Loose lips sink relation-ships

The tongue is a small but powerful muscle. The Bible compares the tongue to a small rudder that turns a huge ship in one direction or the other (James 3:4) and to a spark that can start a forest fire (James 3:5). Psychologists say that for every one negative statement or word, a human being needs to hear ten positive statements or words to experience an “optimal range of human functioning.” How true that is. I have noticed that six people can say something great to or about me but the one person that comes along right afterwards and says something really hurtful is the one I think about longer and somehow, in my itty bitty mind it seems to almost overshadow or somehow discount the six positive things. I suppose that could have come from the very negative home environment I grew up in, but I have heard a lot of people express the same idea that this is true in their lives as well.

One word can start a family feud, cause nations to rise up in war, homes to fall apart and friends to cease being friends. James 3:7-8 states that all kinds of creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by man but no man can tame the tongue. Wow. Powerful words indeed. When we use words to tear others down instead of build them up, our tongue is like hot lava on somebody’s very soul…uncontrolled, fierce and very damaging in some cases.

This very topic has been heavy on my heart all week. In these days, which I believe to be the last days, it is actually very refreshing and almost surprising to come across someone who consistently speaks life into people and maintains a positive, loving attitude despite the circumstances around them. It truly touches my heart to hear a great, positive story on the news or in the paper where somebody sacrificed something to do something good for someone else or blessed someone in a big way. I know there are a lot of people who do things like this, it is just not heard about very often. How different would our world be if more positive things were reported by the media instead of so much negative?

When I was 29, God did a major work in my life when he sanctified me. He almost instantly turned me into a very positive, half-glass full, finding the silver lining in most situations kind of girl! That was truly a gift from him that I still cherish to this day! I have faced many difficult valleys since then, but have still managed to be able to find something small, even if trite, good while still in the valleys and especially on the other side of them. I am one of those Murphy’s Laws “disasters;” if something can go wrong, even if there is a 60% chance it won’t, it almost always does! It is just the way things roll in my life. However, I have still chosen to remain positive and try to see the one thing through each of those situations as a blessing or a positive. Or, if someone shows me something they did and it looks pretty much like a disaster, I will pick out the one positive thing about it and say something positive about it. There is almost always something good that can be said about just about anything! (Obviously, there are exceptions, of course).

I love people and I love to watch their faces light up when something little I say to them brightens their day! This past year, I have made it my goal for all of 2014 and on into the future to speak life to as many people as I can each day and to show kindness to someone I don’t even know (and especially to those I do know!) every single day! I am definitely not talking about flattering anyone or falsely building someone up just to say something, but I mean a genuine compliment that comes from my heart or observing something and speaking in accordance to that situation to encourage someone from my heart. I fully believe that this is what God calls us to do as Christians. It is said that “they will know we are Christians by our love.” It can take a five-minute good, positive conversation with someone to change the direction of their entire life! The same can be said of the opposite type of conversation. Everyone has either been fighting a battle, are in the middle of fighting one or soon going to fight a battle. Therefore, it is very fitting for us to speak life into others, especially considering how many negative, abusive people there are out there.  

Because I praise God with my tongue, I do not want to be one who also tears down men with the same tongue, who have been made in His likeness, as James 3:9-10 says. I want my words of praise to be pure before my Lord in heaven and to be pleasing to Him in the way I speak to others. Sometimes it is very hard to do, especially with difficult people in our lives or those who are just plain negative and mean tempered. There are times where I have to pray, “Lord, hold my tongue! Put your hand over my mouth!” and with His help, I am able to do so.

God will bless those who bless others with their mouth and actions! Be blessed today! Remember that we are salt and light to this dark world! J

Yahweh Rophe (Healer)

A little over a year ago, when I was diagnosed with several different moderate to severe spinal problems (I am a little over 40 and have the spine of a 60-year-old) and Multiple Sclerosis, I immediately began to claim healing in Jesus’ name! One of the first things I did was go through the four gospels and re-read about the healing ministry of Jesus when he was here on earth. I compared and contrasted all the healing accounts in all four gospels. There were two common factors between many of the healings that struck me after I read these accounts.

One, Jesus healed based on the person’s faith. Many times, Jesus stated the fact that the person he was about to heal or had just healed had faith, and Jesus acted on that faith by healing the sick, diseased or malformed one. I decided then and there that I too was going to have great faith and believe God for total and complete healing in my body! One of the first times I really put my “healing faith” in action was with my chronic asthma, which I had since childhood but had become much worse and more chronic three years prior to being healed. I went to bed that night after a special healing service at church in which I had been anointed with oil and prayed over for healing and I when woke up the very next day…the wheezing and cough was completely gone! Since then, I have not touched my inhaler or asthma medication and that was about eight months ago! I was fully expecting God to heal it completely, and I even went so far as to not use my inhaler that night before I went to bed. The very next morning, I woke up and I felt like I had received a pair of new lungs overnight! Praise God! This was the first Summer where I did not feel like I was suffocating in the heat, and when I went swimming, I did not feel the normal pressure sensation I felt in my lungs when I was under the water, like they were fully inflated and about to explode like I always had before. My first thought after my first swim asthma-free was, “So this is what it feels like for a person with normal lungs to swim!”

Is the lack of faith keeping you from being healed? Abandon every shred of doubt that you may have when it comes to your healing. NOTHING is too hard for God to heal! I know people who have been healed from cancer and other serious medical conditions and have heard second-hand accounts of some very amazing healing stories from missionaries that almost sound unbelievable (but praise God, nothing is too hard for Him to handle!) I am glad I took that leap of faith, because without it I may still be suffering with asthma. God has also healed many of my spinal problems over a two-year-period. Again, it took complete, unabandoned faith on my part and total trust that He WOULD heal my spine. The difference between the excruciating pain I used to have and the limitations I had because of the pain and now is absolutely amazing! I am still believing for another miracle for healing of my Multiple Sclerosis.

Two, many times Jesus reached out and touched the one He healed or they reached out and touched Him, and received their healing. This tells me that Jesus is a very personal, compassionate, tender healer. All it took was one touch from the woman with the bleeding problem that she suffered with for years and she was instantly healed. There is power in the touch from the divine healer! All He would have had to do was say the word and these people could have been healed, but He chose to touch them instead. Many of these people He touched had diseases and conditions that deemed them untouchable in society. They had to have felt very lonely and rejected until the loving touch from the healer made them well again!

A friend I used to go to church with when I lived up North told me a story about the time when she was in college and she got to know this girl who was really shy and self-conscious. This girl had warts all over her hands and this had caused social problems for her. Nobody wanted to even touch her for fear of somehow catching them. My friend had offered to pray with her, and when she did she took this girl’s hands into hers and held them as they prayed. This young lady, who had not experienced something like this before was very, very touched and began to cry with this simple gesture. My friend told me, “To tell you the truth, I was a little uneasy at first, but I really felt the Lord was telling me to take her hands at that moment, so I did.” She was following Jesus’ example by reaching out in compassion and kindness to someone who really needed it at that moment.

I am very grateful for a compassionate, tender God who touches even the untouchable and besides offering them hope, brings them healing! I am also very grateful for the healing that God has already done in my body because of the faith I put in Him to heal me! It took a period of two years and happened in stages, but I did not lose heart because I had faith that God finishes what He starts and because He started healing me, I was excited to see the healing come to completion.

However, not everyone is healed, and sometimes the process of the disease and how the person handles it is very inspiring to others and brings God more glory than the healing would have brought. Also, God can use illness to grow the person in character and a lot of good can come through the process of dealing with the illness. I am sure there are other reasons that God does not always choose to heal, but our job is to pray for those going through illness/disease, encourage them and believe in faith with them that God will either heal them in His time or that even greater good will be brought out through the process of the illness/disease itself.

I am still believing for healing of my Multiple Sclerosis, even though I continue to get new symptoms that points toward progression of the disease. God may be trying to refine me in the process of the disease and to learn to trust Him in ways I never have had to before. Whether He chooses to heal the MS or not, I will still trust Him and believe that He will do something good through this disease, either in me or in those around me. The important thing is that God uses this experience to glorify His name and to continue tweaking me to be even more like Him. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

When the Fig Tree Doesn't Bud...

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,

Though the Olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stall,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior.”    Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NIV)

 

As I write this, I am discovering what it truly takes to be joyful in God my savior when everything I have worked so hard for may be taken away. I have been searching high and low for a full-time job, or even another part-time job to supplement my other part-time job. It has been a struggle of near epic proportion as I went from 43 hours a week two years ago to 30 hours currently and a significant pay cut on top of that. Of course, this was a blessing in that my health took a turn for the worst at that time and had I continued working the hours and job I was, I would have crashed and burned! Through this, I saw that God gives us what we need and He “has my back,” literally. What we see as a step backward may actually be what God uses to help us in greater ways to get us where we need to be.

I live very simply and frugally. I am not into the latest gadgets nor do I have to have things to make me happy. I buy everything used that I can reasonably buy (some things are not good to buy used, even if the Salvation Army offers it!). J I also learned 15 years ago the futility of trying to “keep up with the Jones’s” and that this was not a healthy way to live, because things do NOT buy true happiness (only Jesus gives true happiness/joy!)

So if I am doing everything right that I can possibly do, and am leaving the rest up to God to do (because I know that He can do far above and beyond what I can do, ask or imagine), why this continuous struggle? Why do I find myself in a position where, five months from now, if God does not do a financial miracle with my employment, I may lose my house (when I am due to lose 2/3 of my house payment)?

God has provided in many, many ways in the last ten years as a single mom. I have seen Him do the “impossible” to provide for me and the boys, even during short periods of unemployment (company lay-offs and a boss who retired). He has come through for me for things as small as a much-needed allergy tablet that fell out of the dryer when I did not have enough money to get more allergy medication and was developing a monster of a sinus/allergy headache (that sometimes turns into migraines!) He also worked out a series of miracles so that I could FINALLY get a very good, reliable and affordable car that was not in the shop constantly as my previous vehicle had been, which, to a single mom, is BIG.

So now that I am facing this big challenge in front of me, why am I so scared? God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, right? I have a whole book filled with times that God has provided again and again and again, so why should this time be different?

God really built my faith through the first five years of my single parenting years by coming through for me, time and time again, for every need that came up. Now that my faith has been built up more solid and unshakable though those experiences, I believe that God is now taking me to a whole new level of faith.

He asked me a very important question a little over a year ago, which was “Do you trust me?” When the Lord asked me that initially, I was taken aback. My faith had really been built up and strengthened as I saw Him provide for and protect me again and again throughout my life, especially since becoming a single mom. At first, I was confused as to why He would ask me that because my faith had been strong and of course, I trusted Him (I had no reason not to trust Him). However, I really began to think about that question. I believe He wanted me to come to the realization that although I did trust Him for most things, could I still trust Him if I lost everything? What if my house burned down and I lost every single thing to my name? Or, what if I lost one or both of my children? Could I still fully trust Him then? At that moment, I honestly did not know if I could to the same degree I normally trust Him so I asked God to give me more faith!

So, even though I find myself in this very difficult situation where everything I know may have to change and I may have to start completely over again, I find myself praying that same thing again a year later….Lord, give me MORE faith to believe that you will not stop providing for me and my kids now! Not only more faith, I want more joy in these situations as well! I know that there will still be times and days where I doubt and feel afraid and even maybe a little anxious, but I have to remind myself, in faith, to “cast my anxieties on Him, for He cares for me.” And, if I do lose my current house, which I consider to be one of the biggest blessings He has given me, then He has something else for me. Although I cannot see any way possible that this will work out in my puny, finite mind, I have to believe that God is preparing something behind the scenes for me as I write this and I just need to wait a little bit longer for it to come together.

Sister, brother, stay strong in Him! Know that even though you too may find yourself in a situation similar to this, God is faithful to those who love Him. He promises to provide our basic needs when we do our part (ie. We cannot sit at home and refuse to work or search for work and expect Him to hand us everything). Your olive branches, fig trees and grapes may be withered to nothing at the moment, as mine are. However, I can say that at least in my situation, things usually get worse right before God steps in at the last minute and turns things completely around as He says, “My child, what were you fretting about? I have you covered.”

I hope we are going to be okay. No, I think we are going to be okay. No, wait…we are GOING to be okay.  

Portions based on Chapter 7, Starting Over With a Promise in Job 8, in “Struck Down, But Not Destroyed.”