The Guardian of Joy

I got up while it was still dark and poured myself a cup of hot coffee then went out to sit and watch the Sun rise. Though the house had been warmed by lack of air conditioning and closed widows as soon as I stepped out onto the porch the I was greeted by the gentle cool breeze of morning. Everyone in the house was sleeping but here on the porch I could hear the voice of the birds who had, like me, awaken before the dawn.

I sat drinking in the serenity around me letting my soul awaken to the beauty that I was often to busy to notice. This morning I chose to receive the gift of singing birds, cool air perfumed by honey suckle, and the gentle glow of the moon slowly being replaced by the radiance and splendor of the Sun. I took a deep breath and inhaled the joy that comes in the morning.

I have a daily invitation to open my heart and receive this gift of joy. Before the day begins I pause to praise the one who is the Most High, all-powerful, good Lord giver of all blessings. Before my mind has time to be filled with the business of the day I choose to fill it with the truth that God's mercy is fresh and new every morning.

As I watch the dawning of this new day I am aware that the praise that I express becomes the guardian of joy. All day I will be surrounded by this beauty and God's provisions but when I cease to appreciate the gift and become more aware of the need than the provision and my joy is lost. But I have learned that the peace, joy and serenity of the morning can be guarded when I choose to praise God even during the busiest day.

Lord, as I get ready to start a new day please help me not to forget to open my eyes throughout this day and see the evidence of Your love that surrounds me.

The Picture of the Sailor

I close my eyes and I am once more a little girl sitting close beside my grandmother. We sit wrapped in a blanket of love staring up at a picture on her wall. In the picture a young sailor is smiling back at us. The sailor is my grandmother's son, my father.

My grandmother's voice becomes soft the years slip away and she speaks. Through her eyes I can see this sailor not as a young man but as a child. "When I sent him off to school,' she says quietly, 'I would wait and watch until he turned around and waved one last time then I would go back inside. He would always turn to wave and I would always wait."

Grandmother's stories draw me back in time, the love with which she speaks of my father washes away the years and I, his child, watch him grow through her eyes. The child becomes a man. The little boy she had stood waiting for to turn around for one last glance goes off to war. Her arm around me tightens but her eyes never leave the picture of the sailor.

My grandmother never grew tired of telling the story of the sailor and I never grew tired of listening. We shared this special bond of love, she for her son and I for my father. Wrapped up in this blanket of love I saw the man who was my father through the loving eyes of his mother.

Rocking To Nowhere

I found this quote today, "Anxiety is like a rocking chair it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere." I think I know that rocking chair. I also think that if you sit in it that there are invisible straps that bind you to that chair. You begin to rock faster and faster and faster till your mind becomes a blur of anxious confusion. But I also know how to be set free.

Anxiety is a feeling of being nervous or uneasy about something that you don't have control over. It's kind of strange that something you don't have control over can have so much power over you. Freedom is only found by not surrendering to anxiety but by surrendering to the only One who is in control. "In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears." (Psalms 18:6)

When I was a little girl and I would be awaken by a nightmare my mother would have me tell her my dream. As I began to put into words my tangled thoughts they lost their grip on me. I find the same thing to be true when in obedience to God's word I choose not to be anxious but instead to come to my Heavenly Father in prayer. I first let myself look up and see Him seated on the throne and then I hear Him inviting me, as His child, to bring my worries and concern to Him.

When I choose to believe that God has power over the things I have no power over and I put my confidence and expectation in Him that is hope in action. However, when I choose to open my heart and give thanks to Him before I actually see the answer that's faith. This combination of hope and faith dispels the confusion of anxiety and frees me to experience in stead the peace of God.

Lord Jesus by faith I come to You with a grateful heart. I thank you for the peace of God that surpasses all understanding and that guards my heart and my mind in You.

The Cure For Clutter is a Heart Set On Pilgramiage

"I'm going to reduce my footprint by 70%." I've been thinking about what my friend told me. To reduce her footprint by 70% she had to go through a lifetime of things and decide what to keep and what to let go of. I look around me at my collection of things and wonder what it would be like to reduce my footprint by 70%.

I remember when I was a young woman collecting mementos. I wanted to have something tangible to remind me of a special event that had taken place. When my children came I wanted to hold onto special toys or clothes to remind me of each stage of their life. I have four children and it didn't take long before the pile of mementos grew to an alarming size.

For the last year I have been going through the things Ma Belle and Papa left behind. Daily I have made decisions about what to keep and what to do with what I keep. Many things that were in their house came from generations past. This has served to remind me that though I use the things I have someday I will leave and the things will stay.

One day a man came to Jesus and said,"'I will follow you wherever you go.' And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'...Yet another said,'I will follow you, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.' Jesus said to him,'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom.'" (Luke 9:57-62)

Lord, help me to set my heart on pilgrimage and not to hold to tightly to the mementos I collect along the way.

Using His Words To Express What I Want to Say

"And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times,"Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said , "Speak, for your servant hears."(1 Samuel 3:10) I remember when I was a child and I like Samuel learned to recognize the voice of God. My grandmother did for me what Eli did for Samuel she taught me that when I opened the word of God to say, "Speak LORD, your servant is listening."

When I was a teenager I began reading through the Bible. When I came to Psalm 119 I camped there reading it over and over. I felt like I had been invited into a conversation that I had been longing to find the words for. "With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!...I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!"

I found in this Psalm requests that I, like the Psalmist, wanted to make. "Make me understand the way of your precepts...Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!...Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statues...Give me understanding...Lead me in the path of your              commandments...Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain!...Let your steadfast love come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word."

Of all the prayer requests I find in this Psalm the last one best describes my relationship with LORD, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments" (Psalm 119:176) For me this says it all. I came to Him because I heard Him calling to me. I wanted to be obedient to follow His ways but again and again my prayer has been one of a lost sheep. I don't forget the LORD's commandment but somehow in the confusion of life I seem to have forgotten my way home.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as a shepherd. You came to seek and to save the lost. Thank You for showing me that when I have become lost and confused that I can call out to You and You will find me and bring me back home.

Listening to the News While Waiting for His Kingdom

"Mimi, turn it off!" I had been listening to the radio when the news came on. What my grandchildren heard caused them to respond in horror. First there had been the story of a man who had held three women captive in his basement followed by a story of a doctor who had killed babies with a snip of his scissors. I pushed the button quickly and turned it off.

Listening to the news I thought about the contrast between what is happening in our world and the sermon on the mount where Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven. I whispered the prayer that so often enters my heart, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I am struck as I often am by the now but not yet aspect to the kingdom of heaven.

I see the "now" of the kingdom when I read in Ephesians that when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, God had mercy on us. My mind goes back to what I heard on the news and I marvel that God could love us with such a great love that even when we were dead in our trespasses He made us alive together with Christ-- purely by His grace-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places. When I received this gift of grace through faith I also became part of his kingdom.

"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Daily I seek to line my heart up with His will but there is more to the kingdom of heaven than that, there is the "not yet." When I read in Revelation about the kingdom that is coming I read, "'Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.' Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they my enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."(Revelation 22:12-15)

Lord Jesus, I believe that there will come a day when You will reign, "where'er the sun doth his successive journeys run; your kingdom stretch from shore to shore, til moons shall wax and wane no more." I pray today that You will reign in my heart.

Are You Having One of Those Days?

Have you ever had one of those days when you could feel the murmuring, complaining spirit rising up in you demanding an audience? Yesterday was one of those days, I just felt grumpy! While I was feeling grumpy and desiring to give that feeling an expression by grumbling a scripture passage kept coming to mind. It was the story of the children of Israel going through the wilderness.

God was leading them to the Promised Land through the wilderness. The wilderness wasn't comfortable and their response was to murmur and complain. In their heart they were rebelling against God's leadership. I kept thinking about this yesterday that sometimes when God leads me to a place of promise and deliverance it involves going on a path I don't want to go.

Wilderness have a way of exposing the heart. I didn't want to be grumpy yesterday I just was. I didn't want to rebel against the path God had chosen for me that day but I wasn't exactly sure how not to and then another scripture came to mind, "With my whole heart I cry out; answer me, O Lord! I will keep your statutes. I call to you; save me, that I may observe your testimonies."(Psalms 119:145,146)

The wilderness exposes my vulnerability and my dependence on God. In the wilderness I am faced with a choice to rebel against the God who led me here or cry out to Him for help. In my struggle in the wilderness I experience the triune God. Selwyn Hughes spoke about the trinity as, "God above us, God among us, God within us. The Father in majesty, the Son in suffering, the Spirit in striving." In the wilderness my heart seeks for the Father, is grateful for the Son and totally dependent on the Spirit.

Father, thank you for Your word. Your word teaches me that faith comes by hearing Your word. When I read about how You led the children of Israel through the wilderness I see that even though they rebelled against You You provided for them. Their clothes didn't wear out and their feet didn't blister or swell. During times of testing let me cry out to You in the power of the Spirit so that I can see Your provision instead of just grumbling.

BLOG HIJACK... Her Children Rise Up To Call Her Blessed

Hi. This is Faith (you know, mother of Ann, Jack and Lena, those grandkids that Mom is always writing about). This is a non-hostile takeover. I tried to steal the computer from Mom before she had time to post, but I missed. We, some of Sarah's children, wanted to tell you a little bit about our mother, from another perspective.
Last week I had the honor of giving a eulogy for a dear family friend. As I stood before the church all my words disappeared. All I could think of was how very blessed I was to have been raised by such a family. My mother and her friend Wendy parented their children in tandem. They read the same books to us, and fed our imaginary play with themes of Laura Ingles' prairie and Lewis' Narnia. They taught us that a good time came from good friends and not a high admission price. My mother encouraged us to explore God's love for us and Wendy taught us to find Him in the intricacy of every waterfall and flower. My mother planted God's word in our hearts around the breakfast table (while serving homemade pancakes made from the whole wheat she'd ground herself). She gave us Proverbs, one by one, drenched in the syrup of her love. Throughout the most difficult times of my life those ancient words of wisdom have crawled up through the anger or sorrow of the moment and her voice, speaking the Word of God has provided comfort and security.

Andrew (the only son, and establisher of this Blog) has this to say:
The best books are the ones you use. I have become well acquainted with books the last few years. As a graduate student, my profession involves a lot of reading; I guess you could say it’s my job. Of course I never would have made it here if my mother hadn’t taught me how to read, or, more precisely, how to love to read. If you follow this blog, you may remember the post “Isn’t Sarah Stupid,” (it’s also included in the book her wonderful friends helped put together) so you know that reading, and particularly reading out loud, doesn’t come easy to my mother. But I wouldn’t have known. She used to read to us all the time. Many of my fondest memories involve mom reading to us. On family vacations, for example, we would beg her to read to us until her voice gave out! And that’s the sort of person my mother is, she looks at a challenge and gives everything she has to overcome it, but, and I don’t think she would mind me sharing this, giving all she’s got isn’t always enough. Sure mom read out loud to us, filling our minds with wonderful stories and fantastic adventures, but there was one book she insisted we learn to read ourselves. Every morning, well before the sun, mom would get up and settle into her chair with a book so well worn that if you opened it wrong a rainbow cascade of highlighted sheets would flutter out. Mom would read this book to herself, and when we were old enough, she patiently taught us to read it too, because that Bible taught who she represents. So today I want to thank my mother with the words she used whenever I left the house. Mom, thank you for who you are, and for who you represent.

Elisabeth (the second daughter, the newlywed, the Masters' degree-in-one-year-earner, the survivor of cancer) was true to her paternal side of the family and was a bit too overcome by emotion and homesickness to write, but, as her sister, I can tell you that she is a living testament to all the wonder and dedication that our mother poured into our homeschool education.

Abigail (the baby of the family and the darling of Mom's heart) gave this gift to our mother:

There have been many times in my life where I sat back and thought, "WOW my mother is a wonderful mother who I am really lucky to have as a mother!" I was even happy to share her with some other people who needed a temporary mother or a replacement mother. However, it wasn't until I grew up that I realized just how amazing of a person she is.

I am proud to say that I would have been friends with mom. I know that I'm friends with my mom now but we all know that our mommy's will always love us special and can't take it back. What I'm saying is that my mom is the kind of person I would have hunted down at school and stalked like a crazy person just so I could be friends with her. It isn't just my mom's wonderful "mom" qualities that make her someone I love, it's the person qualities that draw my heart to hers.

My mom is a wonderful caring mother who stayed up with me when I was sick and taught me about loving Jesus and loving people. BUT, that's not all there is to my mommy. My mom is a wonderful person who has a fun laugh that sometimes makes her fall over and stays up past her bed time to talk to me about my crazy life plans.

In conclusion, I want to be friends with this woman and I want to be this woman.

We already know (because you've been reading her blog), that our mother has touched your life. Chances are, you feel like you know her as a friend. We, her children, are happy to share this Godly woman with you. And, I'm quite certain that, in actuality, it is we who have been blessed to have her in our lives.

My Mother is an Artist

My mother is an artist. My mother got her degree in art from the University of Georgia. Mother's talent was recognized by all her teacher. An art collector bought one of her paintings for his private collection. Yes, my mother is an artist and when she was at the University her teachers saw a bright future for her in the art world.

My mother is an artist. My mother also had nine children in ten years. Pause a minute, close your eyes and think about that. When I was a child I didn't give it much thought because it was just the way life was. I became a mother when I was twenty six just like my mother did. When I turned thirty six my third child was born and my my father said, "Sarah, did you know that by the time your mother was your age she had nine children?"

My mother is an artist. Because my mother is an artist she has always been able to see the world through an artistic lens. One of the ways my mother shared her artistic view with her children was to cover one the wall of our family room with post card size art. I grew up looking at paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt among others. The painting were of ordinary things and ordinary people but though the artist painted ordinary people and things when I saw them through the eyes of the artist they no longer looked ordinary.
I have several books that contain the art of Mary Cassatt, my mother gave them to me. I think there was a time when my mother wanted to be like Mary Cassatt, able to give herself to her art. However, if you have nine children in ten years you don't have a lot of time to refine your artistic skills. But my mother did open my eyes and helped me to see beauty in the ordinary.

Lord, thank you for my mother. Lord, please fill my mother's heart with joy because her children rise up and call her blessed even if she didn't get to be an artist like Mary Cassatt, made famous by painting mothers and their children

I Have Tangible Evidence That a Dream Can Come True

I reached out my hand and took the book. I felt the weight of it, I ran my hand over it's smooth surface and I couldn't hide the smile that spread across my face. This had been a dream of mine for thirty years. It took me five years to be bold enough to voice my dream and twenty five more years for the dream to materialize. I want to share with you my book's birth story.

Thirty years ago while teaching a class about spiritual gifts I realized that I had the spiritual gift of encouragement so I began to pray and ask God how I could exercise this gift. As I prayed about how to encourage others I began to think about being a speaker and a writer. Thirty years ago I shared my idea with someone who was very close to me they responded with a look of deep concern and then the words, "Oh Sarah!" escaped their lips before they could retract them. But I understood their concern, it wasn't that they wanted to hurt me, on the contrary, they didn't want me to be hurt.

In the second grade when all the other pupils were learning how to read, write and spell I was learning that I didn't measure up. I struggled with dyslexia but in but in 1960 they simply called it being stupid. I learned this lesson very well and came to understand that there were things that people like me could not do and should not try. The person I shared my dream of speaking and writing with knew about my disability and didn't want to see me fail in such a public arena. However, there was something I wanted to say so badly that I was willing to take the risk, only I didn't know how.

The message I wanted to share had first been written on my soul. Not only did I suffer from being dyslexic but from my earliest memories I struggled with depression. I look back on the black and white pictures of my childhood and I am struck by the somber expression on my face. I read once that the average four year old laughs over 300 times a day I was far, far below average. Then one day light began to penetrate my darkness and hope was born.

I learned about the love of Jesus Christ and this love became the mirror through which I could see my true reflection. At thirteen I began to read my Bible every day hungry and thirsty for the love I found there. I began to stop identifying myself by my disability and instead I started to think about the love that God had lavished on me by sending His Son to give me life. I began to place my confidence in this love. I began to put my expectations in His promises. I began to hope.

Hope began to express itself through faith and I began to experience joy and peace I had never known before. It was just to good to keep to myself I had to share it or I felt like I would burst! I loved getting invited to speak but I still wanted to share this hope with more people and the only
I could think to share with more people was in written form but how could someone like me do that?

It took me five more years before I could build up the courage to express my dream again out loud. This time I shared it with my friend Vivian. She had been attending a class I was teaching. Vivian is someone who knows how to make things happen. No sooner had I told her my secret than she had found a writer's convention at Moody Bible Institute. She made all the arrangements, drove me there and even babysat my daughter Elisabeth between the sessions! Still I felt paralyzed whenever I thought of writing.

Looking back over the last few years I realize it was God using other people's gift in my life that finally gave substance to my dream. My son Andrew who set up my Blog for me. My friend Susan who never stopped encouraging me. Chris Fabry who read my Blog  "Class Isn't Sarah Stupid?" on his radio program even though what I sent him was filled with errors.

Then several months ago my friends Ruth and Esther Wilson volunteered to take my Blogs and edit them and format them and do all those other things I can't even name. "Sarah, you write and we will do everything else." And they did! "A Ministry of Hope" is not my ministry this book is not just something I've done. I have discovered through the writing and publishing of this book that it takes many people exercising their spiritual gifts to birth a dream.

The Hummingbirds Are Back!

Suddenly I saw him hovering before me. The small body of the hummingbird displaying an array of vibrant colors. I couldn't help but smile because this bold little bird had come to me with the unmistakable message that it was time for me to hang his feeder out on the porch. So once again the time has come to receive the joy that comes from observing the colorful, combative, and energetic jewel of the air.

To fully enjoy the gift that this tiny bird brings to my life I must pause. I pause, I look until I can really see the bright radiant color that is in front of me whether I take the time to enjoy it or not. One of the interesting facts about hummingbirds is that they can flash their bright colors as well as hide them. It is only when I receive this gift with a grateful heart that I can truly see it.

My life is filled with bright flashing colors but I often don't see them. I get so preoccupied with the business of life that I become blinded to the little jewels that are strewn across my path. My grandchildren come running into the house and I am more aware of the dirt on their feet than the smile on their faces. Then they take me by the hand and draw me towards the window and I see reflected in their eyes the miracles around me and I stop long enough to open my heart with gratitude to receive this free gift of beauty.

My grandchildren stare at the bright iridescent coloring of the hummingbird's wing I look too and am reminded of the spectrum of colors I see when the sunlight shines through a prism. Hummingbirds are the tiniest birds in the world yet they are gifts that God uses to invite me to enjoy the gift of His creation.

Lord, You have filled my life with Your gifts inviting me to receive from you so many things are simply gifts of Your love. Help me to receive them with a heart that overflows with gratitude. In the receiving of Your gifts may my heart shine forth with the bright radiant joy of a hummingbird.

When Somebody Knows Your Name

I have a confession to make. When I was a child at my grandmother's house I wrote my name on the walls in all the closets, I painted my name on the roof tiles, in fact I hid my name all over that house. Why? Because I felt like I was invisible and I believed there was a relationship between my name and my value.

I was a middle child. Or at least I think I was a middle child. I was behind Nick and Fred and in front of Racie, Tom, Rosie, Mary, Cessna and Tricia. We were all born within ten years and maybe that is why I felt invisible. I was so accustomed to being called by the wrong name that I didn't bother with correcting the person speaking. If you were looking at me I figured you were talking to me.

As a child I didn't expect people to remember which one I was. I think this might be why I was I was so touched by the verse,"Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine."(Isaiah 43:1) Sometimes as I child I would begin my prayer time by imagining what it would be like to hear God calling me by my name. Then my prayer would be in response to hearing Him.

One of my favorite stories when I was growing up was of God calling Samuel in the night. I could just imagine Samuel hearing his name being call and waking up and running to see what Eli wanted. It took three times before Eli realized that it was God who was calling him and he told Samuel that the next time he heard his name being called he was to respond, "Speak Lord for Your servant is listening." There have even been times when I have heard my name being called very early in the morning and I could hardly wait to get up and open His word and see what He had to say!

Oh Lord You know my name! "When I consider the heavens, the work of your figures, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?"(Psalms 8:4,5) And yet Lord, I believe that you have called me by my name and I am your.

Ann Without an 'e' But Full of Grace

Grace is the communication of the divine goodness of God in my life, something I don't deserve, I never worked for, I could never earn. I see glimpses of God's grace in so many areas of my life but I want to share one who has communicated this divine goodness of God to me for almost fifteen years. She is my granddaughter Ann, her name means grace.

Saturday I was invited by my grandchildren to be part of a two person audience so that I could watch a talent show and a fashion show. My daughter and I sat in the chairs provided for us and then Ann, who is five years older than her brother and eight years older than her sister, began directing and filming the production and OH what a production! All that rainy rainy day Ann had worked with her siblings on the show and the end result caused the house to be fill with love and laughter.

Watching Ann awake to become the person whom God has chosen her to be has filled my heart with amazment. One of Ann's talents is her sense of direction. When I was little older than she is now I would get so lost that I often would just give up trying to reach my destination and start praying desperately that I could just figure out how to get home.

The divine goodness of God is communicated to me in the gift of people He has put into my life like my granddaughter Ann. Being with Ann also reminds me of other ways I experience His goodness. Thinking about how Ann lovingly was directing her brother and sister I was reminded that though I can't see God He is very active in this production of my life. Watching Ann use her amazing sense of direction I am reminded that though I often loose my way I have a shepherd who not only knows where I'm going but also knows how to reach that destination.

Lord, thank You for all the ways You've chosen to communicate Your divine goodness to me. Thank You for blessing my life with my granddaughter Ann.

A Ministry of Hope: THE BOOK

Available for download on Kindle today, Nook next week, and in paper in the undefined future. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CNRAVPW/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_ask_WQjVF.00XDYME

To Understand and Be Understood

There is a German Proverb that says, "To understand and to be understood makes our happiness on earth."

She sat looking at his picture a smile gently tugging at the corners of her lips. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly and then she began to reminisce. He had been gone for many years but when she talked about him it was as if he was with us in the room.

I spent a lot of my childhood Summers with my aunt and uncle so I shared one of my own memories. I told how as a child he would take me on rides through the mountains and use a spotlight so I could see the deer. He would shake his head and say, "Aren't they beautiful!"  "Yes,' she said, 'That's was your Uncle Chuck. He loved nature."

Aunt Angie not only loved Uncle Chuck she understood him. Uncle Chuck was a big man with a gentle soul. One time when his melancholy gave way to depression Aunt Angie responded by buying him an accordion. All these years latter sitting in the kitchen with my aunt I could almost close my eyes and see him sitting there tapping his foot with the music. Playing the accordion seemed like a full body exercise to me when I was a little girl and oh how it filled the house with music!

Because of Uncle Chuck's depression it was often hard for him to hold down a job and Aunt Angie worked nights. Aunt Angie's life wasn't easy but all my childhood memories of Aunt Angie include laughter. She loved, understood and respected Uncle Chuck and he returned the favor. "To understand and to be understood makes our happiness on earth." It makes for a happy family as well.

Lord, You told older women to teach younger women how to love their husbands and their children. Thank You for Aunt Angie who taught me by her life.

Some Things You Have to Ask For

There are some things you have to ask for but when you receive it it changes everything. "He said, 'Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' Then Elisha prayed and said, 'O LORD, please open the eyes that he may see.' So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."(2 Kings 6:16,17) Elisha asked that his servant's spiritual eyes be opened because all he could see was that they were surrounded by horses and chariots and a great army of the enemy but when he saw the whole picture fear was gone!

When Jesus began His ministry He took the scroll of the prophet Isaiah unrolled it and found the place where is was written, "'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'" (Luke 4:18,19) Those who believed in Jesus and asked received sight and liberty from oppression.

There are some things you have to ask for but when you receive it it changes everything. He was just a beggar on the side of the road but he heard the commotion and asked what was going on. "'Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.' And he cried out, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'" Those who were in front of him rebuked him and told him to be quite but he just kept crying for mercy. Jesus stopped and had the blind beggar brought to Him and then He asked this blind man a question. "What do you want me to do for you?" He responded, "Lord, I want to see!" Jesus gave him his sight and told him it was his faith that had made him well. He had had the faith to ask.

Sometimes I feel like Elisha's servant and I feel paralyzed by the horses and the chariots and the great army of the enemy. Sometimes I feel like a beggar on the side of the road, I know something is going on but I'm not a part of it, all I can do is cry out for mercy. But then it happens and I hear the question, "What do you want me to do for you?" In response to my prayer for sight my spiritual eyes are opened I am no longer held captive by fear but instead I am able to view my world with a quiet confidence.

Lord Jesus, You taught me in Your word that faith requires action. It's not enough to simply want spiritual vision I have to have enough faith to ask for it. Thank You for opening my eyes and setting me at liberty from the fear that blinds me.