daily IMPACT by selahV

When Arrows Come...

and pierce our souls.  When criticisms are unending.  When we are falsely accused and stand in the chambers of our private thoughts, we are reminded that:  God has done great things; and none is like Him--above or below.  He shows us great troubles sometimes.  But...He also is the One to revive us again as Psalm 71 tells us:

"You, who have shown me great and severe troubles, Shall revive me again, And bring me up again from the depths of the earth." vs. 20

More than simply bringing us up from the depths of our despair, and plunking us into the crowded streets of greater adversity, He takes the thousand pieces of hard and broken  pieces of clay and adds His Living Water to our parched, thirsting spirit.  He softens the dry shards of our self-worth in the center of His palms...

kneading, ever-kneading--sometimes gently,

sometimes with great pressure, till we are made anew.

Then we are altogether strengthened by His grace.

Meadows of glory bloom. For what purpose, we sometimes wonder.  Why do You care when I am broken and crushed?  Why do seeds die, then struggle to reach the top of the earth?  To burst forth in glory for the pleasure of You, O, Lord.  You have a plan for each seed that dies and you have a plan for me each time my heart is broken.  From the depths of my pain are pods of stronger seeds to share with others.  To give away.  To flutter in the wind, sometimes.  To be picked up by some passing bluebird and carried across the oceans to land upon a land I've never seen.  And in that land, another meadow begins to grow. selahV

"You shall increase my greatness, And comfort me on every side." vs. 21

Remind me, Father, of the flowers I have found along the way.  

LET IT HAPPEN

Often when met with difficulty, crisis or temptation I rail against the circumstance.  I do not embrace it.  Sometimes I am calm in the midst of the situation.  Sometimes I fall apart.  I totally fell apart when I watched my husband receive the news from a police officer that my 33-year-old son was dead on Mother's Day 2005.  Yet, I was perfectly calm when my husband had his heart attack at 2 a.m. on Mother's Day 2007.

"But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing."  James 1:4

Looking back on the past few years, there are things I know I could not have endured apart from the grace of God.  I've often wondered if the crises that I've faced during the decades of being a Christian is what prepared me for enduring the death of my son, and the difficulties I've faced as a result of my husband's heart attack.  Had it been my choice, I would have picked an easier way of life.  I would have chosen not to deal with so many trials.  But it was in God's wisdom that He allowed much to happen with me so I might stand in faith and strength to give Him glory in spite of the sufferings of life.

God wants the best for us.  He wants us "lacking in nothing".  For us to be effective in His kingdom, we must walk with Him through the fires, the floods and the raging storms.  He gives us His hand, His presence, His comfort through each and every moment.  We need only look to Him.  selahV 

UNDERSTAND THIS...

Whatever you are going through right now, this minute, is an opportunity to prove your faith.  When we face a trial that seems overwhelming and we walk out on the other side of that trial with our heads held high, we have proven the faith we possess.

"Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience."  James 1:3

It's not easy to walk in the midst of a trial.  It's not easy to "count it all joy" as we endure it.  It's not easy to remain steadfast when the showers of impossibility and arrows of pain and discouragement pierce our hearts.  But in Jesus we have joy that He is in control.  He loves us, no matter what befalls us.  And after the trial is over, we are assured of a greater endurance, steadfastness and patience to meet the next trial that comes our way.  selahV 

FORGET YESTERDAY...LET IT GO

We can easily get bogged down in the past.  Dwelling on all the negativity of yesterday is like struggling and flailing in a pit of quicksand.  The more you move, the deeper you go and the more you are enslaved by its grip.

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise."  Isaiah 43:19,20.

In this hour of calamity and uncertainty, take heed to the instruction of God.  "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past."  It is not what you have lost.  It is not what you've failed in doing.  It is not what the evil of this world has destroyed.  It doesn't matter.  Do not dwell on it.  Look at what God is doing this moment.  Look at what He promises to do.

God does not forsake His people.  Never.  The wastelands before us--be they economic, political, emotional or spiritual--the Lord is "doing a new thing".  He is not going to remake the old.  He is going to do something entirely new.  He is making a way in the deserts of our lives.  He is clearing the streams of pollution and bringing us pure water to drink.  He is creating a world in which we are able to proclaim the greatness of His being.  He is in control and we are His voice for a frightened, depressed and discouraged people.

Praise Him every chance you get for the peace His grace affords you.  Praise Him in the midst of the downtrodden and broken-spirited--remind others of His steadfast love, protection and sufficiency in all things.  This is a great opportunity to invest in His kingdom.  Spend all He's given you and do not hold back.  selahV

[© SelahV Today, hariette petersen, 2008]

TO LIVE IN PEACE

As a child I use to sing a song with the phrase, "I've got peace like a river in my soul".  Yet, most days in my life I lived in the midst of turmoil and word-wars.  The battles began the moment my dad came home.  They did not stop when he left.  For hours afterwards, I heard the battle rage on as my step-mother muttered and sputtered, cursed, slammed and yelled.  Today I know that a serious mental illness sparked and fueled her rants.  But as a child, my only solace was in retreat to my room where I'd stick my fingers in my ears to drown out the noise.  Often I escaped to the treehouse till the storm passed by.  If that was not an option, I'd say nice things and try my best to be a good girl and not provoke further irritation in her.

Today I have a better escape and another way of looking at turmoil.

"Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14.  Amplified.

Strive to live in peace.  Pursue consecration and holiness.  No matter what war we face in life, we have the peace of God to carry us through it.  Our pursuit of a holy and consecrated submitted life to God and His will, helps us to live in the peace He wants for us.  As a child, I did not realize that peace in God was available.  Today I do.  I am an adult and today I strive to live at peace with everyone.  When that is not possible, I have the assurance that God will keep me through the raging tempests till the storm passes by.  selahV

[© SelahV Today, 2008]

CRIPPLED WITHOUT THE BRACE

You can break your leg or ankle or foot and never have it reset.  You can stay off the broken portion of your body and bones will knit back together.  But you in all likelyhood, it will not heal properly; it will be out of alignment with the rest of your body.  Some folks have even had their legs set and had to go back and have it broken again to avoid pain and a noticeable limp.

Casts, and braces are annoying.  They are cumbersome and impede a person's activities who wears one.  When my daughter broke her tibia in a skiing accident, she had an eight-month old baby who needed her.  Holly had a weird cast that kept her leg at an odd angle.  Literally, she needed help with everything.  The worst part of her recovery process was the immobility, the inability to bend and pick up her daughter, to carry her, to carry food, to sit and feed her.  But had she not submitted to the ever-present brace on her leg, a crippled leg would have been the result.

"...cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured." Hebrews 12:13, Amplified.

As Christians, we need Jesus every moment of our day to keep our lives aligned with His will.  In His glorious wisdom and foreknowledge, He didnot leave us without a Brace.  He left us with His Holy Spirit to guide, to teach and to correct us.  His Spirit lives within us and His Word gives us added support.  God's continually correcting us.  He is always bracing us.  Sometimes we get weary and want to lay aside the corrective braces and casts in our lives.  But we must submit to them or our spiritual lives will be as a broken bone left to heal on its own.  We will become dislocated from the righteous purpose God intends for us.  The perfect plan He has for our lives is thwarted.  Submission is the key to living in harmony with God and making straight the paths before us each day.  selahV

[© SelahV Today, 2008]   

BRACE YOURSELF...

When my grandson, Ryan, broke his neck and back while riding on a motorcycle last year, he had to wear a brace for several weeks.  Prior to receiving the cumbersome brace, he could not move without extreme pain.  And had he moved without the brace, his chance of being paralyzed was a near certainty.  Ryan's accident was on a Friday afternoon and he was airlifted to Oklahoma City.  He came home on Saturday from the hospital and went to church on Sunday.  He had a perfect reason for staying home; he was in a lot of pain.  But he wanted to go to church. The same thing happened when he broke his ankle the year before.  He never let it hinder his walk with the Lord.  He never whined or questioned his lot in life.

For two years running my grandson has gone to Falls Creek Youth Camp in braces.  Once in an upper-body and neck brace, and once in a leg cast.  This is the first year he is able to participate in all the activities at camp.  He's there right now.

"So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakend and drooping hands and strengthen your your feeble and palsied and tottering knees."  Hebrews 12:12

We all have circumstances in which we've met with consequences due to poor decisions and impulsive choices.  We all have times in life in which we are tested and face difficulties.  But we have a Brace that strengthens us in our weakness.  We have a Crutch we can lean on till we are able to walk on our own with Him guiding every step of the way.  May we be encouraged that a day will come when what we endure will be rewarded with greater wisdom than we could possibly imagine.  selahV

[note, photo is not my grandson but it looks like the brace he wore]

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008] 

   

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?

You're going along in overdrive.  You're doing all you know to do to be all you can be.  You are teaching, preaching, serving and expending all your heart for the Gospel's sake.  And all your efforts feel fruitless.  No one is saved.  People taunt you or appear totally apathetic to what you offer.  They even scheme to see you destroyed.  You begin to wonder if what you are doing is worth it--that the people you are trying to reach are unreachable.  In these times you get so caught up in all you are doing that you forget.  It's not about you and what you are doing.

"And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons?  My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him;" Hebrews 12:5.

Our zeal can be our stumbling block.  Our self-sufficiency can be our sin.  Our pride can be our downfall.  And rest assured that God will intervene and correct us in our self-exaltation.  He will humble us and bring us to understand Who is really in charge.  When he does, we need to remember we are His children.  He loves us.  He longs to meet our every need, to be the sufficiency in our insufficiency.  He wants to manifest Himself through us for His glory.  He wants to bring us into perfect alignment with Himself.  He wants us to look to Him in faith and remember we belong to Him.  He will have no other gods before Himself.  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]    

YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET

Do you feel like someone is stepping all over you? People don't agree with you.  They ignore you.  They don't listen to you.  They treat you with contempt.  And you don't like it.   You are angry; you feel insulted.  You are upset because you've been slighted.  You feel offended because another rejects your knowledge, your advice, your viewpoints. It's only just begun.

"You have not yet struggled and fought agonizingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood."  Hebrews 12:4.

Nothing I've encountered in life can compare to what my Lord endured.  I've suffered abuse, lived with multiple health issues, coped with the loss of children, lived with and without, been humiliated, scorned and rejected.  Yet nothing I've been through weighs an ounce in comparison to the load my Savior suffered for me when He took on the world's sin and was crucified for it.

When today's trial comes your way, remember the Savior's trial in the night.  When heartache rips into your soul, remember the scourging of our Lord.  When your burden seems too heavy, remember the cross our Savior carried.  When life seems more than you can bear, remember that Jesus bore it all.  And before you beat yourself up for thinking you're whining, complaining and failing, remember He says, "Come all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."   Be still and know Him today.  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]

BITTER HOSTILITY~~YOU WILL FACE IT

Early in my walk with the Lord I learned that the "world" without Christ does not see what I see.  They do not view things with the same perspective.  The world sees things in the temporary--what it can do for them individually, what they can possess, achieve for themselves.  When we do not fall into lock-step with those purposes because of our faith and faithfulness to Christ, we will encounter ridicule, insults and threatening circumstances.  When we do...

"Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds." Hebrews 12:3 

As a Believer, our desires are not of this world.  This earth is not our home, we're just passing through.  And along the way we will meet opposition on our journey.  People will not like us.  People will twist our words and call us hate-mongers for standing up for Truth and against sin.  We'll be insulted because we do not do what the world finds acceptable and tolerable.  We will face trials we would not face if we went along with the crowd and condoned unrighteousness.  We will sometimes stand all alone in our beliefs.  We will be called unchristian by people professing to be Christians.  We will get discouraged, depressed and weary.  Yet...

Nothing we face could possibly compare to what our Savior endured at the hands of sinners who beat Him with whips that ripped into His flesh and tore into His body.  We cannot possibly know the depth of His agony as He hung naked upon the Cross for crimes we have committed in rebellion to our Holy God.  We will never ever experience the isolation and rejection of the Father of our souls as Jesus experienced when God turned away His face upon the sin of all mankind.   We deserved what He faced, endured willingly, and without complaint, yet we were spared.  His victory is our victory.  And what we face today is a pleasure in comparison to His pain to gain that victory for us.  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]