Changed By Love

There has been too much life going on in my life.

I recently read this line in a novel, “I trust God, but I don’t trust life.”

That’s how I feel right now.

I know that God works all things together for my good. But life can and does include warfare. We are in a war. There are two kingdoms. They are at war with each other.

We are caught in the middle.

And sometimes we catch an arrow.

I think I caught a few of them in the last couple of months.

I am fighting a physical battle.

I am taking some products to try to cleanse, heal and replenish what my body needs.

The cleansing process is making me tired.

I’m still praying and believing for healing from the residual effects of vertigo.

It seems that my health has been deteriorating ever since that happened 4 years ago.

I’ve been brought down to zero energy, but I believe the Lord is giving me wisdom and access to products that are bringing me back to life.

Things have been hectic in relationships in my family.

That has been very troubling to me.

Financially, things have still been tight.

That should start changing soon.

Storms, giants, war, trials, strained relationships.

In the middle of this, my dad had a stroke.

I went to help him during his recovery. It was a big trip with 7 of my children, driving about 10 hours a day for 2 days to get to Ohio from Texas.

That was no vacation. Lots of warfare.

Relationships have been a big priority lately.

And not going very well.

How honest are we really supposed to be? What if you discover that things in your family are not as peachy keen as you thought they were? How do you help someone who doesn’t want help? How do you get along with someone who doesn’t try to adjust to what you need them to do so that life with them can be pleasant and enjoyable?

I came face to face with these issues and more.

I didn’t handle some of these things very well.

I didn’t recognize attacks of the enemy.

I gave my mind over to some really negative, destructive thoughts.

I felt overwhelmed.

But through it all, God sustained me.

Now He is rebuilding me.

I keep hearing words like “the Holy Spirit is your helper”, “the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead lives in you”, “David fought the giant and he won, and we serve the same God that he served”, and “we must praise Him in the storm – believe and not doubt”.

I’m recognizing attacks of the enemy sooner and taking thoughts captive that are totally against God’s will for my life, my marriage and my family.

Now things are getting clearer.

Have you ever been through a time like this?

When everything seemed so negative and impossible to fix.

When you didn’t really even care enough to try.

You feel like throwing in the towel.

Let me encourage you to keep trudging through it.

Let God carry you.

Let Him speak life to you through ministers.

Continue to listen to words of life through ministers of the gospel, at your church and elsewhere – wherever you can get fed.

You might be beyond caring or feel like your situation is impossible.

Everything might feel dark and hopeless, but hold on to the anchor of hope.

God is that anchor.

The Holy Spirit will help you hold on.

I know. He did it for me.

Things are still unsettled, but they’re getting better.

Things and people and circumstances are changing for the better.

God is doing a new thing.

Light is shining and chasing away the darkness.

I’m refusing to dwell on the negative thoughts, and I’m changing for the better.

Life can be hard.

It is a war. There are terrible enemies. Spiritual enemies that we can’t see. There are giants. There are storms.

People are flawed.

They are sinners.

They hurt us, many times unintentionally. Sometimes just because their will is totally against our will, and we see that they are hurting themselves. But they don’t see it that way.

Then the relationship is very strained.

But Jesus has promised us victory over all of those things.

If we hold onto Him, and believe His word and keep saying it, He will bring us through.

Then no matter what life throws at us, we will come out bearing a sweet fragrance before God.

2 Cor. 2:14-16 “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

Out of the bitter comes the sweet.

Let the bitter things of life that come your way produce a sweet fragrance in you.

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4