5 replies to this topic

[Donna Page Ruggeri]

As I age in Christ ( What a privilege!!), I am finally learning to trust God - really trust HIM - and not attach bungee cords to everyone and everything I love and care about - as I pray to Him for help.

 

This may sound elementary - but really trusting God - is one of the hardest things to do, as a Christian. 

 

I want to celebrate the fact - that I am learning to let go and let God.  I am learning to calmly hand over the reins and submit - to His divine plan - to His Good plan.  I am realizing that - duh - He is omniscient - He is all powerful - I have seen Him work in what I thought, in my flesh , to be a disastrous situation-  and make a good and very beneficial ending.  I have seen Him take care of family issues - that I was sure were ready to blow - and make our time together one of love and forgiveness. - No, there was no memo - there were no group emails.  I prayed hard. I prayed often. And I know I wasn't the only one praying... But I also worried  (Sorry, Lord!) But once I got to our family get together - all was beautiful and smooth - full of the love and forgiveness I mentioned previously.

 

This is when I believed that He has our best in mind.  He desires us to have divine JOY in our lives as we give Him credit and glory - for being the mastermind He is.

 

Maybe I have been reading the Bible and the verses, like Jeremiah 29:11 - and have not really seen them or truly understood them - like I do now. 

 

So here's the payoff, folks - PEACE  - Peace like I have never known before. This is a sweet quiet peace -that "God's got this!"  -and I don't have to worry. I don't have to get all worked up - all nervous - I can keep driving - I can keep walking - I can start my day - I can go to meet people I don't "have a good feeling about..." and have perfect peace.

 

 Yay Jesus!!  Thank you Lord.  You are making me mature - even at the tender age of 61.

[Charles Miles]

I am amazed at how we, as professed Christians, have missed the trust issue with the Lord.  Donna, you have discovered a true gem of the Kingdom, and you did it at 61?  Well, it took me 3 years longer than you to learn that there is very little, if anything, we can do to control situations that arise in our lives.  When we finally understand that all this mess around us is not within our weak efforts to solve, we get to the end of our rope(so to speak), and fall to our knees, then we turn to the Lord for help....realizing that He is the only one able to carry the burden, then we find that He has always asked us to just turn it over to Him.  I too found a peace, a confidence in Him, that is beyond anything I have ever known.  Ahhh, the peace, the love that is showered upon us, the realization that the Almighty God, the Father, Abba, knows our name and wants to have a relationship with Him, it just seems too good to be true.  The wasted years of worry, anxiety, depression, and all that other junk we have been carrying around seems to have been for nothing....and maybe it was, but now that we understand the Father`s love for us and His willingness to remove all that from us......well maybe some people just learn slowly and need a bigger jolt than others.  I thank God every day for His love for me and His patience with my stubborn self.

 

I still make mistakes and I don`t get it right all the time, but I do have a Father that loves me and an advocate at His right hand who knows me better than I know myself. 

 

Praise God because He is who He is.

 

Charlie

[Donna Page Ruggeri]

Charlie!

Such great insights!  Thank you .... I see more because of what you had to say today.

 

If we can believe that everything that happens to us - makes just who we are today - perhaps we shouldn't be so down on ourselves for "all those wasted years of worry, burdened living, anxiety and the rest" - God has used this to bring us to this place of trust.  AND peace - that wonderful peace. God has used this to make us who we are. Hallelujah!!

[John Poff]

Wonderful Peace

 

Words: Warren D. Cor­nell

Music: W. George Coo­per

 

Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight
Rolls a melody sweeter than psalm;
In celestial strains it unceasingly falls
O’er my soul like an infinite calm.

 

Refrain

Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray
In fathomless billows of love!

 

What a treasure I have in this wonderful peace,
Buried deep in the heart of my soul,
So secure that no power can mine it away,
While the years of eternity roll!

 

Refrain

 

I am resting tonight in this wonderful peace,
Resting sweetly in Jesus’ control;
For I’m kept from all danger by night and by day,
And His glory is flooding my soul!

 

Refrain

 

And I think when I rise to that city of peace,
Where the Anchor of peace I shall see,
That one strain of the song which the ransomed will sing
In that heavenly kingdom will be:

 

Refrain

 

Ah, soul! are you here without comfort and rest,
Marching down the rough pathway of time?
Make Jesus your Friend ere the shadows grow dark;
O accept of this peace so sublime!

 

Refrain

 

[Ginger]

Editing post  14-Oct-2014 ....

GOD KNOWS....

 

Trusting God while repenting for being upset for becoming stuck in the muck and mire of self.... climbing out of pigpen thinking and heeding my Lord's kind admonitions.... and  His open invitation and perhaps at times His command too, Jesus said: "Come". "Come unto me"... "Come and dine"... and His promise(s) "I will give you rest".... 

 

O God please edit (transform) whatever need be edited (transformed) in my thoughts, and words, and to trust only You with whatever needs to change.... Your will be done for your honor, please and thank you.

 

God gives a glimpse and blesses and I need to remember and read what I posted as a personal reminder.... so what is below I'm to remember and pray and wait and trust for this now moment.... God does not change His mind... and it's okay to seemingly make a fool of myself and to repent of what God brings to mind as He chooses to.  God gave a special glimpse and I'm to 'remember'.

 

So .... for this now.... I am to re-read and can smile and not be ashamed.... Praise God for who He is and thank brother Charlie for saying so .... many times... Thank you brother Charlie.

 

I can have God's peace even in my failings as I come to Him like a trusting child with yet another broken something or other.  The thought of the adversary is different for some of us.  It comes to mind that we've heard the phrase, "you're your own worst enemy"... well, Abba Father KNOWS just what to do to let me come to see this from a different view.... somehow being seated with Christ in heavenly places came to mind and a process that somehow was worked into my spirit by His Spirit is letting me see my present failure from a higher perspective.  I fail and fail and fail and blame and blame and blame myself has a long history.... So, what's new?  God is looking at me with tender eyes of love and bids me come 'just as I am' and sit in His lap.  Then He let me have a wee peek from this place of being seated with Him in heavenly places.  So what if I fail again and again?  What if I'm not failing as God sees it?  It is as though being given a view of the woman coming, and coming to God and being given a new view of what my adversary is and that our loving Father let me see more than failings.  Being transformed by the renewing of my mind is a lot more than trying harder to be responsible about the doing of things.  Sometimes an old lady can be like a little child that just can't tie her shoes and Abba Father lets me come up and see that He's got it all covered.  Peace is coming in a way that I never would have expected.... being transformed by the renewing of my mind by the Word of God is different than I thought too.

 

It's not what I do or what I failed to overcome ... In Christ is an experience that is more than all these words can say.  Jesus is our victory and the battle is the Lord's.... even if or when the adversary coming against me is me.... It is all about God and what Jesus did and working out my own salvation is coming to Him for Him to do what He does in me and without Him I can do nothing isn't scaring me to try harder to 'get it right' whatever it is....about letting go and believing or whatever .... GOD KNOWS...... He, my God, overcomes me with His Love and His Care... takes me up onto His lap and lets me look at something and then sets me down and smiles at me too, now perhaps I may grow up in Him.... and sort of 'get it' about praising God for who He is and somehow sensing what it means to come to know Him ... I can't know Him until I can 'hear' Him and know Him for myself... and then I can understand what another person is saying .... The story of the woman at the well... Wow, she sat with Jesus and went telling what Jesus told her.... amazing .... well, I may be slower than slow... What is 71 years from our Father's perspective? ..... so if this post is rambling please be patient..... and me be patient too....  A godly imagining and meditation tis like being read a story by my Abba Father and sitting in His lap.... HE KNOWS......  A song comes to mind, "I Can Only Imagine".....God Bless... Praise God, and thank you.  Ah, we are so loved and He knows our names. O how I love Jesus.... because He first loved me....  I am His......  and getting to know Him little by little day by day by Grace and tender mercies, your sister in Christ.  Love and prayers, Ginger

 

PS it is hard to not delete the contents of this post. It is what it is and I'm to leave it and to trust God KNOWS.  God loves each of us and knows exactly what He sees..... something is written about being clothed in the righteousness of Christ and to put on Christ.... Praying and asking the Lord to help me to put on Christ and to wear His righteousness... Please Abba Father, have the Holy Spirit to help me put on  Christ and wear the righteousness of Jesus ..... I can't even dress myself without you.  Ah, to be clothed again and not be spiritually naked.... in Christ...   Now to learn to 'Be still' and not write so much or unless...... :-)g 

[Charles Miles]

As I read Ginger`s post, the story of the wedding feast came to mind.  You know, the one where the king scheduled a huge feast, invited many guests, and send out messages to all the guests just before the feast to make sure they remembered......then they didn`t come!  All of them had other stuff to do.  He then invited all the people of the street, the homeless, the strangers, and anyone who was just standing around on the roads.  They all came and were eating and having a good time when the master arrived and noticed a man there who was "not dressed for the feast".  He was removed by force, bound, and thrown out into the night. 

 

The story bothered me for a long time because this man did actually come and was there eating and partaking of the food and drink.  What was the big deal about him not having the correct clothing on?  Well, when a large feast was given, the guests were PROVIDED cothes that were appropriate for the occasion, by the host, and they were free.  This man evidently refused to wear the free robe provided by the master of the house!  This was an insult!

 

We are also offered the cloak of rightiousness.  If we do not have it and have it on, we cannot enter into the Kingdom.  It is offered to us free, but God paid for it.  It is up to us to put it on and enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb.

 

I am continually astounded by the love of God and the gifts lavished upon His children.

 

A blessed and grateful man,

 

Charlie