A Little Christmas In Your Time Of Need

My daughter and I left David and Leslie’s home Sunday with our Kentucky Thanksgiving memories to comfort us. Our long drive home started with the rustic two-lane highway through small towns and rural farm areas. Being the wintertime, the countryside looks dull and lifeless. The rolling pastureland was light brown with highlights of darker fencing. The oaks and maples were totally bare of their former glory. You would not know there was life around except for the homes that dotted the hillside with their bellowing chimney smoke and twinkling Christmas lights. I felt a sense of calmness and peace come over me.

Wintertime can be a joyful dormant time of reflection. As we consider the revelations from the past year’s trials, losses, and victories, we can shoot our roots down deeper into His soil of wisdom and love. It can also be a time of fun. Spending time with family and friends before a glowing fireplace. And then right in the middle of winter, comes Christmas, the time when we prepare our hearts to celebrate the baby Jesus and what that miracle truly means. God came to live among us to restore us to Himself.

As I mediated farther though, the harsh realities of wintertime came to mind, the seemingly endless cold weather chilling to the bones. These are the times in our lives when our circumstances seem to overwhelm us. Our faith in God is the only thing causing us to stand against the waves of impossibilities.

Then my thoughts were interrupted by a vision of the nativity scene, the baby Jesus in the middle with Joseph and Mary on either side with the stable covering them. Then the Lord spoke,

“I want to plant a little Christmas spirit right in the middle of the cold dark soil of the situation you are facing. I want my wisdom and solutions to be birthed within you. I want joy and excitement of your long awaited Savior coming to rise up within your heart. I want you to smile and laugh and dance with the sugar plum fairies. I want you to sing and praise until My blanket of peace surrounds you with love. I want you to remember I have come to empower you and lead you to victory.”

As I turned onto the interstate, I smiled as I thanked the Lord for His power and wisdom in my life.  

Are you in rough times right now? Do you need the Savior to plant a little Christmas spirit in your heart? It does not matter what time of year your winter comes. Go ahead, ask Him and then be willing and ready to get up and rejoice.

The Oak Tree

From a Hallmark card I received this week

from a life-long friend:

I apologize, but I am new at the rules of writing and posting.
After posting the writing from a Hallmark card,
a writer friend advised to take down the post
without first contacting Hallmark for permission.

The Oak Tree

If you are going through trials and tests of faith lately like I have, then I hope you will find this message of encouragement a blessing as I did.

How blessed it the man who

Does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And In His law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Psalms 1:1-3

Submit Resist And Be Free

Notice the Cross?

The devil got you down? I don’t know about you, but my enemy comes daily to see if he can trip me up in one way or another. It can be exhausting when he hits on a weak or tender spot where I have not gain the upper hand yet. So…when I read the following scripture in James, hope arises. God’s order brings focus on how to handle the schemes of my adversary. 

vb

Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil,

and he will flee from you.  

James 4:7

The scripture has a three-step process. Submitting ourselves to God comes first. In this scripture, ‘submit’ means to voluntarily subdue yourself under your commander and cooperate with his instructions. 

Why does retreating into God’s Presence come first?

Let me suggest why it is a wise beginning.

First, we can anchor our soul in Him and make sure we have our armor in place.

Next, God can give us wisdom on scripture to claim and which angle to attack. He knows our maturity level and he adjusts the plan of action accordingly. When we head out to conqueror, we can be united with His strength and focus.

Thirdly, we can ask the Lord if there are any breaches in our wall of protection. This means checking up on your thought life and any questionable attitudes or lack of forgiveness. By searching ourselves for these infractions, we can sure up our boundaries where the enemy has legally come in and plundered.

The devil will first try to commandeer our thoughts by inserting his lies until he gets us to believe his leadings. When he has our way of thinking captured, he can subvert our will. After our thoughts and will are captured, then our devotion will fall sooner or later as well. So look for thought processes that are lies and do not line up with the Word.

Last, look for questionable attitudes, unjust judgments towards others or any unforgiveness. Sometimes, our attitudes are apparent so in essences we are choosing to believe a lie. However, other times we are unaware and need to pray for insight.  

When breaches are wiped out, then we can proceed confidently. Remember… your adversary is very skillful so he can be hard to detect. Cowering will only encourage your enemy to persevere and press farther into your life.

What does it mean to resist the devil?  In this scripture, it means to establish, to withstand, to oppose, and to resist. When we have come from the Presence of God with a plan, then we need to be consistent in carrying out that plan no matter what. It will involve establishing what you believe, speaking it forth and then sticking to your convictions no matter what thoughts, feelings or circumstances come your way. And if you fall down, get back up. It is never to late to gain a victory. Why? With God and His grace at your side, all things are possible.

When will the Devil flee?  The devil‘s goal is to get you to doubt God’s Word… to see his lies as truth instead. He will send whatever causes you to back off from the Truth until he knows you will not fudge or budge. Keep in mind… the longer you withstand, the stronger you become. Our endurance is matured in the struggle. In the end, God’s glory will radiate from us as a testimony to His faithfulness to uphold His Word.

Are you having trouble withstanding your adversary? Don’t give up. God is an ever-present with us. Give Him a chance to show you how profitable believing His word is. I promise you that you will not regret the time spent learning the process.

A Basket of Gratitude

This is a piece I wrote almost 10 years ago. It won a $100 contest prize and was my first published article (AWE magazine Fall 2003). I hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane.

Gratitude is like…a basket that God gives me to store the quilt scraps of each past experience until He is ready to use them in the design He has in mind for me. My gratitude basket helps me to gain perspective on each circumstance that I have had to face so far. My gratitude basket reminds me that I am never alone. I have learned that dependence on Him is His special gift to my heart. God stores all these baskets up in the attic of my mind so that I can easily retrieve them. Each fabric piece that I have paced inside a basket represents a part of the circumstance that I am so grateful for now. Try to imagine the colors as I describe each piece of cloth. There are many: prayers, bible study, waiting, tears, special people, revelations, waiting, confirmations, waiting, changes to be made, fear, waiting, hope, laughter, promises, selfishness, waiting, give up yet?, obedience, humility, grace, attitude changes, maturity, waiting, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, dreams, future, storm is calm, victory is won, promotion. The pieces are endless; yet, each is necessary to make the quilt complete. One less piece would leave a hole. The Father Himself is the only one that has the vision and willingness to see me through until the quilt is complete. But whatever He has envisioned for this quilt to look like, it must be something really beautiful. He always has my best interest at heart.

How full is your basket of gratitude? Let your heart be filled anew with gratitude for His faithfulness and all the things He has seen you through. How is your quilt coming along? Remember...no matter what, God the Father has your best interest at heart.

GOT TRIALS?

Anyone going through a trial? No matter who we are or where we live, we will have to deal with them.  They are not prejudice to your looks, social standing, or lack there of. They come to everybody who lives on the planet. And…if we happen to be trial-free at the moment, then hang on because one is in the making, tailor-made for your situation. We have to remember that when we gave our lives to Christ, we started the perfecting process. We all go through trials but how we end up after them or whether we have to go through them over and over again depends on who we rely on to get us through.

Trials are difficult, unpredictable, and the timing and length are non-negotiable. We are in the hands of the One who sets the terms. But, what we learn through them can be life changing and used for His glory. So many times we are not willing to learn a new way because we have to loose control and jump towards the unknown. However, when we release our concerns into God’s loving arms, He transforms our trust into power to believe for the resolution, the restoration, and the life changing character He promises to develop.

God will not protect you from

 what he wants to perfect you through.

What can we do to help us move through the process?  

Proclaim who God is to you. He is my Strength, Fortress, Help in time of need, Lover of my soul, Mighty, and full of grace to see you through any situation. It is also good to remember the times He has gotten us through in the past as well.

Proclaim who you are in Him. I am righteous; I have the mind of Christ, I have the peace of God that passes all understanding. Speaking and mediating on these types of scriptures strengthens the knowledge of who we are in our heart. It also fortifies our mind so that we can make it to the other side.

Proclaim  to your enemy he is defeated. Satan has no power over us and we already have the victory. Satan is so sneaky about how he undermines our resolve. The enemy plants seeds of doubt, which we may think is just logical thinking but end up making us give up prematurely. Watch your thoughts because they can lead us in the wrong direction before we realize what or why your downward spiral happened.

These proclamations and mediations fortify our mind with faith (vision/the mortar), hope (upward attitude and anticipation throughout the process), and love (our perception of God’s presence with us). Our words and thoughts are like bricks that build a fortress around our heart and mind by faith to protect us from the words and actions of the enemy. They help us to stay focused on what is really important.

What are you doing to get through in your tough situations? Trials are no fun and there are no quick and easy solutions to shorten the process. However, there are ways to go through that will give us more courage, strength, and peace of mind while God is working His way in our life. Remember...even in your darkest hour, Your Heavenly Father is there with you and he will complete what He has started in you.

For it is God who works in you

 both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Philippians 2:13

This blog post is dedicated to Pastor Terry Howell.