Fears Have You?

December 27, 2017 / The WheatandTares

As this year draws to a close, I wonder, what fears are you battling tonight? What fears have you overcome this year? Maybe there is a fear you are seriously trying to overcome, but you don’t know exactly how to “squash it?” There is Hope, and there is an answer…

Trusting in God doesn’t instantaneously wipe away all fear simply because we believe… yeah, I said that. Now, those of you who believe in Him, please, don’t pick up your rocks to throw, just hear me out…

He is a good God. He is a BIG God, and He is a God who loves us so very much that He sent His son to die for us to save us. He is a God who, when He says in His Word He will do something, you can be 100% sure He will follow through. He’s a God of absolute Truth. He IS Truth; therefore, He simply cannot lie.

So, when He says to fear not, because He is with you, He means it. He’s right there with you. Yet, sometimes, even when we pray, believe and trust in Him, that fear can linger, not because He’s not God anymore but more because, sometimes, our heart has to grow stronger in our belief…because sometimes, we are fighting a fear that has deep roots in our lives, and we have to slay that giant on the battlefield of our faith just as David went out on the battlefield with Goliath and struck him down…because sometimes, we’ve got to lay down that fear with which we’ve walked in agreement since our childhood and stand firm in our faith and believe in His sovereignty and grace regardless of what our feelings might be screaming at us…because sometimes, our faith has been weakened by our lack of preparation, or because our consistency of feeding the flesh rather than the spirit, or because our faith has been beaten and worn due to previous battles, and we just need to rely on Him more than our own strength and ability.

That’s what it all really boils down to: total reliance on Him rather than ourselves. That’s where He wants us. That’s where He does His best work, because that’s where our testimony isn’t how we did some great thing to conquer the fear, it becomes how our Great God did an amazing thing and conquered the fear in us and through us!

So, next time you’re battling a new fear, or you’re trying to conquer an old one, and it just seems that demon is gaining ground, just call on His Name, trust Him and believe; them, watch Him do what He does best! 😉

Looking For A Sign

June 12, 2017June 12, 2017 / The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

Read this Scripture today, and even though, I’ve read it before, it seemed to come alive to me once more. “Lord, You are my portion and my cup…” He not only is what fills me, but He is the vessel which holds the filling, the portion. He is truly all we need!

Our pastor’s sermon this morning was titled, “Surrounded by Miracles While Still Asking for a Sign.” He talked about how everything around us is a miracle. We live on this little blue marble, which circles this great big ball of fire, while a sphere of rock illuminated by that ball of fire controls and maintains our ocean tides, all hurling through space, while all surrounded by rock and death and other masses of fire. This tiny blue marble has the perfect conditions for life and oxygen, wind and rain. All the while, we have this heart beating within our chest over which we have absolutely no control, and we still sit here demanding God for a sign. We keep saying, “God, I don’t see any miracles today. I don’t see Your hand moving as it once did. I can’t see any miraculous acts declaring Your glory and power.”

How blind are we? How wicked is our wayward heart? There are miracles all around us, we just fail to see them. Our eyes are not given to us to see. Our eyes are given to us to look through. We must allow Him to give us the right perspective. We must allow Him to cause our eyes to see.

2 Kings 6:17, shows us how the Lord does this. Elisha was surrounded by the army of Arameans who were commanded by the king to kill him. Elisha’s servant saw this army and was afraid while Elisha didn’t fear. He knew God was on his side and would win the battle. Elisha prayed this prayer for his servant, ““Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17) That’s a pretty big difference in just a moment of time. God gave him a new perspective.

Sometimes, we must have a new perspective to see clearly. There are times in our lives when God isn’t going to answer the prayers we pray the way we believe they should be answered. There are going to be moments when things don’t make sense, and we wonder where God is and if He has forsaken us. There will be other days when we get into the mode of comparing our lives with someone else’s and wondering why God is blessing them so much, and we just seem to get the skimpy leftovers of life.

That is when we need to remember this scripture in Psalm 16. This is when we must remember the story of Elisha and his servant. This are the very moments when we must ask God to give us the right perspective that we might see His miracle right here within our own chest.

I pray He’d give you eyes that you might see. 💗

Where Is He?

April 12, 2017April 12, 2019 / The WheatandTares / 1 Comment

Did you see that baby cowering in the corner, trying to hide from the screams and profanity swirling around her head?

Did you notice the young boy who got into a fight at school, making his friends a substitute for his anger, because he can’t hit his abuser?

Did you recognize the young teen shielding her face from the crowd, looking for the one who will make her feel loved and secure?

Where is God in all of this? Where is His mercy? Where is His grace?

Do you see that man marching off to war, preparing to slay a few demons of his own in the battle?

Do you notice the woman working three jobs, living a frazzled, exhausted life, simply trying to give her child something a little better?

Do you realize the old man wandering the halls, the same who doesn’t even know his children’s names who desperately long to love him and reach through his darkness?

Where is God in all of this? Where is His mercy? Where is His grace?

Some ask and plead. Some scream in demand. Some just sit and stare. Others simply walk away, veering this way and that, never making much sense of the journey.

“He’s always there and always faithful,” says the church walls. “Just look up and you will find all you need,” states the sign as the tender ones lie dying on the front steps. My mind wonders if we really make a difference. Do we really share and care?

Some lash out in anger. Some wallow and cry. Others become cold and stone-like, never realizing hope knocking at the door.

His love never wavers. His mercy never fails. Just because you cannot see the sun through the tornadic clouds doesn’t void its reality. Hurricanes never validate the lack of peaceful showers on the ‘morrow.

Some answers I will never find until the other side. Some questions will still remain after the crisis of one life has vanished. Yet, I have found this truth to remain: He is faithful. He is love. He is true.

He will be there when you need Him even in the quietness of your soul. He will never leave you in your deepest sorrow or shame. He will remain when all else fails, when everyone else has disappeared into the dark of night. He will remain. He will be a shield. He will be a refuge.

Just call on His name and find He is the Hope which remains.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105