Author: Jacquelin Stoner

Jacqui is a writer, teacher, life coach, and an encourager. She walks alongside of individuals who need help navigating to the better place God has envisioned for their lives. She has discovered that God is central to genuine lasting life change.

LISTENING IN THE DARK

Friendly faces just weren’t popping up on our radar.  Life was hard. 

We had moved to Illinois for my husband to attend graduate school.  The Mid-West was in the midst of a drought and the landscape was a uniform brown as the summer sun scorched the earth.  It was a hard time of change. While Bill went to school, I supported our family by holding down two jobs.

THE LESSONS I LEARNED IN THE DARK

Bill was the one officially attending classes, but God enrolled me in His own school. I think my curriculum was harder than Bill’s. The lessons I learned weren’t from the church we attended – that congregation was going through internal struggles. Spiritual and emotional wounds bloodied the aisles of the sanctuary. The lessons weren’t from the school where I taught – they were going through a time of turmoil. The lessons I learned were in the dark, before dawn. I could not sleep, so I took long walks around town.

LIFE WAS HARD

I was desperately homesick, lonely, and longing for some continuity of life.  My heart was broken. Life was rough. The support system and affirmations I had previously known were in the dust. Friendly faces just weren’t popping up on our radar.  Life was hard. 

SHAKEN TO THE CORE

After the first year, things turned especially brutal at the school where I taught.  The administrator had made some awful life choices and they surrounded him like a black cloud.  He took his troubles out on the staff. I remember one “coaching session” in which he berated me for 45 minutes straight.  The teaching skills I had previously had confidence in were ridiculed. I was shaken to the core.

WHAT I FOUND IN THE SILENCE

It was during that dark night of my soul when I learned to pray.  No more formula prayers for me.  No quick and easy fixes.  My prayer life took place during very long walks in which I would pour out my heart to God. Finally, finally I began to quiet down and listen to God.  The part of me which previously had life pretty much under control ceased to exist. There was only God in the silence. 

THE JEALOUS LOVE OF GOD

Ruth Haley Barton refers to “the jealous love of God.” She writes in Sacred Rhythms, “As long as we continue to reduce prayer to occasional piety we keep running away from the mystery of God’s jealous love.” When I didn’t feel like anyone else wanted me, God jealously loved me and desired my companionship. That was unfathomable.  I felt worthless, yet the God of the Universe wanted to talk to me in the dark at 5 AM? 

MY STUBBORN HEART

God had His work more than cut out.  My cold stubborn heart had to (as I personalize Barton’s writing) “let God’s creative love touch the most hidden places of my being and …to listen with attentive, undivided heart to the inner movement of the Spirit of Jesus, even when that Spirit was leading me to places I would rather not go.”  I was not in control of our finances, my work, our family, or my church.  I was locked out and didn’t know the way back in. 

GOD WANTED TO BUILD

I began to let God pry my fingers off those things I had previously treasured.  I begged God for what He alone wanted to transpire in my life, as hard and painful as it was. He had leveled all my previous comforts.  God wanted to build my life in a new and closer way. 

THE SIDEWALK PRAYER

It was in Illinois I learned what I call my “Sidewalk Prayer”: “Lord, I choose to trust You.” I repeated this over every crack in the sidewalk, every step in the dark.  I had no answers and couldn’t find words to express my distress. As Barton says, “We come to Him with empty hands and empty heart, having no agenda.  Half the time we don’t even know what we need; we just come with a sense of our own spiritual poverty.”  I dumped all of it, every awful shaming moment of it all, and came to the cross as an impoverished sinner.  “Lord, I choose to trust You.”  It was in the gloom of the hours before dawn when I learned to listen to the God Who sees in the dark.

THE POWER GRABBER

He ruled us with an iron fist and it was his way or the highway in all things

Having “Little Hitler” as a nickname is no compliment, yet that is what our immature hearts called our teacher behind his back.  He ruled us with an iron fist and it was his way or the highway in all things.  Though the guy was small in stature, he was rather scary.  In my time at that Christian school, I never evidenced a moment where he personally displayed to me the character of Christ illustrated in Philippians 2:5-8. 

WHAT I THOUGHT LEADERSHIP WAS

If I could have seen that, it would have been pivotal.  Instead, I mentally packed Little Hitler into my heart’s baggage which was already filled with encounters with off-kilter power figures.  Through his example, and the life stories of others, I thought that Christian leadership was all about one’s own agenda and how to could push one’s desires on to others.  How wrong I was!

NO SELFISH GRASPING OF CONTROL

In opposition is the example of Christ in Philippians 2.  There were no hidden agendas with Him, no power plays, no selfish grasping of control.  He had no desire for advancement or promotion.  All this was fully displayed in the life of One Who had 12 legions of angels at His disposal. A legion was pretty impressive because it was composed of between 4,000 and 6,000 soldiers. Christ could have obliterated the religious Pharisees and His Roman persecutors. 

WHAT HE CHOSE

Instead, He chose every day to invest His life into students who often did not get along with each other and misinterpreted or ignored His words.  He patiently put one foot in front of the other, carefully only listening to His Father’s voice for direction.  So many were curious about the One Who they thought would be their political savior and the answer to all their selfish desires. 

HUMBLING ONESELF

Jesus is the only One I know Who would choose to climb out of His own agony on the cross in order to reach out to save yet one more (Luke 23:32-43).  That’s what humbling oneself is all about.

THE CRUCIAL DECISION

So, the question arises:  how are your personal agendas working out?  Have you made it your life’s work to straighten others out?  To give them a piece of your mind?  To take your demands for justice into your own hands?  Or have you handed your personal desires over to God? Have you decided, no matter what, you will humble yourself before the One you love best, and quietly and obediently go about the Father’s business in all things?  This decision can drastically alter your life’s path and your perception of your journey here on earth. 

Are you continuing in the footsteps of the little dictators on earth?  Is that how you want to be known? If I could have seen a godly character transformation in the behavior of my teacher, it would have drastically impacted my life. I would have wanted to follow his example in my own life.  I ask you, are you the one that displays the character of Christ in all things, or are you the one who goosesteps, following the example of a power grabber?  It’s a choice.

KEEP KNOCKING

It is easy to presume that asking, seeking, or approaching that door to knock upon it is a waste of time. But God is not this way

It was a winter day when Bill made the trip to my parents’ home. His intention was to ask my dad for his daughter’s hand in marriage. I didn’t travel along for the ride. Bill was beyond nervous. A quick synopsis of the conversation is that interchange with my parents quickly went down the tubes. Dad (LaVerne) gave Bill a resounding “No!” LaVerne didn’t even want to discuss the possibility of marriage. He blocked that conversation with a barricade higher than the Berlin Wall.

What if instead, LaVerne had said to Bill: “Let me think this through and process this.  I love you both dearly and would love to see how we could work this out.” Bill would have left my house a great deal happier, seeing hope.  That’s what open doors do; they provide pathways to light.  Walls do not. Bill almost stopped knocking after his exchange with LaVerne.

In contrast to Bill’s experience, God has given to His children an incredible promise in Matthew 7:7-11 that has to do with coming before out Heavenly Father with requests. Notice the repeated words: “keep on.” Keep on asking, seeking and knocking. God, the Creator of the Universe, actually wants to hear from us over and over again. He doesn’t get bored with us, or consider it an inconvenience. However, “It is easy to presume that asking, seeking, or approaching that door to knock upon it is a waste of time. But God is not this way.” God has built a door and wants to open it for us.

This doesn’t mean that God is a spiritual genie. There are no magical words. Nowhere does it say, “Name it and claim it and the jackpot will appear”. God the Giver is good and not the author of some half-baked scheme of our own making. Because He is God, He is the One who gets to define what is good—not us! (Read the Book of Job or Hebrews 11:32-38 to give you a much clearer view on that.) God always has our best interests at heart. He is all-knowing and will only give us things that are good for us. His door is made for opening with goodness waiting for us.

This knocking is for the unskilled, just like us. If we are truthful, we all fit in with what Charles Spurgeon termed, “the ignorant and short witted”. Sometimes I’m not even sure regarding what I am praying for and how it fits into God’s plan, but I keep knocking. “The point seems to be that it doesn’t matter whether you find God immediately close at hand, almost touchable with his nearness, or hard to see. Even with barriers between, He will hear, and He will give good things to you because you looked to Him and not another.”

I praise God that my husband persisted and finally gained my father’s permission to marry.  But better yet, due to a lot of asking, seeking and knocking in prayer before our Heavenly Father, this marriage has lasted almost 50 years. Piper writes, “It is a great mercy to us and to the world that we do not get all we ask.” I asked for Prince Charming and got something much better, my Bill.  God knew what was best from the very beginning (regardless of what LaVerne thought).

AN ABUNDANCE OF LOVE

It’s hard for me to believe that I don’t have to consider God as lacking anything in His toolbox of love and care.

I was blessed to grow up with food, clothing, education and housing.  Both my parents were exceptionally hard workers (I learned my work ethic from them).  However, over the years I have tried to make sense of the emotional silence which permeated our home. Love was hard to come by in our emotional desert.

LOSING A MOTHER

Recently I read John Eldredge’s book: Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times.  A paragraph brought light on spot in my heart which I have always failed to understand: “Losing a mother, never having a mother, or living with a mother who in many ways could not offer the mothering we needed is simply devastating.” My mother fit that last category.  Emotionally damaged in many ways, it was not possible for her to offer the kind of love we children needed.  She didn’t purposely choose to be that way; it just was.

MOTHER DESOLATION

Thinking this through, I have begun to understand that as an adult very often my reactions to life has demonstrated I lacked the “assurance of abundance” as a child. Eldredge writes: “Are my actions and emotions proving that I received utter assurance that my needs matter, and that they will be met, and met joyfully? You could call this the category of “mother wounds,” but I think a far more accurate description is mother desolation. The soul is meant to receive profound nourishment from our mother—physically and emotionally, nourishment in absolute abundance. When it doesn’t, the soul experiences a famine of the most serious kind.”

THE FAMINE EXPERIENCE

That famine experience has carried over to my relationship with my heavenly Father. I ask Him: “Do my needs matter? Will You meet them joyfully?” I find that God’s love is far different than my famine experience. 

NEVER FORGOTTEN!

What does His love look like? God is unable to forget us. “Even if mothers were to forget, I could never forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15) Burn these words into your heart: “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close” (Psalm 27:10). Contrary to all those childhood experiences, God is NEVER going to forget me.  God will never push me away. 

GOD’S TOOLBOX

“Mother desolation” is part of my bio.  My mother died years ago and it took years for me to forgive her for lacking the qualities that were never in her toolbox as a parent.  It’s hard for me to believe that I don’t have to consider God as lacking anything in His toolbox of love and care. God WANTS to carry me in His arms, to hold me, to converse with me, to attach with me. 

A NEW ATTACHMENT

I don’t understand such attachment and have trouble trusting it.  God is working on that. He offers to mother us — to come and heal our souls here, in this essential place. Eldredge writes, “God yearns to bring us the assurance of abundance.” God wants to deeply attach to us. “Salvation is a new attachment, the soul’s loving bond to our loving God.”

ALWAYS ROOM FOR YOU

Maybe as you walk through 2024, you may want to rethink the quality of your attachment to God. Try attaching to God in 2024. He always has room for you. There is an abundance of love.

GOD’S GOOD PLANS

The patients were wheeled into a room where they waited and waited. No teacher arrived.  Someone said, “I guess we have to cancel; we don’t have a preacher.” 

Did you ever question God’s timing? My friend, Margie, recently passed out and was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. After a week in the hospital, she was transported to a rehab facility.  When she was finally released, Margie shared with me her best moment in her recovery.

WE DON’T HAVE A PREACHER

At the nursing home/rehab facility there was supposed to be an afternoon Bible Study.  The patients were wheeled into a room where they waited and waited some more. No teacher arrived.  Finally, someone said, “I guess we have to cancel; we don’t have a preacher.”  Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Margie piped up and said, “I can do it.” She proceeded to not only share how she came to Christ (which had been during the Advent season many years ago) but also shared with them the real message of hope in Jesus Christ. Many of her fellow patients were living the holidays warehoused and forgotten.

GOD HAD OTHER PLANS

God maneuvered the dynamics in that meeting room so Margie could tell them about eternal hope possible through Jesus Christ. Margie’s gameplan for December had not been to have her life disrupted by the hospital stay and then the rehab facility, but God had other plans and they were good.

PLAYING THE LONG GAME

I have not always appreciated the fact that God “takes actions in the present with the aim of yielding desired results in the future”. That’s what it means when people reference God “playing the long game”. God played the long game with Margie. God’s brilliant half-time show was to get Margie in to share with the patients in the rehab unit.

HE WAS BATTLING GOD

Matthew 21-18 introduces us to a mass murderer, King Herod. He was responsible for the deaths of his wife, 3 sons, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and uncle. The emperor Augustus popularized the saying, “Better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” The birth of the promised Messiah threatened everything that Herod ever loved = himself.  The arrival of the Magi must have seemed to him a stroke of luck – Herod would be able to discover the location of this new threat to his power and eliminate the competition. He didn’t realize He was battling the God who plays the long game.

IN THE PRESENCE OF EVIL

God’s hands are all over the Advent story.  He guided “foreigners to Christ to worship him. God exerted global—probably even universal—influence and power to get it done. Matthew records God moving the stars in the sky to get foreign magi to Bethlehem so that they could worship the Christ. This is God’s design. His aim is that the nations—all the nations (Matthew 24:14)—worship his Son.” (From Good News of Great Joy) That was and is God’s long game. God has always had good plans, regardless of Herod’s execution of the infants in Matthew 2. God worked, even in the presence of evil.

GOD’S LONG GAME OF REDEMPTION

Margie’s stay at the rehab facility isn’t anything she has ever longed for.  However, God gave her the privilege of inviting forgotten people to know the Savior. While Satan plays a short game of destruction, God plays the long game of redemption. That’s Who God is, even when we can’t see it. God has good plans. It’s your choice in who you place or do not place your trust.

SKATING ON A POND WITH THE PLYMOUTH

He landed on the frozen surface of the pond.  How could the ice support the weight of a 3,019 pound station wagon?

How long does it take a 1953 grey Plymouth station wagon to break through the ice and sink to the murky bottom of a pond?  That fearful question engulfed our hearts as we filled the car with screams.  The wailing voices belonged to my two sisters, mother and myself.  The one not shrieking in fear was the madman at the wheel, my smirking father.

THE STATION WAGON ON THE POND

It was a cold winter afternoon and we were out on a family drive. We made a side trip to the family farm.  I am clueless how my dad persuaded Mother that he needed to drive down the lane behind barn. Daddy then proceeded to drive off the path, continued up and over the bank and landed on the frozen surface of the pond.  How could the ice support the weight of a 3,019 pound station wagon?

LAVERNE, GET OFF THE ICE!

My mother yelled at my father, “LaVerne, get off the ice!!!”  My sisters and I pictured the ice cracking and our car sinking into the frigid depths.  I was a little girl bundled into a bulky cumbersome snowsuit and not dressed for swimming through icy waters!  He must have braked the car at that point because I remember Mother, my sisters and I shoving open the car doors and running for our lives to the safety of the pond’s bank.

EASY TO DRIVE DOWN BUT NOT BACK UP

My father would normally have been celebrating his feat of reckless courage, however at that point he realized while it was easy to drive down the bank onto the ice, it was another matter to drive the car off the ice and up and over the bank of the pond.  The wheels of the heavy car struggled to gain traction.  After repeated tries, somehow Daddy managed to find enough momentum to drive off the pond. 

NOT SPOKEN OF AGAIN

Alongside his now traumatized family, my dad celebrated his bravery by building a fire on the pond’s bank.  We roasted hot dogs and drank hot chocolate and didn’t speak of it again.

I grew up in a household in which we were religious, but not trusting. Cared for physically, but not necessarily, emotionally.  There were a great many things never spoken of, never shared, and never given.  In other words, I never quite knew where I stood as a child, a daughter. 

I wish I had known where to find the kind of love my heart longed for. I needed Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Or better yet: Psalm 121: 1 I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! 3 He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. 4 Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. 5 The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. 6 The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. 7 The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. 8 The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

These are promises needed when the waters run cold and deep and the shore seems so very far away.

GOD IS IN THE HOUSE!

This new inhabitant would send shock waves across the world that would exist for centuries.

At the end of our block is a sign which says, “Apartment for Rent”, advertising the unit below us.  The tenant moved away Thanksgiving weekend. In the entire year she lived under us, we never heard a peep.  She moved in a complete stranger and stayed a stranger.  One day I asked her name but she only told me her first name.  Our lives were not rocked by her entrance or exit.

What if instead she had been a co-tenant with us? Lived in our apartment, shared our furniture, our utilities, our conversations, our life.  Her arrival and departure would have affected our lives.  We may have either wept or rejoiced, but our lives would have shifted. 

THE NEW NEIGHBOR

John 1:1-14 describes someone whose entrance into the world rocked the existence of mankind. This new neighbor is referred to as The Word. If The Word had to fill out an application to live with us, John would write “The Word’s previous address was the universe, from eternity.” As for previous housemates, John would write, “The Word was with God.” He might also have written in parenthesis: (by the way, The Word was God).  This new neighbor, announced by John, was not going to be someone unseen, who would silently go about his business. This new inhabitant would send shock waves across the world that would exist for centuries. In other words, The Word is Immanuel, “God with us”.

HE’S NOT A LONG WAY OFF

The Old Testament tells us about another situation where God lived in the midst of people. The Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple both contained the “Holy of Holies” – the Glory of God. This was called by Jewish rabbis the “Shekhinah Glory”; “the visible presence of God among men”. God decided to room among a people who rarely loved Him or fully devoted themselves to Him.  In the Book of John, God is announced as again pitching His tent, but this time the Tent was in human form, “Immanuel”; God with us. Spurgeon warns us about our attitude about the new neighbor, Immanuel, “Do not let us live as if God were a long way off.” 

LIVED WITH US IN ORDER TO DIE

Immanuel did not come as judge and executioner. All of us already were guilty before Him and were doomed to everlasting punishment. John Piper writes: “The Word, the Son, who is God, became flesh to reveal a divine glory that is “full of grace and truth.” The Word of God became flesh to be gracious to us.” “Grace” is “God’s favor toward the unworthy”. In His grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us abundantly, in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve to be treated so well or dealt with so generously. Piper continues, “The Word became flesh so that this graciousness to us would come in accord with God’s truthfulness. This is a righteous, God-exalting, costly grace. It led straight to Jesus’ death on the cross. In fact, this is why he became flesh. He had to have flesh in order to die.”

HE WILL LIVE WITH YOU

God has come close to you in Jesus Christ. He is Immanuel. You don’t have to struggle to make a connection with this new Neighbor, just invite Him in. He will come to you. God is in the House! This Neighbor has rocked my world.  I will never be the same.  He lives in my apartment, my heart, my soul.  He has promised to never leave me or forsake me.  I don’t have to go searching for someone else. That sign announcing room for rent has gone down, because God has made His Home with me for eternity.   

In case you want to read further about this New Neighbor, click Revelation 19:11-16

THE MIRACLE IN THE MUNDANE

We do know one thing: their lives were changed forever. Showing up made a difference. God was there.

Have you ever worked a job that drains you mentally, physically, and emotionally? It seems the others actually have checked out mentally the minute they arrive. You see them checking their phones, updating their stats on Football Fantasy, or searching the internet for favorite cat videos.

And yet you still come to work every day. You believe that God, not human management, is actually your Boss. Your Heavenly Boss wants to be proud of you. He exists even in the mundane.

REIMAGINE THE SHEPHERDS

Try reimagining the shepherd portion of the Christmas story (Luke 2:8-20) through contemporary eyes.  Shepherd’s wages are lousy. The work is hard. Shepherding is not considered a rung on the ladder of success.  What if half the work crew didn’t show up the night mentioned in Luke 2? Maybe they stayed home because the Eagles were competing in the playoffs. Did those who showed up want to be there? 

SHOWING UP MADE A DIFFERENCE

The Bible does not tell us the number of shepherds that came to work that night.  We do know one thing: their lives were changed forever. Showing up made a difference. God was there.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LATE SHIFT

In the dead of night, suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. To the group of terrified farmworkers, the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.  The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” The shepherds were serenaded by God’s #1 singing group. Joined by a vast host of others (the armies of heaven), they praised God and sang: “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

There was no lengthy employee meeting over what the shepherds should do next.  They ran as fast as they could to Bethlehem to witness the event, the arrival of the Promised Messiah. Their mundane jobs were no longer mundane.

LIVES NEVER THE SAME AGAIN

We do know from the account that they told everyone they could about what they had witnessed.  These uneducated, rough men from the “wrong side of the tracks” were God’s first messengers. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. They had seen the Hand of God.

THEY MISSED THE BLESSING

What about those who didn’t show up for work that night? They missed seeing Heaven come down and God’s grand opening show.  They missed the blessing because they were tired of the mundane.

BARELY SHOWING UP FOR LIFE

Who am I writing this piece for? Those of us who are barely showing up for life.  Our bodies are present, but our hearts, minds and spirits are elsewhere.  We assume that God can’t be in the everyday, the mundane. Chuck Swindoll wrote: “God specializes in turning the mundane into the meaningful. God not only moves in unusual ways; He also moves on uneventful days. He is just as involved in the mundane as He is in the miraculous.”

GOD IS INVOLVED IN THE MUNDANE

Are you glad the shepherds showed up that night? Maybe your life seems dry, boring or just downright difficult. God asks us daily to show up and be ready for Him to be present. “He is just as involved in the mundane as He is in the miraculous.” Will you invite Him to inhabit you life, even when it seems mundane?

WHEN GOD MAKES NO SENSE

Did you ever have a big question for God?

Did you ever have a big question for God? How many stars are in the sky? How can each snowflake be unique? I’ve looked at my sons and wondered how they can both be over six feet and their parents are barely 5 ½ ft tall. Of course, then there are more painful questions like, “Why do good people suffer?”

MARY’S ZINGER QUESTION

Whatever your questions, Mary had a zinger of a question. As a farm girl in an agrarian society, she knew the facts of life and had no clue how a virgin could conceive and still be a virgin.  It did not make sense. The account in Luke 1: 26-38 is well beyond our understanding. The angel told her: Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. Of all of the thousands of Jewish girls, how did she become the one that the angel visited? Furthermore, as a virgin, how could she remain a virgin yet become pregnant?

UPENDING THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS

The angel presented an additional conundrum. Elizabeth, an elderly relative of Mary’s, was six months pregnant.  This was not medically possible.  God was upending the natural order of things. His plan was to pay the price for a world racing toward an eternity without God. For with God nothing [is or ever] shall be impossible. The regular course of mankind was being overturned turned by a God Who has no respect for our neat order of things. 

THE QUESTION: “WHY?”

In all these enigmas, God also didn’t think it necessary to fill in all the blanks. He didn’t answer the questions; God was and is Sovereign. Recently, two individuals asked me identical questions regarding their loved ones who were suffering: “Why is God permitting this?” The answer is not a popular one: “Because God is Sovereign.” His character is true and good, regardless of how the moment appears.  We cannot see how things fit into eternity, but we do have clues to His character.

WHO GOD IS

Clear as day Scripture records: God is love (I John 4:8); He is light and in Him is no darkness at all (I John 1:5); He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:11); For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. (Psalm 30:5); God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. (Numbers 23:19)

For those who wonder about God’s future plans for His own: And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:1-27) This is God in all His glory.

GOD KNOWS

God knows how many stars are in the sky and how to create each individual snowflake. He can even create giant sons from short parents.  God knew how to visit an awkward farm girl and create the birth that would change the course of mankind.  He brought vast comfort for a young teenage girl by creating an additional miraculous pregnancy. This one was experienced by a woman old enough to be a grandmother (a couple of times over). God knew then and He knows now what is best. These are the characteristics of God to meditate on during the long dark hours of the night when we wrestle with the mysteries of God.  For with God nothing [is or ever] shall be impossible.  

Additional reading regarding God’s purpose, read the story of Daniel Ritchie, the man who was born without arms.  

WHO ARE YOU SURROUNDED BY?

Choose how you will fight your battles!

“This is how I fight my battles! This is how I fight my battles! It might look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by You.”  (From “Surrounded” by Michael W. Smith)

DON’T BE AFRAID!

Did you know the inspiration of this song came from the Word of God?  In II Kings 6:15-17, Elisha’s servant is terrified because a death squad has been sent out to kill his boss, Elisha.  When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha.  “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!”  Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire. (NLT)

LOOK UP

You can usually tell when someone is having a rough time. If you pay attention to body language, a person who usually walks around with their head hung low is probably having a hard time. This is how they avoid contact with others and it’s a defense mechanism. Elisha’s final words to the servant were “look up.” The servant literally lifted his eyes to the heavens and away from the armies. You can choose to look away from the armies you face and lift your eyes to the heavens in prayers, praise, and worship, in thanksgiving and adoration. 

ARE YOU AFRAID?

Have you been “surrounded” by your enemies? Overwhelmed by bad reports? Tired of seeing sickness overtaking you and your loved ones? Surrounded in debt or in lack? Are you surrounded by accusers, persecution, slanderers? Like that servant, are you fearful of the “invading armies of the enemies”? 

THE LORD WATCHES OVER YOU

Psalm 121:1-8  I look up to the mountains, does my help come from there?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!   He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.  Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.  The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.   The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.   The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.   The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

LIFE UP YOUR EYES ONCE AGAIN

It’s time to lift up your eyes once again! It’s time to remember. Remember who your God is. Remember His faithfulness to you in every situation. It’s time to worship again. I say again because fear will steal your worship, it will rob you of praise, and hinder your praying. Praise the chains off! Be thankful again, and again, every day. Pray again.

If you don’t know where to start, just begin by simply looking up. Become aware of the Lord God omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. The creator of heaven and earth has not forgotten you. He thinks of you. He knows what you’ve been going through.

For further thoughts on this, look up Gloria Robles.