Prepare Him Room

I've been wondering how to put into words all that has transpired over this past year. Wondering how to frame the words my heart wants to write but is just not there yet. Wondering about the fear mixed with hope that comes with the calendar page turning to reveal an entire new year tomorrow and praying that it will be different in a very big way. And then I have to remind myself all that we have overcome as a family this past year. Along with all that I have walked through and had to overcome personally as well.

If I could sum up my world this past year in one word it would be this one.

Courage.

And by courage I don't mean just attempting something new or facing our fears or the usual definitions that follow that word.

But the places and spaces of courage that cause our flesh to be pressed like never before and our hearts to offer all the room that the Father needs to work and move and operate and orchestrate in our lives,  no matter what we may be walking through.

I'm referring to this.

Preparing Him room. No matter what.

Even in spite of and in the midst of, difficulties and adversity and unanswered prayers.

This type of courage.

We can accept our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but never prepare Him room in our daily lives.

We can attend church or worship every Sunday but never prepare Him room the rest of the week.

We can go on a mission trip, serve the homeless and give in the offering every week but still hold a death grip on our own life and never offer it up fully to the One who authored it in the first place.

We can hold that grip on life until our knuckles turn blue and our hearts are like stone and our spirits are so bitter with the mountains of disappointment that have come our way and never even realize it.

We serve Him with our lives but we hold our own hearts captive.

We offer Him pieces. But not everything.

We offer Him Sunday morning, but not Monday through Saturday.

We offer Him small places of our pain, but cannot bring ourselves to offer the worst of it.

But God.

He still whispers to us, even in our worst state of being.

Give it to me. Trust me. Allow me. Prepare Me room......

It is easy to love God and trust God and praise God when everything is wonderful. When everything is good.  Really good. When there are positions and profits and income and increase. And jobs and paychecks and bills are paid in full. And there is success in business. It is so easy to tell the world how good God is when we are kissing a husband who loves us and the checking account is full to overflowing. It is easy to write a blog post about the absolute goodness of God from our new laptop inside the comfort of our very own home. It is easy to talk about the faithfulness of God when our days are spent shopping and cooking and baking and decorating. It is easy to overcome hardship or trials when you can pick up the phone and call an amazing set of loving parents. It is easy to tell another person that they "just need to trust God"  or "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" along with a million other little phrases, when you are not in the middle of the fight of your life.

And as well meaning and as wonderful as some of that may be ~ that can't help me.

I know how they made it.

I know how they walked in love and kindness and courage and prepared Him room in their life.

I know how they get to sleep every night.

I know how they keep their marriage full of love and joy and happiness.

This post is for the other folks.

This post is for those who still trust God when none of the aforementioned is happening.

This post is for those who will tell me how good God is when they have lost everything and borrowed a computer to send an email to tell me so.

This post is for those who are staring at the calendar page of the very last day of the year and it didn't work out.  Their prayers weren't answered and despair and depression are trying to strike along with midnight on New Year's Eve.

This post is for those who can celebrate and rejoice in others success and prosperity and accomplishments when that hasn't happened in their own life.

This post is for those who can share out of a place of genuine happiness and joy for friends who are having a baby when they cannot seem to get pregnant at all or who have miscarried or lost a baby. 

This post is for those who rejoice and celebrate when others find a wonderful spouse in life, even though they may be walking through divorce or have yet to even meet someone worthy of marriage.

This post is for those who can tell others how good God is while they are feeding their children from a food pantry every week.

This post is for those who tell others in one breath that they have cancer and the very next breath tell them this. "I still trust Him."

This post is for those who have walked through a level of betrayal in friendships they never imagined, walked through slander, malicious gossip and judgement, but still long to be a loyal and faithful friend to others in spite of that.

These things and so much more take a special type of courage.

I call it "midnight hour courage."

A depth of courage that can only come when we release our life and say those famous words in the midnight hour ....

Be it unto me Lord. I trust you Lord. I praise you Father.

When we praise Him in advance and trust Him in the midst.

Courage to keep going when the bottom drops out and friends walk away and people slander your family.

Courage to tell your children about the goodness of God when there isn't a shred of security or provision.

Courage to open your heart again after tremendous loss or divorce or a broken heart.

Courage to believe that God heals, when your body still needs healing.

Courage to trust again. Courage to love again. Courage to start again. To begin again.

Courage to refuse not to believe that God is who He says He is in the midst of unanswered prayers, fiery trials and persecution.

Courage to prepare Him room in our lives, while walking through setback after setback.

Courage to believe the best, hope the best, offer our best during the fight of our lives.

And maybe this is you. 

Maybe this is the ground on which you stand today, this last day of 2012.

Take off your shoes sweet friend. (Exodus 3:5) 

This place where you stand, of sacrifice and persecution and fiery trials is Holy Ground.

Truly.

I'm writing to you with bare feet from my own Holy Ground today.

I want to encourage you with one thing before the very first day of the new year begins...

Prepare Him room.

Maybe life has been unkind to you this last year. Maybe your heart has been hardened or turned bitter and cold. Maybe you feel that it seems to work out for everyone else and God- but not you.

Would you open your heart to Him today anyway?

Even if you've done this before and then walked away from Him and feel like there is no point in this whole God thing?

Would you open your hands, your heart, your mind, your spirit and soul and give every single heartache, disappointment, unanswered prayer, unmet need and unhealed hurt to Jesus?

He's calling you unto Himself right now....

All you have to do is answer. 

There isn't a fancy prayer. You don't have to know all the right words.
You don't have to stand up and declare a specific scripture.

You can just simply say this...

I need you Lord. I repent of my sins. I ask You to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. I believe You are the Way and the Truth and the Life and I give my life to You now.

He is near the brokenhearted.

He is hovering over you and calling you and wooing you unto Himself.

He's waiting for you to offer up the year that was 2012 and every year before that where you may have had to fight for your life and fight for it alone.

He wants you to know that you were never alone. 

He wants you to know that when we prepare Him room in our lives, He will come in like a flood and begin to shift and organize and remove and straighten and adjust for our good and His glory. And it may be painful at first. And it may be difficult and it may not be what we had envisioned.

The Refiners fire is no easy thing. 

But eventually, we will see His hand at work in our lives. We will see that He had our best interest at heart the whole time. We will see when we prepare Him room that He becomes our focus and everything else pales in comparison.

And it will be worth it.

I am praying for those of you who have walked through a difficult year this year. I am praying that a double portion recompense would be yours in 2013. That there would not be room enough to receive all that He has set aside for you and your family.

I know that He is well able.

I would love for you to share how you are planning to prepare Him room in the coming new year. I know it will encourage the hearts of others here as well.

Happy New Year to you beautiful friends. Don't give up. It is not over....

It's just the beginning.

photo source

26 Acts

Merry Christmas blog friends,

Have you all heard about this beautiful demonstration going on around the country called 26 Acts?

Folks everywhere are beginning to do 26 random acts of kindness to honor the precious lives lost

in the horrific Newtown tragedy. One random act of kindness for each life.

I cannot imagine the depth of heartbreak those mothers and fathers and families are walking through right now.

There are no words big enough to heal the grief, loss and sorrow.

Only prayers and beautiful acts of kindness can offer some light and hope in a time of such darkness.

Only Jesus can comfort their empty arms.

We send our love and prayers to the Newtown community and to the Mothers and Fathers and families who have lost their beautiful babies and family members.

I wanted to share the links to the websites for anyone who would like to participate.

We are blessed to be a blessing.....

http://todaynews.today.com/_news/2012/12/18/15975855-26acts-of-kindness-you-can-do-right-now?lite

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/26-random-acts-of-kindness

Five Years

Today is an extraordinary day for me beautiful friends.

November 15th marks the five year anniversary of this blog.

Five years of writing and sharing and encouraging in whatever
way the Father has prompted me to.

Five years of meeting the most incredible bloggers and forming friendships
with amazing women. I have never in my life met so many inspiring, creative, talented
and truly brilliant women until I discovered the blog world.

You all have blessed me so much.

I want to thank you for the years you have encouraged me with the kindest and most beautiful words, emails, prayers and comments.

I have cherished this space here with you.

And today my heart is overflowing with gratitude.

I am so thankful that five years ago, I took a leap of faith and wrote a post about my faith
and my hope and desire to encourage others.

From day one, this space has been about Him.

It's not about me, although I am grateful He uses pieces of my story.

It's not about numbers, because I've never wanted that to be my reason to write.

It's not about the praises of man, because I long for His praise alone.

It's not about trying to be a big blogger, because I only want to be big in the eyes of my children.

This space has always been a place to share my heart as a mother and a platform to encourage and a way to minister the gospel and point others to Him.

I remember attending my one and only blogging conference a few years ago.

I was a nervous wreck. Didn't know a soul. Went by myself and spent much of the day
trying to figure out which track or group I belonged to. I was overwhelmed at how much I didn't know and how I was doing everything wrong if I wanted success.

I was also terribly starstruck. Everybody and their Mama was in attendance and I'm pretty sure I spent much of the day in awe over all of the pro bloggers there that day.

I also remember walking out of one ballroom and into another because I was so confused about
which category I was supposed to be following.

I'm still not sure I would know today.

I don't know that I fit into any category. But I know that I always fit with Him.

I left the conference completely overwhelmed by all that I didn't know and by what a big business this can be and most of all just feeling very small.

I am so grateful that I just kept writing even though I felt small then and still feel small today.

Because I would discover that words are my love language.

Words can bring life.

Words have power.

Words can change lives and heal hearts and speak light into darkness.

Words in the blog world can confirm to someone else miles and miles away the powerful truth that they are not alone, they are not the only one and it is not over.

What an opportunity.

I don't think much has changed here as far as stats and such. And I don't think any professional blogger would look here and see success of any kind.

But when love is your motivation and encouraging the hearts of others is your mission statement, I don't think you can ask for a greater platform.

I thank you for five very special years beautiful friends.

I count this space shared here with you one as one of my greatest blessings in life...

What a gift it all has been.

Love you so,

Sibi

Spin

I sorted and loaded and pressed all the right buttons.

Just 58 minutes later and it would all come out clean.

And just like all of those piles of laundry,  I was wishing for my own life ~ sorted and freshly laundered.

Titled and sorted into piles and waiting for the spin cycle.

I needed a friendship pile. A family pile. A dream pile. A finances pile. A please let me do this over pile. A needs more grace pile. A please Lord help me pile. A mercy pile. A needs God's attention stat pile. A broken heart pile. A mommy do over pile. A wish I could change it pile. And a God I do not understand these things in my life pile.

All of it.

And one by one I've wanted to take my own spiritual spray-n-wash- called, I can fix it myself and I've wanted to load and pour and spritz and spray and push all the right buttons.

And then watch it spin.

58 minutes later.

It would all come out clean. Every, single thing.

Every wrong thing. Every hurt and heartache. Every offense and wound and every unmet need...

All of it.

I'll be the first to admit. I want life on spin.

When things go wrong in life, I want to press all the right buttons, open the door, smell the fragrance and see that I can get my life laundry clean.
                   
So many times I think, If I can just get this load to the spin cycle in life...

It will all be okay.

And then He whispers.

Somewhere in the midst of the sorting of, I kid you not, twenty loads of laundry and the 58 minute wash cycle.

I've already washed it all clean daughter.

These loads you are hanging on to.

Paid.

This heap of guilt and shame and condemnation.

Paid.

This sorrow and suffering. This lack in the very pieces of your soul.

Paid.

This mountain of a heartache the size of Texas.

Paid.

I've already sorted and sprayed and washed and spun and dried and laundered and paid for....

All of it.

In full.

You are carrying loads that were never meant for you to carry.

Maybe you've forgotten., in all of your worrying with trying to sort it all yourself...

I've got this.

You need not worry or fear.

I am in control.

I will provide.

I will sort.

I will spin.

I will orchestrate things on your behalf.

I will bring things into divine order.

I will command a blessing and joy will come in the morning...

And when you feel the need to sort your life into piles called circumstances and situations and attempt to get it clean all on your own....

Look to me.

Seek me.

Cling to me.

And remember this...

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."  Luke 12:27

I've got this.

You can empty your baskets, and pick up My promises.

They are stacked in your favor. Every, single one.


photo source