Month: August 2017

The silence….maybe you have felt it.  Those times in your life where you just cannot seem to hear God that well or even at all.  You’ve asked God to search your heart, be there any wicked way in you, and reveal it to you….but nothing.  You start to wonder what you are doing wrong and begin thinking, “well, I could do this better, have a better attitude in this area, not think those thoughts in that area, not act this way in that area…and on and on and on…..still nothing.

“Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters when you encounter trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” –James 1:2-3.   Sometimes, the trial is the silence.  Sometimes the trial is remembering all the times God has been moving in your life like crazy, doing unimaginable things with unquenchable power, and wondering why that is not happening now.  “and let perseverance finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.”-James 1:4.  Let it finish…that means submission to the silence.  That means holding tight to faith knowing that in doing so you are in fact strengthening your faith muscles and maturing.  That means realizing that the Almighty God does not owe you anything and your response to that is gratitude for what He already gave you….eternal salvation.  That also means still enduring in prayer and reading His Words because you are nothing without them.

I was around some amazing wonderful women warriors of God today who all shared about these seasons of silence.   And you know what…THERE is God.  Among the rocks near the shore, four friends, encouraging one another in faith….Christ in us…hearts desiring Him…and all of a sudden I noticed…when you have friends on fire for Jesus….God isn’t so silent after all.

***written a couple months ago, but I needed this reminder…always:

 

I have been drowning in the mundane and the pain recently.  The mundane of going to work, coming home, going to bed and repeat, and the pain of failure at work.  Even though the failures came with no lack of effort, skill or knowledge of my own, they still came.  And I’m not sure that makes it any better.  Working overtime and pouring out effort and emotion in a case only to find that no matter what I did, I would still lose.  The animal loses, the family loses, and the clinic loses.  Never in my career have I felt such disappointing losses back to back to back.

I dug my heels in.  Deep into despair, self-pity, bitterness again, and insecurity in my abilities.  I thought about the book I am about to release in regard to work entitled “Victory Unleashed” and felt nowhere near victory.  I begged and pleaded with God for each case, “God, please, just let this be a victory, let this one work out,” but they did not.  I turned my eyes towards future cases and prayed, “God, please give me a victory, I need a victory at work.”  To which He replied so clearly, “Was My Victory not enough?”

You know those moments where you just wanna shrink up into a little ball and slap your palm to your forehead…..yeah, this was one of those.  How many times have I read and studied, literally studied about how I am to be Kingdom focused and “unstained by the world” (James 1:27).  The ultimate victory has already been done: Christ won salvation and freedom from sin and death for me on the cross and all else I should consider a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8).  Whatever storms of life are going on around me are overshadowed by the power and mercy of the cross and the majesty of Jesus.  How could I forget that!  He is how I stay sane during those rough days and He is how I consider it pure joy when I encounter many trials (James 1:2).  He is how I escape the mundane and see treasures placed within my day knowing they could only be sent by Him.  It is a grateful spirit and a knowledge of the intensity of the cross that summons the ability to see God in the mundane and the pain instead of drowning in my own challenging human emotions.

My Jesus, please help me, help us as your people to never forget the magnitude of what you did for us on Calvary.  May we place all our faith in Your Words “It is finished” and believe them with all of our hearts knowing that you won, are winning, and will always win the victory over our lives.  You are a great, wonderful, powerful and merciful God who loves each and every one of us.  We offer up our sufferings to you and choose not to hold onto them as our burdens.  But may we release them unto you with gratitude for your love and wait in eager expectation for your next “move”.  We love you, Jesus and ask this in Your Mighty Name….AMEN!