Just sharing my heart

Well hello there!!

…….hello??

Anyone still out there?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about sitting down and writing a new blog post.  Many, many times.  But as you can see, nothing has taken place here at Shabby Sugar Wump since last August.  There’s definitely been little stirrings and I’ve got all sorts of bits and pieces of paper with thoughts and ideas, always hoping they would eventually turn into a full-blown post… Though I’ve prayed and yearned to sit down and share these thoughts with you all, I just couldn’t.  Or haven’t.  I’m not really sure which one it’s actually been.

For whatever reason, I’m here today and I hope that what the Lord has put on my heart to write will be a blessing and help someone.  Even just one.  And for that I will be oh so thankful!

As you look at this brand new year ahead of you what do you see?  What have you thought of…or written down…that you want for 2017.  Did you write down new goals that you’d like to work towards this year?  Do some of them look like this… 

Eat better.  

Reach out to others more.  

Start your own business.  

Exercise more.  

Memorize Scripture.

Start a ladies Bible study.

Write a book.

Lose weight.

Listen better, talk less.

Read Bible through.

Learn a new hobby.

Pass out more tracts.

Whatever it is, we look at a new year like a “clean slate” and what we draw or paint or write on that “slate” we want it to look prettier, and brighter, or at least different, than last years.  We hoping for something “new.”  And refreshing.

But you know, sometimes, as hard as we try, what’s written on our “slate” may not be the bright, refreshing picture that we want.

We want to paint a pretty ocean scene, with calm waters, and seagulls hovering near.  We would paint gentle waves…the kind that lap quietly and loll us to sleep and small, quaint boats in the distance.

But we all know that sometimes our life can look more like high waves, crashing against the rocks.  Dark skies and angry, billowing clouds, and thunder and lightning also filling our sky.

Regardless of how your year has started, there is something that I believe we all tend to forget as we tick our days off on our calendars.  When I talked about “new goals” earlier, did any of you write down, “Look to the Lord more?”  I know I didn’t…but it is something that He keeps bringing to my mind over and over again.  I love these little nudges from Him!

On Saturday, when we had something pretty distressing to deal with, and right in the middle of it, the Lord brought to my mind the passage in 11 Chronicles 20.

Judah is being invaded by Moab and the Bible tells us that Jehoshaphat “set himself to seek the LORD.”  When he starts talking to God, he starts off by acknowledging who God is and what He is capable of doing, and what He’s already done.

“O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?  Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever.”

Jehoshaphat knew Who to turn to.  He knew the only One that was able to help them.

I just love how he bears his heart to the Lord…and I especially love verse 12 ~

“O our God, Wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us;

neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.”

I think I can safely say that all of us have been in situations where we were at a total loss at what we were suppose to do.  And like Jehoshaphat prayed, our heart’s cry to our God is, “Lord, what we are facing right now is way too much for us to even try to handle.  The enemy is great and we don’t know what to do… but our eyes are on THEE!!”

The outcome for God’s people in this passage came about because they prayed (talked to the only One that could truly help them); they recognized their weakness and inability to fight against the enemy and they turned their eyes upon their God.  And when God told them what to do…and they obeyed!…they had victory over their enemies!!

The same is available to us today, my friends!

Just like Peter, when he stepped out of the boat during a storm, he walked on the water as long as his eyes were on the Lord.  And as most of you know, Peter started to sink as soon as he looked at the waves, and what was going on around him.

Even with his eyes on the Lord, he would have felt the spray of the waves on his face.  He would have heard the uproarious noise of the stormy sea.  And I suppose he would have felt the heaving of the waves too.  All his senses would have been screaming, “OH NO!!! I’m going to sink and die!!!  What in the world am I doing?!”

Some days it will take all our effort to keep our eyes on the LORD our God and not on the storm going on around us.

Have you ever had a day that went something like this:

We look to the LORD.

Then we get a text with some disturbing news.

We look back up to Him.

Then the phone rings and a friend needs someone to bear their heart to.

Again, we look back up to Him.

We are jolted with the thought of something else to worry about

…that ache or pain we’ve never had before,

…the bill we forgot to pay

…the pile of things that have to be done and we are too overwhelmed to start

…the feeling of being alone, with no one to understand…

Will you look back up to Him??

Our enemy, the devil, wants nothing more than to drag us down by what is going on around us.

The storm.  The waves.  The thunder.  (that describes some of our day on Saturday!  yikes!)

Jesus didn’t calm the sea for Peter to step out of the boat to walk to Him, and He won’t always calm our stormy sea, but we must step out towards Him and keep our eyes solely on Him.

Like the sweet Psalmist of Israel said in Psalm 121:1, 2 ~

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.”

David is looking to the LORD for his help.  He knew his LORD made the heaven and the earth…and he knew that whatever he was going through, no matter what his problem was, he was going to keep his eyes on the only One that could truly help him.

Where are you keeping your eyes?  On the Lord?…or on what’s going on around you?  Are you confused or overwhelmed and you don’t know what to do?  Turn your eyes on Him.

Remember, He created the heaven and earth!