Look up

Welcome to my autumn blog-post, "Look Up" 

Picture borrowed from (Page Patricia)

God speaks to us in many ways... The picture below was borrowed from a Facebook friend, a simple picture with a message that inspired this post.

Sometimes life's problems are like the rain that continuously fall. Like holding up an umbrella when it rains, we try to dodge or shelter ourselves from them. And most of us have found that problems don't go away that easy. Someone said that problems have a way of sorting themselves out. But they won't go away unless we deal with them.

Problems are only temporary because God has given us the ability to deal with them. We are to grow from these and move on. There is enough resourcefulness in you and I to begin to sort problems and move forward. We need to do some thinking because believe it or not, we stop thinking when things get tough. So stir up our thinking... Think of that problem you dealt with last time, how did you manage it and get through it? God has given us a lot that we can be thankful for. We have been educated, learned skills to cope with the difficult issues of life. If we get stuck, we have at our disposal people with the expertise to help, community supports. If we belong to a church that is a great resource. We get caught up with so much ungratefulness we cannot move and resentment (problems, people etc.) set in keeping us stuck. The way forward is to get up, get out and seek what is needed because the answer begins with us. Are you looking upward in prayers, are you in a good place, is God in your life?

Last week I got talking to a woman and her six year old daughter on a bus we catch every morning. They have only been in New Zealand for 6 months. I had been observing the mother daughter interaction and I noticed how affectionate they were with each other.  Every time they alight from the bus they would say out aloud, "thank you driver". They have that spirit of thankfulness in them. So when we got talking she told me how there's nothing for her to go back to in her part of the world and how thankful she is for all the opportunities there are here in New Zealand. I offered and we prayed together for her husband's work visa to be extended. We take so many things for granted at our part of the world. And we forget to be thankful.

If there is anything we have to encourage in this world it's 'thankfulness' 'gratitude' for what we have. A thankful person is a happy person. A thankful person has hope and when they speak you want to listen to them. Like King David in Psalm 91:2: "I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” There are 16 verses of the Psalm packed with promises from God. Won't you thank God for His Word today!  

A word of Prayer:
Lord, forgive us, Lord remind us, Lord convict us when we forget that you have given us so much. In Christ Jesus we are more than conquerors, come what may. Thank you Lord.
In Jesus Name

Thank you for visiting, keep looking up and God bless you my friends!