A New Year is always "reflection" time - a season to "improve" ourselves, change our habits, do things better.

The truth is we can't do much improving on our own. We fall easily back into those comfortable habits and remain unchanged.

So what is the solution?

We become "jars of clay" filled with God's transforming power to reflect God's eternal glory!

His Job?

He floods us with His light

He showers us with His grace

He fills us with His power

He transforms us

Our Job?

REFLECTION!

Doomsday!

The world will end December 21st.

The economy is going to crash with all this debt!

We will die in a pandemic!

The government will take over our lives!

Doomsday predictions, rising feelings of panic, fear and depression!

The truth?

The world is going to end - look in Revelation, Luke 17, Matthew 24.  The economy will crash and a government will take over the lives of those that haven't died of  plague, battles and natural disasters!

The good news?

We won't be here!!!!! We will be attending our WEDDING FEAST with our Bridegroom JESUS!

There will be tremors of this change prior to our going Home -

Our assignment? 

To keep our eyes on Jesus and  

REFLECT

 His character in the difficult times!

Reflection!

The instant God spoke creation into existence -

 an amazing light show beyond description awed the angels! 

Out of pure darkness shot pure light, crafted into the universe we live in and galaxies far beyond our sight.

Look at 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

For God, who said," Let light shine out of darkness,"

made His light shine in our hearts

to give us the light of the knowledge of the  glory of God

in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay

to show that this all-surpassing power

is from God and not from us.

I love the words "in the face of Christ!" A reminder to keep our eyes on Jesus and in so doing

We become a reflection of God's glory to those around us!

Fractured thoughts and runaway ideas . . .

My mind these days is full of fractured thoughts and runaway ideas that fly along one track then bounce quickly to another. Thoughts that used to line up so obediently and flow in order now swirl about my head, bumping into one another and sometimes disappearing into a deep, dark hole!

Since the beginning of the New Year my days have not been routine. Schedules have gone awry and
structure is no where to be found. Perhaps I am not the easy going, flexible person I thought I was. Perhaps routine is my friend after all.

Perhaps my Lord is teaching me something . . .

What am I learning? Beside the fact I don't like chaos and am more fond of daily rhythms than I care to admit?

• I am learning to trust Jesus with my unsettledness - Proverbs 3:4-5

•  I am learning, again, to get my hands out of the way, to let go - Psalm 46:10

•  I am learning to depend on my Intercessor - Romans 8:34

• I am learning to wait on the One who knows my thoughts from afar, who formed me and has filled a book of all my days - Psalm 139

•  I am learning to trust God, who is my Refuge, and when the ledge is narrow in that crevice, my safety net is His everlasting arms - Deuteronomy 33:27 

• I am learning to "rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks regardless of the circumstances" -  1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 

So fractured thoughts and runaway ideas! Beware! Confusion will not reign! My God is in control of the stars, sun and moon, the wind and the waves! He whispers, "Peace be still" and my heart rejoices!