It's a week off and that means reflection and revelation time. There are a few blogs in the works, but none ready for publish yet. Here are some thoughts from the heart today with a Tuesday Truth:
Revelation 12:11
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
I've heard this verse more than once over the last couple of weeks. It's a truth that has started to take root as I've reflected over the last month through His eyes. God can see what we cannot see and knows what is headed our way. Things, Moments, Situations may surprise us but they do not take God by surprise. He is not shaken, stressed, or frustrated. He knows just how high that wave can rise and He knows when to tell it to be still. As I think back over this past year, there is a shout that rises up in me. A shout that makes me excited to look back over where God has brought me from and through. This time last year insecurity, anxiety, and fear were constant companions. Discouragement and Frustration came soon after their companions because the ground was ripe for them to take root. You may be looking at that word fear and trying to see how that fits in....but people pleasing is just that. If we are so fearful of what someone is going to say or do that we do everything in our power to keep them happy...it's fear. Those companions had taken root and the blooms were stress, frustration, and the blahs. The enemy had slipped in through some situations that instead of giving to God I tried to handle on my own. In our own strength...we can do NOTHING. This life was never meant for us to do on our own, but with the One who created us. Fast forward to earlier this year and the blooms had continued to come back even after I would lay them down at His feet. (Thankful for the wise counsel from a friend that said I had to take God back to the place..to the root of things). Through some serious time with Him, some pulling back the layers, God started rattling the chains the enemy had latched around my ankles. You can be a child of God, saved, hearing from Him...and still chained to what is comfortable. I'm thankful God loves us like He does, but He loves us too much to leave us comfortable. He loves us too much to leave us asleep in the boat. July came...and one word from God, several moments in His presence....and the feet finally unglued from the floor. A simple prayer from 10 years ago was answered....God truly honors when we seek more of Him. He knew what I needed...and His plan always prevails.
I'm thankful for God's perspective. I'm thankful and humbled over the past couple of months. I've watched things that He has revealed in the spiritual take place in the natural. I'm thankful for feet that He unglued from the floor this past summer and for the blinders He continues to remove. I'm thankful for protection that He saw what the enemy had headed in my direction and He stepped in just in time. I'm thankful He loved me too much to leave me in the boat. I'm thankful He knew the calling, the purpose, and the anointing I had planted on the inside and He pushed me to see it through Him. I'm thankful for war moments of intercession where an Almighty Creator stops to listen to this Child of His. I'm thankful for moments period where He listens when I need Him or just want to talk. I'm thankful He fights the battles I can't see, the ones I can see, and the Ones I can't even imagine.I'm thankful for the bumps that He uses for My good. I'm thankful that our steps have been ordered even before we were born and now is the season to walk out the calling He has placed within us. I'm thankful that He saw what I was carrying and made it uncomfortable enough that I gave it up to Him. I'm thankful He loves us not because we are perfect, but because He is. I am nothing without Him. He makes the bumps from the enemy worth the tears and fears.I'm thankful He has already covered every step I'm going to take (even the ones that I shouldn't). I'm thankful for new constant companions of grace, discernment, and freedom. I'm thankful that God orders our steps even when we don't understand it in the moment. He knows the steps that will make us stronger. I'm thankful as the song by Matthew West says..."Grace wins every time" I'm thankful that I can see Him moving each and every day. I'm thankful for the peace that comes when I trust the One who says..."This way child".
You may be reading this and you are in the middle of something....praise Him anyway. If you are a Child of the Most High, He hasn't quit working just because you can't see Him. The enemy wants our Focus because with that we start paying attention to what he is doing and not what God is doing. With our focus comes our attention, and with our attention comes our devotion, and our devotion comes our adoration....are you starting to see how he slips in? Oh sweet reader...protect your focus. The enemy may be attacking, but God is bigger than the attack. He truly fights our battles when we give them to Him and stand still. (Blog in the works). Speak truth and remind the enemy what God has already done for you and what He is doing for you right now. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He didn't work on your yesterday, plan out your tomorrow, to leave you in today. He's right there beside you.
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