God Provides

 

 

When someone asks me how I feel, most of the time I am going to say, “GREAT!” I am well passed the prime of my life, I have flat feet and I have a spine that is so distorted that my chiro does not understand how I am living such a normal life.

I have to pace myself as I age, but I am like the energizer bunny. It is not due to a type A personality, because I do not have one! I am a melancholy and an introvert from birth.

However, I have learned that there is a seed for a miracle in each trial. For instance, while I learned to survive a divorce by my husband of 22 years, God revealed Satan’s lies that I was alone and abandoned. He taught me His truth that He is my husband and that He alone is my strength and my provider (Isaiah 54:5; Psalm 54:4).

Also, I was t-boned in a car accident in 1995 that broke 11 ribs on my left side, punctured my left lung, gave me a concussion, filled the left side of my face with glass and broke the pinky finger on my left hand.

Yet, I was discharged from the hospital the next day after the accident. I was back to work as a full-charge bookkeeper in one week, and I never took one pain pill. God provided for me above all expectations, amazing my doctors and everyone who suffered through even one broken rib.

The Spirit of God continually provides me with supernatural strength and wisdom to combat any physical impairments, and His joy and peace pervade every facet of my life.

Over the years, God taught me to live in the Spirit and not to dwell on the temporal aspects of life for very long, because every instance of tribulation is a new adventure in Christ and a spiritual phenomenon just waiting to happen.

Prayer:

Father God, I prefer peace, order and stability, but life has a way of throwing us curve balls when we least expect it. Even so, You always fill me with Your joy, which is my strength through any tribulation (Nehemiah 8:10). I despise change, but You taught me to handle it with flexibility and joyful acceptance as I witness Your provision for me.

I love the life You gave to me. I enjoy my family and I adore the husband You provided, because he is so adorable! I love people and I never meet a stranger. I enjoy my opportunities of service to You as a wife, mother, grandmother, homemaker, and in the ministry of Your Army as a spiritual mentor and a Pastor's wife. I give You all the praise, which is due to Your name.

Thought for the Day:

God leads us and guides us each moment of the day; and He keeps us on His straight and narrow path, because of the spiritual enemies of His Kingdom. - Psalm 23:3, 5

 

Abiding in Christ

 

Most people just want to live a quiet, normal life. The real question is...what is normal? Jesus promised that in this world we are going to have tribulation, so we can count on experiencing trials. The only way to deal with them is to change our attitude about them. Each interruption to our normal schedule is actually an adventure in Christ and a potential miracle.

Happiness is not the absence of problems. Happiness is knowing God and walking in His precepts. We do not have to rely on another person to help us to make decisions, to feel happy or fulfilled or to be complete. We are already complete through Christ in us (Colossians 2:10). We can minister to our own needs as long as we do not get self-centered with it.

Abiding in Christ means to dwell in Him, to stay connected and to continue to walk by His Spirit’s direction each moment of our day. As we do, we are amazed at His character that is birthed within us, and His perspective on life, which becomes our own. We do not simply obey the dead letter of the law, but we have our Living Lord abiding within us.

At times, we slip back into the flesh. We may be tired, hurt, perplexed, anxious, overworked, unappreciated, neglected or emotionally wounded. We forget all about the Spirit and allowing Him to live and move in and through us. We strike out in the flesh to make the negative experiences go away. However, living in the flesh is unproductive and grieves God’s Spirit.

We need to ask anyone we hurt while we reacted in the flesh to forgive us. The flip side is important too, that we forgive those who hurt us. We do not erase the person’s behavior with forgiveness, but we free our self from the bondage that unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment cause in our own soul. Our healing is facilitated by forgiveness and frees us from past negative experiences.

Prayer:
Father God, You are the one constant in our life (Hebrews 13:8), and You never abandon or disown us (Hebrews 13:5). Your Spirit will give us wisdom in decisions, comfort in grief and direction to keep us in the center of Your daily will for us. You give us Your peace in the middle of horrendous physical and emotional tribulation. As we keep our mind on You, You abide in us and we abide in You (Isaiah 26:3). You heal our heart and give us Your lasting peace and joy.

Thought for the Day:

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, abides in us. - Romans 8:11