Inspirations

Trials!  this year has been a year full of them.    Relationship struggles have me feeling "anxty" and wondering how I ended up in this place of uncertainty. Do not even get me started about the whole COVID virus  that has us in lockdown and wondering where that train will end. add to that an election year where both candidates act like children,   and you have a very stressful year.   Sometimes in all the craziness, I am not sure If I am coming or going. I can lose hope and begin to feel overwhelmed. I am thankful that in every trial, God is there holding my hand,  encouraging me and helping to go on  and remain strong in the midst of the fiery ordeals of life.  I am thankful that in the trials,  I can be sure that God is working to make me more like him.

From  sunrise  to sunset, let the  Lord ’s name be praised! Psalms 113:3  One thing that I completely enjoy is a sunrise or sunset. It is a visual reminder that I serve the God who paints the morning with  the breath of his mouth. Sunrises remind me that, no matter how bad yesterday was, no matter how bad I think I've blown it, I can start over and try again. Sunsets remind me that I survived. On hard days, as I watch the sunset, I can crawl into bed close my eyes, and whisper "I made through this day and that's enough." On good days, I can enjoy it with an overflowing cup.

  For me, Sundays have always been special.   It's a day to rest and take a break, sure. But it is so much more.  It's a day to get our focus back on God. Let's face it, this world has a way of getting our focus on anything but our Lord. We get focused on our job, our families, our health, our finances, or lack thereof. Suddenly that is all we see. We need Sundays to get our focus back on the one who is greater than the problems we have. We need Sundays to regroup and recenter our thoughts on the one who loves us most.

 In the Storm In the storm when the waves are crashing in...        you are still God and you know what's best In the storm when all is dark and the sun hides...      e ven then you are still in control. In the storm when the thunder roars...     I hear your still small voice and I listen to you In the storm when when cold winds howl...     you tell me to have no fear and I trust you In the storm when everything around me is shifting...     I am anchored to you and I am safe. Even in the storm when I am torn and broken ...     you remind me that I am loved by you. In the middle of the storm when my soul is shattered...     you do the unexpected and come to me and I am comforted

I love to walk.   One of my favorite places to walk  takes me past a creek not more than a quarter-mile from my house.   The other day, I as was walking,  I decided to stop and sit by the creek.   I crossed the bridge and followed an old dirt path down to the creek. I found a flat rock big enough to sit on  and listened to the water running over the rocks in the creek.   The sound is so soothing and relaxing.   I sat sitting and skipping stones and meditating.    Finally, I decided to continue with my walk.   As I stood to leave and started walking back down the path,   the sound of the creek grew fainter  the farther I walked until by the time I was back on the sidewalk,  it was barely audible.   As I was thinking about this and how sound works,  I was reminded that, in our walk with the Lord,  the closer we are to God the better we can hear his voice. ...

  Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.   Galatians 3:6 In our society credit is common. Everyone has one or two or ten credit cards. Most of us know how they work or are supposed to work. A bank allows you to buy things and pay for them later. Ideally, later is sometime during that month. There is, however, another meaning for credit that we don't think about. A while back, I was reading my emails and there was one from my bank. It said, "you have a credit added to your account." I was excited. Why? Because some money I did not have was added to my account. I was reminded of the verse,    Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." When Abraham believed what God said,  God somehow added righteousness to Abraham. Abraham did not have righteousness but God added it to him. It is a lovely reminder that though I am not righteous on my own when I believe what God says, God adds righteousness to my life as w...

  It seems that in our society today, there is such a push to redefine laws.    Murder is wrong, but abortion is okay. It seems as though people, in general, want to make the laws say what they would like it to say. It can be very frustrating.  In all of the ado about defining laws and making other things okay that are not okay, I am happy to report that there are still ten laws that God wrote. They can not be changed or rewritten. God gave us ten moral laws that can never be changed.   They are from old and yet we all have problems just following those ten laws. We can try to adjust them or make his laws say what we want, but we can't. No matter how we try to change them, they are as solid as the physical laws like gravity.   Physical laws cannot be easily altered without consequences.   If I decide that I do not want to obey gravity and jump from a ten-story building, Gravity will show up and remind me that it is still the law unless a...