Forty-four

This week I will be reading the book of Deuteronomy.
It is a book that reminds us of the character of God. We should daily seek God and know him. Struggles in our lives happen, but what makes God incredible is that he is a God that speaks to us. The Bible is the living word of God and we can take out the Bible and read what God said and through those words we can be assured that God is God.

I had an amazing blessing yesterday.

I woke up with my emotions and thought about my day and I was praying for God to be at work in my life and wanted to have really blessed day despite my situation. Like I have shared I have been angry this past week. Anger finds a way to grow and make itself known whenever it sees a chance to. Every little thing, from a word, to a look, or a tone of voice, or even silence can bring out anger and the more you focus on it, it grows; each time you speak of it, it grows; each time you give it time , it happily accepts the invitation and stays as long as you let it. I know a lot of people who like to hold on to anger and let it rule their actions and character.

There are times to be angry, but how you handle that anger will reflect your character. I said last week I was taking my anger to God and just telling him about it. How’d that work out for me? Well, God spoke to me.

Romans 12:14
“Wish good for those who harm you; wish them well and do not curse them.”


This verse broke me and I was in the middle of bawling, feeling broken about how I was supposed to wish good for someone I was so hurt by. I wanted to stay angry.

If you ask for God to be at work in your life, he is going to put you to the test. God tested me almost immediately.

My husband called me while I was not at my best emotionally and the sound of his voice did not make me feel the anger that I had felt over the past week.

He wanted to ask me to lunch after church and asked me to bring the dog over so he could play. Well the dog had been puny the night before and kept me up puking about five times during the night so I was up and down with him all night and I felt bad for him to be caged up, so I asked if I could go ahead and bring the dog before church, that was fine, so I did.

My husband got a huge contract at work and since he owns his business he has had to work 24/7 and this week was just the start of something that will continue until the new year. Usually we help each other when there is a task to be done. We worked together on renovating our house and he was good to help me with my scarecrow for the Botanical Gardens. Now I could have come over and just watched T.V. and claimed I was there just to do my laundry and if anger spoke for me I would have said “I was there, what more did he want?”

I went to church and listened to a sermon from Deuteronomy about God speaking to us, and I knew that He had spoke to me and how I handled the rest of the day was going to be what God wanted not what I wanted. So I surrendered my anger to God and from that my day was blessed.

Anger was not heard or felt. “Wish good for those who harm you…” How simple. I know if I had not asked God to be at work in my life this would have been a struggle for me.

My husband did not ask for me to help him with the things he needed to do, but I put on a t-shirt and helped where I could to help him do what needed to be done. His dad was there to help and the three of us completed all that we could.

It was a good day. God blessed it.

Are there people who have hurt you?
Why would God have you to be a friend to that person and “wish good for those who harm you..”

One word- Mercy.

I am not perfect and I have hurt my share of people. I ask God for mercy.

I know to understand completely what mercy is, I have to know what it is and be able to give it just as I receive it. On day 27 I wrote about the Characteristics of God and how I asked God for his help with these characteristics so that I can become more like the person that God would have me to be.

Finding the good in the bad can remind me that through time in my life I will be able to look back and see that there was in fact Joy – especially in days like yesterday.

Thank You God for your blessing on yesterday.

A change in season and a change in me.

Amen.

Grace and mercy to you from God our father.