picturesfromheaven

It's just about Christmas and I'm still not done with the shopping, wrapping, entertaining, writing, cleaning, and all of the "stuff" that is necessary, or rather, seems necessary to celebrate Christmas in America. My husband and I took off for about 9 days in the peak preparation time to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful get away with hubby but it seriously put me behind schedule. I have my mother coming into town from Detroit, my daughter-in-law's mother and sister are already here from Mexico City, my other son, his fiance' and two 60 pound dogs are coming in from California, my daughter has a horrible sinus infection...I received some disquieting news from the doctors...okay...I'll stop the list. I'm sure yours is just as long and elaborate. My main problem is that I have been focusing so much on what needs to be done, that I've neglected my alone time with God. I hate that. I have no words to describe how much I hate that. Yet, here I've done it again. Gotten so caught up on the doing, that I've had no time, energy or interest in just being...being with God. Yuck...I just hate being a Martha when I was created to be a Mary. I've been wearing my hair shirt about it the last day or two and have been whipping myself with my invisible whip. Have you ever been there and done that? But do you know what God hates? He hates me hating. He hates me being so down on myself that I cannot perceive His presence and receive His mercy. I think that's the reason for this picture. It helped me refocus my attention from my failures to HIS presence and provision. I hope that it helps you too.

Picture…some people who looked like homeless and beggars standing in the back of the room. A man in a gorgeous, ceremonial robe came up to the group and told them to come forward for they were the guests of honor. They responded emphatically, “NO! No way! There is no way that we are the guests of honor. We are not dressed. We are not ready. We’re not going up there.“ But there was one beggar who looked into the man’s face to judge his sincerity. The beggar must have found what he was looking for because he reached out and took his hand. The man drew him out of the group of beggars and led him forward. At the front of the room stood a beautiful throne. The beggar hesitated slightly when the beggars from the back of the room shouted out warnings that the throne was not for one such as he. He looked at the throne and then his own clothes while he thought about the choices before him. Then he shook his head as if to refuse their words and purposefully approached the throne. The moment he sat down the beggar was transformed. His countenance glowed and his clothing became radiant.”

Hear…the Lord say, “You are my guest of honor. You are not a last minute addition to the guest list. I did not call you so that you would stand in the background like a beggar. I do not call spectators, but participants of my glory. You have purpose, and today I spread a banquet of possibilities before you. If you will respond to my invitation, if you will step up to my purposes I will transform you and renew your hope, strength and mind. Do not worry about yourself, or what you are bringing to the table. Just come. Step up to the purposes for which I have called you. You are my guest of honor.”

Consider: There are some Christians that have no self-esteem issues whatsoever. They are well adjusted and well balanced. They know the purposes for which they were created and they are happy to fulfill them. They are at peace, and they are a pure joy to be around. But most of the Christians that I have known have had one type of self-esteem issue or another. That is because they are focusing their attention on themselves, their strengths or more often their weaknesses. They just can’t imagine that God holds them in high regard. After all, there have been so many failures, so many missed opportunities. But today I want you to know that it really isn’t about you. It is about the God of all power and might, who became a man to give his life as a perfect man so that you really don’t have to be perfect. Yes, we strive towards perfection, but that day will actually not come until we stand before God on His throne. Until then we do our best, make a few mistakes along the way, apply the power of Christ’s blood to those failures through repentance and then keep on doing what we know to do. We focus our attention on Christ’s righteousness and power. God loves you. God believes in you. God thinks that you are the greatest. You are His guest of honor today at a banquet prepared just for you. There are too many wonders there to be listed. But know this, beating yourself on the chest and saying how awful you are is not biblical humility. It is a mutated form of pride because it is all about self. True humility acknowledges that everything we have, everything that we are, everything that we are able to do is because of HIM.

Pray: “Lord, you are such an awesome and wonderful God that sometimes it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea that you could love and honor me. Thank you so much for loving me like that and taking the time to remind me of that fact. I know that I fail and make some pretty big mistakes but your Blood covers each and every one of them when I repent. That’s it. That’s all I have to do. You’ve done all the work. You gave your precious, sinless blood to cover my sins. Thank you for dying in my place. Thank you for removing each and every failure for which I’ve repented completely off the record. Thank you for loving me, saving me, giving me gifts and for talking to my heart today. Thank you for all of the wonderful gifts that you have spread before me at your banquet. Thank you for making me your guest of honor. This is all too amazing for words. You are too wonderful for words. In Jesus Name, Amen.”

"Tis' the season to be jolly," or so they say. From what have I observed recently it is more of a season for over eating, over spending and over doing in every area. If I were to write the song, I think the lyrics would be, "Tis' the season to be stressed." But it doesn't have to be that way friends. We don't have to work so hard at having the "perfect Christmas" that we are perfectly miserable in the process. The only ones who truly seem to be enjoying themselves are the children. So maybe it is time for us to be like a little child, not just in our approach to the holidays but in our approach to life. Please read these word pictures and think about it...and pray about it. Ask God how you can simplify your life to make it reflect the peace of the first Christmas season during the month of December and into 2008. Send me your "God Ideas" and I will post them on the next blog. Be blessed and be at peace...

Picture…The Lord gave me three different pictures involving children. The first one was of two little children walking through the woods. The picture looks more like a cartoon than an actual movie. The bare branches of the trees are hanging down almost reaching towards the earth with what appears to be goblins laying in wait. It was dark and menacing, but the two children had a lantern they used to light their way through intimidating darkness. Surprisingly, they acted like there was nothing at all with which to be concerned. They were smiling and joking, and nearly skipping along the worn path through the trees. And I asked the Lord, “Don’t they know that there is danger lurking in the darkness and the enemy is ready to attack them?” The Lord said simply, “Watch.” Sure enough, something did leap down from the trees towards the children, but an invisible protective shield stopped it. The children were in a shielding bubble of God’s grace and protection. It was evident that nothing could harm them.

Hear…the Lord say, “If you will stop looking at the difficulties, problems, struggles and even the apparent dangers in your life and focus on my light, I am going to give you sweet peace. I will protect you from all that is ’out there. It is all about your focus. Do you want to continue to focus on your struggles or do you want to focus on me. ”

Picture…the second picture was of a little girl in the midst of a violent nightmare. But the child is not alone. Upon hearing the child’s first frightened cries, the father had come into the room and was trying to comfort her. The father tried to pull the little girl into his arms, but she just kept struggling. When the little girl finally awakened and recognized that it was her dad holding her, she began to settle down and was eventually able to drift off into a peaceful sleep.

Hear…the Lord say, “Child you are struggling and fighting against various situations and people. What I want you to do is just rest in my arms. The situations are simply an illusion, something that is here now and will be gone later. I am your reality. Stop struggling, and allow me to just hold you. Everything else is just going to pass away and this situation is going to shift; it is going to change. The people are even going to be removed from your life. But if you keep your focus on these transitory things, you are going to miss the reality of my presence comforting and holding you.”

Picture…the last picture was of a child standing on a ledge and the father was down below reaching up with outstretched arms, and the little boy just leaped. Then His father said, “Come on,” he just leaped, no fear or turmoil about whether or not he would be caught. He didn’t struggle with, “Will he catch me? Will he not?” There was no struggle whatsoever; just total abandonment with giggles and outright laughter. The pair was obviously having a great time.

Hear…the Lord say, “You keep asking, ‘Is this you God or not? Is this going to work or not? Should I try this? Should I try that? I just don’t know if God is in this or not.” If you will just stop with all this mess and trust me, you and I are going to have a great time together. But you’ll have to stop struggling with worries. You have to trust me to catch you. Follow my directives with absolute abandon knowing that I would never let you fall.”

Consider: You and I need to fling ourselves with absolute abandon into the arms of our heavenly Father today. We need to step out in faith and just do whatever He asks of us. We need to trust Him. We need to rest in His arms. We absolutely must stop fretting about everything. Worrying is a behavior pattern; a behavioral trap that we keep allowing ourselves to get caught in. Maybe occasionally, we need to think of ourselves as God’s little children, and just throw ourselves into His arms. Allow God to take care of all the “bogey monsters” while you rest in sweet peace in the shelter of His arms. It’s surprisingly hard to do. The only way that I know how to do it is through prayer. So reach up and allow your Daddy to pick you up as you pray.

Pray: “Daddy, I am reaching out right now so that you can wrap your loving arms around me and hold me. I’m giving all of this nasty, scary stuff to you, so that you can deal with it. I just want to center my attention on you right now. I want to rest in shelter of your loving embrace. So I trust you with the stuff. I trust you with my family. I trust you with my finances. I trust you with my life. I believe that you are going to take care of everything on my behalf. I love you daddy. I let go of all of the circumstances into your care. I let go of all of the troubles that have been perplexing me. You deal with them. You take care of them. I’m taking my hands off right now. I am not going to struggle with this any longer. ” Would you just talk to Him as your Heavenly Father right now, using your own words? Just express your love and dependence on Him. Show Him that you are aware that He is there right beside you He is going to take care of everything.”