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.

We Must Be A Shelter For Others

John 15: 12-13 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Love is the greatest gift you can give to anyone and it is God's gift to us through Christ Jesus. God sent His Son to die on the cross to pay for our sin and He is asking us to love others. The cross was the ultimate sacrifice and Christ suffered, bled and died. His parting message to us were in those two scriptures as a command because loving others is a priority to our Heavenly Father.

Why would we have to be told to love others? Seems like an easy enough request but yet so difficult to see it accomplished. As children we begin to fight for our rights and what belongs to us; in other words selfishness comes naturally and God knows this about human nature. He is commanding us to love others! Have you ever commanded your children to do something that you knew would benefit them only to have them ignore you? I think we all have and it can bring on the most disappointing and hurtful emotions. We start to believe that our children are either mentally challenged or satanic forces have just overtaken them right?

God feels the same way about us when we don't follow His commands because He wants us to have the BEST life can offer by blessing us and those around us. Yet we are like our children, we want our own way and our own choices which brings no blessing but instead heartache and sometimes disaster. Seems so simple a command to love each other, protect each other, shelter each other.....There is so much hurt and pain out in the world today that we need to prepare our hearts, minds and soul to shelter those who are less fortunate than ourselves!

I took 4 different pictures that reminded me of the letters LOVE while visiting the historical district of Savannah, Georgia.