Yesterday, following the second worship hour, we had our Celebrate Recovery leadership meeting. I had volunteered to give the devotional which was about warfare praying. I was also doing the training for the meeting which included warfare praying. I hadn’t planned for these two items to coincide, but God wanted it that way I’m sure. This lead the participants present to have a most healthy discussion.

All of us in leadership are still very much in our flesh just as all living mankind is. There is something we all have in common too even though our reasons for coming to CR are different. All of us continue to have our hurts, hang-up and habits we must deal with. A common issue is that when you enter leadership you feel as though you can’t share the problems for fear someone will think you shouldn’t be in leadership if you struggle.

Satan is never done trying his best to dampen our effectiveness as a tool in Christ’s hands. This conversation strengthen each of us to persevere and use the scriptures we know to remind Satan Who we belong to and that he must flee for he is in Christ’s presence within us.

I had a remarkable thing happen yesterday. It started a few days ago. I had a call from a lady I didn’t know. She’d gotten my name and number from her brother who I do know. She’d had a dream that wouldn’t leave her which had never happened to her in her lifetime. The dream included a single mom with several kids (mostly boys). She needed some medical attention but didn’t have the money. She’d offered to help but then she awoke from the dream. This is when she called her brother wondering why this happened? This is when her brother gave my name and number and told her to call me.

This story goes on as it took a while listening to her before I felt God’s Spirit speak to me. I told her of a young single mom who comes for help. She has 3 boys and a daughter. She has very limited resources and I’d helped her a few times with money for gas so she could get to her sessions. I asked this lady to pray about this and see if God’s Spirit nudges her to help this mom. Yesterday when I returned home from the small group session, I had a call from her wanting to contribute to this young mom. I asked where she lives and it turns out she is only a few miles from me. I drove to her house and ended up spending an hour with her and her husband. She gave me an envelope and said this is only a start for this mom’s help. I want to do this for a period of time on a regular basis.

Well, this story ends, but I sense it is only a beginning. I just marvel at what God does and His sensitivity to our needs. How He communicates to His children makes all of this even more incredible. He is so AMAZING!

Last night I was to have 2 young men come to our home for dinner. They are two who have been struggling a great deal and I’m taking them through the book Voices of the Heart. I’ve written about them before. One of the two has two children from a previous marriage. He was needing to pick them up early in order to come to dinner. But, their mom was not cooperative throwing a kink in the plan. I was intending to delay our eating time to accommodate this, but then the other young man works the night shift presently so he had to leave by early evening. Just as I was turning the burner on to start cooking, the night shift man text to indicate Saturday night would be better than Friday. I text the other one who was fretting about his ex and all of a sudden things changed to tonight and there was no conflict. I simply turned the burner off and place all of the intended food in the frig to be prepared tonight. The blackberry cobbler was already cooling so it will be enjoyed tonight too.

The young man with the two children had been texting me during the day yesterday about his conflicts and I kept telling him to have faith. God will work it out. Little did I know that I was the one who needed to be listening to God and changing my plan. Well, God got His message through and tonight we will enjoy the meal with the children and have no conflicts. This makes me smile as I write this. Oh, if I would only listen sooner!

I’m late getting my post entered this morning. I kept thinking the site was down from the messages I was getting on the computer screen. I would check back every few minutes thinking it would be back up, but it wasn’t. Finally I checked to see if my wifi was working only to find that it wasn’t. Well, all is good now so I can get going.

There is a young man who comes for help who is struggling with a broken heart. He and another young man are working through the book, Voice of the Heart. This young man’s hurt reminds me of my broken heart going through my divorce so many years ago. Last night I realized from listening to him that there is nothing I can do to quicken his grieving. I need to let this run its course and being there with him, listening to him without advice, just an empathic ear is most important. I was recalling all of the “help” ones were trying to offer me which never helped. It only made me want to distance myself from them.

We are all wired differently and our recovery from hurts needs to run its course. God, I know, is with us during this time. But, when one is in the hurting part, it is often difficult to hear this message and believe it. God’s faithfulness will show itself when the recipient is ready. I hurt for him, but I also know I just need to let him grieve. God has this!

More and more I’m seeing couples coming for counsel. There are some who come individually and then it leads to the spouse accompanying them. I’ve always “known” that one of Satan’s primary focus is marriage. God created man and woman for one another. Of course Satan wants to destroy what God created. There is an immense amount of evidence all around us of Satan’s destructive lies. However, when I see this in the counseling room I begin to do more than know Satan’s attacks–I experience them and hear them from those hurting.

Several months ago I had a lady come for help. It turned out she and her husband have been married for over 30 years. She finally had enough of his belittling remarks and wanted help. She was being hurt, but she was timid about letting her husband know how much his talk hurt her. It took many weeks for her to finally see she had a part in this hurt. She needed to see her own responsibility. Well, as only God would have it, her husband came by himself yesterday. It was a very healthy session where he, on his own, saw and spoke his problem/need. Both are christians serving God in their own way, but not doing so in the home.

It is a joy to see God’s Light penetrate darkness putting a sword to Satan’s selfishness he wants each of us to proclaim whether we see it or not. God is amazingly GOOD!

Monday mornings are my prep time for the counseling sessions through the week. I don’t do any counseling on that day and so I can do this without any sense of rush. Yesterday was a work day at our church which my younger brother was going to do. He asked me to help out last week and I reluctantly said I would knowing full well I needed the morning. I awoke quite early yesterday and did some of the prep work ahead of going to the church. I had told God I would do this for Him and hoped He’d make it a blessing somehow. Well, just as God does, He made it a big blessing. I got to work with a young man I’ve prayed for for years. He has completely turned his life around this past year and is serving God joyously. I’ve known him since his birth and it was so wonderful to get the chance to just be with him and hear his joy.

There were so many volunteers that came we were done in 1.5 hours. I got home and finished my prep work and then got the afternoon yard work done. I love how God turns my dread into His blessings. Yesterday as I was working with this young man I thanked God. Today I needed to apologize for my sour attitude. God took my lemon and turned it into sweet orange juice!

Have you ever had a day of blessings? Yesterday was one of those days. The sermon heard at church was an outstanding one recognizing David’s assurance of God and his confidence in God using him. We were asked if we had this confidence in God that David had? All I could think was what my confidence use to be like compared to today. I use to have great confidence in God using others. I just thought God didn’t care much for me so my focus was never to light on myself for that hurt too much.

I began to find my confidence when I began to find God in every aspect of my past. But, as I write this I’m awakened to something I’ve not addressed and that is the hurt of my dad’s words. The counseling/therapy focused on the sexual use of me and disallowing that to be my identity. So much of my belief about myself however was coupled with my dad’s destructive words of my value to him. I’ll have to spend a little more time with God on this one.

After getting home from church I went to see Lois, my prayer warrior. As we finished our conversation and I gave her a parting hug, she began to get teary which is not common for her. She told me how much I mean to her and how proud she is of me–her “other son”. I got all teary too! She said I know you struggle to believe your value, but it is there and God sees it. At 74 years old I felt for a moment like the little boy hearing dad’s ugly comments and now those ugly words were being overruled by this saint of God. What I do know for certain is how grateful I am for God never giving up on me and using all of this past of mine to help others today. GOD IS SO GOOD!

Today is a granddaughter’s birthday and two days ago was a grandson’s birthday. So, this afternoon we celebrate both of them. How fun it is to have the joy of grandkids!

There are many things going through my mind this morning to put into this entry. But, the most important one that keeps returning is the faithfulness of Jesus. My own personal struggle in life has been centered around the damages from abuse–sexual, physical and verbal. In this world of Celebrate Recovery and counseling one gets very well acquainted with a plethora of topics. The one thing we all have in common is our need to overcome and it is the same Overcomer we all need to seek–Jesus Christ! He is not only our Savior, we seek to have Him be our Lord. His faithfulness is with us throughout our struggles and in our victories and He is steadfast no matter how rocky our behaviors are.

Today I worship this Savior and Lord who never leaves us!

Today the righteousness of Jesus is standing out in my mind. I’m reading through the book of Mark right now and Jesus was being challenged by the Jewish leadership at the time. In every situation he baffled them with his answers and responses. As I take the time to let the scripture I’m reading sink into my own life and apply it to me, I can’t help but marvel at this Savior of ours who today is just as real as He was when He was while He was in the flesh here on earth. The immensity of His love as I try to comprehend His omnipotent presence is simply overwhelming. My sins are not even known to my Father because of Jesus.

Good grief, “How can I keep from singing Your praise. How can I ever say enough, how AMAZING IS YOUR LOVE, How can I keep from shouting your Name. I know I am loved by the King and it makes my heart want to sing!”