What Is Normal?

25 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Change, Choices, Contentment, Faith, Hope, Peace, Strength

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What is normal? It’s the temporary state of being we enjoy until change happens, which it inevitably does! Normal is a current condition, a perception we have as to how things are. But “normal” is just fleeting, it isn’t sustainable, as normal will give way to a new normal very soon! It always does! So it’s best to not be too emotionally cemented to those seemingly normal facets of our lives in which we are most fond or in which we feel most comfortable.

A good “for instance” of this is playing out right now in my life. I have lived a very long time doing certain things every morning in my preparations for the new day. My morning routine included washing, slathering, applying, and sealing. Now I have had to add a step of utmost importance, due to my new normal. I have had a few large skin cancers removed in the last year, so now I must routinely apply sunscreen and take notice of how exposed my body is, as well as for how long, underneath our vibrant, intense sun. Besides covering my scars, I want to protect the rest of my body from any more sun damage. It’s not hard, but it does require building up a new habit in my morning routines. The reason for the new steps is so important, I’m willing to make the new habit stick! Normal is not normal anymore, as there is a new normal for me. My new normal is to be much more aware of the effects of the sun, finally, after all these years! HA Better late than never I suppose. Now my new normal involves being stalwartly sun-aware and sun-protective. I will probably even become more of an advocate for sun protection for the sake of others too. I don’t want others to experience what I have had to in regards to their skin, so if I can help my loved ones and friends by reminding them about skin protection, I will! Normal only lasts until there is a reason for a new normal.

Perhaps we are to blame for giving too much emotional weight to our normal state of being so that when it changes or morphs, we don’t flow as easily into the new normal! I have a dear friend who is experiencing a change with her beautiful professionally trained singing voice after a mild bout of pneumonia a month or so ago. She is now unable to sing easily after having had all the symptoms of pneumonia, including a racking, rib-snapping cough. Her voice is hopefully only temporarily disturbed, but she resolutely and faithfully lives with this new normal right now. What choice does she have? This is the reality of things, and she has no answer other than to pray and have faith for resolution. Perhaps the healing necessary to restore the quality and tone of her voice will happen in time. But there is a chance that it will not. She must accept either possibility and go on from there. That is the key to change and making things the new normal, even temporarily. We must go with the flow, as the adage suggests!

Our inability to accept unavoidable change is what makes us miserable. We hold onto our “normal” states as though they are promised! Life is ever-changing and that often means a shocking, sudden change is possible! So the sooner we accept change, the less struggle we make for our own lives. Going with the current of change with faith, hope and trust enable us to face normal one day, and the new normal the next. Surely it isn’t easy, it requires great strength to face a life-altering moment with such bravery and such courage! The other option is to make our daily lives miserable from then on by focusing on something we cannot do anything about. We then strip all the joy, peace and contentment from our own lives. Acceptance is the key to change, and change makes anything seem normal in time.

The best way to view normal is something presently floating along with you on a current, your destination is unknown, the constancy of the current is not guaranteed, but that is the way it is right now, indefinitely. Later on, or on some other day, there might be a completely new normal. The current state of something familiar to us might have changed. It’s only when we give our present normal reality and state of being some cement shoes or root it too deeply into our souls that we have trouble when the inevitable change occurs! Trust, have faith, and hope in spite of it all!

Overcoming, Not Status Quo and Easy Breezy . .

20 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Confidence, Courage, Discipline, Faith, God, Growing, Lessons, Life, Maturity, Opportunity, Positivity, Self-Esteem, Self-Respect, Strength, Success

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Maturity, Overcoming, Perseverance, Strength

We aren’t here to live a life free of problems, but rather to motivate, to inspire and to elevate ourselves and others around us through them. We’re meant to rise to the occasion, to learn, to grow and to mature within to be able to take on more problems as well as to develop our abilities to handle greater challenges ahead. How do we do that if we and those we nurture are encouraged to hide from our problems, or worse, kept purposefully from them?? Problems seem to be now viewed as problematic, the very ways in which we challenge our status quo in life now have taken on such a stigma, we often want to escape instead!

Facing our problems is the only way we know how strong and tough we can be as the “overcomers” we are meant to be! Hiding, denying, ignoring, backing away, settling for less, or creating safe spaces only cripples us within. We must accept challenges as part of the continuous growing cycle we are always in, we must experience lessons and tests as the ongoing way in which we mature and develop ourselves in life’s perpetual classroom. If we were to live life sans problems, challenges or tests, we would never learn about our own inner strength, our fortitude or most of our abilities. Status quo and easy-breezy doesn’t really teach us about ourselves, nor does it develop within us the appreciation, acknowledgement or awareness of our metal, our own persevering spirit or our maturity as time passes. Overcoming gives us that. When we overcome and mature through things, we develop more self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth. Of course, all of that is God’s gift to us, through His gift of love within us to begin with. We are meant to be overcomers because God made us to so. In this world, we face daily challenges and must learn to rise to those challenges to become more. There are infinite opportunities each new day for us to become something more and someone greater than who we are today!

Even if we ourselves created some of the taxing problems we are now enduring through accidental or purposeful choices, we must accept the responsibility we now face for extricating ourselves from the constraints those problems represent. Problems always offer us a chance to be overcomers! And that is always a more inspiring and uplifting response rather than denial or flight. God is with us as we endeavour and pursue the ways to move forward, through and beyond our current issues and problems. But we will not learn how to make our way if we choose to always make our way safer, easier, and problem-free. Accepting problems as the necessary learning experiences they represent is always the best way to keep our peace in this world. Doing otherwise makes our journey more miserable and our role as problem-solver less rewarding.

The Thrill/Agony of Life . .

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Courage, Inspiration, Lessons, Maturity, Patience, Quitting, Second chances, Strength, Success

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Never Quit, Perseverance, Resilience

Yesterday was truly the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” at the Rio Olympics! There was a horrible bicycle crash when the leader in the women’s race went down and laid immobile on the side of the roadway on a very steep, winding and rainy descent. She ended up breaking three vertebrae in the lumbar region of her spine. It almost appeared as though she had died as she lay there motionless, the accident was so horrible to watch! Offset that with the world-record shattering swim of Katie Ledecky and another gold for Michael Phelps, both of the American swim team; or with a 41-year old gymnast still competing in her 7th consecutive Olympics, seemingly defying aging just because she can!

If this teaches us anything, it is that daily life mimics the microcosm of the Olympics. One minute, we’re in our rhythm, enjoying the ride and then we’re flat on our backs (literally or figuratively), having experienced something truly random, shocking and devastating. Or we might be working daily towards some truly big goal, not sure if we’ll make the grade and capture the prize for our efforts! Yet, one day, if we commit to something, we surely will make either the goal or the changes in ourselves which occur in our attempt the prize we gain!

Perseverance, effort, commitment and training our minds, bodies and hearts for success are key. Whether we have a major setback, such as that bicyclist’s fall, or a great success, like Michael Phelps and the American swim team, we need to remember that life’s constant lessons continue as long as we breathe! We shall have great days, bad days, days when the sun shines on us and days when the dark cloud overhead seems eternal. But human beings are resilient, meant for unlimited potential and capable of so much more than we ourselves can even imagine, as long as we don’t give up on life when the going gets tough, or when we have known the agony of defeat!

An Intervention!

22 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Blessings, Choices, Freedom, God, Maturity, Self-Control, Strength, Success

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America, Freedom, Great, Intervention

Sometimes as kids, we got caught up in the wrong things or got headed in directions which our parents knew were not good for us. We didn’t know the peril we faced, or we just risked it anyway to have our fun or gain our rewards. But our parents realized or feared that we would suffer in the end if we continued on that course. Perhaps we had already gone a significant amount of time in that misdirection before they intervened or before they were aware of how dangerous our future would be if we continued. But like all parents who accept their responsibility as guardians and caretakers, they stepped in when they spotted trouble ahead for their children. It is their duty as parents to watch over and protect those who they believe are vulnerable, in need of more maturity, unable to yet make the right choices, or are not yet fully aware of many of life’s realities. Surely we don’t always agree that we need their intervention in our lives, after all, don’t we all like to think we know best for ourselves what is best for us? But even as we mature into adulthood, our parents or others who are more aware of what is happening, often come to our rescue by way of an intervention if and when we falter in our choices. It is the role of family, community, and the inherent support structure of human beings. We are all closely intertwined and connected because sometimes our actions affect others whether we think it, know it or believe it!

When many of us unite in dangerous behavior because we make bad choices collectively, whether purposefully or through our own ignorance of the inherent dangers to ourselves or others, we put others at risk too. So often, what we’ve done, even for a significant time, might now require a sudden or emergency intervention. And so it is in our nation right now. For too long, those who either don’t know the best direction for America or are making flawed choices on purpose, have been enacting policies which are taking us all down a harmful course. Through their elected roles as the fiduciary for the people, they have spent us into significant risk and a dangerous debt in the trillions of dollars, among other missteps. And so, someone has to step in and intervene. Someone or some “body” has to be more disciplined about the choices America has been making through our elected officials. We are dangerously close to a tipping point of no return! Unfortunately, many haven’t yet caught on, but fortunately, many have! Our federal government is broken as a system right now. It has become far too corrupt and those serving the people – often for decades at a time – have become a part of the corruption, feeding and self-prospering off the people rather than making decisions which serve to prosper all the nation. So the part of this interwoven, reliant community we call America, which is on heightened alert to the dangers ahead on this continued course, now are responding to the group of citizens which aren’t yet awake to the perils, are willing participants, or are complacent about the possible dangers we might all collectively face if we don’t right ourselves from this course we are now on. It’s a corrective response we now must make and take for the sake of our beloved America, much like a parent intervening on their child’s behalf, rather than continuing with the status quo! We cannot continue imperiled by such corruption and such abuse of power at so many levels of government, even if all of us have yet to understand that as our condition.

With such freedom as this country espouses, there is great personal responsibility required to maintain it! We must all do our part to see that we enjoy prosperity, but that we also understand that along with it, there is a need for self-discipline, self-control, and a self-impetus to create our share of the prosperity. Now not everyone will believe that others know better at this juncture. But this righting of America’s course is an imperative many are willing to endure for the betterment of all and for our future generations, just like the 3% of the colonial America population who stood up to face the oppressive British imperialism which sought to prevent our becoming a free nation. We should all willingly stand vigil over our freed nation to ensure that it remains exactly that! I believe we’re about to have an intervention for our own good in November 2016! And I pray that God will continue to bless this nation by enabling the willing among us to make America one great nation again, and to make America America again!

Strength in Weakness . .

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Choices, Contentment, Faith, God, Inspiration, Lessons, Peace, Positivity, Strength

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God, Joy, Peace, Strength in Weakness

Sometimes our prayers for healing or removing the burden which vexes us isn’t answered the way we would like because often the Lord uses what we endure and the burdens we carry to teach us more about ourselves and surely about Him than we would know without having that burden or enduring our woes. It’s not His will to make us miserable, but rather it is, in my opinion, His desire to have us draw closer to Him, to watch us overcome because of His help, and to rise higher than an affliction or a vexing situation.

I’ve witnessed this in my own mother’s life for years. She has had to endure crippling arthritis in her hands especially, but also in most of her joints and throughout her body. But when I say crippling, I mean that in our estimation. Even though her hands, wrists and other joints are visibly altered, she hasn’t let it cripple her, nor has she let the bumps, inflamed joints, or alignment imperfections change a thing about her life! She worked as a nurse until she was 79, which was last year. She has been active, even until the present time. She has never let the pain I’m sure she has endured, given the mangled state of her fingers especially, stop her, nor has she languished in it with self-pity. I’m not saying this to declare her a saint, but rather to share her example in confirming this message. She has learned to not only live with her impairments and her ailment, but she has learned to live with it all with a good attitude and a peaceful acceptance! God didn’t heal her perhaps because He was able to show others through her that often what we mere humans believe about our limits is just false! And by not healing her, He was able to convince my mom that her life was still valuable and worthy of her peace of mind, her joy of spirit, her faith in Him and her contentment through it all. There are many people with much worse arthritis, who are much more crippled physically by it and other diseases, and those who have other really bad disorders or ailments through which to contend. This is by no means meant to disregard or disparage their pain, their situations, or the very real difficulties and challenges presented by their afflictions. I relate this as a means of suggesting that a lot of what we deem insurmountable is truly a source of strength, courage and an overcomer’s tenacity if we turn our perspective.

Paul, formerly Saul, who wrote several books of the New Testament, was also given such a measure – for which he too accepted the absence of healing as a means of showing God’s great glory and strength! From 2 Corinthians 12: 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Take it from Paul, perhaps what you’ve been all-too-accepting as a weakness is really a source of great strength if you just choose to make it such!

Roll With the Changes . .

12 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Change, Choices, Conquering Fear, Discipline, Freedom, Peace, Strength

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Change, Faith, Trust

Every day rolls in on new breaths, with new promises, and a lot of unknowns. Why do we allow ourselves to get stuck, feeling we are cemented where we are? Why do we believe we are stagnant, unmovable, and unchangeable when all around us everything is moving and changing? When we realize that we are too, we should see everything in us and outside of ourselves as a part of the flow of life.

We and all of life are always morphing into a new state of circumstances and a different state of being. Just when you start to get that taste of stagnation, and that need to step out of a rut, propel yourself with the flow around you. There is nothing which cements you to a place, a way, an idea, a part or to any aspect of life permanently. We fluctuate, we come and go, we ebb and wane through the lives of others and in our own situations. We aren’t holding any space anywhere forever! So if it’s one you relish, make sure you relish it well and appreciate what you have while you have it and where you are while you’re still there!

Celebrate it, savor it, and be thankful for it! If it is one in which you have many regrets or feel uncomfortable, then use it as a catalyst to propel you to a new place and a different space! Don’t allow yourself to dwell in the discomfort and the angst of all the change in life, take the positive from everything and build within you a strong, sturdy yet flexible support. Make yourself able and willing, and life will seem more endurable and gentle to you! Today is a new day with new promises and new challenges awaiting you. Be a part, it is only in facing our role as perpetual students in life that we see our ability to grow and to change because of all the challenges and changes, as well as through every single thing!

Waiting While Waiting . .

16 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Discipline, Lessons, Patience, Self-Control, Strength

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Maturity, Patience, Waiting

Waiting is often the hardest thing to do! As Tom Petty has warbled in the song, The Waiting: “The waiting is the hardest part . . Every day you see one more card . . You take it on faith, you take it to the heart . . The waiting is the hardest part . . “. We’re usually waiting for promises to be kept, waiting for dreams to come to fruition, waiting for word, waiting for action, waiting for life to reach a desirable state so that we might act, or waiting to hear some news! All the ways we wait remind us to be patient, enduring and persistent. We may have no choice but to wait, we may realize we have plenty of ways to take baby steps in the direction towards that which we await. We may just have to call upon our inner stores of strength and summon every ounce of faith and patience we have, but we shall wait over and over! And for those things worthy of waiting, the wait must prove worthy in return!

Expect what you may, endeavor what you might, make patient your rest when that is what you must, but in all regards know that the waiting itself brings us the gift of strength and stamina by just occurring! We build our inner selves in great part working towards and waiting for things, events, goals, and developments. We mature a lot by waiting while we keep on going! Know that whatever you faithfully await in life today, it comes only by way of your patient resolve and persistent fortitude, enduring until you no longer need wait. And then the cycle repeats, in some new way, in regards to some other matter, but such is life! In fact, often the cycle of waiting for things overlaps other matters in which we are doing the same thing – waiting some outcome, development or desired conclusion.

Just because of how often and how much we wait in life, learning to self-discipline and self-control our emotions, reactions, and perceived endurance might come in handy! Develop fully the fruit of your Spirit that is patience, for it gives you the sustenance you need when you are waiting!

Stay the Course . .

05 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Character, Choices, Commitment, Confidence, Discipline, Self-Control, Strength, Success

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commitment, Discipline, Endurance, Self-Control

When you are walking stridently down a particular path, often there are obstacles and barriers, detours and distractions, impatient people and those who try to convince you that your chosen route is erroneous. But if you are on that path purposefully, by choice, and the path itself brings you immeasurable rewards, then why take another course?

It is often the case that what is put before us in our footsteps is meant to test our resolve, to try our patience or to see how easily or readily we’ll give in to some manner of temptation; and in that temptation, we’re promised ease, comfort, happiness, pleasure, and all manner of things we surely won’t find on our chosen way. Temptation is often the lure which takes us from our desired goal. It lures us by promising us a momentary satisfaction, or a pleasure we might be missing. It steals our self-control and takes from us our discipline to remain committed to things, to people, to efforts and to the way we’ve chosen. But temptation is a trick played on a tired, restless, uncertain, tested mind and heart. It often doesn’t bring us anything lasting; and can actually take from us more that would be satisfying, such as the sense of accomplishment after a long, hard trial or effort! How many of us succumb to temptation in a moment of weakness, when we don’t have the strength of resolve to stand in discipline and self-control against it? But we can learn to overcome all the ways in which we might be drawn from a path which promises us success, rewards and hope. We can learn how to be so self-controlled, that no matter who might be tempting us, trying our patience or convincing us that we’re wrong, all will be proven unconvincing against the willful power and determination of our steadfast spirit and disciplined mind!

We are truly not as weak as we might seem. We just need to stand strong a few times against the very things which serve to weaken us to prove that point and to develop those endurance muscles! If you stand against the forces which threaten to weaken your resolve, to break your spirit or to defeat you in your journey towards reaching goals, then you will develop stronger backbone and more enduring discipline! It’s inevitable! Stay the course if what is promised at the finish line means enough to you. And it should when you’ve set your entire life in step with its accomplishment and achievement. Why do we give up when we have already come so far? Why do we quit when others come along with their failed histories, promising us they know better than we what is good for us? Why do we let anything keep us from the rewards we know wait for hard work, effort and endurance? Even if we spend an entire lifetime and still don’t realize a goal, isn’t there much to be gained in the effort which we wouldn’t know within us were we to quit? All too often we let the voices outside of us tell us where we are in our journeys, why we’ve sidestepped in our successes and how we might fix it all according to their limited awareness of our lives! But in actuality, we are most appraised and aware of why we are on that particular road, headed in that certain way, towards those goals waiting to be reached.

Stay the course, learn to adapt to handle the distractions, the interference and the alterations necessary; but don’t give way to temptation or to taking a road promised as easier. Only you can be anointed to live your life and to do what you are called to do by your abilities, talents and experiences. Don’t let others talk you out of the life you’re meant to live just because they seem to think your choices and your direction seem flawed. Remember that their view and vantage point is limited, especially when it comes to the perspective they have of your life so far and the vision of what might lie ahead of you on the pathway you’ve taken! Believe that you are anointed, confident and assured; ask for advice if you need it occasionally, but rely upon the muscles you’re developing from within just by living and venturing onward!

Standing Strong and Secure . .

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Character, Choices, Discipline, Self-Control, Self-Esteem, Strength

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Discipline, Integrity, Self-Esteem

The daily challenge is to not lose yourself in the process of living your life. We are facing trying times, hardened hearts and even actions, deliberate and accidental, in which we might be pushed to our supposed limits. People can try our patience, tempt us into their path and/or test our resolve; but we mustn’t lose our center of beliefs, values, character and the heart of love which keeps us grounded through our thoughts, words, actions and reactions. The worse thing we can do is to become so full of the world that we are no longer filled with ourselves!

We’re made in our unique form, with our individual beliefs, values and character formed over a lifetime of living in this world. So when we intersect with others, we must always do our best to maintain our integrity. Losing ourselves for the sake of the world makes us first weaken the connection we have with ourselves! Living authentically means that we establish first a foundation on which we build our lives, which we endeavor to preserve for all time for our own preservation. We might amend who we are as we go, we might alter our beliefs; but we always establish for ourselves a parameter and foundation first built on values, self-worth and our character traits, by which we then both view the rest of the world and interact with it.

Don’t let others in their random ignorance or in their purposeful endeavors, take from you your inherent value by eroding your integrity in that process. Determine what it is that you believe, what it is you value and what your character will be. Stand strong in that foundation of discipline and self-control; and be determined to not let the world erode what you are within! When we do that, our self-worth, love and integrity help to keep us from being damaged by the world.

40 Days . . The Meaning of Lent

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Christianity, Faithfulness, Maturity, Strength

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Lent, Obedience, Temptation

Here we are in the season of Lent, which for Christians is the forty days prior to Easter meant to remind us of Christ’s forty days of wandering alone in the desert. During that time, Jesus was obedient to God through fasting, sacrifice and prayer; he fought off all manner of temptation from Satan and he endured with obedience battles of will knowing the remainder of his days were not going to be simple. Why is this period of Lent significant to us, the faithful? We endeavor to sacrifice, to fast, to pray and to endure with willful obedience for an equal time some manner of daily temptation. We know Jesus suffered greatly for us; culminating at the Cross, where he died for our sake – though he was truly innocent, sinless and unworthy such a death. Yet he endured it all with obedience, even the horrible death by crucifixion, bearing all the weight and burden of our sin and every human sin ever committed.

When I imagine such a love as to want to take from me the weight and burden of my sin and a God who loves me so much as to want to save me from such condemnation and hell for an eternity, even though I am unable to be perfect in my humanity like Christ, I am overwhelmed! It evokes my ability through discipline and obedience to make such minor sacrifices as giving up meat, wine, coffee, sweets, etc., or fasting for a time each season of Lent as just a small measure of my recognition and gratitude for Christ’s sacrifices for me! It reminds me of God’s many faithful promises to us, His faithfulness in keeping them all; and also how all the prophesies and instruction in God’s Word remind us of our secure place within His embrace of grace regardless the world!

Jesus first told the Apostles while gathering them as such that they should throw down their fishing nets to become instead fishers of men. Then upon rising from the tomb in which he was sealed after his death upon the Cross, Jesus prophesied to them by instruction that they would go out and spread the good news of the Gospel to all the corners of the world, being persecuted and martyred for it; and though they each were persecuted and martyred for it – even put to death or exiled, think of how true this prophesy is today?! That great news of the Gospel is known all around the world still; it lives and breathes hope and light into the lives of billions and billions of people far and wide! Sadly, many are still being persecuted and martyred for their belief in Christ. But think about it . . a handful of men (the Apostles) set out in a time when there were no cell phones, no computers, no cars or jets, no ease or speed of transportation or communication, and plenty of hostile unbelievers all around them. They set about to convey to the entire world the glory of Jesus’ life and his purpose as the Messiah, his meaningful birth, the miraculous things which they had witnessed being at his side, the lessons he had taught them, his rather significant death by crucifixion, and the salvation promised at the foot of that Cross because they had witnessed him as risen. They did just as Jesus instructed them to do in His prophetic instruction, having been endowed with that same will and power of the Holy Spirit within them. And even though persecuted and martyred for conveying such wonderful and glorious news to the world, they managed to keep this message of love not only living, but thriving to this very day!

So when I think of how hard Satan persists each new day by way of those who do his work to silence and destroy the message of the Gospel, how he endeavors to negate the meaning which Christ brings to each of our lives by way of redemption, salvation and love . . or how he attempts to destroy the hope we have in living our lives each day for God’s glory, it doesn’t take me long to quiet my mind in peace again! For in my faithful assurance, I know God will have His triumph through His loving grace, his promises made and kept as well as His faithfulness to us, demonstrated each new day in infinite ways. Jesus Christ will always have the victory over death, things of this fallen, sinful earth and the ways of the enemy. The prophesies foretold centuries and millennia ago throughout God’s Word in the Bible have played out and proven to be true, assuring us as our living, breathing evidence. And they will continue to play out until the end times. God is good, He keeps His promises, though we’re surely not worth it; by His grace and through Jesus Christ we have redemption, salvation and victory over all of that as well!

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Category Archives: Strength

What Is Normal?

Overcoming, Not Status Quo and Easy Breezy . .

The Thrill/Agony of Life . .

An Intervention!

Strength in Weakness . .

Roll With the Changes . .

Waiting While Waiting . .

Stay the Course . .

Standing Strong and Secure . .

40 Days . . The Meaning of Lent