Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Battle

 

38 "I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them;
Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed.
39 And I have destroyed them and wounded them,
So that they could not rise;
They have fallen under my feet.
40 For You have armed me with strength for the battle;
You have subdued under me those who rose against me.
[2 Samuel 22:38-40]

What enemy are you battling against today: depression, anxiety, fear, hatred, anger, pain, sickness, grief, job loss, weight gain, addictions? These words from David are powerful and inspired by God. They are the key to success. The Bible is full of Scriptures to use to battle against all our enemies so we can lead healthy, successful lives.

The majority, if not all, of our enemies are within us; in our minds. Often we are our own worst enemy. We accept thoughts to enter our mind that we should be rejecting.

Our minds are powerful. The words we speak are powerful. More than we can ever imagine.

One sentence or one thought can literally destroy a person. They will mediate on those words until they become larger than life. They will blow an event or words spoken over them out of proportion instead of rejecting them and moving on.

One thought can change a person. Just one though has brought enormous success to millions and millions of people. If you think back, you probably can recall one thought that changed your world. An idea that came to mind that you acted upon that turned a situation around to your benefit.

Our biggest battles in life can be won by getting our mind in agreement with God. God created this world and He knows how it works. He created us so He knows what it takes for us to lead healthy, successful, happy lives. When we turn our backs on God we turn our faces to Satan.

Evil is real. Evil is in the world to kill, steal and destroy us. [John 10:10] When we are suffering from something that is hurting, whether it is physical or mental, it is the result of evil entering our life. We opened a door for it to enter, either through ignorance, immaturity, or disobedience. We may not have intentionally known that's what we were doing, but the truth is that's what we did.

How many times have you told yourself, "I'm coming down with a cold." then you do. Those thoughts become a self professing prophecy. At one time I was bombarded by severe colds. One day I said enough. I never want another cold. Now when I feel the first 'symptoms' of a cold, I chase away any thoughts about the symptoms or the possibility of a cold coming on. I keep my mind active on anything but that. As a result I rarely experience a cold, and the colds I do get are the result of me not talking my mind off from the symptoms.

The same applies to headaches. For years I suffered from chronic headaches 24/7. They started in the 7th grade. After suffering with this condition for years taking aspirin every three hours, I finally had enough. I told the headache to go away. And guess what? They went away. I just change my thoughts. The minute I felt a headache starting I told it to go away then went on with my day and it left. It was so simple.

I do the same with insect bites. They no longer itch or swell. I leave them alone and don't think about them and forget I was even bit. I change my thoughts and focus on anything but that.

What I've been doing was turning my back to my enemy and no longer giving him power to destroy my life.

Jesus came into the world to make peace between God and man. His death removed the wrath that God once had against us because of the sin that was in the world. Jesus came to bring us salvation. Salvation is healing. He healed the wrath between God and man, but Jesus also came to heal the sick and the lame. He came to heal our broken hearts, our sadness, our loneliness, our despair, our relationship with God.

When man was created there was no sickness, disease only gladness of heart and communion with God. There was no evil in the world at that time until Eve ushered it in because of her disobedience to God. They didn't even know evil existed. With the first bite they received the knowledge of evil.

Sickness is of the devil. Sickness is evil. Jesus gave us power over evil with His death. This is something that those before Jesus came didn't have. God gave us power over sickness, over disease, over all the ills of society. But we have to believe without doubt and have faith. Evil rules only when we give it power to do so. We give the power that God gave us to the devil to use to destroy us.

Again the question arises. What battle are you facing today? Are you resisting it or have you allowed yourself to become a slave by allowing the enemy to hold you captive, preventing you the freedom to enjoy life.

Today, I am fighting the biggest battle of my life so far and I will win. I will take the advice of Samuel and destroy my enemy with the help from God. I have allowed my enemy to have too much power over me but that will end with each thought I chase away that is harmful and replace it with powerful, positive thoughts from God's Word that will heal me and make me whole once again.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Miracle of the Ice


We have been dealing with an ice situation like we do each year because our home faces north. The sun during the winter cannot reach our sidewalk or the top part of our driveway. Also the downspouts are situated where they run off onto the driveway and a portion of the sidewalk. We recently replaced a large portion of the front sidewalk causing the ice to build up thick in the sections we didn’t replace. It’s a winter nightmare.

Even though this situation is frustrating, most winters we just throw a bunch of salt on the icy areas and they eventually disappear.

But this winter has been different. Last winter we had the majority of 30 pound bag of salt left over from the previous year. With the lack of snow and ice the salt turned hard, rock hard. I decided instead of us hammering the block of salt to make it usable I would just throw it away and buy new salt.

I was extremely happy when I found a 10-pound bag, so I purchased only one after asking the manager if they would continue to carry that size all winter. He assured me they would. The previous year I saw a very large display of 10-pound bags towards the end of winter in this same store so I believed him. I didn’t want us to have to deal with hardened salt next winter if I could avoid it.

Never did I expect this would be the winter of all winters with an unusually heavy amount of snow and extremely cold temperatures. Our 10-pound bag was rarely used due to the extremely cold temperatures since the snow didn’t melt off from the roof or surrounding areas of the sidewalks and driveway. Until… twice we had an inch or two of snow followed by a downpour of rain followed immediately by more snow and extremely cold temperatures.

Our 10-pound bag of salt quickly vanished trying to remove the ice from steps and a portion of the sidewalk never realizing that due to the large amount of snow salt was scare. With spring approaching the large chain stores weren’t expecting additional winter salt to arrive. Various stores kept telling me call back on Tuesday, call back on Thursday. I called everywhere I thought they just might happen to have salt without any luck.

In the meantime, we spent over two hours with garden shovels breaking up the ice on a warm day which allowed water to form underneath the ice dislodging it enough for us to chip it away. The snow alongside the sidewalk and roof continued to melt throughout the night collecting on a few areas which we were so excited to be rid of ice. Before morning the temperatures dropped below freezing and the ice returned.

Desperately I searched for salt again without any luck. Before the ice was crunchy with only a few slick spots, but now the ice was like a skating rink… smooth and extremely slippery.

Of course, I was the only one worried about this because of my health condition and for the delivery guys that bring me presents from online ordering.

I prayed to find salt, but my prayers were not serious and therefore I didn’t find any. Now I needed help that only God could provide.

I turned the situation over to God and He reminded me that we still had two containers of cat litter stored away in the event we decided to adopt another cat since our last little one had passed away. I retrieved the cat litter and sparsely sprinkled it onto the ice. It just sat on top making it still slick maybe even slicker. I thought at least I would have some traction, but not so.

I never lost faith that God would get us through the remainder of February and March with the melting and freezing that lie ahead.

I had to run an errand three days after turning the situation over to God. Each day I kept my eye on the ice which never changed.

I was pleasantly ecstatic after bundling up to face the extremely cold temperatures when I saw the ice was gone. The icy patch was approximately nine to ten feet long and thick. We had temperatures below zero with highs in the teens since I turned the situation over to God. There is no way it could have melted on its own. It was God. He performed a miracle because I put my trust in Him.

God loves us. God created us just to love Him and fellowship with Him. He wants to be part of our daily life. He wants to go to work with us, spend the day with us, He wants to go shopping with us. Every place we go, He goes with us.

Sadly, we often ignore Him, when all He desires is to give us the best that life has to offer. But in order to receive we must put our life in His hands. We need to allow Him to take care of us. That’s all He asks of us.

He is a good Dad. He is a great Dad. He is an awesome Dad.

God doesn’t always perform miracles in our lives, but He had equipped us to handle each situation that comes our way. He has given us the Bible with the answers to leading to a healthy, prosperous life full of peace, joy, love, happiness and contentment. But unless we know His Word we will never experience all that He desires for us.

This is not the first time I put a situation into His hands with miraculous results. I have put large problems in His hands trusting Him and He came through at the moment it was needed. Just like with the Miracle of the Ice.