The Best Laid Plans

1 Thessalonians 5:24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

Sometimes the best laid plans, and the best intentions have no bearing on how things go. In times like these there is an opportunity to stay the course, exercise faith and trust God. Monday I made my plans to drive back to Nashville from Washington DC. I would get up early…4:30 am and be on the road by 5ish to beat any beltway traffic and get out of the city early. I needed to get back to Nashville and make some business calls on appointments I had coming up this week. This would not be an issue for me because I like to get up early and drive with sunlight.

Sooooo……I did not get in bed as early as I wanted. When my phone went off, I started my process. All of a sudden I heard what sounded like thunder! No way….  But of course I had not checked the weather. Did I mention I hate driving in the rain? Needless to say it was not just thundering it was raining, windy and thundering. As I stopped to fill up the gas tank the wind picked up. It did not matter that I was under the covered area, the wind managed to blow just in the right direction to soak me. The gas tank was full and I was on my way to the interstate at 5:30…check. As I get on the beltway I was feeling good until the blinding water started blowing up unto my windshield….I guess my car is too low. So after about an hour and a half, I decide to pull off the interstate because I am sleepy, it was dreary and I was worn out fighting the torrential rain. The good news is that I had made pretty good time in spite of the highway fun. I stop at a Starbucks, parked and slept for about 45 minutes. Then I got my dirty Chai and a breakfast sandwich, and hit the road with a new attitude. I had prayed, napped and was believing God that the rain would let up soon. I even texted some prayer warriors to pray my strength….10 hours is no joke to drive alone. Needless to say about 51/2 hours in, the sun came out and it was a beautiful drive the rest of the way! Where the five hours prior to that pretty miserable, yes, but I made it through.

See sometimes life is just like that. Even though the best plans are made, even though we do everything we can to prepare, and even when we have done nothing wrong.  Even though there are things to do when we get to our destination, the storms of life still come. As I hit the 6^th hour of the drive, the sun came out. The rain stopped and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. The same is true for life, the day and hour will come when the dark clouds will part, the rain will stop and the Son will shine on your situation. And sometimes just as you planned you will make it to your destination in time to do just what needs to be done….as long as you keep going. See it is by faith that we overcome the storms of this world. God reminded me as I saw the beautiful clouds and felt the sun shine and the wind blow, that He is faithful to get us to our destination if we just press forward trusting Him. I am so thankful not just to have made it back to Nashville, but that I serve a God who promises to ALWAYS bring me through the storms of life to victory through faith in His power! Amen.

I WILL BE STRONG!

Psalm 95:6 Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,

7 for he is our God. We are the people he watches over,  the sheep under his care.

  Oh, that you would listen to his voice today! 8 The LORD says, "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 9 For there your ancestors tried my patience; they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles. 10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, `They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.' (NLT)

Read Psalm 95

When we read the Old Testament and the history of the Israelite's we see a people who made plenty of mistakes.  What we should also see is ourselves, and the many times we have refused to do what God is telling us.  In this Psalm, there is a call to be different from the early people of God.  We have a new opportunity, by the power of the Holy Spirit to be obedient.  We have to make a choice, a choice to make God proud and not angry.  Everyday we are challenged to choose.  We must choose to please the Lord Jesus, and not our flesh.  We must choose to please God, and not satan by our nasty attitude and behavior.  We have a choice of whether we are or are not going to sin against God, and if we are going to rely on the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to make the right choice for Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the Lord looking down and shaking His head at me saying, “How many times must I give her this test?”.  I want to pass the test, and I WILL NOT be weak and subject to my flesh.  The Word says that greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world.  Do you believe it?  I know sometimes we don’t act like we do; BUT today make the right choice that shows that you do!  Declare that you will NOT be in the “they” that refuse to do what the Lord tells you (v10).  Declare that you WILL BE strong in your discipleship, and walk in all that the Lord has for you!  

Jesus thank you for helping us, strengthening us, encouraging us, and teaching us.  In Your MIGHTY name we pray, AMEN.  

So Beautiful……

Cookie Lyons on the FOX show Empire was lying in jail singing the words to a song that I think every woman should admit that they long to hear:  You’re so beautiful, I will wait for you!  

That scene just touched me….I could feel it.  How our hearts need that hope, hope that allows us to survive even when we are locked up. You might not have been physically behind bars, but we do have a way of locking our heart up because of the pains we have experienced in this world.  We shut people out, we don’t open up to know people or let them know us.  It is all the same.  We want to be safe from the pain.  We have lost hope that that there is someone who thinks we are beautiful, and will wait for us as to heal and hope again.  We might have even lost hope that anything could be beautiful, nonetheless think that about us.  Some of us have lost hope. 

So what kept Cookie Lyons while in that jail cell?  I don’t know.  Maybe hope that the words of the song that her husband sang were true, and that he thought she was so beautiful that he would wait for her. Maybe it was looking at the picture of her family and hoping that she would one day be with her kids again…to love them.  Well he did not wait, he divorced her.  BUT I know someone who we can always hope in, and hope in Him will not disappoint us.  He is a keeper and a mender of hiding locked up hearts.  His love waits and calls us to beautiful.  His name is Jesus and He thinks we are one of His most beautiful creations, perfect, fearfully and wonderfully made.  AND He will always wait for us…until the end of time.  The Lord Jesus longs for us with an incomprehensible love that can break us out of jail and give us a hope that will keep us eternally. 

Ecclesiastes 3¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts...

Walk & Not Faint

Isaiah 40²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, ³¹ but those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

I love Isaiah 40, it is action packed with power, promise and truth.  “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Isaiah asks.  If you hadn’t heard before, Isaiah 40 breaks it down for us.  One of the truths in this passage of scripture that perplexed me for many years, is the end of verse 31 “they shall walk and not faint”.  This portion of the scripture came alive to me, after I had walked a few years with the Lord.  See I am a runner, and if I think about fainting, it would be because I was running too long and too hard….but that is in the physical.  One thing we learn spiritually as a child of God, is that in order to live a life of faith pleasing to the Lord, we must walk with Him.  This race of endurance is not a sprint, some say it is a marathon, but for me it has been more like a combination of a sprint, a run & a lot of walking.  We have to walk in the Spirit.  We can’t sprint, unless it is the season to do so.  Sometimes it feels like a marathon because it takes so long to get to the finish line of a promise from God.  But the hardest times for me in my Christian walk have been the steady pace of not going to fast & not going to slow.  It has been walking with my eyes focused on Christ, and not what is going on around me or even inside me.  It has been in these times that I have felt like fainting, but Christ has empowered me to just take one more step, trust Him a little further, and to hold on just a little longer.  It is the day-to-day monotony, waiting for a change that can wear us out. 

We the children of God can become weary of the troubles of this world, the failings of humans, and trying to do things in our own strength.  But I propose to you today as Isaiah did thousands of years ago, have you not known, have you not heard of the God, my God:

…The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

As we walk together, being empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us be comforted by His love so that we will not faint, if we WAIT on the Lord.  Hallelujah and Amen.

Let Love Choose Your Friends

I was reading a devotional today that spoke about friendship and the ability to trust others for it.  That is a poor summary, because it was a very powerful devotional from Girlfriends in God.  Well of course it made me examine my life and friendships.  As I read it, the Spirit kept bringing out for me the word TRUST.  So I went to the word of God for further guidance, because like many of you, I have been hurt in my life by so-called friends.  My question to myself and to you is, “was it really just their fault that I got hurt?”  So let’s examine some scripture:

Proverbs 18:²⁴ A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (NKJV)

²⁴ There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. (NLT)

²⁴ Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family. The Message

I used all three versions of the same scripture, because each breaks down how friendship can be.  Can you relate?  What stands out to me in all three is how we have to be a friend first, and then also how the friendship is brought to a familial sense….a brother (or sister). Now look at these verses:

Proverbs 12:²⁶ The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray. (NKJV)

²⁶ The godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray. (NLT)

²⁶ A good person survives misfortune, but a wicked life invites disaster. The Message

Now we see how the Word says that we have to choose friends carefully.  Verse 26 also shows us that if we choose wrong, or a wicked person, we will be led astray and have disaster invited into our lives.  That is deep.  The word of God brings such clarity for every aspect of our lives.  God loves us so much that He will give us wisdom to choose the right friends.  These friends should be our brothers and sisters in Christ, in the family of God.  Even within the family of God, the body of Christ, we have to use wisdom and be guided by the Holy Spirit.  Friends give grace, encourage one another, and provide good advice from the word of God.  Are you a friend?  By the love and friendship of God, we can be a good friend and choose our friends wisely. 

Thank you Lord Jesus that you love us, know us and care even about who our friends are.  Lord help us to choose wisely those we invite into our lives.  Thank you for always being the friend we need most. Amen.