When You Have Fought The Good Fight

Despite my early rising and spending time in the Word, there was that one thing that knocked me down. The tears flowed as I spoke to my best friend, my fiancé, my soul mate about the issue. While I was assured that everything will work out for the best and that no matter what, he was right here by my side; there was that something that I couldn't let go. I texted others about the issue of my heart and I sat for a while, then a while longer...and I thought about my calendar on my iPhone and how there were dates that were unmarked for a reason...and I thought about previous conversations with a very dear friend of mine. She asked me a question-a week ago-that was relevant to today in so many ways. Neither one of us knew that God was aligning everything for His good and His glory. Then my heart and soul fell back on an e-mail that I sent a couple of days ago, but to no avail; how it was so related to today. And I thought back on all the days of my adult life and how I struggled for years to care for my kids-with no help-mind you; yet I never gave up and I never pointed the finger at anyone for their unwillingness to provide or for their telling me NO when I asked. Never did I not open my door to those that so graciously turned me down when I was in need and never did I reject any of those that previously wronged me. Did I say never?

Here I am...between praying and drying tears, my heart fell upon 2Timothy 4:7: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race and I have remained faithful (NLT)...That is some powerful stuff right there. When you have fought the good fight what do you do? Normally we turn our back on our opponent and walk away or in some cases, run. In a boxing match, the champion raising his gloves, pounds his chest, pounce around the ring and hypes the crowd to go wild over him. The fight is over, the last man standing, the champion, the victor. In life's uphill battles do we fight the good fight and celebrate victoriously in the end? Do we stand there and say, "I have finished the race and I have remained faithful"? Or do we turn out back and walk away?

Now, you knew I was going to break it down for you, right? Right. There are four things that must be done to be considered a champion in the end: 1) Fight the good fight 2) Finish the race 3) Remain faithful and 4) Wait on the Lord for direction. What does fighting the good fight mean? I am glad you asked. It means, giving it your all-the best shot: unemployment-fight, stepping out on faith-fight, marriage issues-fight, wayward/disobedient children-fight, broken relationships-continue to fight, workplace issues-fight with all of your might, that new business venture-fighting. Whatever you are challenged with today-FIGHT.

Finish the race. Have you started a project, a goal, a dream and decided that you wanted to stop in the middle? How will you know what could've been or where it could've taken you? Don't give up on yourself; don't sit down on your dreams; don't pass the baton in the meter-dash until you know you have finished the race. God is not done molding you for this thing we call life. He has work for you to do. He has not called you to sit down but to cross the finish line. What has God called you to complete or better yet to begin and to see it thru? A job change? A new house? To feed the poor in the community? To volunteer at a shelter? To leave an abusive relationship? To break the ruins of the past? To clean that extra room for your new office space? Start today-but make sure you finish!

In your finishing the race, did you remain faithful during the course? Did you commit to it and give it your all? Were you steadfast, unmovable in your finishing? AND are you waiting on the Lord for His direction? Trusting in His perfect timing, oops, I meant patience and faith are required during this step. Wait on the Lord, my friend. But in your waiting, know it's not in vain. Wait on your new car, your soul mate, your new house, your new career (notice it's not a job, but a career), your renewed spouse, your college degree, your wayward children to return home, your broken relationships to be mended. Wait!

Know that we are all fighting a fight together-it's called by a different name though.

Is It Really Hard to Say Good-Bye to Yesterday?

As the title of this post pondered in my heart, I had to wonder-is it really hard to say good-bye to yesterday? When we take a look back at all of "things" and "stuff" we've lost or forgotten about; what about the clothes that sit in our closet season after season after season that we only wear once, okay, maybe twice? What about the shoes that we bought for "that" outfit that is amongst the "you wore me one time-my season has passed yet again clothes"? What about those tons of t-shirts that you've been collecting since ET phoned home? BUT, when it comes time to depart with them, we suddenly name them our "favorites" and we continue to hold on to them. So...is it really hard to say good-bye to those clothes?

What about the boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/wife/significant other/life partner that is not so nice to you? He or she has failed to do the things that they started out doing to get you-dinner, movies, concerts, weekend get-aways, date nights, oh how they wooed you-and now, you're two couch potatoes. What about the verbal, mental, emotional, psychological, and sometimes physical abuse? Yet the excuses roll in-the home is taken care of, we're not struggling anymore, he saved me from myself, he/she really do love me, I brought it on myself, he/she is a good guy or girl. What about the broken relationship with a friend or relative that you continue to hold on to, just to save face or the hope that it will one day be like it was back then? Really...is it hard to say good-bye to those relationships?

When I ask the question, I am asking, "What are you holding on to"? It comes a time when we must release what hurts us. Be it physical or emotional, at some point, we must let go. I was thinking how a few years ago my church did the 40 Days of Prayer. It was a church-wide commitment. One of my prayers was revelation in my relationship. I asked God to show me if this is the man he'd intended me to spend the rest of my life with. Well, just like I asked, God showed me-not once but twice. The thing about it, I didn't want to see it. So just like Gideon (in the book of Judges), I went back and said, "Okay Lord, was that you?" Hmmmmm, isn't it funny how we're never ready for what God shows us when we ask? The next night I prayed the same prayer and the next morning, just like I asked, God put it right before my eyes. Now, I needed to know, "Father, how do I make this right before you? Help me in this unhealthy situation". Well, well, well. I went to work and came home to an empty house. I had to laugh at myself because I didn't have the strength to cry. I asked God to please help me. I was nearly begging. In the middle of my sleep, I was awakened by this statement: "Get up! You've been here before! What did you do then!" In other words, you've struggled before, you've been abandoned before (maybe not in this literal sense), you've been without and how did you do it then? Girl stop the nonsense. To answer my own question, "It is not hard to say good-bye to yesterday"!

What is your yesterday that you need to say good-bye to? What hurt is holding you hostage? What's in your closet that you need to sit out with the Salvation Army "stuff"? How many shoes are you no longer wearing-yet you're holding on, why? Yesterday should-in no way-keep you in bondage. Yesterday's mistakes. Yesterday's lies. Yesterday's unforgiveness. Yesterday's deceitfulness. Yesterday's sinful nature. Yesterday's malice. Yesterday's promiscuity. Yesterday's bad girl. Yesterday's bad boy. Yesterday is never to be seen again. So I challenge you, my friend, to find a way to clean out the closet of yesterday and get rid of the shoes you no longer wish to walk in. We live in our yesterdays never letting them go (just like those umpteen t-shirts we never wear) and yesterday becomes our today and it rolls over into our tomorrow. We walk with it, talk with it, sleep with it, eat with it, drive to work with it. It has consumed us and we are no longer living in today and for tomorrow, but existing in yesterday. The sad reality is that we've failed to recognize yesterday because it's hidden beneath those shirts that we wear today or it's tucked away behind that pretty little dress we're wearing to our friend's birthday party. It may even be under the bed with those shoes that you would "just die" if you didn't get them right then-at that very moment.

What do you need to Arise! and go and handle? It's never too late and it not too hard to say good bye to yesterday.

Who Do We Say We Are?

It's been a rainy Saturday & I haven't as much as darted the door for anything. I think the closest I came to outside is letting the garage door up ONLY so I could get my Bible out of the back of my SUV. Now this particular Bible is the one that's falling apart & has come apart at the binding, it cant be taken out of the cover that reads, "Too Blessed to be Stressed" I so want to put my new Bible in this cover but I NEED to keep my old Bible in it. I don't think anyone quite understands why I hold onto this Bible when I waited patiently for this NLT/Message Parallel Bible to go on sale.

 

Well, you see,  this old Bible has carried me thru some pretty tough/rough times. Times of lies, destruction, anger, bitterness, abandonment,  loneliness; times when I was on a self-destructive behavioral pattern; times when I couldn't pay rent or utilities, didn't have a car, was unhappy with my job; times of brokeness! Times when friends were few! You see, this Bible held me together-even though it's falling apart! A friend of mine found the cover at a local thrift store & told me, your Bible is an embarrassment to every Bible in the Dollar Tree! One dollar can get you a new Bible. She was absolutely right, but it couldn't get me THIS Bible! After all I'd been thru and was on an uphill journey, she'd found the perfect cover for the perfect Bible that defined who I am perfectly, "Too blessed to be stressed"! Amen & Amen again! I can't think of one reason to stress over anything anymore.

 

I call myself blessed! Or sometimes I refer to me as humble; other times you may here me address myself as victorious! When I put my shouting shoes on, I'm also known as prosperous. There were times in the past when I'd hear others call me a sinner. So as I reflect back over my life's story - one song comes to mind - A Sinner's Prayer! And one movie scene comes to mind - from The Color Purple - "See daddy sinners have souls too! I am who I say I am, "Daughter of the King above all Kings!"

 

People approach me all the time - family members, especially - wanting to say they remember when! I'm glad my final fate wont be determined by man. I released the past a long time ago & promised myself to live without regret! Without the disappointments of life; without carrying life's baggage around with me! Instead, I choose to speak "life" into all situations. I choose to ignore the calling of the past. I choose to be who I say I am!!!!

 

Who do you say you are & why?

Diary of a Book Nerd: The Rain and Harvest

As I walked through my home praying for my family and thanking God for keeping us as we slept and slumbered, I was in my own little world, no thoughts of my ever-growing to do list or what's for dinner or what am I going to wear-it was just me and the Lord! THEN, it occurred to me that it was raining-a pounding rain. I was so engulfed in the moment with God that I didn't take the time to realize that the sun was not out and the birds were not chirping. The minute I realized that the rain was pouring, I opened the bedroom and dining room windows. I listened as I felt the cool breeze & I thanked God for the rain as I know He sends the rain to multiply the harvest.

I immediately envisioned the garden that the camp students at my church were "tending" to this Summer. The Director over the Summer Camp and members of our partner church, tilled the ground and planted a garden in early May. By the time the camp began in early June, the garden needed tending to; someone would have to pick the green beans, tomatoes, squash and cucumbers. And the perfect candidates are....Well it rained a couple of weekends ago & on the following Monday, the Harvest was ready for the picking. There was an abundance of cucumbers, squash, cherry tomatoes and green tomatoes. Boy, oh boy did the kids have a good time picking the veggies. The awe in their eyes was truly a site for mothers everywhere to see. It was their very own sense of accomplishment. Each individual student had a certain excitement about "the garden" and the veggies they'd picked.  

Then the thought became personal as I envisioned my own dreams and goals and what God is doing to, thru, and for me. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought back to the Beth Moore study, Breaking Free and the chains of bondage, and then I went back to Priscilla Shirer's study, Discerning the Voice of God and the quiet still voice. And I came a little more recent-as recent as Tuesday when one of my online Bible Study friends confirmed what God has been saying to me-in that quiet still voice & the bondage I am holding myself in by not obeying the quiet still voice. Well if that wasn't enough, the same day, different group-online book club-another woman confirmed the same thing that was confirmed earlier in the day. Talk about a shouting in my spirit & the flow of more tears.

In my life, in this season, the storms have passed and the rain has ceased. I am by no means saying that there won't be anymore storms or the rain won't ever come again. I am simply stating that I am in the midst of a Harvest-the Harvest of God's Blessings. The Harvest of Answered Prayers. Now, these prayers may be prayers from the valley experience in my life, but nonetheless, they are answered prayers. The Harvest of Obedience to God's Word, Will and Way. The Harvest of God's Calling to Greater. I am presently working full time in the ministry-which has been an experience that only God will allow me to partake in and then call me to something bigger, better, yes! Greater! For years, I have said, "This job is only temporary, I am simply passing thru, my next job is going to be my own business. I've spent my entire adult life making companies rich while I am the one looked over and left out." A couple of years ago, I began working on my business-however, I didn't have a support system-and then I (yes, there's an 'and then') went thru the valley-Wait, I made the valley my home. I heard it, plain as day,  "This is not where I have led you and this not where you will remain". Complacency and Surrender! Complacency in the situation & admitting the fact caused me to surrender. Asking God to show me, order my steps, guard my tongue, humble my heart and open my eyes. AND (no, there's no 'and then') He did. But I had to go thru the valley experience (not live in like I did-but go thru), to be able to hear Him in the Calling to Greater and to be able to put one step in front of the other and follow in Obedience.

He brought me to a business, my business, Kelly L. Virtual Office Solutions. He has equipped me with the skills, talents, and ability; He has provided me with a location; He has heard my cry, moan, and pout about my current situation-now it is up to me to make it happen. The Harvest of God's Calling to Greater-it all started right here. In order to reap the benefits of this Harvest, I must heed to the Harvest of Obedience to God's Word, Will, and Way. The confirmations on Tuesday were no coincidence-they were God speaking thru the women to me! Just like the children at the Summer Camp, my face was flushed with awe as I read the confirmations and as they resonated in my soul. Then my make up, eyeshadow, mascara, and eyeliner became one big mural on the canvas of my face as the tears flooded and the sobs turned to praise.

In your life there is a Harvest of Answered Prayers, what have you sought God for in your valley experience and realized later that He answered? If you are out of your valley experience, that alone is an answered prayer. There is also the Harvest of Obedience to God's Word, Will and Way. Are you willing to walk in in His obedience? Are you ready to reap the benefits of His obedience? And of course, the Harvest of God's Calling to Greater. Do you know what your calling to greater is? The job you're not pleased with? The house you've outgrown? The city with no job opportunities? To return to school?

Are you ready for the Harvest?