Category Archives: Trials

Give Up!

Christ's rest, Discouraged Christian, Encouragement for Women, Freedom in Christ, Grace, Hope, Jesus Christ, Spiritual Encouragement, Surrender, To Rest in Christ, Trials, Troubles, , , , , , , , , , ,

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I had to Give Up!

I have told a number of “storm stories” due to the fact that: a.) we’ve lost our home twice to storms b.) there are great analogies about storms and life, c.) everyone experiences them at one time or another.

That being said, spring has sprung and with it those lovely spring storms, (note my sarcasm ). We have a funny story from our 25th Wedding Anniversary, and I hope we don’t have one from our 35th coming up, but I do have one from last Thursday!

 It was our son’s birthday and we were at his home celebrating. We had to drive from his home in another town, to ours.  We had kept track of the storm system, or so we thought, and knew we were in the clear.

Well, we weren’t in the clear.  We drove down back country roads with water covering them and the rain was falling so hard my husband couldn’t see 2 feet in front of him.  I know, we should have turned around, or pulled over…but we were concerned that with the rain falling as hard as it was we had better keep going!

Now, people who love us are understanding of my apprehension in storms, so my text messages began to arrive in the midst of it all!  Basically to ask how I was…only to find out rather than taking refuge in our closet,  we were driving in the area where a “rain wrapped” tornado was aloft.  And since all the power was off in this area…the only light we had was the horrible lighting and our headlights.

So what do all good storm watchers do?  I scanned the sky for that rain wrapped tornado!  And of course, with every flash of lightning I saw one!!( not really) Although we both appeared and acted very calm, my heart was sending me another message.

“Give Up” was what I heard in my spirit, and what I said out loud.  We began to laugh and figured that “third time might be a charm” and there was not a whole lot we could do about it anyway.  We just kept driving through it and gave it up.  

A peace fell over us like I cannot describe.  It had not stopped, but our fears were surrendered.  We laughed.  We got home safely, only to see our poor pup at the window of a very dark house. He seemed no worse for the wear.  

But we gave up….I gave up.  I surrendered.  

All was well, but even if something had happened…it would have been ok.  It always has been, no matter what the storm brought before, it was always ok.  I didn’t say it was easy, pleasant or that I wanted to experience it again…but it was ok.

 Ecclesiastes 3:1-4: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..”

So what do you need to give up?  What do you need to surrender?  Might as well do it, it might be the season for laughing!

Blessings dear ones~

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

*google image, NIV*

Simple Grace

Discouraged Christian, Freedom in Christ, Grace, Hope, Jesus Christ, Spiritual Encouragement, Trials, Troubles, , , , , , , , ,

*This is the same post on my other blog, Teachermomalways.com, but I wanted to share it here as well, thank you for reading today*

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Simple Grace

I must be on a “simple” kick. My last blog was about “simple lessons”. All day today I have thought of the simplicity of God’s grace and how I have complicated it many times in my life.

If someone asked you to explain your faith, could you? What is faith after all? What is grace? Oh, I know all the scriptures. I could send you to them or quote them for you. But if you don’t believe the Bible is the word of God, what good would it do?

My faith is simple. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as my Savior. My one and only Savior. I am dependent on Him. I believe in His existence in my life right now, and tomorrow.

I cannot argue in apologetics, I cannot prove He exists. I cannot do anything but tell you about my life and how I have felt Him and seen Him work over and over.

My parents argued over and over in ugly ways and then divorced. I seemed to be right in the middle of them protecting my mom. Even when I was 12 and dealing with those issues, I really felt that “someone” was watching out for me. God was.

I was not sure of my future, and others around me doubting my ability to become anything with the circumstances that I was in…but there were two teachers who believed in me, and guided me and encouraged me. HE used them to love on me at a crucial time in my life. I went on to school and became a teacher myself. He was there.

I married and although I could fill a volume of books on how God was faithful, I will share only a few. After six years of marriage we had children. I had some issues the second time around and could have lost him. We did not. At one point one of them was not moving in the womb. We were close to delivery and I had to make a quick trip to the ER. It was a scary time, but the stubborn child finally moved and was born by c section days later. It was hard.But He was always there..

We lost 12 people to death in four years in the 90’s. I did not think I could survive through many of these deaths. HE was present. HE brought me peace. A supernatural peace that cannot be explained.

We raised our children. Many times while on my knees in prayer…He showed up. His presence was heavy, palatable, felt by me. I cannot explain it. But I know HE was there…

We personally went through the destruction of two homes in individual storms. In one, I felt that I should look at the window and step on the porch. That is when I saw the tornado. Inside, I would have not seen it and since our home was destroyed, we might have been also. The second storm I heard a voice, not audible mind you, but a feeling that I should get under the table. I did and seconds later a tree fell in on our table right where I had been sitting. It destroyed our home. He brought peace to me in a situation that I did not understand, we lost our home..again!!

It hasn’t always turned out the way I thought it should. Sometimes I have been disappointed and even mad. I have plenty of questions. We have had many rough times in our through these last 35 years, but, He never leaves me…even when He has every right to do so. I still trust Him.

I could go on and on. I cannot convince anyone that Jesus is real…anymore than anyone could convince me He isn’t. I am just afraid He has been given a bad rap. He simply has a gift to give. He wants us to have eternal life. He wants to be with us as we walk through this thing called life. He knows we are not perfect. He just wants the best for us. Sometimes we think that it is just a bunch of rules to follow. It is not. Moral codes maybe, but not rules. That is where the grace comes in.

I cannot get good enough, nor do I have to do so. His grace is for me, for us. “God’s riches at Christ’s expense” I have heard it said before. This is true.

I cannot prove He loves me, except for what I believe and what I have felt…..once you are in His presence, you know it is real. And you never want to be out of it. And I am in love with Him.

So that is it. Simple grace. His gift. I can accept it, or not. But I know it is real. It is that simple.

Be Blessed~

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

Stove Knobs-Part 2

Christ's rest, Discouraged Christian, Freedom in Christ, Grace, Hope, Jesus Christ, Spiritual Encouragement, To Rest in Christ, Trials, Troubles, Who I am in Christ, , , , , , , , , , ,

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Stove Knobs- Part 2

I know that you have been waiting with anticipation to find out the rest of the stove knob story! But I promise there is a point.

Remember the toolbox that was in my reach the whole time? Well…

Ephesians 4:11-15 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ

We are already “equipped” with all we need as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ!We don’t have to be a pastor, missionary or music leader! We are all equipped to build the body of Christ. To work toward unity of the faith and of the knowledge. This knowledge means “an intense knowledge because of thorough participation in the object of that knowledge” (Strongs). In other words, not just a head knowledge of who Christ is, but a Heart knowledge of who He is to you.

The verse goes on to talk about the “perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ..” Of course the perfect man is full grown as opposed to little children. Fullness in Christ means that Christ has filled us with all kinds of gifts and dwells and walks in it, the body. God was in his fullness and not simply a manifestation, Jesus was fully God and fully man. This means more than just being filled with food. You know, how you eat and eat and say that you are full and two hours later you are eating again. You weren’t really full. THIS fullness means there is no room for anything else!! God alone is enough to fill us!

We have been given a “toolbox” but sometimes don’t even know we have it..we don’t know how to access it, or we just ignore that we have everything we need! God has given us what we need to get through all that swirls around us, and to help others as well.

Of course there are times when we don’t feel “full” of Christ, or totally immersed in Him. There are times when we don’t think that we can get through the hurts we are experiencing…and then God sends someone our way to say the right thing, pray the right prayer, or give the right amount of money we need. When there are those times that nothing seems to be happening, be must believe what He taught us was true! We must retrain our brain to rest in Him.

So get out that tool box and see what kind of tools the Father has equipped you with…see what tools need to be used. Don’t let it lay on the floor! Who knows, you might have the right tools to help someone fix the knobs on someone’s stove!!

Blessings dear ones~

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

*google image, NIV Bible