Looking for Wisdom and Power?

The last couple of days have been so very nice, weather wise. We’ve hardly turned the heat on and it’s very pleasant this morning. Weird thing is, we’ve been under a winter weather advisory since yesterday. I see no winter weather out my window. I feel no chill yet. But the weather forecaster says the cold is returning, even if temporary. That means we’ll have to turn the heat on again. I’m tired of the roar of the central heat. I’m especially tired of the high electric bills. Last month we used wood heat on the coldest days and still our electric bill was even higher.

We’re thinking it’s time to upgrade our system. You’d think we’d have already done it, but weighing the expense to the savings up till now has made removing the old original system not so money wise. But now with the electric bill soaring every month we think it may be time. It’s a functional thing. Have a huge electric bill every month or pay for a new system. We’ve looked at some units and now Danny will be doing some real research to prepare for the upgrade.

We can’t control the weather. But we can work to make our home as efficient as possible. We can’t keep from preparing for more winter, even though today it feels so wonderful. We’ll have to turn on the thermostat before the day is out and we are prepared.  

God speaks to my heart: Just as you cannot control the weather, you are not in control of the changes in life. You plan, you prepare, you pinch pennies, you watch for signs, but plummeting situations are sure to come into your life. While you can’t control the circumstances of life, you can prepare for the worst of them. Each and every time you face the wintry blasts of life is an opportunity to upgrade your life in Christ. It’s a learning experience for each of my children. While heating and air systems are about function, I AM about relationship. I want you to get closer to Me. I want you to reach out to the Word when things look grim. I AM the one who is calling you back to Me. I will be there for you to guide, direct and oversee. And even though it seems so hard to go through, your bond with Me will grow sweeter and more intimate, surer and more confident.

Oh beloved, now is the time to run to the Lord. Before things get any worse, before your cost rises. Before you think you can’t make it anymore. He is ever ready for your  worst circumstances. They are no big thing to Him for He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He can get you through the worst, He can give you victory in the midst of the fray. He will show Himself to be all you ever needed as you live in the light of His Word. No matter what you have or who you are in the natural, it won’t help to call on your own resources when it all plummets to fear, worry or pain. Only in calling on the Lord can you find a way through the pressures of life. When the news shouts disaster, whether weather, war or famine – you can call on your Savior and He will show Himself to be all you ever needed to start with.

God loves you.  Because Jesus went to the cross you can count on that love forever. God is for you.  Because Jesus faced the enemy and was victorious on your behalf you can count on His watchful care forever.  Stay very close to Him, read His Word, get to know Him more, for it will be in the knowledge of Him that you will be able to triumph over the changing weather of life as you learn to live in the light of His Word.

2 Corinthians 1:3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.

Job 12:13 But true wisdom and power are found in God; counsel and understanding are His.

Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Colossians 2:2-3 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,  in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Your Weakness is His Opportunity to Shine!

I haven’t done much sewing in a lot of years. But I am making Stella a Christmas dress. Am making is a loose term for half of it is cut out and the other half is laying on the table. The sewing machine is yet to be set up and right now it’s just a dream in my mind. I can see how I want it to be, but nothing’s really formed yet. Since “dress up Sunday” is this week-end I have precious little time left to get it all together. I have a backup plan in case my dreams don’t make it to reality but tonight my plan is to get that little sweety’s dress finished.

Christmas is a great time to overload the hours with preparations. It’s that wonderful opportunity to bring out the best in the closets and the best in us. Sometimes, though, when I go through the Christmas decorations I find that somewhere along the way things have gotten broken or ripped or become tattered. It requires fixing, gluing or deciding if it’s going to make it into this year’s adornment. Some things don’t really look worthy to be seen. The worn and not so pretty ornaments remind us of our own not so perfect self. If we’re not careful we’ll look at our less than Martha Stewart holiday preparations and pronounce ourselves unfit for display. The tendency is to want Norman Rockwell to paint us and House Beautiful to highlight us, but life is messy. Most of us want to pull Christmas off without a hitch but imperfection abounds and life happens even while we’re having fun.

We’re not worthy. We’re not capable. We can’t pull this thing called life off without a hitch. We try to sew things up, glue the brokenness and patch the missing pieces but still we find ourselves less than. We’ll try to straighten ourselves up, dust ourselves off, start over again and work harder, do more, and hide the hurts, anguish and pain. But we’re still broken and we need something more than we can produce with our own hands to fix it all. We need someone else to come into our mess and make things right.

God speaks to my heart: Your weakness is My opportunity to showcase my glory. Stop worrying about the 'less thans' and look to Me, for I AM more than. I am more than a Savior, I am your wonderful counselor, your everlasting Father, and the prince of peace. I have come so that you can have life more abundantly than you can produce on your own. I AM the Mighty God. I am your protector, provider and repairer. I specialize in restoring people. I AM capable of taking everything broken, bent out of shape and unfit for sight and making it all new – including you. Look again at the less than perfect décor and let it all remind you that you are My precious child, perfected in Christ. Everything you lack is found in Me. In everything that you are declared unfit in this world I over-stamp with my seal of approval. You are precious in My sight and your days are numbered. But not so that you can worry that you won’t get it all done, but so you can rest in Me while you work. Relax, and know that I AM able to let My light shine through everything you do.

Oh beloved, the weakness you see in yourself is simply a beautiful decoration to show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. If you don’t get it all done, don’t worry for He did! Let yourself enjoy the holidays and the preparation and the giving and whatever else your hand has to do, for His greatest blessing is when you let Him shine His glory through you for the world to see. He loves you and He’s for you and that makes things right all through the years.

2 Corinthians 12:9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Hebrews 11:1-2 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.

John 14:1 Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me.

Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Psalm 57:2 I will cry to God Most High, To God who accomplishes all things for me.

Feeling a little weak? Get Connected!

Danny and I love coffee. He actually loved it before I did. Back when we were first married he drank it every day but I had no desire to even try it. After about 10 years, he finally talked me into it. What I liked about coffee the most was that it gave us time together. We had that in common and drinking coffee together especially in the morning gives us time to visit and discuss the day’s plans and talk together about God’s plans for our day.

We’ve gotten to like coffee so much that we’ve even begun to try gourmet coffees from various countries. We finally bought a more expensive coffee maker so that we could get hotter coffee quicker!

I got up yesterday morning to make coffee and the machine ran through a pot of coffee but when I went to pour a cup I found just colored water and it wasn’t even hot. I was concerned that our newest more expensive maker had already bit the dust. I tried everything. I carried it from plug to plug and yet no power. No light came on and no sizzle could be heard. Quickly, because we have to have our coffee you know, I told Danny something was wrong. He asked me if I’d checked everything and I said I had. But when he came downstairs to check it, he reached to the back and flipped a small switch. I had forgotten all about that switch. Sure enough with the main switch on the machine then lit up and began heating the reservoir so we could have our coffee!

How often do we take our life for granted? We just assume things are going to work well and instantly get things done when we need it. We flip a switch and we’re ready to go. Headlong we enter into every day, enjoying everything we can. We get busy and we start to leave things out. No time for things that are important to our life. We find that we start feeling powerless and the things that once gave us enjoyment don’t seem to be working anymore.

Without taking time to make sure that the power is on we are going to find ourselves disconnected and weak, just like that pot of coffee. We’ll get frustrated, confused and fearful. Where’s the power? Where’s the connection? Why isn’t my life working the way it’s supposed to?

You have a life that is full of wonder and delight. You probably can go on your own steam for the good days – at least we think so don’t we? You and I both, if we admit it, try to make it on our own power when things are going good. We don’t even check the connection we just go on our merry way.

Unfortunately life also has those times when we’re not sure how we’re going to make it. Troubles come in, problems arise and we feel as though we’ve thrown a breaker. We’re powerless and we are frantic. What will we do? Where will we go? Who’s going to fix it for us?

Oh beloved, today before you leave the house , take a moment to make sure the power switch is on. You could run on your own steam temporarily, but it’s much better when you’re connected to the Lord first thing, every day. If the connection has already been established, through the Word and prayer, then when a problem arises you’ll remember the connection and run right to the source of your power. You won’t have to scramble to find out what’s happened, you’ll keep brewing your life of faith even in the hard times.

God promises, because He loves you, that He will give you His wisdom, power and might. He’s always full of His power and always ready to pour out His Word to meet your every need. He’s never confined to the world’s power grid – He is ALL Power! He won’t turn you away, He won’t limit your use and you won’t go away wishing for something else.

God loves you and He’s for you and that’s the power you need to make each day flavorful, robust and fruitful all the days of your life!

Ephesians 6:10 10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

Matthew 22:29 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

1 Corinthians 1:24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Get Recharged and Receive Full Power!

My cell phone is not staying charged. I keep it hooked to a charger most of the time and yet it just never wants to hold full charge. Danny says I use it too much. But with those smart phones there’s so much you can do.  Check facebook, pin to pinterest, text friends,  post photos on instagram, check emails and even talk on it! The grandkids also like to use it to play games. So the battery gets depleted quickly.

Since I can’t seem to keep my battery charged, Danny has bought me a new charger with 2 extra batteries. He figures I at least ought to be able to use the charge of the extra battery to help me get through the day.

Our walk with the Lord is better than a smart phone! There are wonderful things available to us when the Lord changes our life.  The Word tells us we can overcome obstacles, reach out to others, walk in forgiveness, mercy and grace.  It also says we can fight the enemy, live for God and be a victorious warrior in Christ. Best of all, we can talk to the Lord 24/7. Anytime. Anywhere. 

Because we have much available to us in Christ, we have much responsibility to stay connected and full charged. Without a daily connection to the Spirit we lose our power. Without being full charged in the Lord, we will start running on the flesh. When we run in the flesh we get tired, fatigued, cranky, despondant. We lose our motivation and become self-centered. Before long all power seems gone. We wonder what happened. We try to “use” our blessings and find that we’ve hit a “dead zone”. Without the reconnection to God’s power supply we’re useless and frustrated.

Unlike cell phones, which require a physical battery to stay going, we just have to step back into God’s presence and recharge.  We just have to get alone with Him and let Him adjust our spiritual batteries so that He is fully in charge and we are fully recharging in Him.

Oh beloved,  do you feel like you’ve been running on empty? Have you been trying to use the gifts God gave you but they’re not working properly? God knows how busy you are and that everything you do is important. But He’s planned it so that you must spend time with Him and He wants to spend time with you. It‘s His joy and pleasure to recharge you, renew you and give you a fresh boost of faith, joy and peace.  Even if you have to stop and plug in from your busy day, it will be worth it. For the life of faith is impossible without His connection. But a life fully connected to Him, charged to the max – will give you all that you are running around trying to find, trying to do and trying to be.

Stop this morning and let God recharge you beloved. It is the best time you will ever spend in your busy day. It sheds light on your walk, lightens your load and gives you the power to live in the light of His Word! He loves you and He’s for you and that’s why you will always be blessed when He recharges your life.

1 Corinthians 1:30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Colossians 1:10-12 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:5 …so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Psalm 63:2-3 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you!

Psalm 73:26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever.