The story you are about
to read isn’t us, but someone else.
Well, that’s what my husband wanted me to tell you, but as you know,
that isn’t how I roll here.
I’ve been in a
state of unrest and haven’t been able to shake it. I did something that I’ve never done before
in my life … I googled the news! Gasp!
Why I did that I
haven’t a clue, but it seemed that all week long the same sort of “news” has
been coming into my life. Frankly I
think I was trying to avoid the obvious on what I was supposed to share this
week. Who wants to talk about times of
struggle when you feel “unfavored” by God or man?
Let me take you
back to where this all started, last Saturday (10/3/15).
Welcome new friends this week from:
See if your city/state/country made the list.
New on DFB – Karachi,
Sindh, Pakistan; Cairo, Egypt; Lyngdal, Vest-Agder, Norway; Ahmedabad, Gujarat,
India; Davao City, Philippines; Edmonton, AB, Canada; Portugal; Denmark; Vietnam; Warri, Delta State, Nigeria; Durban, KwaZulu-Natak, South Africa.
USA – Port Arthur, TX; Kennedy, NY;
Raleigh, NC; Morgantown, WV; New Britain, CT; Erie, PA; Palm Harbor, FL.
Thank you for your continued support and sharing Believing
Our Belief on Daily Favor. (DFB -
Daily Favor Blog) Living
my life before God and man, by sharing experiences as I walk out my faith.
You are welcome to leave comments or prayer requests below. All are private. I would love to hear from
you and how Daily Favor has worked in your life. Contact me by leaving a message in the box at
the bottom of this week’s post.
Don't miss
out on this week's challenge (below).
Not So Hot Topic
We set our alarms for 6 A.M. on Saturday; that was
probably our first mistake. The day was
filled with things we needed to do, so taking a quick trip to the store early
would clear the rest of the day for the activities. Now that I look back on it, maybe it was an
underlying course of events set in motion by my husband so he wouldn’t have to
clean out the shed! Nah …
It was chilly that morning so we decided to get something
warm to eat and a cup of hot decaf coffee to go. The “fast” food restaurant delivered our
coffee fifteen minutes later. Did I mention I wanted hot coffee? They obviously
didn’t get that message since it was anything but hot when we finally got it.
My husband returned to the counter and asked if he could
get a hot cup. Next came the unveiling
of his sausage sandwich, only to reveal it was sausageless. (I know it’s not a word, but it fits.) Round two – back to the counter. I won’t even go into the rest of what
happened; moving on to our next destination.
Back to the Future
I should take a step back to tell you that we had already
gone grocery shopping on Friday, yep that’s right … so we wouldn’t have to go
on Saturday. We were making a second
visit to take back the packaged “fresh” spinach that was bad, and to get a
phone number from the electronics department to resolve a problem. It was less than twelve hours since we were
at the store.
My husband returned the smelly spinach to customer
service. He said I don’t even know where it is, but I do. I just choose to not
go in there. He’s better at staring
people down than I am. Just kidding!
 |
| Caught with no make-up! Sorry, I take a terrible selfie. See any lines? Don't tell me if you do! |
Okay, I should be honest since this blog is about what
actually happens in my life. After he
finished at the returns counter hubby caught me in the cosmetic department
looking for a facial cream to reduce wrinkles.
I keep asking him if he sees any, but he says I don’t need it because I
don’t have any. Hmm … I’d ask you but
your answer may be different than his!
After about twenty minutes I decided on a sale item
(probably not a good idea either) that claims to reduce the “appearance” of
fine lines. I was happy with that. Tackle them before they arrive!
What do you want me to do? “Yes”
Leaving that department we went to the electronic section
to see if we could get a phone number for the Straight Talk company my husband
buys his contract from each month. He
had bought a card the night before and it didn’t give him the minutes when it
was activated, so he needed to contact them about the error.
While on the phone he lost service on his phone and had
to use mine. I decided to look
around and wait for him thinking it wouldn’t be long. Leaning over my cart I reached in my pocket
to put on some hand cream. When I
squeezed the tube it shot out all over my coat, past the cart and onto the
floor. All I could do was laugh and then
I glanced over to hubby.
Boy was he in a fit.
With every question he asked, the “helps line” answered, “Yes.” He was
getting nowhere with them. Not only was he still having trouble, the company
told him to turn off his phone until they got things squared away that
day. During the call my battery ran out
and now neither was working. It wasn’t
until late in the day that his phone worked, but the problem wasn’t resolved.
Our items had been scanned, bagged, in the cart and it
was time to pay the bill. Sliding the
debit card we saw on the screen, “Card
denied, use another form of payment.” No matter how many times my husband
and the clerk tried to get it to work, it wouldn’t. I stood there guarding our cart while my
husband went to the bank in the store and took out the money before returning to
pay the bill.
Return to Sender
Making our way to the last store for the “sale” on
specific items, at the register we discovered that it wasn’t for the products
that I put back in the other store the night before, because as I confidently said
to my husband, “I can get it cheaper.”
Now we would have to make trip three back to the previous store!
The cream cheese that was on sale in the flyer turned out
to have an expiration date July 2015 on the bottom of the container, and it was
still on the shelves. I was okay with
not buying into that sale, if you know what I mean. To make sure no one else would buy the cream
cheese, I took all the expired ones to the cashier. I’m not so sure they didn’t end up back on
the shelf instead of returning them to the wholesaler.
During my time in the store I had to use the rest room.
You already know what happened don’t you? The potty drain was clogged. As the tank water was rising I pleaded, “Please Lord, don’t let it run over.”
Thankfully there was a plunger in there
(something I can’t remember ever seeing in a store restroom). Another first for me in a public facility!
My hubby didn’t think I should share that part, but I
remarked, “Except for Jesus and my Dad of
course, this is something that happens to Christians and it’s not a sin to talk
about it ... just maybe a bit uncouth.”
The Fertilizer is Back
After dinner my husband put together an “easy to assemble”
12” wide x 8” deep media storage tower. It didn’t match anything, but we
believed God’s favor was on us when we only paid $11.00 for it. He couldn’t buy the wood to make one at that
price. Upon completion we discovered the
item didn’t exactly meet the need we had hoped for, even after careful
measuring it was a bit small.
So that’s how the events started after posting last
Friday’s “Fertilizer in Faith” topic, and it sort of went that way for most of
the week. No they’re not really awful
things, but a constant struggle over dumb stuff that happens to practically
everyone at some point in their life.
Even that cream has my eye twitching for five days
now. Don’t tell hubby, but he was probably
right when it came to buying that stuff. He “googled” why my eye was doing a
dancing gig, only to find out it could also be caused by lack of sleep or
stress. Do you think ten hours a week
isn’t enough sleep? Maybe I should work
on that … once I get a sitter to monitor hubby at night.
Laughter Meds
For the most part I’m pretty even tempered when it comes
to my dealing with things, and I remain positive or joyful. However, this week at times I felt like
crying from frustration seeing my husband having difficulties, reading the
tragic things on the web didn’t help, hearing about so many dying made me sad,
and finding more health problems with hubby had me near the weakest emotional
point I’ve experienced in some time.
Trying to work through the “fertilizer” was a work of
faith and definitely favor from the Lord.
Meeting up with some friends who had a problem was
probably not what the doctor would have ordered, but it was the grace of God
that led us to this outing together. Our
friends had encountered a serious problem that they hoped my husband could help
them with if he could.
Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, and is actually
an expression of humility. The Lord expects us to call on one another for help
and to give godly counsel when we can.
Those who do not join together in like faith with others in the Body of
Christ will not receive the favor of God, because they are leaving out the main
member – Christ. He is the one who has
bestowed gifts throughout His church, and we are to be partakers of what God
has made available to us.
“Be merciful
to me, O God, be merciful to me!
For my soul
trusts in You;
And in the
shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these
calamities have passed by.” (Psalm 57:1 NKJV)
In the middle of the conversation a spirit of laughter
came over me for the remainder of our time together, and all I could do was
burst into laughing whenever my friend looked at me. I wasn’t being disrespectful, but God had
allowed me to see joy in something satan was trying to turn into devastating.
A few hours later we met up with them again to hear the report
from the doctor for my friend (this wasn’t the situation they presented when we
met earlier). When she shared what the
doctor said was wrong with her we laughed even harder. We were not moved but chose to believe. By faith and through prayer we already knew
it would be a good report, because we believed God would be faithful to His
word.
“He only is my
rock and my salvation; He is my defense;
I shall not be
greatly moved.” (Psalm 62:2 NKJV)
The spirit of joy remained on us all and the next day my
friend called to report the situation was totally resolved! Turning to the Lord for help in a time of
weakness allowed God to work on the problems for each couple, and showed Him to
be strong.
“And He
(Jesus) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for My strength is made
perfect in weakness.”
Therefore most
gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the
Our weakness is a
platform for God’s Strength – Priscilla Shirer
In Weakness We See Compassion
Over and over I asked the Lord what He wanted me to
share, and I suppose that’s why I went on the web hoping to find a clue to what
God was revealing to me. It was in a
post I read by a friend named Danny that brought some closure to my search.
 |
| Read Danny's post. |
The things that were happening in my life weren’t life altering
really, but more along the line of attitude alerts and awakenings to the grace
of God that is on our lives daily.
Danny is an Asian American, and within that culture there
are customs or lifestyles that are maintained from generation to generation. At
times some of these can be challenging and bring us to feeling weak, especially
as a believer.
I love how open he is
when Danny shares that “he doesn’t always have it all together.” In other words, stuff happens, even to
Christians.
With permission I share an excerpt from his post:
“The last month has been incredibly challenging to say the
least. One thing I have noticed particularly in Asian American culture (at
least in my family) is that "getting help" is taboo. If we
ask for help, it means that we are weak and that we are bad. Worse yet, if
you're an Asian American Christian, to struggle means that you don't have
God's favor, and that's really bad.
When we're weak, it shows everyone else in our tribe that
we are incompetent or unworthy. As a result, we try to hide so that we
don't look shameful or unworthy; but what if we began to
actually admit our weaknesses. What if instead of pretending that we
need to have it all together to hide our weaknesses, we celebrated
weakness as a reality of life … and that when good things happened to us, it is
a result of God's grace, not our own efforts.”
My friend goes on to share that for us to think any
strength, victory, success or fortune are a result of our efforts is exhausting
and really a lie the devil would like us to believe. You see, if we actually think these things
can be achieved on our own, it would mean we don’t believe the message of the
cross. Without believing in Jesus
Christ, the grace and favor of God cannot be activated in the life of a believer,
therefore the weak only become weaker.
When we choose to believe our Lord, we witness the
compassion He has for us through the favor blessing of grace and mercy. It is then we receive the benefits of the
cross of Jesus.
“Remember my
affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul still
remembers and sinks within me.
This I recall
to my mind, therefore I have hope.
Through the
LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
because His compassions fail not.” (Lamentations
3:19-22 NKJV)
Weakness Made Strong
When I was with my friend it was during a time of
weakness when things weren’t falling into place. She had no idea of what we were experiencing.
That morning I prayed for the Lord to guide our conversation, grant me His
favor, wisdom and understanding so that I could bless my friend(s). Knowing
that the Lord is my strength and shield I entered into fellowship with
believers. God met us there overturning the table on the devil.
A
s Danny pointed out, the scriptures remind us in the times
of weakness that is where God can be found strong, not only to us, but to
unbelievers. We will see the favor of
God through His grace and mercy when we admit, “Lord, I’m physically and emotionally exhausted. I need you to intervene.”
s Danny pointed out, the scriptures remind us in the times
of weakness that is where God can be found strong, not only to us, but to
unbelievers. We will see the favor of
God through His grace and mercy when we admit, “Lord, I’m physically and emotionally exhausted. I need you to intervene.”
Let us come to the understanding that weakness isn’t a
sign of failure, but knowledge of the need for Christ and a lesson in humility. When we truly believe God’s Word others will
see what the Lord has done through us.
My situation isn’t like Danny’s, those in other lands or
even yours. The things I shared may seem
trivial, but I assure you there are other circumstances we are trusting in God
for that are quite serious. In all
situations I need my Savior, His grace, mercy, favor and unfailing love.
“Therefore I
take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in
distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak,
then I am
strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NKJV)
It is during all those times that in my weakness God is
made strong and where I see what the Lord has done in me. When I become a vessel He can use amazing
things happen in my life that allow God to be glorified.
I see how He has turned sadness into gladness, mourning
into joy, hardship into fellowship and messes into messages. Through it all my husband and I found renewed
strength and have not fainted (we’re still working on the running part).
“But those who
wait on the LORD shall renew their strength;
They shall
mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run
and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
(Isaiah 40:31
NKJV)
This Week’s Challenge:
When You Became Strong
It’s not easy admitting that we have weaknesses to
others, but saying it to the Lord is different.
Sometimes we think that if we
confess we need someone or something it means we don’t have a handle on things
and are weak people.
Another thing we have to understand is that just because
things aren’t peachy in our lives doesn’t mean God’s favor has left us. On the
contrary, it may be those very hardships that God is using to extend His
blessings and favor on us in ways we wouldn’t have ordinarily noticed.
Although it may be difficult, God wants us to come to the
knowledge that we do need Him. He also
wants us to recognize that going to the Lord for help acknowledges that we know
He is the only one that can give us the solution we need for every situation.
God doesn’t scold us or think bad thoughts of those who
seek Him. As a matter of fact, He
welcomes it and loves to shower His children with loving kindness. (See James 1)
Our challenge this week is to think of the times when we
were at our lowest and how God worked His power through the situation. When you were weak, how did God reveal His
strength to you?
“For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My (God’s)
ways higher
than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
(Isaiah 55:9
NKJV)
What did you find out about yourself during that time of
weakness? I’d like you to share some of those times with someone and me if you
feel led (as I have confided in you).
As we choose to believe in the Bible as God’s truth, may
our confessions always be …
Let the weak say: “I am strong.”
Let the poor say: “I am rich.”
Let the blind say: “I can see.”
It’s what the Lord has done in me.
Until next
time, may God favor you with His strength.
“Believe I will take you from weak to strong.”
Jesus Christ
Note:
The words satan or devil are not capitalized deliberately, because we give him
no place in our lives.
Disclaimer:
Article information is not meant to be used as treatment for mental or physical
issues, but geared toward spiritual awareness.
What’s New This
Week: Click on book or link.
Embracing
the True Source of Strength
By
Dan Schaeffer
Maybe you don’t know the Living God that I
know, but would like to have this kind of favor in your life also. Click on the above tab “Tell Me” for more
information on becoming a child of the Savior.
Content and Image Copyright from Favored1. Do not copy.
Scripture
reference was taken from the New King James Bible Version provided by Gateway BibleImage credit: Google Images or Dreamstime Creative Common License if not specified.
Image: Action News Proverbs 17:22 2 Corinth. 12: 9 &10
Note: What the Lord Has Done In Me
by Reuben Morgan 1998 Hillsong Publication/ Integrity Hosanna Music.
*Special thanks to Danny Kimm for sharing his walk with Christ.
Disclaimer Notes: Results may vary due to lack of belief.
