This is why you can stand tall in it—even when it doesn’t seem good or fair, or like it’s aligned to My Kingdom ways.

 As long as you stay in Me, you will be living in My Kingdom ways.

In this place the enemy has nothing in you. In this place you will not entertain the kind of frustration that leads to being disheartened

~ Believe My Word.
~ Declare My Word.
~ Meditate on the Eternal Goodness and Truth of My Word.

Thank You that you only have good for me.
…and You will lead me and guide for Your name’s sake.
Thank You that Your goodness and mercy follow me.
Today.

…I have something for you beyond what you can see or understand.
Beyond what you would even know to ask for.
….You didn’t know there was something I wanted to do in you
that you couldn’t have stepped into any other way.

Oh My sweet, sweet love. 
I know.
I know you don’t understand…
Oh, My sweet one, let Me love you, comfort you, and hold you.
I AM.

Part of this difficult time is building:

• authority in you

• true trust in Me

• and, a sense of sincere compassion for others

Love always only leads to goodness, strength, and mercy poured out.

You overcome when choose to believe and stand in My promises—in the midst of your pain
and difficulties…
Come, lean into Me and I will show you how to live
above your circumstances.

And, there’s something powerful about choosing to celebrate—even if your situation is not totally resolved.

• Celebration shifts things upward.

• Celebration will infuse you with life.

• Celebration is the way of My Kingdom.

As you follow Me, I will work all things after the counsel of My will. 
Believe this, My love.
It is true!
And, someday you will see the beauty of this time.

Regardless of what it is—a health issue, again;
                                      —another unexpected bill;
                                      —the pattern of things not working out;
                                      —people overlooking, devaluing, or misunderstanding you;
                                      —that deferred dream…

When that familiar “thorn in your flesh” comes up, again, what will you do with it?

You have a choice.

LORD, since You are our Savior, Healer and Deliverer, why don’t we get more immediate answers when we pray according to Your Word? 

My one, remember that I Am Love, so everything that I do is in the context of this powerful truth. 

When people ask Me for something...

“Dr. Oh’s office called and he wants to see me,” Roger said to me as I walked into the kitchen. My heart felt like it twisted into a knot and was held by a vice for a minute. Dread is a heavy thing, I noted. I went into the other room and began to pray in the Spirit. My mind was swirling but I knew I needed to find my anchor. I needed the truth of my God.

There’s more… there has to be.

I’ve committed to follow the LORD. He is my hope. He is my portion. He is everything, and yet… my heart longs for things not yet realized.

How can this be?

“Have mercy on me, LORD,
Son of David, I have been cruelly oppressed, afflicted long,
and have tried everything I know to be free.”

Desire arises… again. I thought I had mastered that longing in my heart. I thought I had submitted and surrendered it to the LORD. And I did, but there’s something about being human that periodically draws me back to revisit the desires of my heart that have not yet been realized.

There are many “new things” that happen in each of our lives.  New can be wonderful and exciting but there is an aspect of transitioning from the “old” to the “new” that, until recently, I was not aware of. 

 I will give you a context for my new thing, then share my “aha” which initially surprised me, and threw me for a loop. 

I got a new knee, a total knee replacement.

I am not at the mercy of my circumstances...
                                                             or at least I don’t have to be.

Yes. We all have circumstances. We all have situations and events that happen to us, that we do not prefer. That we did not overtly choose. What can we do when we find ourselves in the middle of something very difficult?

Difficult times come in life. What do we do with them? How do we access God’s hope and perspective as He “causes all things to work out for good” in our lives? What do we do when persevering seems unbearable and like a dead end?