Where Do You Live?

Where do you live?

Not your street address, apartment number, city or state.

Not physically.

But . . .

Mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

Where do you live?

Some people live in the past,

                some people live in the future.

I'm not one to camp out in the past, but I do find myself riding on wings as I fly towards the future, waiting to land. There's only one problem, it's never time to land.

When I live in the mindset of:

• what if . . .
• when this or that happens . . .
• I can't wait until . . .
• I just wish . . .
• When, when, when . . .

                                 I'm not living in the moment.

And guess what? That's exactly what the enemy wants me to do.

Why?

Because when I don't live in the moment, I live a life of discontent.

Paul wrote in Phil. 4:11 that " . . . I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:" 

I, like so many, have hung my dreams on the scripture found in Jer. 29:11 that says, "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." 

Yes, God has plans for us . . . a future and a hope, but He has also given us everything we need to be content each day. Our hope is found in His Son, Jesus Christ. For He tells us, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you," (Heb. 13:5). He is with us in the moment helping us live out our purpose as we navigate what is before us, as mundane as it may seem.

We should be content while living each day to the fullest instead of dragging our feet in the dust of days gone by or trying to find rainbows to slide down into the future. The future will come and with it all the plans God has for us, but it will be in His timing not ours.

So now I do my best to live in the moment. 

          It doesn't have a physical address, 

                               but it is a place my heart will call home.

Scripture from NASB
Pictures courtesty of www.pixaby.com

It's Coming . . .

It's coming . . . only a few days and it will be here.

A new year.

Like turning to a blank page in my composition book called "Life," I will turn to the beginning of a new year.

Already I'm thinking about things I want to:

• do differenlty
• improve upon
• change
• be more intentional about

People I want to:

• spend more time with
• help more
• get to know better
• be there for

But there's one thing that wants to hold me back . . .

The past . . . for I've tried before but haven't always had success.

So what will be different about this year?

"I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies BEHIND me and REACHING FORWARD to what lies ahead," (Phil 3:13 NASB).

What lies behind you that keeps you from reaching forward? 

Let's begin this year pressing "on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus," (Phil 3:14 NASB). As we press in towards Jesus, He will be the One who helps us accomplish the things we want to accomplish in the new year and help us move beyond the regrets of the past.

And as we reach towards Him,

He will be faithful to take our hand!

Photos courtesy of morguefile, caprisco and Penywise.

A Cry From My Heart

To everyone else it's a pretty church on a hill overlooking the quaint main street of Highlands, NC, but not to me. To me it's where my Heavenly Father answered the cry from my heart and said "Yes. Yes, you can come back home."

First Presbyterian Church, Highlands, NC

I was a prodigal daughter and was tired of wallowing in the muck of the world and running from bad choices that I didn't want to define me or my future.

Have you walked away from the Lord?

Do you want to come home?

Do you want to see your Heavenly Father waiting with out-stretched arms to welcome you back?

It's NEVER too late and He is faithful to forgive.

As I poured out my words of confession and sorrow to Him it was as if he took His finger, placed it under my tear-stained chin, and lifted my head towards His extravagant love. He washed me clean, infused me with joy, and enveloped me with peace. From that moment on I've never been the same.

He will do the same for you.

Don't stay away if your heart yearns to be back home. Open the eyes of your heart and look . . . He's right there with you, waiting to be the lifter of your head. He met me at the top of a mountain in an old Presbyterian Church, but He will meet you where ever you are at the moment.

Call out to Him today then join me in declaring,

". . . He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God" (Psa. 40:1-3).

Yes. You can always go home . . .

Pressing Forward

I grew up with an athletic dad. As a child I played under gym bleachers and threw rocks beside baseball fields. 


Since my dad played sports, he thought his kids needed to play also, and we did. When I got older my dad signed me up for basketball and softball teams. My brothers were signed up for football and baseball. We were no longer playing under the bleachers and throwing rocks -- we were running up and down gym floors, tackling on football fields, and throwing soft balls and base balls.



He never let an opportunity go by without teaching us something that had to do with sports and life. I remember watching Sunday afternoon football games and listening to him say "Did you see that second effort? See how much further he went? He would have been down the first time he was hit but he gave it a second effort. Always try for a second effort, you'll always go further and be more successful."



Those words have echoed in my ears and heart all my life as I've gone through challenges and trials. Many times I could have been down with the first hit, but I put forth a second effort and was able to succeed far beyond what I ever thought. Some say "go for it," others say "give it the 'ol college try."  Leland King taught me to go for it, give it all I've got, then give some more.

Do you need motivation and strength to give a second effort? 

Take to heart the words of Paul:

I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. 

I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his . . . I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing 
I always do. 

Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead,  I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above. (Phil. 3:13-15).

Go for it, 

give it all you've got, 

then give some more!

Rest At Noon?

"Tell me  . . .  where you feed your flock, 
where you make it rest at noon"  

(Song of Solomon 1:7 NKJV).

We are busy people, so busy that we have a difficult time resting. Why the thought of resting at noon, as this scripture alludes to, is unheard of to most of us. 

We can't just lie down and take a nap in the park after lunch 



or . . .

lie down on the floor of our office, for a power nap . . .

Oh, wait . . . I guess some people can take a nap at the park after lunch.

Maybe so, but most of us have to spend our days going from 

one responsibility to the next. 

Rest at noon – no way. 

What about resting at other times during the day?  

I'm not talking about sleep that may or may not come at night, but rest in our heart, soul, and mind.

If you need rest today then consider doing three things:

Go to Jesus, for He tells us to "Come . . ., all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).

Cast "all you care upon Him for He cares for you" (I Peter 5:7).

Be "still, and know that I am God" (Psa. 46:10).

I try to remember to do these when I feel tired and need rest, especially rest from stress and worry. 

But I have to admit . . .

     the thought of taking a nap 

          in a hammock 

               with a comfy pillow 

                    in a garden 

                         does cross my mind sometimes!

photos courtesy of morguefile.com

God, You Waiting For Me?

I don't know about you, but I seem to always be waiting for God to do something in my life or in the lives of the ones I love. Do you do the same? Probably. We pray and say we are waiting on His perfect timing for:

• jobs
• healing
• provision
• mates
• children
• direction
• wisdom
• answer to many unspoken and spoken prayers
• on and on we go . . .

And wait we should. We're told in Psa. 27:14 to "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord."  Psa. 37:7 tells us to not only wait, but to "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him" and then Psa. 38:15 says "O Lord, do I wait; it is you, . . . who will answer."

But did you know God also waits for us? I've spent so much time concentrating on waiting for Him that I didn't realize He waits for us. Isa. 30:18 says:

"Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; 

And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you . . .
Blessed are all those who wait for Him." (NKJV)

How is the Lord waiting? 
He's waiting earnestly—expecting, looking, and longing.

Why is He waiting? 
To be gracious, to show us favor, to show how kind He is, and to be full of grace.

And to . . .
Show us mercy, have pity on us, to show us compassion, and to rise and comfort us.

As sinners we don't deserve mercy, grace, or compassion. But sinners, saved by God's grace through the death of His Son, we do. And for this God waits.

As I continue to wait for God, as the Bibles instructs, 

I will also be thankful that God waits for me.

And for this I'm blessed and you are too.

photo courtesy of morgueFile.com