Communication

I was scolded today. The Lord brought something to my attention and it floored me in it's simplicity.

I was in the process of cutting off a potential romantic interest because of lack of communication. All of a sudden I hear a voice say "You can go days without speaking to your friends and loved ones and not think anything of it, what makes this any different?"

It got me to thinking. We can go days, weeks, months without talking to people and it won't be a big deal. We don't question if they love us. We don't question if they are still friends with us, so why is it any different with those relationships that we place romantic attachment too? What makes those relationships so different that we freak out if we haven't heard from them in a few minutes let alone a few hours or a few days? Why are we so quick to cut them lose and question the relationship when there is a lack of communication?

I believe the Lord was telling me that there is no difference. While we have gotten caught up in what each type means, there truly is no difference. I believe he was trying to tell me that we don't really need to talk someone all the time to be connected to them. That once they are placed in our lives for however long the Lord sees fit, we are connected to them whether we talk all day or once a week.

I believe the Lord was telling me that the same goes for him. While we are told we need to be in constant communication with him, there will be times in which we don't speak - for whatever reason. This does not mean we aren't still connected to him and that we should cut him loose.

My prayer for you today is that even in the silence, you feel honored, cherished, and loved by those connected to you.

Listen to the whisper

I couldn't remember the last time the Lord meet me here - in the still of the night. Well maybe not still, but in the peace that is the night time.

I fell as if He needed me to let go for a minute. He needed me to completely surrender. As of late there's been so much crowding my mind... Maybe he needed to get me to stop and spend time with him.

As weird as it sounds, HE cares enough about us to carve time out for us and when we become too busy for him, HE meets us where we are most vulnerable and able to listen to him.

I am reminded that even those of great faith need time alone with HIM. I'm not sure if it's just me, but it seemed the harder the task, the more urgent he is to get us alone. Now you may disagree, but I present to you Joseph. How long was he in prison? Years upon Years. Until finally he led the land through the famine and blessed his family. What about David? He spent time on the run before he became King. Speaking of Kings, Jesus the King of Kings, the night before the crucifixion spent time alone with HIM gathering strength. I could go on as there's plenty of people in the Bible who spent time with HIM before stepping into their destinies.

I believe HE needs to get us alone to give us our directions. HE won't do it using bells and whistles. He'll do it in the still of the night. He'll do it when there's no other distractions. He'll do it in the whisper. When was the last time that you allowed yourself to listen to the whisper.

My challenge to you on this Resurrection Sunday and beyond is too take time to listen to the whisper as that just may be when you'll receive your directions.

When the noise stops

Hey there. I can't believe that it's been a year since we last talked. While I know a year may not seem like a long time, it is. A year is someone's lifetime. A year could be the difference between a hello and a good bye.

 As we get older, a year becomes more and more important in the grand scheme of things. A year goes by quick when we get so caught up in "living"  that we forget to have a life. We get so caught up in "living" that we forget to do for ourselves. We forget who we are.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with a co-worker. He tells me that while he normally is a positive person, dealing with the customers on the job had made him jaded. This made me wonder. What is his positivity wrapped in that he was able to become jaded? What was his foundation in? It was at that moment, in the still of the night, when I heard God's voice say "remind him whose he is". It was in that moment that he reminded me whose I was also.

Isiah 40:31 says: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

It is in the moments, when the noise stops, that he reminds us who we are in him. It is in the moments, when the noise stops, that he reminds us that our strength comes from him. It is in him that we find our rest and our peace. It is in him that we can rest all burdens.

I believe that in this season, He is reminding us that He should be where we find ourselves wrapped in.. Quite frankly, there's no place I'd rather be.

Silence is golden

I found myself in the silence of the middle of the night deep in thought. Now, this has not been a rare thing for me as of late. It seems as if it has been in the silence of the middle of the night where my mind has been the freest. What is it about quiet that liberates us? What is it about being able to remove ourselves from the noise of the everyday that allows us to really think? Why is it that people are afraid of silence? What makes silence so scary that we fill our lives to the brink with noise. Noise from family, noise from work, just noise.

We live our lives day to day running around not taking the time to just stop and enjoy the silence. We live our lives and spend our time in search of things to fill the void that the noise leaves when the noise leaves us that we don't take the time to just be. I mean how many of us could have survived 40 days in the desert or how many of us could have survived being away from the crowd where the only "living" soul for miles around was our Heavenly Father. (I realize the irony in "living").

As we embark on a New Year with new opportunities and new things to discover, we need to take time to figure out who we are without the noise.  We need the time to get away from the noise and figure out who we are at our very core. What would it be like if we all took the time to figure out at our core who we are? What would it be like if we in figuring out who we are, have a conversion and start a movement the way the early Christians did. What would it be like if like them, we knew who we were enough to be able to pass it on to those who needed to know of a better way... Truly what would it be like if..... I'll let you figure it out...

As for me, I am going to enjoy the silence that is the middle of the night... I don't know what I will find, but what I do know is that when the noise is gone, it is easier to hear from my creator. When the noise is gone, it is easier to hear from God and to know where he is leading me.

Happy New Year and here's to finding time to be noiseless. 

How will history remember you?

When the Lord gets a hold of us, sometimes we just have to let him take us where he wants us to go. No, scratch that, all the time we need to let his take us where he wants us to go. I say this because we may have our plans, but, he has something far greater in mind for us than we could ever imagine.

How will history remember you?

We never see the full extent of our legacies. Generations upon generations upon generations see the magnitude of what we have done even if we cannot see it in the moment. You know, the things you consider ordinary in the moment or the things that you are begrudgingly doing. Yeah, those things. I can think of a few stories throughout the bible where the people in the moment did not know the impact their stories were going to have on future generations. I do not think the Hebrew boys - Hanania, Mishaek, and Azaria knew the significance they would have in history when they were thrown in the fiery furnace. Along the same lines, I do not think Daniel knew the significance of him being thrown in the lion's den. Nor did Moses when he struck the rock, or Joshua when he said "As for me and my house...." or John when he talked about Jesus' divinity or Ruth or Deborah or even Rahab for that matter.... I do not believe that these men and women knew that history would remember them as being great.

How will history remember you?

When the Lord gets a hold of us, we need to just let him take us where he wants us to go. Our past present and future are wrapped up with him. It is up to us to do what he instructs. It is up to us to do what he directs us to do..... Who knows how history will remember you because of it. 

Finding Peace in the Closed Door

If I was to tell the truth, I would have to say I am happy. Happier than I've been in months. I find myself in this truth having been out of work for almost a month. I thought I had the perfect opportunity. You know the one that would jump start this illustrious career. I thought God had ordained it. Maybe he did. Maybe he did so that he could then close the Door.

Why would he? Why would he present such a perfect thing, to then close a door? I can think of a few reasons. It could have been me. I may not have been ready. It could have been that I was ready, just not for that place. It could have been that he wanted me to see something that I would have not seen otherwise. Why would he have closed such a perfect opportunity?

If I had to commit to something, I would say that he closed the door to remind me. He closed it to remind me that there are things I need to do for him. He needed to remind me that it is in him that I need to rely on. He is giving me my David on the run moment.

I have mentioned David in other posts and I keep coming back to him because he has such an amazing story of hope, faith, and trust. At this point in the story, David is on the run from Saul. This is after he's been anointed king. So imagine how he felt. He was anointed king. He was given the ultimate job opportunity, but he couldn't step into it yet. He had to take the time to learn how to navigate that world without forgetting himself or where he came from. He had to learn how to navigate that world and still keep God at the forefront. The only way to be able to do this is by knowing who God is in his life. The way in which God drives this home is to strip us of the things in which we rely on that take us away from him. Once he has done this, we are then forced to reexamine the role he has in our lives.

Maybe you have noticed these moments in your life. The moments when everything feels like it is in place, but then the bottom falls out. I would venture to say that God is getting us ready for greatness. He is getting us ready to become "kings" and "queens". He is getting us ready, but we need to know who he is. We need to know how he has operated in our lives because we will hit moments where who we are will be questioned. We will hit moments where we will need to stand up for who we are and who God is. It will be in these moments that we remember the things that God has done for us and how he has looked after us. It is in these moments that we can stand the strongest.

So what if he closes the door. I am willing to bet my life on the fact that God has better for us. We just need to hold fast, hold steady, and be faithful.  

Struggles

*I pray that wherever this finds you, it gives you the encouragement that you need to press forward and not give up.*

We go through struggles every day. Whether it be on the job, our families, our friends etc... We struggle to get us to dig down deep, to get us to think about what it is that we need to possibly turn around; Not only with in us, but with the world around us. Sometimes we struggle because we need to struggle. If life stayed good, we wouldn't learn about who we are because we wouldn't take the time out to stop and spend time with God getting to know HIM.

He uses our struggles to teach us to place our cares on HIM. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus tells us to rest in him when we are weary. To lay all of our burdens on him... How do we learn to do this if we aren’t forced too? I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember ever doing it naturally…. It was through struggling that I began to depend on God more and more than depending on my own understanding of things.... It was through struggling that I am learning that God knows our potential and that HE wants us to live up to it 100%. It is through struggling where we learn that we are stronger than we thought.

So let us rejoice because God never puts anything on us that we cannot handle and once HE knows we can be trusted with the little things, he will start to move us into where HE needs us to be and give us more. Think about it, how can you be given more if you are not a steward over less?

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.... Proverbs 3:5-7