The Comfort Zone

The Comfort Zone

Lord.. Why do I have such a hard time stepping out of my shell and trying new things. Why do I get so anxious and afraid at even the thought of it?

Today I’m going to…

Ask You for the courage my spirit needs

You are God and Your love eternal is with me in all deeds

 

Yesterday’s Daily Prompt got me to thinking about how difficult it can be to step out of our safety zone. The stress, anxiety and fear of trying something new, moving on to a new relationship, job, trying a new routine, even can be so very stressful.

There are little changes in life (a new outfit that we are hesitant to wear) and there are big ones (new jobs, changing homes, giving up addictions, losing a loved one). All are stressful on one level or another.

We hear, over and over again, that the first step is the hardest. From experience and being someone that is a little (or a lot) OCD, I can tell you that this is very true. I can spend days, weeks, months and even years before I can face some changes in my life.

The “trick”, so to say, in this is to have Faith in God so that the fist step we take in any new venture is guided by Him and on the path that He has already created for us, before time began. I like to thank God BEFORE I start a new venture, knowing that when a new direction is in His will, it will always go according to His plan for me. The road does not always seem to be easy, but it ends up always adding value to my life and often to those around me.

Take a deep breath, say a prayer of thanks.. and take a baby step out in faith. You are loved, you are cared for, you are protected by the Creator of the universe.

Numbers 10:9 (NIV)

When you go into battle (face the unknown) in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, (which can sometimes be fear within ourselves) sound a blast on the trumpets (In other words, praise God!). Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies.

Hurtful People

Hurtful People

Lord.. Why do others have to be so ruthless and unkind?

Today I’m going to…

Look to Your love to give me joy and peace

I’ll know that You are listening and Your love never will cease

 

Why is it, how is it that people can be so mean? I mean, really, really mean. Words that pierce our hearts. Words and actions that break our spirit. So many times it is from those that we should be closest to. We are left feeling as if an axe had severed us to the core.

Things are said that shouldn’t be said and we all are guilty of having said and done things that have hurt others. There is not one of us free from having hurt someone else.

Years ago, I was speaking with a friend and she was in tears about a friend that had abandoned her. She kept blaming God and asking why He would allow this to happen. Free will is the beauty of our faith, but it is also the freedom to choose to hurt others.

When Jesus walked His final footsteps on the Via Dolo Rosa, He was spit at by those He loved. He was mocked by those that He had taught. He had rocks thrown at Him by those He had dined with. He was killed by those He was praying for on the way to His death.

Pray for this love that would bless your enemies and not even see them as enemies, but those in need of God’s love.

 

John 19:30 (NIV)

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

On Being Irritable

Lord, I feel so irritable today, I have no patience and everything is annoying me

Today I’m going to

Say a prayer, to regain patience in my heart

I know that you can calm my soul & let Your love be what I impart

There are days when we are just irritable. We can get easily annoyed, bothered by the slightest sound, agitated by anyone’s and everyone’s presence.

 

On days like this, I have learned to just pray repeatedly for patience. Sometimes I will apologize to those around me in advance for the mood that I am in (which seems to change my outlook almost immediately). Sometimes it is a day wrought with prayer to overcome this irritability. Either way, when we ask God for help, He is ever there for us.

 

Next time you are feeling annoyed as an overall mood, try perhaps explaining to those around you and ask them to be “patient” with you as you are impatient and pray to God to ask for a more loving attitude.

 

Colossians 1:11

being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience

Feeling Lifeless

 

Lord, I feel like I’ve had the life sucked out of me.. I am so tired and weak

Today, I’m going to

Say a prayer, and know that you restore

My health, my spirit and my strength now and forevermore

Sometimes life is so difficult that we feel as if someone or something has just “sucked the life” out of us. Days like this can be discouraging, defeating and difficult to face.

 

God is the renewer of our strength. When, with even the tiniest bit of faith, we can lift our hearts and pray, asking and trusting God to restore our faith, we will find that He will bless us with a feeling of being capable and with new hope. God is the restorer of our soul. He never runs out of strength for us to lean on and use.

 

Take a baby step of faith and allow Him to bless you today.

 

Isaiah 40:31

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint

Nothing Left

Nothing Left

Lord, I feel that I have nothing left to give; no more strength, .

Today I’m going to…

Take a breath, thank the Lord, for He’s my strength

I can do all things through God, He’s within my arm’s length 

How can I get through today? How can I deal with the people in my life? Work, family, tasks, errands, obligations.. I have nothing left. No strength. No will. There is just nothing left.

 

So many things can weigh our spirits down. So many times in life we can be overwhelmed by not only the big tasks, but getting through the little ones that are our routine. Feeling weary, feeling tired, feeling incapable can be defeating.

 

The beauty of God, is that He promises us that He is our strength. That we can do all things through Him, because He strengthens us. Just think about that and let your faith, however weak you may feel it is, take over. You are able to get through your day, your errands, your obligations, because God’s strength is yours for the asking. Ask and you will receive!

Philippians 4:13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

 

Unrooted

Unrooted

Dear God, Sometimes I just don’t feel that I am where I should be.. I feel like my whole life has been uprooted.

Today I’m going to…

Smile, as I am a chosen child of the Lord

He loves me as a Father, and my peace is His reward 

 

 

 

So often I have felt like I just could not get things on track; that life had uprooted me from the dreams I had carried with me and thrown me into the darkness. I felt I had been robbed of my dreams and put onto a much harsher path than I had chosen.

 

The feeling of being uprooted is so difficult to deal with on our own.  This feeling can be from any of life’s tragedies or through our own emotional struggles but Our Heavenly Father comforts us always. He tells us that he loves us despite our iniquities and moreso, He deights in us returning to Him. Do you know that the angels of Heaven rejoice in singing when we turn to God? Our turning to Him allows His love to channel through to us by the Holy Spirit and fills us with the sure knowledge that we are secure as His child.  His plans for us engraved from the beginning of time and His promise of peace and love that are beyond our greatest hopes.

 

Psalm 16:6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

The Mountain

Mountains

Lord.. The struggles in my life loom over me and block my path to getting through my day

Today I’m going to…

 

Know that faith as tiny as a seed

Is enough to spark God’s power, however great my need

 

 

Our mountains are so different than each others’, but they are always impossible looking, defeat-invoking and completely intimidating. I saw my mountains looming right in the middle of my pathways in life for years before I was able to even believe that God could help me move them. It is just so much easier looking to stay down in the muck at the base of that mountain than to begin climbing what appears to be an impassable climb.

 

Mustard seeds… of all of the things that could have been told would be enough to clear us of the mountains in our life, God teaches us that it is just a little faith, as tiny as the seed of the mustard plant that will move these struggles. “Pray for more faith”, Jesus teaches us. As we pray, believing that God is able, the struggles of our lives don’t loom over us as heavily and eventually their enormity be ones much less of the scary size it started. Faith strengthens us to have the eyes that God wants us to see through.  Plant that mustard seed of faith within yourself and water it with the Word of God. Let His strength is waiting to be used through your faith.

 

Matthew 17:20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

More Faith

The Observer

Lord.. I feel so much like an observer looking at the world as it goes by rather than a part of life

Today I’m going to…

Say God’s name knowing He’s the Truth and Light

He created me with purpose and love;with Him, each day is right

 

 

 

I so often have felt like the world was just speeding past me as I seemed to go nowhere. I have felt so removed; an observer that was oblivious to my own ability to change my life and better the lives of those around me. It is a helpless feeling.

 

I prayed through this and as I did, God brought people that touched my spirit and clearly gave me the message that I meant something to them, even though I was not able to feel / hear this before. God does not have us where we are by accident and He promises that in every matter of our life, good and bad, He can and will use it for our good and even more amazing, for His glory. I think.. “how can something that I have done wrong be for God’s glory or my own good?”

 

It is wonderful how He shows us the answer to that question over time. The times that have been the worst for me have become an encouragement to others as they struggle through similar feelings. Even writing this encouragement for you is God using the worst of my times to extend His hand of perfect love and mercy, peace and joy to you.

 

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

 

More Faith

More Faith

Lord.. I feel my faith is so weak.. How can I believe in your truth and your promises with more conviction?

Today I’m going to…

Pray once again that I grow stronger in belief

I ‘ll seek His Word, knowing His promises relieve

I’m not sure about you, but so many times I think about the scripture where Jesus tells us that it takes only a tiny bit of faith to move a mountain. A mustard-seed of faith. So many times I have doubted myself with this… here-in lies the answer to my own quest for more faith. It is not my faith that is the issue, it is my doubt.  Jesus tells us to pray for more faith. I do. When it gets down to it, though, do I really trust God in all? Do I really completely “give” every area of my life to Him? Or do I hang on to the pieces that I think are ok? Or the bits of my life that seem impossible.

 

God’s power is beyond our natural ability to do and therefore, we doubt. How is it possible that the scars of my childhood can be healed simply by prayer (I wonder to myself)? How is it possible that a child can walk again simply by faith? Just a mustard-seed of faith. I believe that the answer lies in God’s Word and knowing the promises that He makes regarding the power of our faith in Him. The answer is that God is ever-faithful and never let’s us down, no matter how weak our own faith is.  So seek more faith by prayer, by reading The Bible and by studying His Word.

 

1 Timothy 4:15 (NIV)

15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.

So Tired

So Tired

Lord.. I am so tired, so very tired.  How can I go on when there is nothing left?

Today I’m going to…

Give God all the weakness that I feel

I’ll praise His name, take a step and know His help is real

How many times do we feel that there is just no strength left to get through the rest of the day? So many times I have been discouraged, sick, overwhelmed, overworked and was sure that I just did not have the vitality within me to take even one more step.

Even when I am most tired, I try to remember to pray for strength, but there is more than that. Sometimes the answer is to rest. Not as in hiding in your bed from your responsibilities and burdens, but more in soaking up the love that God gives us so freely and letting it renew our strength, our spirit and our physical energy. God tells us to rest. Even God rested after finishing Creation. On the 7th day He rested. Remember that it is ok to take time to let God re-energize your body and spirit by basking in the overwhelming love that He has for each and every one of us.

 

1 Kings 5:4

But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster.