DARE TO BE...

It feels like I am standing in the middle of the ocean with my feet firmly planted in the ocean floor. Waves are crashing over me... Over and Over and Over... some so big that as I see them coming, common sense tells me that I will be taken out. BUT AS EACH WAVE PASSES OVER ME - especially the tidal ones - God is showing me that there is NO WAVE OR STORM that He Himself has not created and has power over. He is showing me that in His adopting me as His daughter, the same power that He has to speak things into being, and the authority to command peace in the midst of every seething storm, exists on the inside of me. He is showing me that He will not only direct my steps but that He has already prepared the way especially for me! He will give me direction and clarity and His endless provision in ALL things concerning me!

I often imagine myself sitting and having a conversation with God and wonder what we'd be discussing. What would He tell me, what advise would He give me; oh how magnificent it would be to sit in His presence and hear Him tell me of His great love for His beloved daughter. I realize that what He has done in my life thus far has been a magnificent display of all those things I imagined Him saying to me.

You see, when it comes to God and His love for his sons and daughters, I don't believe there are words that could ever begin to describe it. So He shows us. If God had to sit with me and tell me how much He loves me, how magnificently He had created me; how much strength and power and resilience and wisdom He has planted on the inside of me, I would not have believed Him.

The psalmist wrote "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???

When God created you, He did so with intention and purpose. Everything about you, each hair on your head, every cell in your body, is the way it is and was placed the way it was with a strategy that is beyond human understanding, beyond explanation, beyond sense and beyond science! So, you can praise God for you have been created fearfully (exceptionally, uncommonly, incredibly, immensely, decidedly, thoroughly and in a powerful way) and wonderfully (extremely good, marvelous, astonishing, admirably). The next time that you look at yourself in the mirror, look at yourself with these descriptions in mind and then praise God for it! Ask God to open your eyes to behold the wonder of His creation!

 

The next time you see those waves coming, KNOW THAT as long as you have His Spirit that dwells within,YOU HAVE THE POWER TO WITHSTAND IT. KNOW THAT YOU HAVE THE POWER TO STEP OVER IT and THE POWER TO COMMAND IT, "Peace, Be still"!!!!!!  

So if you find yourself in the middle of a storm today; ask yourself, is this not God showing me His power and His majesty at work within me? Is this not God showing me the sheer wonder of His creation, which is me?

DARE TO BE WHO GOD CREATED YOU TO BE AND DARE TO BELIEVE HIM WHEN HE SHOWS YOU WHO THAT IS!

THE GARMENT OF THANKSGIVING

Every morning that I have woken up for nearly 3 weeks now; I have woken up crying my heart out as the realization hits that my beloved husband is not lying next to me. The realization that for another day our children don't get to see him. For another day I have to make decisions about so many things, on my own. For another day that I don't get to see my husband with his eyes open or hear him tell me that everything is going to be ok or that he loves me. For another day, our family is without the covering of our Prophet, Priest & King. We've just about found our heads above water after our last great battle as a couple and now this. My flesh wants to shout out "WHY GOD WHY, WHY, WHY HIM, WHY THIS FOR US??!!!!!!!!!!" Each day is a battle with my flesh that wants to take my emotions on a roller coaster ride of self-wallowing, self-pity, loneliness and depression but instead my cry is "LORD, take captive these thoughts and You take over my mind & my emotions." and just like that, like the flip of a switch He takes the spirit of heaviness and gives me the garment of praise! His grace overcomes my entire being starting in my spirit and then my spirit give thanks and it is in that moment of giving thanks each morning that His strength arrives to carry me. It is the garment I have to dress myself in before I get out of bed and my feet hit the ground.

 

THE GARMENT OF PRAISE IS POWERFUL!!

 

I will never forget the first time after the accident when the "experts" the team of Neurologists gave me their conclusion to what was reported on Brad's condition and to sum it up they told me "We don't understand how your husband made it to the hospital alive but it would do you well to start making arrangements." and then they wanted to explain their conclusion further based on their evidence and I left the room because I wasn't interested in what they had to say after that; I needed to find a quiet place where I could take refuge in the shadow of my LORD and seek His report. As I sat down in that secret place, my LORD simply said: "Be still and wait on Me".

It is 3 weeks later and still I wait... I will continue to wait until I see His promise fulfilled and I will continue to praise Him as long as His grace enables me to do so. My heart feels heavy, broken even but even in that there is something to be thankful for. There are those who have stepped in to be there for us in so many ways and I am most grateful for those who have physically stepped forward to take me by the hand and who have not let go. God provides, supplies, comforts and counsels but He uses people to be His hands and feet. There is a time to lift people up in prayer but there is also a time to physically be there. I praise God for the people he is using and I bless them. I bless them for their sacrifices of time, effort & resources, people who have just gone out of their way to carry this load with me. People who didn't ask "what can we do, what do you need" they just did and they just gave and I bless them, I bless them today and forevermore.

 

I give thanks with such a grateful heart!