The Secret

Isaiah 40:31 Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.

Those who trust in the Lord do have a special secret.  It really isn’t a secret at all.  It is brought up repeatedly in the bible.  It is peace.  Do you know anyone who glides through life, always happy, always at peace… I am assuming they have a great trust in the Lord.

We watched Left Behind as a family the other day.  My youngest, who is 10, was rather scared by it, until we talked it out.  I think it was a real turning point for him.  He has always loved the Lord, but when he saw people disappearing in the rapture and others being left behind – it shook him up.  We discussed the importance of being ready, that there will be no warning, it could be minutes or hundreds of years…  He is determined to be ready – no one but the Lord knows if there will be second chances or if it will happen before or after the years of tribulation.  During this discussion of the years of tribulation he was concerned about how terrible things will be.   I pointed out to him that the most important thing is to keep Jesus in your heart at all times, constantly repent if you slip, and that God knows your true heart – so you must keep your focus on him and be ready.  I also pointed out that there would be a time where anyone who did not put aside God would be killed.  I reminded him that he must NOT turn away from God, or even pretend to, even if it meant death – because if you die in that situation you will then be freed from the horror of earth and welcomed into heaven!  Death holds no power to those who trust in the Lord!  1 Corinthians 15:56  For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.  But thank God!  He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 11:28 - 30  Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Philippians 4:6-7  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

This peace, God’s peace, the peace that ‘surpasses all human understanding’ is available to those who have faith, those who give their burdens to God and trust in God’s plan.  All those things that take up our time and thoughts, the things that cause us stress and worry – most of those things will just be memories a year from now, sometimes even a day or week from now…  Don’t waste the time God has given you here on earth in stress and worry, it isn’t worth it.  Just give it over to God, and accept his peace.   Serve the Lord with gladness!  I have found this week that if I do not whine about being overwhelmed or too busy, that the negativity has no place in my life.  I also have broken out the coffee and am determined to do the work that God has given me.  I am putting my writing first.  I do have stuff to do for school, but it is not as important as my bible devotion and writing time.  I need God, I need this time with him, I need his peace!  I will entrust the worries to God and take up his peace.  The work will not just disappear, but it won’t overwhelm me anymore!  God is good!  

Jeremiah 17:7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 

They are like trees planted along a riverbank,

with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat

or worried by the long months of drought. 

Their leaves stay green,

and they never stop producing fruit.”

Thank you Lord for giving us peace and life, thank you for the opportunities you give us to teach our children about you and ready their heart for heaven.  It is the most important job you have entrusted us with!

Thank you Father!!!

Are You to Busy for LIFE

Are you to busy for God?  We are a busy people.  Kids have sports and specialized lessons.  Adults have the gym, and meetings, and functions.  Families spend all their time running here and there.  Even church calendars and functions can keep you hopping.  Where is God in all of this?  

 

 I get very run down even though my kids are in no sports or activities, (some may think that is terrible – there was a time that all these activities didn’t exist.  It was family time.  Kids didn’t run out and get into trouble, because they were with their families… ), the lack of activities is their choice, and I am proud of them.  I am more proud of them choosing faith, family, and grades than I could have been for any great athletic feat anyway.  That was a little squirrel track.

We still feel like we are running everywhere now that school has started.  We feel the strain on our time together.  But I am starting to believe that run down feeling isn’t’ just because we are busy.  I think it is because God often gets left behind, I take him with me, I try, I pray little prayers all the time, but my focus is elsewhere.  We are rushing here and rushing there, not taking the time to sit and commune with God.  Not taking the time to feed our souls, to receive our daily bread.  Devotions has to be earlier and crushed before bed time, I am to tired to focus on my nightly reading, my writing is suffering, I miss bible study…  In the summer I would post something every other day, sometimes every day.  Now I am down to twice a week.  And this week, only one (when I am finished I have at least 5 hours of school work ahead of me).  I started it last Thursday but ran out of time, I had to get other things ready for school (like myself) – I had to get my daughter up to finish homework (not feeling well the night before), etc.  And I had only written half of a disjointed page!  How am I serving God in this.  I am detached, depressed, how can I be of service to God, and serve him when I do not have the time to commune with him…

Sometimes I wonder if I am supposed to be teaching.  I am helping kids to learn, I teach special education, I NEVER hide my faith, even though I am in a public school.  In a small town like I teach in, most of the teachers share my faith.  I am not sure how people can teach without faith.  But I wish I knew.

I never, ever want to be to busy for God.   Colossians 3:2 “Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.” To be to busy for God is to die…  My devotion time and writing keep me going.  I need the Lord to be at peace.  The plan, the result, what should we do?  Love God.  Keep God’s will with you wherever you go, whatever you do.  Pause to focus, set apart time in your day that no one else can intrude upon – just you and God.  Keep reading your bible.  When you feel that overwhelmed, crushing feeling - - well, when we feel a need we always make it to the bathroom for ‘alone time’ - - this is also a need, a need just as worthy of attention.  Head to the bathroom where everyone will leave you alone, and pray.  That’s what I am going to try – time out for God!  Just as some people send their kids to time-out for behavior, we need to send ourselves to time-out to prevent our own poor behavior.  Maybe I can do my bible study at lunch, and my devotional before bed?  I just know it is necessary, nothing is more important!  I don't want to loose eternal life for the life here on earth!  Only God matters!  Don't be to busy in life to receive LIFE!

Matthew 6:33  

Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

1Peter 3:17 

Remember it is better to suffer doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!

Matthew 6:24  

No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other, you will be devoted to one and despise the other…

Philippians 4:8

…Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

TRUST AND OBEY

God wants me to learn something…  Isn’t it a bit scary when God asks you to learn something new, something out of your comfort zone?  You wonder, what now, if I learn this, what does the next step of my life look like.  God has wanted me to learn this skill for a while.  Thinking back, I probably changed teaching positions just because this is a skill that I lack…  Have you had anything that God wants you to learn, but haven’t had the guts to do it yet?

Well, I believe God wants me to learn to take charge.  He wants me to learn how to stand up for myself and ‘direct traffic’ – in other words, tell people (adults) what to do and how to do it.  And he wants me to learn to deal with people who are in my charge and just plain out of line.  He doesn’t want me to address only the big stuff, but the small stuff too. 

I am a special education teacher.  I have students that need someone with them all the time, every minute of every day.  That means I have people that I am in charge of, and they work with the student and carry out the plan for his or her day – the plan that it is my job to create.  I am usually easy to work with; I rely on input from these people to develop the student’s educational plan.  I don’t get upset easily and really let many frustrations go.  Last year I was often irritated because this person would not follow the plan set out, and just let the student wander around or watch movies.  His schedule is very routine and strict because that is the only way he will progress.  But I was new, and I let things go.  The room was a mess all the time and she was on her phone A LOT.  She would often tell me what I ‘needed’ to do, usually things that would destroy my relationship with the student’s parents.   There was always drama, drama, drama. 

This year I tried to schedule the people I worked with so she would spend less time in my classroom with this student.  It didn’t work.  I have to face her.  I have to tell her how she MUST work with this student, that the phone MUST remain in her purse, and that she MUST clean up after herself...  I am terrible at telling people what to do.  But I am not even giving her a chance!  She can’t change if she doesn’t know I need her to!  Well yesterday was big.  She is supposed to take two students to the store to buy snacks and cooking needs for the next week…  She didn’t go.  I was in a meeting, she told the other para-educator that she didn’t have a list, didn’t know where the van keys were (not true) and wasn’t’ going…  Well, she and the kids were supposed to have created the list in class the day before…  Which means she didn’t do that either…  We had talked about this store trip right before I left the room, I had called parents, I told a student that as soon as he finished 5 math problems they would go.  Nothing was mentioned about not going – she just didn’t go.  Now I am stuck, I have to deal with this; but I don’t want to.

I do know that God wants me to learn this.  This situation is my fault.  I have let this happen.  I should have intervened when the annoyances were small, and now they have grown way out of proportion.  Now I have a big problem to deal with.  God has given me many opportunities to deal with this ‘insubordination’ –for lack of a better term- and I have let it go.  Now it is big, and will only grow if I let it slide.  I need to give her a chance.  I need to learn what God wants me to learn, because I don’t know what he has in store for my future and obviously this is a skill I need.  I must learn to stand up for myself.  This is not the only problem at this school that I have due to my inability to speak up.  God wants me to realize that standing up for yourself does not ALWAYS mean you are whining.  I have come so close to quitting teaching altogether.  I love teaching, I love my students.  I cannot handle the drama and insignificant crud that comes with teaching.  I want to work with kids, but to do that I must apparently learn to stand up for myself.  That, or God wants to drive me out of teaching to do another work for him?  Maybe?  Ya think?  Possible, but I am probably supposed to learn this skill before I can do that work…

Think of this verse:

Hebrews 11:1  Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Really, what is the worst that can happen?  If she is really angry with me she will go to the principal or another special education teacher and ask to be put in a different position – problem solved.  I need to strengthen my trust.  I am actually quite sure that she will be surprised to realize this all has bothered me and I have totally wasted my time worrying about it. 

If there is anything in your life that God wants you to learn, learn it!  Learn it and move on, keep your eyes on the Lord!  We (I) should not be wasting any of the time that God has gifted us in stress!  What a waste!!  If God wants you to learn something, it is obviously in your best interest to learn it!  Let it go, follow God’s will, learn the lesson, and be at peace!!

John 14:1   "Don't let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God and trust also in me."   (this is Jesus talking)

Isaiah 40:31  But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 41:10  Don't be afraid, for I am with you.  Don't be discouraged, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.  I will hold you up in my victorious right hand.

Psalm 37:5  Commit everything you do to the Lord.  Trust him and he will help you.

Psalms 46:1-3  God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.  Let the oceans roar and foam.  Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!