The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know your name, trust in you, for you, O Lord do not abandon those who search for you.  Oppression is when cruel or unjust restraints are placed on someone, it also means that someone has something heavy lying on them.

     Sometimes we are oppressed from the outside through no choice of our own but merely through circumstances.  This oppression is unjust.  While other times we are wearing something heavy that we were never intended to wear. Despair, fear, anxiety or doubt has spoken for so long or so loudly that we can barely seem to lift our heads, let alone recognize that these feelings do not come from the Voice of Truth.  Either way we are told  that the Lord is our shelter in these times. That means that he is a place of protection from all that is dangerous.  

     We are not told that there won’t be times of trouble but rather when they come, where we are to go. It’s like having an emergency plan, a tornado drill if you will.  We know when a storm is brewing and the conditions for a tornado are likely that we should go into an inner room away from any windows or outside walls and “take shelter”.  In fact we know this drill so well it has become second nature to most of us. It is publicly announced by radio and television and we often call or text our neighbors to remind or encourage them to

 “ take shelter”. 

     Are we paying attention to what is going on around us? Are we aware of what is going into our hearts and spirits on a daily basis? Are we reminding ourselves and each other of the emergency drill? Where is our place of safety? How do we get there? It can be as simple as stopping everything we are doing and going into “The inner room”. Be still, draw near to your shelter. Let Him be your refuge in times of trouble. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, ( James 4:8)

The verse goes on to say that “ Those who know your name, trust in you! For you do not abandon those who search for you.” 

     This is a knowing beyond knowledge of the letters of His name or how it is pronounced. It is a “knowing”. A knowing of who He is and what He is about. It is knowing the very nature of God, that He is loving and kind, that He is almighty, all knowing, over all through all and in all. That by Him all things were made and came into being. It is in “Knowing”, that we can trust that when we go searching for Him to be our refuge, our safe place, our shelter, He will not abandon us. He will stand! Just like when Jesus calmed the stormy sea, when we run in to His arms with the storms of life breathing down our necks, He says “ Peace Be Still”. And it is done. 

     What is that you say? You can’t find the shelter? The night is dark and the winds are howling and you can barely catch your breath from one storm before another begins. I get you, boy do I get you beloved!!! 

     This is where we all can help one another! A couple summers ago my daughter and her husband went on a mission trip to Alaska. They took a tiny plane and flew to an island to work with some native children. I was curious about the safety of getting to and from this little island if an emergency arose. They do have bears you know!! 

     Well, not to worry my daughter said, they have a plan! Even one for night. If there is an emergency at night they all gather at the airstrip with their vehicles and light the way for the plane to be able to land or take off. Wow! What a relief!

     They had a plan and the plan was to bring the light to each other so that they could see how to get to the “ Shelter”.  And, that is what we must do dear ones! We must be the light-bearers for one another. We must be there to remind each other of the emergency plan. Sometimes I will remind you and sometimes you will remind me. We will remind each other of His name, The Great I AM! We will remind each other of all that means. We will remind each other of How utterly completely faithful He is! We will remind each other to Be still and go away into the inner room and seek the Beauty of HIs face. And when it is a particularly hard, dark and stormy night we will take one another by the hand and we will Praise Him! We will lift up our voices and we will praise Him all the way until the storm clouds have lifted and we can once again see, the Light of Day!

What If I Told You I Found The Secret To Aging Gracefully?

     I love beautiful things! Don't we all? We exclaim or sunsets, ocean views, and baby anything! I love that the Lord loves beauty too and He created an amazing world for us to live in. He loves a variety of shapes and colors in people and animals too.

      Yet as people we desire to make ourselves more beautiful with each passing day.  It could be something we think about and work at, obsess over or maybe we even neglect it. I mean I just turned 46 and I bought a new eye cream the other day. No sense in looking too old too fast right? It is important to care for our bodies they are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we want to have the good health and energy to serve the Lord daily. In fact I pray for that. 
     Yet age is nothing to be feared in fact after reading this I hope you feel the sweetness in the Lord's plan. In Isaiah 40:6-8 it says: 

     All flesh is grass, and all it's loveliness is like the flower of the field. 
     The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
     Surely the  people are grass.
    The grass withers, the flower fades,
     But the word of our God stands forever.  

     In a world that doesn't like aging. Once again our God shows us that His perspective is so very different. When our flesh is withering and our beauty and loveliness is fading we are actually experiencing the breath of the Lord on us! Wow! How many people would flock to sign up to feel the breath of the Lord on them? I bet the line would be out the door! 
     In Genesis 2:7 it says, " Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So when God created man, He breathed life into him and as this body begins to decay He is breathing on us once again, bringing us back to Him. 
" Surely the people are grass." The grass withers the flower fades , BUT the word of our God stands forever! 

     If the only thing that lasts and stands forever is the Word of our God. Then let that be my life's ambition! Let that be my focus and goal! Let that be the thing that I spend the majority of my time doing,  and thinking about, declaring the Word of the Lord. 
     As people we want to leave a legacy of some kind, many people want to build monuments to know that they left a mark on this world in some way! History shows us that actual physical monuments crumble and fall. But we can leave a living monument. We can declare the Word of the Lord to the next generation and then they can  declare it and on and on it goes.  
     Life on this earth is fleeting and as someone once said, " Death comes to all of us," and so it does. 
"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:10 
Watching my husband transition from this life to the next was something that I cannot even find the words to describe. There was pain in the thought of separation from him but there was also beauty in knowing that he was exhaling earth and inhaling Heaven! Even Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I wish that I had known this verse then. For while I knew that our God was with him the knowledge that He was feeling the very breath of God would have been such a comfort.  

"Comfort, O comfort My people, says your God,"says Isaiah 40:1 and He is our Comfort and our Joy and our Hope!

     His Word changes us forever, it shifts our perspective. It births gratitude in the difficult and beauty in the brokenness. It renovates our hearts. There may be bruising as the things are knocked about, overhauled and the clutter that keeps tripping us up removed. But we are never broken!

If you have found yourself waiting and let's face it, who hasn't ? There is some good news!

The Early and the Late Rains…

     "Therefore be patient brethren until the coming of the Lord. 

The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near."

James 5:7,8 

     Just like a farmer must be patient for the early and the late rains to take place before the Harvest. We too must be patient . We plant and water and weed and wait. 

     Here is where it gets hard… The wait!

     Waiting has been on my heart a lot lately. I have waited in many situations. I have spent countless hours in waiting rooms and the ER. I have waited weeks and months for test results, hoping for a good report. I have waited on the Lord for rescue in situations I have committed to prayer. I have watched those that I love wait to get pregnant and others wait through adoption.  I have watched others wait on the Lord for answers and direction.   In some things I have seen the fruition of what I have waited for . In others I am still waiting. Waiting is no fun! In fact it feels impossibly hard sometimes. 

     There is a common phrase that says, “ Good things come to those who wait.” The word of the Lord gives even more detail. 

     “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. For evildoers will be cut off. 

But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. “ 

Psalm 37:9

     “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."Isaiah 40:31 

     “And I will wait for the Lord….. I will even look eagerly for Him.” Isaiah 8:17

     There is something happening in the waiting! Wait… let me say that again! There is something happening in the waiting!! 

     Just like the farmer waited for the first and the last rains for the harvest to come. We wait, and our waiting is a position of faith that “something” is happening in that dark , dark ground. Some fruit is being born. Not only is something happening in the dark earth. Something is happening in us beloved! We are gaining new strength! We are growing wings so that we can fly! When we must walk in something or even run for awhile in something ( it may even feel like a bit of a marathon) we WILL NOT GROW WEARY!! 

The Lord has birthed a new prayer in me of late. I am still pressing in and praying for Him to rescue me and the one’s I love in various situations however I am also praying that He will make me strong! There are too many times I want to lay down my head and cry,

 “ Have mercy , Lord have mercy!”

Then I remember that I am here for one purpose, to bring glory to my King! I want to share Jesus. I want to bring strength to the weary, to share a cup of refreshing truth with the  traveler who is faint.  And so I pray, “Strengthen me Lord, renew my mind and restore my Spirit as I wait on you.” I trust you that you are growing amazing things in the dark places and when the early and the late rains have fallen the “Harvest”,that you call most precious,will be the most abundantly beautiful yet!