Now this may come as no surprise to any of you. I am not going to make it super theological, or try to use big fancy vocabulary words, or anything of the sort! I am going to state it as simply, and plainly as I can!
The greatest lesson I am learning, as I focus on the word, faithful that God has given me for this year is that God is faithful all the time, even when I am not faithful.
I love God so much, and all I want to do is please Him and make Him happy! But it seems on some days, the harder I try, the greater, I fail.
I get up in the morning, probably similar to you, and determine to make this day better than the day before! I am going to sing His praises! I turn on my favorite Praise music and crank up the volume! I sing out as loud as I can! I open up His Word and read it out loud feeling like I’m proclaiming His Truth over my day! I am ready to walk with Him, and talk with Him all day long!
Then smack, it hits me, and I am thrown back Into discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and even anger. The phone rings, and something I thought I took care of yesterday, needs my attention again today. My phone dings, and it’s another reminder of a problem, I have not yet solved! My computer sends out a reminder of three things that I’ve yet to have accomplished! I feel tired, worn out and fed up! I want to give up! I feel discouraged, like no matter how hard I try, it’s never good enough. I’m fighting the feeling of complete failure, as I’m trying to figure out why I can’t even make it out the door before another catastrophe strikes me down!
In a matter of minutes, it seems like my faith is failing, it’s wobbly at best.
With the best of intentions, my faith fails!
But then I pause, I take a deep breath, and I look up! And that still small voice whispers ever so gently, “I’ve got you!”
I am reminded once again that, even when my faith fails, God is still faithful!
He is God, and I am not! Even on my best days I can never be everything I want to be. But God is the same today, yesterday, and forever! He is faithful and true, and He never waivers or fails!
2 TIMOTHY 2:13
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny himself.”
TRUTH BOMB
GOD’S CHARACTER IS FAITHFUL, AND HIS FAITHFULNESS IS NOT DEPENDENT ON MINE!
Today I am praising God for His faithfulness! I am praying, and working to be faithful to Him every day in all I say, and all I do! But praise Him, His faithfulness is not dependent on mine!
“Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not yet see.” Hebrews 11:1
How many of us are willing to go to the airport, hop on the next flight, leaving and land in a place we did not plan for, and get out and find our own way, explore the unknown, and find all of our accommodations and necessities in the moment?
That is certainly not the way I plan for a trip! Even an unexpected, one on one that is placed in front of me last minute! I am going to make phone calls, I am going to Google Resources, I am going to make sure that I know where I am going and how I am getting there and what is going to happen when I get there.
And, if I did not do this, people would think I had jumped aboard the “crazy train!”
While I do not believe this scripture passage is telling us to throw all caution to the wind or act irrationally, I do believe it is calling us to live by FAITH! The kind of faith that is willing to step out and trust God, before all of our questions are answered!
This is not human nature. In the natural we want to know anything, and everything that we possibly can! We want to make sure that not only have we worked a plan, we have actually put guard rails in place! What if this doesn’t happen…Then I’ll do this! Or what if this comes up…Then I’ll do this! This is living in the natural! I believe God is calling us to live in the supernatural! When the only Way that we can make it, and survive, is if HE acts and helps us!
What are you hoping for and dreaming about? What are you looking ahead to that? You know is only possible, if God steps in and ACTS!
If you truly believe that, He wants you to do this for Him, then let’s take our steps of faith together, and watch our miraculous, all powerful God work!!
He is faithful, my friends, and He will do what He says He will do!!
TRUTH BOMB
“Faith is taking the first step even when you cannot see the whole staircase!”
Sight is a precious gift! And I use the word “gift“, very seriously! Those of you that have followed me on my Blog, know that I faced losing my sight in my right eye this past summer! It was a very long recovery, but God blessed me with sight back in my right eye!
I prayed long and hard for that gift. I asked for prayer from every faith filled person that I knew! I went to the doctor faithfully, and I followed his instructions to the letter. I sacrificed time and comfort to allow sight to return back to my right eye. And I give God all the glory that He restored it to me at the end of eight weeks. I cherish the gift God gave me and I thank Him for it!
Why did I fight so long and hard for my sight to be restored? Why did I endure the procedure and surgery that it required to regain my sight? Why did I lay flat, face down for so long so that my eye could heal?
Because sight is important! It truly is a gift!
I learned so many things without the sight in my right eye for a time. Sight in both eyes helps with balance(and as we age this becomes more and more important), it helps with depth perception, walking up and down stairs, seeing what’s coming at us from the side, and so, so much more!
One of the strangest perceptions I had, without sight in my right eye, was an increased level of fear and anticipation. I am not a fearful person by nature. But without being able to see what was on my right side, and therefore what was coming at me from the right side, I had an increased fear level that caused me to walk more hesitantly.
One of my sweetest memories from my healing process was when my daughter would take my right arm and stand on my right side when we were at church, and would walk with me up and down the stairs, or in the parking lot with potholes and uneven gravel. I never said anything to her she just saw, and noticed my hesitancy.
Sight is truly a gift! And when we don’t have it, we can become hesitant and fearful!
So what happens when I face the scripture God led me to in my journey with him through 2024 and His word for me, faith?
“FOR WE LIVE BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.”
2 Corinthians 5:7
WOW, right after I have personally and physically gone through a time of having partial sight, God is showing me that, that has nothing to do with my FAITH!
When He showed me this verse in His Word and I asked Him if I was supposed to write on it, He gave me a beautiful picture, something that I remember doing from childhood, and was crystal clear in my mind!
We had a big house with an acre and a quarter of property from the time I was in fifth grade. It had big pieces of lawn between and around a horseshoe driveway. We had lots and lots of trees, but my favorite were the Cotton Woods. My Dad hated them because he said every time the wind blew their leaves and seeds blew around and more trees would pop up! He’d have to go around, pulling them out before he could mow. But their leaves were the very reason I loved them the most!
In Summer, Fall and Spring, I would lay on my back in the grass and look up at the leaves in those beautiful trees! I loved watching the wind whistle through the trees and causing the leaves to dance.
They would move in all different directions! The sunlight would shine through them, and make them glisten and turn different colors! I would lay there and feel a sense of God‘s presence. It made me feel that, even though I was so small, there was someone much bigger, and in control of all around me that was right there with me. I was not alone!
It was better than magical, it was SUPERNATURAL!
Yet, the very thing that was making those leaves dance I could not see.
It was the wind, and even though I could not see it with my eyes, I knew that it was there!
The wind is something that we do not “SEE”, but we know it is there!
What happens when the sun shines even brighter and the leaves remain still?
Do I doubt the existence of the wind?
Do I grow discouraged that the leaves will never dance again?
NO!
I know the wind will return, and the leaves will dance again!
I just simply do not know when? I am not in control of the wind, and where it blows! But the key is, I know who is! That is my FAITH!
This is truly what FAITH in God is like!
He is there, even when I cannot see or feel His moving and His working!
And unlike the wind, GOD NEVER FAILS!
God never dies down or stops moving!
How do I know this without seeing it with my eyes? Because of His great faithfulness to me throughout my entire life! God remains faithful, even when I am not!
TRUTH BOMB
GOD’S FAITHFULNESS DOES NOT DEPEND ON MY FAITHFULNESS!
God‘s faithfulness is constant! And my faith can waiver.
But God still desires me to be faithful to Him and trust in Him, and He proves it by His constant faithfulness to me!
I came across this great quote that I felt spoke really well to this…
“When we do our very best, and leave the rest in God’s hands, every drought will end in rain.”
The sun will set, the seasons will change, and the wind will wrestle through those leaves again!
Our faith in God is dependent on what we know about Him, and not what we see! He does great things for us, and we have wonderful reminders of His faithfulness! But our faith is truly tested, and made strong when we trust in Him, even when we cannot see Him working now!
Faith is a journey, my friends, and even though it is so daily, we must continue to walk it step-by-step, knowing that our faithful God is moving and will make those leaves dance again in our lives!
Here is a prayer that I am praying to increase my faith! Maybe, if you pray it, it will help increase yours as well!
“Dear Lord Jesus,
You bless me every day, and yet I still can struggle to fully trust you. Help me to increase my FAITH and walk by that FAITH, no matter my circumstances. And help me to always trust that you are FAITHFUL and will always come through for me!”
I love you, Friends, and I’m encouraged to walk this faith journey alongside you!
As I begin my second week of 2024, focusing on the word God has given me for this new year—faithfulness—I need to ask myself this obvious and glaring question: What is Faith?
There is no possible way that in this one short Blog post, this one question could be answered in its entirety.
But that’s why we have lots of Tuesday’s together to examine it! When we are seeking to find answers to our questions we go to an expert in the field. Someone who has not just written down or spoken out their advice on the subject, but has lived it out with their very own life. After all, if I am looking for an eating plan that is going to produce a healthy outcome, then I am going to look to someone who has followed the program and been successful at it. Or if I am looking for a financial institution to manage my money, I’m going to look for one recommended by people who have had success putting their money in that institution.
For spiritual matters, it is hard to beat an example such as the Apostle Paul.
Paul says in Romans,
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Romans 10:17
So our Faith is quick and when we hear and understand the word of God.
In order to be faithful, we must have faith in what we are trusting in. My commitment to the word that was given to me this year had to start with a dedication to His Word. For me, it looks like this…
Having a daily devotional by opening up His Word, and reading a verse and praying on it. Mind you, that discipline comes before I start asking Him for things I need in my life. I am simply reading His Word and praying on it, asking Him to reveal His truth to me. Next, as I am getting ready, I listen to the Bible in one year being read to me. And finally, I study the Bible chronologically from beginning to end this year. For me, that meant ordering a study. I cannot expect to be faithful to God this year if I am not making His Word my priority!
As we complete the second week of January, we come to the time when the majority of people who started their New Year’s Resolutions on January 1st, have thrown in the towel. I heard Nicky Gumbel say one time, that at the gym he works out in in London, on January 1 you can hardly walk down the isles with all the new equipment they have brought in. By the end of the second week of January, they are moving all of that new equipment out. Our commitment to God requires a greater resolve! And because our God is faithful, when we put the work in, He will do His work. I don’t know if God has given you a word for this new year of 2024, but as I continue my stamina to my word of God, I am also praying for you to have stamina in your own study of the Word of God!
TRUTH BOMB
Your Faith ignites as God’s Word excites!
May you feel the excitement that comes from being in and staying God’s Word!
It’s a New Year and the perfect time for us to ask God what He wants to do “NEW” in us this year!
I LOVE new things…new shoes that I put on and wear and never want to get dirty!
New plans to follow that bring excitement because I am starting something I’ve never tried or starting over again fresh!
New places to visit and explore!
New foods to taste and savor!
And my very favorite of all, NEW freshly fallen snow to ski on, make snowballs out of, to step on one foot at a time as I see the freshly made footprints and listen to the crunch, crunch, crunch that only NEWLY fallen snow can make!
There is nothing like experiencing something NEW! And each New Year as the calendar turns over and I am challenged to once again remember to write the New Years date correctly I love asking God for a New Word from Him for me for the New Year!
This year I believe He gave it to me early as I was writing my blogs through the month of December!
As I was praying through my December Blogs on Advent, I felt God clearly speaking to me on the faithfulness of God’s people. Common, everyday people just like you and I that faced fear, ridicule, persecution, and even death!
As I continued studying for my December blogs while at the same time simultaneously praying for God’s divine leading and provision in my life, the theme of FAITHFULNESS grew increasingly more clear as God’s intention for my focus this New Year!
My word from God for the year 2024 is, FAITHFULNESS!
I know that I have so much to learn in being found faithful to my God and His purposes.
I also know that God will lead and guide me every step of the way!
I love this quote I found by John Piper:
“My job is FAITHFULNESS;
God’s is FRUITFULNESS!”
Paul says it best in I Corinthians,
“What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but ONLY GOD, who makes things grow.”
In other words we can plant and water and be found faithful to God and His leading and calling, but at the end of the day it is “ONLY GOD” who makes things grow and bear fruit!
This year of 2024 I want to be found faithful to God’s plan, leading, direction and working in my life.
FAITHFULNESS to God’s plan led Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem where Jesus Christ our Savior was born according to God’s plan, will and leading! Where will my FAITHFULNESS to God’s plan lead me in this New Year of 2024? I am anxious to discover this in my life!
I encourage you to seek God’s Word for you during this New Year.
There truly is something thrilling in starting NEW!
Christmas has come and gone, but there is one true gift of Christmas that never leaves us! I pray that your Christmas was everything you hoped it would be. But more than anything, as we approach the new year, I pray that the true gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ, is with you like never before. I pray you experience His true light in your life, and that it brings you true peace and joy.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
John 8:12
No one can extinguish His light!
TRUTH BOMB
Christmas may have come and gone, but the true gift of Christmas remains: Jesus Christ in us!
I look forward to a new year with you, sharing God’s Truth and experiencing His light!
Our focus today and throughout this week is on the faithfulness in the time of fulfillment!
In the continuation of Luke 1 & 2 we find at the beginning of Luke 2 that the time of fulfillment has come.
Mary and Joseph are required to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem to register for the census. It was a long, hard journey and I’m sure not one they would have chosen to make!
Preparing for the birth of a child includes many things: preparing the room, bed, clothes, diapers and every other detail and need! However, taking a big, long, difficult trip is not one of the preparation‘s on anyone’s list. In fact airlines and cruises will not let pregnant women travel past seven months pregnant. I’ll share another time why I included “cruises“ on that list! Let’s just say my daughter carried her first child very well and did not look like she was seven months pregnant on a cruise!
Anyone who has studied pregnancy, been pregnant or been around a pregnant woman knows that one of the physiological stages of pregnancy is called “nesting.” Nesting occurs toward the end of the pregnancy and all the new mama wants to do is stay very close to home and prepare for the arrival of her baby!
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was human just like we are! Her body went through all of the same stages of pregnancy as every other mothers body does! She too would have wanted to stay close to home and prepare for the arrival of her baby. But Mary was faithful to God‘s call in her time of fulfillment!
Mary and Joseph would not have had a hard, long journey to another town written down on their family plan. No, it was not what they wanted to do, or where they wanted to go, but they were faithful to God and followed His plan, not theirs! And God‘s perfect plan, at Mary’s time of fulfillment, led them to a manger in Bethlehem!
“So, Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, that time came for the baby to be born.” Luke 2:4-6
TRUTH BOMB
FAITHFULNESS TO GOD’S PLAN ALWAYS LEADS YOU TO THE RIGHT PLACE!
Mary and Joseph were open to God‘s plan no matter where it led them!
Are we?
I am I?
This is my prayer for the new year…
I want to be faithful to God‘s plan and not mine!
I want to know God‘s fulfillment in my life! I want to be faithful to God’s plan as Mary and Joseph were faithful to God’s plan!
Faithfulness to God‘s plan led Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem where Jesus Christ our Savior was born according to God‘s will and leading! Where will your faithfulness to God‘s plan lead you in this new year?
Sitting on the beach I can only see SO far! Even on a clear day as I can see all the way to Catalina Island, there is still a point, a line if you will, which I cannot see past.
It feels like the Horizon to me, yet I know that the ocean goes on and on and on past what my human eyes can see!
That is FAITH! I cannot touch it, feel it, taste it, hear it or even see it, but by knowledge and FAITH, I KNOW IT IS THERE!
I believe that is what Luke is saying to us in Luke 1:4,
“So that you may KNOW the CERTAINTY of the things you have been taught.”
Just as we have been taught in textbooks, classrooms and atlases about the facts, knowledge and TRUTH about the HORIZON and can then believe by FAITH that it exists and the accounts of it are true.
We can in turn take what we have been taught through the eyewitness accounts, research, affirmation and testimonies of those who had a front row seat to the amazing event of Jesus Christ’s coming to Earth.
Luke the Doctor and historian investigated and interviewed people who were eyewitnesses to these amazing events. Through his careful research we can be certain in knowing that these events are true.
As we get caught up in the joy and wonder of this season we can too often focus on the twinkling lights, the delectable treats, and the beautifully wrapped presents under the tree and overlook the CERTAINTY and TRUTH of the actual events that took place to bring God to us!
I had an earthly father who loved me BIG and very much. But his heart softened and grew even bigger as he became a grandfather! He had one phrase that he would say to all of his children and grandchildren. That same phrase was what we wrote on his grave marker,
“WHAT DO YOU KNOW FOR SURE?”
And our response back, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was…
“THAT YOU LOVE ME!”
It was CERTAIN!
So how do we know that God loves us for CERTAIN?
Because we know for CERTAIN, through these eyewitness accounts, that God loves us by sending his son Jesus to be Emmanuel, God with us!
TRUTH BOMB
WE HAVE THE CERTAINTY THAT JESUS IS GOD WITH US!
So, as you get caught up in the joy and wonder of this season know for CERTAIN that just as I sat on the beach and knew that the horizon was there, even though I could not reach out and touch it, God is with you through every wonder and joy that you experience this Christmas!
Today is my birthday! I normally would never share that, but it happens to fall on the day of my Blog and I feel that the lessons God is teaching me on this day is what He wants me to share!
Birthdays are joyous occasions when we have people in our lives that celebrate us!
I grew up with the best Mom that a girl could ever have! Obviously, you already know my birthday is in December. My Mom made sure that my birthday was never blended together with Christmas. You know what I mean, that two for one gift that someone hands you and says, “Happy birthday and Merry Christmas!” No, she never did that! She made sure that my birthday and my sisters birthdays, we’re celebrated from the minute we woke up to the minute we laid our head on our pillows that night! The day of our birth was special to her, and she made sure she celebrated it!
I had many birthdays and many birthday parties that were wonderful celebrations! We had cake, we had balloons and cards and gifts… But the greatest gift and the thing I remembered most were the people who were there to celebrate with me!
Their PRESENCE, not their presents,
made my birthday celebration special!
On this day, as I celebrate 63 years of life, I am not thinking about the balloons, the gifts, the confetti or even the cake(ok, those of you that know me would call me a liar with that statement, so maybe I’m thinking about the cake a little bit), but most of all I am thinking about the PRESENCE of the people I love being with me!
More than any other person that we spend time with on this earth, we are blessed to have a SAVIOR who desires our PRESENCE and sent His PRESENCE in bodily form, down to earth so that we could be present with Him forever and always!
As Paul the Apostle says,
“When we are caught up to meet the Lord, And so we will always be with the Lord.”
I Thessalonians 4:17
What does His PRESENCE mean to us?
Isaiah 9:6
“For to us a child is born,
To us a Son is given;
“and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called
WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE!”
His PRESENCE means that we are never alone. He is WONDERFUL and loves us like none other!
His PRESENCE means that we have someone to go to to seek advice and direction and to know the right path to take. He is our COUNSELOR!
His PRESENCE means that nothing we go through is out of his control and power.
He is our MIGHTY GOD!
His PRESENCE means that He is with us now and forever into eternity.
He is our EVERLASTING FATHER!
And His PRESENCE means that no matter how fierce the storms of life rage around us, we can have comfort and assurance and peace in the midst of them.
He is our PRINCE OF PEACE!
No PRESENT on earth can compare to the PRESENCE OF “EMMANUEL GOD WITH US!”
TRUTH BOMB
THE GREATEST GIFT BORN TO MAN CAME IN A MANGER!
The present I pray and wish for you today, is the presence of Jesus Christ to be with you today and always!
I boarded a plane today and flew away from my kids and grandkids.
I hate leaving my loved ones!
I do not know about you, but separation from those I love makes me feel like my heart is literally being ripped in two!
It’s not like, “practice makes perfect,” the more you do it the easier it gets.
Not for me! I tell myself all of the right things, you know, all of the things everyone says to you when you say how sad you are that you are separated from the ones you love the most:
“You just had a week together, you should be happy about that.”
“You are going to see them again in a little while.”
“You should just be happy that you have a family.”
“Weren’t you just together last month?”
“Just count your blessings and be glad for the time you have.”
I repeat all of these phrases and thank God for the gift that He has given me!
Yet, my heart remains heavy, the sorrow comes in waves and at times the tears flow and my heart aches.
When you love so deeply separation hurts.
As a little girl two of the most significant people in my life, my grandpa and grandma Switter, my mom’s parents, lived in another state. We always got to see them for Christmas and during the Summer time.
I remember the anticipation of waiting for them to arrive! I would sit by the big plate glass window in our front living room and dance around for hours staring intently out waiting for their car to pull into our driveway!
They would emerge from that car with the biggest smiles on their faces and open up their trunk full of presents and the biggest Tupperware container that has ever been made, full of my grandma‘s homemade Christmas cookies! I can still taste them all these years later! She made her cut out cookies with a butter recipe that made them so soft and delicious in your mouth, not crunchy like the sugar cookie ones! She had Santa faces that had white fluffy beards and the perfect red Santa cap with a big fluffy white snowball on the end of it perfectly drawn, long before the ‘Christmas Cookie Challenge,’ ever appeared on a network (She would have won by the way!)
We would play games, we would make meals together, we would laugh and sing Christmas carols till we could hardly speak. We would go to church together on Christmas Eve and come home and open up the Christmas jammies that they had waiting for us under the Christmas tree. We would go to bed and hardly sleep that night so anxious to get up the next morning.
Christmas day would start bright and early with presents unwrapped and paper strewn everywhere, followed by a delicious Christmas breakfast. We would clean up and then wait for more family to arrive as my grandma and mom in their aprons would work so hard to prepare the perfect Christmas dinner! The evening always ended with a special Christmas movie.
I could not have felt more warm, secure and loved than I did every year at Christmas time!
My home life was good but not great! There was hurt and pain and anger and strife and unfaithfulness. But when my grandparents were there it was like a piece of heaven came down to earth! It was all put on pause for the whole Christmas season… and then they left! I stood by that same plate glass window and watched their car pull out of my driveway. And the separation felt so strong that I thought my heart would literally rip in two.
I stood by that window long after they had pulled away and tears streamed down my face as my broken heart poured out it’s sadness of them leaving.
Separation by definition causes pain.
One thing is literally being pulled away from another! While sometimes this may be a positive separation, the majority of the time it is a painful one.
As I sat on that plane early this morning being separated from those I love the most, I did thank God for his incredible, undeserved blessings to me! And as I was thanking Him it struck me, He willingly separated Himself from His One and Only Son, because He loved me so much!
“And the angel answered her, “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of The Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy-The Son of God.”
Luke 1:35
Christmas isn’t Christmas without separation! The sweetest Christmas songs we sing, ‘Away in a Manger, ‘Silent Night,’ ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing,’ and on and on and on, all proclaim the separation of God’s Son from Himself!
TRUTH BOMB
GOD’S LOVE IS PERFECTED IN SEPARATING HIMSELF FROM HIS SON FOR US!
Love is perfected in the act of giving! That giving causes separation. God selflessly separated Himself from His Son for a time so that one day we could all be together forever!
I want to be prepared this season to receive this selfless gift, don’t you? Join me back here through the month of December as we “Make Way for “The Way!”
speaktruthlove 