You Can Win With What You Have Left

It's wintertime - the season when all that was once green and growing goes cold and dormant. To the naked eye, it's not a pretty picture.

Is that how you're feeling as 2015 draws to a close? Has this been a barren year for you?

Well, I bring you good news! You may be at the end of another calendar year, but that doesn't mean that you aren't on the verge of a personal revolution. That's right! And I don't mean a comeback of epic proportions either (although that would be a righteous surprise too). I mean an awakening in your soul, a shifting in your perspective and your level of expectation that will slowly but surely propel you forward. It can happen, even if you don't think you've got everything it takes to make it happen.

Let me paint a picture for you...

When I was a little girl, I remember going with my mother to the home of one of our elderly church ladies. She was hosting a quilting circle with some of her friends. At the time, I didn't realize what a time-honored tradition this was among our African-American ancestors, but I soon found out.

I can still remember them laughing and chatting away as they leisurely took what looked to me like old raggedy scraps of fabric and effortlessly sewed them into colorful patterns. It took them weeks to finish, and I wasn't there to witness all of their labor. But I can tell you that when they were done, that quilt was fit to be displayed at The Louvre!

Who would have thought that all those little scraps scattered around the floor would eventually yield such an amazingly beautiful and purposeful thing?

Maybe 2015 may have drained a lot out of you. You may feel like you're running on empty right now; like you're left with scraps. 

photo credit: www.absolutelysmall.com

But God looks at your scraps and sees this:

photo credit: www.weallsew.com

That's because He knows the awesome things He can do through your faith. So don't focus on what you don't have. When you do, it makes you blind to your potential and robs you of your promise. Smile over your scraps, girl! They're going to make for a great story someday.

Remember the Old Testament story about the widow who was facing a critical debt situation and had only one vial of oil left in her house? (2 Kings 4:1-7) Go back and check it out. You'll see that it wasn't about what she had. It was about what she was willing to DO with what she had.

So, I ask you, are you willing to use what you've got left?

"Because little becomes much as you place it in the Master's hand." ~ from the song, Ordinary People by Danniebelle Hall

Until next week, Overcomers...

I Want To Believe

Faith is a funny thing. Or should I say, my faith is a funny thing. Why is it that no matter what phenomenal act God just recently performed in my life, as soon as some unexpected challenge arises I start doubting Him - AGAIN! When am I really going to start trusting Him like I should?

There's a song from Kirk Franklin's The Fight of My Life cd called "Help Me Believe" and I think it truly epitomizes what it feels like to want to get off the rollercoaster of doubt and unbelief when you face prolonged or unexpected struggles. For me, the chorus says it all:

Help me Believe

Can I believe

Let Me believe

I wanna believe

I'm no good on my own, please give me another chance

Its hard to believe in what I can't see

To give you my will cause you're what's better for me

You can look in my eyes and see I wanna believe, believe, believe, believe

It puts me in the mind of someone who had a similar conflict in his own life. The gospel of Mark tells of a grieving father whose son was bound by a deaf and dumb spirit that had constantly been trying to kill him since he was a small child. Can you imagine watching your son or daughter writhing in relentless pain and you are helpless to do anything to stop it?

Hearing about Jesus and his power over demonic spirits, the man brings his son in hopes of finally getting the help he needs. But when he gets there, Jesus is nowhere to be found. Only a few of his disciples are there, and they prove to be no help at all. I can imagine the despair that probably started to drift over his once-hopeful heart. Then, suddenly, Jesus arrives on the scene! The boy's father recounts to the Lord all that he has been through up until that point and then he makes a statement that totally contradicts all the painstaking effort he's made to get help for his boy: "If You can do anything, do have pity on us, and help us." (Mark 9:22 AMP). I can almost see Jesus looking back at the man, disturbed by his statement. What do you mean "if"? As if to say, Don't you know this is the God of the Universe you're talking to?

In his impressive, omnipotent fashion, Jesus eases the man's doubts by telling him that "all things are possible to him that believes". I love the way the Amplified Bible puts the man's response because it's the way I see myself reaching out to God while I'm fighting the good fight of faith:

At once the father of the boy gave [an [k]eager, [l]piercing, inarticulate] cry with tears, and he said, Lord, I believe! [Constantly] help my [m]weakness of faith! (Mark 9:24)

Just like that father, I too am desparate to get to a place where I just simply BELIEVE GOD! Believe His love for me. Believe His infallible integrity towards me. Believe that His will truly is better for me. But even this I cannot do without His help. I need His power to charge my faith up, not to just believe in Him, but to believe Him.

Which brings me to another point...

Did you know that suffering (for doing what God told you to do) is actually a form of worship? Well, it is. (See I Peter ch. 2). So that makes me think very soberly about how worship is handled in my daily life. Yes, it's easy for me to see myself as a worshipper when I'm dancing, singing and praising the Lord in church service or when I'm jamming to some good Israel Houghton or Fred Hammond while driving my truck. But do I really consider myself giving God worship when I'm standing in faith during a time of adversity? Just this morning I read something in an e-votional by Anita Carman, Founder of Inspire Women that deeply challenged my perspective on this:

"In our suffering, let us offer it to God as our way to worship Him. He gets to decide if we will worship Him with our abundance or if we will worship Him with our suffering. Oh the freedom to give up dictating to God the kind of worship we will give Him."

I thought to myself, "Lord, have I really been doing that?" Could it be that I have only been seeing worship as a "warm fuzzy" for me instead of a truly unselfish, heartfelt gift from me to a loving Father? Far be it from me to ever think that way again!

If I'm learning nothing else along this journey, it's that sacrifice authenticates true love. For years I've known that God is my friend. But am I really His friend? Do I love Him enough to trust what He tells me, even if I don't understand it at first? Do I really love Him enough to face the rejection when I'm doing all I can to be obedient to His will?

Time will tell. But as I stated before, I want to believe that I do and that I will.

How about you?

Flip the Script

Proverbs 18:6-7 NIV

6 A fool's lips bring him strife,

and his mouth invites a beating.

7 A fool's mouth is his undoing,

and his lips are a snare to his soul.

Has your heart been tempted to fear lately? Mine has. Seems almost everywhere you turn, there’s a bad report; whether it be about money, health, or relationships. I’m not really one to do a whole lot of news-watching, except to stay updated on what’s happening in the world. But I must confess, since the recent unexpected deaths of Michael Jackson and Steve McNair, I’ve been visiting web pages and watching news expose’s that wouldn’t normally be of interest to me. And still, there’s no resolution that brings any real answers, just a lot of confusion and sadness. Even some of the conversations I’ve been in with other people (some of them, fellow believers) has been tainted with talk of the tightness of funds and the uncertainty of the economy. It’s amazing how easy it is to slide into that line of thinking when you’re overexposed to it.

What kind of toll does this take on our faith? It smothers it. If you know like I do, we can’t afford that. It’s what we live by – “The just shall live by faith” (Gal. 3:11b). I’ve found that when I neglect to stand on what I know to be true of God and His love for me, I start taking my cues from fear’s script. All kinds of faithless thoughts find a place to land in my soul and, if left undisturbed, eventually make their way out of my mouth. Don’t think that you’re safe if you just think doubtful, fearful thoughts but never speak them, because whatever you dwell on long enough will eventually manifest. We are just like God in that we create our world by means of what we speak. So if you don’t want it, don’t speak it. If it’s not what God says, don’t repeat it.

I recently put this into practice with something I’m working to improve on as a wife. Without going into too much detail, I was convicted of how the seed of selfishness was beginning to produce “strange fruit” in my marriage. God was requiring me stretch more outside of my comfort zone and I wasn’t too happy about it. But I wanted to change and wanted to have the benefits of that change come alive in my relationship with my husband. So I asked God to help me and he said to me, “You’ve mastered how to talk yourself out of it, now just do the opposite and talk yourself into it.” I won’t lie, I sighed and rolled my eyes, but I decided that if I really wanted to see change, I was going to have to do it God’s way. A way, might I add that I have seen work in my life before.

So I began to say to myself how much I love my husband and how much he means to me. I began to re-tell myself about all of his good qualities and attributes and how much of a blessing he is to my life. I began to tell myself that I desire to give to him, that he deserved it because God wants to show love to him through me. I told myself how much of an honor it is to have someone to love like that. After I did all of this, I didn’t feel anything. But I knew it was time to take the next step in making those words manifest into the change I needed to make. I acted on those words by faith. That’s right – I chose to ignore my flesh and feel it by faith. And do you know what? I saw change begin to happen; first in my actions, then on the inside. Hallelujah!

Perhaps you’ve been feeling God tug at your heart to change something in your life. It may be how you handle money, your eating habits, or your relationships. But whatever it is, remember you don’t have to fret and worry about things that you can’t change. I challenge you to take courage and change those things that are within your power by flipping the script from fear to faith this week.

*If this blessed you, leave a comment and let me know.

Get A Grip!

Have you ever come across a phrase in the Bible that keeps popping up all the time and you wondered, “What does that really mean?” You know it’s got to be important (hence the frequent appearances) but you don’t quite feel like you “get it”.

Well that’s how I felt about the phrase hold fast. These two words are found together in several scriptures throughout the Bible; mainly the King James Version. Here’s just a few of them:

Job 2:3 “…and still he holdeth fast his integrity…”

Proverbs 4:13 “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go…”

I Thessalonians 5:21 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Now when I go into “seeking mode” with the Holy Spirit about the true meaning of something, I usually get an answer in one of two ways: revelation or application. This time it was by application.

Our truck had been having some sort of an electrical shortage lately. We’d drive it someplace and it would work just fine. But when we’d get back in to start it up again, it wouldn’t make a sound. We went down a list of possible causes, and my husband concluded that it must be the battery. So he took it to have the battery tested and found out there was no problem with it all. It was still in good shape.

For the next few days afterwards, the truck ran great. But it wasn’t long until the same thing happened again; and again, my husband was led to check the battery. Everything looked fine, that is until he looked a little closer. It turns out that one of the posts that the cable hooks up to had a loose bolt. Now at the time, he didn’t have any tools to tighten it with, so he had to just use his fingers to try to screw it on as best he could. However, that only held for a little while, and then the same problem occurred again. And every time we reconnected the battery cable, we’d have to reset everything again (the alarm, the clock, the radio).

Finally, he got a wrench, and with a few good hard turns, our problem was solved. Apparently the everyday bumps and rattles the truck encountered while on the move were loosening the bolt’s grip little by little until it eventually caused a disruption in power.

That’s when it hit me! That’s the true meaning of the phrase “hold fast”. It means to get a firm grip on something. As a matter of fact, isn’t that what you tell someone when you want them to focus or take something seriously? You say, “Get a grip, will ya!” or “Girl, get a grip on reality!”
Do you find that sometimes you’ve lost your grip in your spiritual walk? I do.

It happens just like it did with that bolt on our truck’s battery. The everyday bumps and rattles of life can sometimes shake me loose from what I know to be true about God and His loving care for me. And if I don’t keep a firm grip of faith on what He’s said, my flesh will start twisting my thoughts in the other direction. The end result (which was the enemy’s goal all along) is to separate me from my power source and stop me from continuing down the path that God has me on. And again, just like with our truck, I have to “reset” my mind on the Truth instead of the facts in order for me to get back to where I need to be in my faith walk. Guess what happens then? My spiritual discernment (alarm) is more sensitive and I don’t get led around by my emotions. I’m better able to sense the season God has me in and I’m not as easily tempted to get move ahead of His timing (clock). I’m able to tune into what the Holy Spirit is saying because God’s Word is settled in my heart (radio).

The key is spiritual maintenance. If we’d be honest, we’d have to admit that most times we’re so focused on the journey that we neglect to maintain our connection (through prayer and hearing God’s heart through His Word). Eventually, that’s what disrupts the manifestation of God’s power in our lives.

So I encourage you today to get (and keep) a grip on the timeless principles of faith that are laid all throughout the Word of God. Get a grip on the reality that God loves you and has nothing but good thoughts toward you that will lead you into His wonderful plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11). Then when life shakes things up a bit, you’ll still be well-connected to the power of God that keeps you going.

I think The Message Bible puts it best:
“Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word.”
(Hebrews 10:23)