The Tortoise and The Hare

I saw a pair of shoes on Pinterest the other day. On the toe of one shoe a picture of the tortoise had been embroidered and a picture of the hare on the other toe. Most of you will remember the story of the tortoise and the hare. The gist of the story goes like this: The hare, being the fast rabbit that he was, challenged the tortoise to a race. The over confident hare ran way ahead of the tortoise then messed around, eating a big meal and taking a nap.The tortoise just kept plugging along, steady Eddy, staying the course, focused, intentional. Unlike the hare who was so full of himself and so very sure he would win the race, hands down. He was thinking only of winning, so sure he was right about the race.

 As I looked at the shoes, thinking about the old story and how the shoes were such a good reminder of the Christian life. Am I living like the hare, over confident so sure I am doing it right, that I am winning, no problem? I am just playing around in my walk with the Lord?  Or am I living like the hare, focused, intentional, steady and still in the race. In the end the tortoise won the race and the hare said to him:"Slowly does it every time."

On this the last day of 2013, may we take a few moments to look at our walk with the Lord. Ask Him to give us knowledge of His plan for 2014. May we be like the tortoise this year, focused, intentional and steady in order to fulfill the good works He has prepared for us.

Happy New Year to You all!

The Cup

Psalm 23 speaks about a cup running over. I never really thought much about having a cup until the other day. As a little girl going downtown was a big deal since we lived in the country. I remember seeing a cripple beggar who sat in front of the dime store. He had a cup. A tin cup which he held up to everyone passing by. I felt really bad for the man. I did not understand what he was doing. I had never seen any one begging.

The more I thought about this beggar and his cup, the more I realized we all have a cup. Imagine seeing everyone you meet with a tin cup in their hand. They come toward you and bump their cup into yours. Some of them are looking for love. Some are looking for acceptance to be poured into their cup. Some need a kind word or a smile dropped in. Some want you to give them peace or hope. Ultimately they are begging for someone to fill them up. The next question is do you have what they need?

Is your cup full or are you lifting it up to someone?  Are you trying to get something from people that only God can give? Daily, we must lift our cup up to Him to be filled. The very first thing God puts into your cup is His love, then His grace. He definitely intends for you to let that to overflow to everyone you meet. When our cup is full we can lead others to the Spiritual Cup Filler, Jesus. So today if you need something, anything just lift up your cup to Him.

He Speaks

What a wonderful thing: God is not a chatterbox. He doesn't say things to hear Himself talk. He doesn't say things to get us to like Him. He doesn't talk out both sides of His mouth. He says what He means and He means what He says. He always, always tells the truth, even if it hurts. He does not say things to manipulate us. He is not a people pleaser. When the next bunch of people are born, His word will still be standing for them too. When everything is said and done, His word stands forever.

His word stands the test of time. It still stands after all the rotten tomatoes are thrown. It stands no matter what an "important" person may say about it. It stands no matter what science or philosophy says. It still stands even if we don't choose to believe it. His word stands because He stands.

God is not impressed with what we think. God is not swayed by how we see things. God is God and that is that. He does not change. He will never change because He is who He says He is. We are the ones who must change. We must come into complete agreement with His word. You know how people are, everybody thinks it should be their way. It should be the best for them. Now with millions of  people on this planet, how do we think that is working? Not very well. God in His great wisdom knew people would have all kinds of problems agreeing on much of anything. So He speaks.

He gives us His word. He says to us: "Here it is, this is how you live life." He is the final authority on everything because it all belongs to Him. The universe, the earth, the people and all the stuff is His. It is high time we stopped trying to play God in our part of the universe. It is time to listen and obey His word. Truth be told it would really be a relief to not have to figure it all out and make it all happen. He speaks to all, apply His grace today!

Lord, I Need Peace!

Peace is more than carrying a cardboard sign in a demonstration against war. Peace is more than a emblem on a tee shirt or necklace. Peace is more than a drug or booze induced state. Peace, real peace is what only Jesus can give to us.

Jesus gives us the truth about peace. In John 14:27, He says: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Jesus says He is the one who gives peace. His peace is not like the world's peace. He is the Prince of Peace. His peace in not in checking out with drugs or alcohol. You don't have to hold a demonstration to get it. Wearing a tee shirt or a necklace with the world's peace sign on it won't bring it into your heart.

Your heart has to let it come in. Your heart has to be sick and tired of all the useless attempts you have made just to" have some peace". When you decide to "let" Jesus, the Prince of Peace come in and rule your life, He will flood into you like a tsunami with real eternal peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding. You will be left wondering. Why did I wait? How did I miss this great peace?... Jesus Christ.

If you need peace, just go to Him. Talk to Him about your life and ask for His peace to fill you up. He wants you to have it because He knows you need it. We can take off the tee shirts and necklace. Today we can put down the cardboard sign and receive real peace. Jesus.
 

The Ruler

Isn't it time to put away our rulers? You know the one we take out in our mind when we meet someone or encounter a different situation. The one we measure how they look or act. The one we use to decide if they are okay or not. The one we use to make our self feel better about things. While "the ruler" may just be in our minds, it is very real.

Most of us can tell when someone takes out their ruler to measure us. We can see it in their eyes, the expression on their faces, the way they turn their head when they see us, what they say to us, or their tone of voice. What we are so blind about is when we take out our own ruler and use it. I believe Jesus had something to say about this "ruler thing". In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says: "Don't judge, so you won't be judged." He reminds us we may have a plank in our own eyes when we see a speck in someone else's eye. He tells us to remove the plank so we can see clearly. I believe the plank He is talking about could be our "ruler".

Rulers belong in desks not in our hearts and minds. This special time of year when we have Christ on our mind because of Christmas, why not put the ruler away for good. Everybody wants to be loved and accepted like they are. Trying to live life by someone's ruler is impossible. We can never seem to measure up. But we don't have to do anything to measure up to God. Christ did that for us. He is the only "RULER" I need in my life. His grace applied today! 

God Winks!

I have a friend who visited the other day. As we caught up on life, she mentioned God winks. She described them as the time when God does something only He can do just for you. She gave examples and as we talked I realized we all have them. Maybe we just don't give God the credit for them. Maybe we called them another name such as "luck", "fate" or  heaven forbid, we would even act like we had something to do with it.

We all like to think we are in the "cat- bird" seat of our life. The place where we claim we see all and know all about everything. Actually it is called" trying to play God". What a job! I don't know if you have ever done this or not but I have. I was exhausted, frustrated and confused while attempting to run the whole universe. I gave it all up many months ago. I just couldn't keep up with everybody and all I decided needed to be done for them.

Another thing I discovered while trying to play God. A lot of other people are doing the same thing. No wonder God says: "I am God and there is no other". He tells us to stay out of His big shoes because there is no way we can fill them. I am so thankful He is God, I am not and neither is anybody else. I am going to give Him all the credit, glory, honor and praise for the God winks He does in my life. I am going to get out of His way so He can do those things for me, only He can do. God winks! His grace applied.   

Hope For Your Pain

Today as I think about this season of celebration we started in November, I am aware the holidays are most often viewed as happy, joyous, and full of fun with family and friends. But not many years ago this time of year was so painful for me. It was a reminder of loss, suffering, loneliness and heartbreak. There are memories of all the ones who passed away, who shared this special time. Then, the realization, there could be ones who will not be present because of relationship problems.There will be those who live far away and can't make it home. Regardless of the reason, it still hurts.

The hurt we are experiencing is just what Jesus specializes in. He is "The Comforter, The Mighty God, The Prince of Peace, He is The Healer, The Wonderful Counselor, He is The Great I AM, He is Hope, Joy, Truth, and Wisdom from the heart of God the Father. This is His time of year. This is the time we celebrate His birth. The" Indescribable Gift" from God to us.

I want to encourage you to accept Gods gift to you, Jesus. If you have not received Him as your Lord and Savior, there is a tab at the top of this page, entitled Jesus-Your Salvation, which can give you more information about Him. He is waiting for you to come to Him. If you have accepted Him, I want you to apply His grace to your pain. His amazing grace which will help you as you go through this time of year. He wants to help you. He wants to love on you and be the great God, He is, in your situation. Let me assure you from His word. Nothing is too hard for the Lord God of the Universe, Nothing.

Will you take His grace and apply it? He is waiting on you. Go to Him now and tell Him everything.       

Stuck in Unforgiveness

As if it is anything to brag about, I should have a Doctor's degree in unforgiveness. I spent over twenty years living in it and sad to say I did not even realize I was stuck. That sounds bizarre doesn't it? Well, that is just one small example of the deception the enemy of our soul uses to keep us stuck.

It started out like any other thing starts. I was just living life the best I could with the knowledge I had. My knowledge was an accumulation of tradition with pieces and parts gleaned from the world around me and a proper raisi'n ( As my mother would say, "You can tell they have been raised right"). Sometimes my mother took me to church. My grandmother took me every time I visited her but my heart did not go. My heart, that needed to hear about the grace of God, was just too small. Even though I accepted Jesus when I was thirteen, I didn't read the bible or see how God could help me until much later.

But later, oh the later, I really needed to understand and encompass the grace of God and more than that, apply it to to myself. You see I was willing to forgive other people but not myself. I held myself hostage in a prison of so much guilt and condemnation I could barely breathe. I just knew I had made this mess and surely I could fix it, couldn't I? No, I could not fix much of anything, not even supper some days. I so wanted to make things right. I so wanted things to be right, but they weren't.

They weren't right because I was not right with God. I was keeping Him and His grace at bay. I thought I had to pay for what I had done. I thought I didn't deserve it. So, sad to say I was waiting on the people I had hurt to forgive me before I allowed God to forgive me for the awful things I had done. But God in His great amazing grace helped me. I was so sick and tired of feeling miserable, guilty and depressed all the time. I finally gave up the lie. The lie that I could ever pay for what I had done. The lie that I could fix other people's pain. I was my own worst enemy. I was like a rag doll in the devil's hand, he was controlling my life, if you can even call it a life. I can tell you from experience, he wants to kill, steal and destroy and for twenty years I let him do just that. He killed my faith, he stole my peace and he destroyed my hope. But God, two of my favorite words in the bible, wanted me to apply His grace and forgive everyone, especially myself.

Understand  this, forgiveness is a choice. It is not a natural thing. It does not come easy because there is hurt.The pain we feel is very real. The anger we feel because of the hurt is very real. But forgiveness is very real too. When we have practiced hurt, anger, guilt and condemnation of our self or others, it takes just as much practice of forgiveness to let it all go. What I mean by that is this: When something happens to us or we do something to someone, most of the time we think about it, we talk about it, we think about it, we talk about it. We go over it and over it. We drive it home so to speak. When we do this we allow the enemy of our soul to set up a stronghold in our mind. The enemy will bring it up to us in our thoughts every chance he gets. He will get us into think about it, talk about it mode, driving it deeper into our heart through our thoughts. It is at this point, you have to remind yourself you have forgiven that person, or situation. You have to tear down the strongholds with the truth of God, which is I have forgiven. You have to chose to apply His grace, every time, to every person and every situation. Practice. practice. practice.... Applying His grace.         

My Weight

My Weight! There, I said it. The words we only use when we are discussing a new diet or exercise program. Really, truth be told, we don't want to talk about it, much less think about it. So most of the time we stay stuck. Stuck going around the Madison Avenue mountain, which makes it appear everyone in the world wears a size two, maybe a size four. Or we are stuck thinking we are ugly because of some pounds. We can be stuck, when we listen to the world tell us the number on the scale is who we are. We can be stuck in what our Mom passes down to us, which was the beginning for me.

When my Mom got married she weighed ninety eight pounds. But after several years of marriage, childbirth, becoming a caregiver for a father in law, running a business and raising a stubborn child, she gained a bunch of weight. Stress and being overwhelmed were contributing factors in her weight gain. I know, I've been there. Her preoccupation with getting back to the elusive ninety eight pounds kept her stuck. In the 1950s diet pills came out. She quickly jumped on that band wagon. Little did she know in chasing her perfect weight dream she was setting herself up for a roller coaster ride that lasted ten years or more. You know, the pills packed with so much energy. The ones who took away your desire for food. But when you take an upper, which is what they were, you have to come down some time.When you can't sleep because you are so hyped up, the doctor gives you a downer, sleeping pill or tranquilizer. So the vicious cycle begins. What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. The different result she got was a heart attack. She never got back to the ninety eight pounds, but she was still preoccupied with her weight. Not only hers but mine as well.

This is the part where she passes the weight conscious baton to me and I took it because I thought that is what you do. You worry and obsess about your weight. You look at your waist, your behind, your face. When you talk about the weight you have gained or the weight you want to loose, other people are more than happy to help you with it. You have heard them.

I have someone I don't see very often whose second or third comment to me is: "Have you lost weight? This always leads into their weight battle. Which goes something like this: " I have gained so much weight lately, I have got to loose it. I don't know what I am going to do. All my pants are too tight. I just can't exercise. I am too tired." The next thing you know they are throwing the food in like there is no tomorrow. I've done it. I've let people help me with it too.

I've done it because I ate when I was not physically hungry, but emotionally hungry. I was bored, tired, angry, worried, fearful, lonely, frustrated, feeling sorry for myself and I needed Jesus to help me but I choose food instead. The diagnosis is a hungry heart. Women need a lot of emotional encouragement and support. When we don't go to Jesus to get it and try to get it from food, we gain weight. When we don't feel loved and cherished, we often choose food to comfort us.

Choosing food instead of Jesus to fill my hungry heart is a battle for me because I have done the food thing for such a long time. It started out as a bad habit but it turned into a way of life. So what do we do? The answer is always Jesus. It always has been and it always will be. We need to start by applying His grace to our self. We need to admit where we are so we can move on to where we want to be. We need to confess our sin. It is sin, at least it was for me. Food was an idol. I bowed down to it. I asked it to fill me up, make me feel better, help me cope and it was on always on my mind. Sounds to me a lot like food was in Gods proper position, on the throne of my life.

Understand I don't have all the answers. What I am trying to do may not work for you. When I get hungry, I have to ask myself is it my stomach that is empty or my heart? If it is my stomach I eat some food. If it is my heart I get Jesus. I apply His grace. 

I have read the book "Made to Crave". This helped me see truth. I did a Bible study " The Abundant Feast". Maybe these will be resources which will help you.

Remember this truth: You are not the number on the scale. That number is just a number not your true identity. Your identity is in Jesus Christ alone.  Put some grace on today!

Procrastination

Procrastination, shall we put off talking about this today? That is funny, but it is the best definition of procrastination. Putting it off, what ever your it is. We put off doing things for several reasons. One, we may not know how to do it. Two, we may be afraid we will fail. Three, we really just don't want to do it, even though we know we should. Four, someone has told us we need to do it and we rebel. I am sure there are other reasons depending on the situation.

You know some of the situations. One of the most important ones, we put off is asking Jesus to be our Savior, getting right with God. We think we will live forever or at least we won't die today. We think we can always do that. Besides, I have a whole lot of living to do and fun to have. Everybody knows God is not into "fun". He only wants you to live in a monastery, pray and read the bible all day long. Doesn't He? NO, He doesn't.

What God wants is for you to have real life. The life, only He can give to you, not the empty, lonely, futile one you may be in right now. I know about that one. The life full of striving, drinking, carousing and following every whim you think or feel. The life full of depression and hopelessness.  All that so called "fun", I thought I was having was killing me. But God, ( two of may favorite words in the bible) didn't want me to procrastinate any more. So He called me. He wooed me. He let me run out of excuses. Then He showed up and I stopped lying to myself that I had plenty of time, to get right with Him later. I knew He was right. In fact, He has always been right about everything.

Those reasons I had for procrastinating: I don't know how to do it, I am afraid I will fail, I know I should but I just don't want to and I am rebelling against what I am being told to do. They all seemed pretty lame in the face of God, who gives me my very breath. So He promised to give me wisdom, courage, power and to forgive my rebellion. And He did.

Why, I put off so long doing the best thing I could ever do for myself seems so silly now that I have done it. The principle of "Just do it" eliminates my procrastination. Just do it afraid, He will give you courage. Just do it, He will show you how. Just do it, He will give you power. Just do it, He will forgive you. Just do it today, not later or tomorrow. Don't be stuck here any more. Just do it, apply His grace to your procrastination.               

Ungrateful

To type this on the very day we celebrate"Thanksgiving" seems sad to me. This sadness is because there is so much to be grateful for. A lot of times we just take all of the blessings, people and stuff we have for granted. This is the place where it starts. We have grown accustomed to our life the way it is. So often the only time we wake up is when suddenly something changes. Our eyes are wide open to the reality of what we had, how good is really was. The scales have fallen from our eyes. After the initial shock wears down, we may ask our self over and over, why we didn't appreciate everything? You know as well as I do, how we always think things can be better. But we never consider for a moment that they could be so much worse. That is, until it happens to us. What a down right shame things have to change for us to wake up and be grateful for how it is right now. Today, not later or whenever things are the way we want them to be.

Today, Thanksgiving Day 2013, I want to encourage you to count your blessings. Yeah, just like the songs says," name them one by one". Don't do it just today! Do it everyday from now on. This one little habit can change your life. It can move it from, taken for granted to grateful for everything. God uses grateful hearts to change His world. He uses a grateful heart to make life better, for you and for others. Today, choose to be grateful by applying His grace to all.

Happy Thanksgiving Life to You!!!          

Self Pity

Not a very appealing topic,is it? You would think nobody would wade into this pond, but many do and they get stuck.

Stuck, feeling sorry for themselves and their situation. Feelings of pity flow like Niagara Falls. Some times the tears come so fast and hard, we think we will drown. But we don't. We live another day. We go through our routines moping and dragging around like it's all over. But it is not. We just can not stop feeling so sorry for our self. After all why me? What did I do to deserve this? Look, everybody else is living a great life. They all have what they want. They don't have any problems and even if they do, I really don't care because my life is in the tubes.

Ever been there? Are you living there now? Are you planning on returning if you get out? Most people experience some self pity in life. But some people get there, take out their tent and set up camp. They bring plenty of provisions with them. Anger, bitterness, resentment, envy, jealousy and unforgiveness just to name a few. Yeah, they build a fire and pull out some resentment. They roast whoever or whatever has them down. Their thoughts run all over it, making sure they feel so bad about it they can hardly breathe. Then they stoke up the camp fire when it starts to die down with some of that jealousy and a splash of envy. You know, the part where they don't deserve what they have. I need it. But life has passed by me and rolled over to them all the good stuff.

Let me just say, this is NOT the plan of God for your life or mine! This is a trap of the devil. He wants you to look inward, instead of upward to the God of glory. He wants you to be miserable. He wants you to think God loves and gives to everybody but you. He wants you to think, they are special, more important than you are.  Listen to me! These are bald face, big time lies from the father of lies, the devil. They are not from God. We have been listening to the wrong person. God is the truth teller. You must realize what has happen and run away from the lies, straight to your heavenly Father for a dose of truth.

The truth is what releases us, so we can break camp and move out. The truth of God applied with His grace. After all, that is what it's there for. It works every time. God does not feel sorry for us. He has blessed us and He has plans for you and me. So what are you going to do today? Be pitiful or powerful in God?  His Grace Applied, no longer stuck.    

Bitterness

Bitterness, even typing the word, makes my heart so very sad. I have spend time in this prison. I sentenced myself though unforgiveness. I was so mad. Mad at everybody, my life, myself and even God. That really looks bad on paper, but it is time for the truth. The truth, which I hope will help other people see something that just might ring a bell with them. You all know how easy it is to see other people and their issues, but we are blind as a bat to our own. So, on with the story.

I was really blind, naive, ignorant, stubborn and so full of myself it is a wonder I functioned at all. Now understand, I am not bragging or complaining, just getting real. The truth hurts. Whether you figure it out, someone tells you or God in His mercy reveals it to you. I've had some of it all. But the bitterness that racked my soul and spirit for the better part of twenty years was a weapon in the hand of the devil. It kept me from the abundant life Jesus died to give me. It kept joy and peace at bay.The only thing bitterness brought with it was misery, depression, hopeless and discouragement.

Little did I know, all I had to do was forgive. Forgive others, myself and the part I thought God had played in all of it. I was just too mad to forgive. I just wanted things my way because I knew what needed to happen. I knew how people should act. I knew how the world ought to run.The truth is: I knew nothing. The longer it went on, the more time I spent rehashing it, rethinking it, telling myself over and over how it should be, the worse it got. I would not let it go. It consumed me. If I saw the person involved or was reminded of the situation, it started all over again. THIS IS BITTERNESS.

The cure for bitterness is FORGIVENESS. That is the way of escape. It sounds so easy, but it is hard when you haven't done it. It is that same forgiveness Jesus has given to us. When He was hanging on the cross He said: "Father, forgive them, for the do not know what they do." Neither do we.We don't know what we have done to others and they don't know what they have done to us. So Gods great solution is just haul off and forgive everybody for everything and be done with it. You are off the hook. Others are off your hook and best of all you are finally free. The freedom, only Jesus, can give you. It's all wrapped up nice and neat in His grace. Why not apply His grace today? What is stopping you? You need it. I need it. Everybody in the world needs it.               

I'll Fix it.

I have to fix it. I think this is a gene or cell I was born with. Maybe you can relate. When I was growing up, I fixed mud pies in coke caps and baked them in the sun on a rock. Growing up as an only child, I fixed my feelings of loneliness with Hershey's chocolate bars and those little bottles of coke which were to available. My teenage years well, I fixed them with cute clothes and not so cute boys. Everything I did seemed for the moment, to fix whatever I was feeling or going through. But wait a minute, I was headed for the finale. A better word would be disaster.

When were are little girls we read all the stories of happily ever after. But what about reality? When all you have thought about growing up was marrying someone who would love you forever and ever. You tend to be looking for that in every man who walks down the street. So for me it was someone who saw my eighteen year old venerability and jumped on it. He was ten years older than me, been married before and he was a swoozer, a taker, a silver tongued devil. But more than that he was an abuser. He raged, hit me and said ugly things which sometimes were worse than the slaps or fists. For you who have never been abused, it is hard to understand why I stayed six years. Why I took it from him? Why I just did not leave? Well, here is the answer to those questions. In my little immature mind and heart, I loved him. Actually, I loved the idea of being married. I was not alone physically but emotionally I was all by myself. Eventually, I ran of any reason, hope or guts to stay. But not without spending most of that six years trying to fix him. He was harder than any mud pie I ever mixed up and more bitter than any chocolate bar or coke I tasted.

So I fixed what I thought was the problem. I got a divorce. But with two little girls, no child or emotional support, lonely and hurting, I fixed what I could. I fixed the Barbie doll leg which had come off. I fixed the tangled the necklace. I even fixed the ugliness of people who looked down on me because I was divorced and my children whose dad was not present. I fixed it with plastic money because there was no real money I told myself at the end of the month when the bill came: "It's okay. We are okay. Look I fixed it." The only thing was, $80,000 later, we were still hurting and broken. But I was determined to fix it.

This is just the tip of the ice burg. I hope you can see how I was stuck in trying to fix it. It has taken many, many years to realize only Jesus can fix it. He is the fix. I wish I had know that sooner. I wish I could have understood the grace, mercy and love of God. But then I could not testify to you about it. Maybe this will help someone today to see how deceived we can become to think we can fix things which belong to God. Please, apply His grace today. Don't wait, telling yourself you can fix it. It is grace, Gods grace applied to the person, place or the emergency. After all, it's not mud pies or missing Barbie doll legs, it's the life God has given to you, His grace applied.            

Confusion or Chaos

It doesn't seem possible anyone would be stuck in confusion or chaos. But it happens. It happens to Christians and non Christians alike. Just like all the others tactics of the enemy,it sneaks up on us because if we recognized it for what it was, we would not partake of it. Believe me. It is always present. You will see as we talk about it.

Here is how I have seen it manifested. You start out your life very well. Then something happens to you that was unplanned. So what do you do? You try to handle it on your own. You ask one or many for their help. You tell everyone what has happened to you. What do they think about it? What would they do? More than likely you do not ask the Lord what he thinks about it or what He is trying to do in and through you. So what do you have? A lot of opinions, a lot of other people's perceptions, prejudges, a lot of other people who don't know every detail of what is going on, trying to tell you what to do. In a nut shell, you have confusion. Because now you have way too many things to consider. You roll them over and over in your mind, night and day. It is all you can think about. The more you try to figure out what to do the worse it gets. You have no peace. Your joy is non existent. Worry has become your constant companion. You are so confused you don't know which way is up.

The way, the answer to confusion is up. He is seated on the throne of heaven with all the answers. His word tells us in 1 Cor. 14:33: "For God is not the author of confusion,but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." So if God is not into confusion, who is? The devil! It is a scheme. A wile of the devil to trap you, to draw you away from God and into yourself. You are doing life alone.

When we start this pattern of dealing with problems or issues, I believe it moves into another realm, chaos. It becomes a way of life. We focus more on our problems than the Answer, Jesus. When we practice the presence of our problems instead of the presence of the Lord, we get stuck. We don't see clearly. It becomes a vicious cycle. The problems just keep coming because our mind is stuck in them. With problems on your mind, they are going to be in your mouth. You think about them, you talk about them. You think about them some more, so you simply must talk about them some more. You get the picture, don't you?  Stuck. Just plain old stuck. Been there, done that and got way too many tee shirts.

But there is a way out! Apply His grace! Confess what has gone on and ask the Lord to forgive you for not trusting Him. The next thing to do is to forgive yourself. The most important thing to do is to stop thinking about it and talking about it. If you want something to die you have to stop feeding it. Thinking about it and talking about it are the food you are feeding the confusion and chaos.

You may say: "I can't stop, what will I do? or I don't know how to stop." Yes, you can stop. You did not get stuck overnight, so you won't get unstuck overnight. You must practice, practice, practice. Practice the presence of God instead of your problems. Set your mind on Him. Let go of all of it! God will help you if you ask Him. That is what He does. Apply His grace today, all day long. It works.         

Stuck in the Future

Since we talked about the past yesterday. We might as well go to the other end of the spectrum today, the future. Both of these places are full of traps, quicksand and sometimes even places of no return.

I would have to say I divided my time between my past and future equally. When I was living in the past my time was spent regretting, feeling guilty and beating myself up mentally and emotionally. When I traveled over to the future all I could do was worry and feel fearful. My most common remark was: What if? or What will I do? The time I spent in the present was minimal. So small I don't have a lot of recollection of things that happened, even though I was there.

Yeah, my body was there, but not me, the real me. You see I could not be in two places at one time. Nobody can. You can't be in the past and present. You can't be in the future and be present either. What a terrible tragedy! What a great loss! A loss so great there is no fixing it. No way to bring it back. No do over.

Now this may all sound foreign to you. Others may know exactly what I am talking about. Some may just now see what they have been doing with their life. You see when we start doing something over and over it becomes a habit. Doing that habit over and over becomes the way we do life. That life we do over and over becomes who we are. By this time, the who we are is what we accept as our normal. We don't question our self. We just go on living like we have always lived.

If that living is the fact that we worry about the future, we just accept it. We don't think: "Hey, I could not worry today". We are stuck. Stuck in that place which has grown comfortable,even if we don't like it. You know that worry thing. I used to do it all the time because somehow I equated worry with, I care. If I don't worry, that means I don't care about it. Now is that a lie or what? Worry doesn't keep bad things at bay. Worry doesn't change anything or help the future. When I get stuck here, I am stuck in a big fat lie. And you know who the father of lies is, don't you? That's right, the devil. He has trapped me. He has poured out the quicksand and I waded in lock, stock and barrel. So I am so stuck. Worrying  about the future, one hour from now, tomorrow, next week or next year. I'm over there, not here, in the present.

In addition to being stuck in the" I have to worry about the future lie", the devil has just stolen my now. You know Jesus told us the character traits of the devil. He says: He comes to kill, steal and destroy. But I (Jesus) have come to give you life more abundant (John 10:10).Eternal life is what  Jesus gives us. Now that is a future if I ever heard one. Eternity is a long time. Jesus also says: I am the same yesterday, today and forever. Sounds to me like Jesus has the future covered for me and you. If we have Him, He has everything else. 

Since grace and truth came through Jesus Christ ( John 1:17), we must apply His grace to our future, our everything. Gods grace is sufficient for our everywhere, past or future. How about some grace for your future today?                 

Stuck In The Past

Oh Lord Jesus, how many years was I stuck in my past? Typing this looks really bad. The awareness of how silly it seems. How pathetic! What a waste of Gods time,the time, He gave me!

The verses, which God in His infinite wisdom, used to start the process of waking me up are in Deuteronomy 1:6-7. The crux of the chapter is Moses recounting the Israelites travels. God tells them, "You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey". And so after twenty some odd years, too much emotional pain and sorrow untold, I stopped going around the same mountain. My past.

Isn't it funny how something like a past can trip you up? How it can reach out and suck you up into a swap of mistakes, regrets, hurts, anger, guilt and unforgiveness? Well believe it or not you can still breathe, do dishes, laundry and go to work in this swap. I would wake up every day and take my place in misery, as if there were no alternatives. How sad!

So sad because I was a daughter of the Most High God. So sad because I was living in the swap of my past wearing the robe of righteousness and the beauty of His holiness. But understand, it was a choice I made everyday, in every situation to live beneath my inheritance. I thought I could fix the mess I had made and all of my resources were focused on the"FIX". The elusive fix.

God had already given me "the FIX"...His Grace. The problem was I would not apply His grace to myself. I wanted to fix it. I wanted to pay the penalty for my sins. That looks really bad as I type it. In other words, I wanted to be God. That looks really, really bad and it is. Wasn't that the very thing that got Satan thrown out of heaven? It was.

So my very first action had to be to humble myself under the mighty hand of God, confess my sins and turn from my wicked ways. Then I had to APPLY HIS GRACE. His unmerited favor to my past, myself and my life. What about you? Do you need to stop going around that same mountain everyday all day long and turn and take your journey with God and His grace?  There is plenty of grace for you. Choose it! Go ahead. He wants you to have it and more than that He want you to APPLY it.           

I'm Not Good Enough!

I'm not good enough. I can not tell you how long I was stuck in this pit. Even though I was a Christian. Even though Christ lived in me. Even though God had forgiven all my sins. Even though I was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Even though my name was written in the Book of Life. Even though the word of God told me He had chosen and created me just for Him. Even though ...

Well, you get the picture don't you? It is clear as a bell. I was stuck. Stuck in insecurity. Stuck in a no good mentality. I was saved but my mind needed to get saved. Saved from the lies I chose to believe. Saved from the depressing, discouraging, deception of the devil. I did not know it then but the devil had so many strongholds set up in my mind. It is a wonder I was functioning. Have you ever been there? Barely functioning? Holding on by a thread and a thin one at that? All of that and I was a Christian!

These are the things Christians don't talk about. We tell our self:"If anyone knew this stuff, well they would run me out of the church and out of town too." So we crawl back into the pit and curl up. We miss all the goodness and grace of our God. We start to dry up inside. We hide from other people but most of all we hide from our self. We allow the devil to convince us God loves and cares for everybody. But not us. Not us because we are not good enough. So many people told us we were not good enough and besides they treated us like it too.

Friends, listen up!! You are good enough! God, the Creator of the universe, the One who gives you your next breath, He says you are! He is more than your mother or father. He is more than your spouse. He is more than the devil, whom He defeated more than 2,000 years ago. He is The Great I AM. If anyone knows the truth about you, it is God. It is high time to listen to "THE TRUTH", not the lies. Listen to the Ruler of the universe.     

It is time to apply His grace! It is waiting for you. Just go to Him, tell Him all your fears.Then by faith reach out, take His grace and apply it to yourself. It has been there all along waiting on you.  You are good enough!                

Welcome to His Grace Applied

Welcome to His Grace Applied- Saved But Stuck,

As a Christian we have all received His grace, the moment we asked Jesus to forgive our sins and to be our Savior. The real question for us to consider is: Have we applied it to our everyday walking around lives? More than likely we were very willing to allow Gods grace to wash away our past sins but His grace is for everything in our life. It is for our anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, envy, jealousy, worry, doubt, unkind words or thoughts, knowing the right thing to do or say and just being plain old stubborn or rebellious about doing it. It is for not loving our self or others because they don't look or act like us. Or they fall short of our unreal expectations. You know the ones we have conjured up in our mind about how life and people are suppose to be according to me. Those same unreal expectations we never tell anyone about but we get so upset when they are not met. These are sins. We just call them the other names. Even though we don't like them, it doesn't make us feel so bad if we just deny or ignore the word sin. These are some of the places where we can get stuck. We can truly be saved by the blood of Jesus but we may not be experiencing the abundant life Jesus promises us. It is time to apply His grace.

His grace is His favor, freely given to us with nothing required on our part. Grace, love and mercy, as well as holiness and righteousness are all part of the character of God. It is His isness, who He is, what He is all about, it flows from Him into His world and His people. It will never run out. We can not use it all up. There is no quota set aside for us. In typing this, it overwhelms me. My little mind struggles to wrap my thoughts and feelings around all of it. How big is our God to have enough of this for every person He has made? How deep, wide, long and high is His love and grace? But the most important question I have to answer for myself is, why am I stuck instead of moving into the plan of God for my life? Why do I want to be angry and not forgive someone? Why do I chose to go around that same mountain everyday all day long? Thinking about the offense that they have committed against me. Then talking, over and over about it to anyone who will listen to me, trying to make myself feel justified in how I have responsed to them. Don't think for one minute you can handle this. It is like trying to carry fire in your hands, you will get burned.

I want to encourage you to look at the things I have mentioned. Just check to see if you  have applied His grace to them. The great God of the universe wants you to be FREE, not stuck!