Courage For Today

Strength

Face Your Fears

Strength

Have you ever felt outnumbered, overwhelmed, out of your element, or just flat out afraid? Sometimes as Christians, we are attacked on multiple levels – at home, on our jobs, in our relationships, in our finances, in our bodies as well as in our minds. While handling one of these situations is challenging enough, sometimes the attacks come all at one time. Our response to life’s unpredictable moments often varies. Some of us cry, while others fight, isolate, hide or hope the situation goes away or fixes itself. Yet, we, who are Christians, should have a different response to fear. Why? We are reminded that when we are attacked, we are not alone on this Christian journey. God is with us, and commanded, “Do not be afraid.” So remind your fear that GOD IS BIGGER!

We would all admit that at times we have allowed our fears to overshadow our faith. Always remember that you will never be given more than you can bear. When we are afraid, when we can’t sleep at night, and when we find ourselves pacing the floor trying to figure things out – take a step back, a deep breath, and look up to God. Embrace His mercy and grace and remind yourself that God’s ever-lasting strength will give you final victory.

“When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.” Deuteronomy 20:1 (NIV)

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The Three Cord Rope

Strength

A while back, I was working outside in my backyard moving some boxes and furniture inside my storage shed. There was an old Cedar Chest that I had in storage which belonged to my mom.  It was not in good shape but I had wanted to save it since it belonged to her.  The lid of the chest was coming loose from the hinges so I had tied some rope around the lid of the chest to keep it secure.  I didn’t realize how well I had secured it with the rope because even though a couple of strands of the rope had snapped, the lid was still held securely by the one remaining strand of the rope.  Without all 3 strands of the rope, the lid would have been damaged further.

Recently, I have been reminded of the strength of family and friends. While each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses, it’s comforting to know that we can all lean on each other during times of need.  As Family, we all learn to help each other and provide support to others that may need uplifting at a particular time or during a particular situation.

The same is true with our Christian brothers and sisters.  We’re all part of the body of Christ and, just like with our earthly families, we should all remember that when one of us is hurt, we’re all hurt.  When one of us is down, we’re all down.  But, as family and as Christians, each of us is witness to God’s majesty in blending each of our talents; personalities; abilities; and gifts into an unbreakable bond, a three cord rope that can’t easily be broken.

And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him.  A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.  Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NIV)

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I Will Praise You Forever

Strength

Yes, that is a real picture of my Mom.  I’m not sure of the exact date, but I’m guessing it was taken sometime in the 1960’s or early 1970’s.  It’s been 11 years now since Mom went on to be with the Lord, but there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t miss her.  With Mother’s Day fast approaching, I find myself thinking more and more about her and the legacy she left for me and my brothers; really, for any one that knew her.

Mom was born with scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.  It caused her to have several back surgeries that affected her posture and other parts of her body.  Over time, the multiple surgeries caused other complications and hampered her life tremendously.  Eventually, she suffered a stroke which eventually led to her death.  But, this is not an article about the medical issues she fought her entire life.  Instead, this is an article about someone who praised God, despite having every reason not to.

Throughout my entire life, I can remember my mom always being positive.  Her faith was what I would call calm but bold.  You wouldn’t find her on the street corners preaching or in someone’s face acting holier than thou.  No, instead, you found her giving to others when she had nothing to give.  You found her remembering your birthday when you thought no one cared.  You found her calling someone just to see how they were doing and to let them know she was thinking of them.  You never heard her say a negative word about anyone.  She never thought she was better than anyone else.  Mom knew where her strength came from.  She never questioned God or asked “why me,” although that would have been easy to do.  Instead she praised.  She praised and thanked God for everything, even though it appeared that she had nothing to praise.

What a tremendous outlook and wonderful passion for life that forever affected so many in a positive way.  You may be going through trials in your own life and don’t know where to turn.  You may be at the end of your rope and don’t know if you can keep going.  If this is you, I urge you to keep praising God.

Even if you don’t have a song in your heart, keep praising God.  Even if life just hurts so bad right now, praise God anyway.  Even if life makes absolutely no sense at all right now, praise God even more.  Even if you don’t know what steps to take next, praise God to the highest.

Mom, you know I can’t sing a note or carry a tune, but thank you for reminding me to Praise God when the music seems to have stopped.  Happy early Mother’s Day Mom, I love you and miss you.

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Never Shaken

Strength

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”  (Psalms 125:1-2)

My wife and I have been on vacation this week and had the pleasure of spending a day visiting Providence Canyon State Park in Georgia.  It is a State Park that I had only read about and had only heard about, but never visited.  It is a beautiful park known as Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon” with gorgeous rock formations and caves, along with a surprised deer or two and seemingly never-ending tree-lines.

During our time in the park, we made a choice to hike along one of their many available trails.  This particular trail took us down a long and winding path gradually inching us closer to the valley at the bottom of the canyons.   When we finally reached the canyon floor, we began to walk along a dried creek bed that twisted through the canyons sandwiching us between the multi-faced walls of rock formations on each side of us.

It was such an interesting feeling for me as I walked down the creek bed surrounded by this fortress of stone.  The quietness of the moment was so peaceful and calm.  The walls of the canyon gave me a sense of protection and strength.  Even though I was walking in the deepest valley of the canyon, I felt calmer and more strengthened than I did at the top of the canyon.  In fact, the more I walked along the valley floor, the more I witnessed and experienced the strength of the surrounding mountain walls.

At some point in your Christian life, you will face adversity and heartache.  There will be times when you feel like you can’t carry on any further and you just want to give up.  You’ll have those days when the world is seemingly against you and the valley you are in seems too deep to overcome.  It is during those times, you should remind yourself that you are truly surrounded by the Lord both now and forever.  Your valley doesn’t have to be a place of hurt and failure; instead, let it be your reminder of the strength and majesty that is God surrounding your life with a fortress that cannot be shaken.

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Your Time to Blossom

Strength

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

Over the past several months, my wife and I have been spending weekends with my Father-in-Law to help out around his house.  My Father-in-Law grew up on a farm and spent the early years of his life, with his many brothers and sisters, tending to the family farm.  In his adult life, he worked to maintain his farming heritage by maintaining gardens of vegetables and fruits such as strawberries and blueberries.  At this season of his life, he can’t do the physical labor he once could handle with ease.  Instead, he must rely on my wife and me to handle the chores that need to be done.

During our weekends helping out, I have received some first-hand knowledge of all that he has planted on his acreage.  I have learned about the different seasons of the blueberries, strawberries, and muscadines.  In fact, I learned how my Father-in-Law planted these particular fruits in a way that when one fruit is out of season, another fruit becomes in season.  In the early part of summer, I can enjoy blueberries.  Later in the summer, I have the pleasure of fresh strawberries and then, still later, juicy muscadines.  Each fruit becomes ripe and juicy during its own season at just the perfect time—-not too early and not too late.  Pick them too early and they are sour and firm.  Pick them too late and they are mushy and discolored.

As Christians, each of us is blessed with certain God-given gifts and talents.  These gifts and talents bloom and grow in their due season.  It’s easy sometimes to get discouraged when things in our lives are not going as we think they should.  We wish we were better at this skill or that talent and we wish we mastered those skills and talents sooner rather than later.  We often get discouraged when various stages of our life are not living up to what we think they should.

If you are going through one of those seasons in your own life, don’t despair.  Have faith that your God-given fruit will ripen just at the perfect time, based on God’s perfect timing for your life.  Instead of being discouraged about what isn’t; get encouraged for what is to be.  I promise, you’ll be glad you waited.

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The Workers Are Few

Strength

I have some great memories of playing on the small farm at my Grandfathers, when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old.  It wasn’t a huge farm by any means, but for an old City boy like me it was something special.  I can remember that he had chickens running around everywhere; fields of corn; a fishing lake; and–my favorite–the old barn.  I don’t think I had ever seen a real barn before, but it was everything I had imagined.  Lofts of hay were everywhere.  At least one horse I can remember was in the barn.  There were lots of places to climb and jump and explore.  It was a dream world for someone my age.

I remember one particular afternoon, my grandfather decided that he needed to pick some of the corn from the fields and, worst of all, he decided that I needed to help.  I can remember not being very excited about helping.  I was in my own little world playing in the barn and the last thing I wanted to do at that time was learn how to gather corn from the field.  Of course, I went along for the adventure but learned quickly that my hunches were right; I would have rather stayed in the barn.

My grandfather walked with me down the long rows of corn.  As we were walking, he was explaining that if the corn wasn’t picked soon, it would all rot and not be fit to eat.  The timing was critical.  I remember how tall the stalks of corn were, all over 6 feet tall.  He showed me how to find the corn on the stalks and look for the corn that was ready to be picked.  He then showed me how to take the corn off the stalk; put the freshly picked corn in a basket; and move on down the row to the next stalk.  My memories of this farming adventure were not very positive.  I remember how hot it was.  The sun beaming down on us as we were sweating and itching while moving between row after row after row.  I remember how isolated and lonely I felt at times. My grandfather had ventured off several rows from me and I can remember how scary that was.  I was in this huge field of giant corn stalks, by myself, and not knowing which way to go if I had to go back to the barn.  I also remember how hard it was.  I had to look for the corn on the stalk, then look to make sure it was ready to be picked, then pick the corn and lug it around with my basket full of other corn that had been picked.  I would much rather have been playing in the barn.

The Lord reminded me the other day of our verse in Matthew that says in part that the Harvest is plentiful, but the Laborers are few.  I can see why.  Just like my experience that day on the farm, our attempts to labor in God’s Fields face the same obstacles:

  • The Lord’s work is uncomfortable sometimes.  Remember, when we labor in the Lord’s work, we trying to reach people that are usually resistant to God’s word.  There’s often tension and friction and even conflict. Unfortunately, it takes endurance on our part to carry on even when the going is tough.
  • The Lord’s work is lonely sometimes.  Many times I have worked on projects or events for the Lord and wondered why?  I wondered why was I wasting my time when seemingly no one cared or noticed.
  • The Lord’s work is not easy.  In most cases, the Lord leads in directions that will grow us and shape us.  That’s not usually comfortable.  Its’ much easier to stay where we are.

That corn on the cob later that day with dripping, melting butter was delicious.  But, few, knew what was involved to get to that point of enjoyment. Timing is critical.  We don’t know how critical our part is in God’s overall plan.  If you and I are not obedient and don’t follow God’s direction, it may be too late for some.

Has the Lord called you to be a Laborer for HIM in a certain area?  Is so, are you willing to work and endure the heat; loneliness; and difficulty of the Field of Harvest, or are you ready to return to the barn where it’s comfortable?

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