Ever had "one of those days"? Or maybe, it's one of those weeks, or months or years. On my journey through life as a saved, sanctified, separated sister, I thought I would be singing more of Edwin Hawkins' "Oh Happy Day!" and less of Natalie Cole's "I'm Catching Hell." But, that doesn't always seem to be the case. Wouldn't it be nice if everything was easy once you got saved? Well, it would be if God took us home as soon as He saved us, but if you're saved and still here, then He has work for you to do. And, because we are in this world and not of this world, there will be hard times here.
We don't go through rough times because God is mean or cruel. Just look at all the second, third and fourth chances He has given you if you need to understand grace and mercy. We go through hard times because we live in a sinful world. But, have you ever stopped to imagine what it would be like if we had to face the same issues without God. Imagine if you didn't have the everyday safety ad security to know that regardless of the circumstance, God has your best interest in mind. Sometimes God allows things to happen to give us the opportunity to grow in Him, to show our faith, and to know He is God. Nothing that comes against us can ever harm us, with Him on our side. Believe that! Ms. EV
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For single people, friends often become an integral part of everyday life. Whether our friends are from work, school, the neighborhood, our childhood, they each have their own purpose and place in our lives. Some are there for support, some are around for fun, and some keep us accountable to God. But what happens when your life and your friends don't match anymore? How do you decide who to hold dear and who to let go?
As children of Christ, there may be times when we realize that as we grow in Christ, some people who were once close, do not understand our growth. Do we continue to allow those people in our lives? Do we allow them to mock the faith that we hold dear? How do we tell them that we are changing and this is no longer acceptable? Can we make them understand that we still love them, but we love God more? These are real questions...that I am praying about. What I do know is that as much as I love my family and my friends, when it comes down to it, NO ONE is there for me like Christ. No one loves me like He does or shows me mercy like He does or is faithful like He is to me. It is human nature that we will let each other down, and that is forgivable, but it is not acceptable to allow any "friend" to pull you down, or to push you back into a place from which God has delivered you. Real friends will understand that. Ms. EV The devil doesn’t fight fair. And, he is good at what he does. No matter how far you have come or how much you have grown, the devil seems to always know when to bring up your past. All the wrong choices you’ve made, all the mistakes you’d rather forget are his choicest weapons. The past creeps into your mind and you don’t know where the thoughts come from or what to do with them. Next thing you know, you are feeling defeated and running from God. How could He possibly love you? Why didn’t He keep you from the situations in the first place? Who are you to be used by Him? Believe me, these torturous contemplations are of the devil because God has forgiven you and forgotten the past (if you asked Him to). If the devil can get you to dwell on these thoughts and to believe that you are not worth God’s time, then he wins.
So, how do we fight back? We most definitely can’t do it on our own. Spiritual warfare is serious and just when you are about to reach your breakthrough is when the devil commissions his most elite special operatives. Their tactics are so cunning that most people would find themselves curled in the fetal position begging for mercy. But, even if the devil’s first blow comes unexpectedly, get back up, stand firm in God and fight the destructive thoughts that Satan plants. You are God’s royal child. You might have messed up, but He loves with an unfathomable love. God has your back (and your front and your sides). Psalm 18:34 says He shows [us] how to fight, so let Him help you win, not just the overall war, but every battle in between. Because rest assured, if you beat the devil once, he’s not giving up, so you must be ready to fight again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Ephesians 6:13 (MSG) God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing. Psalm 23:1 (MSG) – I woke up this morning replaying my entire relationship with my ex-boyfriend. I don’t know why that was on my mind. We met five and a half years ago and broke up three and a half years ago. We haven’t even spoken in over six months. And yet, there it was in my head; the entire span of our relationship from romantic beginning to sad demise.
I am currently facilitating a Sunday school group based on Pray While You’re Prey and our next lessons have sections about not being too needy or too independent with a potential suitor. I also watched a show last night that dealt with men thinking women are too needy. Okay, I am starting to see why that relationship was in my head. In that relationship, I started off on solid footing, dependent on God and not focused at all on my ex, who we’ll just call Coach. But, very shortly after our first date, I fell and I fell hard. I slowly became more needy and dependent on Coach and too independent towards God. True to form, God let me do things my way. And, as I reflected this morning, I do not even understand why Coach was able to sweep me off my feet. I guess at that point in my life. I, once again, felt that I needed something that was not present in my life. I felt that Coach could fulfill that need, and I longed for him to fill that need. That longing started to overshadow my longing for Christ. Ultimately, the relationship ended, and I was devastated, but God took me back, as always. Now, I am totally dependent on Him, and I don’t need a thing as the verse says. God, my shepherd, has already given me everything I need, and, He can fulfill my desires, as well. I would like to say that I will never put myself in that situation again, and I pray that this is true. God is my keeper, my source, not Coach or any other person who comes into my life. With Him, I don’t need a thing. Ms. EV I am always saying, as an excuse, “Oh, I thought it, but I didn’t say it.” In fact, those very words came out of my mouth yesterday. I was dealing with a co-worker with whom there is no love lost, and I thought about saying all kinds of things to him, but I was so proud that the thoughts did not escape my lips. But, as I read Philippians 4:8 this morning, I was convicted. Though I didn’t say anything I thought, it was clear that my thoughts were fixated on the situation because I shared it with my mother and another co-worker (boasting how proud I was of myself for not going off on the guy). Until today, I had always read that verse and thought, “How exactly am I supposed to do this?” How do we fix our thoughts? I mean, you can’t control what you think. However, we can control what influences our thoughts and the thoughts upon which we fixate our minds.
As I grow closer to Christ, I have realized that the thoughts I have are more true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. They are not perfect; they are still a work in progress, but they are closer. And, what about those nasty thoughts? We have to be careful. You cannot control what you think, but you can control how long you think about it and what you do or say about it. For example, I have a terrible habit of anticipating bad things, and then, dwelling on them, trying to come up with solutions before I ever face a problem. Like, every year, I anticipate being depressed from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. I am single, a lot of money is spent, and although I love the time with my family, at the end of the day, I have no human waiting for me at home. It can be very sad. This past year was no exception, and to add to it, I was dealing with the fact that my grandmother would not be here because she passed away earlier in the year. I planned different activities to do to keep my mind off of being alone, but each time I didn’t do one of the activities, I became even more depressed. Then, on New Year’s Eve, when I had nothing to do and no one to go anywhere with, I decided to stop destroying my victorious life with defeated thoughts. I was not going to anticipate heartache and failure, but joy and success. “Fix your thoughts” indicates that your thoughts may be broken, but there is a solution and that solution is found in an intimate and expectant relationship with Christ. Again, it is a work in progress, as Valentine's Day approaches, but my God works all things together for my good. So, I will fix my thoughts on Him, and trust that He will see me through. Ms. EV Right now, many people across America are tuned in to the State of the Union address by President Obama. He will outline our nation's needs and desires, our victories and failures, and then, give a plan of action for our future. It made me think, "What is the state of my union?" I'm not married, but I am in a relationship with Christ. So, what are my needs and desires? My victories and failures? And, what is my plan of action for the future? I'm not about to answer those questions in front of all of you, but I will say that it is good to take inventory and it should happen more than once a year.
We should all ask ourselves if our relationship with Christ is growing. If it is, we should ask God to show us how can we keep it growing closer. If it is stagnant, we need to examine what is holding us back from experiencing the fullness of God. What are the distractions, disappointments, and disillusions that are keeping us from taking a step closer to God. We should take note of our victories in Christ and our failures to self or Satan. We should give God praise for the victories and for the mercy He shows us when we fall short. We should take the time to allow God to show us a path for the future. Notice I said path and not destination. God shows us the pieces to the puzzle and lets us know when we are on the right track or gently guides us back on the right road (or, if you're being hard-headed like I can be, chastises us until we find our way back) . When the President finishes speaking, there will be a rebuttal, and political pundits from all over will weigh in on the speech. But, that's where God, the King of Kings, is so much more faithful than our government. When you have your state of the union, God is the only one who needs to hear. You don't need anyone else's approval. You don't have to defend your position to another human being. So, what is the state of your union with Christ? Ms. EV A couple of years ago, we studied the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. I felt like I could identify with both sisters,then, but at their worst, not their best. I knew that I, like Martha was so concerned about doing more instead of being close like Mary. I didn't understand how God could bless people who seemed to me to be shirking their responsibilities and sitting idly by while the rest of us labored. But, I also identified with Mary. When circumstances were not ideal, like Lazarus' death, I was grief-stricken. I couldn't understand why God didn't work things out how I expected when I felt that we were so close.
Now I see, after reading about Martha in All the Women of the Bible by Herbert Lockyer, that the sisters are not in complete contrast and their personalities are needed in the Kingdom. Just as Ecclesiastes declares, there is a time for everything. If serving comes from the heart, and not in an effort to gain recognition, then there is a time to serve. If sitting at the feet of Jesus is done to be closer to Him and not to get out of doing Kingdom work that we know He has called us to do, then there is a time to rest. When things go wrong, you can cry like Mary and question like Martha, as long as you know that by faith, God will make a way. The point is that we don't have to choose. We don't have to be like one sister or the other. We don't have to beat ourselves up for not being more like Mary or more like Martha. All we need to do is seek to be more like Jesus. There is room for every personality in the Kingdom. Each temperament and talent has its place. We can all stand together, and where one is weak, the other is strong. God made us and He knows every idiosyncrasy within our personality. Yet, He loves us dearly and will use us just as were are if we let Him. One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 3:20, "God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us." (The Message)I consider myself a pretty big dreamer. I set very high goals, some of which I achieve and others I don't achieve, but have fun trying. So, when God says that He will do more that I can dream, it just entices me. Oh, but when He gives me a little glimpse of what that means it excites me! Have you ever gotten a SURPRISE from God? You think that He has worked out an issue in one way, and then, He adds on to the blessing in a way you never expected. And, He doesn't just make us robots that ALWAYS do the right thing, but He works within us urging us by His Spirit to move in the right direction.That is what Ephesians 3:20 is all about. When you live an obedient life, God will make ways that you never even thought about. So, why do I try to figure Him out? I guess that is the lesson. God is saying, "I've got this all under control. You can just rest in me. You don't have to know how I'm going to do it. Just know that I'm going to do it." Watch Him work things out and He will BLOW YOUR MIND!
So this morning, I was accused (in a backhanded way) of being too nice, which is funny because usually people are telling me I am too hard on others. But apparently, it's not fair to those want want to be mean just for the heck of it when other people are nice because it makes them look bad. In any case, the whole situation boiled down to grace and mercy. Just how many chances should we give people? When are they going to learn their lesson and do what's right?
Then, I read one devotional that spoke about Hosea and Gomer. It spoke of how Hosea had to forgive his wife, the prostitute who had been unfaithful to him and even buy her back. Talk about grace and mercy. That piece of history in the Bible illustrates God's love for the Israelites and foreshadows Jesus' sacrifice for us. Then, my verse of the day was Matthew 7:12 [The Golden Rule] "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." Two unrelated Biblical truths that gave answers to my questions. And, as if, God didn't drive home the point already, He showed me another illustration of how grace and mercy works in my own life. There are five children on this earth that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt would do anything for because I love them unconditionally. I want the best for them. I know I cannot make decisions for them, but I try to be sure that they know all of their options, so they can make good choices. They don't always choose the best, and most certainly don't always pick what I would have chosen; nevertheless, my love for them never decreases and if I have to, I will help them pick up the pieces and start over or move on. This is and everyday example in my life of the type of love God has for us. I praise Him that His love is unconditional. He gives us free will and the opportunity to make sound decisions and He wants the best for us. When we make mistakes, He is loving enough to let us fall, so that we can learn, and then pick us up and help us keep moving. Grace and mercy. It doesn't mean that you're a doormat for Jesus being taken advantage of by hapless ne'er-do-wells. Sometimes you have to let people fall, but then, don't stand there and laugh, when they reach for your hand, help them get up and keep moving. Grace and mercy. His never ends. Should ours? I recently purchased a guitar, which my niece said was, "so random." But, I have always been a musical person. I love singing, and I love writing love songs, especially love songs to Jesus and about Jesus. In the past couple of years, I have often (too often) found myself moping and thinking about what I want, but don't have. Or, worse yet, what I have, but don't use (Oh, those God spankings are the worst). Thankfully, in one of those moments, I had the "random" thought that I should learn an instrument. I tried when I was young to no avail, and yet, in that moment I felt the strong pulling that it was the right thing to do. I figured I could use a guitar to help me write chords for my songs, so I can finally record them. In the first few days, I learned the chords and melody for "Amazing Grace," and then some techniques. But tonight, after finding the notes to a recent song. I just began to play. I commenced picking at the guitar strings and strumming what felt natural and a calm just soothed my spirit. The song had no name and no words, but it was just Jesus and I in the room and beautiful music. I have often been soothed by the sounds of someone else's musical creations, and now, God is giving me the opportunity to play my own serenades. What an awesome gift! Sometimes I complain about being alone or being single; however, there are moments like these when I discover one of God's treasures that I know may not have recognized had my time been filled with entertaining a companion, and then, I'm grateful for the "me" time. What hidden (or not-so-hidden) treasure does God want you to discover? Ask Him to unlock the door or open up the window... Ms. EV
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