Whitnee's journey with Christ

Have you ever found yourself in a vicious cycle of grief, turmoil, pain, anxiety, stress, etc.? How did you get out of the cycle?

Many people were so ready for a new year due to all the stress and losses we endured in 2020. Have those same losses and stressors followed you into the new year? Is history repeating itself and you feel doomed?

IF THIS DESCRIBES YOUR CURRENT MINDSET KEEP READING- THERE IS HOPE! THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE LONG, DARK TUNNEL.

So if God heard Jonah’s cry for help and He heard his prayers from inside of this big fish, why do we feel like God can’t hear us in the middle of our situations? It’s no secret we have all found ourselves in a rut and we cry and we pray for God to get us out. Some of us make certain decisions that yield bad consequences and some of us are just “guilty by associations” and stuff happens.

The title of today’s message is Stuck in the mud again! I found myself in a pickle at the start of this week. I was headed out and as soon as we backed out, the truck got stuck in the mud, LITERALLY! I thought all the drama, baggage, and muddy situations were left in 2020 and here we found ourselves in 2021 stuck in the mud again. I mean I clare!

I knew it had been raining a lot and the grass would still be a little damp but you would think someone is running a sprinkler in the yard and the ground was just full of mush.

As soon as I felt I was about to become overwhelmed God sent a helper, a lady out of the blue. As William sat in the drivers sit with his foot on the brakes at times; Rico, Emmanuel and I were in the back trying to push forward. This lady appeared from nowhere. She was on the phone and stopped to ask if we needed help. Rico and I looked at ourselves and both shook our heads saying “yes ma’am.” She asked how she could help and then fell right in line telling whomever she was talking to that she would call them back. Her and Rico took one side while Emmanuel and I had the other side.

After a few pushes we noticed the truck was not going anywhere so the lady suggested we try to move the truck backwards. She took charge and asked William to cut the wheel as we pushed now from the hood of the car. William couldn’t quite turn it so the lady told William to scoot over and she helped William to cut the wheel to the left. We all worked together and after about five or six gut wrenching pushes the truck started to move back.

The lady said she thought we could try and crank the car and move forward. We tried it and it worked! Once out of the muddy situation we smiled, laughed, and hugged and thanked the lady from the bottom of our hearts. She replied, “Sure we are all family, we have to help one another.” She smiled and waved and then she was gone in the wind. She walked around the front of the house into the neighborhood and for the many years my mom has lived in this neighborhood, I had never seen her before.

I was amazed at how quickly sent yet another person whom we’d never met to help us in our time of need. That is the love of our Heavenly Father.

Often times we think that God won’t deliver us from our sins because we have messed up time after time or that God is too busy dealing with “real situations” to worry about our trivial matters. THATS NOT THE CASE! I want to encourage those reading today’s message to know that we serve a God who has unlimited blessings. He forgives us over and over and over and over and over again!!! He loves us unconditionally!

A beautiful gift is the gift of salvation. That gift is not for everyone though.

In 2021 we need to evaluate ourselves and do an inventory on our relationships. Which relationships are toxic that we need to end? Which relationships are in need of some grooming? Which relationships are most important to us?

Some may say our family, our work, our neighborhood, our community, our mission work, our sorority or fraternity, some of us may be thinking of our relationship with Jesus Christ and with God. Which of these relationships could use some watering, some weeds being plugged, hedges trimmed, grass cut? Have you allowed your relationship with God to “grow cobwebs?” Have shrubs grown where you used to spend time reading the Word, praying, or praising the Lord?

If so don’t worry about it, God knows your heart and He still wants His children to repent and confess with their mouths. He still wants us to praise Him- not just in good times when He is delivering us from trouble like Jonah or out of the mud (literally and figuratively speaking), but when it is hard to see the positive, it is hard to bear the trials and the tribulations, etc. There is hope!

God will give us peace that no man can take away. He will give us the peace that surpasses all understanding. He will direct our path and guide us. He is the light, the truth, and the way! He is our Alpha and the Omega! He is the light in the midst of darkness, He reigns, He is victorious, He is omnipresent, omnipotent, He is the Lord of Lord and the King of Kings.

While some of us waited for a new year, some of us praised God for the new day. You see the Bible teaches us that God restores us and grants His brand new mercies everyday! God’s people we don’t have to wait for a new year to see the goodness of God. We don’t have to wait until God delivers us from the next situation to praise Him. We don’t have to wait until we are facing difficult times to call out to the Lord; we can call out to Him and just tell Him thank you!

Which God sent this lady to help us out of the mud, the tow truck guy the other week to pull the uhual out of the mud, and Mr Randy to help us clear some of the mess; God sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper. The same help is available to us by faith.

Finding yourself in a rut? Finding yourself going back down the path you didn’t want to take? Tap into your resources: the Holy Spirit. Put your request in and make your petitions known through prayer and supplication. Praise God continually and pray without ceasing. Allow God to bestow His blessings upon you like only He can.

In conclusion remember that God is our peace. The Lord came to preach peace to us whom are afar and to those who are near. For through Him we have access by one Spirit to the Father. Allow God to be your peace. Praise Him. Glorify His Holy name. Speak life and not death. Speak victory and not defeat. Speak healing and not sickness. Speak financial gain and not poverty. Speak security and put on your whole armor of God.

God bless you all.