HELD

Today I want to share something precious that I stumbled on earlier this week.  I wrote it two years ago and had completely forgotten it.  It was written at a time of huge turmoil and grief. And this week I read it from a position of restoration and joy.

May it encourage you no matter what you may be experiencing right now.

                        

                     HELD

Sometimes I feel like a leaf in the wind
Unable to determine my way
Tossed and blown
This way and that.

But I'm at peace,
because The One who holds
the wind in His hands
Holds me.

The One who rides on the wings of the wind
Holds me.

The One who speaks to the wind to be still
Holds me.

I'm safe in the wind...
Whichever way it blows,
Because I am held in the hands of God.

Lynda Hammond, April 2022

With love,

Lynda xx

PROMISE, PROCESS & PROVIDENCE

I love that God is The God of Promise.  What He says, He will do.  In Christ Jesus, the promises of God are YES & AMEN!  We can absolutely rest, yes, even throw ourselves and our lives on His character and His word.  I recently found a date in my Bible where The Lord had promised me something that seemed impossible, and here ten years later, I sit amongst the promise which normally takes multiple decades to come, fulfilled. He is The God of healing, deliverance, provision and blessing.  

    He is The GOD OF PROMISE, and He has never lied.

I love that God is the God of Process and journey.  What He says, He will do.  But He has innumerable ways to do it.  The God who says, "I will", also says that He will walk with us in every season, the good, the bad, and the absolutely devastating.  He is The God of Healing, and He is also, "The Man of Sorrows", who STAYS WITH US in the dark.    

    He is The GOD OF PROCESS, and He will never forsake us.

I love that God is the God of Providence.  Scripture tells us that He works ALL things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.  We need to understand the Sovereignty of God.  It doesn't mean that everything that happens He has initiated, or is pleased about.  But it does mean that He can work with whatever happens, especially when we bring those broken pieces to Him.

I love the old song, "Something Beautiful, something good, all my confusion He understood, and He made something beautiful out of my life."    

    He is The GOD OF PROVIDENCE, and He is working on your behalf!

Don't be discouraged when the promise seems long in coming, embrace the process with Loving God, knowing there are treasures laid up in that darkness of process that He will give you.  He is working on your behalf and you will come out richer for the journey, with Him by your side.

With love,

Lynda xx

YOU'RE NOT POWERLESS!

Have you ever looked at your circumstances, the trouble your loved ones may be in, or even the general grief and anxiety that pervades society, and felt totally powerless?

Do you sometimes resort to reactionary behavior, harsh words, anger, or trying to maneuver the circumstances around?

Do your prayers seem impotent and reduced to simple "help Lord!" (which is perfectly valid, and He hears that).  Sometimes though it feels like we are up against something darker and more maleficent than just hard circumstances. 

Well I'm happy to share today that it need not be like this!

We have at least three things at our disposal.

1. Praise

2. The Word of God

3. Obedience - yes, you read that right!

Psalm 149:6 "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand."

James 4: "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

Lets talk about praise... something that can be hard when we feel overwhelmed with anxiety.  But praise is the best way to navigate anxiety. It works like a raincoat in rain.  The rain is still coming down, but you are dry because of the raincoat!  Praise will keep you upbeat when everything around you works to bring you down.  Praise is a weapon against the enemy because it makes God BIGGER than everything else, and it brings God into the situation in a tangible way. God inhabits the praises of His people, and the enemy cannot hang around where He is!

Lets talk about the two-edged sword.  You'll be so glad I'm not recommending you swing around a literal sword!  We don't fight people, we fight the devil.  So that two-edged sword is the Word of God. (Ephesians 4:17)  I have been in the habit when confronted with anxiety over one of my children, of asking for a specific word for them.  Then when I am praying for them, I actually pray, verbally, that very promise over their lives.  I have four children and I can tell you without fear of contradiction, that as I have prayed over them in this manner, God has answered.  So I have wept, complained and prayed desperately, "HELP LORD!", but I have also prayed strategically.  Can I encourage you to pick up the Word for those situations or people in your life that you have no answer for?

Now, lets talk about obedience.  I remember once thinking about spiritual warfare and the Lord spoke so clearly, "Obedience IS warfare". We can praise with all our voice, we can praise beautifully, but if we don't walk in obedience to The Lord - its powerless.  We can whip out the Word and declare it till we are blue in the face, but if we are not obeying Him, we may as well put that Bible back in the bookshelf.

Hosea 5:23-24 "Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream"

Jesus told us that if we love God and others we are fulfilling all the law. I don't know about you, but I
find God easier to love than some people.  

So bringing this to a close, we all need to sing our praises, and pray the Word ... but lets make sure we are intentionally loving the people in our world.  And let's examine our lives to see if there isn't some part of that Word that we are not obeying?

"And this is such an encouragement to prayer; because from our knees we may affect the balance of power in the heavenlies by the weight of our intercessions."  FB Meyer, "Our Daily Homily - Isaiah to Malachi"

YOU ARE NOT POWERLESS!

With love,

Lynda xx

LISTENING TO THE WHISPER

Hi everyone,

As you may be aware, I recently had a trip to England with my Dad and Nicole, my daughter. We had a wonderful time, each day packed full of beautiful sights and activities.  We were able to catch up with close friends and family along the way.

That's the good news.  The bad news is that a constant background anxiety dogged me  (irrationally) about Dad getting unwell, a car accident or some other disaster stopping us get home in peace and on time!

While we were there we hired a car, and one cause of anxiety was the fact that it was upgraded to a Mercedes which I was very nervous about.  Seriously! Since when should an upgrade cause trouble?

Its a real pity as this daily stress robbed me of a joy that was being handed to me each and every day.

While we were getting used to the car we had a bit of trouble working out the GPS. At one point both the car system and my phone were competing for attention.  The GPS was very loud, and the phone was very quiet.  We knew the phone instructions were the ones we should be listening to, but Ms. GPS on the car was very loud and very distracting!

I commented that this was a great illustration of what I was experiencing.  The still small voice of God was constantly whispering clear encouragements of God's love and good intentions regarding our trip,

Photo taken by Brian Ireland (Dad)

but my anxiety was very loud and very demanding!

Isn't that some times the way in day to day life?  Our worries and anxieties seem to demand our attention and can be hard to ignore - but listen instead to the still small, but crystal clear Voice of God and determine to follow that instead.

Here are a couple of verses that are totally true, hopefully to encourage us all to follow His lead.  Philippians 4:6-8

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
I could say so much more about that, but you can take the time to think on it. 💟
Until next time,

Lynda xx

WHO, ME???

Hi everyone,

Here comes another vulnerable post...

I once heard or read somewhere that if the only thing you hear from The Lord is what you agree with, are you really hearing Him?

Well sadly, or thankfully I had one of those moments this morning!  

I came to a confronting passage in Hosea 7:8-9  “Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned. Aliens have devoured his strength, But he does not know it; Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he does not know it.

9 

The Message version puts it like this... "Ephraim mingles with the pagans, dissipating himself. Ephraim is half-baked. Strangers suck him dry but he doesn’t even notice. His hair has turned gray—he doesn’t notice."

Yes, I know... it's really confronting, but it caught my attention and I had to ask the Lord what He was trying to say - to me.

It was challenging to me on a couple of fronts.  The first is that in a time when inclusiveness is the order of the day, and so it should be, particularly for The Church, the call to separation is challenging.  

But there is a difference between welcome and losing one's identity in the effort to be welcoming.  Apart from that, there is an element of separation that we are called to in other passages, both new and old testament.  

Speaking of identity, Ephraim means 'doubly fruitful'.  But instead of fruitful, Ephraim had become half-baked.  He had lost his identity and purpose.  Isn't this meant to be our identity as well? (John 15)

So what does that have to do with me.... Have I become half-baked, unfruitful and weak. Or am I in danger of becoming so?

The other aspect of this passage is that from the outward evidence of my life, I'm not hanging out with 'pagans' as The Message so crudely puts it.  Where could this be taking place?

These are the questions I asked.  

Ahh!  

How long is it since I checked  my daily screen time?  What am I absorbing of worldly values that is dissipating my strength and wasting my time?  Whereas in the years before mobile devises I would pick up a book along with my coffee, now I am picking up my phone.

While I am well aware of my grey hair, 😉😉 have I become unaware of how weakened I am becoming through excessive screen time?

This requires prayer and specific actions to put right.  I will share here how I prayed and what steps I would like to take to put that right.

Prayer....

"Lord, I'm called to be fruitful, yet I'm weakened by the time on my devices.  Please help me to 'cut out the eye that offends'. (Matthew 5:29) I will not be bringing my phone with me to Heaven, but I will be bringing the fruit of my choices and actions to You.  Please help me here."

Steps...

1. Pray

2. Don't have my phone with me all the time, and remove the time-wasting apps.

3. Put books and other activities in it's place (by placing those where I normally sit)  

4. Create to do lists filled with necessary, creative and fun tasks.

5. Accountability.

I have shared really honestly here, and I don't know how wise it is to do so. But if truth matters, it matters in the real stuff of life.  May it be an encouragement to prune the things that dissipate our strength and invest that energy into loving God and loving the people in our world, with intention and energy!

With love,

Lynda xx