Did you leave room for cream?

Room for Cream

"The thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10 (NIV)

 

Today’s devotion from Encouragement for Today from Psalms 31 Ministries dealt with coffee, my life line, and was absolutely wonderful. Titled ‘Room for Cream” and written by Marybeth Whalen, it discussed how often we clutter our lives with all the “have-to’s” and ignore the need to add the things that bring us joy and help us “reach that place of abundance Jesus wants us to live in now”.

Cream adds sweet, light and rich texture to our coffee. God wants to add these elements to our life. I can add sweet to my life by making time for my friends; listening to my daughter and husband intentionally when they talk to me; scheduling fun things on my calendar; reading books for the fun of it; and taking time to rest and recharge.

I add light to my life when I spend time in God’s word; journaling about what He has said to me; pouring out my anxieties and worries to Him and listening for His response.

I add richness to my life by using my time and talents for others; tithing and giving to missions; providing meals and/or words of encouragement to others and surrendering to God’s word.

These things are not going to happen without intentional effort on my part. They require action. Adding these things to my daily schedule will help me reach my life of abundance. I don’t know about you but I want to leave room for cream in my life.

Dear Lord, help me to live the life of abundance You called for me to live—a life that is sweet and white and rich. Help me remember that I have to leave room in my life for abundance or it will always elude me. Help me to seek You first and let You show me how to leave room for cream. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Application Steps:

If you brew coffee at home or order a cup at a coffee shop today, while you're waiting for it spend time praying for God to show you ways you can leave room for cream in your life. Resolve to think about having an abundant life every time you fix your coffee.

Reflections:

What does an abundant life look like? What would fall in my sweet, white and rich categories?

Power Verses:

Psalm 65:11, "You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance." (NIV)

Luke 6:38, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (NIV)

God’s silence never equals God’s slumber. (Beth Moore)

"Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius." ~Georges-Louis Leclerc

Still waiting on ANCC’s ok to schedule my practitioner exam. Still studying during the waiting. Trying to stay focused. Trying not to go stir crazy without a job. Trying to enjoy the time without a job but no job means no moola. God is not denying me. He is making me wiser!!! 

PATIENCE: the purpose of the pit is to purify and then resto...

PATIENCE: the purpose of the pit is to purify and then resto...: "On the website Girlfriends for God today, Mary Southerland makes some interesting points about patience. She didn’t realize she was writi..."

the purpose of the pit is to purify and then restore.

On the website Girlfriends for God today, Mary Southerland makes some interesting points about patience. She didn’t realize she was writing to me. I will share some of the points she made.

1.  Wait.  The psalmist simply says, "I waited." Waiting is not passive. Waiting is meant to be a time of preparation, a time of rest and healing,  

• To wait means to accept the pit.  Isaiah 45:3 (NIV) "I will give you hidden treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name."  

Any time "LORD" is capitalized in Scripture, it means "Abba Father." This verse indicates that our Father has gone before us and in every dark moment or painful circumstance has buried a treasure or stored a secret. The only way we can find the treasure or learn the secret is to pass through that darkness. Some things cannot be learned in the light. To wait means to accept the pit, knowing it is for our good.  (Lord, what treasure am I to find in this darkness?)

• To wait means to admit there is a problem.  Isaiah 40:29 (NLT) "He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak."   

Emotional health begins at the point of emotional integrity with a willingness to say "I need help!" It’s ok to share and expose your weakness as long as you are taking them to God first.  A shared load is a lighter load. We were created to need each other.

• To wait means to be still.  Psalm 40:1 "I waited …"

So much about God can never be known on the run. Anyone that knows me knows that being still is my weakness. I have to move something even if I’m sitting. I need to fold clothes or sew while I watch TV. If I am listening to a lecturer/speaker, I have to doodle. I equate being still with being lazy. I think I have been on the run for so long these past six years that God is imparting STILLNESS on me rather I like it or not. I want to learn what it is He is preparing me for during this time of induced PATIENCE.

2.  Be patient.  It took twenty-two years for the McDonald's hamburger chain to make its first billion dollars. It took IBM forty-six years and Xerox sixty-three years to make their first billion. Harvey Mackay, in his book Swim with the Sharks, tells of an interview with the 88-year-old President of Japan's largest and most successful electrical enterprise. The interview went as follows:
Question: Mr. President, does your company have long-range goals?
Answer: "Yes."
Question: "How long are your long-range goals?"
Answer: "Two hundred and fifty years."
Question: "What do you need to carry them out?"
Answer: "Patience."
David said, "I waited patiently for the Lord." The word "patiently" means "without tiring and with perseverance."  Lord, I have the perseverance down; help me to do so w/o tiring.
The issue I am facing may not be the problem you are facing, but at some point in life, we will all face some kind of pit. It may be a pit that we have dug with our own hands of wrong choices or it could be a pit that has been uniquely designed for us by the enemy. But a pit is a pit - a place of paralyzing fear and numbing doubt that is constantly fed by our human frailty and desperate attempts to escape the darkness.
The good news is that God is drawn to broken people. Psalm 40:1 says "He turned to me." Notice it does not say that David turned to God. Honestly, I doubt David had the strength to turn to God … so God turned to him. God heard the cry of David and he will hear yours. I don't know if you are in a pit and need help or if someone you love is in that pit and needs your help, but one thing I do know is that the purpose of the pit is to purify and then restore. Right now, surrender the broken pieces of your life to God. He can and will bring you out of the dark. 

Psalm 40:1-3. "I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."  (All we have to do is ONE thing: wait. If we can do ONE thing, he will do the other five listed. Will you wait?)

Today was NOT a good day for patience

Today was a difficult day for my patience level. I’m not sure what made it so different than any other day but for some reason it was. The fact that I haven’t received my notification to take my certification exam coupled with the fact that I still don’t have a clue as to where I will be employed just sent me over the edge.

I spent most the day in a fog, crying endlessly. I felt worthless and unorganized. Then a phone call…a phone interview is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Then after crying some more because my patience had flown out the door, I find my bible verses.

The first note card is titled: When doubt creeps in remember…

                2 Cor. 10: 5. They (our weapons) destroy arguments, and every defense that is raised up to oppose the knowledge of God. They capture every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

And if that wasn’t good enough to wake me up and put an abrupt halt to my pity party, I also had James 1: ⁵ But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask. ⁶ Whoever asks shouldn’t hesitate. They should ask in faith, without doubting. Whoever doubts is like the surf of the sea, tossed and turned by the wind. ⁷ People like that should never imagine that they will receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ They are double-minded, unstable in all their ways.

So, I pull myself together and realize patience will not come to me over night nor will I wake up and have it daily. I have to ask for it daily. But it sure is nice to have these cards in unexpected places. Yes, I know people say to paste them where you can see them daily, but that is kind of like pictures on the wall. You get used to them being there and they simple become part of the décor.

Another one I read was Phil. 3:  ¹² it’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose.(to be a PNP) ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t think I’ve reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. ¹⁴ The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus. (I’m not doing this to be a PNP….I’m doing this to fulfill God’s calling on my life.)¹⁵ So, all of us who are spiritually mature should think this way and if anyone thinks differently, God will reveal it to him or her. ¹⁶ Only let’s live in a way that is consistent with whatever level we have reached.

These verses rounded out my meeting with God:

Ecc. 11:5 Just as you do not understand how a child I formed in the womb you will never understand the mystery at work in all of God’s ways

Rom 8:38 I could be sure that every detail of my life and love for God is worked into something good. God is always at work for good of everyone that loves him.

2 Cor. 9:8 God will provide all I need. I will always have more than enough to do good things for others.

Ps. 94:11. God knows my plans are worthless, a mere breath, useless and a shallow. His plans have a greater purpose.

Jer. 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you says the lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a future and hope.

Ps. 9:10 I know your name and I trust in you for you do not abandon me when I search for you. You are my fortress in times of trouble. (I can relax when I am with you ; where you have called me).

Ps 37: 4-7 Do what the Lord wants and He will give you the desires of your heart. Let the Lord lead you and trust Him to help. Then it will be clear as the noon day sun that you were right. Be patient and trust the Lord. Don’t let it bother you when all goes well for those who do sinful things.

Ps. 37: 23 If you do what the Lord wants he will make certain each step you take is sure. The Lord will hold your hand and if you stumble you still won’t fall.

It’s the word that’s getting me through….even on these difficult days.

A subject of many artistic outlets

In researching patience today, I learned there are many artistic talents devoted to this word. Guns and Roses have a song titled “Patience” as does a British boy band called Take That. George Michael titled his 2004 album Patience as did the Rhine’s in 1992 and Peter Hammill in 1983. There is an opera Bunthorne’s Bride written on patience and one of the main characters name is Patience and another one written by Jason Shermon in 1998. In J. Shermon’s play  the focus is that life’s outcomes are not controllable whether or not events are connected. The key is happiness with self and the outcomes will not matter. The 2006 Broadway musical Dream Girls make use of  the song “Patience” written by H. Krieger and W. Reale. I even learned that the game of Solitaire is also called patience. And last many poems have been written about patience. Almost all of these artistic explanations of  patience focus on love and as one google definition stated: it’s endurance under difficult circumstances.

2 Peter 1: 3-11

Christian life in outline

 ³ By his divine power the Lord has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of the one who called us by his own honor and glory. ⁴ Through his honor and glory he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, that you may share the divine nature and escape from the world’s immorality that sinful craving produces.

 ⁵ This is why you must make every effort to add moral excellence to your faith; and to moral excellence, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patience; and to patience, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, affection for others; and to affection for others, love. ⁸ If all these are yours and they are growing in you, they’ll keep you from becoming inactive and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ Whoever lacks these things is shortsighted and blind, forgetting that they were cleansed from their past sins. (I don’t know about you but I want these to be active and fruitful; I don’t want to be shortsighted and blind about where I came from.)

 ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers and sisters, be eager to confirm your call and election. Do this and you will never ever be lost. ¹¹ For in this way you will receive a rich welcome into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

I want to learn to be tolerant when I am facing delay. I don’t want to act on my annoyance in a negative way when I am facing a setback. I continue to pray for help in learning patience. I think that is why I am painting today. I’m even painting the trim without taping it off so that I intentionally have to go slow so that I do not get the white trim paint on my red walls. Look out patience…here I come.

PATIENCE: Patience is a choice?

PATIENCE: Patience is a choice?: "Patience is a ChoiceI said patience is something I am working on this year and plan to be better at before the year’s end, but what exact..."