Just Ran into a Door...

I’m sure we have all had those times in our lives, when we think we have it all figured out. When you’re 2, 13, 18, 21, 25, 40, 45, etc., we all go through stages where we think we have it all together. I will be the first to admit I just had one of those moments in my life, where yet again I thought I had everything under control and then my expectations were unmet. I thought God was telling me to go through a certain door, and felt like the door wasn’t even open in the first place and ran right into it! (Yes, I have ran right into a door before LOL...see pic below. ) Maybe my ears were plugged and I just didn’t hear God calling me to stop my pursuit, or maybe I was getting the directions confused…okay who am I kidding…I was opening a door that I wanted open and clearly I wanted through it. Although I do think that God is calling me in that direction, I think I took matters in my own hands and fought all the way through it until I came running full impact into the door.

If I wouldn’t have pursued it, would I have prevented myself from being hurt in the end? Maybe, but at the same time I learned some valuable lessons that I may not have learned or experienced if I hadn’t pursued it. I will be honest, I truly felt in my heart that this door was open, but I also felt the door close a lot sooner before I stopped pursuing it. Does this mean we should go after what “we want” in life? No, absolutely not! I do believe that God gives us the desires of our hearts, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

There is a part of that verse that I miss sometimes. The beginning, where it says to “delight yourself in the Lord”. Sometimes I don’t do a very good job of delighting in the Lord. What areas do you need to delight in the Lord more? Is it your daily walk? Is it a struggling relationship? A bad habit? Busyness? What do you need to do to change how you delight in the Lord? There are several things in my own life I know need changed and as I read God’s word I try to implement what it says into my daily life.

The truth of the matter is, God’s timing is perfect! Whether we soar graciously through the open door, or break our noses trying to plow it open, God knows what He is doing. He sees the bigger picture. When we embrace expectations that are faith based, we no longer allow the chances for them to become unmet expectations. When we have unmet expectations that when we allow hurt to affect us emotionally, spiritually, and physically. But what are faith based expectations and how do we get them? – Go to the WORD!!!

"We ask less of this life because we know full well that more is coming in the next. The art of living with suffering is just the art of readjusting our expectations in the here and the now." -- Joni Eareckson

Isaiah 26:3- At that time, this song will be sung in the country of Judah:

We have a strong city, Salvation City, 
   built and fortified with salvation.
Throw wide the gates 
   so good and true people can enter.
People with their minds set on you, 
   you keep completely whole,
Steady on their feet, 
   because they keep at it and don't quit.
Depend on God and keep at it 
   because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.
Those who lived high and mighty 
   he knocked off their high horse.
He used the city built on the hill 
   as fill for the marshes.
All the exploited and outcast peoples 

   build their lives on the reclaimed land.

Philippians 1:19 - So how am I to respond? I've decided that I really don't care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!

   And I'm going to keep that celebration going because I know how it's going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don't expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn't shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose.

Psalm 62:11 – od said this once and for all; 

      how many times 
   Have I heard it repeated? 
      "Strength comes 

   Straight from God."

Hebrews 13:5 – Don't be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, "I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you," we can boldly quote, 

   God is there, ready to help; 
   I'm fearless no matter what. 

   Who or what can get to me?

These are some great passages to read about expectations and how to develop our own faith based expectations. This week evaluate what your expectations are, and how you can revise them to be faith-based! I have a lot of evaluating to do this week, what about you? Here is a good place to start...

Philippians 4:6-7- Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Have faith based expectations and stop running into doors!!!! 

(Yes, that would be me in the red shirt, holding my face...and that would be my friend Tyler as she rolled on the floor laughing. And my friend Tammie who took the pic, probably had a hard time taking the picture because she was laughing hysterically too! 

Creaking Rusty Gate

These last couple of days, I went to the shelf and picked up my Message version of the Bible to do my devotions and I found a passage that is one probably most of you know, but I just love the way The Message portrays it and the imagery that goes with it! J

  

 ¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. ^3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. 

   Love never gives up. 
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 
   Puts up with anything, 
   Trusts God always, 
   Always looks for the best, 
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.

 ^8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

 ¹²We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

 ¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Can you guess what passage this is?

1 Corinthians 13:1-10, 12-13…It’s the way of love! Don’t you just love this passage? J

Have you ever stumbled upon one of those tags that says “One Size Fits All”? The same goes for Christ’s love; One Love Fits ALL! How many times in your life do you speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy, yet recognize the creaking? I creak one to many times for my liking (<- that does not look like a real word…LOL ), but see where I lack in love and compassion and the areas where I can grow. We won’t see things clearly sometimes, that’s because we are indeed human, but our time is coming shortly! God is molding us and crafting us to be the women of God that He intended us to be, and we won’t reach perfect eloquent speech and angelic ecstasy until that day. Yet, we still strive towards the goal.  

Philippians 3:14 says, “I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the GOAL, where God is BECKONING us onward – to Jesus. I’m off and RUNNING, and I’m NOT TURNING BACK.”

Where is Christ reaching out to you and where do you need to reach back? Where are you running, and are you looking to turn back? If you are not reaching…REACH! If you are not running…RUN! And if you think you might turn back…DON’T! Press onward toward the goal, knowing that in Christ your running with a purpose! Make that your Christian apologetic (your discipline of defending your position of faith)…that Christ poured out His blood for you, and has saved you through this act of mercy! That He cares and loves you, and that you are going to accept that with all your being, and live in such a way that pleases HIM and impacts HIS Kingdom! For this very moment in your life, is the time, and every moment after is the time to claim Jesus as your own, and make Him famous…NO APOLOGIES!!! And NO MORE CREAKY RUSTY GATES!!! His love fits all and so should ours!