If Tomorrow Never Comes

Yesterday I attended the funeral of a friend who passed away at the age of fifty-five.  She had been diagnosed with cancer four months ago and died Sunday night, Easter Sunday. During the funeral service yesterday, the Pastor told everyone that she had told him she wanted to make sure she knew where she was going when she left this world.  He assured everyone that she was in Heaven sitting at the feet of Jesus.  My friend left her mother, her husband, a son and a daughter behind.  I’m so glad my friend had the opportunity to make sure she would be with the Father in Heaven and for those four months she and her husband had to say good-bye to each other. 

 

I watched her husband yesterday as he tried so hard to be strong and assure everyone he was okay.  He has Multiple Sclerosis and the disease is taking its toll on him as he is now walking with a cane. Through the diagnosis and progression of the disease and now his wife’s death he has managed to always keep a positive attitude and is always “okay”.  I will always remember his wife as being upbeat and happy.  If he should leave this world before me, I will remember him as being positive and strong.  I sat there yesterday reflecting over the memories of my friend and wondered what will be said about me when I leave this world. 

I know there are some people that will only remember the mistakes I’ve made, the bad things I’ve done regardless of how many wonderful things I may do or accomplish before I leave this world.  I know that I’ve spent far too much of my life working, fighting, sacrificing some of the very things that are truly the most important to me in order to try to obtain ‘things’, ‘possessions’ for our family.

I’ve realized the most important things to me are my relationship with the Lord, what I do for His kingdom and my family. When I leave this world, I will not be able to take the possessions I’ve worked so hard to obtain with me and they will not matter to the ones I love and that love me.  What will truly matter will be the memories I leave behind because when I am gone from here, my only remaining existence will be the memories I’ve created and left with loved ones.  When those loved ones are gone, my only existence will be the influence I’ve had with loved ones that they have passed on to their loved ones.

I pray that the Lord will help me to make the most of each day, to take advantage of every opportunity to do good and be a witness for Him, to be a positive influence on my loved ones and leave them with wonderful, happy and positive memories, to never fail to let the ones I love know how much they mean to me if tomorrow never comes. 

I would like to encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to make sure of where you will spend enternity.  Many of us may not have a four month warning like my friend did.  Many of us may be gone in the blink of an eye. If you do not know the Lord as your Lord and Savior, I invite you to accept Him and know Him now.  Also, please take advantage of every opportunity to let those you love know just how much you love them today, just in case tomorrow never comes.

The Hands and Feet of Jesus

I have spent a great deal of time with the Lord this week, learning and growing in Him.  After learning the lesson I learned regarding obedience last Sunday, which I shared in my previous blog post, I felt the need to spend most of my time with Him.  I recognized that obedience was an area of my life that I needed to acknowledge, grow and move some mountains in my life.  The Lord has been helping me this week by revealing areas of disobedience and moving some of those mountains in my life regarding obedience to Him.

I have realized that though I have considered myself a Christian for many years, I have been an extremely disobedient and unruly child of God.  I’ve realized the difference between ‘provision’ and ‘blessing’.  Provision is when our basic needs are met.  Blessing is anything which exceeds provision.  Sometimes we are required to sacrifice even some of our most basic needs in order to learn obedience.  The Lord revealed to me this week that He has made provisions for me in my life, though I was being disobedient but He will not bless disobedience. 

For many years I was looking for ‘blessings’ from the Lord and feeling hurt and rejected when they didn’t come, all the while failing to recognize or acknowledge my disobedience in so many areas of my life. The truth is, the provisions He has made for me in comparison to my level of disobedience should be considered blessings, if that make sense.

The Lord has been trying for seven years to take me on a journey of healing, restoration, forgiveness, strengthening, learning and growing in Him by writing a book.  Not only would this book take me on a journey, but by sharing my journey with others would also allow them to take their own journey.  Yet, I disobeyed the Lord, listened to Satan’s lies and refused to take the journey by beginning to write. 

I’ve been financially disobedient to the Lord by not paying my tithes faithfully and consistently and giving Him what is His.  The heart, in which I did give, when I did give, was not a joyful heart, but a heart of greed and expectation. 

I have been disobedient in the area of witnessing to others.  Witnessing is the call the Lord places on us to share His truths with others and lead them to know Him.  This area is the area I’ve always been most intimidated by.  I would always think, “Oh Lord, I can’t impose on anyone’s belief system to share mine with them.”  I have known for a long time what the Lord has wanted me to do, yet I chose to be disobedient and was foolish enough to expect blessings.

It’s funny how those things in life that we find the most intimidating are so often the very things the Lord calls us to do.  I suppose He does that to demonstrate His ability, His strength and His power.  When we go into the deep waters, we are completely submitting and surrendering ourselves to Him and His will for our lives.  We are walking in blind faith, trusting Him completely. In our demonstration of faith we are being obedient and allowing Him to take us outside of our own understanding and our comfort zones for Him to show us,  it is not us and but Him.

We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  He wants us to submit ourselves to Him allowing Him to use us as His instrument.  He wants us to be His arms to reach out to the hurting and the lost.  I have finally realized the importance of being obedient to the Lord and the call He has placed on my life as His child. 

I want to recognize, acknowledge and change every area of my life in which I am being disobedient to my Heavenly Father. It is not for blessings that I want to be obedient to Him.  It is because I love Him and I want Him to accomplish everything that He wants to accomplish through me.  He is not a mediocre God.  He is an awesome God!  He doesn’t deserve mediocrity from me.  He deserves for me to give Him my all and my best.  I have finally realized what an awesome privilege and honor it is to be the hands and feet of Jesus! 

The Battle Is God's

Yesterday was my grandson’s second birthday.  I had talked with my daughter, his mother on the phone the night before and had promised her I would take him to see her after church.  Though I don’t want to deprive either of them the opportunity to know each other and spend time together, I find it difficult to hear her speak of her illusions regarding my grandson which are so far from reality. She has illusions of me handing Joshua back over to her someday very soon when she still has so much to accomplish before that will happen.  It saddens me to see how far out of touch she is with reality.  I was not looking forward to facing this yesterday.

During the worship service in church yesterday I could sense a spirit of oppression all over me.  I was distracted and I failed miserably.  I could feel the Spirit of the Lord prompting me to raise my hands in praise to worship Him, yet I was not obedient.  Instead of raising my hands to praise Him and handing the struggle I was having with this spirit of oppression over to Him allowing Him to fight the battle for me, I chose to hold on to it and continue the struggle.

Pastor Chase came to me and asked me to share part of my testimony with the church.  I was caught off guard.  I wasn’t prepared.  I was distracted and still struggling because I had not been obedient to the Holy Spirit.  The devil would have loved nothing more than for me to have refrained from sharing part of my testimony.  Yet I agreed to do so even though I was struggling, so he didn’t win completely. 

I feel that because I was not obedient to the Holy Spirit and chose to remain in this struggle, I was distracted and failed to meet the mark so to speak.  Because I had failed to lift my hands in praise and because I held onto the struggle myself instead of handing it over to the Lord, the devil had succeeded in distracting my focus from the Lord where it needed to be.  I feel that because I was distracted and engaged in this struggle I failed to allow the Lord to use me to the full extent for Him to bless others.  I learned a very valuable lesson!  The battle was not for me to fight!  It was His battle to fight for me and He would have gladly done so if only I had been obedient to Him and handed it over to Him. 

It is so critical that we walk in constant obedience to the Lord in order to not miss a given opportunity.  I never want to miss another opportunity for the Lord to use me as His instrument to bless others to the fullest.  How wonderful it is to know that my God is an awesome God who will fight these battles for me and defeat the enemy if only I will walk in faithful obedience to Him. 

Exodus 14:14 tells us “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  Deuteronomy 1:30 says “The Lord your God, who is going before you will fight for you in Egypt before your very eyes,” and in 4:22 “Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.”  Joshua 23:10 says “One of you routs a thousand because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised.”  Nehemiah 4:20, “Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there.  Our God will fight for us!”  2 Chronicles 20:15 tells us the battle is not ours but God’s.    I will be obedient because I never want to miss another opportunity.  I will hand the battles over to God and rest in His promises to fight the battles for me because they are His not mine.  I pray that whatever you’re battling today, you will hand it over to the Lord.  God Bless!