UNEXPECTED

The unexpected.  Most of us have a life plan that we think (key word) will play out.  We have our planners and we write days, weeks, maybe even months ahead.  We have a rigorous schedule that we follow to a T.  Anxiety may approach when we have to change one of our entries on our calendars or if we do not complete what we have planned.  But there are those times when we are following our color-coded charted days and then wham out of nowhere the unexpected.  How do we plan for what we don’t know? 

I do have a planner, however lucky for me it doesn’t really bother me when things don’t go as planned.  There are some reasons for this.  Years ago I would have gone into a full-blown panic attack, but today I just roll with it.  I have the complete understand that my life belongs to the Lord.  It is His plan not my plan.  I am only the vessel that carries out the days on this earth for Him. 

So if you are saying to yourself, “Oh my I am planner obsessive,” it is time to change a few things.  Realize that what we enter into our calendars may not be permanent.  We may have to apply white out to things that don’t go as planned.  Know that He is with you He never leaves you.  He knows everything about you and always has.  He knew you were going to experience the “unexpected.”  The one thing we must do is trust in Him enough to believe He is at work in our lives even when we can’t see it.  He will use the unexpected for ultimate benefit. 

God uses the unexpected to do a work in us.  He uses the unexpected to refine us.  The best way to prepare for the unexpected is to understand that there are blessings within what we don’t plan for.  When we choose to follow the unexpected path for your life, miracles can happen because “nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).  The best is yet to come.  

ALONE OR LONELY

Alone or lonely?  Do you know the difference?  When we are alone we are working by ourselves.  We aren’t including anyone or anything else.  When we are lonely it is completely different.  We may be in a sea of people but still be by ourselves.  Lonely is an unpleasant emotion that can make us feel anxious or worried. 

Loneliness pushes us into the dis-ease of life.  The medical community has looked into this issue and found that being lonely creates turmoil in our bodies.  When lonely our hearts have to work harder, our bodies have more stress, we create less immunity, we have increased risk of suicide, our sleeping becomes altered and many become addicts of some sort.  So therefore loneliness just simply isn’t an emotion.  It attacks our body and puts stress on the most essential functions. 

Many Christians struggle with loneliness.  Some of the Godliest people in the scripture were lonely.  Job felt alone in his troubles, Joseph felt alone in his family’s rejection, David felt alone in his enemies attacks, Jeremiah felt alone in his stand for the lord, and Jesus felt alone in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

During these times of loneliness remember that with Christ you are never alone.  You can be alone, but not feel the sadness of loneliness.  The Lord invites us to share everything that we are experiencing with Him.  Psalm 62:8 NIV Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Go to Him in prayer and surround yourself with Christian friends. 

In the article  “What Do I Do When I Feel Lonely?” Charles Swindoll gives these words of wisdom:

Jesus will meet you in your loneliness with a word of understanding and a heart of compassion.

With Christ, you can be alone without feeling the sadness of loneliness. Right now, your aloneness is like an emotional desert, where the landscape is barren and all you feel is the heat of the sun and an awful thirst for companionship. Now, contrast this desert image with a garden image. Imagine yourself alone in a garden, listening to the soothing sounds of the birds and the relaxing rhythm of the wind in the trees. In the garden, you experience solitude—an entirely different sensation. Solitude brings refreshment, peace, and meaning.

From the words of Charles R. Swindoll, “Let the Lord change your desert in to a garden.”  In the garden with the Lord you will never be alone. 

http://www.insight.org/resources/articles/encouragement-healing/feeling-lonely.html?l=death#sthash.z281eLWn.dpuf

Connected, Erin Davis, 2014, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville TN

SHIMMER

I looked down into the sink and a shimmer of tiny bits of confetti caught my eye.  On the dull background of my deep basin there was a shine that immediately made me have a mind shift.  Anxiousness left me and a tranquil feeling took over my body. 

Our mind is sometimes like a dull deep basin that we allow anxiousness to take over, but there is always a shimmer that is in the background.  This is what the Lord does for us when we allow Him to be part of our daily lives.  In Jeremiah 17:7-9 “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that sends out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and she be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”

Are you going to be like the tree whose roots branch out by the river?  Are you going to put all of your trust in the Lord?  Are you going to let Him enable you to have the shimmer in the dull areas of your life?  When we put all trust in Him He will give us the strength that we never knew we had.  We will have no worries and we will always be nourished by Him.  The dull deep basin will become shallow and shiny.

Allow your roots to dig down and wrap around the Lord.  He is waiting to nourish you so that His light that is shining will feed you.  God is love and He is shimmering.  He is waiting for you to shift your mind from seeing the dull to seeing the shimmer. 

Begin sparkling today!!!!

HOLD MY HAND

When we were expecting the arrival of Anna, Jay and I took the girls to a sibling class.  Lauren was 4 and Katie was 1.  They were so cute dressed in their little scrubs, shoe covers, and surgery hats.  The nurses began with an introduction, a short explanation, and then a tour of where I would be.  Off the girls went.  I can still close my eyes and see Lauren take Katie by the hand and walk off following the others. 

We begin our life with a grand introduction, then our parents give us explanations for situations and then we are off on our life tour.  Our introduction is pretty similar to each other.  Depending on our parents our explanations can vary, but hopefully will give us the strength and courage to walk down this life road.  Then we get cut from the umbilical cord for good and it is time for the world tour.  Some of us on this tour will go down the right roads making every turn correctly and sharply.  Always turning on our turn signal when we need it.  Others will hit all the speed bumps that tell us, “Ok time to slow down,” or “OOPs I made a mistake again!”  We may make a complete u-turn and head in the other direction.  We just never know on this tour what may be in our path. 

Much like the vision I have of Lauren taking Katie’s hand is how the Lord is here for us.  No matter what turn, road or bump we go down or hit He is holding our hand.  The Lord isn’t like a policeman waiting for us to make a mistake and throwing on the handcuffs.  He is like a loving sibling who takes our hands in His and leads us through all the experiences of life. 

Isaiah 41:13 New International Version (Bible Hub)

For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. 

In this chapter of Isaiah God speaks with tenderness; Fear not for I am with thee.  We have no worries with God holding our hand.  If we are weak, if we are scared, is we are ashamed, if we are apprehensive we are never alone.  The Lord will help us for He is our redeemer.  Even the strongest of people get tired and worn down at times, but Gods power and strength never diminish.  He is never too tired or too busy to help us and lead us.  His strength is the source of our strength. 

When you feel that no one is holding your hand remember God is there.  He will lead you over the bumps, around the curves, and through the tunnels of life.  Call upon the Lord, He will grab your hand and be your tour guide for life.   

POSTURE IS EVERYTHING

Priscilla Shirer is one of my favorite authors.  I have read many books that she has written and she has led me into the bible in ways that I needed to go.  While at Lifeway the other day I picked up one of her devotional CD’s.  Yesterday while driving I popped in the 1^st disc, WOW!  From the first minute to the last it told me everything I needed to know. 

She began track 1 with a story of her as a young gymnast.  Before Priscilla was getting ready to perform her coach would put his hand on the small of her back and pull her shoulders back at the same time.  He would whisper in her ear, “Posture is everything.”  He would do this at the forefront of every event, not the end.  Now Priscilla realizes the “Why.”  How you start, how you stand at the beginning has bearing on the way that your event will end.  You have to decide where you want to stand and how you want to stand.   The position you take has bearing on how your event will finish at the end. 

How are you standing today?   Are you choosing to stand on the promises of God’s words or the faulty shaken philosophy of our culture? Are you filled with your own weaknesses or the strength that only God can give you?  Are you filled with intimidation, insecurities and fear or are you filled with calmness, peacefulness and assurance? 

We tend to think that we are self-sufficient when it comes to life.  However we must take a lesson from Gideon in the book of Judges.  The attitude of being able to do things on their own was the attitude among Gideon’s soldiers.  So what did God do?  He decreased the numbers.  He wanted them to realize that all they had to do was rely on Him.  Can you imagine what they were thinking?  God decreased the size of their army from 32,000 to 300.  That is a ratio of 450 to 1! WOW!  He wanted them to understand that all they needed was the strength that comes from relying on Him. 

Are you facing an army today?  Do you feel that you are outnumbered 450 to 1?  Do not be afraid.  This is how God wants you to be.  It is when you are outnumbered when you feel that you are in way over your head that God has you in the position He wants you in.  He doesn’t call you to do the hard stuff; he calls you to do the impossible.   So stand tall, hold those shoulders back; walk forward into your impossible with God.  Victory is ahead!  Remember, “Posture is everything.”

Devotions with Priscilla, Lifeway, Track 1 Gideon