The road to success is filled with detours, roadblocks and alternate routes.
Where you decide to go will often determine where you end up.
Happenstance can occur, and you can end up on the “right” path, but truly this is a rarity.
Success takes focus.
Success takes hard work.
Success takes determination.
Success takes forward motion with no deviation.
You can’t find success by chaotic search, and you will never find it by standing still.
Success can only be found by just that…
A true search.
So, let’s go hunting and see what we find.
Enter by the narrowgate; for wide is the gateand broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrowis the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Sharing a bit of my testimony with a group of ladies last night reminded me of some things I know to be true, but often forget in the healing process of life.
Your scars are not meant to be shameful.
Your scars are not meant to be hidden.
Your scars are not meant to be concealed.
If you’ll give those scars to Jesus, He will not only bring His glory from them, He will heal the wounds you have left as well.
Our scars tell a unique story, owned by no one else.
Our scars bring glory to Our Creator because He’s brought healing and strength.
Our scars show someone else how to respond to the pain and how to win.
Our scars show someone else they too can survive.
So, wear your scars humbly and confidently.
Our Lord does.
He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Even if it’s only in your mind’s eye or in your memories.
Enjoy the warm breeze on your face, the cool sand on your toes.
Breathe deep and exhale slowly.
Receive the reprieve for the moment.
Just sit and soak and let all the worries and cares wash away with the tide.
Then, open your eyes, realize your reality, but don’t dread it.
Know that your strength has been restored, and you can escape away again tomorrow.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
It will wash away the sorrow. It will wash away the pain.
For music is a healing song that will woe the flesh to bend.
Music is a song of peace, an anthem to the derelict.
And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.
1 Samuel 16:23
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Each of us have a level of comfort in which we desire to live.
Each of us have a “redline.” You know.
That fuzzy little imaginary stroke that isn’t really there until you throttle it.
That line where everything is pressing in, and you literally feel like you’re going to go insane.
Each one of us have a degree of comfort in which we are willing to live.
At what level you are willing to live and of which learn to fly, there will be your leadership.
At which degree you have settled in and of which refuse to move, there will be your demotion.
Comfort can bring pleasure.
Comfort can bring complacency.
Comfort can bring static.
Too much comfort can bring cessation.
Where will you abide?
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branchthat bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
John 15:2
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
1 Timothy 1:6-7
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Put a spring in your step and a skip in your walk.
And if that doesn’t work, then just stop.
Take a deep breath and take a moment to daydream for awhile.
Dream of a land far, far away that you’ll one day run to.
You’ll have no more worries, now more tears, and no more pain.
And have a Happy, Fun Monday!
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4
Weepingmayendure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Start this new year by flushing those things you don’t need.
Flush the anger. Flush the pain.
Flush negative thinking and self degradation.
Flush laziness, apathy and procrastination.
Let it all flow away from you and embrace those things that are best.
Embrace love. Embrace peace. Embrace joy.
Embrace positive thoughts and self evaluation.
Embrace determination, tenacity and advancement.
Let it consume you and propel you to a better tomorrow, a higher mountain top.
The valleys may come. The storms may rage.
But if you are pressing forward toward the best ahead, you can learn to dance in the rain.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Your perspective is guided, cleared and clouded by that filter.
You can choose to allow your filter to be filled with your pain or your victory.
You can choose to create your filter to be filled with good things or evil.
Th choice is yours.
Choose today for 2023.
Choose well.
Extra Note: I love coffee, but it’s not a great filter filler for my life. 😉😂
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
You can plan and prepare, or you can simply let it roll on in.
But it will not be stopped.
It can catch you unaware, or you can come ready.
The choice is yours.
What will you do?
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
the grizzle grist mill 