Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 12/22/2010)

Oh Come All Yea Faithful…

Isaiah 55:2-3 (New International Version, ©2010)

² Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
³ Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

Isaiah 55:2-3 (New Living Translation)

 ² Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. ³ “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
      I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.

            While at my mom’s school volunteering today, I began to think, about this year and all that it had entailed for me, and many that I know. It has been a year filled with the unexpected, test, trials, reorganization, recreation, tearing down and building back up again but it has been a year filled with some strange peace even in the midst of some of the greatest pains I have endured in years.  I thought about that in the midst of sickness, financial issues, love gone wrong, betrayal, transition, family crisis and many other things, how God has kept me. I am not saying it was some easy or magical trip, quite the contrary, but it was because I remained faithful, and in connection with God no matter what, was going on.  A matter of fact the more things went crazy the more I stuck, right under my daddy ( God); realizing that was the only way that I could make it, knowing often that was the only thing that willed me to take my next breathe, or to get up and keep going.  But the point of it all is I love God and my determination to press into Him, kept me joyful and triumphant at times.
            All too often we give up being faithful, because things are either too good or too bad.  We are so busy being inundated by our circumstance we miss the fact that God promises to be our strong tower that we can run into and be saved.  We miss that serving God and tending to the needs of others, keeps us.  It affords us the ability to survive. It is our choice to be faithful, and to allow it to strengthen us to keep running the race when every part of us feels as if it wants to give in, give up and get out of this journey called life.  Choosing to faithfully serve God can lead us to see God more clearly and to obtain a deeper connection with Him and He can establish a more intimate place in our hearts, minds, and spirits. Remaining faithful, focused and forgiving can deliver us out of the darkness of depression and the battle of anxiety.  It can cause us to look at some of the worst of circumstances and declare that all things really do work together for the good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. When we are faithful, it leads us and it guides us to do what is best by God and others even when we do not feel like it, or when they have not done right by us.  When we think of how faithful God has been to us, it becomes a little easier for us to remember that someone else needs our faithfulness and support just like we need it from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in spite of our actions and behaviors.
            Ask yourself this question, when life sells us short, when people treat us less than good, do we lose sight of our journey, our mission and who we serve?  We need to remain faithful to the one that has given us so much, and asked only that we remain in Him as He remains in us. If we can remain faithful even when things are a struggle or when things are great God will know that we love Him above all else, and nothing can take us from that.  Not death, life, things present or things to come.  God wants to know that we are faithful no matter what lot we find ourselves in within our life, it is then that He can cause us to be ruler over much, and that He will identify us, as FAITHFUL!