Change your thoughts, and you change your world.
Quote by Norman Vincent Peale
I got a call from my dear friend Tonya Jane and I immediately answered out of concern. For the life our friendship we rarely talk on the phone; texting is the more dominant form of communication unless we spend hours talking and laughing while she braids my hair or we are sharing a meal after a long day of shopping.
She told me her mom had been recently hospitalized and we shared words of encouragement and caught up, making sure to talk about our kids and her grandchildren. Although she told me about the complications her mom had been having, she spoke with such optimism, such strength, such assurance! She and I both know that God’s got her mom and he didn’t deliver her from cancer to allow this current setback to stop her now. I was so proud to hear the positivity and the courage in her voice. She thanked God for her relationship with Him. Oh how she encouraged me in ways she couldn’t even imagine.
Tonya will celebrate her birthday next week and while she is unsure of what specifically she will do to celebrate her special day, I have to pause to celebrate the God in her. Truly remarkable!
Shortly after our call ended, I came in my room to feast on the Word. I started in the Book of Philemon but the spirit led me to the Book of Exodus. I started reading at the 14th chapter and kept reading chapter 15, the Song of Moses over and over. You talk about a praise break!
I guess the enemy got tired of me praising God so he tried to break my peace. Suddenly I became so distracted; my moms tv seemed to be so loud all I could hear was Tamar and Tony Braxton going back and fourth on their show “Braxton Family Values” and then William was singing, Micah was laughing, and Emmanuel was just being Emmanuel. It all became so much, so fast so I shut the door.
FAST FORWARD TO ABOUT 3 IN THE MORNING…
The sound of my mom’s feeding pump woke me up. It dawned on me I failed to place more Ensure in the bag before I dozed off to sleep. One thing led to another and I couldn’t go back to sleep to save my life. It was time for a change of scenery. So while the house was quiet I decided to take a late night drive.
Being alone and scared I drove around until I got tired of going in circles and ended up on my old stomping grounds- my moms house.
When I was younger and couldn’t sleep, I would look out the window and gaze upon the stars. I preferred sitting outside on the porch, so if it were nice outside I would do just that! Daddy would come sit with me and he would just allow me to speak my mind and after looking at the radiant stars things to felt to fall into place and make sense.
On this particular night I felt like I had gone back into time. Rico had done something to aggravate me so I kept playing “When A Women’s Fed Up” by R. Kelly. Yes I know, not the greatest song to listen to when you are a week shy of celebrating 13 years of marriage. Give me a break, I was in my feelings here!
In the big, dark sky stood this one luminous, glistening, shining star! It shimmered and shined! It gave me hope! I was happy again; all the confusion and aggravation and mess that had brought me to this place- nothing seemed to matter. This one star in the big, dark sky spoke to my soul like when I read the Song of Moses.
I can’t really describe or put into words how the two relate but they just do!
Exodus 15:18 says, “The Lord shall reign forever and ever.”
A MOMENT OF TRUTH AND SELF REFLECTION
The hardest thing for me to do for many years is be patient. One of the hardest obstacles I’ve overcome is releasing control- not realizing I never was in control in the first place-God was, God is, and He will be forever!
“The Lord shall reign forever and ever.”
So most recently I’ve witnessed and gained first hand knowledge of God’s timing. In a nutshell it’s all about trusting God- patience, giving up control, understanding; it all had to do with me trusting God.
You see we can’t trust God just with our mouth but in our actions. We can’t run for the hills when things get tough. We can’t give up the fight when it looks like we are going to loose the battle. We can’t stop believing when our faith is tested.
Look at the children in Israel in the book of Exodus.
I had to stop and think as I looked upon that star that it wasn’t just “by chance” that I found myself gazing upon that radiant star. It wasn’t by chance that I had become so bogged down in thoughts I couldn’t focus. God leads us into certain situations for a reason- it’s not by chance or coincidence.
Wherever God leads, we must follow.
If you don’t get anything out of today’s message remember Exodus 15:18, “The Lord shall reign forever and ever.”
There is nothing we face, have faced, or will face that God does not know about. God is in control. God is still on the throne. God Reigns! We may not always understand the events in our lives, we may not understand all the ways of this world but there is one thing we do know- God is still God!
Going on to chapter 16 in the Book of Exodus, it talks about the Bread from Heaven.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. Exodus 16:4
The devil tried me as I’m sure he has or will try you. We’ve got to hold fast to God and His promises and have faith in God and not our circumstances. The Bible says obedience brings blessings. God is the supplier of all of our needs
He knows what we need before we even know it. He knows what we can and cannot handle. He knows us because He created us. We are His Beloved Children.
God knew I needed to have a little talk with Him, tell Him all about my troubles, and He answered. He gave me strength to keep on pushing one more day. He gave me the strength to endure and to keep fighting the good fight of faith. Thank you Lord!
I’m grateful this morning that God knows my needs. He knows your needs. I’m glad this morning that God has all power to supply everything we stand in need of. Don’t you know God is at work at this very moment. All we have to do is trust Him. All we have to do is give Him our heart. God showed me the beautiful, radiant star in the big, dark sky and He led me home safely. Oh what a joy it is to be kept and protected by my Heavenly Father.
In closing, God knows I’ve had a heavy heart and He knows all about what I’m going through and I just have to thank Him right now for allowing me to leave it at His feet. I thank God for allowing me to make peace in my circumstances and to praise Him in advance. I’m walking by faith and not by sight. So devil you can’t have my family, you can’t take my mom, you won’t have my children, you can’t steal my joy, you can’t take my marriage, my health, my strength, my finances, my peace, nor my mind. You won’t make a fool of Whitnee’. I was thirsty and God quenched my thirst. Thank you Father, thank you Lord.
Good read, amen!!
To God be the glory!
When I feel that things are getting out of control. I take a deep breathe and keep going because in actuality, things are out of your control. Everything is in God’s Hands and in His Timing to His Will. So when things don’t go as planned or when my children act up and I am told what are you going to do with her(referring to Madison) She is so bad. I don’t answer because in my mind you just asked me a rhetorical question. Then I get looked at crazy. Or when EJ has done something that he wasn’t suppose to do and it has cost me finances that I don’t have….I just take a deep breathe again and focus on the positive and reminisce on some memories….. I care to share this memory, When I was a little girl, I want to say about 8 or 9, I attended this holiness church called Shining Light. We would be in church from 11 until… and that until is when the “spirit” stopped moving. The preacher was a fire(in a good way) breathing preacher when he spoke the Word. I mean me being a little girl, the way he spoke about the man named Jesus and the way people reacted- Standing up with their hands lifted up in the air crying and screaming. I mean come on through my eyes I am thinking what in the world is going on in here. And then some people would be jumping up and down saying hallelujah, Thank you Jesus…..And don’t let the fire breathing preacher say it’s alter call. Through my innocent eyes I saw people get in to go in this long line to have a cross marked on their heads with olive oil and while the preacher what looks like either punches them in the face while they fall out and the women ushers come running to put white towels on them(which I later learned that was to cover the ladies up if their dress was hiked up) from passing out. Well can you imagine my turn when I was made by my Grandma to go up to the prayer line. I was scared beyond belief and especially when I disobeyed my Grandma and didn’t go up. The Preacher started coming to the children’s choir, well a little ole me took off running to the bathroom when I seen him coming and touching the kids and they were passing out on the floor. And that particular day I believe we sung God is in Control by James Hall. We had the whole church rocking I remember. Well that day, at the particular time, I didn’t know who was in control and I was high tailing it out there. I believe when I got home, I got popped by a wet towel. Believe it or not, I was relieved I got the wet towel and not the Preacher’s touch(LOL). I shared this memory to say that even in our toughest times, God is still in us and shows us that he is still in control. I believe I was pregnant with EJ when I had this memory pop back in my head and I was feeling down and I was tired along with some other issues Whitnee that you about. And when it did, I was laughing my head off. At the time, it was just me and Daisy(my mini daschaund). And if she could talk, I know she would have been like that fool is crazy. But at the end of the day God is in control!
I could see Mrs Hun now, God rest her soul, hitting you with a wet towel. Girl I’m going to have to write a story entitled the “fire breathing preacher.” I tell you I love going down memory lane with you- gives me time to thank God one more time for how far He has brought us.