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...

FORWARD!

Ok, I am just going to start typing because I have been thinking about writing this last entry for 2014 for weeks now.  There has been so much on my mind!  Everything from the holiday blues, family relationships (that’s big), work expectations in the new year, and finally to what is God going to do in the New Year!!!!  I know I am not alone.  Probably anyone who is reading this will have had at least one of these thoughts over the past several weeks.  To what degree you have them depends on many factors. Some of these thoughts deal with the past, others with what is going on today, and finally the rest with the future.  Thankfully we have choices on how to deal with these thoughts. 

I don’t know about you, but because of Love, I always look to see what God says I should be focusing on.  In one of my favorite books of the bible, Isaiah, we receive some guidance with our thoughts:

Isaiah 43¹⁸ “But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. ¹⁹ For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?

See what we need, what the “world” needs is hope! (1 Corinth 13:13) We find that in the hope provider, the joy bringer, the life giver, the power deliverer….Jesus.  So God says forget about all that other stuff and watch me work in your life.  Watch me work through you.  Watch as your faith pleases me to action. 

As Isaiah asks, have you not sensed that God has already begun to work?  Can you not see God moving all around you?

So as you end 2014 and by grace enter 2015, I hope you move FORWARD with hope forgetting all that is past and becoming excited about the God who makes all things NEW!  Amen. 

In Position for a Miracle

We as Christians try to encourage one another when the issues of life try and bring us down.  That is what we are supposed to do.  The Lord is our comforter and His Word says that we are to comfort one another as He has comforted us.  The thought that popped into my mind this morning is that when our sisters and brothers in the Lord are in a tough situation and we say things like, “you are in the perfect position for God to show up and do a miracle”, do we really understand how difficult the position the person is really in if that is true?

If that is true, then that person is potentially in peril for their life, a Moses red sea parting moment when they would have died if God did not deliver them, or they are potentially in a situation where what they believe needs to be done is so “stupid” in the eyes of man, that they face ridicule and their faith is pushed to the limits.  Think of Joshua and the Israelites marching around the wall of Jericho and shouting, expecting the walls to fall down.  Is that sound battle strategy?

Well, I challenge you today that if you know a child of God who is really in an “only God can do it miracle moment”, that you pray for their faith to fail them not.  Pray that the Lord helps their unbelief.  Pray earnestly for them that the Word of God envelops them and girds them up so that by faith they see the salvation of the Lord.  Words of comfort and encouragement are good, but at times like these prayers of strength in faith avail much.  AMEN.

Either Way.......

I was just watching the news and within 3 minutes I saw people standing in line at a food bank and switched to the BBC World news and saw the people of Thailand moving their belongings (or what is left of their belongings) around in a small boat – they are trying to find someplace to live since their city is flooded.  Although things are tough for me right now, I have not gone hungry or hungry enough to have to go to a food bank.  I am not homeless because my city is flooded.  See at times we need perspective on our situations.  I am not saying that what I am going through or what you are going through is not tough.  I am not saying that it is not painful and that you/we have not had to cry.  I am not even trying to down play your situation, BUT God.  See the rain falls on the just and the unjust.  These things only come to make us stronger and increase our faith.  Is your faith increasing or are you turning away right when God wants to show Himself strong in your life?

At times we are in hard situations because of our choices, sin & disobedience.  Other times we are suffering for Christ, so that He can do a work in us.  God does the work of increased faith, unwavering trust, and undeniable love.  Only you know why you are in what you are in.  Either repent or stand on God’s promises.  Either way, you cannot lose. 

Matthew 5:45……for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.