Focus Your Faith

What is your faith focused on?  Is it those things that can be seen?  Things that can be heard?  That which you witness in the physical?

Today's tumultuous times draws our attention to all the danger, evil, and sin in the world.  It is like standing under a shower of filth.  It coats most of what we hear and see each day.

Now more than ever, we need to consistently re-align our focus through the day.  We need to shift our gaze to the Father and remind ourselves that nothing happens that has not been sifted through His hands.

The word "truth" is talked about quite often.  The foundation of truth is the real issue.  If the version of truth being spouted is derived from any source other than the Word of God, then it is faulty.  When we know truth, we can be assured of what is evil and what is not.

We are told plainly in Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

So this begs the question:  how do you know truth?   Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God.

The only way to know these things, is to daily study His word.  As we earnestly seek Him, He will reveal himself to us.  It is through studying His life, character, and teachings that we will come to know Truth itself.

So lift your eyes my friends.  Do not be afraid for the events of today's times but instead rest in the peace that can only come from the Father above!

Blessings to one and all....

Katrina

Selfies / Selfie Sticks ~ The Struggle is Real

The struggle is real.  

Size 2 models in all forms of advertising being shoved at us every where at all times.  A constant picture of what the world deems as womanly perfection is being used to drive marketing for everything you can think of.  

Body shape, weight, and type is constantly being blared on all forms of media.  Exercise and you can be this.  Eat right and you can look like that.  Take this pill and you will be everything you dream of.

What a CROCK!!!

I have been thin 85% of my life.  I am 5'10 and weighed 124 when I got married.  At age 29, when I got pregnant with our first son, I still weighed only 130 and wore a Junior size 4.  Not because I did anything, but because that is how God designed me.

Now, I am age 50, and I am battling Polycystic Kidney disease.  In the past three years I have gained more clothing sizes than I have in my entire life.  This disease process has not only caused my kidneys to become the size of a football (resulting in a distinctly pregnant look), but because of the process itself and the imbalance of nutrients in my body, I am gaining everywhere and as if that wasn't enough fun, let's lose our hair while we are at it.

I have been trying every clothing style imaginable to cover, disguise, improve upon my looks.  Each time I walk into a store, shop might as well be the dirtiest four letter word out there.  Hairstyles keep changing to disguise the increasingly thinning of my hair.

I started my marriage to my husband 28 years ago just a few miles down the beach from where we are now.  Skinny little thing that barely cast a shadow on the sand, could rock a bikini with the best of them, and had over come, with God's help, what I then thought, was the worst days of my life.

This morning as I walked along the shore I was thinking and I caught my shadow ahead on the sand and was immediately displeased.  God immediately came in to instruct me and teach me a lesson that I wish I had listened to and learned long ago.

Guess what I discovered???  I am VAIN.  Yep, I said it.  Put it out there for everyone to know.  I have, over time, bought into the line of trash being fed to women that we must be more, do more, and look like more.  

My body shape, size, type doesn't matter one fig!!  The one single thing that matters, and it matters more than anything in my life, is that each morning that I draw breath that I love my God, I show the love that He gives to me to every single person around me, and that as much as it is within me, that I keep my body a temple for the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.  

Pretty simple to say but so much harder to live.  So today as I go back out on the beach amongst the young and not so young, and I look around, I will choose to NOT be ashamed of how I look but rather to be proud that I am the child of the King; to know that I am wonderfully made; and to know without a doubt, that I am created in His image.

Be blessed my friends and go out and rock YOU today!!!

me

A walk through emotions led by faith

Sometimes when you quiet the noise of daily living, you must make listening to God's direction a priority. I wouldn't have chosen this particular day to take the emotional journey that was placed in front of me. I had "plans".  Plans to organize, clean, and simplify everything in the house.  God had plans as well.  His plan was to simplify my life, usher in peace, and bring about a greater depth of joy.  I have discovered that often times in my life, God will use something that is painful to bring about tremendous beauty if I will only allow the journey.

I don't know of any one that would willingly choose pain.  I am no different. Today, today I decided to allow faith to lead emotion and take a journey that has led me down every road of emotion I have ever known. Sorrow, joy, pain, anger, resentment, resignation, peace, and more has raced through me during the past four hours.  Honestly, I am exhausted.

Emotion led by faith.  To me, this means that I don't become stuck in any one emotion triggered by various occurrences in my life.  Instead, I choose to allow God to hold me close, protect my heart, and keep me moving forward into the blessings that only He can bring when I am obedient.

The blessings He gave me today?  He blessed me with freedom from past hurts and abuse.  He blessed me with forgotten precious moments. He blessed me with the ability to understand that although some may have caused me great pain, that they did indeed love me to the best that they were able in the realm of understanding that they had of that word. He blessed me!  He continues to bless me.

Now it is up to me to choose to live in those blessings and to not allow anything to arise and take my focus off of that.

God, you are my Jehovah Jireh, the healer of my heart!  How I love you so!!

Me....

My mind, My mind........

Have you ever noticed that the largest battles you face in life are the battles that are within the boundaries of your own mind?

Proverbs 23:7 says.....  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he....

Wow... I mean just wow!!  In a world where "finding oneself" seems to be the reigning mantra, it is nice to know that we only have to look inward to know who we really are.  There is a catch, however.  I mean, isn't there always?  Only those who are willing to be strong, willing to view the truth without any pretty filters, those, those are the ones who will discover who they really are.

All too often we have a variety of pretty facades that we put on to be appealing to others: our dog friends know us as champions of the throw aways, our church friends know us as oh so Christ like, our work friends know us as efficient, smart. and innovative.  Our family, our family probably sees the truest facade of all.  It is not often that we will don a facade for those we interact with all day every day.  Even so, they don't know those secret places in our heart that we guard oh so diligently.

These are the places where dreams are allowed to grow without boundaries, hope soars, hurts are buried, and fears are shoved in corners.  The heart, that place where thoughts roam uncensored.  Where thoughts are given the freedom to just be.

The heart.  Are we really willing to remove all blinders and search deeply within the areas of our heart and quietly acknowledge the reality of who we are?  I urge you to do so!  I urge you to move forward, don't let fear fetter your feet.  Keep looking deeper and deeper.  No need to dwell, simply acknowledge and keep searching out the farthest places of the heart.

Turn with trembling lips, eyes rimmed with tears of the times we fail, and fall into the arms of the One True King who loves us above all else.  Rest in His arms and know that nothing you found is a surprise to Him.  Nothing you are or will be will ever cause Him to love you less.  Finally, let it go.   Release it to the only One who can bring healing and who will bring change.  Then you will find it..... that peace that can't be shaken.  The joy that can't be stolen.

The journey to training your mind is a simple one.  We must daily renew our minds with His Holy word.  Knowing that as we read His word, it begins a work in our mind.  A work to transform, heal, and renew.

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind!!

So be encouraged my friends.  We are all on this road.  And those who are willing to be brave, to travel the road of truth and look deeply within their hearts, there you will find who you are.  In the arms of the Savior, you will find who you are meant to be.  In the pages of His word, you will find the road between the two.

Love and prayers.....

Katrina.... a fellow traveler.

My Miracle….

I cannot stop singing ( be thankful you cannot hear me! ) and shouting praises to God for His mercies are new every morning!!!

I have to shout to the world of the miracle God performed for me just yesterday.  A miracle! For me!!  I am still reeling with awe and wonder that the Lion of Judah loves me and cares so much for me that He would bring about a miracle in my life.

I will do my best to contain my words to only a few hundred but the joy cannot be contained so please bear with me as I do my best to share with you the mightiness of our God.

To keep things as brief as possible I will just outline a few of the "majors" that our family has been dealing with as of late so that you might comprehend the scope of emotions that have been rioting for attention as well as the depth of mercy God showered upon me yesterday.

• Praise God my husband returned physically well from Afghanistan in October of 2013.  He is now retired but unable to draw his retirement pay for 5 years.  He is currently unemployed and battling PTSD and life as it is here in the States versus what he had come to view as "normal" for 18 months.  So, a drastic unexpected reduction in income for our family.
• Loss of income = loss of opportunity to purchase a home of our own.  Our leased property frequently leaves us with no heat and frozen pipes.
• Health issues.

That is enough to give a general idea of the pressures we have been shouldering.  Don't feel sorry for us!  We are BLESSED!!!  Yes, it is tough, but God is merciful and faithful to us always!

In June of this year, God brought me to the place of my current employment.  He used a fellow believer who is a member of our church to bring about a blessing to me.  Michele chose to hire me to work with one of the agents, Tommy, in the real estate office where she is the Operations Manager.  (And she does a phenomenal job!!)  Little did I know that this job would be God's way of providing for us when my husband returned home!  But God knew.  He knew the future and true to His word in Jeremiah 29:11 (For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope) God provided for our family long before we even knew we would need that provision.

God has chosen to bless my efforts in my job and is expanding the scope of our business relationships!  What an awesome blessing.  Not long after I started here in the spring, it was mentioned that I should pursue my real estate license so that I could be of further benefit not only to Tommy but also, to be able to assist the tremendous team we have at John Jones!  

For a while, I have been studying before and after hours as well as on the weekends.  Putting in some long hours but looking forward to being able to expand the reach of my position.  You see, when God blessed me through Michele, He brought to me a joy in my job that I have only had once before in regards to a professional position.  My heart and nature is to love and serve people, so God knew that nothing would suit me more than where I currently am.  Working with a group of fellow believers who love God as I do.

Soooo…. along comes Sunday.  Sunday is the day before my scheduled state and national exams.  I am nervous and excited about the up coming test.  Feeling apprehensive because I take on pressures that I should leave to God.  I knew with the license would come the opportunity to bless my family with an increased opportunity to be able to have our own home as well as meet medical needs.

Tommy is so very wonderful and provided me with an opportunity to stay within 3 miles of the testing center so that I could spend Sunday in study and preparation.  Around noon Sunday I needed a brain break so I walked downstairs to the hotel restaurant and had lunch.  Turns out that the fish I consumed was so very NOT good.  Within 30 minutes I had a great case of food poisoning going on.  So basically the rest of that day and night was spent in misery.  In addition, it seemed that I was not to have any rest as several hotel guests spent the majority of the night running up and down hallways laughing / shouting.  

In comes Monday morning and I am exhausted, dehydrated, and weak.  I knew that first thing I needed to do was STOP everything and spend time in God's word and in prayer listening to His direction. While I was getting prepared to check out and leave the hotel, I wrestled with re-scheduling my testing. I never had peace about that so I proceeded on to the testing site.  Not sure how I was going to make it through the two exams without being sick in front of everyone, I sat in my truck in front of the building.  

I told God this….. "God… I have no faith in my ability to go in there and remember my own name much less the depth of materials that I am required to know.  I do have FAITH in You, Your confidence, and Your mercy.  So I lean fully on You to perform this."

I walked in the building at 7:45 and I walked out at 8:45.  Testing time allotted is a little over 3 hours with a time limit of 4.  Twice during the exam I had to get up to be sick.  After 30 minutes I had finished both exams with absolutely zero recollection of what I had done.  I walked out of the room knowing that I would need to reschedule the tests since I had not passed them.

When I walked to the table where the exam proctors were seated they asked me to come have a seat.  I sat down and they informed me that were printing my paperwork and needed a photo.  I had passed both exams!!  I began crying so hard that they were literally shocked into silence.  They told me "you did good to pass and pass so quickly."  I had to correct them immediately.  "This was none of me and all God!!"

I am still stunned, amazed, and over whelmed that He brought this about!!  Words fail when I try to express my praise to Him.  I cried all the way back to Murfreesboro knowing that God had brought about a miracle just for me.  

As if the food poisoning was not enough, the lack of sleep, and other factors combined to make me pretty much of little use that morning.  I firmly believe that God allowed all those things to occur so that I would see His hand moving on my behalf and know well the Glory of God shown on my behalf.  

All I can say…. is praise Him!  Praise His holy name!  Praise the great I Am!  Over and over my heart continues to praise….

I invite you to join me as I praise God for His boundless mercies…..

Be Still …….

Yesterday I spent cloistered most of the day intent on study.  Through out the day I would have periods of "what if" during my studies.  What if I didn't assimilate the materials?  What if I could not reproduce what I had learned? What if? What if? What if?

After all God has been faithful to teach me this week, here I sit, still questioning, still wondering, still doubting.  Makes me rather furious with myself!  At what point will walking in faith become second nature instead of such a wrestle against nature?  Quite frankly, that day cannot come soon enough!!

This morning finds me in solitude for further study once my morning devotion is completed.  And there, faithful as He always is, is my Savior ~ waiting to teach me yet again.  To show me how He would have me go.

Amazing isn't it?  So long I have wandered around, praying and discussing with everyone, God's will.  What defines God's will.  How you can determine His will.  What His will could be for my life.  Yet here it is…. morning after morning.  Waiting only for me to shut out the world, turn off my mind, close my lips, and fully open my heart.

This morning He began speaking to me in Exodus 14:14  "The Lord will fight for you; you have only to be still."

Seems to be a recurring theme of late.  Obviously I am not putting into practice His teachings.  So I will be still today.  Trusting that as I read He will plant it firmly in my mind.  That when the time comes, He will bring about recollection.  Trusting that His Holy Spirit will fill me with peace that cannot be shaken.

Filled with gratitude and overwhelmed at how faithfully He meets with me each morning, I lifted my lips in prayer…. only to have Him speak one more lesson to my heart.  Spoken so loudly and so clearly that I would not have been surprised to see God standing next to me whispering it in my ear.  I have never heard such a loud whisper.

A whisper that brought me to my knees in shame for my actions and thoughts.  A whisper that forever changed my heart.  I could feel the change beginning as He spoke.  A whisper that rocked everything I knew….   Oh the glory of that whisper!!!

Love them fully

Without condemnation for their actions

I can't comment as this verbose person is literally without words.  I am finding, that when in His presence, words are superfluous.  

So I leave you with this ~ Each reader of this humble blog is in my prayers even as the keys are pressed.  Each reader is loved beyond your imagination / comprehension to a depth that only the most Holy God can do.  Each of you are called ~ to be part of the glorious family….   

Join me today

No longer weak!

All to often, I allow circumstances to cause me to feel powerless.   As if I am caught in a vortex of pain and hopelessness with nothing I can do but "buckle in for the ride".  That has got to be one of the greatest lies told by the enemy.  It is great because I so readily buy into the deception of being weak and powerless.

I must remember that I am a child of the one true King!!  The great creator God!  Alpha and Omega!  The great I Am!!  The merciful Jehovah Jireh!  How can I for a moment, believe that my Father would leave me anything except for filled with His power, endowed with His character, and blessed with the working of the Holy Spirit in and through me?  Ridiculous for me to be so easily duped.

In Acts 1:7-8 He spells it out plain as day for us ~ "He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Wow!!  Are you hearing what the Father is telling me?  For He is telling you, and you, and yes, you, the very same thing!

The Holy Spirit will come up on you!  This is not a special gift give to a few but is a filling that happens the instant you choose to enter into relationship with the Father.  Keep reading!  It only gets better!!!  I have a "Jerusalem" that I am to be a witness to!  "Where is that" you might ask.  Jerusalem is where ever I may be….  work, family, friends, shopping, wherever I may go in life.  I am to be a witness in DEED not just by running my mouth.  My every action should scream the love of Christ so loudly that no one around can proclaim that they never heard of Him.

Sounds a bit over whelming doesn't it?  Not really…. not if I receive the prior sentence as the truth that it is.  I will have power when the Holy spirit has come upon me.  It is mine.  I already have it!!!  I don't have to do anything, act any way to get it.  I walk in power daily!!!

We walk in hope because we know the One who is hope.  We walk in joy because we know the One who is joy.  Most of all, we walk in love because He is Love….   We are called to be ministers, to be servants, to be healers…..

Hold your head high!  For we walk in the victory that Christ has already won for us and we walk in power.  Be blessed as you travel the road before you today.