Remembering How It Used to Be

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2nd Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

People frequently ask me where I get the ideas for the Promise. I think God brings every day of our lives into His keeping. Therefore, everyday situations are not something that happen apart from our Christianity, but rather an opportunity to grow and mature - and to recognize the presence of God in every moment. Now with all that seemingly serious profundity, I'll tell you that today's Promise came from thinking about cleaning the coils on my refrigerator.

I'll spare you the gory details... Used to be, when I worked construction, I actually started as a painter. As an apprentice, you don't get to roll right away, you have to cut in and do baseboards and trim. Crawl around for most of the day, up and down the ladder. Great cardio, but boring. I was thinking about all that, and about how we used to knock out 2 to 3 apartments a day (determined by how many bedrooms)...all that crawling and all that up and down. Used to be, I could do that without even giving it a thought. However, cleaning coils on the refrigerator took an engineering epiphany just to get TO the floor; never mind, getting back up.

Used to be, I played competition volleyball. Used to be, I could carry 2 five-gallon buckets of paint up 3 flights of stairs and not even be winded. Used to be, I could lift 100-pound sacks of flour without batting an eye. Now there are days I'd better grab the 5-pound bag just right, or I'm gonna drop it.

As I was writing my own Book of Lamentations in my mind, while trying to get UP off the floor after cleaning the coils on my refrigerator, the Lord reminded me about how it used to be. Used to be when I worked construction, I was drunk by 6 o'clock on Friday night and stayed drunk until Sunday night and spent 3 days recovering, so I could start again the next weekend. Now, I get high on worshipping the Lord.

Used to be when I was lifting 100-pound sacks of flour, I was quietly going out of my mind because of the pain in my soul and the torment in my mind. Now, I fight the powers of hell and live in peace because my mind is stayed on Him.

Used to be...oh, really! Why go there? 

Used to be doesn't live here anymore... and I thank God for it every day. Praise His Holy Name!

Prayer:

Father,

          You overwhelm me with Your love and Your care. I have never done anything worthy to be called Your child and yet, You chose me to be Yours. O for a thousand tongues to sing praises to You! Help me to always see You in every moment of my life. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen 

Testify for Today - Just Today

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10 NIV

I was diagnosed in February 2016. Meds do NOT touch the pain, and I find they generally do more harm than good. The burning (in my legs and feet) feels as though they are lying in the hot coals of a barbecue pit. Clothes, sheets, and even water from the shower are like scraping already raw, burnt skin.

It IS exhausting and can be horribly depressing...

I reached my wits' end several years ago and just wanted to die. I screamed at God, "I cannot do this the rest of my life! It's too much!!" and then the still, small Voice asked, "Can you do it today? Just for today?" So each day since, just for today, by His Grace and His promise to always be with me - to never leave me - we've gotten through the day.

The thing is, Dear Ones, God has called us to ONLY do today. Not the last 7 years, not the last 32 months, only today. NOBODY can face a future while they're carrying the accumulation of all that awful.

Psalm 32:8 ESV, [God speaking] "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." So, is there someone today to whom we can minister the love of Jesus? Let's focus on that. Is there someone just today who needs a note of encouragement? A written prayer? Let's focus on that. We must look outside of our circle of pain. Can we give the world a smile in spite of the pain? Yes, by God's grace, we can.

Do I succeed every day? No, I do not, but in the Word, Isaiah 61:3, God said He came "To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." Do I fail? Yes, yes I do but HIS WORD NEVER FAILS. That's what we stand on and the prayers of the saints He has surrounded you with who love you and continue to pray for you.

Do we understand everything and why? No, but we KNOW God is ALWAYS worthy of our praise. 

Prayer:

Father,

          Thank You that You have decreed all things work together for our good - to those called according to Your Purpose. Give us Your eyes to see those in need around us. Help us to hear Your voice guiding us to do all that You have planned and would have us do - especially for those of the Body of Christ. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Help Me! The Cry of My Heart

Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer  or withdraw his unfailing love from me.
Psalm 66:16-20 NLT

Help me!! I'm supposed to be going through the accumulation of STUFF and purging. I thought I would start with my office here at the house... I'll just tell you straight up - I'm not good at purging. However, I am very good at accumulating STUFF! I'm also very good at stuffing it into drawers or boxes. 

I've spent the last 3 hours going through cards, letters, old bills, old newspaper articles... a sales ad! Really?!? Most of it, I can recycle or shred, but right in the middle of it, some old family pictures. I don't know how they got mixed in with all that.  Stuffing the stuff...

In the course of it, I happened upon some great and some not-so-great memories, but in my heart, I "visited" some of the milestones and landmarks of my life. God is so good! I am grateful to be able to remember, and I am grateful that I have the advantage of age to look back with an attitude of gratitude for all God has brought me through!  At times like this, I always go back to what turned my life around and brought me to God, and I just felt like tonight, I wanted to share it again.

For me, it was this song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBOIG8QoA9s.  Larry Gatlin wrote it and recorded it with Kris Kristofferson in 1972. I bought the record then, but didn't listen to Help Me until somewhere around 1980. A brief history of me at that time - paycheck on Friday, go to the bank, go to the liquor store, be drunk all weekend, sober up enough on Sunday to go to work on Monday. Be sick till Wednesday. Be good on Thursday, and start all over again on Friday. Broken. I was so broken... 

This is my testimony - the shortened version. I'd been raised in church by a mother who tried, but I decided at 16 that I could never be good enough (I didn't know about God's amazing grace), so I walked away. By the time I listened to the entire song of Help Me, (ten years later), I was desperate. I needed to get back to God, but couldn't find my way. I'd forgotten how to pray. I couldn't bring myself to even try to talk to God after all I'd done in a decade of debauchery. That's when I found the 45rpm record in my collection for the final time and actually listened to it all the way through for the FIRST time. God used my favorite singer to throw me a lifeline. 

I am convinced that God gave that song to Larry Gatlin for me. It was the prayer of my life - for my life, of exactly where I was, and exactly what I needed. 

If this resonates with you, let me tell you this. You're never too far gone. You've never done more than God will forgive. Jesus has already willingly paid the price for your soul. His grace truly IS amazing. God loves you and He will use everything at His command to get to you. Just let Him know you realize you need help.

Prayer:

Father,
           I pray for the one reading this right now who needs Your saving grace. Please reveal Yourself in a very personal way so they know it's You. Save souls, heal their mind, body and spirit, and set them free from those things that tie them in knots, Father. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

I Got This! +

Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him. Deuteronomy 7:9-10 NLT Note: I wrote this over 3 years ago. I am posting part of it tonight, because I want to give testimony of what God has done and continues to do.  ***************************************************** God has promised all along that He would bring our children back to Himself. We push and we prod and we provoke our grown children... not necessarily to good works - and yet we don't see anything happening. "Where are You, God?" We're quick to call out when we don't see what we want to see in the span of time that WE have allotted for God to work. And when God doesn't operate in our timeframe, we're usually back to trying to do it ourselves...because after all, we're entering into the last days, right? Recently, I was reminding God yet again about one of my children. (My children are adults, not children to anyone but me... and God.) And I'm telling you, I heard God say, "I got this." And I barely paused in my litany of reasons why I needed Him to intervene quickly, etc, when I heard Him say again, "I've got this." The very next church service I attended, He confirmed His Word that He was covering this situation. So I made up my mind that I would start thanking Him in advance for giving me His word because I know He is bound by it. *****************************************************  Bringing it to today - I remember well the phone call I got from my child,  "God's got a hold of my heart and He won't let go! I can't sleep for thinking about those things I've failed to do - those things which I MUST do!"  Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations ... beginning with just our next generation. He's got this... Prayer: Father,          You are absolutely too amazing for me to comprehend. I don't know how You love me, or why You do. I just know You do because You ARE love.  Help us to trust You even more. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.