PERSEVERANCE – My Word for 2018

     Perseverance, that is my word for this year, 2018. As I reflect on this word that is to be my word for this year, I look back at this crazy year.  Yes, there are a few more weeks left in the year, but most of it is gone.  

    A lot has happened this year.  I will be honest, there have been many times this year when I questioned things.  If I am honest with myself, there have been times that I have questioned God and shut down instead of persevering through the difficulties.  

    When I read back in the blog from January of this year, I was so full of hope and confidence.  As I write these words, hope and confidence are waning a bit.  Yet, I can’t lose my focus on God.  I refuse to lose focus on God.

      He must be my strength because I feel so weak.  He is holding me up right now because I feel like just falling over.  There is power in His name. 

     I think a lot of times, I know I do this, we try to be brave and stand on our own when we really need to have the support.  It is amazing that I can show a happy face to the world, but inside I am so tired.  I know that I can’t do this on my own.

     This year has taught me that we can have perseverance. I wrote these words in January of this year, “This year will be, for me to be steadfast in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”

    This year has had highs and lows.  My journey through this year is to persevere through it.  It has not always been pretty. In fact, there has been some ugly, but God is bringing beauty out of the ashes.

    The mission, that God has me on is God-sized, and it sometimes seems insurmountable.  When I try and do it on my own, it doesn’t work.  Yes, it is crazy, but, sometimes we do things on our own.  How is that working for us?

    If our focus is on God, we will persevere.  When life or circumstances knock us down, we will be able to get back up. Yes, bad things happen, but when we focus on God, and not the bad, we will persevere.

   I can’t change this last year when I shut down instead of pushing through.  When the crazy of the world got to me, and I focused on the crazy instead of God.  These things that happened whether to me or to my friends and family, I can’t change my response to it.

   Yes, I can mourn, and it is okay to mourn.  However, shutting down, and turning my focus off of God is not what I need to do.  I can’t change the past, but I can change what I do today.

   What I can do is live today, and each day, with the same perseverance and reliance.  My God does not abandon me.  He is always there for me, and He is always there for you too.

    Today, December 5, 2018, I was going through what I had written above to see if it made sense, I really wasn’t feeling the words.  The words made sense to me, but they didn’t read real.  As I read them, the parts about God being there for me, they didn’t ring true to me.  

   I was doubting the words that I wrote and kind of feeling like a phony for writing something I wasn’t feeling.  Then God communicated with me. I received this verse from a friend in an e-mail.  “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36.  I burst into happy tears.

    Here I am writing about my confidence waning and feeling like a phony for writing these words that I wasn’t truly feeling.  God knew the words that I wrote were true, and He sends His words to help me persevere through.  In the moment when I need Him, and my confidence is waning, God shows up to remind me He is STILL here.

    He never left me.  My focus was on something else.  Actually, my focus was on me, and the circumstances I was finding myself.  I lost my true focus.  God reminded me of what my focus needed to be.

   “God can do anything, you know- far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams?  He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, His Spirit deeply and gently within us.” Ephesians 3:20 (MSG)

    I am grateful that when I feel like giving up or stagnate, God shows up, and waves something in front of my face to remind me that He is still with me and never left me.  He is the EVERPRESENT reminder that with Him, I can preserve and push through.  With Him, ALL things are possible.

    In that same e-mail from my friend, the author of the article that I continued to read, Sharon Jaynes, wrote, “Sometimes it can feel that our promises are tightly shut up. That doesn’t mean that we give up. That means that we suit up, step up, and keep moving forward.” It was perfect, and it was God’s perfect timing that I needed to hear those words.

    There is POWER in the name of Jesus.  There is wonder-working power.  He continues to show me and show up.  So, I will preserve through the doubts, because my God is bigger and more powerful than any of my doubts or lack of confidence.

    That means, that I am “suiting up, and stepping up.” I ask prayers from each one of you that are reading this.  Because, the project, the mission, the will of God for me to do is God-sized.  I am very aware that it is something that I can’t do on my own.  So, that is what I am asking of you, prayers.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash 

Dear Poppa God,

Thank you for showing up today, and always being with me.  It is amazing that when I feel like I have lost the confidence and faith, You remind me that You are always with me.  Thank you.  I also need you always.  This mission, this project, this will of yours for me to do, it is Your size, God-size, and I can’t do this on my own.  You always show up. I have faith that You are always with me. With you, I can persevere.

In Jesus name, Amen

Written by Laura Maxson

Being Thankful

WOW… okay… when I wrote the first blog post for this November, I never in a million years would even fathom what would transpire just a few days later.  NEVER, in a million years could I even imagine what would happen in a matter of hours on that Thursday.  It shook me to my core.

I had a completely different blog written but changed my mind.  Here are the words that I want to share.

He will make beauty out of the ashes. Let me start there.

 It was a Thursday morning, and I had gotten a text from my mom that the hospital where they lived was evacuating because of an encroaching fire.  She went on to say that she and dad were going to start packing up some things because the sky was getting darker and darker.

 I was at work, but let me tell you, Thursday, November 8, 2018, not a lot of work got done by most of us that had family and friends in Paradise, California.  There were tears, and disbelief as we were trying to find out as much information during the frenzy about those people that we knew lived in Paradise.

 My co-workers were calling their family and friends to see if they were heading out of Paradise, and to safety.  I keep looking at my phone to see texts of where my family was. Soon, my folks were heading out of their subdivision. I didn't realize that it was just the start of a scary ordeal.

 We, in the office, were staring at our cell phones and computers to see what the news was or to hear news from our friends and family to confirm.   I got to work at 8am, and at 10:30am, my mom called me on the phone.  There was fire on both sides of the road where they were trying to get out.

 There was a desperation that I had never heard from my mom.  This terror in her voice through the tears hit me to the inner part of my heart. As her daughter, I wished I could have gotten in my car, and gone to get her as she tells of the harrowing drive down a road that was literally hell on earth.

 All I could do was say a prayer that God would protect her.  I keep saying that she was going to be alright.  Yet, all I wanted to do was reach through the phone and be with her.

 They made it down to safety, they were lucky.  We then awaited word on my aunt and uncle who also live in Paradise. They were stuck in the upper part of Paradise.  With the traffic at a standstill, they were told to abandon their cars, and hunker down on a concrete parking lot near a concrete building.

 The cell towers were either burned or so many people were using them that they were jammed, and there was a short amount of time we had not heard from them.  When we finally heard from them, they were safe.  It took a while, but they finally were able to get down the hill.

 On Friday, November 9, 2018, around 10:00pm, my folks received photo confirmation that a house that was their home for fourteen years was destroyed by the fire.  It is completely gone.  Furniture, pictures, dishes, heirlooms, and books, gone in a wind-whipped fire.

 If I close my eyes, I see Christmas morning with us around the Christmas Tree in the living room with all the windows or Thanksgiving dinner around a dining table that was my grandmother's or a cool evening out on the deck watching the sunset.  We would take family pictures in the woods behind the house. 

We would sit in the family room on winter days with the fireplace going and watching a movie, or a ball game. It was a home. My folks had made it a home for all of us. The location was at the end of the street. The quiet place that was my refuge from the crazy world.

The place is gone, but my family is still here. Those memories will always be with us, and the great this is, we get the opportunity to make new memories.   There will be laughter, tears, and prayers.  There will be joy and fun along with more heartaches. It is life.

It is because of the people in our lives that we have those moments.  The memories are not because of a piece of furniture or an article of clothing.  The memories are the people that were present during those special moments.  We will make plenty more of those.

 I hope that each of you takes an extra moment and be thankful for the people in your life.  As you go through one day, and then a next day, I hope that you realize how extremely lucky you are to have people in your life that love you, and that you love.  Family can be those people that you are blood-related to, but it can also be the people that you bring into your life.

 It isn't about the buildings, and the things, it is about the people in our lives.  Love each other.  Realize that, on this earth, we have one life.  It is the people in our lives that make us better. Live your life and Love.

 I am not talking about just the romantic love, I am talking about loving your family, and friends, and your neighbor.  This love that casts out all fear.  Love can rebuild.

On this planet, I only have one life, and I don't want to spend another moment worrying about the things I don't have or complaining about what someone did or said.  I want to spend my life, here on earth getting every moment out of it.

 Dear Jesus,

 You loved us so much that you gave us family and bring people into our lives.  I pray that we are always thankful for the people in our lives.  I pray that we are Thankful for your amazing love that taught us how to love.

 In Jesus Name Amen

Written by Laura Maxson

Photograph by Nancy Hamilton. Thank you, Nancy, for this priceless gift.

November: Giving Thanks for…God's Perfect Love

"The Faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh EACH morning." Lamentations 3:22-23

The Lord's faithful love for me and you never ends.  His mercies towards us, never cease.  Great is His faithfulness towards us; His mercies begin afresh each morning for us.
Yes, this was meant as a repeat.  I want all of us, and that includes myself to get the picture of God's Perfect Love for each one of us.  The love that never dries up or gets old.  It is afresh every morning.

Afresh definition -  in a new or different way.

His faithfulness and love are new every day for us.  Wow, this is so cool.  It is always there.  It will never go away.  I can rely on that be a TRUTH.
In the NIV, it states "because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed.  Do we get what that means?

Consume – completely destroyed, absorb all of the attention and energy.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Because of God's love, we are not completely destroyed when things in life are not going as planned, or if we get dealt a blow.  We will not be completely destroyed when the word cancer is uttered by the doctor, or our marriage falls apart, or a death, or a loss of job, or any loss.

Nothing can destroy us. I am not saying that life is going to be easy, because it isn't.  We all go through hard times, and sometimes, okay, a lot of times, those hard times seem insurmountable to us. 

I am saying that God's love and our relationship with God will sustain us and lift us up during these times.  We are not alone in our struggle.  When we accept the love of God, He will do so much more than we can imagine. 

When bad things happen, we can still stand and say, "My God is greater than whatever I am going through."  When we are knocked down, we are not out.  God lifts us up and back on our feet.

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love (God's love) drives out fear…" 1 John 4:18 (NIV)

Life is not perfect, nobodies life is.  I know that I have struggles, and I definitely have stuff that happens in my life.  Yet, I know that God's love will sustain me, and I will not be destroyed by whatever the devil throws my way.

There are Bible verses galore that tell of God's love for us.  His perfect love that drives out fear.  His love cannot be measured by our standards, human standards.  It is SO much bigger than that.

God's love sets fires in the heart of those who listen and hear Him.  God's love never ceases.  There is nothing that you or I can do to lose the love of God. We can always come to God, even if we have walked away from Him.

No one can imagine the depths of God's love for us.  There is a childhood song that most of us sang, but I wonder if we really listened to the words.

"Jesus loves me, THIS I know, for the Bible tells me so…. Yes, Jesus loves me…"

That is what I am thankful for this month, and what I want to always focus on.  God's perfect Love.

Dear Lord,
I thank you for your perfect love.  Every day it is new, and never-ending.  You love each one of us. Yes, sometimes we don't seem to see past our humanness.  Yet, you are still working in and around us, loving us. I thank you for that love.  I pray that each person reading this will know your love that drives out fear.
There are a lot of bad things happening in this world, and we don't understand it.  However, with your love, we will not be consumed by the hate in this world.
I pray that you open our eyes, so that we may see Your Perfect Love in and around us. Show us in a tangible way your love.

IN Jesus Name, Amen

Written by Laura Maxson

Power in the Name of Jesus

I hope that you are continuing to focus your prayer towards the Power in the Name of Jesus, and what that will mean for your lives.  I pray that each person will receive something different in those words.  The light that will shine on you is from the Lord because He knows where we are at in our walk with God.

            Power in the name of Jesus can be different things.  It can be the calm when the storms of life seem to overwhelm you, and you feel like you are drowning.  It can stop the devil cold in his tracks.   It also can light a fire in your heart.

            That latter is where I am right now.  I have been through all of it, but this month, it is power in the name of Jesus that is lighting a fire in my soul.  The fire is to do something that Jesus is showing me.  The fire to spread the GOOD NEWS, no the GREAT NEWS of what He has done in my life.  

Matthew West’s song “Do Something” came on the radio as I was driving to work on Friday.  “Saw a world of trouble now, though how’d we ever get so far down…”  He continues the song.  “God, why don’t you do something?” He asks.  The song continues with the answer.  “He said “I did, yeah, I created you.””

“If not us, then who?” The song continues. So, in the name of Jesus, I am walking this journey in faith.  Not sure what the steps will look like, but I am super excited about being part of Jesus mission.

            Yes, there is power in the name of Jesus.  He has also enlisted us to walk alongside him, to be his hands and feet.  I think that there are a lot of times that I go through my life so self-absorbed.   So, I turn my eyes completely on Him and dive in.

“Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” Philippians 2:9-19

            In the name of Jesus, there is fire that brings the dead soul to life.  In the name of Jesus, Peter walked on water.  In the name of Jesus, Laura can go out in faith and trust her Lord and Savior.

            There is POWER, wonder-working POWER in the name of Jesus.  He opens the eyes of the blind and the deaf to hear. In the name of Jesus, the disciples performed miracles.  In the name of Jesus, miracles happen.

            Yes, I am tired of how this world is, and I am tired of a lot of things that are going on in this world.  BUT, I refuse to let it extinguish the mission of loving each other and showing others the way to Jesus. 

            For you see, only in the name of Jesus can people change. WE can’t change people, and we shouldn’t even try.  We show them Jesus.  There is that POWER in the name of Jesus.

            I have been in the darkness, and Jesus shone brightly and tossed out the darkness.  It is scary to be in the bright light because being in Jesus' bright light has the potential to turn your normal upside down. But it is totally worth it.  For you see, I know what He has done in my life.  He created in a clean heart.  He has made me new.

            When something amazing happens to you, you want to share it with the world. That is what I want to do.  I want to tell you that there is POWER in the name of JESUS.  Try it, and see if you are not changed?

Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash

Dear Jesus,

I thank you for this opportunity to pray for those reading this blog.  I pray that in YOUR name, Jesus, I pray that each person that reads this be changed.  There is so much darkness in the world.  Help us to be the light to shine on the power that is in your name.

In YOUR name, Jesus, Amen

P.S. I want everyone reading this to know as I was editing this piece, the song “Break Every Chain” by Jesus Culture came on.  The main lyrics are “THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS.”  I can’t make this up, and I got goosebumps.  THERE is power in the name of Jesus, and it will not be quieted.

Keep praying in the name of Jesus.  There is power in His name.

Written by: Laura Maxson