When things are in a rut and it seems like you can’t go on. You’ve been the Mr/Mrs Nice Guy/Gal and things just get worse.  When you make a conscious decision to think with a compassionate heart or speak with a graceful attitude or act with a caring interest…that is precisely when you run into that ever so lovable character that just pushes your buttons.

What a testing time it can be if you do not report to someone higher than yourself!  For believers in Christ Jesus, we are called to answer to God.  How we once handled situations before is not how we are to handle them as a born again believer.  We are to be quick to be silent, slow to anger and remember the grace God has shown us.  We need to realize just how much God loves that person we are about to strangle.

Christians, we sometimes get so wrapped up in our Christian bubble forgetting that there is a world of non-believers.  We go to our Christian coffee shops to read our Christian books while sipping a Christian latte.  How surprised some can get when they run into a non-believer that is sinning up a storm!  They have forgotten how they once were and forgot to realize that sinners are going to do just that…sin.  We can not have the assumption that they know any better.  So when someone gets in your face, what should you do?  Love them.  Simple as that.  You are called to love them that persecute you.

You have to take the you out of the situation.   You are here to do the Father’s business and who knows…you may be the only open bible that person sees.  If you are representing the Lord your actions are doing the speaking.  You do not have to preach the gospel always with words…sometimes the most powerful sermon will be the one you lead in your day to day life.

No God, no peace.  Know God, know peace.

You cannot be something you do not dwell in.  You cannot teach peace if you yourself do not first dwell in it.  God said He is all we will ever need.  If we put our trust in ourselves we sin by idolizing ourselves and on top of that our moods and emotions change with the wind.  God is who we are to place our trust in.  When we know that we know that we know He is all we will ever need, then we will have no fear in knowing He is our peace.  He is our fortress, our healing, our foundation, our daily bread….etc.  You can rest in His word that never changes and He keep His promises.

When we fail to continue to walk in the word because we don’t feel the Lord is close we begin to trust our own ideas and can do things based on feelings.  The times we don’t feel His presence or energy to do the right things is precisely the times we need to think on pure thoughts.  We need to count our blessings in prayer and begin to thank and praise Him for those things.  You can pray all day if you do this!  Your attitude will have to bow to your gratitude.

Remember when you lean on your own understanding you are setting yourself up for failure because pride comes before a fall.  It is what you do when you don’t feel like anyone is watching or encouraging that the Lord has simply taken off the training wheels of your life and is watching to see what you do with them off.  Your blessings could be in the rut!

Going Through the Storms.

Notice I said going through the storms, not stopping and taking a look or setting up camp in the storms.  We are to go through the storm.  It is what we do during those storms that determine our outcome.

Psalm 23:44 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

I always say, storms are great and we should sit back and meditate on the word more in these times.  Our blessing is in that storm!  Use those lighting bolts as steps, use those rainy clouds as steps, use the storm to get to the next level!

If we fail at what we once failed at, we will have the same storm ahead of us.  But if we use the storm and bind our emotions and take control of them in obedience to the word…whooooooaaahh watch out!  You are one ‘bad mama jama’ to mess with!  If your natural reaction is to blow up in anger and impatience and you stop yourself from becoming angry (even when you have a right to), then you have now gained spiritual strength through the Lord Jesus Christ and it is not your own power but His!  When we are weak, He is strong!  People take note of this.  This act is priceless and takes more integrity than doing what is expected.  That is what living the life is all about.  Becoming less about you, and more about Him, serving others before yourself.  That is character that commands respect without asking to be respected.

Do not grow weary

Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

It has been asked…what if you just waited a little longer or what if you just kept doing what is right for one more minute, hour or day.  What if you didn’t cave in, quit or give up?  God will never give you more than you can handle.  He is watching to see what you will do in a storm, how you will hold His words higher than your circumstances and higher than your emotions.

He never said this life would be easy, in fact He said there will be storms. Peace is not just the absence of a storm, but rest in the middle of the storm.

Psalm 3

A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.

¹ LORD, how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.
² Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God.”  Selah

³ But You, O LORD, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
⁴ I cried to the LORD with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill.  Selah

⁵ I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the LORD sustained me.
⁶ I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.

⁷ Arise, O LORD;
Save me, O my God!
For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone;
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
⁸ Salvation belongs to the LORD.
Your blessing is upon Your people.  Selah

Our God is a good God!  He knows our needs and our desires.  He knows the number of hairs on your head.  He hurts when we hurt, He rejoices when we rejoice.  There is no God like Him.  He understands us because He walked among us and has felt what we felt.  Even when He seems distant, He is waiting to hear from you, and longing to be in your life.

When we fall, we get back up and he encourages us to confess our sins to Him so our communication will be crystal clear and so our hearts do not become hardened, so we do not become comfortable in our sin.  He longs for a one on one conversation.

Today take some time and bask in His un-ending grace.  Nourish yourself in His peace.  Wash in His forgiveness.  Be Blessed.

God Bless~Melissa Leslie