Haven: A Place for Prayer, Comfort, and Encouragement

Friday, September 4, 2015

Please pray for Julie in Minnesota. She has lung cancer that has moved to her spine. She's never smoked a day in her life! She is 48, married and is the mother of 5 children. Pray that the Great Physician will work a miraculous healing in her life!

Wilderness Roads

9.4.15

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:19

I've written several times about shelf time. Those times in life when you are basically sitting on the shelf, your car is in "park" mode, you feel like there's no plan for you, and everyone else is just cruising by. And, of course, their lives are perfect and yours isn't!

Our perspectives are so limited during those times. For me, those times usually include a pity party or two-how about you? Then many times I've roused from my pity party determined to make something happen on my own, often with no regard for God's plan for my life. Oh, the pain and trouble that causes as I usually make a mess of things!

This is what I'm beginning to learn about shelf time:

There's always a reason for it!

The quicker I submit to my loving Father and acknowledge my need for guidance and wisdom, the quicker the peace comes

The arrival of peace doesn't always rush things along--His answer is often "wait"!

Finally, I've learned that no matter how tough the waiting, how long, how ridiculous it seems, His plan is ALWAYS the best plan, His ways are always higher than my ways!

No matter how dark, how barren your wilderness and no matter how long you have to wait it out or sit on the shelf, what a comfort to know that our Lord specializes in road building. He can always make a way where there seems to be no way!

He WILL do a new thing in your life!

May you seek His face before you face any other today!

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Weakness

9.3.15

"God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him. Our weakness, in fact, makes room for His power."

~ Jim Cymbala ~

The Peace-Speaker

Lift Him Up!

Two Fish, Mercy, and a Mortgage

9.3.15

".....we have only 5 loaves and 2 fishes"

"...and those who are were about 5,000 men, besides women and children"

Matthew 5:17,21

"His mercies are new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness"

Lamentations 3:23

I love the passage in Matthew where Jesus takes the loaves and fish and feeds the 5,000+.

To me, it says that no matter how things look, when we look to Jesus nothing is impossible.... Even when man says otherwise.

By all accounts, life looked bleak 6 months ago for us. Early March was my last full-time work, 2 adoptions and a tax crisis later, the savings were gone.... No health insurance, first set of prescriptions over $1,000. We were headed down the drain. Very soon after that, it was obvious that we had to shutter our business and let our employees go. My health prognosis was not good and looking at it through man's eyes, we were quickly coming to the end of our rope.

Oh, thank God Mercy came calling. We were at the end of our rope and we just had to cast all of our cares on Jesus. My condition called for no stress and we had no choice but to lay it all at His feet.

That's when we began to see God work mightily through His saints. Our bank account would get to $0 and time and again, we would hear a knock at the door and friends and strangers alike would arrive to offer help,

or we would receive a card with a check in the mail. We reached bottom many times, but His hand was always under us. Every single morning, His mercies were new.

Even though we've lost over 78% of our monthly income, Jesus broke the loaves and fishes so many times at our table! On paper, we should have lost our home, our cars, our sanity... Everything! But, we never went without food, the mortgage was paid every month, health insurance was provided....and on and on I could go.

I ramble about our situation not to cling to 6 bad, horrible months, but to let you know that no matter how things look in your ledger, no matter what man says or logic says, our God can supply ALL of our needs!

He can take a couple of loaves and fish and supply mercy AND the mortgage!

He brought us through the worst of times, and as we start over we see His promise for our future unfolding.

1 Peter 5:10

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

He's ever faithful!