Breaking Point 2

What will it take before you decide to create a buffer zone in your life?  Stress reveals itself in many ways, lack of patience, snapping at others, weight gain, heart attack…. What will it take?  Our bodies need downtime to heal and refresh. Listen to your body it will let you know when you are at the breaking point. 

As you’re in the overload mode your time seems to disappear, no time for family or friends, no time for God.  Seriously, how can you do what God wants you to do if you have no time? How can you even hear what God wants you to do if you don’t take the time to be with Him and listen?    Don’t be that person that says “Really God, now…?” 

“People plan their path, but the Lord secures their steps.”Proverbs 15:9

Do you know someone in this stressed out obsessed with too much stuff people?  You know they have probably lost their joy too, instead of just blowing them off as a mean person, try to help them figure it out…

“Anxiety leads to depression, but a good word encourages.” Proverbs 12:25

Cleaning Closets

I am packing,  again... how did we get so much stuff in just a year?  Seriously!  And if I carried it to Missouri two years ago and back to Florida a year later and STILL have not used it do I really need to keep it? Really there are broken things I swore I would fix and never did, scraps of paper in case I need it for crafting with the grand kids and ink pens! I have so many ink pens I will not need to purchase any for the rest of my life!  It really is ridiculous the junk closet, junk drawer, junk in the laundry room and junk on the counters in the garage- that were clean 6 months ago. Our closets get so filled with so much clutter that we loose things, as hard as we search for these items, we cannot find them until we clean out the clutter.  

Our lives are so like that…we search for God, try to hear Him, but until we clean out the clutter in out heads…… we will not "hear" Him.  Some things should be given away to bless someone else, like that beautiful dress hanging in the closet that has been there for 4 years….. (come on girl you know you will never fit into again); so should you pass on some knowledge or wisdom don't keep that for yourself.  Other things need to be thrown away, like the other beautiful dress that as the stain you swear you can get out, and 3 years later it is still in a wad on the closet floor, also throw out that baggage that is doing you no good at all and only brings you down whenever you think about it.  Perhaps it is an old friendship that you just need to let go of, you may be past the issue and just keep holding out that things will be the same again, the stain will not come out. There are time we need to throw out the thought that we can change the situation.

All this is renewing the mind Romans 12:2 tells us:

 "Do not conform to the pattern of the world; be transformed by renewing your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will..."

So if we will clean out the clutter in our head we will be able to "hear' God and know His plan for us is:

Good

Pleasing

Perfect

It is a choice, keep the old or purge the old and renew….. 

I am trying to throw things away- really I am. If I don't succeed, you may see me on the next episode of "Hoarders", sigh....

Listening for God in a Storm

Have you been in a situation where the storm seems so strong that you thought you would drown? You know you should trust that the Lord has the situation under control, but is hard not to focus on the problem at hand.

A year ago we moved back to Florida from Missouri under less than ideal circumstances.  While I was ecstatic that we were moving home and closer to our children and grandchildren, I was angry and hurt by situation I was “forced” into.

When we look back it is so much easier to see God’s Plan unfold.  We now feel we over stayed in Missouri and that God was speaking to us -showing us it was time to go but we couldn’t hear Him because the storm was so loud. My husband lost his job after six months, in fact he had four jobs in fourteen months.  I was sick most of the time while we were there and discovered after eight months in,  that the house we rented had been used as a Meth house. But we pressed on – praying God would “fix” our circumstances instead of listening and watching for Him.  Looking back we see God was answering our prayers, but we were trying to “fix “the situation ourselves.  Then came the big one-the move at a big financial loss.  But that got our attention!

Yes, I was angry and hurt by the situation I felt forced into but the truth is it was my own lack of faith.  Those that were positioned within our circumstances were part of the big plan God was using to bring changes to our lives.

Are you in the midst  of a storm?  God’s word tells us to-

“Be still, and know that I am God” Psalms 46:10 

Take time to pray and then listen for God’s voice and watch for things He is doing, then trust Him.

"Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for GOD’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to GOD!" (emphasis mine) 

Proverbs 3:5-6 MSG