Taking Heart

As we continue to seek the Lord for direction we have been encouraged, even though our situation remains the same.  That shocks me.  I think it used to be that my joy would depend on my circumstances.  And, to some extent, it still does.  I will have a tremendous amount of joy if we somehow find ourselves free from debt, but if we never find ourselves in that situation, I can still have joy.  "In this world you will have trouble...." Jesus said.  "But take heart!  I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33)  We need not be shocked by the troubles we find ourselves in.  That is the normal Christian life.  What is not normal is realizing we can be overcomers in our situation.  So, I daily, moment by moment, try to "take heart" as I still sometimes forget the trials are normal and instead pray for a life of ease.  My prayers are slowly changing to ask God to help me be an overcomer, to thank Him for my trials, my trouble and to thank Him for the ultimate victory and sacrifice He made.

Praying more deliberately has made us aware, too, of what distracts us.  Anyone looking from the outside would never realize what can be a distraction for one person over another, what can keep you from being as diligent as possible.  We are starting to be made more aware of what are distractions are and that is helping us focus more on what we need to do.  I consider that a real answer to prayer.

I heard a preacher in the last week talk about Christ being enough.  We think we need more of this or that to be content.  He said, no, Christ must be enough.  I struggled for a while as I listened to Him. Yet another battle was beginning in my mind.  Was Christ enough?  I had to admit, in that moment, I was not feeling like He was.  As some people say, we want Jesus Plus.....I think that is what I was thinking anyway.  That was how I came to the realization I was being caught up again in our debt-reduction focus instead of contentment in Christ.

I don't believe that means I am going to sit around and just think about Jesus.  Nor does it mean my husband doesn't need to work anymore, but instead just think about Jesus.  No, we both are continuing to pray for freedom and work towards that end, but we must keep our attitudes in check. And we both quickly can lose focus and start just thinking about ourselves instead of all that we have, all that God has done.  We maintain our hope, though Satan sometimes works overtime trying to kill that hope.

So we've had many revelations over the last 3 weeks.  This is why I'm so encouraged.  At the same time, I was reading in 1 Chronicles and it really confirmed what we were feeling and learning.  "...but when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought Him, he was found by them."  (15:4)  We are finding Him.  Then in verse 7, "But you, take courage.  Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded."  We continue to take courage.  Our weak hands are being strengthened.  Our work shall be rewarded, though, again, it might not be in the way we hope, but we always have the hope that none of our work is ever in vain.

Now, I have to make breakfast......salad....all we eat is salad!!!  I've never eaten so much lettuce or kale in my life.  It is coming out of our ears, no joke.  My husband said we'll have to have a salad party to use it all up.  Too bad you can't freeze it.  There's got to be a way......Oh well, it's helping to take off a few of those unwanted winter pounds!