Blankets - we love our blankets!

God doesn't love us because of what we do.  He loves us because we are His - and that's all!  So if you feel like your emotions are not measuring up to God's standards today, remember that God is not measuring you, or measuring out His love for you.  I don't know about you, but looking up to my loving Father instead of looking out at "how am I handling things" brings such freedom.  Just be His, and He will do the rest.  Feel the joy, feel the pain, feel the fear, feel the safety.  If you are His, it doesn't change a thing.  But clinging to His Word is what can change us! By staying in His Word, the truths go deeper and deeper for those days when we feel shallow...

"The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."

1 Thessalonians 5:24

Being a child of God, and truly understanding it can be two different things.  Looking back over the years I can see how God has been building my faith to know that I am His child.  It's a good reminder for me to look back and see God's hand on my life.  He has steadily held my hand and built a trust that I can not always put into words.  I say this because if I were measuring how I've handled circumstances day in and day out, it would be a messy graph.  But over time the the line is extending from my soul straight into the arms of God.  And on the bad days, that's really good to know.  

I know that we are all tempted not to trust at times.  This morning I am blessed to re-visit some journals from 2012.  I have been looking back at His love for His children all through the Bible.  God layers His same love all over us.  It's a blanket of peace.  

And it doesn't matter if I "feel" it or not.   It JUST IS!  BECAUSE GOD JUST IS!  HE IS EVERYTHING!  God calls Himself YAHWEH (or Jehovah) meaning "the self existent one:  I AM.

When we are sleeping at night, we do not feel the blanket, but it's there!  As I look back, I can see where He was working and know that He is still working out His purposes for me.  Because it's not about me, it's about Him.  

YAHWEH  - I AM

1/20/2012

The “Continental Divide”

 We all have situations in life that are beyond our control.  Control has been a big thing for me.  If I can control my surroundings, I think I will be better off.  But I am learning over the years to surrender my control to HIM.  Fibromyalgia is a condition where your nerve endings fire “pain” and there really isn’t a cause for pain.   Sometimes it is excruciating, and sometimes you forget you have it.  I have no control over this!  I can work with it with diet and rest and medication, but in the end, I do not control it.

For years I have battled it in my brain, sometimes attaching my worth to God, by how I feel physically.  Thinking that if I were resting in Him the way I should that I would feel better.  But I’ve learned that, as our pastor says this to his kids, “I love you because you are mine,” that is how God loves.  Not based on anything but His grace and mercy for His glory.

He also mentioned the “Continental Divide” in last week’s sermon lesson.  He explained that every drop of water to the east of the divide, falls to the east, and every drop to the west falls to the west. 

Sometimes life is like that.  I can walk a fine line with my health sometimes.  One day it falls to the right and sometimes to the left.  Today, my body wanted to fall to the bed, but, by His grace,  it took me for a jog.  Pushing through fatigue to exercise does not make me better in God’s eyes, it just humbles me that He nudged me over to the feel good side, despite my first waking moments.  There are days though when that doesn’t happen.  Am I still in favor with God?

I am learning about peace more and more.  This year there is a verse that draws a line like the continental divide for me.  “For He Himself is my peace.” Ephesians 2:14  I am beginning to see that I can not make myself at peace by measuring my peace!  I have to only look to HIM, even when anxiety rises, or pain rises, or fear rises.  Putting on Him, His righteousness, that is peace. “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” Is 32:17  The fruit (peace) will come, but based on nothing but HIM.  I must not “over think it!”

I must be willing to feel the sickness, or the unrest without “thinking” about it!  He may allow the sickness, or unrest for a time…that does not determine my worth to HIM.  OR ACTUALLY IT DOES!  It is His love that takes care of me in those moments.  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

So when I look at things and begin to assess my worth based on the “continental divide” of my circumstances, I am truly a drop of water being blown by the wind.  But, if I see that drop of water fall to one side or the other and still TRUST in HIM, I will be doing the Proverbs 3:5-6 verse: “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge HIM and HE will direct your path.” 

The path across the USA is not a straight path, and neither is the path of life.  He leads us through deserts sometimes and mountain tops sometimes.  All the while, HE loves us as our Father. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”  1 John 3:1