Friday, August 26, 2016

Expectation

Google defines expectation as a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. One of the synonyms is hope.

What does God expect of me? What does He require? According to Micah 6:8, "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Three things: do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with my God. That is what He wants from me.

What does the world want? What expectations have they placed on me? Oh, it is overwhelming to think about! It's what has gotten me feeling so oppressed, so pressed down, so weary. I have looked at what society has said is a good mother, a good wife, a good daughter, a good nurse, a good Christian, a good person, a good student, a good ....fill in the blank! And everyone's idea of what "good" is varies so much.

To do justly means to do what is right or fair. That is what God requires of me. He wants me to be fair and to do the right thing! To love mercy means simply to have compassion or forgiveness toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. So to love mercy, God just wants me to be compassionate and forgiving! Walk humbly is being modest; not being arrogant or proud. So He just wants me to walk with Him and know my place as a humble servant.

Sometimes I get so carried away with my stuff, my worries, my fears...my circumstances, that I stop seeing what a big God He really is. God is so good to me, that even when I have gone to Him in prayer, half-complaining about my situation, He just lovingly nudges me to His Word to encourage me and lift me up! He is so good to me!!! He is much better to me than I deserve!

I need to stop expecting so much from myself and learn to be patient. I can only do what He has strengthened me to do. Yes, I have started back at college, taking a very, very intense course this semester. But He is with me! The assignments are tough! The due dates are crazy!!! I'm still working as a nurse, still being a wife, and mother, still trying to do what all that entails and now I am adding on a TON of homework, studying, reading, papers, assignments, and new things to learn and retain. Can I do it alone? NO! I do not even want to try, but I am getting new expectations!

Psalm 62:5 says "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him." Yes, it is! My hope is in Him. My strong belief is that He will sustain me, He will help me, He will hold me. I know that it was never meant to be in my own power, but only in His!

A very familiar, comforting verse comes to mind: Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Thank You, LORD! I trust You! I thank You for the confirmation. I thank You for the blessings. I thank You for the expected end. I thank You for the simple requirements You have for me. Help me to do all that You want me to do for You, dear Lord. I love You Lord Jesus more than anything in this whole world!!!!

~Bridgett

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Ready ...or not, here I come!

When I was a little girl, we played a game called Hide and Go Seek! My brother, my sisters and I would take turns seeking while the others hid and the count down would begin, "Ten, nine, eight..." and you could hear excited giggles as we all scampered to our secret hiding places, hoping not to be discovered. Then the final call, "Ready or not, here I come!" And before long someone would look behind the couch or in the closet and we would be found!

Jesus is not playing a little game with us, but I can assure you that the count down has already begun. The time is ticking! As we hear that count down, we need to be preparing ourselves, not to hide, but to be found! Not to duck behind a closed door or big piece of furniture; we are to let our light shine! We are called out to sound the alarm! This is a warning for the lost and dying world, but it's an exciting time for the born-again believer who is letting Christ lead their life!

Matthew 24:3-14
And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

Just imagine for a moment, the opportunity these disciples had here. This is a BIG moment. They are alone with Jesus and they get to ask Him the same question that many people still ask today. When are You coming back Jesus? Tell us some signs to look for so we can know what to watch for!

And Jesus answered and said unto them, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ: and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

We can turn on the radio and hear about wars and rumors of wars right now. But Jesus said not to be troubled by that because these things have to happen. Then He says but that's not the end! We are to be careful that no one deceives us into saying they are Jesus. I know in my lifetime there have been several cases of hundreds of people believing a lie that a man was Jesus, and they died in that deception! Sound the alarm!!!

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Again, turn on the news channel, pick up a newspaper, or look online at social media; you will find these things are happening. There are earthquakes in different places, even places they have not had earthquakes at in years! Listen carefully! Can you hear the count down?

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

If the world cannot see this part of scripture being fulfilled every single day it is because Satan has blinded them! More and more rights are being taken away from Christians. If we serve Jesus and stand by the Word of God we are called haters, intolerant, and offensive! Nations of this world hate us not because we are American but because we are Christian! We are targeted but Jesus told His disciples and He is telling us that this is going to happen before He comes back. Well, if it is already happening, then don't you think the time is drawing to a close?

And many false prophets shall rise, and deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

This is already happening in our world today. Men and women stand up claiming to be a messenger of God and spew lies and half-truths from their platforms. Watered down messages and compromises will never change hearts and will never change lives. Only God's Holy infallible world can reach a dying, hurting world and turn them around! And because of all the sin that will be in abundance, the love of many will turn cold. This has happened, too. The compassion and love for one another, for humanity, has turned into pure hatred if you believe anything contrary to the world! You must blend in or be ripped to shreds! But there is good news!!!!!

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

I am not God. I do not know how far the good news of the Kingdom of God has spread. I know that technology continues to increase and communication is better now than it has ever been. In an instant, we can speak to millions of people through social media platforms, televised events, and satellite technology. I do know that the end is very near! That is not scary! That is great news for those of us who strive to make Heaven our Home! Jesus is coming back and the ones that make it until the end will be saved!

Don't give up! Don't give in! Don't compromise! Don't settle! Read the Word of God ever single day. Stay in prayer and keep Your heart in tune with God. Because before we realize it, we are going to hear the announcement, "Ready ...or not, here I come!" We don't want to be left waiting around, hearing about how masses of people have suddenly disappeared from the earth with no explanation!

If you are not a Christian, and you have never asked Jesus to come into your heart, you can do that right now. You don't have to be in a church, or even at an altar. Just believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on a cross to save you. Confess that you believe that and then ask Him to come into your heart. Ask Him to save you and set you free. He already paid the debt for your sin at Calvary. It is free! All you have to do is invite Him into your heart and trust Him to help you through. Ask Him to forgive you and tell Him that you recognize you are a sinner, lost and undone. If you call upon the Name of the Lord with faith, you will be saved! Jesus wants to take you Home with Him. He is coming back ready or not.... please get ready!

~Bridgett

Monday, August 1, 2016

It's in the journey, not in the destination...

I was supposed to meet my father-in-law at a specific time so I could pick up my children. He was kind enough to meet me in town so I didn't have to drive all the way to his house to get them. I made sure that I had plenty of time to get there and started towards town. As I was coming up the road, I noticed traffic was backed up pretty far. The road curved around and I was unable to see what was holding up the traffic. I was approaching the traffic, now at a stand-still, and decided I would just try to take a side road and hopefully I would come out on the other side of whatever was holding up the traffic. I felt like I was so smart for remembering the other way. I was not alone. Apparently others felt like it was a good idea and they started going that way, too. We all met a line of cars that were completely stopped as well and I saw that the line of cars was backed up a lot further than I thought! I called my mother-in-law to see if she knew of a reason the traffic was backed up and not moving. She didn't know, but it really had me thinking that this situation is really very similar to how I handle things in life.

Right now things are kind of at a stand still, you could say, in our hunt for a home of our own. I can imagine the road is similar to the path to home ownership. There are lots of people in the same boat that I am in, but instead of waiting it out and staying on course, I try to take these side roads. I want to call someone and see if they know of ways I can get things moving again. I am impatient and I do not like to wait. I want to hurry ahead and get the house and move in, not even waiting to see what God has in store for me. He threw me a curve that is blinding the road ahead so I cannot clearly see all the obstacles in my way. He wants me to trust Him, to ask Him, to wait for Him. I am just getting so anxious but He wants me to just pray and ask Him for the blessing of a home of our own, and then to patiently wait for Him to answer me. The asking is not the problem, I am okay with that. It is the waiting that is hard!

Philippians 4:6 says "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." This is such an interesting verse to me. First it says for us to not be careful for anything. Careful people drive slower in the rain, snow, or ice. Careful people act in certain ways because of what they think might happen or could happen. They want to figure things out first. They aren't walking by faith and not by sight. They are observing things around them and then letting the circumstances dictate what they do, instead of letting what God has said about their circumstances dictate what they do. Wow! That is a really great message, God! I am listening!!

Notice it says don't be careful, but instead... in EVERY thing, not some things, or the hard things, or the things you can't figure out, but in EVERY thing by PRAYER... that means we have to go to God and have a conversation. We are to talk to God, our Heavenly Father, and let Him speak to us through the Holy Spirit and His Holy Word! The verse says prayer, which is something that I really do not have an issue with. I want to pray to God. I enjoy my prayer time. But watch this, the verse says AND supplication. It is not enough to just pray. 

What is supplication? It is "the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly." So prayer is an action and supplication is an action. Both of these things are an effort on your part. Yes, the Lord knows what we have need of before we even ask, but He still wants us to ask. This is how we begin to rely on Him. So we are to ask or beg. Now it is getting serious. We have to really want something if we are going to beg for it. I think of people begging for their life, begging for another chance, begging for food... but that is the attitude we must have when we ask something from our Heavenly Father. How bad do we really want our loved ones saved? How bad do we really want our church to grow? How bad do we really want to change our community? How bad do I really want a home? We ask or beg for something earnestly and humbly. Earnestly means sincerely, intensely, or seriously. This is a big thing to God! He is not a spiritual Santa Claus ready to hand out gifts and things we have on our wish list at our beck and call. God desires a relationship! He wants to be your partner! He wants to work with you! Humbly means you are showing no signs of pride or self-assertion. This is really not about you!

We are created to love, serve, and worship God. He has sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and that really should be enough! He rose from the dead and now we have freedom from our sins and eternal life when we choose to follow Him. He sent the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, to us so we can learn more about who Jesus is. God freely gives us wisdom and knowledge of the scriptures when we ask Him. But the material things we pray about are not the most important things. Serving Him is important. Our attitude when we enter our prayer time is important. Our desire to love Him and follow Him even if we do not get the things we prayed for is important.

I am learning right now that getting a home of my own is not the most important thing for my family. Our salvation, our walk with God, our relationship with our King, is the most important thing and that matters here where we live right now, and it will matter wherever God chooses to allow us to live later. This life, our society, this country that I am so blessed to live in, can really throw some serious distractions at me and skew my world view. I need to look through the lens of scripture at the blessings around me and remember it doesn't matter what obstacles are blocking my progress in this moment. I do not need to know what is around the curve. I need to trust that my Lord and Savior will help me and He will get me to the exact place I need to be at the exact moment I am supposed to be there and the journey is so much more important than the destination!

I will choose to allow the Lord to bless me in the middle of turmoil. I will seek to find His face and not His hands as I stumble through these struggles. I will look for solace in Him and Him alone when I feel weak and grow impatient at the lack of progress I think I am making. I will choose to use the Word of God and not the distance on this journey to determine my progress. I am nothing without the Lord and I will THANK the Lord for the wonderful things He has already done for me. I will THANK the Lord for the wonderful things He is about to do for me! I will let Him know the desires of my heart and if He chooses to give me those things or keep them from me, I will know it is for my good and for His glory! He is so faithful! I love Him!

~Bridgett