"Gray Skies"
We are full into the Christmas season, with all of it's shopping, wrappying, writting and entertaining. We are also full into winter. Although I enjoy the Christmas season, I do not enjoy the cold of Chicago. Perhaps this is why the Lord gave me this picture...
Picture…I was driving to church on autopilot, which is obviously not a good thing. I don’t really know where my mind was, probably off solving some type of problem when the sun suddenly broke through the clouds on the horizon to recapture my attention. The cloud backdrop helped to showcase the rays of the sun as they illuminated the earth. It was so beautiful…it was absolutely breathtaking. It was a marvelous display of God’s splendor and His Grace. I said out loud, “Ah, there you are God.” I think without realizing it, the gray skies and road, the brown and dead looking trees and grass had me focusing on my problems. I really don’t like winter in Chicago. It’s so cold and barren, especially when there is not snow. It looks so dead and bleak. Unintentionally, I had allowed my dismal surroundings to direct my thoughts to the negative. But God, in His marvelous grace, allowed the sun to shine down for a moment, making me aware of His presence. In the midst of all that was gray, brown and lifeless, He made His presence known.
Hear…the Lord say, “Just as I broke through the clouds for you, I am going to break through the darkness in my children’s lives. I am going to break through like the morning sun. I am going to radiate through the gloom, despair, despondency, hopelessness, discouragement, frustration and anguish to touch them with new life.”
Consider: I really do not know what you are going through at this present moment. But I do know that God wants to bring new life to you and to your situation. He is not going wave His magic wand and zap your life to change it, any more than the scenery changed while I was driving. I wasn’t suddenly transported to Hawaii or anywhere with flowering trees and gentle warm breezes. I was still looking at the same dead grass, dead trees, and dirty streets. It’s just that the light broke through for a moment and then was gone. Everything still looked dreary, but there was awareness, and with that awareness, everything had changed. What God wants you to do right now is stop and examine your thinking. Upon what have you been focusing? He wants to illuminate the landscape of your personal self talk right now. I don’t want you to take offense with His next words, but He said, “Some of my children have some stinkin’ thinkin’ going on. “ Does it shock you that God is so plain? He really doesn’t speak 16th Century English you know. He uses phrases that we understand and will capture our attention. In this case I know when I have stinkin’ thinkin’ and that is when I focus my thoughts on my problems, the negative stuff that is going on around me, the difficulties that have hit me head on, what I don’t have, what “so-and-so” has said and what “so-and-so” did or didn’t do. That’s stinkin’ thinkin’. What He wants you and I to do right now is to stop and become aware of His presence in the midst of all that is going wrong and then to allow that awareness to begin changing our thoughts. It’s not the landscape that needs to change. Chicago in the winter is Chicago in the winter. It’s our thoughts that need to change. I’m not advocating that you and I get ourselves some rose-colored glasses, or learn how to be an ostrich and ignore what is happening around us. But I do believe that we need to be more careful in monitoring our thoughts so that we can track where they are leading us. If they are taking us down a path that will only lead to further harm, we need to recognize the source of those kinds of thoughts and refuse them outright. The enemy cannot force you to do anything…he merely suggests. It is your job to resist those suggestions that come camouflaged as your own thoughts.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor 10:4-5 NIV
Remember, the battleground is our minds. God wants to break through in your thought life. He wants you to develop an awareness of His presence in the midst of all that is confusing and frustrating. God wants you to be aware that He is right there beside you, so you will shift your thinking to focus on Him rather than people and circumstances. God is with you right now to break through your time of sorrow, gloom, sadness, defeat, frustration, pain, or whatever has overshadowed your day, week or year. God’s presence is with you, and He wants to touch you, revive you, change you, and help you.
Pray: “Lord thank you for breaking through my gloomy negative thoughts today to make me aware that you are in this with me. You have not sent me out and said, “Go, have a good time.” You are with me, walking through every difficulty and every victory. I am not alone. This awareness of your presence has the ability to break the pattern of my thoughts so that they can shift back to you. It is not my circumstances that make like so unbearable at times…it is how I am thinking during those times. Thank you for reminding me. Help me to monitor my thoughts for any stinkin’ thinkin’ that may be going on. Make me aware of your presence so that your light can shine into the dark recesses of my mind to my thought patterns. I love you. I love being with you. I love hearing your voice. There is nothing better in this whole world.”
posted by pastorc @ 3:25 PM
2 Comments:
timely.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
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