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Confidence Rightly Placed
Recently, I came to the end of my backpacking skills. As I faced terrain that was new and difficult, I found myself desperately depending on the Lord for everything. My fear of slipping, tripping, falling, and even collapsing hurled me at the feet of Jesus. Praying to, singing about, and reflecting on Him enabled me to endure the physical, emotional, and mental challenges. “And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places” (Hab 3:19) pounded through my mind and heart multiple times. I wasn’t hiking Mount Everest, but this trail was my high place! Fear is common to humans. Fear can come…
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What Should I Do with Rejection?
In an unfamiliar city, my family and I were searching for a quick meal before heading off to the airport. We spotted a restaurant that looked like it would work so we entered and asked for a table. We were promptly seated….and then our waitress arrived. In a rough and hoarse voice, she barked, “Do you want me to harass you and give you a hard time?” I was shocked and horrified. In an uncharacteristic manner of my introverted self, I quickly replied, “No, we don’t want that!!!” She said OK, and proceeded to take our orders. As other waiters and waitresses continued to badger their customers (and customers badgered…
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Christian Cliques – A Problem to Overcome
What we want and what we get are often two very different things! You would think that inthe church of all places we would easily find community. However, our churches often consist of a large group ofpeople coming together for worship but leaving in cliques. New comers may be welcomed in word while excluded from our conversations and activities. Even Jesus had close friends with whom He spent more time than He did with the large crowds that came to Him for healing or to hear Him preach. Was that a clique? By definition a clique is “a narrow exclusive circle or group of persons; especially:one held together…
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Choosing the Best BFF
The best BFF is one who will help you pick a life time of good ones! “A person who has friends may be harmed by them, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24 (NET Bible) Many of the children grow up in the church only to leave it as adults. Those who are true believers will return but what set them up to leave in the first place. So much lost time in lives wasted on frivolous friendship with the world. Can it be prevented? I think so. God created us in His image and because of that great gift we have the need for…
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The Transforming Love of the Father
It cuts like a dagger—the pain of rejection piercing deep from someone we love and serve. We feel it when our child ignores us, too preoccupied to notice our presence. We sense it when someone we serve makes a sharp turn in the other direction, intentionally avoiding our company. We notice it when a friend, once warm and safe, turns strangely cold. Last week we welcomed spring break with unexpectedly warm weather and uninterrupted time as a family. My husband, who normally works many early mornings and late nights, had the whole week off. Our toddler son soaked up every minute. At first I relished the break. A few moments…
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Rejection is Protection
Last week I got a text from my son: “Mom, I’m in Nairobi [Kenya]. Please pray they let me in Burundi tomorrow, I just heard they may not be issuing visas at the airort tomorrow like last year.” Well, they didn’t. He had to fly back to Nairobi to get a visa through the American embassy, a process that added days and expense to his plans. We prayed and God said no—or, more accurately, “Not yet.” Eventually he was able to get the visa, enter the central African country and visit with coffee growers. God had closed the door for what turned out to be a few very dangerous days.…
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Rejection – Satan’s First Strategy for Your Destruction – Part II
Rejection is an act of throwing away or discarding someone or something. This innately implies a lack of value. We begin to feel that we have no value as we experience an overwhelming sense of worthlessness, of being swept aside. Perhaps most significantly, rejection is the act of being denied, love. We feel unwanted and unwelcome!
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Rejection – Satan’s First Strategy for Your Destruction – Part I
We were made to discover our identities through affirmation; however, many of us did not. Therefore, unless we are healed from this lack of affirmation (i.e., rejection) we will never be able to fulfill our God-ordained destinies. Consequently, we must seek for God to heal us from rejection so that we will become whole people that fulfill our God-given Destinies.
