In our Father's House!
"We give You thanks"
May we be truly grateful
For the bounty You have given us.
We thank you for the earth and rain,
The good harvest and the wholesome grain
That went into our daily bread
And kept the stock that kept us fed.
Thank you for the hands that cooked and baked,
And for the water that our thirst slaked.
Please accept our thanks as we honour You
For Your goodness in giving us this food.
© Glenys Robyn Hicks
He delights when we call on Him
Jesus was born 100% human and 100% God. He was a Man acquainted with sorrow and He wept. He comforts us and keeps our tears in a bottle.
Many times we are told to come to Him- in good times and in bad, He will not turn us away.
Wanting a deeply personal relationship with us, He says of Himself that He is as a father and as a shepherd. He comforts us as a mother and promises to carry us through our trials. When we come to Him, He gives us not only comfort, but peace- the kind of peace that is beyond human understanding.
Don't ever be too much in pain, too sad or too ashamed to approach God for help, encouragement or comfort. He delights in being there for us and delights when we call on Him.
Closer than ever!
- I believe we should be in prayer for those people suffering under authorities such as the Taliban and for all those Christians who are in danger.
- We need to intercede for the Ukrainians who are being invaded as we speak.
- We should be praying for those who are still unsaved.
- Keeping the faith can be difficult for some, especially as the world gets darker. We need to pray for ourselves too.
- We should bring our thoughts and minds under the control of the Holy Spirit by focussing on good things that are still here
- We must remember that Christ is in control, no matter how bad a situation becomes.
- We must bring everything we see, hear and read in to the light of the Word and we must remember that all these things, though disturbing, are temporary.
- We must maintain an attitude of gratitude for all things in our life and dwell on God's goodness.
- We simply must be a person of worship and praise.
- We must be in the Word.
- We must remember that Jesus has promised to take us Home before the Great Tribulation. Revelation 3:10 see below
Crying happy tears!
Let Him hear your voice!
She's still the same girl
So it's my 71st birthday in a few days and my best friend Ann came to visit me. It was a visit of mutual tears and laughter and reminiscing about days of the past.
We have been friends since we were 11 years old and as we sipped our tea and coffee we joked about how 61 years of friendship has outlasted most marriages these days...
A new grandmother, Ann lamented how she hates being old and wonders if she will even live to see her grandbaby turn 21... and we cried.
We cried that I don't think I will be here when her next grandbaby is born and that the shawl I am making for her daughter might not get to her if I don't finish it soon. I want her to have one for her other daughter's future baby like the first one has..
We laughed about things that happened at school, and cried about trials we both had during our 71 years of life. And we nearly choked on our coffees laughing about the agonies of aging but how the alternative didn't look too promising either!
Our emotions were rollercoasting madly, but then there was a lot of reminiscing and the viscitudes of life were a tad sporadic over 61 years of reliving those days...
We talked about God's answers to particular prayers we had petitioned God for in our families and we recommitted those people to Him...And we thanked God for our friendship.
In parting, we realised how blessed we are to have a true close friend and we marvelled that 5 hours had passed in the visit that went quickly, and we exclaimed that we had had a very fun afternoon.
As I saw Ann off and she smiled and waved as she drove away, I had a flash back of the young girl I used to study with. A few changes in appearance for sure, but she's till the same dear girl I grew up with...
© Glenys Robyn Hicks
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.- Proverbs 18:24
God's love is a healing balm
It would behove us all to remember to be Christ-like to these suffering Children of God and comfort them, pray for them and encourage them. Those of us who suffer like this are prime candidates for panic attacks and meltdowns. We should do unto others as we would have them do unto us: pray for them, help them back on their feet and never judge them. Anxiety and panic are no respecter of people: but by the Grace of God, go I.
Mercy. Grace. Compassion. Love. Prayer. All are healing balms for the poor one having a meltdown. We need to tell them there is hope and there is healing and that nothing can separate us from God's love.
© Glenys Robyn Hicks
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
When your home is a prison
I would still sit alone
When I was working in an office about 20 years ago, we would all take our lunch together in the tea room. We ate and chatted and sometimes one particular very self opiniated woman would preside over our talks.
She was very proud of her son who had graduated as a pharmacist and who had his own pharmacy. We saw no harm in that: we would have been proud of his achievements if he was our own son. But one day, she overstepped the mark and upset quite a few women at the table. Myself included.
One of the conversations centred around drug addicts and she declared them all to be a waste of space and definitely would be better off overdosing and dying and getting it over with.
At the time I was a mother of two drug addicted sons who I love dearly and pray for daily with the gut wrenching and desperate prayers that only a mother prays- I took exception to that.
With my stomach turning ill, I picked up my sandwich and took my cup of tea out of the tea room and ate and drank it in my car. She really was too much. I wanted my sons to be delivered and live.
From that day on, I avoided eating my lunch in the tearoom, especially if she was there, but one day I was asked by my boss to make him a coffee, and one of my former lunchtime companions was there.
She asked me directly why I never ate with the women anymore and I told her the truth. I told her that so and so was so hurtful in the things she says and so prideful of her son that she had no consideration that there may be mothers there with prodigal and wayward children who were also drug addicted.
To my surprise, she shared that she too was no longer taking her lunchbreak with so and so because she too had a drug addicted son and it was just too painful to consider that he was better off overdosing.
I said that I was praying for my sons and that I live in fear that they will overdose and I cannot sit and listen to her without feeling sick to the stomach.
She agreed and said that was why she too took her lunchbreak in her car away from her as well. We both agreed that one had to be feeling strong to listen to her raving.
One who doesn't have wayward or prodigal children like so and so had, can not imagine the constant fear when the phone rings that it will be news that her child has indeed overdosed. It gnaws at a mother's heart constantly.
As a Christian, all life is precious and all drug addicts have been enticed by carnal desires and instant gratification and this is something that is very hard to break from. Even with the LORD. Such is the hold from drugs that many have succumbed to their addiction praying for deliverence. And they are saved. They are, because Jesus died for our past, present and future sin. And addiction is sin.
There is hope in Christ and today one of my sons has broken from addiction and can testify that God heard my prayers. I continue to pray for the other who battles with it even while loving the LORD.
To tell me that either of these sons or even your son or daughter who battles drug or alcohol addictions is better off dead is evil. It limits God's ability to heal and deliver us and negates His Blood, and sees only successful humans as worthy of that. None of us are worthy but are sinners saved by Grace.
Nothing has changed my mind about her and people like her: if I turned back the clock, I would still sit alone.
For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Romans 14:8
Don't feel guilty for being a woman
It's none of my business!
Thrown out like an old shoe.
Lord, I want to die!
Choose to move on
Just don't stand still and get nowhere. Your attitude will effect your next step. Your action will effect your day. Each action on a daily basis will become your life. Determine to be happy in the LORD
To a great degree, you are in charge of your ending. God has great plans for you. Choose to move on.
When your closed eyes reopen, where will they be?
We have to make that choice- either we serve God and live with Him or we choose Satan and suffer with Him forever. Make the choice to love God and live for Him.
And remember, your indecision and silence means you remain in your sin, a child of the devil. You cant be half-Christian... Make the choice to be a Christian today. The end of your life here demands a choice. Get saved today.
When your closed eyes reopen, where will they be?