Stolen Joy

When my son was about two years old, I was a single mother. We lived in a small apartment in the corner of our building which was approximately 10 steps from the laundry room for the complex. I felt very lucky that I did not have to walk a mile hauling heavy hampers and baskets like everyone else, but still adhered to the rule posted in the laundry room: “Do not leave your laundry unattended.”
 

One evening I came home exhausted as I had worked late to try and earn some overtime, and everything we owned was dirty. I quickly gathered some of my work clothes, some towels, and the brand new clothes I had just purchased for my rapidly growing toddler, and the two of us walked the short distance to the laundry room to do the wash. We played and sang and did everything I knew to do to entertain a toddler until the clothes were ready to go in the dryer, and then my little helper showed me what a big boy he was by helping Mommy move the clothes over to the dryer.

By the time the dry cycle started, however, my son was over the adventure of the laundry room, and began to whine and cry and say that he was hungry. I knew that the rules told me I was supposed to watch my laundry the entire time it was in the laundry room, but the whiny, impatient toddler tugging on my hand was making it hard to think logically. I was sure the clothes would need to tumble for at least 25 minutes to be completely dry, and since our apartment was only a few steps away, I decided to take him home to eat and  return before the cycle was over. 

We hurriedly walked the 10 steps to the apartment, I cooked the fastest grilled cheese sandwich I had ever made, and sat at the table encouraging my son to hurry and finish so we could go get his “Pooh shirt” out of the dryer. He finished in record time, and we ran back over the laundry room, basket in hand to get our clothes.

However , when I walked in the laundry room, the door to the dryer our clothes had been in was open, and the clothes were not inside. Panicked, I looked all over the laundry room; on the tables, in the washers, under the counters, all to no avail. Someone had snuck in while my eyes were not on my clothes, and had stolen them from me. My stomach sank and tears of anger and fear rolled from my eyes as we walked back to the apartment, wondering how I would afford to replace the things that had been stolen from me. I was livid! How dare someone come and take my things! What gave them the right? Why would they think it was OK?

When I got home I did what any young mom would do when she doesn’t know what else to do-I called MY mom. She listened as I vented and ranted and raved about how unfair it was, and how I couldn’t believe that someone had the nerve to take what belonged to me, and how if I saw someone wearing my clothes I was going to raise a stink right then and there. After I calmed down and stopped yelling, my mother calmly and quietly asked me “Tiffany, are you sure that you are not at fault in this, too? You saw the sign that said not to leave your things unattended. You knew the rules and chose to take your eyes off of your belongings anyway. What happened to you is unfair, but it is at least partly your fault.”

As I considered her wise (if unwelcome at the time) words, I realized that she was right. I had ALLOWED those thieves to steal my things, because I chose not to follow the rules. I left what belonged to me unattended and, as a result, it was taken from me because I created the opportunity for the perpetrator to do so.

How often have we said that a person, trial or situation has “stolen our joy”. We claim that our illness, financial situation, spiritual battle, family conflict, marital problem etc. is so big that we just can’t feel any joy while we are in the middle of the storm. It’s not our fault-the Enemy crept in and stole our joy out from under us and there was nothing we can do about it.

I have been guilty of this as well. I blame my bad mood or sadness on my husband’s pain level that day, or the fact that I had a stressful day at work, or the fact that, once again, we failed to become pregnant. I get bogged down in the day to day trials and tribulations I am facing, and can’t imagine feeling anything but defeated.

Can we just be real for a minute, Sisters? The Enemy can’t steal our joy unless we LET him.

You see, just like I created the opportunity for the thief to take my laundry when I didn’t follow the rules and keep my eye on it, we create the opportunity for THE Thief to steal our joy when we forget the rules and take our eyes off of God.  No matter how big our problems may seem, if we keep our focus on the Lord and what He has done for us, we can hold onto joy in any trial.

King David knew this, and wrote in Psalm 16:8 “I keep my eyes ALWAYS on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken”. (emphasis mine).

God has promised us that no matter what we are going through, He will NEVER leave us or forsake us. (Joshua 1:5)

He tells us that if we will submit our lives to him and resist the temptations of the Enemy, even the temptation to give up and give in to defeat, that the Enemy has no choice but to flee from us. (James 4:7)

Maybe most encouragingly, He tells us that we don’t have to find joy in our own meager strength, that we can find it by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. (Romans 15:13).

In James chapter one, God even tells us to "consider it all joy" when we go through trials and temptations. (James 1:2). I know that when I first read that verse, I was at a loss at to how in the world I was supposed to find joy in the middle of my trials. Sorrow? Yes. Depression? Sure. Defeat? Absolutely. Joy was the furthest thing from my mind and heart. What reason could I possibly have for considering the storm I was in “all joy"? The next two verses go on to explain:

“Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:3-4)

If we never had to face trials and temptations, we would never have to fully depend on the Lord to sustain us. We would never have the opportunity to find the greatest of all joy that only comes from seeing God answer our prayers and work in our lives.

By keeping our eyes on God in the midst of our trials, and allowing Him to work in us and through us, we can have unspeakable joy, knowing that we are depending on Him and HIS strength, not ours. If we never take our eyes off  Him, and abide by what we know He expects us of , there is no opportunity for the Thief to come in and steal our joy. If that isn’t something to be joyful about, I don’t know what is.

Dear Father,

Lord, forgive me for allowing my trials and tribulations to make me take my eyes off of You. Help me to remember that joy is a gift from you You, Father, and that as long as I remember the “rules” in Your Word, and keep my focus firmly on you, the Enemy will not be able to take it from me. Help me to be vigilant, Lord, and to guard my heart and thoughts against negativity and defeat. Thank you for loving me, and for your promise to never leave nor forsake those who love you. In the mighty Name of Jesus, Amen.

Are You There God? It's me, Tiffany.

Can I confess something, just between us girlfriends? Lately, I have felt, as Natalie Grant's song "I Will Not Be Moved" so beautifully puts it, "my prayers feel like they're bouncing off the sky." Does anybody relate? 

My husband has a debilitating nerve condition called RSD that causes him to be in intense pain all the time. I have worn out my knees praying for him to be healed, to not be in pain, to be able to fulfill his dream of being a pastor, to no avail. Granted, there are days that are better than others, and God has opened doors for medical treatment that has given him extended periods of relief from his pain, but there has been no sudden, miraculous healing. Today has been an especially bad day, as cold days often are for people with RSD, and as a wife it is devastatingly painful to watch someone you love so much suffer and be completely helpless to stop it.

As if that isn't enough, James and I have been trying to have another child for the past 8 years. We have taken all the fertility meds, tried medical intervention, and, most of all, have prayed, fasted and pleaded with God to bless us with a child while everyone around us (well, it SEEMS like everyone) just keeps popping up pregnant without even trying.

It would be so easy for me to get mad at God, to feel like "He's not even listening-what is the point in praying?" Or "If God REALLY loved me and cared about my life, He would have answered this prayer by now". I know in my heart that I am not alone in feeling this way.

Praise God for His love letter to us, the Bible. He speaks to brokenhearted, frustrated, fed up women like us through His living Word. 

First of all, God tells us in several places that HE knows the plans He has for us, even if we don't. I know I have used it before, but Jeremiah 29:11 is probably my favorite verse in all of God's Word. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."(NIV). I love the way The Message puts it; "I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for." 

We may think "Ok God, but why can't Your plans match mine?" In Isaiah 55:9 God tells us "“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."(NIV) Basically, God is telling us " I am God, and you are not. I have already seen how your story ends, and I am not going to change the plot in any way that is less than than the best I have planned for you." Kind of like when we tell our kids no, and when they ask  "WHY?" our mothers' words come pouring out of our mouths before we know what happened- "I'm the Mommy, that's why." Only in God's case, it would be "I'm The Daddy, that's why." 

I think that sometimes as Christians this is how we feel about prayer: that if we ask God for something, He will automatically give it to us because we are His and we asked.   In her book Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl, Lysa Terkeurst addresses this. She writes, "It was like God was a vending machine. I put in what was required, and then He was supposed to give me what rule-following-people deserved. As long as I kept up my end of the deal, God would bless me." Later in the book she describes how her baby sister fell very ill as an infant and she began praying to God to heal her, promising to be good, to go to church more, to pray more etc. etc. (Sound familiar?) In the end, her baby sister died and Lysa writes this about how she felt " My flawed ideas of God would only let me love Him when He did good things...He heard my cries. He watched me promise her everything would be okay as I sang her those lullabies. He saw her pain. And He just let her die? I could not sort through this and find anything that made sense."

Boy can I relate. My husband gave his life to God and surrendered to the ministry and the preaching of the gospel. Shouldn't that have earned him enough points to be healed from his pain so he could live out his calling? I sing in the choir, have taught Sunday school, worked with the youth and answered God's call to write this blog. My husband and I have suffered the heartbreak of a miscarriage, failed fertility treatments, and a failed adoption so don't I deserve to have my prayers for a child answered? 

The very next verse after my favorite one, Jeremiah 29:12 is the verse that changed Lysa's heart and speaks to my personal hurt. It promises "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you." It doesn't say "Then you will come pray to me and I will give you whatever you want." It simply promises that no matter how much we feel that our prayers hit the ozone layer and burn up before they get to Heaven, God hears us-EVERY time. Our prayers are precious to God. There is a beautiful picture in Revelation 5:8 which is a scene from the throne room of the Lord where we are told that each of the 24 elders were before the throne of God holding gold bowls which were " full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." Does that amaze and encourage you like it did me? Our prayers are fragrant to God like incense, and go straight to His throne. 

So sweet sisters, what you and I have to do is follow the instructions of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19. " Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." No problem right?  (that was sarcasm, in case it didn't translate well in print.)  Thank goodness God promises us that his strength is made perfect in our weakness. So pray on girlfriends, and I will pray for all of you, too. Would you do the same for me? 

Father, please forgive me for doubting that You hear me when I cry out to you. Please help me to praise you when things look bleak and to trust that you have a reason for every blessing you bestow or withhold. Let me look to you each day and thank you for what I have instead of mourning for what I don't. Reveal your plans for me so I can serve you more. I love you Lord, in the mighty Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Quality Time

James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”

My thirteen year old son Derek and I had a “date” last weekend. We had dinner at a local burger joint and laughed and talked about school, his friends, church, baseball etc., and then we went to see a 3D movie. I had not seen a 3D movie since 1980 something (remember the cheap red and blue cellophane glasses?) so my son took great pleasure in watching my reaction to the new and oh-so-much-cooler world of 3D. We had the best time, and I realized how much I have missed just hanging out with him, and how much I treasure our time together. We used to go on “dates” all the time when he was younger, but as he has gotten older and busier, they have become more scarce. Now that he is a teenager he has friends, sports, band, video games, Facebook, etc. that keep him busy and monopolize his time. Dates with Mom have fallen to the bottom of the priority list, and I really miss that time with him.

This got me thinking that God probably feels the same way about the time we spend with Him. He loves us more than we could ever imagine, even more than we love our  kids. He desires for us to spend quality time talking to Him, praising Him, singing to Him, and listening to what He has to say to us, both through His Word, and through the still, small voice of The Holy Spirit. Just like our kids, however, we are busy, probably even more so. We have our jobs, housework, shuffling the kids from baseball practice to band practice to church, grocery shopping, volunteer work, Facebook,  e-mail, television, etc., etc. etc.  We are so busy with life, that we don’t make time for the Source of Life in our day. If you are anything like me, at some point in time you have probably said “I just don’t have time anywhere else in the day, so I will get up an hour early and spend my quiet time with God.” If you are really like me, you laid out your Bible and prayer journal, set that alarm for 5:00 am, ready to get up and “get your praise on” , only to jump out of bed panicking at 6:30 because you hit snooze repeatedly in your sleep. ( I didn’t earn the title “Snooze Alarm Queen” for nothing.)

Time with God is vital  to our Christian walk. If we don’t spend time with God and feed on His Word, we become weak and vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. God promises us that if we seek Him we will find him. Jeremiah 29:12-13 says “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart”. (emphasis mine) ALL of our hearts. He doesn’t want what we have leftover at the end of the day. He doesn’t want us to seek Him half-heartedly because we feel obligated to. Would it be any fun for you to spend time with your child if they were only doing it because you forced them to, or because they felt guilty about not hanging out with you? I know I wouldn’t. Odds are you would end up spending the evening with a sullen, pouty, one syllable spouting teenager.  You want your kids to spend time with you because they love you with all their hearts and want to spend time with you. It’s the same for God and us. He created us to love and seek and find Him, and wants a relationship with us. Why else would he sacrifice His son on the cross for our sins  so He could be with us forever? Just as our verse for the day says, if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us, and in following His will for us to spend quality time with Him, we will receive the blessing of His presence. 2 Chronicles 15:2 says “…The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”

I challenge you this week (and myself too) to make spending time with God a priority. Find something in your day that is not spiritually beneficial that you can cut out, and give that time to God. Start your day an hour earlier or end it an hour later.  I promise you God will not return it to you empty. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6.

Father, please forgive me for not making time with you a priority. Just as I desire a close relationship and time with my son, I know you desire the same thing from me, and I ask God that you would reveal to me the things that are hindrances to me, Lord, and help me to eliminate those things so that I may devote the time and passion to seeking you that you deserve and expect. Thank you for your blessings, Father. In the precious Name of Jesus, Amen.

Strong Enough

I needed this song today. Maybe some of you do too.

"Strong Enough" by Matthew West

You must

You must think I'm strong

To give me what I'm going through
Well, forgive me

Forgive me if I'm wrong

But this looks like more than I can do

On my own
I know I'm not strong enough to be everything that I'm supposed to be

I give up

 I'm not strong enough

Hands of mercy won't you cover me

Lord right now I'm asking you to be

Strong enough

Strong enough

For the both of us

Well, maybe

Maybe that's the point

To reach the point of giving up
Cause when I'm finally

Finally at rock bottom

Well, that's when I start looking up

And reaching out
I know I'm not strong enough to be

Everything that I'm supposed to be

I give up I'm not strong enough

Hands of mercy won't you cover me

Lord right now I'm asking you to be

Strong enough

Strong enough

Cause I'm broken

Down to nothing

But I'm still holding on to the one thing

You are God and you are strong

When I am weak

I can do all things

Through Christ who gives me strength

And I don't have to be

Strong enough

Strong enough
I can do all things

Through Christ who gives me strength

And I don't have to be

Strong enough

Strong enough
Oh, yeah

I know I'm not strong enough to be

Everything that I'm supposed to be

I give upI'm not strong enough

Hands of mercy won't you cover me

Lord right now I'm asking you to be

Strong enough

Strong enough

Strong enough

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil 4:13

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."2 Corinthians 12:9-10 



 

Dropsies

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:11-12

I am a klutz.

According to my mother, I have always been one. In fact, her favorite joke is "You inherited my grace, baby." (of course, she means lack thereof.)

At least once a day I will run into some stationary object, such as the corner of the bed post, doorway, dining table, etc. I trip over thresholds, sleeping Boxers, the floor, you name it. (Although I am convinced the floor has a vendetta against me and reaches up to trip me regularly.) My fellow grocery shoppers probably get a great laugh out of me running into helpless Hostess snack or Coca Cola displays with my shopping cart. Oh, and don't even get me started on spilling things. Like my coffee. On my keyboard. Just now.

The days I hate the most, however, are the days when I have what my Memaw used to call "The Dropsies". Those are the days when everything I pick up seems to have a death wish and jumps out of my hands. I had one of those days this past Saturday, dropping the same pen cap five times, my cell phone at least twice and the remote control hard enough that it had to be reprogrammed. Not to mention, my perfectly cut up apple pieces, right onto the kitchen floor, ruining them.( In a house with two dogs, two cats and a teenage boy, the "The Five Second Rule" does not exist.) Needless to say, my frustration grew with every slipping object to the point that I just wanted to sit down and not move for the rest of the day to avoid harming myself or any other helpless objects. I felt like I just could not do anything right.

As I sat there, safe on my couch, I started thinking about another kind of "Dropsy" days we have as Christians.

I am talking about those days when you wake up feeling happy and blessed, have your coffee and quiet time, and head out to take on the world, determined to live for God and be an example to others. You drive to work, singing along to your praise and worship music, filled with joy and peace, feeling blessed and strong enough to handle anything.

Then, life happens, and in spite of your best efforts, you end the day feeling defeated by all the things we "dropped" that day.

You just couldn't help but listen to the office gossip and express your disgust at what so and so said or did. When the boss gives you an assignment that will take at least two days and expects it by 5:00 pm, you slip and say a bad word out of frustration. When the cute new guy in the office smiles at you in a way that says much more than he is glad you are co-workers, you allow yourself to smile back and feel flattered by the fact that he noticed you, which causes you to feel guilty and angry with yourself. By the time work is over and you drive home, your level of frustration and weariness causes you to yell at your husband because the garbage hasn't been taken out instead of kissing him hello, and push your kids away when they want to tell you all about their day at school. By the time you crawl in bed that night, you wonder how God could ever forgive you for the way you behaved that day, and how you will ever overcome the never ending "dropsies". Can anyone else relate?

The reality is, Sister, that we all go through these things. We live in a fallen world with a real enemy, Satan, who "prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour". (I Peter 5:8, NIV). He knows that if he can make you feel defeated and worthless, then he can prevent you from telling others about Jesus, and maybe even make you fall away from God yourself. It's hard, scary, real stuff.

The good news is, God loves you, no matter how many times you "drop" things in a day. He knows that we are imperfect children and that we are going to mess up, just like we know our own kids will. More importantly, though, just like there is nothing our children could ever do to make us stop loving them, there is nothing that you or I or any of God's children could ever do to make Him turn His back on us. The Psalmist puts it beautifully in this passage:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14 NIV)

God knows that we are weak and frail, and He knows that because He made us. That is why His son had to come to earth in the form of a human, weak, frail and tempted, just like we are, to be a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus paid the price for all the things that you and I screw up with daily, so that we don't have to feel unworthy and defeated. You see, sweet sister, if we have placed our faith in Christ and trusted him as savior, the "Dropsies" don't matter. In Romans 8:1, God's word tell us "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (emphasis mine). If God doesn't condemn us, what right do we have to condemn ourselves?

So, the next time you have a "Dropsie" day, don't beat yourself up. Stop, pray and ask God to help you pick everything back up, and start over again tomorrow. He will be faithful to answer.

Perception vs Truth

"No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you." Joshua 1:5

 

I have a travel coffee cup with the Serenity Prayer on it that my husband bought me several years ago that I love to use. It is the kind that was a clear plastic cup that a printed piece of cardboard was inserted into to create the design. At some point, the cup was washed in the dishwasher, and the cardboard became dingy, streaked and stained. When I left for work yesterday, I was trying to decide which cup to use, and saw it sitting there in the cabinet-dirty, stained, not nearly as pretty as I had remembered it once was. My first instinct was to reach for the shiny silver mug next to it, but a thought stopped me. Just because the cup wasn't as pretty as it was when I got it, the message it held was just as true as when it was shiny and new.

How many times in our walk as Christians do we treat our faith and relationship with God like that cup? When the sun is shining, all of our loved ones are healthy and happy, our bank accounts are full, our jobs are going well, our children are doing well, etc., we praise God. We thank him for our blessings and tell everyone about how good God is. We quote Jeremiah 29:11 to our friends who are struggling and tell them that God has a plan for whatever they are going through and tell them we will be praying for them. We treat our relationship with God as a prized, shiny possession.

However, when the clouds roll in, a loved one becomes ill, we have financial struggles, trouble at work, problems with our children, etc., we start to treat God like a dirty cup. Our faith in Him doesn't seem as shiny and beautiful as it once was, and we doubt the truth of what His Word says. We wonder how He could allow such hardships to come our way when just yesterday life was shiny and perfect. We struggle to see that His truth has not changed, just OUR perception of it.

God's word tells us that He is always with us (Joshua 1:5) and commands us to fear nothing because he goes everywhere with us (Joshua 1:9). His love is unfailing and His promises are true.

So just remember, that even when it isn't pretty to keep the faith, believe God and follow after Him, HE hasn't changed-just our perception of Him due to our temporary circumstances. Pray and ask Him to remind you of that, and to allow you to see His beauty in the midst of your storm.

At the doctor's office?

^" By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35.)

Working in a doctor's office, while very rewarding most days, can make you very jaded towards people if you are not careful. Most of our patient population is made up of wonderful, hardworking, family oriented people who just want to get their medicine and get well so they can get on with their daily business. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I love my job.

Then, there are the other one percent. These are patients that have figured out the exact right words to say to get whatever drug they have decided they need that day and are very unhappy when they figure out that they are not going to get it. Unfortunately, the ravages of a life led in that manner are immediately recognizable in a person's appearance, and I am ashamed to admit that I sometimes judge people and categorize them by the way they look. Most of the time, my perceptions are correct, but every now and then I am blessedly proven wrong. 

Such was the case about 2 months ago. A very slight, very nervous woman came into the clinic, obviously in distress. She was very tiny, maybe ninety eight pounds, and time had not been kind to her. Her face was very drawn and she appeared at least fifteen years older than the date of birth on her chart.  She moved in a very jerky manner, seemingly unable to control her facial movements and spoke in broken sentences in between tears and groans. I braced myself, expecting her to tell me that she needed some sort of narcotic medication for whatever ailment was causing her jerky movements and facial contortions.

Instead, she explained to me that her husband had passed away the month prior and that she had been unable to eat, sleep, or even function since he had passed. She tearfully told me that she just needed something to help her cope because she could not handle the grief she was dealing with anymore.

I immediately felt about two inches tall for pre-judging her.  I spoke quietly and gently to her, expressing my sympathy for her loss, and ushered her into the exam room. Before closing the door, I noticed a small, silver cross hanging around her neck.

As I closed the door and headed back towards the nurses station to enter her information into the computer, I felt that familiar tug at my heart that I have come to recognize as the Holy Spirit saying to me "Ask her if you can pray with her. "

I quickly charted her information and walked back into the exam room and asked her if she was a Christian. She told me that yes, she had been, but that she had fallen away from church in the past few years. I then asked her if I could pray with here. Immediately,  what could only be described as relief crossed her tearstained, pain-filled face as she exclaimed "YES! Please." I took her hands in mine and began to pray for her. She collapsed on my chest and cried on my scrub top as I asked God to give her comfort, to let her know He was there with her in the midst of her pain and that if she would cry out to Him for help He would answer her and shower her with His love. The more I prayed the harder she cried and I began to tear up too. Finally, I said Amen, sat the sobbing woman gently down in a chair in the exam room to wait for the doctor and excused myself to go wipe my own eyes and regain my composure.

I am blessed to work for a wonderful Christian doctor whose R.N. is a pastor's wife, and I told them about what the woman I had prayed with was going through. When they went in they prayed and counseled with her too. By the time it was time for me let her go home the woman was just sitting in a chair, quietly weeping and saying over and over again "At the doctor's office? Who would have thought it-at the doctor's office? Praise the Lord."

That sentence stuck with me-"At the doctor's office?" It immediately touched me and made me wonder, how many times have I missed an opportunity to share God's love with someone? He places us in the communities we live in, the churches we attend and the places we work so that we can be His hands and feet to the world. How many people had I just written off as having an agenda and not tried to see if there was something I could do for them, a prayer that I could say for them?  The sentence really should be "Why NOT at the doctor's office?" or "Why NOT at the bank, school, fast food restaurant..?" etc. Why should there be ANY place where people don't encounter God through us?  In the book of John, Christ tells us “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35.)  We are to delcare ourselves to the world as Christ's disciples by our love for those around us.

The woman left and tearfully thanked us, assuring us that she would continue praying. She walked out the doors of the clinic and I hoped that what we had said would stick with her.

I had almost forgotten about the fragile grieving widow until last week when we received a card from her the mail. Inside the card were these beautiful words:

"I came into your clinic seeking medication to help me deal with the grief of losing my husband.  What I recieved was so much better than any pill. I receieved a spiritual healing that I am still in awe of to this day." 

Amen sweet sister. God obviously orchestrated the woman's visit to our clinic that day because He knew her soul needed healing as much as her body did. What a tragedy it would have been had we not answered the call the show His love to her.  I pray that I will always have my eyes open to see the need for God's love and comfort in the people around me. How about you?

Dear Father, Please forgive me for all the missed opportunities to share Your love with  the lost and hurting. Lord, please help me to be bold in the future to share Your love and Your truth with those who need You most God.  Let me be known as Yours by my love. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.