An Amazing Revelation - It Made A Difference!

On a daily basis I stand amazed at how awesome God is.

                                                                                   

For some of you reading this, you may not be a believer or a follower of Christ.  You may not relate to what I'm about to say - but, please just hear me out.  Okay?   I love it when situations in life unfold the way they have in the past few weeks.  Sometimes in life, circumstances or situations give us little understanding or clarity.   However, today, God brought understanding to our home about His plan and purpose with regards to a recent life changing decision we had made.  He brought true peace!

My husband and I are approaching the retirement phase of our lives.  For years we have planned "our" dream retirement and spent countless hours researching the best locations for settling down.  Several months ago, suddenly (it seemed), out of the clear blue we mutually began to  "feel" that God was asking us to relocate to another destination.  Now granted, this other location would be considered paradise for some other retiring couple but for the two of us, this particular retirement area was the last place in the world that (we felt) would bring us peace and tranquility.  There was no debating; more con's than pro's.  We were always firmly in agreement about this "other" location; no way!
As the strange tug in our hearts continued and grew stronger, we began to re-arrange our golden years.  We weren't sure why we were making excuses for changing our minds but we purposed in our hearts and minds that we "could" be happy and that if God wanted us to live there - "everything would be fine and work out."  After all, God knows everything and doesn't need to inform us of His exact plans.   Don't you know that many times God gets a good laugh when He looks down on humans and observes "their" plans?  Don't get me wrong - we still had our doubts and reluctant emotions.......and at times I found myself reacting to this upset apple cart and rearrangement of plans with a not-so good attitude. ( Later I'd have a lot of repenting and soul searching to do.)  My husband was more firm in his belief that this "other" location was NOT where "he" wanted to spend the rest of his life but, he was being his usual kind-hearted self; attempting to assure that my happiness was a first priority.  I love him!

For the sake of time, I will attempt to make this seemingly long story - a bit shorter.  Several days ago, after much prayer and discussion we settled the issue - again.  We are not going to move to "paradise."  We would once again proceed with our original retirement decision location that was made many years ago.   Oh, what peace we felt!
Feeling peace - but, not understanding.  We questioned and wondered why all these back and forth feelings had occurred.   Did we just "think" that God was asking us to relocate to this particular place?  As some Christians would say, "Did we "miss" God's will?"   Great.....now what will people think?  On and on and on....

Today,  clear as a bell - God spoke through His word and spirit -giving us this personal revelation.  (Keep in mind, you may not "interpret" this particular Bible passage as it was given to us - for our present situation,  that's really not the issue.  God speaks to different people in different ways.)

                                                                             
No - we did not miss God's plan for our lives.  He took us through a season of learning, submitting and obedience.  Let me share with you the lesson.
Scripture - Genesis 22: 1-18  (Please read!)
BECAUSE we obeyed God's voice and we said "yes" to His request - to a location that "we" deemed off limits for our golden years,  God was pleased and provided us the opportunity to proceed with a retirement that He knew we desired, longed for and yes, deserved.   God does delight in giving His children the desires of their hearts.  God was testing us.  He wanted to know, "would we truly be willing to relocate to our least desired destination "if" He asked us to?"   Yes, after some struggle and insight we agreed and were willing to take the alternate journey.  In the scriptures mentioned above - just as Abraham was in the conflicting situation with his son Isaac  (Genesis 22)  God was asking my husband and I to truly "trust" Him with our lives.  Obeying God will "Make a Difference."
As Christians we proudly proclaim to each other and the world that we "trust" God with everything and in every situation of our lives,  but - do we really?     Within the past couple of weeks we have been honored with news about another couple within our family that has accepted God's calling to Africa.  We ask ourselves - would we be willing to go to Africa if God asked us to?
 (I sure hope He doesn't ask.  ha!)

Tonight we are thanking God for His wonderful peace that "passes all understanding" and for making known to us the reason and purpose for what we consider a recent testing of our faith.

                                                                                     
                                                                  God is good!

  God is amazing! 

 Our God is an awesome God!

Our next step?

We will continue to secure and finalize our retirement plans - our golden years...but, with a new attitude and appreciation for the goodness and faithfulness of our amazing and awesome God.  We will be vigilant and responsive to His voice knowing the reward of obedience.

Doing The Right Thing = Fulfillment

ful·fill·ment/fo͝olˈfilmənt/

Noun:	Satisfaction or happiness as a result of fully developing one's abilities or character. The achievement of something desired, promised, or predicted: "winning the championship was the fulfillment of a childhood dream".

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?  Optimists believe that life for the most part is good.  Pessimists, on the other hand, feel and believe that life is mostly bad.  Well, guess what?  Life is both.  In order to find fulfillment in life it is imperative that you embrace this truth.  Why?  Because if you don't accept this as truth then you attitude in life will become apathetic.   Every difficulty that you encounter will be met with an attitude of negativity, lack of enthusiasm, lack of concern and despair.  You will experience emptiness.  You might survive, but I can almost guarantee that you won't be successful.

If you examine the lives of successful people you will discover that they always do what is right - no matter how they feel.  They don't worry about what other people say or what other people think.
                              They do the right thing........because it is the right thing to do.
When you do the right thing - you end up feeling good.  You have good self-esteem and personal satisfaction.  God is pleased.
                                      Doing the right thing will give you joy and fulfillment!
                                                      Doing the right thing will make you happy!
                                                                       

                                                                           

On the other hand, if you examine the lives of unsuccessful people you will notice that they wait to feel good before they do what's right.  Consequently, most of the time they usually don't do either.....they don't do what's right and they don't feel good.  Self-esteem for these types of people is very poor.  Also, if you don't do the right thing in your life then you begin to feel that you don't deserve success.  You start to sabotage your own success.

Are you looking for fulfillment in your life?   If so, I challenge you - learn to do the right thing no matter what the situation and no matter how you feel.

                           Choose to do what is right and avoid what is wrong!  

............At the end of the day this will be a determining factor whether or not you feel fulfilled.



For more positive blogging visit.........http://www.myfatherssermons.blogspot.com

Busy Beaver

Do you think that you are busier than most people you know?
And - do you get less sleep than the average person because you are just so busy
doing this and that?

             Well, aren't you just the special "busy beaver!"

Now, hear me out..............
Don't you think that just maybe there is a little pride involved in working more, being busier and getting less sleep than other people that you know and meet?

I'm just saying...................

Think about it.........seriously!

I'll bet you never thought of it that way.  Yes, I just might have a point.  Oh, I'm sure that it is often on an unconscious level but, sometimes "busyness" is due to pride and the need to feel important.

    I'm just saying...................

What's Your Message?

Everyone has a "message."  We want the world to know.   Granted some people are more passionate about their cause or their message than others, but, the point is - we all want to be heard.

                                                                       
What kind of a message are you sending?  What kind of reputation are you building?  Are you gaining the world's confidence as a person of high integrity, a person of high moral character, etc?  If you are a believer in Christ and proclaim to be a follower of Him, does your message line up with your behavior?

How miserably my attitude in life fails at times!  But -  I am so so grateful for the GRACE of God.  He reels me in and says, "what on earth are you doing?"  ha!   The devil is sly and he has an arsenal of tactics.  Yes, he would like to destroy me, destroy my passion, my energy, would like to give me a rotten attitude and diminish my love and desires for the things of Christ - but - in reality- his goal is to  destroy the message of God.

Today, I have decided to recommit and be revived.  I love God!  I am a vessel of God!   Today, I have been revived with Christ-like passion and energy; to share my revelations of/from God (my message) that will bring glory and honor to Him.   I want my message to the world to reveal the fruit   (Galatians 5:22-23) of the Holy Spirit living within me.  I want to be an example such as God's disciple Paul in Galatians 1: 24 when he said,  "And they glorified God in me."     I want the world to not only hear  the message - but to see that Jesus is real.  I am not giving up on God's plan and purpose for my life!  Satan's tactics of discouragement and trying to place "what if's" in my field of vision have now been destroyed.  He thought I was weak and would believe his lies.
                                      He tried to replace fear with my faith.  Wrong!
                                                           God is greater!
                                                                         God is faithful!

For further inspiration visit  http://myfatherssermons.blogspot.com