A Random Work

Hurting

2011-09-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

Today I am hurting. The pain is bad. I am feeling like my life is meant for pain and heartache. Everything seems to be mounting up and I am feeling overwhelmed with sadness.

The loss of someone very special to me is taking a toll and I want to repair the gap. I am not sure how to do so. I don't know where to start, or if it can be done. All I have for now is hope, but even hope is fleeting.

Arise hope....arise....

180

2011-08-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

It's no big surprise to those who know me that my life has been difficult to say the least.

Every day I wake up praying and hoping for the best and some days the best is not good at all. Yesterday was one of those days!

When I got home for my very limited lunch I was greeted with a overblown confrontation. As I prayed and asked God to take the division in my family and replace it with unity, the strife with oneness, the discontentment with peace all hell broke loose in my home. Things got beyond ugly.

So it left me wondering....why when I was asking for unity, oneness and peace did I get ugliness? When all was said and done there was a ultimate sense of discord in my home. There was no kind of unity...quite the opposite! No oneness....quite the opposite!

As I was pulling away from my home I heard that "still small voice" say, "sometimes love is ugly." I thought, really!...Love is ugly? Would God say this? Could God say this? Love is ugly? For a moment I was convinced and I had a sense of peace. Well if God says love is ugly, then everything is ok. God is going to work things out. It's going to be alright. There is an ultimate plan at work here and to God be the Glory!

Later that night after working my two jobs, while driving home, I had a revelation. God never said love was ugly. What He did say was,
⁴Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13)

Looking back on everything that happened that day, I can honestly say I wasn't patient or kind with my son. I don't think that I was jealous, boastful, but I am sure I was proud and certainly rude! I did demand my own way. I was completely irritable and had a full record of how I had been wronged. I cannot say that I have rejoiced in any injustices and I certainly will NEVER give up, loose faith and continue to hope in and endure through every circumstance for my children.

I guess what I am saying is, how can I expect God to show up and answer my prayer when I have his word hidden in my heart and can't even act it out. If
²² the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,    ²³Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
   ²⁴And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
   ²⁵If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5)

How then can I live by my flesh and expect God's goodness for me and my family? The problem lies in me. I know what I need to do, but I have been sitting back not doing it. I have been taking the easy road; looking for the easy answers. God said, narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14)

I'm choosing a new path. A new way. I am going to walk in love. I am going to love my family at all cost! I know the Word of the Lord and I am going to plaster it all over my house so that I can live by it. I have this wonderful friend who taught me that!

It's a new day. I am a new creation.

In this life you WILL have troubles.

2011-08-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Life is not without challenges.

Just when I think I have a handle on the current challenges, it seems like new ones always pop up. I often wonder why that is.

Why is it just when I seem to get my mind off the carnal "woe-is-me" attitude and get my perspective focused on God and His eternal promises for my life does a whole new obstacle spring up?

Well that's a rhetorical question. It's rhetorical because I already know the answer to it.

If we get stuck in the trap of questioning, why me? why now? why this? then we loose focus. You see, we get caught up in the "woe-is-me" attitude and loose sight of the promises of God.

God's Word says "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 and "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than food and clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:25-26

So if I know God's Word to be true. If I believe that God is not a man that he should lie, why would I question even for a minute the work He is doing in my life? Why should I (or you) get caught up in life's current challenge?

I am setting my sights on one thing and one thing only...What God has said about my life; past, present, and future. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

My life was not predestined to be a manifestation of life's current drama. It was not sanctified to be a movie-of-the-week. I will not give credit to one more obstacle. Obstacles cease to be obstacles when we set our gaze on them, focus our attention and determination and then face them head on. How can an obstacle overtake you when you stare it down? The key to an obstacle's success is when it goes unnoticed. Have your ever tripped over an obstacle in your path while staring it down the whole time? It's pretty hard to do! I will choose to stare down my obstacles.

In order to do so, I will be armed with God's Word. He has said, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

I placed the emphasis on the "but" because that one word changes everything that is stated before. It undoes it. It replaces it. It's like the new covenant in Jesus. I'm not suggesting that it means that we won't have troubles, we will. That's why I titled this post that, but what I am saying is that "but" means that what comes before it is not where we put our hope and future. Ours (if we believe and have accepted the Father as our Lord and Savior) is in the latter part of that statement. Take heart...TAKE IT!!! It's yours for the taking! Don't gently accept it, Take it! It's yours....now take it!

I have taken mine....take yours!

I have no words....

2010-11-15T07:52:00.001-08:00

A Lot on My Mind

2010-10-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of thoughts circling around in my head.
There is a lot of things about my life that I want to change.
There is a lot of things that I am not happy with at the present time.
There is a lot about me that I could improve.

I am ready for a new beginning...