LET'S GET REAL

     

I sit here today confused and bewildered by some people in today's society.   They love the easy life with no complications.   They want to earn a big wage with little work, they want to get all the rewards without going through any trials or tests.  So often this branch of society has been called the entitled lifestyle.  They want things to go the way they want it and if that doesn't happen they throw a temper tantrum.   Life should be fair, life should be easy, life should be carefree.   Seriously?  Get real!   

"What do you mean I can't keep my cell phone at my desk?"  "Why can't I use company time to get on the internet and check Facebook ?"   "What do you mean I don't get a raise?  I've been here for 3 months?"  Listen I could go on and on about the things I've heard over the course of the last few years and it's ridiculous.   I apologize if this offends any of you, wait let me take that back.   If this offends you I'm gonna challenge you to get real and get over yourself.   

In life there will be challenges and trials and times of testing.  There will be times you have to work your butt off for a morsel of food.  There may be times you have to shovel horse poo to put food on the table.  There may be a time when you can't afford the newest electronic gadget.   Will you survive?   Will you endure?  Will you learn?   Will you do whatever it takes?   Are you willing to go the distance it takes to run this race called life?

I am entitled to nothing.  You are entitled to nothing!   I can't earn a wage without putting in the work required of me.  You can't earn a wage without putting in the work required of you.  Life is hard and full of challenges and tests.   Whether we endure and pass the challenges and tests will depend on us.  We won't be able to blame our parents, our family or our friends if we don't pass, the results will be on our shoulders.  To be honest, I mean really honest, we can't blame God either.  I know that is some people's go to.  If I fail then it's Gods fault.   Wrong!

Does God allow us to be tested?  Yes He does.   Why?  How else can we learn and grow?  If everything in life is easy, the we don't need to rely on God.  If everything was simple we'd remain the same dumb, entitled children expecting everything to fall in our laps.   We wouldn't have to work for anything and we would never grow up.   But also we would never be blessed by God.  You see you receive blessings if you're not willing to endure testing with patience.

James 1:12 NLT  "God blesses those who patiently endure testing.  Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

So many of want Gods blessings without having to do any work.  We would be so happy to,have God open up the floodgates of heaven without ever having to endure any testing.   I used to think that way until I watched what my youngest daughter had to go through when she was burned.  It was during one of the hardest times in my life that God refined me and blessed me.  Although I don't like being tested, I know it's for my good.  I have learned so much about God and myself during these tests.   Without these tests I wouldn't be who I am today.   So I'm challenging you to embrace the tests, endure them with patience and allow God to bless you.

STRENGTH TRAINING

Okay we all know that strength training is not easy and there are many of us who really dispise it, at least I do.  It's painful to lift those weights and do those squats and the sit ups, well I won't even begin to discuss those.  Oh yea we love the results, we love to be fit and trim, we love to have strength but getting there can be a real battle.  We dream of a perfect body, with perfect curves and perfect muscles but are we willing to do the work?  Seriosuly think about it.  How many hours in a gym will it take to get the body we want?  How many donuts and pizzas are we willing to give up to get our body in the shape we desire?  It's easy to dream about being in shape, it's eay to plan to succeed, but it ain't easy to committ to follow through and do the work we need to do to get there.  We can even make plans to do it, we buy the gym membership, or invest in a weight machine for the house, but that first time a conflict arises and throws us off schedule, we can lose momentum.

Strength training, physical strength training is hard work but the results can be transforming for our bodies, our health and our minds.  It can change our attitude about ourselves and others.  We feel better about ourselves, like we actually accomplished something important.  It can also motivate us to motivate others and offer support for those struggling, but if the results are not what we expected, or it's harder that we had imagined, we can become discouraged and give up.   Sound familiar?

Okay not let's go deeper......what about strength training with the Holy Spirit?  That may seem petrifying and extrememly risky, but just like physical strength training the results can be amazing.  The catch with dealing with the Holy Spirit is we have to get real honest with ourselves because let's face facts, the Holy Spirit already knows the condition of our hearts, He already knows every thought we will think before we even think it, He already knows every word we will speak before we even speak it.  He knows us better than we know ourselves so we can't pretend or try to deceive the Holy Spirit because He knows the truth about who we really are.  With those facts in mind strength training with Him becomes one of the most difficult things we may ever do, but it will be the most rewarding thing we ever do.

Oh I have gone through this strength training with God (through the Holy Spirit) and I can honestly say it was the hardest thing I ever did.  At the end of my training I lost friendships, I stopped reading certain books, I stopped listening to certain music, I stopped watching certain TV shows and movies I used to watch all the time became a challenge for me.  At first this seemed a bit unfair but then I was reminded by God that He had a plan and a purpose for my life that required me to surrennder my flesh.  I felt weak and weary.  I was giving up so much, or so I thought.  But in the end, relying on His strength and surrendering my flesh brought me to my knees and He lifted me up and helped me to soar on the wings of eagles.  It has been so worth it!!  It was tough but so rewarding.

Isaiah 40:28-31  Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth.  He never grows weak or weary.  No one can measure the depths of His understanding.  He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.  Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.  But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.   They run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.

Listen we can either keep roaming around the chicken coop with the rest of the chickens or we can soar on the wings of eagles.  It's our choice, but it will also be our consequence to face either way.  I grew tired of being a chicken.  How about you?

IT'S TIME TO TURN THE PAGE

     

Distracted, deceived and defeated.  The struggle is real.  My heart feels overwhelmed right now. The thing is I don't feel this way because of anything that is happening in my life, I think it has everything to do with what isn't happening in my life.  Expectations, dreams, and hopes fill my mind and when they do not come to pass, my heart feels it.  I expect people to use words to encourage me, when they don't I feel defeated.  I expect people to accept me for who I am, when they don't I feel hurt.  I expect people to want to hear what I have to say, when they don't I shut down.  I expect people to love me the way I need to be loved, when they don't I can climb into my shell and bury my head in the sand.

The enemy has distracted me once again by encouraging me to live by my feelings.  He has deceived me by convincing me that it is important what others think of me.  He has once again defeated me by expecting others to fill me with what I can only receive from God.  It saddens me that I have to go through this but it also encourages me because I know that as I strive to reach a new level with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, the enemy brings up a new strategy.  "New level, new devil".  It's time for me to turn the page and get on with my life the way God meant it to be.

Listen to me....the enemy is real and alive on this earth.  He roams around seeking to destroy believers.  He's a liar, a thief, and murderer.  He will steal, kill and destroy my life if I fall for his lies and schemes and strategies.  Yes I have fallen for his ways way too often, but in doing so I has also drawn me closer to God.  What used to take me weeks to get over, now takes me only a few hours or a day at the most.  How can that be?  How can I possibly get over these attacks so quickly now?  Well, I allowed God to use the lies and schemes and strategies of the enemy to teach me valuable lessons.

These lessons have been painful for me to endure.  To take an honest look in the Bible and allow God to prune away everything that does not give Him glory has not been easy.  Recently God has been challenging me to speak up for Him, to stand up and be vocal about my faith.  I need to stop hiding His light under a bushel basket and allow His light to shine through me.  Listen God doesn't need me to defend Him, He needs me to obey Him and there are times that doing that is hard because I risk offending them or making them mad.  But my job is to do what God tells me to do.  Nothing more, nothing less.   

The thing is, when I began obeying God about speaking up for my faith, the enemy came at me full board and challenged me.  "Who do you think you are?"  "No body cares what you think."  "No body cares about you."  I became broken.  I believed his lies and went down a broken road.  Then last night at BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) I told the leader of my group to pray for me.  Well I don't know what she prayed, but it worked.  I feel alive again and filled with the light of God and the love of Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit that lives in me had a good talk with me last night and God reached down and grabbed me out of the pit I had fallen into.  Praise God

Listen if you feel like I did, contact me so we can talk.  There is help, there is hope, there is healing in the name of Jesus Christ! 

RIDING THE STORM OUT

  

It seems like I have sat here for weeks watching the weather channel.  It seems totally unreal to imagine disaster after disaster.  Fires out west, 2 massive hurricanes and an earthquake.  there is so much pain and anguish, so much heartache and devastation.  Homes are gone, memories washed away or burnt up, lives are forever changed.  It saddens me to see all of this happening yet I am intrigued by the fact that because of all of this disaster there is no race issue, no religion issues, no conflict, no entitlement issues.  There is only unity.  There is only neighbor helping neighbor, believers helping non believers, black heloing white, white helping black, people reaching out to help other people.

Actually it saddens me to think these things have to happen to get our attention at what is really important in life.  Why does it take a tragedy for us to get our priorities in order?  I mean think about it for a moment we don't think much about our elderly parents because we are so busy with our own lives and our busy schedule, that is until they get sick or break a hip and end up in the hospital or worse.  We take our spouses for granted until a tragedy hits.  We even forget to take care of our own health until we are sick or hurt.  We are burdened with chains of regrets and hangups all because we got our priorities screwed up.

Marriages and familes are destroyed when our priorities become selfish.  Lives are forever changed by our priorities being out of order.  Is it really that important to save money for retirement that you may never live to see?  Is it really important to be right in every argument?  Is it more important to relax instead of driving a hour to see our aging parents?  Why is it more important to eat that comfort food instead of eating something healthy?  Is it really more important to realx at home instead of going to church to spend time with God?

That's right I pulled the God card out.  When is the last time you read the Bible?  When is the last time you prayed?  When is the last time you prayed for your spouse, or with your spouse?  When was the last Sunday you were in church?  Listen I know life is busy and chaotic and hectic, BUT if we don't put God as our first piority our lives will not be all they could be.  For me it is when the storms in my life hit me that I am reminded how important God is to me.  The storms always remind me that my priorities are messed up and I need to reevaluate my life.  For me God has to come first!  It makes me sick when a storm hits because I instantly know I need to look at myself (no one else) and ask God what's wrong that I need to change. 

A storm makes me unhappy until I realize that no one is responsible for my happiness by me.  If I'm nnot happy, if I'm quick to anger, if I'm quick to cry, if I'm quick to blame someone else....that is my que to look in the mirror and reconnect with God.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and He has every right to bring a storm into my life to wake me up before it's too late.