Angels on Assignment
by Nora Neal-Daggett
It was January 2008 and we had received the call that Trenton, my middle sons child was near death. From North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia we poured into our cars and headed for Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital where Trenton was being air-lifted. One call changed the course of all our lives!
As soon as I arrived, Trenton’s mother and I went to his room. The nurse finished her assessment and Brandie, Trenton’s mother stepped out to take a call. I touched my grandson, closed my eyes to pray and I saw angels everywhere! The room was literally full of them! Moving, ministering to him, they were sitting, standing, touching, hovering, moving to and fro … a quiet hush consumed the space Trenton and I occupied. All of the monitors were quiet and stillness filled the room. And in that moment I heard…
BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD!
My eyes fixed on one angel who was sitting on one of the monitors above Trenton’s bed. She was beautiful and the only one whose face and form could clearly be seen. She had on a very soft flowing pink dress and her wings were a lemon whipped yellow. Her chin was tucked in the palm of her hand, her legs were crossed, she was smiling and it was as if she were winking at me!
I was awe struck and not able to open my mouth to even start praying for a few moments. I just watched with my eyes closed and breathed it all in! When my mind could form a thought I knew that this was what the song Angels Watching Over Me meant! I began my prayer as tears ran down my face and dripped on my sweater. As I came to the close of the prayer and an overwhelming sense of peace filled my spirit. I knew that this was confirmation that Trenton was going to be fine! Thank you God!
Two days before we all converged on the dusty town of Pittsburg; Tony, Trenton’s dad called to say Trenton had been hospitalized with a severe asthma attack. As soon as the conversation was over, I called Marzetta my oldest son’s wife and we began to pray. As we ended the prayer sunlight or should I say son-light poured into the room. I felt as if God was saying Trenton will be fine. Trust me. I got this!
Now He was saying it again only this time He sent a host of heavenly angels to carry the message straight to my heart, my mind and my spirit!
We just passed the anniversary date of that time in all of our lives. And when I pause, command my spirit to be still, close my eyes, I can still see those angels everywhere!
Ministering, hovering, guiding, protecting, directing…and it is a comforting reminder that no matter the circumstance God’s angles are always watching over me and over you and over you, and you and you…
“He ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go. If you stumble, they’ll catch you; their job is to keep you from falling.” Ps. 91:11
Closets
by Andrea Bankert
Hello. My name is Andrea, and I am a Closet Slob. If there was a support group for Closet Slobs, I would be a star member. Not only do my literal closets look like the Tasmanian Devil was loosed in them, but I am secretly a slob at heart. Growing up, my parents were always trying to get me to clean my room and pick up the stuff I left trailing behind me all over the house. More often than not, my bedroom looked like a tornado hit it. Clothes strewn about, the clean ones mixed with the dirty. Gross, I know, but sometimes the only way to tell the difference was with a quick sniff. One shoe remained in the closet, while the match was buried beneath a pile of books mixed with socks…only to be found when I finally got sick of the mess (or my parents got sick of the mess) and I did a massive cleanup that took the good part of the day. Fast forward to college, where my poor sweet roommate Tammi (whom I love dearly) kept her room neat and organized, where mine was more of a “Where’s Waldo” game when trying to locate my work uniform…let alone the cat. Now, if you’ve ever doubted whether or not God has a sense of humor, there is no way to deny it if you know my husband. He is an admitted neat freak. The wife of one of his college roommates has a distinct memory of one of the first times she went to visit. She and her then boyfriend were sitting on the couch watching a movie when he dropped some popcorn on the floor. Out of nowhere, my husband appears wielding the hose attachment of the vacuum to catch the stray popcorn. Now, that was probably the most extreme manifestation of his neatness, and I have to give it to him – he is a great steward of the things that the Lord has blessed him with. I really appreciate these qualities that his parents have instilled in him – they are invaluable. I have learned A LOT about neatness since we have married, and not only do I enjoy a clean house, I take pride in it. (Of course, now that we have a 9 month old, our house always tends to look like Babies R Us threw up in it! However, although our house is clean a lot of the time, I still have issues keeping my closets neat and organized. I still get to the point where the mess gets way out of hand and I have to do a massive cleanup. This has worked just fine for me until recently. The Lord has been speaking to me lately about my closets and how these can be reflective of my heart. How often do I stuff things in my closet that I don’t want to deal with, convincing myself that I will address them properly sometime later? How often do I junk up the closets of my heart with inappropriate media, unresolved conflicts, unaddressed hurt feelings, and most importantly, unconfessed sin?
Matthew 12:34-35 says “…For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”
OUCH! Just like sometimes the mess of my closet will overflow into my bedroom, the mess inside of the closets of my heart will overflow out of my mouth and into my life and the lives of those around me. That is definitely not part of the legacy that I want to leave for my daughter. It’s not something that I want to model for her either. Now, as far as I know, there is no 12 step program for Closet Slobs, but as I literally clean out all of the junk from every corner of the closets of my house, I pray that the Lord will clean out the hidden corners of my heart. I pray that when I am tempted to throw more junk in my heart and “hide” it, that the Lord would remind me of this and keep me constantly purging these things from my heart.
“Create in me a pure heart, Oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
The Sword of Your Testimony
by Sandi Sanford
What if you could set someone free with just a word?
Revelations 12:11 says, “They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.”
Have you ever heard someone’s story and thought, “If God can do that for them, He can do it for me?”
Sometimes the testimonies we hear aren’t eloquent or pretty. But our stories don’t need to be fancied up. It is the honesty and humility of our personal experiences that hit home.
Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians (1:2-5), “1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
If he’d come with a fabulous, pristine voice and professional presentation the people may have thought he was a wonderful speaker. They may have thought he was special. But when he came to them as he was, the glory was God’s.
If we polish our flaws and hide the horse we road in on, people not only won’t hear how the blood of Jesus literally changed us, they’ll think we are smug and arrogant. Throw perfection out the window! It’s unrealistic and not very inviting.
The Samaritan woman at the well had a testimony. She met Jesus and He knew everything she’d ever done. She likely was not happy about that, as her life made her an outcast in her day. But He didn’t turn away from her. Somehow in talking with Jesus, she was transformed from a woman shunned by her people to a woman with a message. The Samaritans eagerly accepted Jesus because of her testimony. They heard the message of salvation from someone who had experienced it.
John 4:28-30
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29″Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
John 4:39-42
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
By speaking up, she led many to the Messiah. What if she’d remained silent?
A testimony is like a sword. In our hands our story is sharp, powerful, and custom-made. I misquoted Revelations 12:11 as “the sword of their testimony” to a friend once. I looked it up later and was surprised it didn’t say sword. I was so sure it did! I was a little embarrassed at the time, but now I think it makes a powerful point and a wonderful image. Our stories are more than words. They are the power by which we overcome. But we don’t just overcome for ourselves, we have others to set free too.
Oh My Lord, Oh My Lord What Shall I Do?
by Nora Neal-Dagett
“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God, I will get you out of any trouble.
I will give you the best of care.
If you’ll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I will answer, be at your side in bad times.
I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I will give you long life; give you a long drink of salvation”;PSALMS 91: 14-16 Message Bible
It was taking the surgeon too long to come into the exam room. I had been reciting scripture since my eyes opened that morning. I knew in my spirit I was facing a challenge. I just didn’t know the whole story yet.
The paper gown I was wearing rustled soft as I moved around the exam room. “I can do all things through God who strengthens me” popped into my spirit as my mind retraced the events that led me to this point. On Saturday evening, I noticed a small moist area in my bra as I took it off to get ready for bed. That’s odd I thought. A slight squeeze brought out a dark colored liquid. On Monday morning, I called my gynecologist and saw her later the same day. The next day I had a comprehensive mammogram and a sonogram. Four days later I saw a surgeon for his opinion. He recommended a stereotactic breast biopsy; which by the way, in my opinion; was invented by a man to torture a woman while her Tata’s hang above his head! Just kidding. Now, I stand in the surgeon’s office awaiting the results of the stereotactic breast biopsy.
I picked up a magazine, flipped a few pages, a knock on the door…Dr Ahmed enters.
I have always been drawn to this surgeon’s gentle, soothing yet honest and open “bedside manner.” I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him since mom was first diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago. So there was no question that he would be the surgeon for me as well.
Over the course of the next few minutes he explained to me that the biopsy revealed that I have what is commonly called ductal cancer in-situ or DCIS. Then he stopped, looked me right in the eye and said, “I want you to put your mother and her cancer out of your mind. This is totally different!” I did exactly that, I compartmentalized mom’s situation and listened intently as he charted out the recommended course of treatment. I was to schedule a MRI of both breast and then return to his office for the results of that and to schedule a lumpectomy.
He assured me several times that this was a grade 0-1 cancer. That is was in-situ which means encapsulated or enclosed/has not spread.
We discussed the fact that I continued to have extreme tenderness in the left breast which Dr. Ahmed says is not connected to the diagnosis. But never-the-less it is what sent me to my doctor in the first place! And I knew in the deepest part of my being that the tenderness and nipple discharge had been the Holy Spirit’s way for getting me to the doctor early because my routine mammogram was six months away.
Once again I was struck by the awesome power of THE ALMIGHTY GOD!
We live, breathe, walk and talk in the natural everyday. Prayerfully each day we submit our lives to the Lord, asking that he keep us from all harm and danger, that he place angels all around us to guide and direct us and that he give us wisdom to be powerful women in his kingdom. Having said all of that, is it not just like God to do exactly like he said he would do!
Prayer,
How awesomely magnificent you are Lord God. You are not man, that you may lie and you demonstrate that EVERYDAY that you breathe life into our bodies.
I praise you for the pain and discomfort that took me QUICKLY to the doctor!
I praise you more because you are God and positively give me the best of care.
I commit my EVERYTHING to you! And I praise you in advance for ALL that you are going to do.
IN JESUS MOST PRECIOUS NAME, AMEN
When Tears Have Voice by author Nora Neal-Daggett
The Jewish Messiah
by Sandi Sanford
I guess I knew Jesus was Jewish. A friend of mine in college attended a synagogue and I wondered what they did there. Was it like church? Was there preaching and singing? I didn’t really know, but I knew the religion Jesus practiced was Judaism and Christianity came later. Somehow I had never really thought much about it until then.
It was a short time later I saw a sign on a bulletin board advertising an upcoming meeting. It read, “Why do some Jews believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah?” Oh yeah, I thought. There’s the connection! Of course. Jesus is Jewish. I was looking for a place to worship, so I went to the meeting. The Jewish history of my faith gave me roots.
I started to attend a Jewish congregation of believers, some Gentiles and some Jews who had a shared belief in Jesus the Messiah. It met in an old building that had at one time been an Orthodox synagogue, then a Baptist church, and finally this Messianic congregation. I loved the history of the building, the architecture, the peeling paint on the old ceiling, and the creaking staircases that seemed to lead everywhere. Somehow the age of it gave it depth, like my new roots.
I celebrated Passover for the first time and learned about the symbolism of the lamb. The Last Supper, the subject of one of the most famous paintings in the world, was not just a supper. It was a Passover Seder, the Jewish celebration and remembrance of the deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.
As the Seder begins, the question is asked, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The answer, “because once we were slaves and now we are free.”
If you’ve ever felt that freedom you know the joy of salvation. Jesus and his disciples were gathered together for Passover, during which a lamb bone symbolizes the blood of the lamb that was dabbed on the doorposts in Egypt.
John 1:29 says of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
John’s Jewish audience would have understood the significance of that. Now I did too. So that’s what Lamb of God means. God as a plan, I realized, though it sounds ridiculous to say it like that. Of course God has a plan. But I was still amazed.
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
There is the Virgin Mary in Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus was born.
Matthew 1:20-23 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” –which means, “God with us.”
But the plan of God for the Messiah includes the whole world. That’s where we come in.
Isaiah 49:6 he [the Lord] says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will
also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Isaiah 42: 6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.
John the Baptist point blank asked Jesus if he was the promised Messiah.
Luke 7:20-22 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, `Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’” At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”
In other words:
Isaiah 29:18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
Isaiah 35:5-6 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.
So they were expecting him. They were watching and waiting. Then when he showed up and did what the Messiah was said to do, many believed (John 8:30). And though many of the Jewish people of his day accepted him as Messiah, many did not. The faith in Jesus spread to the Gentiles. Why?
Does that mean the Gentiles get the Messiah and the Jews do not? I don’t think so. To me Romans 11 has the answer spelled out. The plan of God, I think, was this all along.
Romans 11:24-27
24After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! 25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
Amnesia
by Christa Hogan
Last night I was up at 3:30 am, which isn’t unusual for me since I’m the mom of a four-month-old. The middle of the night is my anxiety time, when I have trouble focusing my mind on the Lord’s promises and instead find myself worrying over things out of my control. Last night in particular, as I fed my little boy my mind wandered over a series of recent events that I felt I hadn’t handled as well as I could have or should have. I began to feel discouraged. Was I truly changed as a Christian? Why do I continue to struggle with things like pride and a quick temper? As quickly as the feeling came however the word “amnesia” popped into my mind. I pondered over that as I settled the baby down to sleep and climbed back into my own bed. The Lord began to bring scriptures to mind.
2 Corinthians 5:17
If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature. The old things have passed away; behold all things are become new.
Psalm 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Lamentations 3:22-24
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness! The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will hope in Him.
Hallelujah! As the scriptures poured into my spirit I was still having trouble sleeping, but no longer from guilt or anxiety. It was all I could do not to jump out of bed and hop up and down.
Amnesia! God not only doesn’t hold our sins against us, when we repent, he no longer even remembers them.
They are forgotten as if they had never happened and each day is a fresh start. Our hope for change is in Him. He promises that we are becoming new even when we still feel gently used.
But there’s another side to this kind of spiritual amnesia. When God forgives us our sins, we are to forgive others. True freedom comes when we accept God’s forgiveness, forgive ourselves and extend the same forgiveness to those who’ve trespassed against us. It’s 360-degrees of forgiveness. The alternative is living under a burden of shame, guilt, resentment and anger. Today, I choose to accept and extend mercy. I choose amnesia!
I’ve Gotta Have Faith
by Monica M. Deer
This week I was lying in bed thinking (okay – so some people might call it worrying) about some challenging events that were occurring in my life and the thought came to me . . . “I can choose to live in my circumstances or I can choose to live in (or by) my FAITH.” It was such an overwhelming thought that I actually reached over and emailed it to myself from my cell phone so that I wouldn’t forget the next morning. Living by FAITH is a choice and one only I can make every day! 2 Corinthians 5:7 says we “walk by faith and not by sight” – the NIV actually says we “LIVE by faith” and I have to tell you there are times when the view of the circumstances I am facing blinds me to the path of faith I should be walking on. Hebrews 11:1 says “FAITH is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Another way the Amplified Bible says it is that “FAITH is perceiving as a real fact what is not revealed to the senses.” To say that we have faith and to actually LIVE by it are two completely things. I can say that I have faith and that I believe that God is going to do all He says He is going to do BUT when I’m actually faced with the circumstances of life, how does my inner (wo)man actually respond to those situations – especially when none of my 5 senses can sense a change around me? Well, that’s where our FAITH actually takes over. Because I am living by the things I cannot see with my physical eyes or touch with my hands, I am leaving my situation in the all-knowing, more than capable hands of the very God who created ME and has known me before my very conception (Psalms 139:13) . It’s hard to actually walk out that belief sometimes but as Christians that is the hope we have. It is the hope that the God of the Universe has plans for me to prosper and not to harm me but plans to give me a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11) and I have to rest in the fact that no matter what is going on around me, He knows and He cares and He will walk through the fire with me. I hope that just as I’ve had to do this week, you will give yourself a Faith-check . . . are you living today in your circumstances or are you choosing to believe that God is in control and LIVE in your FAITH??? The choice is YOUR’S!
The Suicide Spirit
by Sandi Sanford
There is no shortage of stories about Jesus. Some are true, but some are false. I have heard outrageous myths, ideas, and fantastic lies. But what comes back to me over and over again is this, “Who do you say I am?”
My salvation was never based on what others said about Jesus. I didn’t even believe the Bible, not really, until after I met Him. I was genuinely surprised at how I saw the scriptures once I knew Him myself. I was shocked at how my perception changed, as if the whole world had gone from dark to light in an instant. For me it had.
Who do I say Jesus is? He is my rescuer and deliverer, my superhero.
I was sitting in a crowd, alone with many people. But I was not a part of them. I couldn’t be. I was something different. I didn’t belong with them, though I longed to. I wanted to be loved. I wanted desperately to be seen. But I was utterly invisible. That day would be my last. I felt a bit of joy with the decision. I was 15.
The man in the front was going on and on. He was irrelevant to me. A preacher in a suit with stupid hair and arrogance so thick I could barely see him through it. On and on, he spoke words that meant something to all those people but not to me.
Suddenly, awkwardly, he stopped talking. He paused for a few moments and looked around the room seriously. He sighed and seemed genuinely concerned. When he spoke he changed my life.
“The Lord has told me someone in the congregation is contemplating suicide,” he said.
I froze. I’d been seen!
“Who is it?” He asked. “Stand up.”
I did not move, not a muscle. But in my heart I was screaming, “Please, God.”
Did God see me?
He waited patiently. When no one stood up he said, “Well, God knows who you are. We’re going to pray for you anyway.”
The place erupted like a volcano. They prayed for God to break the power of the Spirit of Suicide in Jesus’ name. Hymnals scattered the floor, the crazy people spoke in tongues, all the people I was not a part of lifted me up and they did not even know who I was.
I felt it lift. Dead weight, like a wet blanket, pulled up and away in an instant. What I noticed first was the back of the metal chair I was holding onto so tightly. It was cold. I could feel it. It seemed like I hadn’t really felt anything in so long. I wanted to grab a hold of everything. I wanted to run outside and touch the trees. I wanted to scream and force the new air out of my lungs, the air I could feel for the first time in years. And I loved. I loved the woman with the tambourine behind me. I loved the stupid guy with the glasses in front of me. I loved you.
And all these years later, 25 years to be exact, it has not stopped. I love you more than I hated me. I love you with abandon. I want you to feel and engage and love like this. I want you to be free. So when I call Jesus a superhero, I mean exactly that.
What Are Your Dreams?
by Sandi Sanford
If you’re like me there’s no end to them. Maybe you yearn for a specific career or ministry. Maybe your dream is simply to live in peace and be loved. Maybe it is something you have never spoken aloud.
We all have dreams. But how do we make them come true?
Do we work hard enough or attend the right schools? Do we go to the right places to meet the right people? Do we connive and scheme, plot and plan?
Nothing I did made my dreams come true. I know because there were many things I tried to make happen that didn’t. Looking back, I can see those that have come true were a result of one powerful practice. It was my secret weapon –
PRAYER
.
I can point to specific successes in my career that I can only attribute to prayer. I can’t tell you how many times I stopped to pray and difficult situations worked out right before my eyes. There are few things as sobering as realizing you are not the creator of your own universe or the granter of your own wishes.
I am living one of my dreams right now. Meeting my husband and becoming a Mom were answers to prayer. Being able to stay at home to raise my children is another.
What are you praying for right now? James 5:16 …The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Letting Go and Letting God
by Katy Chapman
I am the epitome of a Type A personality. I strive for perfection and order. I am a little on the impatient side, always making lists and planning. I am always getting stressed over even the smallest of issues. Usually the reason I get so stressed is due to my lack of control in a situation. God has been working with me on this unrelentlessly in the last year. And He knows exactly what will force this bullheaded quality out in me, finances.
Somewhere between starting college and graduating, my whole career focus shifted from making a career out of doing something I love to making money and job security. I started out with the intent of writing and working in the arts for a living. Money was an afterthought. I figured I would just live on whatever amount I would make and it would just work itself out. Then, through many spheres of influence, I began to doubt my dreams, and so hopped from one major to the next until I felt completely “secure” in my career choice. Secure in this sense means it was a very solid career choice, but I was completely insecure about doing something I had never once been interested in pursuing. I went forward anyway, graduating from one of the best nursing schools around, my type A personality telling me not to stop now that I was so close to graduating.
I did graduate top of my nursing class. I worked in nursing for two years, switching jobs once, and at the end of 2008 my body told me I had enough. I started getting chest pains. My blood pressure was stroke level. Migraines were becoming a weekly occurrence. A doctor pulled me out of work for several weeks and had me do a whole battery of tests looking for everything from adrenal tumors to aneurysms. He did find a heart condition that had gone undiagnosed since birth. Normally this heart condition does not cause problems, but my stress hormones were sky high. This was the culprit of all of my symptoms, stress.
After talking with my doctor and my husband, and after a lot of praying, I decided to leave my job and make a fresh start. This was a HUGE leap of faith for me, and I mean huge. I felt like I was jumping off a cliff blind. I had no idea what I was going to do, and I was putting it all in God’s hands. Since leaving my nursing job, I have started back with painting, photography, and writing.
Most importantly, I have had more time to build a stronger relationship with God.I still have no idea what God has in store for my life, but I am excited to live for Him in the meantime. My husband and I have also grown closer since I left my job. We have placed God at the center rather than on the outskirts. And soon we will be leaving for Guatemala for our first foreign mission trip. I have never felt such joy in my life. Don’t get me wrong. Each and every day I am challenged to relinquish control, and sometimes I falter. But that is the beauty of God’s grace. Before all of this I would have never even considered letting go of anything so huge as my job and career. I can only imagine what this could have done for two newlyweds if this continued for much longer. Now, even though I do falter, I at least recognize my faults and give it to God.
When you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders and you are trying to figure out the how; remember to let go and let God!
1 Peter 5:6-7: Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
By My Spirit
by Maria Simone
Sometimes I find myself getting frustrated when I don’t see God answering the prayers that I know He has promised to answer. These can be prayers for people that He’s placed in my life to plant seeds of salvation, or prayers for myself to overcome my own weaknesses. Recently, the Lord allowed me to witness the beauty of a friend coming to salvation in Christ, something other friends and I have been praying about for quite a while now. We had shared the gospel with this friend several times over the last year without any response from her. It seemed in many ways that we had said so much and shared Jesus so much, that I was beginning to wonder if she would ever understand. Then, one glorious day, the Lord Himself opened her eyes in an unexpected way. He took all the seeds that were planted over the year and, in an instant, brought her to a saving knowledge of Himself. I was in awe of the radical transformation that occurred seemingly right before my eyes. Through this experience, the Lord reminded me that indeed, just as Zechariah 4:6 says, we see the fruit of our prayers “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts”.
The Book of John reminds us of our rightful place in God’s plan. Referring to John the Baptist, John 1:8-9 says “John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The One who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” John himself was not the Light, and neither are we. We are simply witnesses to tell about the Light. When I find myself getting frustrated with a situation or person that won’t seem to change, I must remind myself that I am not their Light, nor am I their Savior. There is only One qualified to fill those shoes, and His name is Jesus. He alone will change and transform in His perfect timing, by the power of His Spirit.
No human effort, no striving, and no will power will produce the fruit that we long to see in ourselves and others. It is only by God’s Spirit that hearts and minds can be changed, and lives transformed. We must certainly be obedient to plant the seeds and do what the Lord has called us to do, but that is where our responsibility ends. We pray and plant the seeds, God alone brings the fruit. We are the vessel, the conduit – powerless in ourselves – yet God has chosen us as His co-workers and fills us with great joy as He works through us.
Real Love
by Nora Neal-Daggett
I felt as if I was in a hail storm of emotion! It was a tumultuous week. The demands of my job were pelting me with fine little ice balls from the sky. People that I could normally trust to have my back had turned and were saving their behinds! I felt hung out, battered and torn!
Adding insult to injury, Stan and I were both busy and had not seen one another for a few weeks. Mom’s caregiver had a family emergency and I was dealing with stand in caregivers. They were nice and competent but they were new and different. Even my normal support systems were lacking! I was not feeling love nor was I feeling lovely. “A smoldering wick he will not blow out and a broken reed he will not break” flashed across my mind and left peace for a moment.
“LORD, TEACH ME HOW TO LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY in this situation!” Instantly, I remembered a piece I had written for a couple who were getting married. They didn’t want the traditional readings so I paraphrased the Love chapter: 1 Corinthians 13. I thought back to the reading. Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit produced in our life as we yield to God. It is God’s will that we love for without love nothing else matters.
Because of love, God expects us to be loyal and to believe in one another, to always expect the best no matter what, and to always stand firm and defend one another. This gives new meaning to the phrase “have got your back, Baby!” Jealously, envy, pride, selfishness and being rude are not a part of God’s design for marriage.
Patience, kindness and love are what God expects us to show to others. He sees our hearts and knows our minds. We must love others first and not wait for others to love us because God’s greatest gift is love.
Okay God, I wrote that and I believe that. Please help me apply your word to my wounded spirit. I continued with the day allowing the words I had written a few weeks ago to seep into my mind with each sting I felt from the continuing hail storm.
Later that evening, after I tucked Mom in for the night and the quiet of the house settled all around me, I began to cry. I slipped to my knees, simply out of submission and humility, because I was truly at the end of my robe and did not have the strength to tie a knot to hold on to. It was in that space of time that God revealed to me that loving unconditionally applied first to all human relationships. Then, if and when we got that right, we could carry that into the marriage relationship. If I could allow the love of Jesus to fill my heart, mind and soul then love would carry me through. When love prevails first and foremost all of Satan’s attempts to destroy us and our relationship with Christ fail! It’s not about me and what I think I need. It’s about my ability to demonstrate Gods’ real love.
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 (TLB): If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn’t love others; I would only be making noise. If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what was going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith and could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love. If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but I didn’t love others it would be of no value whatever.