Month: January 2025

LOST HEART

LOST HEART

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord!”

-Psalm 27:13-14-

Have you “lost heart” while you were waiting for a test result? When you got up to another physically painful day? When friends have said things or done something to hurt you? When you feel your family has forgotten you? Time seems to stop! Waiting for answers or better days, is so hard! The word wait means: “eagerly impatient to do something or for something to happen.”

I was talking to a friend, the other day, about waiting on God. She said she tries to fix it or figure things out herself. Then when she can’t, or she loses heart because she can’t fix it, she turns to God in prayer. I do that all the time. Why do we do that to ourselves? We should turn to God FIRST. We could save ourselves from so much stress and sleepless nights, if we would just do that.

I love the words “lost heart” in the verses above. In the verses before, David tells us that he was being falsely accused by witnesses “who were rising against” him and they were “breathing out violence.” When we lose heart, we become discouraged, lose hope or faith. We feel we have been waiting forever for our lives to get back on track. The word heart in the Bible often represents the center of one’s being. It means losing courage or determination from your very own core. I have “lost heart” so many times, I cannot even begin to tell you how many! I have had lies told about me and my life has been threatened. I am sure not to the degree that David did, but none the less, I felt like I just wanted to wrap myself in a blanket, stop and hide giving in to the lies the devil was throwing my way!

In the verses above, we see the words “unless I had believed.” David remembered that God was on his side. God would help him. God would give him strength and courage to go on no matter what was going on in his life. Proverbs 3:5-6 reads “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” This verse tells us we are not to lean into our own understanding of how our life should be. God will give us direction, if we remember to lean on Him. Our part is to trust, believe, and remember that God has our backs. David was going through tough times. We go through tough times. Times when you feel down. Times when you don’t know where to turn. Times when the stress is so hard to bear that it is affecting not only our spirit, but our physical body as well. Times we question where God is because nothing is changing. Times when our grown children or grandchildren are not making wise choices. Times that this life is just too hard. Times when we feel down. Times we are stressed. Times when people get “under our skin.” Times when we are physically painful. Times we have been hurt by others. Times when others lean so much on us, that we begin to fall. Times we lose confidence in ourselves and we feel we are not good enough. Times when we are bone tired of this world. Times we feel no one cares. Times we don’t feel God is listening to us. Times we want to just curl up into a ball and go to bed. There is nothing wrong with feeling these things. We are made human, by an almighty God. It is normal to feel like we are losing heart at times. When it becomes wrong, is when we forget or don’t believe, in the “goodness of the Lord.” We stay stuck in our own understanding, not in the reality of God’s goodness. When we have these times of doubt, we need to turn to God, instead of losing heart and giving up. Remember what God has promised us. Remember in the faithfulness of our God, in the past. Turn the pages of the Bible and remember to hold onto the faith in the “goodness of the Lord.” Put away the hardness of this world, be still and talk to God, meditate on His words. Calm your spirit through God’s goodness. Even if we have faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20), God will meet us where we are at. He will meet us in the middle of the pain. We just have to take action, remember His goodness and reach out to Him in prayer. He is waiting patiently for us.

David in these verses, tells us that he has faith that God will help him while he is still alive, not just in the afterlife. “In the land of the living” signifies that we are to have hope and trust in God even amidst difficult circumstances, in this life here on earth. It is possible to rise up and remember whose we are and that He is always there supporting us. We just have to do our part. Stop, be still, have patience, pray, read scripture, think on what God has told you, and your faith, that has lost hope, will once again, come into your heart.

Verse 14 from above, tells us what to do when our hope is lost because of this life. “Wait…be of good courage.”  So, what does it mean to wait on the Lord and have courage? Trust Him and have faith in His promises. Ask God for guidance, protection and wisdom. Be patient and endure. Hold onto hope in the fact that God will deliver us and help us. So, what are the benefits of waiting on the Lord? Waiting strengthens us. We see trials, God sees training for our benefit. It helps us to help others through our testimony of the goodness of God that we have seen in our lives. We feel closer to God. Do you find the days you don’t sit down and read His word or we forget to pray, that you feel far away from God? We find patience and regain our focus. We remember what is truly important! We can look back at our past, and learn from those experiences that we thought were going to tear us down, and instead, we grow in our faith. So, how do we wait on the Lord? Remember that we can have confidence through God and in prayer. Ephesians 3:12 reads “In whom (Christ) we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.”  Sing hymns. Keep songs in our heart that give us encouragement, remind us of God’s goodness and lift us up to keep on going. Memorize scripture so when the hard times come, we can bring to memory a scripture that God has given to help us. Remember what He has told us and focus. Remember, this world is not my eternal home. God has something better for us when we leave this earth, if we have clung to His promises. So, what is the result of all of this waiting? “He will strengthen your heart.” Waiting gives us strength realizing that God is all powerful and will give us strength to keep putting one step in front of the other.

Like verses above, I am trying to memorize and keep close to my heart. When those hard days come, and they will, I can reach into my lost heart and instead of feeling lost, I can be strengthened and have a strong heart through our Lord God! Keep on, keeping on! Don’t have a lost heart! God has a plan for you! He is so much stronger than we are!

Till next time!          

                                            Keela

DIVINE DETOUR

DIVINE DETOUR

Well, we made it through the busy holidays! Have you taken down your decorations, put away the wrapping paper, gotten rested up from all the fun? My answer is, nope not yet. Next week is my goal of getting everything back to “normal.” I want to share with you today some thoughts about a song that is everywhere during the holiday season.

One of my favorite songs during the holiday season is “Mary Did You Know.” Some of the words are, “Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day: walk on water-save our sons and daughters-child you’ve delivered will soon deliver you-give sight to a blind man-calm a storm with His hand-when you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God-the deaf will hear-the lame will leap-the dumb will speak-the sleeping baby child you’re holding is the Great I Am.” (words written by Mark Lowry) Of course, the answer to those questions, is no. She knew what the angel told her and knew this was to be a special child, but she had no idea of all the amazing things that her little baby, that she held in her arms, would do one day.

Mary and Joseph were betrothed. They were engaged. During Bible times, this meant the two families had made a binding contract that was as legally binding as marriage. The couple did not live together during the betrothal period, which lasted about twelve months, and sexual relations were considered adultery.

Let’s think about Mary and talk about some divine detours she had to make. Some changes to her future that she did not see coming.

Mary was planning on getting married. She was a virgin. Isaiah 7:14, prophesied this fact. “…behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” She had no idea that she was going to take a divine detour and have a baby before she got married. There was no humanly way possible! She was going down the path of planning a wedding and minding her own business, looking forward to a future with Joseph. When we are going down an actual road and there is a detour, we depend on the road signs to help us, to give us direction of how we need to change our original route. We sit up and pay attention. Mary had no idea that she was about to change direction for her entire life.

Read Luke 1:26-38. Mary was told by an angel of the Lord, some things that were going to change her life, as she knew it! The angel praises her that she is “…highly favored, Lord is with you, blessed among women.” Mary was troubled. The angel said to not be afraid. The angel tells her, she will have a Son who “…will be great.” This was not in her plans for her future!  How could she have a child when she had not been with a man yet? The angel told her how this would be possible. “…The Holy Spirit will come upon you…” The angel said “For, with God nothing will be impossible.” Mary has so much faith at the age of 15 or 16, as scholars believe, that she realizes this is a divine detour she has to make in her life and says “Let it be to me according to your word.” Would I be able to say that, if my life was taking a huge detour from my plans for the future? Mary did not even think about what people or Joseph might say, but rather she trusted in God’s plans. I know that my future plans, all those years ago, did not turn out like I thought my future with my husband would be. I had no idea that he would be mentally and physically sick for such a long period of time in our marriage, or that our future would take a detour and he would pass away after only 36 years of marriage. I am not comparing myself to Mary by any means. But I am saying, I tried to keep my faith in God and His plans for my life. Sometimes that is so hard to do, isn’t it? We are trying to get to OUR plans and OUR future in one way, but God is trying to get us THRU the process to a BETTER place. Instead of Mary thinking this was an inconvenience, she accepted the divine detour she was going to make. She had immense faith in God! So, what about Joseph? Read Matthew 1:18-25. These verses talk about Joseph and all the faith in God, that Joseph had also. His plans for his future were not to have a betrothed Mary to be pregnant, before they actually got married! He realized he was taking a divine detour also.

Read Luke 2. A census was decreed and everyone had to go to Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph went there. Mary was about ready to deliver her precious baby. The means of transportation during those times was by riding a donkey. It was about 90 miles between Galilee and Bethlehem. Probably taking about four days by donkey. As a mother of three, I know how uncomfortable that had to be for her. I know that discomfort of the end of a pregnancy, without even riding on a donkey! I am sure that she had no idea that at the end of her pregnancy, she would be riding a donkey for about four days. When they got there, there was no room available. They had to stay in, either a stable or it may have been a cave where the animals lived. Had that been in her plans for the delivery of her first child? She had probably planned on her mother, grandmother or a friend to help her to deliver her child. She had no idea that she would lay her baby in a manger, which was a feeding trough for the animals. Was she afraid because she was not birthing her child the way she had thought the child would be born? I know I was afraid when I had my first child. What about Joseph? Do you think this was “playing out” like he had expected when the woman he loved, was now depending on him to deliver this promised Child? This was truly a divine detour!

In Bible times, after a woman had a child, she had to go thru a period of purification, according to the law of Moses. She had to offer a sacrifice in the temple. A man by the name of Simeon came to them. He took baby Jesus in his arms and blessed God. He told Mary “…a sword will pierce through your own soul…” He was foretelling that one day, Mary would be cut to the heart by what she saw her son going through: all the rejection and the pain of the cross. There is not much said about Jesus as a child, until he was about twelve years old. I watched a movie one time, that was told from the viewpoint of Mary and what she may have thought as she watched her son go through so many tough things. One scene, as Jesus, who was covered in blood, was trying to carry the heavy cross down the street, she was running through the crowd so she could be as close to Jesus as possible. I can’t even imagine how she must have felt while watching Jesus be spit upon, insulted, beaten, bloodied. His body was oozing and dripping blood. In the movie, Mary remembered a time, Jesus had fallen as a child and skinned His knee. As blood ran down His leg, He had run crying to Mary, His mother, to ease His pain. That part of the movie, for some reason, hit me hard. I remember my children running to me when they had “boo-boos.” Mary was a mother just like we have been or are for our own children. Anytime my children have been in pain, even if they are grown, it hurts my heart. Just like Mary’s heart had to hurt. Now, here her son was in tremendous mental and physical pain and there was nothing she could do. Somehow, she knew that this was going to happen one day. There are several times the Bible says that Mary treasured and pondered all the things she heard and saw. When she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, she sang a song of praise that was full of poetic imagery and references to the Old Testament. Mary knew the law and had deep faith in God’s promises to Abraham that would be fulfilled in her Son. When the angel visited her at the beginning of her pregnancy, she knew that God had chosen her for an important purpose. She just asked one question, how could this happen as she was a virgin. I don’t know about you, but I might have had more questions than she did.  I am sure, she did not want this pain for her son, but she knew this divine detour was necessary for all of mankind and fulfillment of prophesy.

So, what, you say, does any of that have to do with me? We must have faith, trust and hope in God that when the crazy changes in our lives or the detours of life come along, that we realize that it is just a departure from the direct course or the usual expected future we had. We have divine detours given to or allowed by God; to teach us a lesson-to fulfill His promises-to direct us onto a better future than we had originally planned. When your plans change, remember Mary and how her life changed in so many different ways, yet she kept her faith in God. What she went through as a mother, helped save us from eternal torment to a blessed promise of heaven in our future. That future is a secure promise if we have followed and trusted God through this crazy life. So, when something doesn’t happen for your future the way you thought it would, it could very well be a divine detour! Follow God’s signs!

Till next time!

                                           Keela