Saying No is Ok….

22 Nov 2013 10 Comments

by Minstrels wife in God, Prayer, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

Sitting on my sofa, snuggled up watching Nascar. I got thinking about some of the stuff I say No to, and why. Sometimes, or like at the moment, most of the time, we have to say No to people we love, friends, church family or others when we are asked to do something. I dont know about you, but after 2 and a half years of illness, I still feel mean about it.

My church family are wonderful in that they dont really ask me to do much, especially if it will make me more poorly, and most of the time they are just as loving if I say No. We as a family, have been called to the church we are at. We are part of a family of believers and we are there for a reason.

Saying No, is very, very Ok when said with love and sometimes the touch of the Lord that we are not to do that something we have been asked. We may feel guilty for saying No or feel that we are being manipulated to change our answer. If you know the answer has to be No, stand your ground, and if still unsure, make sure you talk to the Lord to see if you are still hearing right.

Saying No is ok.

Broken

01 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Minstrels wife in God, Jesus, Prayer, Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

I read a lovely poem written by Sophie Dutton during the week that really spoke to me. One verse in particular.

I bring sticky plasters, and all the hurts they cannot heal-

the wake-up screaming nightmares and sleepless nights,

the fears that invade our waking moments,

the memories that rattle round our heads day after day.

We remember the search for healing, and the empty hopes,

the unanswered prayers, unfulfilled prophesies,

and wounds that all the sticky plasters in the world cannot heal.

Wounded healer, we offer you our hurts.

Broken mender, make us whole.

I have really felt that recently, some of my prayers and requests have only been sticking plasters over some of the serious issues I have been trying to deal with. Without totally offering God our whole life, our whole hurts and our desperate pleas for healing, we cannot get rid of the plasters and see the wholeness God offers.

Our Lord was broken for us. We come to Him as broken people, with broken lives. He can help us and heal us because He was broken, but defeated everything that hurts us once and for all. 

God hurts too

01 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Minstrels wife in God, Jesus, meditation, Prayer, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

Psalm 51 vs 4 says “Against you, you alone have I sinned.”

Its hard to imagine sometimes that when we do something wrong, God hurts. We may feel that we have to defend our actions, we may be aggressive, we may be sorry, but how often do we say sorry to God for the hurt we cause Him? We may hurt others by our actions or by our words, or in some cases lack of action. Yes we hurt the other person or people, but God is hurting even more. How often are we more concerned with straightening things out with the other person, trying really hard to get back in their good books. How about we straighten things out in a spiritual sense first? We never know, but it may be easier to sort things out with the people concerned.

Does it affect us that our Lord God can be so hurt? My God is full of emotion which we can see right through the Bible. Can we learn to see things in Gods perspective? Can we learn to improve our spiritual reflexes to understand the hurts we put on Him, and when we need to get on our knees first before running to others to get them to “like” us again?

God is “slow to anger and abounding in love”. Thats for us, every day, every minute, no matter what we do. We can hurt Him over and over, but He will never stop loving us. We are made in His image. He set us apart for Himself. Is it any wonder then that we wound Him?

Maybe its time to let God shine His torch into our hearts and let us see the things we hold on to, the things that are wounding us and we won’t let go of. Let His light shine right through all the dark places in us, showing us the things we are ashamed of, so He can clean us out and let us feel new again. Spring clean the dirty, dark, horrible bits.