Pain.

Have you ever experienced emotional or spiritual pain so devastating that you simply didn’t believe you could survive it?

I completely understand.

I’ve read several articles and blogs that say  essentially (paraphrased and combined) that pain is a gift [from God] that motivates. This is not biblical and it frustrates me.

The Bible says that every GOOD and Perfect thing is from God. This implies that bad and flawed things are not from God.

James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Pain is neither good, or is it perfect.

Pain is NOT from God, though he will use it to push us forward. It is not the pain that motivates us, it is our level of faith and trust in God that motivates us toward Him and forward in our lives on His strength.

There was another concept that I read … “The pain is in the healing”. I thought this to be unbiblical also, but when researched it became clear, expanding an understanding I already held.

God doesn’t cause the pain. However, He advises us not to be surprised by what comes against us in this world we currently reside in.

And pain definitely comes against us in this world, in many different forms. Pain can also mark us, for the good or the bad. I am not simply referring to our outward appearances but more importantly who we are at our very core. Who God created us to be.

It changes us, pain does …

there are

So He uses the pain to motivate us. However, again, it’s not to persevere or endure alone, or with out earthly companions. It is to motivate us to press into Him.

Many in the bible cried out to God for relief of pain, or to ask God why; David, Job, and even the tenacious Jeremiah. Pain was bore by Adam and Eve; in the fall. Sin brings in the pain. I recently ministered to my sister saying that sin allows painful things to occur. In our bodies, our minds and even our spirits.

Pain within our physical [body], mental or emotions [our mind/soul realm] is subject to the consequence of sin in and around our lives. That’s why Peter and Paul advise us not to feel that these things are strange. It’s a product of earthly living.

Our Spirit on the other hand is experiences pain when our body and mind take us away from God. Whether from the intensity, or the frustration, or simply weariness we forget and function within our own abilities and outside of God. And sometimes we weary because the pain continues even as we press into God.

But as Peter and Paul and God have encouraged, be courageous, do not weary, do not fear .. God is with you in the midst of your most terrible pain.

I am currently experiencing devastation within my emotions. I recently lost my beloveds; my husband and youngest son. They passed within 16 months of one another. There are day when I cry out in agony. Mornings when I hear myself refusing to be awake, loathing the thought of the pain the day would hold.

It is a constant ache that rises in unannounced waves. No rhyme or reason, just a thought or a scent, a movie scene or the scene of a happy couple or parent and child. I feel pain intermingled with jealousy when I attend family or church events. It’s terrible to feel all that knowing that bitterness and contempt are attempting to take over.

I trust in God. I have faith in God. I have the knowledge of where my beloveds are. The knowledge that God holds my every tear as He comforts me. I feel like I am fighting a never ending battle, but know in my heart that God is the one fighting and that I am simply enduring the pain and pressing into Him.

I’ve been mourning for just short of two years now. A compounded grief multiplied by both losses.

Yet …

I rise each day and move forward.

I minister to others.

I nourish entire self with God’s Word.

I sit under His annointing.

I persevere while resting beneath His wings.

I know your pain today. Grief is grief and mourning is mourning … no one’s is more than another because grief is bore out of love. We mourn only that which we cherish. Even bodily pain can be known by each of us; no one more than the other.

These are not competitions. These are our lives giving us decisions to make, sometimes in the blink of an eye, changing us deeply, marking us for eternity.

What is your pain today? How can I pray for you?

I encourage you to seek God. Cry out to Him. I can confidently promise you that even before that seeking, that cry, His full attention is on you. Desiring nothing more than to strengthen and heal you while you rest beneath His wings.

My prayers are with you today. The prayers help me to heal too. God bless. 

 

A Relationship with God * His Grace.

Grace:

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ. In accordance with his pleasure and will – Ephesians 1:4-5

Grace is a huge subject and one I am very careful with. Why, you ask?

Because right now Grace is the “BIG, NEW” thing in Christian “revelation”; and I am concerned about how the message of Grace is being taught in some circles.

Quite frankly there is NOTHING new about God’s grace and God’s grace is BIG! Grace holds the same tremendous message as it did when Jesus came here as man, and so much more!

Jesus was God’s grace. Jesus is Grace. Jesus extends Grace.

We were extended God’s grace in the man of Jesus. We are to extend God’s grace to others. We are to show God’s grace in the fruit of our lives.

See … there is so much more than we can fathom in one small and beautiful word.

Grace is about Relationship.

{for this post I was lead to the relationship with God that we receive through grace}

Like I said Grace is so many things. Such a broad canvas, but it began with God and His desire for relationship … with us.

Grace was sent and Grace chose us before the creation of the world! Do you realize what that means? God created this world for us. So we would have a place to live and be with Him! By His Grace, and for His pleasure and will He created us to be Sons of God! And to secure that in it’s most pure and holy form God sent His only Son for us.

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. John 3:16

That’s it. That’s the Grace we are all talking about. We didn’t deserve it. We don’t deserve it. It’s simply that God loves us.

ALL.OF.US.EVERYONE.

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:9-10

THAT.NONE.SHOULD.PERISH.

You see, I’m a Christian. A follower of Christ on a mission to do what Jesus did and more. I’m here to show you grace. To give you grace. And to point you to the person Grace, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am no longer lost. I have attained grace and the eternal life Jesus extended to me. It is now my job to let you know this …

By God’s grace He loves you. Right where you are. And too much to leave you there!

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, where you’ve been. He chooses YOU. Right Now. Right Here.

Have you accepted the gift of Grace? Have you accepted the Grace that is Jesus Christ? Do you believe that He died on the cross for your sins and sickness? Do you believe that He rose again to reconcile God’s relationship with you and for you?

If your answer, today, is YES, then you’ve entered into the Grace.

The Grace that is the Love of God. Jesus.

Welcome to the journey, there is much to do and learn, and you are not alone. There are many of us here with you … come let us walk with Jesus.

If you have any questions, please, I would be happy to share this truth with you personally. You can contact me through the comments or personally at: romans826-28@comcast.net

Thanks for reading my friends. And blessings to you all.

Tuesday @ Ten

Healing Scripture Day 23 of 31 Days … A Journey

Exodus 15:²⁶ He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

Instruction … Often we long for, and voice that longing in our day to day, instructions in life. We’ve heard people say, and probably said ourselves: “I wish there was a book of instructions for life.”

There is a How To For Life book! The Bible.

basic.instruction.before.leaving.earth

A popular acronym used by Christians:

Bible:“Basic. Instructions. Before. Leaving. Earth.”

Well, if you’re one that has built your faith into a relationship with God then you know this to be true, as cheesy as the little cliche has become. If you are new and learning … I assure you once I chose to live my life according to God’s will and timing my learning of the Word and applying the same to my life accelerated and became almost easy.

Note I said Almost Easy. This is after all life and we were not promised easy … we were promised it would be worth it. And so far, for me, it’s been worth it.

The scripture I began with is instruction for life … It was to the Israelites who were trying to get to the promised land; but true to human behavior they were complaining and fussing that it wasn’t coming as quickly and as easily as they had envisioned. They had to be continually reminded, encouraged and instructed to follow God and His timing.

They couldn’t wrap their heads around the process. They couldn’t get past putting human attributes to God. Like us they were human with human faculties … and they would get a few step forward and fall several back, into their own understanding.

Yes! The Old Testament is relevant to us today … it reveals our human-ness if we pay attention. The Israelites were just like we are today!

So as to healing … it’s God’s promise to us from the very beginning. Like I’ve said many times on my blog; Our healing was delivered in the Atonement and received at the exact moment of our Salvation!

Our salvation and our healing are one in the same!

We were created In His Image, In His Likeness. We were created to be just like God, and God is NEVER ill. He’s NEVER had a cold, or the flu, or cancer … NEVER; and neither did His Son!

So the instruction for healing here, is much the same as any other instruction for Life … And were given EVERYTHING we need for life … and Godliness {In His likeness!}. And the scripture above is clear … for us it’s to get in The Word, get to know God and His will, His plan and His timing and live your life accordingly. The exact instruction is spelled out right there in His words.

His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3

He has a separate the name Healer:

Jehovah Rapha: The Lord Who heals!

 

I encourage you to get into the book of God’s Instructions for our life and find EVERY.WORD. He said about your healing. You see, I know that I am healed, regardless of what I am feeling in this body or am hearing from the “professionals” and then I refer to His Word and I trust in THAT WORD while doing what He has instructed through the doctors. After all it was our Healer who created the Doctor. 😉

Do you need healing today? Won’t you let me pray for/with you, according to His Word and Will for you life? I would love to be in agreement with you for your complete healing … it’s yours, right here and right now!

Thanks so much for reading. It is my sincere hope that I have sparked a glimmer of hope in you to seek your healing for Jesus, The True Physician. Blessings.

Thank You for Reading.
Andrea

31 Days Journey to Healing

Humbly Speaking About Humility | Tuesday@10 on Day 21 of 31Days

It’s Tuesday again, the day I attempt to utilize the Word Prompt from Tuesday@10 into The 31Day Writing Challenge! Some are easier than others … this one took some pondering, though I know what I wanted to get across.

This weeks prompt from KarenBeth is Humility and it certainly took a bit of time to wrap Healing up into Humility.

So may I humbly submit to you, my offering of prayer and healing to you, today.

Breaking Through to the Other Side of It …

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:10

True humility is a virtue I desire, most Christians desire; but like many of God’s characteristics, humility is not one I come by naturally.

Humility is not a value; it doesn’t express weakness or timidity. It is, rather, a gift from God, by grace, that should be revealed through our character. Humility, by definition is the opposite of pride.  And Jesus taught on humility, while on earth.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11

People who are truly humble do not seek attention, they do not seek to push a personal agenda. Genuinely humble Christians seek only to advance God by being the example of what God does through them, as individuals. It’s not about me teaching you how to pray, or instructing you how to receive your healing. It’s my showing, through my life and experiences, how God The Father has worked His plan through me!

God works mightily through the honest humility of people!

I can humbly tell you that I don’t know why I am alive today, after the diagnosis of congestive heart failure 5 years ago. I haven’t lost the necessary weight yet that would ensure heart health; though I’ve made strides and then failed. But I’ve gotten up from that failure to stride again, by the grace of God! It’s not me … my health is completely about God and His plan for me.

It is in all humility that I stand in awe of God’s Works, when it comes to The Hubs life and battle with the diagnosis of cancer! It is definitely by His Grace alone that we have come to this place in this battle full of life and love and testimony of healing and health. It is by God’s grace that The Hubs continues to stun the doctors with vibrant lung health even as they refuse to tell us that the cancer is gone and he is healed. And it will be to God’s Glory and Honor alone when they come to the conclusion that The Hubs is, most definitely Healed and Healthy! I anticipate, with great joy and excitement, that testimony!

I don’t have the answers, except that I believe God at His Word that I am {we are}  healed and that He has a purpose for me! I do not know the time of these miracles and their testimonies … I just know that they are there for us in God’s time. When this healing will make the most impact upon those around us!

When I stumble, and oh how I stumble, I do my level best to get back up and resubmit myself, humbly and with repentance to my Father God, always thankful that He is there with His Word to help me back up so that I can follow His instruction. I confidently put my trust in God and do not arrogantly demand that God allow me to do things on my own. I am useless on my own!

And speaking with honest humility, I have to say that I don’t do the above, ANYMORE! And when stress or life or emotions have me leaning back into my own human-ness; I humbly ask God for forgiveness, as soon as I come to my senses.

“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his Word {Jesus} and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his Wonderful works to humankind.”

Psalm 107:19-21

… let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

Being thankful is a part of humility. It’s admitting that I don’t know everything, in fact I know very little of what I need to do in life, without Him to guide me. And oh, let me tell you how thankful I am! Actually there are no words to describe this gratitude!

And humbly, we declare and decree the Word of God.

“Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world.”
I thank God that “By His stripes Iam healed.”
And “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”
All the honor to God the Father that “I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.”
“I will not forget the benefits of God. He heals all my diseases.”
I stand in awe that “The Lord restores health to me and heals me of my wounds.”
I thank Him, humbly that “Affliction will not rise up a second time.” within me.
Thank you Father that “The power of the Lord is present to heal you.”and me. In Jesus’ name I pray Your Words back to Your memory Lord, that You would see me, Your humble daughter, and bestow upon me Your healing touch. Amen.

 

Thank You for Reading.
Andrea

31 Days Journey to Healing

Tuesday @ Ten

So Be It. | 31Days:15 ~ Share with me today … I would love to pray with you!

Courageous & Dangerous Prayer

This 31 day challenge has been just that, a challenge, on many levels.

1. The Challenge to Write.
2. The Challenge to eek out time to write.
3. The Challenge to see if I can get people interested and directed to my blog.
4. The Challenge to get healing scriptures into my heart, permanently.

That 4th challenge was the original challenge and should have been the focus. But that focus changed from getting God in to getting ME out there.

NOT.GOOD.

Social Media, whether it’s Facebook, Tumblr, Google or even WordPress and other blog venues can take over. Often times they cause us to focus on us essentially distracting us from what’s important around us!

Social Media overload! So I decided a few days ago to Slow Down … being that I do most of my work online a total disconnect is not an option … however a conscious slow down is.

So I set about, today, looking to refocus my sights on the original challenge. To get HEALING scriptures into my HEART; for my HEART and for my family. And I visited an old page of mine: A Very Courageous Prayer; Dangerous Even!

I originally saw this prayer on Ann Kroeker’s blog. She is awesome and so is her blog. Go check it out!

It contains a very significant prayer by John Wesley. Shared on the page. This prayer:

Dear God …
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt; Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low by thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen. 

This prayer is a dedication to and a surrendering to God the Almighty. A prayer which allows the prayer to enter into total and intimate communion with the Father. I continue to see this prayer as courageous and dangerous to the prayer.

Why?

Because, have you, even you Christians, truly, honestly and transparently, REALLY, surrendered all to God? Do you, do I, even know what that complete surrender means? Have we counted the cost of this surrender, or the surrender that Jesus gave on the cross for us?

I know I must not have, because I still suffer illness and doubt in my body and mind. Only my Spirit is truly and completely surrendered because that happened instantly upon my asking for and receiving my salvation through Jesus Christ.

It’s a courageous prayer because it means giving up EVERYTHING. to God … and if you say the prayer and your heart is pure God will, instantly, make clear to you what you must give up, sacrifice, for this intimate communion with the Father.

It’s a dangerous prayer because it means giving up EVERYTHING. to God … and if you say the prayer and your heart is set and pure on this commitment He will require that you give to Him those things  that you are comfortable, happy, connected, with and to. And those things that you believe you need to survive; to serve Him and become who He intended you to be in His kindom.

Let’s face it anything we do that is dangerous takes courage. Living in this fallen world committed to Christ is courageous and dangerous. And it stands that anything we do that is courageous is dangerous to who we are right now, because it will ultimately change who we are and what we believe.

We ALL were born with a purpose, for the purpose of serving the Kingdom of God; and the Kingdom of God is in US. So why is this surrender so seemingly hard and sacrificial for us?

I don’t have that answer, yet.

In that post, written just over 3 years ago, I vowed to pray this daily. I don’t know when I stopped. I used to have a paper copy of it just under my laptop for praying each day. But I did stop praying it.

Well today, in the interest of zooming my focus for this life of mine, and this challenge, on God and healing, I am going to attempt to use this prayer and more prayer, to strengthen that vow I gave to God and myself so many years ago. I honestly believe that I must offer myself more to God to receive this Manifest Healing I seek.

So tell me, Sweet Reader, what prayer are you saying today. What areas do you need to surrender to God to truly be healed today? Share with me, I would love to pray with you.

Thank You for Reading.
Andrea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31 Days Journey to Healing

31 Days!

31 days of Five Minute Free Writes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Would I wish …

It’s a quiet day here in Hutchland. I’ve been awake since 4:30 am, had to get the boy to his job early. Then it was hard to get back to sleep after my return home, just as the light was filling the sky with cotton candy clouds surrounded by pastel pinks and purples … like I said, a quiet morning. Peaceful as most of the world around me lay sleeping.

I recently purchased the devotional “A Year with C.S. Lewis”. I adore his writing, which is odd because it is not easy to read, at all. After all much of his writing is 100 years old, but I LOVE his style and the way the people spoke back then. Eloquent and complete, not dumb-ed down like our language is today.

Today the reading was about wishing a dearly departed love back. It spoke to me, because I have moments when I want desperately to beg God NOT to take The Hubs from me right now. And it conjures memories of my younger Christian existence when I surrendered everything to God in my salvation, but asked passionately and repeatedly that He not take my love from me. OH how naive I was; believing that God, after giving me the man I KNOW He chose for me, would wrench him and that love, a love I had never experienced before, from me.

God doesn’t do that. He NEVER gives to take away; it’s not how God operates, I know this to my marrow, now; but did not then.

This devotional, by no mistake, is focusing on the book ‘A Grief Observed’, which I own but have not read. It’s heart wrenchingly sweet and tragic how Lewis felt about losing the love of his life. The love that caused him to evolve into the man that wrote these many books, the man who, as he described as a creature coming out of its shell being doomed to crawl back in after such loss.

I must read the entirety of this book to know the outcome of this Grief that he experienced and observed within himself.

Today the devotions is titled “Would I Wish Her Back” … this only rises fear in me, yet it begs the question of will I be able to let my love go when it is time, at any time. Or will I crumble into that naive little Christian who begs God not to take what she still wants and needs regardless of His plan, or the needs and desires of my love.

Now we women have a way of practicing and rehearsing possible outcomes of the circumstances of this life, good and bad. You know you do. We conjure the horrible and test our emotional fortitude under the imagined outcome. And losing a loved one is one many practice often, as uncomfortable and self-serving as that may be.

Yet, I wonder of my fortitude: am I as strong in faith as I believe? Really, who am I to judge the level of my own faith and courage? With what or whom do I compare mine to?

Lewis poses the question to himself: “What sort of lover am I to think so much about my affliction [loss] and so much less about hers?

What kind of love am I to want him to stay if  it’s his time to go home? Does this make me faithless? Does it mean I don’t trust God with my future?

OR

Does it mean that I simply love my love too much to imagine my life without him. I mean obviously I’ve imagined it. But NOW, today, this last year, the possibility was all too real. Some of the doctors were even convinced it was a sure thing. Thank God they were wrong.

Yet the day will come … even though the Word says we have 120 years, 120 is not eternity and jealously and selfishly I want eternity.

EVERY.SINGLE.MOMENT.OF. ETERNITY.

That is what I want, but alas, we cannot always get what we want, to quote Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones.

So rather than dwell any further on whether or not I would wish my love back, even for a moment, I will remain here in the present and enjoy …

EVERY.MOMENT.OF.LIFE. with my love.

That is what I would wish for today.

My Heart

God Slowed Time …

Day 6 … A Thankful Advent

God slowed time for us today …

Today I found myself thankful for the time The Hubs and I have in praise, worship and prayer each morning as we drive the 2 1/2 hours to and from treatment appointments. I love the sound of my husband singing praises, with his quiet passion, to our Almighty God. He thinks I’m dozing during parts of the trip, and maybe I do sometimes, but most times I am quietly praying and praising God for the new day and the healing of my husband, and in turn my very heart.

Today, though, we started out a bit frustrated, he and I. The week is winding down, but the busy is not. Just 2 days over three months we have been going non-stop with doctors appointments, tests and more test, chemo and radiation and funerals and court dates for family members … all very much go, go, go. Back to the point … this morning, we didn’t turn the praise music on at first … just a quiet ride interrupted by a phone call from my family … and when by the time that phone call ended I had spilled hot tea down my left leg and we were in stopped traffic, again, for the second day in a row. The Hubs snapped and I snipped and I just switched on the radio station and began to pray …

then God …

The Hubs’  favorite song came on and the atmosphere quieted. An inaudible sigh of  relief came and I called the doctor to tell them we would be late for his treatment, they encouraged us to come anyway.

The Hubs looked at the clock and said, “there’s no way we’re making it!”

I replied, “Ask God to slow time, I do and He does.”

I put my head back and prayed, thanking God that He would slow the time so that we weren’t too late. Then a lovely song came on and I don’t remember the name or the words, I just know it soothed my soul and I found myself asking Jesus back into my heart; in a re-dedication way, and feeling a fullness and a floating as I sang the words to the song. The Hubs was singing too.

I could feel the road, bumpy underneath us as he drove and sang, yet there were no jars from the bumps, no lower back irritation. It was smooth sailing on the bumpy NJ interstate.

And while we sang the song and praise our God I saw those lights behind my eyes … you know that organic kaleidoscope we found behind our eyelids when as kids we shut our eyes really tight so we could see that kaleidoscope of beautiful colors ebbing and waning in our mind’s eye … and I knew it was God showing me the diminishing of the tumor in The Hubs lung. Over and over it just got smaller and smaller, and I kept singing that song with The Hubs as we drove to the appointment.

We arrived, just 15 minutes late … God slowed time just as I had asked … and they took The Hubs in straight away, stating that he was right on time, someone else was running late too.

God blessed us with calm and time.

In Genesis 12:1-7 God is talking to Abram about making him a great nation … and in those scripture verses God tells Abram, ” I will bless you.”

You see in the stresses of your day, when the weight of the world threatens to crush you, when you simply have no more to give, Father God comes to you and says, “I will bless you.”

He will not make you carry that weight.

He will not cause your burden to increase.

Our God of Love comes to you, where you are and blesses you …

He will breathe relief into your spirit so that you remember to SLOW DOWN and BREATHE. He fills you up until you can fill no further; until you bless another …

That’s what this is … this Advent season, it is love and blessings and grace and calm and peace.

God came as a child, to learn and grow and teach … to teach us to be children, so that we would grow and love.

” The birth of the child into the darkness of the world made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it.” ~ Frederick Buechner

But to do this we must accept His blessing, His overwhelming grace and slow down and still ourselves, our pace, our hearts and our minds and sit in His Glorious Light each day; we must be willing to be the sons and daughters of the King, learning at His feet.

May you know the slow pace that is His peace … Blessings.

Family and Forgiveness and Thankfulness

Today, Day 4 of my year of thankfulness I find that God is doing something dynamic in my family.

And I am thankful.

I’ve learned this year … specifically the last few months, a new importance of family.  I’ve learned that life is much too short to keep waiting to tell them that you love them. It’s too short to not forgive; think about it, we probably don’t even really remember what made us pull away due to having exaggerated it in our minds.

Awhile ago I wrote a very dark poem/short story about resentment personified, essentially it described what resentment does in a spirit when it is given free reign. And in the world today resentment has free reign, it’s sad. And yes, I indulged, for many, many years.

But this year I have doubled back and have begun to forgive and kill that resentment. It’s all about perspective.

Family … ofttimes it is within the family that this resentment breeds, generation upon generation.

Family … the remedy for this generational curse is Forgiveness!

In the book I just got, The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp she says:

“Because in the time of the prophets and kings, the time of Mary and Joseph, it wasn’t your line of credit, line of work or line of accomplishments that explained who you were. It was your family line. It was family that mattered. Family gives you context, and origin gives you understanding, and the family tree of Christ always gives you hope.”

And thanks to our Pastor taking us completely through those books as a study, over the last 3 years, I know that in those days, so long ago, the families were just like us! Fights, dysfunction, wars and deaths and addictions and adultery … we’ve really not come that far. They were humans and functioned as such … which is why God put aside His divinity and entered into a virgin womb to become like us … so that He could reconcile us back to Him!

He did this … He grew in a woman to be born into a fallen world to understand and love us, unconditionally. And so that we would choose Him … it was all for us. It was all for love and family.

He came for me, for you, in my brokenness, in my rebellion and dysfunction and He lovingly coaxed me to Him. Stood by me in my sin and held me in my tears … He held me while I lay in a tight fetal ball, abused and neglected and He held me in the dark and horrible nights after I had begun to seek that same abuse and neglect outside of my family.

The least I can do is Forgive.

And then I come to tonight … after forgiving so many, to realize I must teach forgiveness to my children. I must teach them to forgive so that the remnants of bitterness and resentment leave our home permanently!

And then God … knowing that I was reaching this point in my growing, in my maturity of my Christianity, He blessed me.

My youngest and most church resistant child said to me tonight, “I think I’m going to go with you to church tonight, I don’t want to stay home alone.”

OM Goodness, the joy! I quietly said “Ok.” and just as quietly thanked God and Jesus and just rejoiced in my heart and spirit.

And it was this night that a very dear friend brought the message of God loving us no matter how we felt about ourselves, no matter what we’d done or were currently doing! And my boy actively listened.

For this I am eternally thankful!

I don’t know if God is blessing me directly for the forward movement in Christ this family is taking. I do know that He is actively reaching my youngest and healing has begun.

I do know that when we begin to obey the direction of the Holy Spirit within us big things begin to happen in our lives.

A recurring scripture this week in my life is:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! ~ 1 John 3:1

We are His children, He is our Father, we are His family … and what great love He has lavished! Being His children gives us context, knowing who we are in Christ gives us understanding and being in the family tree gives us hope.

I’d like to recommend this bookto you: The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp.

Blessings.

 

30 Day of Thankfulness in November inspires Thankful 365 on HOPEannFAITH!

HOPEannFAITH Blog is about Intentional Living:Thinking Positively on Purpose. Love, God, Relationships. The Important Things in Life!

That being said, participating in 30 Days of Thankfulness on Facebook truly started a very purposeful and positive thing in my life! With all that is going on;  The Hubs going through rigorous chemo and radiation, which by the way, he is handling so very well, praise God, my youngest going to court and possibly facing incarceration, but willing to pay the price he deserves and just how life is through all of this, this daily recording of what I am thankful for had truly helped me.

That was one long sentence … I am grateful at this moment that writing is a creative venture so … 🙂

So I’ve decided, for me, that I need to keep this as a daily practice. Almost like a diary of my gratitude and blessings. A blog is a diary, if you really think about it. Just not so private, so as to keep the ups and downs of life out there so that no one feels alone in their challenging life.

Because I am incredibly grateful that stating my thankfulness for thirty days has shown me just how blessed we are. Just looking and recording, each day, what I was thankful for got me through some very rough days. This has inspired me to use my blog for 365 days of Thankfulness! It will keep that positive even in trials flowing and it will keep me writing … so looking for Thankful 365 here at Hopeannfaih tomorrow, December 1st!

I do hope you will join in. I hope this inspires you to count your blessings and be aware of all the love, beauty and joy, even during the hard times in this life, and be thankful, no matter the situation.

God bless.

Peace when the hits keep coming …

“When it rains it pours ….”

A.Hutchinson Photography

I found myself posting that yesterday! So much like world thinking and it isn’t where I should be, how I should be responding to the ever compounding hits this family is taking. Yet we endure, we rise to Praise God again today. But it is disconcerting to see that when I am tired and worn down when another hit comes I respond from the flesh … I guess this shows me how much more work God and I have to do. Though, I guess I should be encouraged that I didn’t actually throw in the towel and toss it and the bathwater, with the baby, out the window. Happy that I didn’t blow my cork and just go straight back to the BC (before Christ) of who I used to be.

But God …

In the wake of cancer and family stresses and the death of loved ones I hear these words in my spirit …

❝ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.❞ ~ Philippians 4:6-8

We are not anxious, we are praying, fervently and in gratitude and God knows our requests before we ask. And we have been given the comfort of His peace and we do not understand how we feel it at all…

God is guarding our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus.

This is my testimony today … our relationship with Jesus has secured this promise in our life, today. It is how we are enduring the ever increasing temperature of these trials we are going through. Praise God.

So when it rains … and it pours … and the thunder clouds threaten and the lightening flashes … we will not cower, we will not give in to our pain …

We will praise Him in the storm!