“Be still and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10

Waiting is not a word we like. Learn, seek, follow, serve, work-all of these come much easier to us and our hard-pushing, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps society we live in. Much deeper is the realization that, not only do we live in this culture that lives by these principles, but we are raised to believe them as our very fiber, morals and values. In some cases, we even believe them to be biblical truth. It feels more like “hurry up and wait.” Like we have some kind of agreement to believe in the Scripture, and wait on God, but more of a tendency to expect it to be a quick “hurry up” process. But is that trust?
If we are truly called to not just “wait on God,” but to “be still and know that He is God”, we can’t leave the “be still” process out of it. God’s timetable is definitely not the same as ours. We get frustrated or even mad if we have to wait two minutes in a fast food line. After all, it’s called “fast” food. If there is a line at our favorite department store, we huff and sigh and turn around and walk out, so we can turn around and return at a time when we don’t have to wait. Or if we go to the bank, and some person walks to the front teller, just as we are finishing our paperwork (like you’re supposed to do), and starts asking detailed questions about who knows what to the only teller who should be serving me by now, then my willing-to-wait- patiently-meter is recently expired! So we impatiently exit to the outside of the bank over to the ATM machine: automatic, quick, fast, immediate, no waiting necessary. And if the machine is out of service, or people are using it in front of us, then we throw our hands up and resort to our smart phones.
The worst of all, in my opinion, is the doctor’s office. I feel at times that I have to be armed with self-defense weapons, because perfectly nice calm people who are left waiting show sides of themselves that no one wants to see. I even secretly think that our society has rewritten the 10 Commandments to include an 11th: Thou shalt never be late. Heaven forbid we leave others “waiting!” In our self-absorbed, self-serving society, we have made waiting for anything or anyone a mortal sin.

But what does God say about waiting? Why does He, in some of our most difficult, stretching and trying times, call us to wait on Him?

God says,
“My ways are not your ways. My ways are higher than your ways.”
How do we know what He is accomplishing through the waiting? My sense of timing is “Right now! TODAY!” God’s sense of timing is “when it is right; when it will be the best for us, and for those around us”.
In our finite minds, we cannot see into the future, not even to the next day. We cannot see what God is going to take care of, arrange, or protect. He is working upstream, we trust in faith, for the good of us and those around us.
So what does He expect of us when He says, “Be still and know that I am God”?
He expects us to seek Him, in His Word and in prayer. He expects us to LISTEN to Him and not just talk to Him with our list of wants and desires. He is also asking us to follow Him, one step at a time, not knowing the outcome fully in advance.
Yes, “Be still and know that I am God.”
What seems confusing, unclear and unsettled now, may make perfect sense a month, or a year from now. God knows all of those developments way ahead of us. He just asks us to trust Him, and to “cease striving”, as one translation puts it.
Truth Bomb

You can fret on worry patrol, or you can rest in God’s control.

So what is it going to be for you? Continue to fret, worry and demand an answer from God now? Or, will you “be still” and trust in His divine plans? Trust that He is mindful of the big picture, even though right now His timing might not sync with your own.

Speak Truth Love

This morning as I pulled out of the driveway to head to school, raindrops were falling on my windshield. The rain had fallen for several hours, and had already covered the ground with damp refreshment, covering all signs of the dust and dirt left behind by months of hot weather. I marveled at the similarity of the refreshment God had brought to my spirit just the day before. Drops of His faithfulness had fallen on my spirit and quenched my seeking for His perfect will for my life and Jim’s.

After months of dryness in seeking out the heart of God, He has brought fresh ministry and it feels as refreshing as the first rains of Fall.
“Then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.” Deuteronomy 11:14

Just as flowers, trees, and plants need water to grow, so do we! Our Autumn rain came in the form of a new call to minister to God’s people in the beautiful city up north in Sebastopol, Sonoma County. As the call came to Jim yesterday to pastor, and the beautiful rains came today, it was a sure sign of God’s goodness, mercy, grace and faithfulness to all of His living creation. I am so happy to be a daughter of the King, and to be serving Him all the days of my life.
God calls us to not fear, and that He will bring us rain, even when we feel dry and parched. He knows just how to refresh us, and to provide what we need to propel us forward for His Kingdom purposes!
“She does not fear bad news; she confidently trusts in the LORD to care for her.” Psalm 112:17

Truth Bomb

As rain refreshes the land, so God’s faithfulness refreshes our soul.

Is there something in you that is dry, and needs rain and refreshment? God is faithful! He will bring raindrops to your dry places and refresh you. Trust Him and do not fear: He cares for you!

Speak Truth Love

I am not going to lie, Tuesday snuck up on me this week!

Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week; not only is it truth bomb Tuesday, but it’s also Tuesday night women’s Bible study!
But this week, Tuesday has come and it feels like a Monday on steroids! It has hit me hard!
Do you have days like that? Do you have weeks like that? Or even harder yet, do you have seasons like that? Difficult seasons that seem to have no end, when it feels like a Monday with no coffee all the time?
Well, I have not only had I Tuesday like that, today, but I have had a season like that for the last nine months! A season where I know God is moving, where I know He is faithful, and where my heart and spirit literally have no doubt that He is in complete control. The difficulty has been, that He hasn’t chosen to tell me yet what that control looks like.
So today, as I wake up before the sun does, even earlier than usual as I help out a friend by picking her up and taking her to work with me, and I put my feet on the ground and say, “This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it.” The “I WILL” comes out with a lot more emphasis as I WILL myself to face this Tuesday!
God is still God, and He still loves me even though I don’t feel very lovely today! God is God and He is still in control even though I return from a long weekend away to face a fast and furious schedule at school and I feel out of control. God is still God and He is faithful, even though my faithful friend caffeine, is not coming through strong enough today to take away the dull ache between my eyes!
As I feel my way around a dark bedroom, not lit yet by the rising Sun, I find my way to my closet and view the outfit I will wear today…from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head I will be dressed in pink! Not because it is my favorite color, although it is, but because I am supporting and remembering all those who are battling or have battled cancer!

It’s breast cancer awareness month, and we are never more aware of cancer and it’s impact, then when we go through it ourselves, or go through it with a loved one! The strongest spiritual influence in my life, my grandma, Lela May Switter, was not struck with cancer once, nor even twice, she was struck with cancer three times! After successfully battling that, enduring radiation and chemo multiple times, enduring massive surgeries that cut out huge parts of her body, she was attacked a fourth time and it hit her lungs again! They had taken so much of her lung the first time she had cancer there, that they could not take anymore. She went through radiation therapy and then lived the remainder of her life on an oxygen tank.
The first time cancer hit her body she was in her 40s. After the surgery the doctor came out to the waiting room and spoke to my grandfather, he told him that she would not live through the year. God had different plans! The God who holds onto us and never swerved to the left or to the right, the God who promises that He’s in control and we are not, the God who promises that He has a plan for our lives and only He can determine when the end of that will be, held my grandmother in his powerful hands!

The impact on my life came as I watched my grandmother hold on unwavering to the hope of her Savior who she trusted in completely!
She told the doctor at her next doctors appointment, “As long as God still has something here on Earth for me to do, I will be here, until He calls me home.” My grandmother was only 42 years old when she uttered those words, and she was 72 years old when she met her Savior face-to-face! God had a lot of living for my grandmother to do, and boy did she live!

She poured in to not just her for granddaughters and her beautiful daughter, my mom, she poured into every single person she encountered! Her funeral was attended not only by everyone at her church, but also by everyone in her neighborhood and community!
My grandmother demonstrated to me by the way she lived her life that cancer was not bigger than God! God is in control no matter what our circumstances are!
So here I am, on my favorite day of the week Tuesday, not having a great day. Here I am in a long dry season knowing that God is in control, but still waiting for His full and complete answer! Will I allow God to be bigger than my dry season? Will I hold on with an unwavering hope to the Savior that I profess? Will I allow God to be God, and rise above my circumstances to live each and every day for Him?

Truth Bomb

Even when my circumstances let me down, my God NEVER DOES!

I will, because I know my God is faithful! He is my hope and my salvation even when my coffee lets me down, my body lets me down, and my circumstances let me down, my God never does!
So wear your pink proud! Wear your pink bright! Let it not only remind you to pray for those who are struck with cancer, but let it give you the hope and the assurance that our God is bigger!

Speak Truth Love