Flying Blind

While flying a plane in thick fog, the pilot cannot be sure of his direction unless he gives full attention to his instruments. In a thunderstorm, the turbulence can toss the plane about; the darkness within the clouds may cause disorientation. Sometimes the pilot will feel as though he is going up or down or turning around. But he cannot depend on his feelings. Only the gyros can be trusted, so the pilot must hang on to the controls in the turbulence, and discipline his mind to concentrate on the instruments-not on the storm.

There is a parallel spiritual truth for the believer in troubled times.

Undisciplined feelings will cause disorientation-even a crash- unless we keep ourselves stabilized by the facts of God’s Word.

The Blessings of a Single, Working Mother

“Lord, show me how I’ve been blessed by You.” I looked around my house and surveyed some major repairs that had been waiting patiently for years to be done. My car note is due, and my funds are depleted again. It’s Friday night. I’m sitting home alone with no immediate prospects or pursuers knocking on my door, posting on my Facebook wall, or texting my phone. My job is mediocre to say the least, and the future financially is looking pretty bleak. I’m just being real.

Many times, in taking inventory of the blessings of God in our lives, we look at the external: what we see, what we feel, what we have. We fall into the devil’s age-old Garden tactic which shifts our focus on things we don’t have while blinding us to all that we do have. From the very beginning until now, Satan has used this very same strategy to depress, deplete, and frustrate many.

In spite of it all, I can truly declare “I am BLESSED!” My greatest blessing from God is HOPE. It sounds so simple, almost child-like, but nevertheless true.

Proverbs 13: 12 says “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life.” Early in my relationship with God, He set a pattern in motion, a pattern of deferment and deliverance. I’ve been perpetually brought to a place of need, want, and waiting, only to see God come through over and over again! HE is where my HOPE lies. I AM BLESSED!

Psalms 119:49-50 states, “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou has caused me to HOPE. This is my comfort in my affliction; for Thy word hath quickened me.” The word quickened in Hebrew means to revive, to keep
alive, nourish, to repair. Because He has never let me down, and He is where HOPE is, I don’t have to suffer long with feelings of anxiety, worry, fear, or torment. His Word has been a constant source of HOPE for me. If God says it, He will do it, for “God is not man that he should lie.”

Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the substance of things HOPED for, the evidence of things not seen.” There is an excitement that rises up within me when I think about the promises of God that have not yet come to fruition. I’ve come to realize delay does not mean denied. His HOPE in me replaced my “if’s” with “when’s,” and I have found myself making plans for the day God brings those promises to pass. It’s like cleaning up all the wrapping paper on Christmas morning only to find one more gift hiding under the mess with your name on it! Living life in the realm of FAITH and HOPE in God is a blessed life!

In the messiness of life, whether it is in job and family situations, economical uncertainties and hardships, or life as a single mother, our HOPE in God tells us we are BLESSED.

Written by Debra Sheets
Reprinted by permission from Heart2Heart Newsletter from New Life Center, Bridgeton, Missouri.

The Flower of Peace and a Promise

Fifteen years ago I found out it was likely I would never have children due to chemically-induced menopause after fifteen months of chemotherapy at age seventeen. I remember a time not long after that when I felt like God was telling me to trust Him. This new challenge would later give Him yet another opportunity for a miracle.

In July 2008, I went to the ER in severe pain and discovered I was pregnant! But the pregnancy was ectopic (tubal). My promise had been given and taken away in the same instant.

When we got home from the hospital, Nate settled me on the couch and then went out onto the deck to water our plants. A few moments later he came back into the house, carrying my favorite plant, a wrinkly old prickly pear cactus. Why that plant? Because to our surprise it had bloomed! It had never bloomed before. The blooms were these amazing, delicate, tissue-paper flowers: yellow with bright pink and orange center. They were absolutely stunning, but they only lasted for a day. Then they were gone. So 15 years later, my prickly pear cactus became God’s little messenger and turned into an extension of the promise. It was only there for a day but it was real, and it was beautiful, and it was my own little celebration of life! I knew that God had given me that flower to remind me that He was right there, even when things didn’t make much sense.

I wrote in a letter to my family at the time, “I am thankful for a life full of miracles, and look forward to more to come!” In March 2009 we discovered again I was pregnant.

Although the doctors were concerned that it could be another ectopic and were keeping a close eye on me, Nate and I chose to embrace this gift from God. Whether it would last for a day, a week, or a lifetime, we would embrace it with our whole hearts.

Imagine our excitement when I was finally far enough along to see something in an ultrasound. The ultrasound tech said, “I want to show you something,” and suddenly, beautifully, there on the screen were not one, but two perfect little peas. We were having twins!

Today Addie and Asher are 19 months old and we are now expecting Baby #3 this August!

Incidentally, last November, Nate reminded me that on that prickly pear cactus there were THREE perfect blooms – our “little-big- hug” from heaven.

Again I say, I am so thankful for a life full of miracles, and I look forward to more to come!

Written by Wendy Lyons
Reprinted with permission from Heart2Heart Newsletter, New Life Center, Bridgeton, Missouri. Subscribe at Heart2Heartnewsletter@hotmail.com

Can You Keep a Secret?

“A talebearer revealeth secrets; but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter” (Proberbs 11:13).

In the information age that we live in, it seems as if there are no secrets anymore—especially when it comes to the personal lives of those in the public eye.

In the past, the magazines or other news media that exposed private (and often humiliating or embarrassing) details of people’s lives were considered tabloids and frowned upon by the other respectable news outlets. But not anymore. The boundary lines of decency have been erased, and it is a race between all the news media to see who can be the first to publish or broadcast the “scoop.”

At the first sign of a bulge in a female celebrity’s stomach, the news media begin to publish questions about whether she is pregnant. Maybe she has just put on a little weight, but the rumor mill is already off and running. If she actually is pregnant, just wait a few weeks and you will know the sex of the baby, the due date, where it will be born, and a myriad of other details, usually reserved for family and close friends. We are also privy to information about the intricacies of people’s marriages, infidelities, subsequent divorces, and remarriages that really is none of our business.

Because we have so many “talebearers” that have crafted “revealing secrets” into a fine art, it has developed into a public pastime that has bled over into our own personal lives. It is increasingly difficult to find people who do not delight in spreading gossip about others. But the Bible gives us strong admonition to discipline ourselves to not be a talebearer, or repeat everything that we hear. Proverbs 17:9 says, “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”

Proverbs 26:20-22 says, “Where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” Don’t be a talebearer! Be a faithful person who knows how to keep secrets!”

Written by Beth Dillon