Scripture
Revelation 21:4
Prayer
I humbly grateful for Your loving grace, Father. There is nothing and no one greater than You. You know my thoughts, dreams, hopes, fears, and anxieties. You know all of my strengths and weaknesses. You know my flaws. You even know the things that I’ve keep a secret from others.
All of this You know, and You still love, protect, heal, and guide me. Words cannot fully describe how appreciative I am, so I will have to boldly show it in my walk, through my actions and in the words I choose—that ultimately will either reflect You, or not. Father You already know where and when I’m going to slip up, fall and blunder, and I thank You for Your forgiveness. I pray to You as a believer and follower of Christ, as Your humble servant. Amen.
Reflection
Just as God brings us into this world, He can also wipe away our tears, and calm our anxieties. There is nothing He can’t do. He’s not the parent who says, “wow, sorry sweetheart but daddy can’t help you with this new math“. God can help you with everything.
What we have to embrace is that our “now” is only temporary. Don’t go too deep with that statement. I don’t mean that life is short. Yes, that’s true. I want you to break this down to the smallest common denominator. Each moment of every day is temporary. Right now as you read this, this time is only temporary. There’s no continual loop that will keep you in the moment for eternity. It will come to an end and you will proceed forward through your day.
Can you recall past moments of anguish that are so long ago, that many details are just faint memories? That’s because God moved you out of that time and your journey has brought you to today. The “former order of things has passed away” and it was made possible because somewhere inside of you there was a desire and a need, for change. You also had to put in some level of effort for God to see that you were ready to move out of your situation, forward, into something better.
Some people get nervous reading the book of Revelation. I used to be terrified of it, especially as a child. But having read the entire Bible, front to back, it’s clear that just like all books it has a beginning and an end, and so it tells of the beginning and of the end (as told by numerous men from different walks of life).
But look at the Bible and at life through a different lens than the physical. Look through a spiritual lens.
Look at your life as a series of chapters in a book, just as the book has a beginning and an end, so does each chapter. A chapter has to end with something bold, soul-stirring, riveting, shocking, mind-boggling, or challenging. A dull ending would never encourage the reader to turn the page to the next chapter, and a dull book ending means a possible end of an author’s career.
If you recite today’s verse silently or aloud (whichever works for you) and you consider a time in your life where you were in so much pain, that all you wanted was for the pain to go away. You may have cried yourself asleep. You may have found yourself crying at the oddest, most unexpected times of the day. You were either in a spiritual valley or climbing a spiritual mountain, and you found yourself stuck in a painful point learning what felt like a painful lesson.
Then there came a time when you progressed forward, your momentum picked up, you could look back and see how far away you were from that painful point, and you could see more of God’s Light as it glistened on you. That was God and you working together, so that He could wipe away your tears, free you from that pain, void and emptiness—and help you to put your past behind you.
For some people, they don’t realize that depression and anxiety is only conquered when we also do our part to get out of that valley or up that mountain. We cannot just lay down and take a magic pill, and ‘poof’ the clouds disappear and in pours the sunlight and blossoming flowers. That’s called a hallucinogen, and after you come off of that high you will still be in that valley or on that mountain, and you will feel worse because your ‘now’ seems even darker. That’s how people become addicted to pills, alcohol, and other drugs. The temporary disconnect from the ‘now’ appears to be better and feel better than just facing the now. That’s because we’re consumed by the physicality of the ‘now’ and have little to no faith in God’s ability to help us out of this situation.
Our obsession with the physical limits our thinking and our spiritual awareness, and we begin to convince ourselves that it’s “all on me. I’ve got to do this alone,” and the fear and stress begins to stockpile on our shoulders. We left God completely out of the equation. Or we only brought Him in for a small period of time, got frustrated, and walked away from Him because He wasn’t working on our timetable.
We have to look through our spiritual lens. Put the physical one down. The physical lens has you stressed and consumed by things and people that you can’t control. The spiritual lens helps you to see clearly the doors and windows that God has opened for you. You can’t wear both lenses and see what’s going on. That’s like wearing two pairs of 3D glasses and then wondering why the movie looks weird. Just wear one pair please.
Wearing our spiritual lens helps us to see past the clutter and chaos, and instead focus intently on one element, one task, one moment, and only until we have done what we’re supposed to do, do we move forward onto something else.
We want it all. We’re multitaskers. We have several gadgets and smart devices. Our homes are growing to be more and more wireless as we connect more to the Internet. Oddly enough, the more connected we become in the physical realm, the more we need to be cognizant of our connection to the spiritual realm—but many of us don’t.
God tells us each day that “I have you, just walk“. We’re like the toddler taking our first steps as we watch our parents eyes grow bolder each step we take and each wobble we make. We’re like the child on the bicycle. First, we have the training wheels on and our parents walk and later jog beside us while holding on to our seat and the handle bars. Eventually one hand releases and then the other, and we’re riding on training wheels without mommy or daddy’s help. Then comes the time when the training wheels come off. It doesn’t mean that mommy and daddy won’t be around to guide us, help us back up when we fall, clean our wounds, and hug us and say, “get back on the bike and try again“. It just means that certain things don’t require mommy and daddy’s hands to ensure your balance. Hence why we have adults turning to their parents for financial assistance or a place to temporarily live.
Those are the physical examples of our spiritual relationship with God. He excitedly is watching us scoot, crawl, walk, run, and learn how to ride life’s bike. The big difference between God and our human parents is, God is there every single second of the day, when our human parents can’t be. They have a limited role for a limited time on our journey. So we need to learn and see how God speaks through them to speak to us. We need to see how our love for family is directly tied to God’s love for us.
There is no other source that can bring you life, heal you, and mold you into greater. Only God can.
Right now you may be in a valley or on a mountain that seems never-ending. Speak to Him. It’s not as though He doesn’t know where you are and what you’re going through. Speak to Him. Take that first scoot, crawl, step—He will always meet you where you are.
God wants to dry your tears, calm your fears, heal you, comfort you, and show you what is in store for you in the future. God wants for the “former order of things” to pass away, so that you can be present and embracing the blessings that He has for you. Are you ready to move forward?
Let’s do this!
Questions of the Day1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?
2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?
3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?
4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?
5. Who would you like to pray for today?
6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.
Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below. You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com
Please also feel free to share this post with others. We’re never quite sure who needs to hear and see what, and when! It would be awesome if whenever you run across a prayer, message, or scripture that moves you, you would kindly share it with the rest of us. You can post it on this blog or send me an email.
Love always,
Natasha
Copyright 2013-2017. Natasha Foreman Bryant. Some Rights Reserved. All Prayers and Reflections are Copyright Protected by Natasha Foreman Bryant, unless otherwise noted. Prior posts from 2009-2013 are copyrighted under the name Natasha L. Foreman. breakingbreadwithnatasha.com
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.(www.Lockman.org)
Scripture taken from the Common English Bible®, CEB® Copyright © 2010, 2011 by Common English Bible.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. The “CEB” and “Common English Bible” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Common. English Bible. Use of either trademark requires the permission of Common English Bible.
Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
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