When I really think about it, all my life I have been blessed. My childhood was good; we didn’t have much, probably considered poor by some. But we were never hungry, clothes may not have been expensive but we were always clean. Our basic needs were met. My father was a pastor so we attended church every Sunday. I was taught if you went to church, obeyed the commandments, and was a good person, you would not have any problems. So I was good. I never messed with drugs or broke the law. I married young but if I’m to be honest I was blessed even then, I was never abused or mistreated in any way. In spite of us being young we raised an awesome son and even when the marriage ended, when it came to our son, we were together. Our son never gave us any problems. I had been self-employed since the age of seventeen. And any job I did work, I excelled. I’m not saying life didn’t happen but when it did, it always worked out for me. I was never sick. I always helped anybody I could. It sounds like I’m bragging, right? I’m not. It’s the truth. The problem here is that I believed I was blessed because I was good.

So when the storms came and they just kept coming until I found myself in the wilderness, I wanted to know why this was happening to me. I was good. And not like before, nothing I did could get myself out. Things just kept getting worse. I was sick, could not work and eventually lost everything I owned. So I was mad, yes mad at God. I was good. I went to church every Sunday. I helped people. Oh yes, I alternated from being angry to depressed. I did a lot of talking with God. It took a while but God showed me how wrong I was. It was in the wilderness that I really began to understand about God’s mercy and grace. Jesus speaks a parable where two men went into the temple to pray; one of them thanked God that he was not like other men who did bad things, he talked about how he followed the law, in other words how good he was. The other man who did not look up because he believed he was unworthy, he asked God for mercy because he was a sinner. Jesus said it was this man who was justified because he did not praise himself and he was humble. (Luke 18:9-14). Before the wilderness I was like the first man. All those years I thought I deserved his goodness when the reality is I am not worthy. Because of Jesus, everyone gets the same mercy and grace, the good, the bad and the ugly. It is a gift. It is not what we do or how good we are. Grace is God’s unmerited favor and it goes beyond mercy. Mercy is God not giving us the punishment that we deserve for our sins. I thank God for showing me favor, grace and mercy most of my life. I thank Him for the wilderness because it was there that I received a renewed understanding of His love. Sometimes with people we feel if we don’t say or do the right things, or we don’t behave the way they want us to they may not love us. Before the wilderness that is how I thought it was with God. I still strive every day to be good. The difference is now it is not so I can receive God’s mercy and grace. That is a gift that God being God gives to whomever he pleases, whether they are good or bad. God knows nobody is perfect, and he knows we have all fallen short of his glory. I strive to be good not so God will love me, God loves us unconditionally. I do it because he has been so good to me and I love HIM. Please read and study today’s scriptures in Food For The Soul. God’s Word can explain it much better than I can.

Our role is to simply love God and each other. The Lord our God’s role is to save us and give us a purpose that extends beyond our small vision of the world. I’m not perfect, I am flawed, we all are. However as we follow Jesus daily, He transforms us while using us to encourage others as we share His love and truth. My desire is to be obedient and follow God’s will for my life. It’s not always easy, sometimes He will take us out of our comfort zone or we will lose people from our lives. That is why it is important to stay close to Him and His Word. The Word protects us, gives us peace, and also gives us a weapon to fight the enemy with. The enemy hates it when we say, as Jesus did, “It is written”.

We all want to be happy, but sometimes trying to find happiness can be a struggle. We search for happiness in all the wrong places or ways. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we find the right man/woman, when we finish school, or once we go back to school, when we get that dream house or car, when we get married, after we are divorced, once we lose 10 pounds, once we gain 10 pounds, when we have a baby, when the kids leave home, when we go on vacation or better yet when we retire. I could go on and on about how we tell ourselves life will be complete after or when. The truth is true happiness is a gift from God. Accept it and you will find there is no better time to be happy than right now! I’ll share with you one of my favorite quotes;

                                  Happiness is a Journey, Not a Destination.

For a long time it seemed to me

That Life Was About To Begin-Real Life.

But There Was Always Some Obstacle In The

Way, Something To Be Gotten Through

First, Some Unfinished Business,

Time Still To Be Served, A Debt To Be Paid.

At Last It Dawned On Me That These

Obstacles Were My Life.

This Perspective Has Helped Me

To See There Is No Way To Happiness.

HAPPINESS IS THE WAY.

So Treasure Every Moment

You Have And Remember that

Time Waits For No One.

Alfred d. Souza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love Bible study, each time I study the Word, there is new revelations. I’m sure you have heard “God will never give me more than I can handle.” It sounds good but the Bible does not teach that. Some use 1 Corinthians 10:13 to back up this “Christian teaching.” But is that what Paul meant when he wrote: “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear?” If you read the full passage 1-13, and put it in context, the topic is temptation and being prepared to resist it. Paul encouraged believers in Corinth to practice strict spiritual discipline as he did. Paul elaborates on what we should do instead of giving into temptation and falling into sin. The real promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13 is that God will never allow us to be tempted to sin beyond what we can resist. God always gives us a way out, a choice. So does God give us more than we can handle? Yes he does. Paul also wrote 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 and Paul explains that God allowed him and allows us to experience trials and difficulties, grief and pain, and sometimes more than we can bear. Why? So that we will rely on God and not on our own strength and power. When we are unable to deliver ourselves, God is able. When we are unable to stand up under the pressure, it will be God’s strength in us that allows us to stand. God does not promise that He will never give us more than we can handle. God promises that He will hold out His hand and tell us to lean on Him. I don’t know about you but I like that promise better because I know I cannot lean onto my own understanding or strength. Don’t take my word for it, click on “Food for the Soul” and see what God’s Word says.

I woke up this morning feeling pain. My first thought was thank you Lord that I can feel. So I spoke it out loud. Then I rolled over Lupus, Fibro, and RA and got out of bed. I am growing. What you think and do really affects the way you feel, spiritually and scientifically it has been proven! My name is not what I have been diagnosed with, my name is Curleen. I am a child of God. My Father says I can have what I say. Therefore I say; I have eternal and abundant life. I walk in complete and total health, prosperity and wholeness. Disorder and confusion are bound from me and my steps, thoughts, and words are ordered of the Lord. I am calm and full of peace. I have the spirit of boldness and follow God not man. The Holy Spirit and angels are with me and order things in my life for good. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and victory is mine! That is what I say. What do you say?

I look at my life in chapters, for example my life before my mother’s stroke and my life as her caregiver after the stroke. Looking back I know God sustained me even then, but that is not the chapter I want to talk about now. I want to talk about my life after my wilderness experience. I came out of the wilderness a better person. One of the blessings I have now that I did not have before and during the wilderness is peace. This peace I have now I would not trade for anything. It has changed my life. I believe the secret of peace is our relationship with Jesus Christ. To trust in Jesus is peace. This peace goes beyond logic and understanding. I had heard that before and now I am experiencing it. It is an awesome feeling! You have that inner confidence that God is in control. Things like sickness, financial difficulties, or danger may be present, but peace reassures you that God holds our life in His hands and we can trust things will work together for good. My prayer for everyone today is that as the apostle Paul said, “May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.”

Sometimes the battle is in our mind. It doesn’t matter what emotional battles we face, when we tap into the wisdom of the Word of God and power into the Holy Spirit, we are guaranteed to win! We do not have to be victims of emotional outrage, jealousy, hate, pride, to name a few. None of these things are of Christ. We are more than conquerors because of Christ’s great love for us. God wants us to conquer our emotional issues. If we wallow in the anger or depression, we miss out on the gift that we have been created to be. We have to be committed to being the best you that you can be. God needs us to be a living testimony of joy and peace when the world is falling apart. We have to realize that our life is not about us; our life is about serving God and revealing HIS character to the world.

 

The Bible gives us the way of salvation. You will not get through your Christian walk of faith without studying the Bible. Studying the scriptures will help you with everyday life and temptations with sin. Everything you need in life is in God’s Word. The Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see and accept and appreciate the salvation. Christians grow in grace as they read and study the Bible. They accept by faith and by reason, the truth of its teachings about God, man, sin, and the Savior. Our hope should come from God, not from people or our circumstances. I am thankful for God’s Word which helps me maneuver through this journey called life.

We have opportunities before us to live our lives as women with freedom, independence and strength. If telling my story helps one woman, then I am thankful to God for allowing me to tell it. I cannot limit the Holy Spirit by deciding who or who may not need a word from God. We are to send God’s word into lives by faith, and trust the Holy Spirit to do the teaching and imparting. We are as fisherman; we throw the rod out but let God reel them in. The Lord promised to put His laws in our minds and write them on our hearts. We as believers know His requirements and feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit when we fail to meet them. God said all shall know him, from the least to the greatest. I am so thankful that I know him.

I shared with you on yesterday how God watched over me while I drove my car for over a year with rotten tires. It is so amazing how one moment you are in the wilderness and you see no way out, and then finally, you give in. You don’t give up but you give in to God. And that is when God began to deliver and restore me from the wilderness. I began to trust God and worry less. So when I received notice it was time to renew my tags and pay car taxes, I didn’t worry. Even though to do that it had to pass inspection and I didn’t have money for tags, taxes or inspection. I needed a little over seven hundred dollars to make that happen. I had none of it. But what I did have, what I received during my time in the wilderness was peace and knowledge of God’s Word. He said he would take care of my needs; and he had kept that car with the rotten tires for over a year and me safe in it. I had no doubt that he would work it out. So I prayed about it and trusted Him to fix it. It’s called faith. Being in the wilderness increased my faith.

It rained the following weekend so I did not go out until Monday morning. The first thing I saw was this wet paper stuck under my wipers. I removed it and two notes had been left there. I could barely read them they were so wet. Someone had hit my car backing out. I had to look really hard to see the small dent and scratch on the passenger side. Those who know me no I’m not into cars so it was no big deal to me. I was impressed that this person had left not one but two notes! I called to thank them for letting me know (some would not have). This lady wanted my information for her insurance company. In a couple of days the adjuster came out to look at the car. I’m thinking, ok, it’s not going to be much for this little damage. The adjuster said I would receive a check that week. The amount would be seven hundred and something (don’t remember the change amount). I’m not kidding when I say my mouth opened and tears came to my eyes. The adjuster kept asking me what’s wrong and I told her that was the exact amount I needed. I told her my car story and we both cried and praised God, yes right there in my parking lot! When I received that check and me and my car went to handle business, believe me I had no problem telling anybody that would listen, God gave me this money and this is what I got to work with! Some laughed and some probably thought I was crazy. All I know is that when we seek God’s presence and request him to intervene in our situation; we can trust that he will. I believe in miracles!  (Mark 11:24)