MIRACLES BIG AND SMALL

On Christmas morning do you like opening the biggest present under the tree or does your eye get drawn to the smallest one you can see? 

When it’s your birthday and everyone begins singing that familiar chorus, do you wait with anticipation for a large wrapped gift or a beautiful small box with a tiny ribbon around it?

We tend to believe that the bigger the box the better the gift. But that is not always the case. Sure, a big box can hold a wonderful gift, but often a small box contains a treasure of great value!

Miracles come in all sizes too! I must admit, that most of the time I only ask God for the big miracles. They seem to be on my prayer list for months and years at a time! I think I just assume that God only wants to deal with the big stuff.

This week however, God surprised me with a miracle that would fit into a small beautiful box!

If you read last weeks blog you know that my husband turned 60! We love him so much and wanted to celebrate him BIG! We had been planning for months to surprise him with a ski trip to our favorite place, Lake Tahoe! 

His kids were going to fly in, we had reservations at our favorite sushi restaurant to surprise him, and we would head up the mountain!  It was March and the roads should be clear and easy to travel. Everything had been put into place, tickets were purchased, reservations were made and we were anticipating the joy of celebrating him for a full month ahead of time. Surely the constant rain and snow we had experienced for the last two months would stop! 

As the time drew near, I nervously kept checking my weather app! It kept showing rain and snow. We kept praying and praying and praying! We were asking God for a break in the weather to be able to celebrate and honor the man we love so much.

Two days before we were ready to leave the weather app showed partly cloudy on Wednesday and sunny on Thursday! We would be traveling up the mountain on Wednesday and skiing on Thursday. We headed toward the mountains and kept praying!

In Lake Tahoe it had been snowing for weeks on end! There was so much snow that even as they tried to remove it, there was no place to put it! Highway 80 is the one we would be traveling. It was closed half day on Wednesday and opened up as we approached it! We made it through to our hotel. The mountain we were skiing had been closed that entire day! Thursday morning we woke to sunshine and the mountain was re-opened! We skied a beautiful ski day together on Jim’s actual birthday! The following day we made it down the mountain with partly cloudy weather. We arrived home safe and sound and realized that God had given us a miracle wrapped in a beautiful small box!

As I spent my quiet time with God that next morning, I was struck by the obvious truth that he had given us a small miracle. The rain began to pour again that day and the snow began to fall again in the mountains! As I praised him for this beautiful miracle of time spent together that he gave us, I thought about the big miracles that I had been praying for for over a year!

In that still small voice that only God speaks in, He reminded me that all miracles come from Him! He had blessed me with this small miracle to remind me that HE is still with me in the waiting for the big ones!

TRUTH BOMB

SMALL MIRACLES REMIND US THAT GOD IS STILL WITH US WHILE WE WAIT FOR THE BIG ONES!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not depend on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Are you always grabbing for the big box to open, or are you willing to take hold of the small boxes that God sends your way? 

It may very well be, that God has sent you a small miracle, beautifully wrapped in a box of His love and caring and affirmation to keep you holding on and wait for the bigger miracle just around the corner.

After all, only God can give a miracle and every size holds as great an importance as another!

Speak Truth Love

My Greatest Gift!

This Truth Bomb Tuesday special edition is coming to you on Thursday for a very special reason!

Today, March 16th 2023, I celebrate one of the greatest gifts I have ever received!  

Do you ever remember a time when you received a gift so undeserved and so unexpected? In fact, the gift came at a time when you expected anything but!  

In the fall of 1982 I found myself in a brand new city, at a brand new University, in a brand new dorm room all by myself. I was introduced to my roommate, and she asked me if I wanted to go to a Bible study that was held on our campus. We went together and walked from our dorm room to the campus Commons. As we rounded the corner, I looked up and saw the most handsome man I had ever laid eyes on. 

He was tall, dark, and handsome! And completely unassuming! He had on dark 501 jeans and a short sleeve plaid shirt. He said absolutely nothing! His friend, who was with him however, greeted both of us with energy and enthusiasm. We walked inside, and soon learned that the tall, dark, handsome man was leading the study. I was attracted to him initially by the way he looked, but when he began to teach the Word of God, he grabbed hold of my heart!

Fast forward two years and we were engaged and married! The next 38 1/2 years would find us in full-time ministry, on the mission field, and gifted with the two most wonderful children in the world! Who would give us two more children, their spouses and our four perfect grandchildren!

Life has not been perfect, God never promised that, but it has been BLESSED because of the incredible gift that God gave me in Jim Swaney! Today he turns 60 years old! 

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ 

TRUTH BOMB

True gifts come from above!

I believe with all my heart that there are gifts in this life that only God can give. And when he chooses to give you a gift, it is always good and right!  

Jim is that gift to me! Because of him, I have the other greatest gifts in my life… Our children, our grandchildren, and our ministry!

Jim is strong of character and absolutely unwavering. He is the most intelligent man of God that I know and yet he is humble to the core! He is fun and he is funny, he is truly the master of puns! He is the great adventurer, always looking for the next challenge! He loves God most, but loves his family next with all his heart! He is faithful and true, and beyond a shadow of a doubt, the love of my life!

Today, I celebrate the life of Jim Swaney, and I praise my God for the incredible gift of him to me! Happy Birthday!

Speak Truth Love

WAITING

I hope you didn’t just scroll past my Blog or stop reading because you saw the word WAITING!

I guess if you’ve gotten this far, you’ve hung in there at least through a few sentences. So will you stick with it just a few more? If you do, you may learn that WAITING isn’t all bad!

Now when it comes to waiting in line at the grocery store or Target or even the post office, I am right there with you. I mean nothing is as frustrating as standing in a line at the grocery store that runs clear through to the produce department, when there are only two checkers working! You stand there patiently staring at 10 or more counters with no one working them. Am I the only one that thinks this is absolutely ridiculous?

After all, the Bible says that patience is a virtue, and I know it is one that I do not have!

WAITING is hard. We want what we want and we want it now! Is it all our fault? I don’t think so! We’ve been raised in a microwave, fast food, drive-through, Amazon prime, culture! 

Even if you can’t find it on Amazon prime you could pay for something to be delivered to you quickly! I have to admit that my husband and I ordered something online last night, as we are making a trip up to the mountains soon, and needed it quickly. We paid more money so it could be delivered to us quickly. We simply didn’t have the time to WAIT!

But WAITING Is not always bad. So much can be learned and achieved when we learn to WAIT!

The key to learning to wait is to not give up HOPE! And I believe that the key to not giving up hope is to remember that God is who He says He is, and is the same God during the WAIT!

There is no doubt…WAITING is hard!

So do we give up, and lose HOPE, or do we keep trusting in the One who has always been faithful in the past? Do we trust Him to do what only He can do in the present?

Now I know that waiting in a grocery line, or a Target line, or even in a post office line is one thing. But WAITING, and WAITING, and WAITING for something week after week, month after month, or even year after year can be nothing less than EXCRUCIATING.

These are the times that our faith is put to the test. These are the times that waiting can seem HOPELESS!

Praise God, we are not alone in this!

Hannah waited year after year with a broken heart because she could not have a child. She had a husband who loved her and a God she prayed to faithfully! Still she WAITED.

I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” I Samuel 15-16

Hannah testifies here to Eli the priest that she has continued to pray even though she has great anxiety and vexation. In an earlier verse it tells us that she goes to the house of the Lord to pray year after year!

Hannah does not stop praying to the Lord through her WAITING.

Hannah trusts and has faith in God even with a broken heart and no quick answer.

Hannah WAITED through her grief and heartache, God heard her prayer, saw her, and finally answered her prayer! 

But not before years and years and years of WAITING.

I do not know what you WAITING for.

But I do know, that just like Hannah, you can wait and hope when you wait on God!

TRUTH BOMB

YOU CAN WAIT WITH HOPE WHEN YOU WAIT ON GOD!

God always will give the right answer. It may not be the answer that we desire, but it will always be the answer that we need!

Hannah received her answer after much WAITING from God.

Hannah’s prayer gives us a glimpse into the kind of faith that never loses hope even in the WAITING!

There is none holy like the Lord:

For there is none besides you;

There is no rock like our God!” 

I Samuel 2:2

Our God is Faithful and True in the WAITING and out of it!

Speak Truth Love

LOVE IS REALLY ALL YOU NEED!

I started out last week‘s Blog quoting a song by Cool and the Gang. So why not start this week out by quoting a Beatles favorite?

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!

Now most of you are probably humming the, “DA DA DA DA DA’s,” In your heads right now. It is a very well-known song and popular for very good reason. We all want to be loved!

Problem is the kind of love the Beatles are selling, or our world is offering, is not the kind of love we need!

Love really is all we need! But this statement has left out one vital word making it TRUTH!

GOD’S LOVE REALLY IS ALL WE NEED!

As we conclude this month of LOVEuary, let’s focus on the love that truly is all we need.

We began this month with the famous love passage, I Corinthians 13.

While this passage is a great Standard of LOVE, and the goal that we should all strive to achieve, we fall short.

We have good days and bad days. We have successful days and unsuccessful days. We have driven days and lazy days. We also have a God who never has any of these!

The reason that GOD’S LOVE IS REALLY ALL WE NEED, is He embodies the LOVE of I Corinthians today, tomorrow, yesterday and forever!

GOD’S LOVE TRULY NEVER FAILS AND NEVER ENDS!

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. LOVE NEVER ENDS.” 

I Corinthians 13:4

God‘s love is all this over you and more. He loves you when you are patient and when you are not. He loves you when you are kind and when you are not. He loves you when you are humble or jealous or boastful. He loves you when you are arrogant or when you are rude or when you are not. God does not insist on His own way but He desires for you to choose Him! God loves you when you are irritable or in a good mood. God loves you when you are resentful or when you are thankful. He loves you when you rejoice with others and when you do not! 

God knows that we are not perfect and He never withholds His Love from us!

HIS LOVE TRULY NEVER ENDS!

So now faith, hope and LOVE abide, these three, but the greatest of these is LOVE!”  

I Corinthians 13:13

TRUTH BOMB

GOD’S LOVE TRULY IS ALL WE NEED!

God loves you my friends! It is not based on anything that you do, it is based solely on what He has done for you! 

GOD IS LOVE!

Speak Truth Love

IT’S PARTY TIME!

“There’s a party going on right here! It’s a celebration to last throughout the year! So bring your laughter, and your good times too, because we’re going to celebrate and party with you!“

Cool and The Gang are not the only ones who penned these words, or words similar, and are ready to party!

There’s a party right now going on that claims the word FAT! Mardi Gras by definition is FAT TUESDAY! It is literally a day of huge proportion. You can party to your hearts content and take in anything and everything that you can in vast amounts. The more, the better!

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

The French, being heavily Catholic influenced, began the tradition of this gluttonous party right before Ash Wednesday would usher them into the Lenten season. A season that would reflect on the trials and suffering of Jesus Christ. 

Even though, Mardi Gras may be a fun filled day of partying, I am afraid they got it backwards! They are celebrating before they anticipate the suffering. When actually, the greatest celebration, or PARTY if you will, comes after the suffering!

Today, on the worlds calendar, it marks the day before Jesus officially started his ministry here on earth. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, when we reflect, pray and often fast, through the 40 days that occur before the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because Jesus did go to that cross, suffer and die, and was raised again to new life on the third day, we celebrate and party during baptism!

Jesus Himself was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist to show us the way. We are baptized in Christ Jesus, and raised to walk in a new life with him!

Now if that doesn’t give you some thing to “PARTY” about, nothing will!

There may be a party going on in New Orleans today or other places around the world celebrating Mardi Gras. But no party was greater than the one I was apart of this Sunday!

My oldest granddaughter and my oldest grandson chose Jesus and were baptized into him this past Sunday! We celebrated with the best kind of party, this side of heaven! It wasn’t the amount of streamers, in fact there weren’t any. It wasn’t the size of the cake, in fact there wasn’t one. It wasn’t the music, the food, or any of the decorations that made their party the best party in the world. 

It was the fact that they chose on their own to understand what Jesus modeled for us all those many years ago. We are buried to our old lives, and raised into a new life with Jesus Christ that not only encompasses this life on earth, but more gloriously, one in heaven with Him forever because of the sacrifice that He made for us on the cross!

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “You are My Beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  John 3:21-22

There is no greater reason to rejoice, celebrate and throw a party, then when someone is baptized into Christ Jesus, committing to leave their old life behind, and walk in a new life with him!

In fact, don’t take it from me, God‘s Word tells us that it’s such a great celebration that it is when the angels actually party!

Just so, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  

Luke 15:10

If the angels are throwing a PARTY, then so should we!

TRUTH BOMB

BAPTISM IS THE GREATEST PARTY WE CAN THROW!

Baptism is not only knowing God, it is choosing Him and following Him! That’s why there’s a party going on in heaven for my Cami and my Cade and for all of you who have made the same decision to follow Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior!

As we step into this very sober season of Lent, where we remember the greatest sacrifice ever made on our behalf, may we remember that at the end of it there is a huge party going on!

Speak Truth Love

LOVE

Yep, It’s That “LOVE” Day Again!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!❤️💗

Do you love it or do you hate it? 

No matter how you feel about February 14th on the calendar, it is a day to be reminded of your most important LOVE!

God loves you so much that He didn’t just say He loved you, He proved it! He not only proved it by sending His son to pay the price for your sin, so that you could feel His LOVE every day even into eternity, but He also sent you a valentine!

We talked about God proving His love for you last week on the blog. If you missed it just read John 3:16!

Today we are going to talk about God‘s valentine to us, His Word, the Bible, His Love letter to us!

Valentine’s Day has always been one of my favorite days! Not just because of the chocolate, although that’s a great perk, but more than anything, because of the Valentines, a.k.a. LOVE notes, that we get to send and receive!

I have shared on my Blog before that

“Words of Affirmation“ is my Love Language! In a nutshell love language simply means the way that I best give and receive LOVE.

So, naturally, I love giving and receiving cards! Especially when someone takes the time to think about what they are writing on that card, and express love through their words to me! Just as much as receiving those cards, I love giving them!

I remember how excited I would get when my mom would take me to the store to buy valentines for my class!

I could hardly wait to select the perfect box! 

I couldn’t wait to receive the class list with everyone’s name on it. Then I would search for the perfect pen, preferably red or pink and then I would fill out and sign every single card one at a time! It was a really special year if I had a valentine sticker to place on the outside of the envelope!  

The only time I would pause was when I would begin to fret over selecting just the right valentine for each and every person. It had to be perfect.

Then would come the time when I would literally agonize over the perfect or “proper,” valentine to send to that one person I had a crush on.

Would it be too much or too little to convey what I was really feeling? Should I send it to them or not? Should I take the risk and muster up all the courage I had to share my true feelings?

I mean after all, it was quite a risk to take. The feelings could be returned or rejected. It would actually be easier and much safer to simply keep them inside, send that “generic“ valentine card and avoid the consequences!

Problem is…If we never take the risk we never have the relationship!

I am so thankful that God was willing to take the risk to tell us that He loves us through the best valentine we will ever receive!

Gods Valentine to us is His Word, The Bible, His LOVE letter to us!

TRUTH BOMB

THE BEST VALENTINE YOU WILL EVER RECEIVE IS FROM GOD!

Gods Word is his valentine, a.k.a. love letter to us! Look at how much God loves us and wants a forever love relationship with us…

Then the world will know that you sent me,(Jesus), and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  John 17:23

Then in verse 24 he takes it even farther…

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

God loves us so much that he wants to be with us forever in a love relationship!

God loves us, sent his son to prove it, and wants us to be with him in heaven forever! 

That’s what I call TRUE LOVE!

Valentine’s Day can be the best day ever when we realize that we have received the best valentine ever from the God who loves us most!m. Then we can celebrate that love by sharing it with others!

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God for gave you.

Beloved, (or Dearly Loved Ones), let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not live does not know God, because God is LOVE.

I John 4:7-8

Unlike sending those valentines back in grade school, when we share God’s LOVE He takes the risk for us! We are already loved by God and secure in our relationship with Him! It is only a WIN when we share God‘s love with others. What they do with it is up to them!

So, HAPPY LOVE DAY EVERYONE!

You are loved by the creator of the universe and He sent you a valentine to tell you so!

Speak Truth Love

HAPPY LOVEUARY!

That’s right…. It’s LOVE month again!

Please notice I did not say it’s valentines month. Even though I happen to be a huge fan of Valentine’s Day! The legend of Saint Valentine is a wonderful one! It does not denote a romantic connection to the day, but instead a true brotherly love connection!  

But that is not what this Blog this month is about. 

This Blog all month long is about God‘s love and how we can take the opportunity to share it with others!

So welcome to love month here on the blog… Lovingly referred to as LOVEUARY!💕

The most famous love chapter in the Bible is first Corinthians 13. Most people love to skip the first several verses and move right into the long list of what love is. But I think we miss out on what love truly is, if we neglect to understand what love isn’t!

Love is not something we just speak about without putting action behind it.

Love is not something we prove to someone by our abilities and knowledge.

Love is not something we earn by giving away everything we possess.

The first three verses of first Corinthians 13 are much less quoted than the ones that follow, yet they hold incredible truth and wisdom on what love is not.

This gives us a beautiful and clear picture into what God’s love truly is!

If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver at my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”  

I Corinthians 13:1-3

Love cannot be earned and cannot be measured by the words we say or our actions alone. All of the gifts that we have to offer are worthless without love! God‘s love is supreme because it lasts forever. God’s love is even greater than the sacrifices we make!

TRUTH BOMB

God’s love is given freely not earned!

IF WE ARE TO LOVE OTHERS WELL, WE MUST ALSO FREELY GIVE OF OURSELVES!

This is only possible when we understand how much God loves us.

Let’s start with the strongest LOVE of all…. When God demonstrated His LOVE for us by giving us what mattered most to Him, His own son!

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not die but live forever.”  

John 3:16

God did not just speak about loving us, He showed us!

God did not just tell us about this great plan He had to love us, He sent His son to prove it!

And finally, God did not tell us we had to do or give away anything to earn it, we simply have to believe!

So, weather you love Valentines Day or not, you can still love “LOVEUARY” and freely love the “others” he has placed in your life!

God’s LOVE is Free, so let’s freely give it!

Happy LOVEUARY!

Speak Truth Love

THE SAME GOD 

On this, the last day of the first month of 2023, I am going to close out this month of blog posts with a first. This Blog is not brought to you by me, but by my first granddaughter, Camdyn Kaylyn. 

It was a little over a month ago that I started getting text messages from my daughter around 8:00 p.m. She was telling me that Cami, as we call Camdyn, was asking me to pray for her because she was having trouble falling asleep. I responded back immediately saying that of course I would pray. If you read my blog last week you know that I have dealt with issues of falling asleep at night since I was a little girl. 

I went to sleep that first night sad that my precious granddaughter was struggling to fall asleep but confident that God would fill her little heart with peace, and soon she would fall asleep.

The texts from my daughter continued each night, and eventually Cami called me herself… “Please pray over me Mamma. I know God is with me, but I cannot fall asleep.”

My heart was breaking, my daughter’s heart was breaking, our sweet girl was trusting God and crying out to Him and still sleep and peace were avoiding her.

A few weeks later I was able to make a trip down to visit my daughter and granddaughter and family. I arrived on a Friday and we were going to our Happy Place, Disneyland.

Cami cut her teeth on Mickey cookies and wore Minnie ears before she wore a baby bonnet. She now has a collection of Mickey ears and t-shirts that rival any influencer on social media, the girl is Disney through and through.

It was about halfway through the evening, standing in the churro line when tears started to stream down her beautiful face. She tried so hard to wipe them away but they just kept flowing! We were all so startled and alarmed at first, what could have happened.

This was our Cami Cakes, the happiest girl on the face of the earth, at the Happiest place on Earth and out of nowhere she is standing in a churro line crying uncontrollably.

What could this be? Has someone said something awful to her? Was she sick and trying to hide it from us so as not to spoil anyone’s fun? What could possibly be making this sweet girl cry?  It took her some time before she could compose herself to get the words out.

“I know I will be alright tonight and tomorrow night because you are with me, but after that I do not want to face the pain again of not falling asleep.”

The anticipation of the agony she was enduring was overcoming her and destroying her good times as well as her bad ones.  

“Pray with me Mamma,” she pleaded again! We sat on that cold, hard bench at Disneyland and we prayed.

The next morning her Mommy and I were going to a Women’s Conference. She asked if she could come along and just sit with us so she came along!

She loves worship and she loves God’s Word and she just sat quietly, held my hand and soaked it all in!

She stayed through the sharing of personal testimonies and then left at lunchtime to be with her daddy and brother. She squeezed my hand goodbye and walked quietly out.

Later that night we decided that we were going to pick something up for dinner and she quickly spoke up and blurted out, “Mamma and I will go pick it up!”

It was raining cats and dogs, but I would not have wanted to be anywhere else but in that car with my girl! Tears started to pour down her cheeks again, and I expected her to tell me that she was anticipating me leaving the next day. Through the sobs Cami spoke faith, strength and trust to my heart. 

Here’s Cami’s Story:

“Today at the Women’s Conference I sat quietly and asked God to heal me from not sleeping. I started to listen and I heard, Kathy, Ella’s Mommy, tell the story of God healing Ella from a battle with cancer for 3 years. Then daddy came and picked me up and he was playing worship music in his car. The song, ‘Same God’ by Elevation Worship was playing. I immediately felt God speaking to me. The SAME GOD that healed Ella from cancer will heal me from not being able to sleep.”

Cami and I sat in that car together and cried as we began to name all of the times in the Bible that that, “SAME GOD” healed and provided and answered His people again and again and again….Moses, David, Esther, on and on and on, until we came to JESUS!

We both held hands and said together, “The “SAME GOD” that raised Jesus from the dead has given us His Holy Spirit and He will heal us from whatever we need healing from.

Cami and I do not live as close together as we wish we did, and that is hard for us!

But we promised each other that we would trust the “Same God” to do for us what He has done for His people faithfully over and over and over again.

She is still waiting for complete healing. But she knows her God is with her and she is never alone!

Those are our code words to each other now anytime we struggle, “SAME GOD!”

JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER.”  HEBREWS 13:8

TRUTH BOMB

THE SAME GOD THAT RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD LIVES IN ME AND YOU!

We all struggle and healing may come sooner than later, but He is the SAME GOD for you each and every time you hurt. The SAME GOD that healed the blind, parted the sea, and raised the dead is there for you!

Speak Truth Love

RESILIENCE IN PUSHING THROUGH YOUR FEARS

This is the final week of January 2023 on the Blog.

All month long we have been talking about RESILIENCE!

This week brings me to my most difficult challenge in being RESILIENT.

FEAR!

What are you afraid of?

Does the fear of heights paralyze you?

Does the fear of spiders or snakes make you cringe and run the other way?

Does the fear of speaking in public make you feel like you’re the one in your underwear?

While I wouldn’t jump at the chance to walk across a suspension bridge between two tall mountain peaks, heights is not a great fear I have.

And even though I do not love snakes, I have squashed many a spider in my days for my son who is very much fearful of them. 

And while I do get butterflies in my stomach and can’t eat before I speak in public, when God gives me a word to say, He has given me the ability to speak it!

But I do have a fear I struggle with. It has been a struggle for me since I was a very young child! I always thought that I would outgrow it. I have taken it to God over and over and over again, yet it still remains a very real fear for me.

I am afraid of the dark and I hate being alone!

There, I said it. It is not easy for me to admit this fear! Much of the time I am shamed with it by the fact that it is more commonly a fear children have. But for me, it is a very real fear!

Rick Warren says,

“The revealing of feelings is the beginning of healing.”

This week as I was facing writing my final blog on RESILIENCE, I was challenged to face my greatest fear.

I don’t know about you, but it never fails for me that when I am on a mountaintop experience with God, I soon come plummeting back down to the valley!

I was blessed two weeks ago to be able to not only visit all of my children and grandchildren, but to also attend a wonderful women’s conference with my daughter and my best friend! It doesn’t get better than that, right?

But that very night, as I called my husband back home to share what a wonderful experience the conference had been, he gently broke the news to me that I would soon have to stay alone by myself overnight at home.

When I use the term, “break it to me,“ I mean, break it to me gently. He knows my fear full well! He knows that I have struggled with it and have tried and tried to over come it. He was going to be gone at a pastors prayer conference, and I would have to stay overnight at home alone!

My first response was to frantically figure out any way I could get out of spending the night alone.

Could I make a trip back to Southern California? There must be a very good reason! Was there someone, anyone who could stay overnight with me? 

Was there anywhere I could go?

I panicked. Which is the first human response to fear! 

Basically, I did everything I could to run away from it.

But then something happened! God called me to run toward it not away from it.

He spoke very quietly and gently, but clearly, 

“You will not be alone, I will be with you!”

My testimony the next morning is that I stayed in it, I was calm and remained alone with God in a big two-story house with a lot of windows. My praise and glory to God that next morning was that THE FEAR DID NOT OVERTAKE ME!

My God was right there with me! I did not sleep well, it was at two hour intervals, and at 3:30 it took me quite a bit longer to fall back to sleep. But I was calm and I was at peace and my fear did not overtake me! I stayed in it with my God. I was not alone, He was right there with me.

I was tired and I was weary from it, but I felt RESILIENT!

TRUTH BOMB

RESILIENCE COMES WHEN WE PUSH THROUGH OUR FEARS!

The scripture God gave me and always sustains me me through my fears with is,

God is LIGHT, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”    I John 1:5

I would have loved for God to have worked a miracle in my life and caused me to fall into a deep, deep sleep and wake up the next morning with the sun shining feeling fully refreshed. After all, I serve a God of miracles!

But, I also serve a God who loves me so very much that he wants me to be resilient!

There is no TESTimony, without a TEST. It is through the testing that we become RESILIENT!

Am I looking forward to the next time that I have to be alone? No! But I do know that my God will be right there with me!

And whatever fear you have to face, God will be right there with you too!

Speak Truth Love

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!

I read the most incredible Bible verse today! You would think it was one I had never read before. It spoke to me with such clarity and truth! It felt like God was jumping off of the page and giving me a big warm and fuzzy hug!

Actually, I think He was!

It wasn’t the kind of hug where I felt His warmth cover me from head to toe and melt my body into His loving arms.

It wasn’t the kind of hug that picked me up ever so gently, wrapped a warm blanket around me and sat me down in front of a warm fire! As much as I love that kind of hug.

No, it was a firm and solid hug that enveloped me in His Truth and Assurance and filled my tired soul with RESILIENCE!

The first verses I read were 14 and 15 from Psalm 91….

Because he(in this case SHE), has set his/her love upon Me (Me is capitalized here emphasizing it is God), therefore I will deliver him/her…He/She shall call upon me, and I will answer him/her; I will be with him/her in trouble; I will deliver him/her and honor him/her.

Psalm 91:14-15

I was always taught in literature to ask what the “therefore” is “there for?”

As I read the scripture this morning, I didn’t even need to ask what the “therefore” was “there for!”

I immediately felt God putting his arm around me, patting me on the back and encouraging me to continue being RESILIENT for His Name Sake, because He would answer me, be with me through my trouble, deliver me and honor me! Why, because I deserved it? Why, because of the great job I have done so far? Absolutely not! None of these reasons have anything at all to do with it! 

TRUTH BOMB

Only because I love God and have “set His love upon me,” will I have RESILIENCE!

It has nothing to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with Him!

I can not earn it, produce it or lose it.

I am RESILIENT in Christ Jesus my Lord because I LOVE Him! 

If you want to be more convinced of this Truth, read the entirety of Psalm 91.

It will wrap you in Truth like a waterproof jacket that protects and propels anything that comes against you from penetrating you and causing you harm. 

It will assure you of His love and care for you, His angels guarding and protecting you and His deliverance and honor of you.

It will increase and strengthen your RESILIENCE to stand strong!

Give your love wholly and completely to Him my friends! He will do the rest!

Speak Truth Love