10.28.14

Psalm 100:3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people the Sheep of his pasture. 

My Thoughts

"We are his people the sheep of his pasture!" Don't you just love that line! When I read this I could not help but imagine just how perfect, safe, beautiful, far reaching God's pasture must be. How full of angels to help keep us safe. I couldn't help but think how fast God puts us back on our feet if we fall down. And how He goes out to find us if we are lost searching until He brings us back home. 

Then I thought of the stark contrast the pasture that Satan is over. Full of traps, grass that looks green but makes you sick. I thought of how Satan can't wait for us to fall down so he can stand over us and laugh. And if we get lost he could care less. His only interest in us is to keep us away from God.

We so have to learn to trust God, to quit relying on what our eyes see. Wanting what looks good. I can just see Satan spray painting the dry grass right outside God's pasture where the grass needs to grow. Luring us over to what looks like green pasture, just as God calls and tells us that we have to move over to the other side of His pasture. We are all full and ready for the travel to lush, green pasture planted and cared for just for us. But we want one more bite and we get pulled to the other side, the place that looks easiest, only to be fooled. But you know what? God always comes to find His lost sheep. I can picture Him overjoyed, taking us in his arms and saying, "There you are! I told you you need to be so careful. Listen to me sweet child so I can keep you safe. I love you always. Let's go get you clean, and full, so you can rest safely by me." 

10.22.14

Psalms 90:15 Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good.

My Thoughts
I love this verse. We have had so much going in the last few of months. It is one of those times where you wonder how things got so hard. How it shouldn't be, but somehow everything is.  It's nothing that so many people don't face themselves but it seems to have just piled up all together. I am in a Lupus flair that just hangs on. My dad is facing yet another back surgery and my brother is having surgery next week and my husband the next. It has all overwhelmed me a bit.

Then today I read this verse. I thought of how gracious, how generous God is, that I can ask for gladness in proportion to my misery. I just need to be in God's will, and ask. I have asked for that gladness this morning...and I have joy in knowing that God answers our prayers when they line up with His word. One of my favorite things I have learned is that the angels understand God's word and His word sends them into action.

I have written this one down, so I can use it to call down gladness.

9.9.14

Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 

My Thoughts

I love that I came across this verse in the middle of a Lupus flair. A reminder that this flair will pass. God is here, with plans for a future for me, one with hope. God is our hope. We often think of the word prosper as a finical thing. But the first definition of prosper is flourish physically, grow strong and healthy. Don't you just love that! 

Each time that I have a flair, the moment that I realize that I can no longer ignore the truth that I am for sue in the middle of a flair, my first thought is, "God brought me through the last flair He will bring me through this one." Now I will think, "God has plans to prosper me!"   

The fact is, I have Lupus. In the mist of pain in my joints and muscles, my hair falling coming out by the handfulls, pleurisy in both my lungs, exhaustion upon waking like I have worked hard labor for the last 24 hours. In the mist of struggling to get out of bed, needing rest but being unable to sleep good. In the mist of crying at the least amount of happy, sad, stress because any emotion is a bit overwhelming I can't overlook that fact. There is just no way to ignore it. But in that very mist I know that the TRUTH on that is this, MY GOD IS BIGGER, MY GOD IS STRONGER. I know this without a doubt. It is that fact that gets me through to the other side. 

If you see my cry, don't mistake those tears as weakness,as giving in or giving up. So often when you see me cry in the mist of a Lupus flair it is because I a sewing God in every detail. I am seeing Him in the tiniest details and my emotions are in overdrive. My tears are more often than not at these times from being overwhelmed that God loves me so very much. I can sit in the room of my family or among my dearest friends and become overwhelmed with such joy in the fact that God places me amount such love. They are not tears of me giving into sickness, they are tears of me giving way to great joy of God being in every detail as He carries me through to the other side. 

10.3.14

Philippians 4:8 Now dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts in what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 

My Thoughts

As I think about this verse I think how when I have gotten upset and stayed that way, I was not thinking on any of these things. I was thinking on just the opposite of these things. And I am reminded too of how I can be in the grips of despair and something wonderful happen and life can turn around in a second in time. All because of what I was thinking on. 

Sometimes in life, things happen where it seems impossible to find anything true and honorable and right and pure. But if we aren't looking because we are so very focused on all that is bad or hurtful we will stay so lost in the despair we will miss out on blessings that abound in our lives. How do we do this on times of trouble and pain? That is where God's amazing grace comes in.

How do we think on the good? We ask God. I am reminded of the father in Mark 9 who ask Jesus to heal his child. Jesus ask this man if he believes, and the man says yes, but help my unbelief. This father didn't want anything, any tiny bit of doubt to stand between him and the miracle of Jesus in his daughters life. In the same way we can say to God please help me to thin on things that are true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Things that are worthy of Your praise. And God will help us! We can say out loud, get behind me Satan, I will only think on what is good! 

And if the only good we can think on for a while is that we are to think on what is good. Well then that is good enough to bring the presence of God upon us. It is just what will change the gears in our brains to move in the right direction. It is enough to stop us from feeding the ugly things in life and making them grow bigger and bigger and bigger. And in time sometimes minutes sometimes a couple of day, good thoughts will start growing. They will grow because those are the thoughts we watered. They will grow because God honors our efforts! They will grow because God is good, because God is love, because God is bigger and we have invited Him in to fight the battles in our minds! 

10.1.14

Psalm 73:2-3 But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping and I was almost gone. For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.

My Thoughts

There were a couple of other verses I want to ponder today. But the Holy Spirit kept leading me back to this verse. And it says here, I was almost gone. For I envied the proud despite their wickedness. Almost gone! Think about that.... Almost gone for I envied. Wow! We live in a society where advertisement is built on making us envy. What does that say about us as people. That the best way to sell to us is to make us what what everybody else has, no matter who they are or how they act? 

When my so. was about five years old, his sister was given yet another present by their great-grand parents while John-Robert, again, didn't receive one. As always it broke my heart for him. But this amazing thing happened. That night as I was tucking him in I said, "It is okay to be upset at Big PawPaw but if you forgive him, you will feel better." Those big brown eyes looked down at me from his upper bunk as he replied, "it's okay mom, I already forgot about it." I said, "You did?" And that wise innocent face of five years said to me, "Yea! I thought about it and if we all followed that one commandment we wouldn't break any of the others!" I ask him, not knowing what my five year old had figured out all on his own, he said, "Wanting what other people have." 

Envy is wanting, it's a deep wanting... And it is us slipping to the point of doing something we know we should not. Slipping, maybe into a place where it is almost impossible to return from. These words, these verses tell is, when you find yourself in a place of envy, stop, STOP! Stop and find God and ask for His help to put your feet back in His ground.