Tag Archives: spiritual encouragement

Checklists and Ropes Part 2

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In the previous post, I spoke of “performance bases acceptance” in another season of life….

I know that I spoke of this in my November 17th entry, and I feel like I have learned so much about this even since then…”performance based acceptance” can squeeze the life out of you at anytime in your life. Now, continued…..

People questioned me, thought I was crazy.  Those friends in the teaching profession seemed to understand better than anyone.  But I had to…the Lord confirmed it over and over in His word and through prayer.  I had been released and I finally was hearing it.  HE would provide, He always met our needs. I had to quit looking at those carrots at the end of that list.

It has been three months.  I believe that God actually rescued me.  He saved me.  I did not know how bad off I was until now…I feel like ME again.  I love to encourage and believe I am gifted to do so by our Heavenly Father.  But in the last two years I was “encouraging” others in my own strength.

God never left me.  But I couldn’t hear Him.  I was overwhelmed.  Now I know that there are jobs that do that to you.  If you are a “performance based” person like me, you cannot just shake it off and do your best. “Don’t take it so seriously” I would hear.  “You need to leave your work at school like me.”  “You are over the top, give it a rest.” “Why do you do this to yourself?” 

I HAD to do my best. I was a Christian and HAD to act like one…. I HAD to help the general education teachers since they were under such pressure.  I HAD to consult the parents and talk and try to explain many things to them about their special child.  I HAD to teach the students, but was limited in time and technique.  Not to mention my family and friends outside of work who needed my encouragement.  But the life was literally being squeezed out of me. God showed me! I saw myself wrapped up tighter and tighter!    The only way for me to survive was to just cut the rope off before I died from suffocation.

I don’t know what my immediate future holds.  I am crafting and selling wreaths,studying, writing three blogs and healing.  I am hearing from God again.  I am taking the time to listen.  I have the time to listen.  It seems to me that the enemy’s best tool in our demise is our “being too busy”.

So, I share this to maybe be an encouragement to you, wherever you are.  If you are like me, give something up that occupies your time.  You may not quit your job, but there may be something that you can put down that is suffocating you. There may be a ministry you are involved in because you “have” to be involved in it! Ask the Father to show you the way of rest.  Often times I was “Jack of all trades, master of none.”  I know that GOD equips us in ways that are unbelievable, but we must be able to do them in His strength and not our own.

The Lord wants us to live an abundant, grace filled Christian life. He wants us to REST in HIM. HE wants that for us so that we will share HIM and His joy and peace with others.  HE wants us to share that He is the gift of life, eternal salvation.  Trust me when I say, if you are empty, have no joy…people won’t want what you have.  You have no hope to give them.  

Hebrews 4:1-3
“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said…”

Rest in this New Testament passages means: eiserchomai and it is a verb. It means to come in, entrance into any condition, to arise, come into existence, to come into life.
Stay with me……What hit me is that it does not have a future tense”helper” verb in front of it. So it doesn’t say “will enter”, “might enter”. For believers in the Lord Jesus Christ…we enter that rest NOW. Oh yes, metaphorically the word means that we will have rest after the trials on earth are ended….but we can choose that REST now.

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***personal drawing purchased from and created by Derek Hegstead, 1993***

Blessings dear ones..
IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

earlier animation***google search stock photo****

Checklists and Ropes…Part 1

Spiritual Encouragement, , , , , , , , , , , ,

RopeManilla2Inch_Quest

Yoo-Hoo!  Over here…look at what I am doing!  Is she upset with me?  Did I make her mad?  Did I do that right?!?! Did I , could I, should I??

Good grief! Ok, confession here.  These are not the rantings of an adolescent, but that of a 52 year old woman!  Not out loud where people could actually hear it….but ah, those thoughts ran through my head many a day!

Last time I talked about my “performance based acceptance” and the legalism that bound me for several years.  It took me a while to quit making those checklists and get “free” and realize I was to live under grace! I had to break my pencil to quit those lists! Well let me tell you, the checklist reappeared and with it a very tight rope. And I helped tighten it!

I just re-read a blog from last year during this time and I was indeed swirling.  I was in a deep, dark hole…spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally.  I did not realize how deep until I cut that rope and threw away that list!  I felt I was just “going through the motions and hanging on to God.”  Actually, I see now that He was “hanging on to me.”

I had re-entered the public school system as a teacher about 10 years ago.  I felt led to do so and the Father opened up a job.  In one day I had an interview and got a job.  I really was only half way looking since my wise husband had been praying for a way to pay for our son’s college education.  I had homeschooled them and they were about to further that education.  It was a total God thing to get a job that I did not know even existed!! I always felt it was for a season.  A time to help financially, and then I would be released.  

I stayed two years too long.  How do I know that?  The youngest graduated two years ago…but I thought I could hang on long enough for a partial retirement.  A “dangling” carrot of sorts.  Not that there is anything wrong with a pension, but it became my primary goal and I truly wasn’t listening when the Father was trying to get my attention. At the end of that checklist I saw a small bunch of carrots and had to get to them!

The rope almost choked me in October.  I started the school year, trying to muster up a good attitude.  I had started losing my hair in tremendous volume and all over ( but thick, curly hair provided a good comb over on my head..) and had a bout with a very curable skin cancer ( its placement kept me from raising my left arm for several weeks..long enough for my husband to have to basically set up my room) But I was strong, I could do it!!

Therein lies the issue.  I could not do it in my own strength.  Last year at this time I had to increase my anxiety medicine. (Another blog) and I felt awful.  The rope around me continued to tighten, and I just stood there! The checklist increased in length.  October 1st…. I gave up.  I quit. I bailed.  

I will share more of this story next time…stay tuned!
Blessings,
IN CHRIST ALONE
Isaiah 55:8-9
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Our Identity

Spiritual Encouragement, , , , , ,

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Our Identity…do you know who you are?

“You are worthless, I cannot believe what you did!” “You cannot be a Christian, look at how you act!”

OK, don’t take those statements personally…they are not from me! But have you ever heard those comments from others or in your own heart? Well dear ones, we must believe the Word of God if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ! And the Word of God tells us truths that we must hide in our hearts. The enemy will always serve up our guilt and shame. We are worthless once we believe those lies. We can only live this life out if we believe what He says is true. And “our identity” is sealed!!

Last time we touched on some Biblical truths…up against “untruths” that sometimes can plague us. Let’s talk about some more of these truths!

I am such a failure. “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are pershing.” 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 I am always in triumph, despite appearances.

I am hopeless. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerers through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37 I overwhelmingly conquer through Him.

I cannot understand the Bible. “But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old convenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:14-18 My hardened mind has been changed.

(Sigh) I will never change. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 I have been changed. The old has gone and the new has come!

No one is righteous. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 I am the righteousness of God in Christ.

I have no parents. “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out ‘Abba Father’. So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:4-7 I am a child of God and His heir.

Is this not the most incredible, wonderful news? Our identity in Christ is not up for debate!! There are so many more truths, this listing is not exhaustive. My heart is overflowing with thanksgiving when I realize again what the Father has done for me….and you! Walking along that lighted path of truth is what we must have to survive. These truths can help others along their journey as Christ followers.

I know so many hurting people right now. Many going through situations that are heartbreaking. As Believers, we are not immune to these circumstances that the world throws at us. But knowing our identity, knowing and believing His Word, and following that light….that’s our hope and that is what will get us through!

Be blessed,
IN CHRIST ALONE~

Isaiah 55:8-9

*google image*