We Are What We Believe

Elijah had just won a decisive victory over the pagan gods Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel. In a great display, he had called the fire of God down from heaven in front of the people thereby showing people who the true God was. In the aftermath of his display, he had killed around a thousand of the prophets of these false gods. He should have been feeling good with himself and confident in the power of God. However, shortly after this great display, he receives a message from the Queen Jezebel who threatens to kill him like he killed the prophets of the heathen gods she worshipped. Instead of being confident of the God who had just displayed such naked and awesome power on his behalf, Elijah runs away from the threat of the queen, abandoning his servant along the way.

Elijah ends up in the wilderness in Beersheba in the country of Judah, far from Jezebel’s reach and falls down tired, asking God to take his life. While resting under a juniper tree, God sends an angel twice to feed Elijah for the journey ahead. After a long journey, God catches up with Elijah in a cave. God then asks Elijah what he’s doing there in the cave. Just like he asked Adam where he was after he had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and his eyes were opened and he knew he was naked, God was not asking Elijah a question he didn’t already know the answer to. Elijah then launches into a sob story of how he had been quite zealous on God’s behalf and everybody had abandoned God and he was the only one left serving God. God then tells him to stand on the mountain so that he could speak with him. While on the mountain, a strong wind, an earthquake and a fire pass by Elijah. The Bible says that while these things passed by him, God was not in it. It was until a still, small voice was heard that he heard God’s voice. When God spoke, it was to ask the same question he had asked at first. Again Elijah answered God with the same story of victimisation and abandonment he had rehearsed earlier. After this God gives him instructions on the people to anoint and to prepare himself for death.

At times we all go through circumstances that debilitate us. Circumstances like anxiety, depression, fear and other negative emotions come to test us and to try our faith and belief in God. They come to taunt us, to make us doubt the presence of God and his saving power. They want us to forget the numerous God has come through for us. Ultimately, they want us to confess negatively and speak words that agree with the circumstances we are going through. While the Bible says God was not in the wind, earthquake or fire, I believe those phenomena were sent by God to remind Elijah of his awesome power that was available to Elijah if only he could correctly discern what was happening. Instead of seeing God’s power at work, all Elijah could see were his present circumstances (which were temporary) and he therefore could not see the power of God. The Bible urges the weak to declare that he is strong and for the poor to declare that he is rich because of what the Lord has done. This is about recognising that while we go through things in life, the things we go through do not define us. What defines us is what God says we are.

God didn’t want Elijah to die. I believe he still had a lot for Elijah to do. However there was nothing God could do because of what Elijah believed about himself. Even after seeing a display of the awesomeness of God, he still could not look past his circumstance to lay hold of God’s goodness and grace by faith. Hence he died. We live in a fallen world and most and generally it’s a terrible place to live. But God want’s us not to look at the world with natural eyes, seeing those things that are temporary. He wants to look with eyes of faith to those things that are eternal, resting our hope and trust in him.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers and LOST, BUT FOUND.

TRUST AND OBEY

When we think of love, the picture that comes to mind is that of the latest celebrity couple kissing each other at some party at some exotic locale. Then when they finally speak to the press about their relationship they talk about “how much in love” they are. Therefore when we think about the word love, we somehow seem to associate the word love with the word sex. And that’s why we somehow find it hard to understand the love of God. It’s hard to make a sexual association with someone you can’t see. However God’s love (and love generally) has nothing to do with sex but it is a deep and abiding commitment to our welfare and our well-being. God’s love is predicated on his deep desire to have fellowship with his creation and he understands that his creation cannot have a meaningful life without fellowship with him. Therefore, the reason for the fact that he seeks fellowship with his creation is not so much that he is looking for someone to worship him, it’s because God desires the best for us. Therefore the relationship that he seeks is not for him but for us because he realises that we cannot be all that we can be without him.

In his word, God is constantly telling us of his love but it seems we are either hard of hearing that we can’t hear him or we just don’t believe him. In the end God gave us the ultimate proof of his love. He sent his one and only son to die for us so as to rekindle the relationship that we had let die. He was so heartbroken at the separation that sin brought about between us and him that he sent Jesus to show us the way back. Jesus said unless we exercised faith like little children we would not see the kingdom of God. The Bible tells us that God is so concerned about his word that he watches over it jealously to bring it to pass. He even has more respect for his word than his name. We need to take him at his word about his love. Trust him. And lean on him.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/.

LOST, BUT FOUND (EXCERPT)

Anna was looking around the sitting room. The place was lovely. It was a beautiful blend of antiques and modern furniture. She wondered if the place had been done by Jessica or by an interior decorator. She would bet that it was the latter. The whole place spoke of wealth. Again seeing evidence of the wealth that Jessica lived in made her start feeling sorry for herself all over again. Her apartment was nothing compared to this. In fact it looked downright shabby.

Stop it, a voice in her head said. She might not have all that Jessica had but at least she had Ben and their son and she was happy. And nothing could take that from her. Jessica might have all this but who knew if she was happy? And besides, she didn’t have the most important thing of all, even with all her wealth.

“I’m surprised that you’re here.”

Anna was startled out of her reverie by the words. She turned her wheel chair to see Jessica coming into the room behind her. As usual, she seemed to be dressed in the latest and definitely expensive looking clothes.

“I would have thought I was last person you would want to see,” Jessica continued as she sat on a settee that was opposite to Anna. Her words came out stilted and forced.

“I know,” Anna replied. “But I felt led to come and speak to you.”

Jessica stiffened. So Anna felt led. Jessica had grown up hearing her father say such things. It was supposedly Christianese for saying that some greater power was at work. It was a Christian’s way of saying that he was being made to do something he would normally not have done. Or something like that.

“Really,” Jessica said. She looked at her watch wondering how long she would let her speak before she threw her out.

Anna saw her looking at her watch and suddenly felt nervous. All that she had wanted to say and the order she had wanted to say them in became a jumble. She had to find a way to get her point across.

“Remember what you said when you were over at my place?” Anna asked. “What you said about me becoming a Christian just because I thought God would heal me?”

Jessica stiffened. “I believe I apologised for that. I’m sorry if I caused any offence.....”

“You were right,” Anna said cutting into Jessica’s rambling.

“Excuse me?” Jessica said, confused. She thought that was why she had brought it up, to get an apology from her.

“I said you were right,” Anna said speaking out. “For a long time, the reason I was calling myself a Christian was because I wanted something from God. I wasn't serving God because I should. I was serving him because I wanted something from him.”

Jessica was silent. She didn't know what to say. She thought both of them were the same thing.

“When the accident happened, I blamed myself every day. I used to tell myself that if I only I hadn't gone out drinking, I would still be walking. Or that if only I hadn't gone into the car not caring that the driver was drunk, I would still be walking. On the other hand, I thought about how life was so unfair and that God must be so wicked that he allowed it to happen. You can imagine that I wasn't a very happy person in those days. I could say that I was depressed.”

Anna stared into space as her mind went back to the days following her accident. “In the end, I slipped into denial. I began to tell myself that the doctor must be wrong and that I was still going to walk. Every day when I woke up, I expected that I was going to be able to move my legs. That I would suddenly get up from my wheel chair and begin to walk to every one’s astonishment.”

“I couldn't really find any peace from the worries on my mind so I began to go to the church in the evenings to pray. Then just because I felt there was nothing else to do, I started going to church. I would come late and sit at the back and then leave before the service was over.”

“Then one day, I got to church and the pastor was preaching about how there was nothing God could not do. How there was nothing impossible for God. He said that there was no disease, no sickness that God did not have a cure for. That all we needed to do was believe and have faith and trust in him like a child.”

Anna’s face lightened up with a smile as she remembered. “There and then I decided that if God could make me walk again even if the doctors had failed, I was going to try him. So when there was an altar call that day, I came out. I converted to Christianity because of my selfish desires. All the talk of being a sinner, needing Jesus, being repentant, everything went over my head. I didn't think I was a sinner at all. My whole aim was to get God to heal me.”

“I fasted and prayed for months that God would just make me walk again. It was as if that was all God existed for. To ensure he did all within his power to make sure I walked again. I went back to college and I started attending fellowship. I did everything I could do to deserve that healing. I practically worked or it. I didn’t mind all the people who made fun of me as I knew what I was going to get from God.”

“It was in college that I met Ben. From the first day that we met, I knew that there was something special about him. We hit it off immediately. But I was scared. I wondered what someone like him would want with someone like me who was in a wheel chair. But I would like to think he looked past the shriveled body and saw something that even I didn't know was there.”

“He was the one that made me understand that God is not some waiter waiting at our beck and call just to grant our demands. That God doesn't really need us but we are the ones who need him. Salvation and becoming a Christian isn't about God taking all our pain away, it’s about helping us bear the pain and trouble we go through so that we can share God’s love with other people.”

“I honestly believe that God does have the power to heal. I honestly believe that God can heal me. But I believe even more that God has a purpose for each of our lives. I believe that he uses the circumstances we go through to minister to us and to the people that we meet. Like he told Paul, his grace is sufficient for us. His intention is that even in the midst of our pain and trouble we will come to know and understand the purpose that he has for our lives.”

“I used to think that life was all about me. But I have come to understand that life is not about me but it’s about the people I meet every day. It’s about the people who come into my life and those who I meet. God wants us to be able to reflect him properly to them and show them his love.”

Jessica shifted uncomfortably in her seat.  She wasn't comfortable with all this talk. She wanted to ask Anna to leave but she didn't say anything.

“I believe that there is something on the inside of every man that makes you search for God. That makes you want to worship him. It’s when people don’t find him that they worship other things like wood, snakes, trees, iron, and goats. It’s when people don’t know where to look for him that they end worshiping the wrong things or they end up in a cult.”

“There are people who have come to God because they heard someone preach about him. Then there are those who find him in times of great pain and trouble or personal grief. But regardless of how they found him, they realised that they needed him and they held on to him. I believe that regardless of who we are or what we are or are not going through, we all need God.”

Anna held up something she had been holding in her lap. It was a small book and she held it out to Jessica. “That’s why I brought this. It’s a Bible. I’m not so foolish as to ask you to make a decision right now. But I want you to have this. I want you to read it and I’ll be hoping and praying for you that you find him too.”

Jessica stared at the Bible as if she had been offered a snake. She folded her arms across her chest and said, “Thank you but I think I’ll keep my problems to myself.” She made no move to accept the Bible.

Anna wasn't surprised. To be honest, she was a little hurt but she wasn't surprised. She wheeled herself over to a table and dropped the Bible on it. She turned to Jessica and smiled. “Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. I’ll be on my way.”

Jessica followed her to the door. Just before they got to the door, it burst open with some force and Catherine stormed into the house. She slammed the door after her and began storming into the room. She stopped in her tracks when she saw her mother and another woman in a wheel chair.

“What’s wrong Catherine?” Jessica asked.

“I am so not going to be friends with Carrie again,” Catherine said fuming, “She is so mean.” She however refused to elaborate on how Casey had been mean. She was also busy staring at Anna as if she was from Mars.

Anna held out a hand to the girl and smiled. “Hello. My name is Anna. Anna Palmer.”

Catherine’s eyes widened as she shook hands with her. “I’m Catherine. Are you the one who fought with my mom over a boy in high school?”

“Catherine!”Jessica shouted, embarrassed.

Anna didn't know who was more embarrassed, her or Jessica. However, she was more surprised than embarrassed. She was looking at Catherine in surprise and there was a question in her eye. She would never have thought that Jessica had a daughter this old. The girl looked like thirteen or fourteen.

“It’s nice to meet you Catherine. I was just leaving. Maybe I’ll see you some other time,” Anna said as she wheeled herself through the door that Jessica held open. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Jessica closed the door behind her and walked back into the sitting room behind her daughter.

“You didn't tell me what happened between you and Carrie.”

“I don’t want to talk about it mom. At least not now,” Catherine said. She looked down and saw the book on the table. “What’s this?” she asked as she picked it up the Bible from the table. She opened the leather bound cover to look at first page. “Oh, it’s a Bible.” She looked at her mother in surprise. “Are you the one reading the Bible mom? Is it yours?”

Jessica removed the book from her daughter’s hands. “It must be Anna’s. She must have forgotten it. I’ll keep it for her.”

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/.

It's Not For Us To Wonder How

“How shall this thing be seeing that ….”

When Mary the mother of Jesus was told by the angel Gabriel that she was going to give birth to a child that would save the world from sin, she wondered how it was going to happen. She wanted to believe but to her there were several reasons why it was not going to happen. She was looking at the facts that would negate this promise of God. The normal process of life is that for a woman to get pregnant, she would normally have to have sex with the proposed father of the child. However here was God telling her that she didn’t need to be with any man to see the fulfilment of God’s promise to her. All she needed to do was to believe. God would make the rest possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the book of Joel, specifically Chapter 2 verse 28, God promises to pour out his spirit upon all flesh and promises that his spirit will cause the opening of eyes so that men and women will see visions and dream dreams. We all have dreams and visions for our lives and there are some of us who think we need psychiatric help due to the dreams we have envisaged. Like Mary, we ask ourselves, “How shall this thing be?” We seem to be looking for one excuse or the other to let God know that the dream or vision he has impressed upon our hearts are just too impossible to accomplish. The fact is that even when we see dreams about what we are going to be, we want to understand the process. Our finite minds desperately try to grasp and understand how God is going to make it happen. But can I say that understanding how is not really our role.

The story is told in the book of 2 Kings 7 about a famine in the land of Israel. Elisha brought a word from God telling the king about what God was going to do in the land. However the king’s adviser scoffed. Elisha promised him he was going to see what God would do but he wasn’t going to partake of it. Somewhere else there were four lepers outside the gate of the city. They were impoverished men who had no hope. However they reached a decision about their future and they acted on that decision. God used their decision to bring deliverance both to them and their nation.

It’s really not our role to worry about things like how. Ours is to walk in obedience to the vision or dream God has given us. When we do that, the power of the promise keeping God will come to help us become all that he has called us to be. What vision or dream do we have or have we seen? Now is the time to act on it. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

Imperfect Weaknesses

I wrote in my blog on Friday, I wrote about how imperfect people were to blame for the collapse of marriages and that there was nothing wrong with the institution of marriage itself. I had cause to reflect on this later that evening. After much thought and reflection, it occurred to me that our imperfections affect all relationships. However, Christians seems to have a penchant for covering our imperfections with spirituality.

I had a friend who wanted me to help him incorporate a company. I helped him put in the name he wanted for the company and when the name came out I thought he would be pleased. He wasn’t. He complained about how that wasn’t the name he wanted. The name he wanted for his company for which he had drawn up a business plan was etched in stone and could not be changed even though the difference was an “S”. He made it out to somehow be my fault that the wrong name had come out. I pointed out that he had given me the name twice and that was the name he gave me both times. He refused to accept any blame saying that the second time I came to meet him for the name after I had lost the piece of paper he originally wrote the name on, I had put him under pressure by coming to his office. I put in the name again at extra cost to myself.

There were several problems along the way most of which I told him about as I tried to resolve them. These all added to the cost of incorporation but he never once thought of reimbursing me for the extra cost. I gave him the incorporation documents of Friday expecting nothing more than a “thank you”. I had initially not wanted to take the job because the money he was willing to pay was far less than I should have accepted, but I did it for him because we had started talking about the project and he had shared his dreams and I didn’t want it to be something “small” like money that wouldn’t let me do it. If we had talked about money first and I found out what he wanted to pay, I wouldn’t have done it. So when I gave him the documents, I was okay with the money thing because I had accepted. He accepted the documents and told me that he wasn’t happy with the fact that he was just receiving the documents as he was working with a time frame and I had made him run past the milestones he had set. In the end, I got the impression of someone who would never accept responsibility for his own mistakes and blame others. I got the impression of someone who liked control. If one were to ask, he would tell you he’s just someone who won’t take no for an answer and who doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

Another friend came to me and told me he would need my services and the services of my firm institute an action against people who were stealing his intellectual property. He had developed an application for the banking industry and had gotten all the banks to agree to use it. In the end he had to get the approval of a regulatory agency in charge of the industry and to get their approval, organised a presentation. They refused to give approval and he couldn’t go on. All the dreams of the millions he was going to make through the licensing the application to the banks went up in smoke. Now, he has found out that the regulatory body seems to have gotten someone else to develop the application based on his presentation and is forcing the banks to use the application. My concern with my friend was whether he was actually serious about me representing him in court. My friend owns a BlackBerry Z10. This is the same person who asked me to help him incorporate a company. He didn’t even give me the full amount for the work. I ended up adding my own money and I never got my fees. He also asked me to help register a patent for his application. The same application he now claims someone is ripping off. I gave him a bill and he never came back to me. The cost of registering the patent is less than the cost of a Z10. For me, he doesn’t have his priorities straight and he should expect to be ripped off when he’s not straight in his dealings with his friends. Jesus said do onto other as you want them to do unto you. He would probably give some excuse about how he probably thought I had forgotten about the money and forgiven him. I must confess that I haven’t really been disturbing him about the money. I find it embarrassing and in poor taste to go about asking people for money they owe me. I believe their sense of what is right should govern.

I’m not trying to bash friends or fellow Christians for the fun of it. It’s just that I noticed these imperfections and I believe these are the things we need to take to God to change. We’ve all heard the cliché about how God loves us the way we are but loves us too much for us to remain the same. It’s true. We need to take a good, hard look at ourselves in the mirror and understand our weaknesses and take them to God in prayer.

So, you might ask, what are my own weaknesses? I realised that I’m too laid back. I believe that whatever is mine or that I’m supposed to have will come to me naturally without much effort on my part because that is what God wants. I realise that that is wrong. There are things which if I want, I need to go out and fight for, trusting that with God on my side, I will get them.

So, what are your imperfections or weaknesses?    

Happy New Year (And Wait On God)

Happy New Year everyone. It is my earnest prayer that this year, we will come to know God, and his power, in a more intimate way. I pray that the Spirit and life behind the Word and the Spirit of prayer and intercession will move us greatly this year.

There might be the temptation for a lot of us to look back at the year that has just ended and conclude that there is nothing to be grateful for. There were probably quite a lot of things we were believing God for (or one important thing) and we didn’t get to see it and so some of us are probably disappointed. You’re not alone. I also thought last year was the year in which I would get a literary agent who would agree to represent me and would offer me a representation contract (is that what they are called?). I thought that after a little while, the major Christian publishing houses would be breaking down my door in order to get my signature on a publishing contract. Did any of that happen? No. I wrote a lot of book proposals and I got a lot of rejection letters. There were even more literary agents who didn’t even bother replying so all I got was silence. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I giving up? No. Why? Because I know what I believe about what God has said to me. What the whole thing has taught me is patience.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 4 that “a living dog is better than a dead lion.” As long as there is breath in our lungs, we should live in hope. Especially if we believe that we know what God has said about the particular situation we are trusting him for. I have told myself that I am going to send a book proposal to every literary agent under the sun who represents Christian writers until I find one who will represent me. I believe that I have a good story (at least one of the agents has told me she likes certain aspects of it. I have been waiting for word from her superior) so I believe that there must be someone out there who will like it and will be ready to represent me. And I believe this is the year.

So if you are thinking of quitting, thinking of giving up, let it not be today my friends. We need to keep on going because tomorrow just might be the day. We should have it always in our thoughts that God has our best interests at heart. We might not always get the things we want but he will give us the things we need. And as the Kutless song says, Even If we don’t get the things we think we should have, we should still praise and worship Him because he is worthy. Let’s stick close to Him this year. I believe there are a lot things He wants to say to us. We should not let our circumstances or situations drown out his voice.

What are things we are believing for this year?

"What Do You See?"

We all remember the story of the man in the Bible who was taken to see Jesus in Mark 8 vs. 22-26. When he met with Jesus, he was led out of the town by the Master. At the outskirts of the town, Jesus spat on his eyes and laid his eyes on the man. He then asked him if he could see anything. The man then gave the famous answer of "I see men as tress, walking." Jesus laid hands on the man again and his sight was fully restored.

There are quite a few things in that passage. The first was that for most people when Jesus met them they got healed immediately or delivered instantaneously. Yet here was a man who was walking with Jesus in the full glare of people and yet wasn't healed. Walking with Jesus doesn't guarantee that all will be fine and dandy. Anyone who says that is a liar. We will have our own share of troubles.


The second thing was that when Jesus asked the man if he could see, the man had a choice of trying to gloss things over or be pessimistic. He could have complained that he wasn't seeing well. We don't know how long he was blind or what caused it. However we do know he had an expectation of Jesus which was why he came to him. He could have expressed disappointment at the fact that he couldn't see well. "Is that all you can do?" might have been a valid question. But there are two things here. The man acknowledged that he could see but he also made it known all was not well yet. 


While we wait on God for something, the situation might not change at once. The change might be incremental. But we need to stop and thank God for the incremental changes even as we keep trusting and asking him for the total deliverance we are looking for.

 

Hope In God, Not Gold

"If I have made gold my hope, or have said to fine gold, Thou art my confidence; .....for I should have denied  the God that is above." Job 31:24-28

I have read a lot of John Grisham novels and one thread runs though most of them. There is this young struggling lawyer who wants to make partner at the law firm he works at. He therefore is ready to work 18 hours a day for 10 years or more just because he thinks that more money will solve their problems. Putting our trust in money, accomplishments and material possessions is tantamount to denying the existence of a powerful, loving God.

The global financial crisis has highlighted the fact that money can fail and will fail. There have been many who have put their trust in money and have found out that money cannot save. Money cannot save because it does not have the power to do that. Most people realise that money even makes you miserable. People are meant to have money to meet needs. When money has you, you end up being miserable.

The only one who we need to put our trust in is God. He alone cannot fail. Money was designed to fail. It has failed before and will continue to do so. But God has never failed. Put your trust in him. He wants to do great things in your life. Put your trust in him and he will come through.

Light Affliction

There's a tendency for us to think its the end of the world when we go through things that test our faith. There is also tendency for us to think that we are the only ones who are going through the trouble or who can understand what it means to go through what we are going through.

Even though it has been said over and over again that bad stuff will always happen, we still feel bad when bad things happen to us. We feel that because we're Christians, we should be exempt from troubles. Then when we go through the trouble, we feel that it should only last for a short while. However, as much as we would like this to be the case, at times, issues last longer than we would wish. It seems as if we are never going to survive what we are going through.

But the Bible tells us that in II Cor 4 v 17 that our afflictions are "light" and "but for a moment". Some of you might say, "Hold on there. Did you just say light? And I've been in this situation for over a year. That is defintely far more than a moment. I understand that some of us have been going through things that seem as if they have been going on for ever but we need to understand that it's a matter of perspective. Our perpective is that the weight of the issues we are facing is crushing and it seems that we will never survive. But God's perpective is that what we are going through is light and temporary because of the glory that will come after the trouble. The Bible says that God does not allow a test to come our way without a making a way of escape for us. If that then is God's perspective, that then means that we are suffering through what we are going through because we have the wrong perspective. Our perspective should be the same as God's. That what we are going through is light and is fleeting because of the glory that will be revealed in us through the issues we go through.

It's time for us to stop suffering through what we are going through. It's time for us to change our perspective. We need to add to our faith, patience, and hope and wait out our troubles. Then if we faint not, we shall receive the promise.

(JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press. You can get DECEPTIO from http://www.westbowpress.com/. You can follow him on Twitter at @CruzJCReal.)

God Cannot Lie!

Its funny how we start the year full of hope then wham! something happens that makes us throw all our hopes, dreams and expectations ot of the window. Sometime we have an experience that makes us forget all the promises contained in the Bible based on the convenant we have with him through Jesus Christ. Somehow, all the things we planned are viewed through the narrow prism of our experience and we shut out all our possibilities.

I would like us to take a step back and consider God's word. Even though in Jer 29 v 11, God was speaking to the nation of Israel after they had been taken captive, those words are still true today as they were all those years ago. Nothing can negate the purpose and plan of God for your life or what God wants to do through, for and by you. Except you decide to remove yourself from God's hands. We need to trust God and hope that the things we are trusting Him for will happen. That is the most important thang. To trust that God cares so deeply for us and that he wants the best for us. Things will happen. But the Bible says that God takes the good, the bad and the ugly and works everything together for our good, because we love him.

Regardless of whatever might have happened or we have heard this year, we should be comforted by one thing. The Bible says God cannot lie. If He's promised something in His word, you can take it to the bank (His of course!) and cash it. It's just January, not the wnd of the world. Just keep on living every day, trusting God and I promise you that God will come through.