God is Still in Control

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

God is still in control. God is still in control. God is still in control.

That five word phrase, simple and straight to the point, is one of the foundational blocks of my faith and strength. GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL. It doesn’t matter what else is going on around us, God is still in control. The evening news spews bad news daily but God is still in control. Our health may become shaky and scary but God is still in control. Our finances may be non-existent but God is still in control. Our family and friends may have turned their backs on us but God is still in control.

I can’t count the hours, days, years of my life that I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to solve my problems, trying to figure out something to make a bad situation better. I believed in God, called myself a Christian and yet, I never felt the peace and security I have since I let that little five word phrase soak into my heart, mind and spirit. God is still in control.

My body has ‘issues’…God is still in control. I figure if He is allowing it to continue in my life, He has a purpose and reason for it and will use it to His greater glory somehow. That’s all I need to know. I do my part to take care of the body He gave me and He does all the rest. It makes no sense to me to sit around whining about it all the time since God is still in control.

I will be the first to admit I have times where some things in this world give me pause and I feel weak against them. My weakness is not the issue, I am not in control. We feel weak against those things that hover over us…we usually feel the weakest over things which we have no control. Shout it aloud with me…God is still in control…we don’t have to be. What a burden lifter that it!

Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

Two or More

Matthew18:18-20 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Early last week I knew I was in for a rough time physically. My body struggles with lupus and there is as occasional ‘flare’ that magnifies all the ugliness, fatigue and pain. I started praying against it, chose not to say anything about it and go on with life. By Wednesday I was in a full blown flare up and could barely function. Mentally my head was foggy and every move agonizing. I am blessed to have a new job I enjoy yet that day it was my need to work that kept me moving. I can deal with the daily chronic pain but flares are another story.

Since I was at work, I wasn’t able to send out my usual prayer request email but I did send a text to my inner circle prayer warriors. There was comfort in knowing these trusted friends and family were standing in prayer for me all at the same time. Prayer power is a mighty thing! By mid-afternoon I physically could feel a difference on the scale of pain level. It was as if it could be measured with the scale tipping toward relief more and more as the afternoon wore on. I knew in the depths of me that the cries of my prayer warriors and the healing hand of Jesus were covering me. I went home in far less pain than I started with in the morning and I used wisdom by resting my body when I got home instead of listening to the yapping chores vying for my attention.

I’ve said all that to say this: I could have and should have reached out to my prayer warriors sooner; perhaps the flare could have been averted if I had. I do not hesitate to pray for those that ask yet I was hesitant to ask for myself…why? Was it pride, was it fear…what kept me from calling on those I knew loved me and would stand with me in prayer? This bothered me and I gave it serious thought. In the craziness and turbulence of my world the last year and a half, I have called on them for prayer so often I think I felt guilty for needing them… AGAIN. What a foolish way to think!

Friends, it was our Lord Jesus saying those words in the scripture: “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Whatever your situation, know that it was God’s plan for us to pray with and for one another. There is nothing you can have going on in your life that is not common to man. Your needs will not shock God. As believers we are suppose to support one another in prayer and lift each other up with the Word of God. My foolish mentality in not reaching out for support or prayer was of my flesh, not my spirit. I knew better but didn’t follow through. The price for my hesitation was high and a consequence of my sin of pride. God didn’t make me suffer; I suffered because I leaned on myself to ‘get through it’ over calling on my fellow prayer warriors and Jesus as I know to do. Make a note and don’t walk in my stupid footsteps.

Staying Strong

Philippians 4:13 I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME!

Some days it is simply harder to get up in the morning and get moving like I need and want to do. This morning I feel like my blood has turned to sludge and is having a hard time coursing through my veins and fueling the muscles in my body. My clay vessel has cracks and weaknesses and I feel every one of them. Still - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

Are you tired or troubled? Turn your heart toward God in prayer. Are you weak or worried? Take the time—or, more accurately, make the time—to delve deeply into God’s Holy Word. Are you spiritually depleted? Call upon fellow believers to support you, and call upon Christ to renew your spirit and your life. When you do, you’ll discover that the Creator of the universe stands always ready and always able to create a new sense of wonderment and joy in you. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!

Endurance means taking that next step when you think you simply cannot because you know from where your help is coming. Endurance for a Christian is not a matter of mind over matter but trusting in the One who matters and knowing it is only because of Jesus that you can do anything at all. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! 

Wisdom in caring for ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally is important. God gave us our clay vessels and we need to care for them. Physical strength to do what we need to do is important, too. Knowing all of that comes from the One on High and placing our trust in Him, not on our puny, pathetic selves is the key.

Philippians 4:13 I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME!

Twice His

Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Inspired by and taken in part from an article written by Ron Hutchcraft; it is a subject matter too good not to pass on.

There are people who have felt like they've been unwanted most of their life. And in this often cruel world we live in, people really do make you feel like you don't belong, that you're never good enough, that they don't particularly care if you're there or not. Honestly, if we put our sense of worth in the hands of other humans, they are almost surely going to drop it, crush it or stomp on it. On purpose or unknowingly; either way, it feels crummy.

Then along comes Someone who says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." That's our word today from the Word of God in Jeremiah 31:3; someone who never lies; someone who always delivers. There really is Someone who has always wanted you so much that He's pursued you at great cost. All the way to a rugged old cross where He gave His life so He wouldn't lose you.

Actually, the problem isn't that God doesn't want us. It's that we don't want Him. Oh, we're okay with a God who runs the universe as long as we can run our own universe. We want God as a belief, a religious pacifier, a cozy blanket when it's cold, and a spiritual ace to play when we die, but not when it comes to God actually running our lives.

So we've cut ourselves off from the One who loves us more than anyone. All our God-ignoring sins have set us up for an eternity without Him, because sin separates us from a sinless God.

But Jesus was God who came looking for us. In His words, he came to "seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). He suffered for our sinning so we would never have to; so we could be with Him for all eternity. That's how very wanted we are by the most important person in the galaxies.

There's a story of a little boy who built a toy sailboat with his daddy. His father let little Scotty glue it and sand it and paint it and name it. He called it "Arthur," for some reason. And Scotty couldn't wait to get his masterpiece in the lake nearby. But on "Arthur's" maiden voyage, a storm came up and quickly blew the sailboat way beyond the little boy's ability to get it. Scotty ran to his daddy heartbroken. His father just said, "I'll just buy you another one." Scotty was adamant. He said, "I want my boat back."

Later, in an amazing discovery at a little store downtown, Scotty saw his boat in the window! He ran into the store and asked the man if he could have it. "Sure," the owner said. "Twenty bucks." That probably sounded like a million dollars to a little boy, but he went back home and went to his neighbors, asked for any job he could get paid for, and one day he walked into that store proudly and he plunked down his hard-earned 20 bucks.

He ran all the way home with that sailboat wrapped tightly in his arms. His father was home, so Scotty jumped into his lap with one arm around Daddy and one arm around "Arthur." And he gushed out what his heart couldn't contain: "Daddy, I love this boat so much, because now it's twice mine; once because I made it and once because I paid for it!"

That's how Jesus feels about us. He loves us so much because we're twice His; once because He made us, and once because He paid for us with His life. And today He stands with open arms waiting to welcome us into His love, into a forever relationship with Him.

Jesus, no one's ever loved me like You do. I am Yours!

Freedom to Grow Where We are Planted

MATT. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

PS 8 I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever--

The greatest freedom I have known in my life came from complete surrender to Jesus. Freedom and surrender are not often thought of as compatible states but when it comes to a surrendered life to Christ, freedom is the end result.

Looking back at my life, I count four significant life altering moments in time where I was overcome with a sense of freedom. By far, the most satisfying and nurturing was the moment I surrendered to Jesus. I was freed of burdens I didn’t even know I was carrying around. I was freed from condemnation that had been a life-long companion. I was freed from thinking I had to keep the weight of the world on my shoulders. I was freed from my personal sin. I was truly alive for the first time. I believe that is, in part, where the ‘born again’ comes from. When we come alive in Christ, we are alive in its deepest and fullest meaning for the first time. Babes in His arms.

This short paragraph below by HENRY D. THOREAU is a beautiful piece of prose that means a lot to me. Although it does not say so, I see the flower as a child of God, standing in the sunlight, looking only to the Creator, neither borrowing worry nor fear.

I saw a delicate flower had grown up two feet high, between the horses' path and the wheel-track. An inch more to the right or left had sealed its fate, or an inch higher; and yet it lived to flourish as much as if it had a thousand acres of untrodden space around it, and never knew the danger it incurred. It did not borrow trouble, nor invite an evil fate by apprehending it..

When we surrender, we are given that same freedom from concerns coming at us from the right or the left. We can stand our ground with our roots planted deeply in the Lord and simply do what He gives us to do.