Chapters of Life

 Written 2021:

All of us around the world had a simultaneous new chapter in our lives with Covid-19. Our life has many chapters in our friendships, marriages, children, grandkids, jobs, homes, health, finances, etc. Death is a final chapter and the most difficult.

Trusting God has been impossible  in some chapters of my life. I don't know what God is going to do with my circumstances but I am supposed to have faith that He has it covered. My human emotions don’t always get it right, I must be honest. Thankfully it’s not up to me because I am weak but He is strong.

This picture was taken in front of our camper near Lake Okeechobee, Florida in 2021.

Trust God Despite Adversity

When he was seven years old, his parents were forced out of their home on a legal technicality, and he had to work to help support them. At age nine, his mother died. At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school, but his education wasn’t good enough. At 23, he went into debt to become a partner in a small store. At 26, his business partner died, leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay. At 28, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him. She said no. At 37, on his third try he was elected to Congress, but two years later, he failed to be reelected. At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. At 47, he failed as the vice-presidential candidate. At 49, he ran for the Senate again, and lost. At 51, he was elected president of the United States. His name was Abraham Lincoln, a man many consider the greatest leader the country ever had. Some people get all the breaks. 
Citation: Unknown, Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 1.

Our troubles can actually turn into blessings because they can draw us close to God. When Isaac's well ran dry God used these troubles not to destroy Isaac but to bring him into deeper relationship with himself. He will do the same with us!

Genesis 26:32 That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, "We have found water."

O Lord, you are constantly calling us to be courageous and to trust completely in you. But too often fear gets the upper hand. Give us your peace when we edge toward panic. May we focus on you when our faith is fragile. Help us to remember that you want our lives to be filled with hope and gladness. Remind us of your loving care and compassion that covers every detail of our lives, amen.  ~Max Lucado

 

I took a picture of bamboo trees while walking at a 

Japanese Garden that I visited October 20, 2012.

 

Handling Fear

I Kings 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

Jezebel was letting Elijah know she was going to kill him. She was furious that he had conquered her pagan prophets and wanted revenge. Elijah had just won a great victory and was on the mountain top of life until he heard this threat. He ran for his life and found himself in the midst of despair going from faith to fear.

Elijah was a great and righteous prophet of God who ended up deep in despair and depression because of fear. He was so overwhelmed with fear that he asked God to kill him. Have you ever felt like that? I have and remember praying that same prayer in 2013 because I felt like such a failure. His emotions were more focused on his fears than on the victories God had given him just days before. Fear came while he was on the mountain top of life and immediately he was in the valley of despair.

Fear is a struggle that we all face in life and we need to encourage each other as God did Elijah. We need to rebuke the spirit of fear in Jesus name. We need to understand the power given to us by God which is the Holy Spirit and that we are more than conquerors in this life.

My prayer: Dear Lord, please send me in my times of fear those who will help me more in my faith and not those who will only crush me in my weakness. Let me know how to encourage those in my life who may be struggling with their own fear. 

This picture was taken as I was traveling through Arkansas with my mom in January 2010.