Month: November 2024

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New Actions

This is part three of a previous post. Catch up with part 1 and part 2 before you dive into this.

Knowing that the Lord was waiting on me, I decided to take action and do two things differently. 

First, rather than pray “please end this and take me back home,” I will instead ask for strength to go through the challenge. 

Second, I will spend 30min every morning praying and meditating on Ephesians 3:16, asking for His strength. My desire is that the Lord would strengthen me with power so Jesus will dwell firmly in my heart, and so I will know with all my heart that God loves me. 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Ephesians 3:16-18 (NIV)

Then, when I am confident in God’s love for me, and in no doubt that He has my back no matter what, I can stop being like a pendulum. I can be relaxed like Jesus was when He slept through the stormy boat ride. 

The strength and power I need can only come from the Holy Spirit. I cannot ‘empower’ myself. So, in my 30minutes I am expectant that as I silently sit with the Lord, He will strengthen me. 

Today marks day one of these two new actions and I’m excitedly looking forward to the new thing the Lord does in me, and through me.

Pray for me, won’t you? Or, if like me you need new strength, please join me in taking these new actions!  

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Through, Not Around


This is part two of the previous post. If you haven’t already read it, please start here.

Another thing going on is that being here has got my emotions all over the place because of certain challenges I face with my relative. This is despite the Lord showing me two years ago – before there was a problem – that everything would go well. Of course I did not understand the vision then, but now I do. So, I already have assurance that things will work out and end well. But I’ve found myself wavering between holding onto this hope and being overcome by doubt. Somewhat like a pendulum swinging left to right, high then low. 

Even with the faith booster from my extra Bible reading, my thoughts still venture into the realm of doubt and despair. I can’t tell you how many times I have cried out to the Lord to take me back home! Why? Because I know He already intends to heal and save this relative, and He has the power to do so in an instant. There’s no need for Him to wait to do what He is able and willing to do! 

Which is why I’ve been asking Him “what are You waiting for?” Then yesterday it clicked . . . He is waiting for me to stop being a pendulum; He is standing by until I am “strong, firm, and steadfast.” The Lord doesn’t want me to take a shortcut that avoids this situation, but rather to go through it, with Him by my side, and come out stronger. 

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast

1 Peter 5:10 (NIV)

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Triple The Word

Since my last post, I have had to relocate to a different town to support a relative. What I thought would be a 2-week stay has turned into 6-weeks, with no sign of my return home in sight. In these six weeks I have learnt a few lessons I would like to share.

Initially, I thought I was here to help my relative. However, one week into my stay I discovered the Lord has me here so He can separate me from my every-day tasks. Why? So I can spend extra time with Him. I’ve sensed Him guide me into tripling the time I spend reading my Bible. Yup! You heard right . . . tripling!

And you know what’s odd . . . about six months ago a friend invited me to a Bible study that I thought covered way too many chapters per day. I told her it wasn’t possible for me to fit in that many chapters into my day and politely declined to join. Well . . . that’s exactly the number of chapters I now find myself reading! Ha! I guess you could say the Lord helped me “create” the time. Doesn’t the Lord have a great sense of humour?

While at the start it seemed like a lot of reading, I have experienced how reading the Bible has a way of increasing my faith. I can’t quite explain how, but it certainly brings to life the verse about faith coming as a result of hearing the word.

Now, if like me, you find yourself in a situation where you need to turbo charge your faith, I recommend you spend more time reading your Bible.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

Romans 10:17 (NIV)

I’m grateful for this first lesson. And praying for grace to maintain this new reading pattern in the days & years to come.

Be sure to look out for lesson two!