Representing Him

Yesterday I received a devotional from Os Hillman in my Inbox that said, "We serve a jealous God. He is a God who will not share His glory with anyone. God sets up situations in order to demonstrate His power through them. He has done this since the day He created man. His desire is to reflect His glory through you and me, so that all men may know of His mighty acts and the glorious splendor of His Kingdom. The apostle Paul understood this principle: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Cor. 2:4-5). If you do not see His glory being reflected through your life, then you need to ask why. He has promised to do so if we will walk in obedience to His commands."

So I left my computer and went to a routine cardiology followup appointment. When I got there the doctor had changed practices so he had none of my records. Great.
They heard a heart murmur and were alarmed. I reminded them, the doctor and the PA, that I have a birth defect. My arteries are not where they are supposed to be and one on them runs backwards. Remember they have NO records. Even though they have done an angiogram on me, I am sure they have seen a 100 other patients since then. The angiogram wasn't even necessary, but they didn't listen to me then either.
So they insisted that I have an echo RIGHT NOW. I acquiesced.
Now here is my point. Intellectually, I knew there was nothing out of the ordinary with my specific heart. My heart does have anomalies. That is true, but intellectually I didn't think there was anything new wrong.
However, when they changed my rooms, had me put on the gown, get on the table, tears sprang forth. Tormenting thoughts and even funny performance and drivenness thoughts came.
You see over a dozen years ago a caustic cardiac surgeon leaving my mom's ICU unit where she was recovering from open heart surgery, quipped, "You need one of those, but you are not healthy enough. You would never survive. In fact, you will probably never see 60."
Two years later I came to Be In Health and I was healed a number of diseases and syndromes. The month of my 60th birthday, I went back to that Heart enter and was given kudos rather than curses. I am 66 years old now.
1 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Now some people don't like to recognize fear as an evil spirit, but it sure isn't a happy one.
Laying on that table, it came knocking. I am giving God "what for"!
"God, don't you know I have to teach on fear this afternoon. How can I do that when I am going down under? God, this is ridiculous. I know better than that!
Then, oh well, it I have to go to the hospital, my Mary Kay bag is in the car. I am still going to make my goals this month. Guess I will have to sell to the nurses."
Why do we listen to these thoughts?
2 Cor 10:5 says, 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
They did the echo. Guess what? I was right. They were wrong.
Now I was mad. Mainly at myself for going down under that spirit of fear. So I repented and quickly recovered myself.
When I got back to the office, I pulled the devotion up again and re-read:
"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Cor. 2:4-5).
I asked Him to teach the class. I told Him I was toast. You see I wasn't sharing my wisdom anyway, simply precepts learned through God's Word that are taught here. During the teaching I shared my experience with the cardiologist that morning. You see we have to be real, People.
If I fail. well, I am just a girl. If I fall down, I get back up.
The world has had enough preaching. It is time to be transparent. It's okay to fall down, but you have to get back up, brush yourself off and begin again.
Pastor Henry reminds us that three steps forward, two steps back is still progress.

Rejoice

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

 ⁵Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

 ⁶Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

 ⁷And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 ⁸Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.Phil. 4:4-8

Can we pray praising Him for everything and ask for nothing? Can we rejoice in ALL things? 

Each circumstance requires a decision. Fear or faith. If we choose faith, then we can rejoice because we have relinquished it to someone bigger than the circumstance.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Fear and faith do not mix. They are like oil and water. So which will you choose today?

There's a Time to Act and a Time to Be Still

Recently I have had some health challenges. I have had to be still. Sometimes I have slept twelve hours at a time.
As I began to recover myself, I picked up a new rhythm. I have been reminded to "Be still and know that He is God."
It is always a sweet time when I do that. Each time I wonder why it took me so long to get back to this place.
More often than not it has been fear that has drawn me away from the safety of His arms. It really doesn't matter whether it is fear of man or fear of tomorrow. Fear is the antithesis of faith. God has given us each a measure of faith.
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3
If He has given us this measure of faith, are we not to be good stewards of it? That is totally impossible if we are entertaining fear. I had to realize that when I was in fear, I simply was not trusting God. Seeing it clearly, it was an easy decision to run back into His arms and once again Be Still.

Who Are You Counting On?

If there is one thing that I have learned this year, it is that I am in control of nothing. Although all of my children are adults. My youngest is 31. I am old enough to have two married granddaughters and two adorable great-grandchildren.
Until this year in my desperation to help them avoid some of the mistakes that I have made, I would try to direct or even control situations. There are many subtle ways that you can do this, too.
However, what I finallylearned is when I am in control, I am tying God's hands. If I fix the fix that God fixed to fix 'em, God will have to fix another fix. When I was afraid of not being in control or at least speaking my mind, what I was saying was that I didn't trust God with their lives. I didn't trust God to meet them unless I helped Him.
How ludicrous is that?
Why is it so difficult to give up control of things that we are not in control of anyway? I had to practice. I would release them to father God and then open my mouth or put my sticky fingers in their lives. Then I would repent to both them and to God. The quicker I was to repent, the easier it got to not go there for I would recognize it before I did and stop.
You see always having to give input is a form of self-idolatry and frankly, it is sin. God will have no other gods before Him. Anything that exalts itself above God is an anti-Christ spirit, because frankly it against Him.
This was a very sobering lesson.
As I gave them up and released them, God gave me the opportunity to give up other areas of my life that I had been clutching from finances to my time.
One by one I yielded (and sometimes took back) and got to the point of absolute surrender, God was finally able to move in my behalf. He moved mightily.
Perhaps the biggest show of his grace was our trip to Ireland. It was as if He opened the windows of heaven. He was absolutely extravagant in His provision.
Each time He has required that I step out in faith first. Sometimes that was scary, but I know that "perfect love casts out fear." So I would step out holding on to His perfect love. Now fear no longer has a hold on me.
I recognized that those things, I felt that I needed to control were because out of fear I didn't think they could be met any other way. I believed a lie.
God is more than able. So I am counting on God.