He Will Wipe Away Every Tear

Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 

The thought of no more pain in particular, in this season of my life, gives me the hope to press through the pain in life. I have often been in so much pain that tears start flowing and my prayers become desperate pleas. The Lord gets me through it each time. What really got me in reading this verse this time around is the fact that he will wipe away every tear. I had a visual in my mind of Jesus sitting beside me with a tissue in hand wiping my tears away forever. What does that say about our Lord? The words love and compassion come to mind first but also tenderness and gentleness. How many times has anyone wiped away my tears? Probably not since childhood but I have no distinct memory of it. The act of wiping away tears is figuratively like they are trying to take away the pain and hurt. Jesus will literally wipe our tears away and they will be no more. Now that is hope with a big dose of LOVE!

Quote for Saturday

As best as I can discern, tears are God's way of helping us descend with the mind into the heart and there bow in perpetual adoration and worship. Richard J Foster Prayer-Finding the Heart's True Home

More to come on this... I am sick and will get back to sharing with you on this.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 174

My daughter spent most of the day yesterday sewing together a sock kitty. It was a project we bought two years ago that sat around collecting dust because I thought it needed the sewing machine for parts of it and my machine wasn’t working. She pulled the instructions out in the morning and said she understood what to do and got started on it. The only part she had trouble with was the pink nose that was to be done in an upside-down triangle like embroidery. Her nose didn’t turn out in that shape and left her in tears. She came to me to help her fix it. I had to cut out what she did and start over. There was a hole that formed so it was a challenge to incorporate that hole and embroider the nose but it came out pretty good. She was delighted with it. When she finished the whole thing she came up very excited saying how cute she was. She was beaming with her accomplishment but recognized my help with the nose. This  reminded me of how we are taught to become independent from our parents as we grow up but we also need to be taught  to depend on God. We are God’s from the beginning and as parents we have been given the task of teaching our children about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In our teaching our children to be independent from us but dependent on God we are transferring our children back into His arms. It was delightful to watch her beaming over her accomplishment as I am sure God is delighted to see us beaming over our accomplishments when we depend on Him to reach them.
Isaiah 26:4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 82

Last night we attended our Ash Wednesday church service. Admittedly, it has been the first Ash Wednesday service that I have attended since I was a Catholic kid. We sat up close which is not our norm and found it to be a different experience. In the closeness, we were able to truly see the tears in the eyes of the pastor speaking and the emotions on her face. It made the words that she was saying so much more. God makes us into more than just the dust, dirt and clay that we are. At the end of the sermon, the pastor went to a potter’s wheel and began to make a clay bowl as the rest of us came up to have the ashes marked on our foreheads as a sign of humility to Christ and to remind us that we are made new. God’s love for us is beyond our understanding it is so great but I know that his love is within me and I am to become that pitcher, vase, bowl or whatever he is making me into that will do something with that love that will glorify him and build his Kingdom.

1 John 4:9-12 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits-Challenge Day 35

I woke a couple times last night with some pain in my shoulder and my mind turned on and went on a path of thinking about joy. The Lord guided my thoughts to the time when I experienced intense overwhelming joy so much so that I had to stop thinking about it and shove it back inside of me because is was unbelievable the amount of emotion that was produced. I was driving in my car at the time which is always a great place to think and pray but can get you to drive past where you needed to go. LOL.  I was pregnant with my daughter and started thinking about the amazing gift I had received from God in not only coming to know him in my heart, being released from the fears of exposing my past sins to others but the gift of my hearts desire to have a second child. My heart just bubbled over with intense joy and I started pouring out tears. My chest was filled to capacity and it was literally overwhelming the emotion that it brought. That emotion was pure joy. Perhaps it was because of my pregnant hormonally driven state that I experienced it in such an overwhelming way. In any case, it reminds me that joy can be found in knowing and trusting Jesus Christ. I remember when I first came to believe in Christ and understood that I was forgiven in my heart. I grew up believing in my head but was missing the heart piece. When I found that, I was “hot” for Jesus. I wanted to learn all I could. That was motivated by the joy of knowing the gift I had finally connected with in my heart of being forgiven. The initial joy re-visits me often in worship when we are confessing or just singing our praises. I think of the awesome gift of Jesus and am overwhelmed with joy that I with all my sins am a recipient of such an amazing gift.

Phillipians 3:8 Even more, I consider everything to be nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. To know him is the best thing of all. (New International Reader’s Version)

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 303

Praising the Lord for my wonderful family. Despite the pain in my shoulders and all that entails, they are supportive and loving. Chronic pain is no fun and it certainly can change how you feel. I feel like at times I am the Wicked Witch of the East and at other times like a doormat saying just leave me alone. But as I doubled-over in pain yesterday as I was opening the bottom veggie drawer in the fridge, my sweet daughter came over and started rubbing my back asking if I was okay. Tears came to me at that point because it's been too much to bare and it was time to release some pent up emotion about not having my normal day-to-day ability. I don't know what the future will bring with this pain but I do know my family is awesome and my God is awesome and with their help I will get through it.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 294

Our family was watching the first show of the season for The X Factor. It's a singing competion kind of show like American Idol but with some different twists and formats. On this show the contestants have to try out in front of a stadium full of people and the four judges. One in particular really stood out from the show last evening because of all the emotion she had. Her background story was one of pain. She had been severly bullied during her middle and high school years but she found a way of healing throughy singing. Her voice and stage presence were great but it was the raw emotions that captured us all.  People were in tears and even Simon the judge known to have a heart of stone was moved. This is what is so amazing about these kinds of shows because you see the human heart and we all connect with it. We all live through pain, grief, depression and all those emotions that come up from the not so good things that occur in our lives. Thankfully many are able to find ways to express their emotions outwardly like in singing but what if you can't carry a tune or don't have a dancing bone in your body or can't paint a moving picture, taking an amazing photo or write a story that will help you get out those emotions out in a health way. There is always the way that many of us turn to in our desperate moments. We pray to God for help, or we turn our negative emotions towards Him. He wants you to call out to him in the desperate moments and in the joyful moments, when life is taken a bad turn and when life is being good to you. He is always there waiting for us to talk to him. He is the great counselor for us all, who will listen and will understand, who will give us what we need and will guide us to the healing through His love. It was amazing to watch this bullied girl end up crying with tears of joy. God wants that for all of us.

Psalm 63: 5-7 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 23

It's times like these when I am in a lot of pain that my praying comes from the words of songs. The song that is playing over and over in my mind now is by Jeremy Camp. I think it's called "There Will Be a Day" but I will have to check on that. The words go like this: "there will be a day, with no more tears, no more pain and no more fears... The pain in my shoulder was the worst ever last night to the point of having a beer to take the pain away for a while. I don't drink much so that says a lot. 800mg of IB profin didn't do anything. I am staying home from work today just to let my shoulder have total and complete rest and will be icing off and on all day hoping to calm down the swelling. I got an appointment set up with Orthopedic doctor for January 3rd. It's not soon enough but in the end I am probably going to need surgery. So, I am off now to go ice it... I am thankful for my job but today I need a day of rest.
Jer 6:16 Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 16

Have you ever wished for a do-over? Last night was one of those times for me. To make a long story short, I had to pick up my daughter from a Girl Scout meeting because my hubbie was busy with our new spa delivery, a very joyful thing! But. I drove into the fire station drive way and found it was not plowed so I quickly turned and tried to make my way back out and up but unfortunately got stuck. So, I went inside and told the father who is a co-leader for the troop and he was like no problem, I can give you a push. Unfortunately, his idea of a push turned out to be bringing his truck up against the back side of my car. You can already see where this is going, right? I was unfortunately brain dead at the time and just wanting to get home for the joyous celebration of our new spa. Let's just say it could have been worse. I told myself that all the way home after the truck did it's damage and the father figured I should try backing up and going sideways out which, of course, worked. I made even more of a mess of it by putting up my defensive wall thinking what I was doing was being calm about it so I could go home and tell my hubbie what happened. It did not go well. He got mad. I felt blamed. I got mad and stormed off which is my MO and always has been. So, we spent the rest of the evening in angry silence and the eruption occured after I got in bed and broke the silence with a thank you for all you did for the spa stuff today. He was mad but he was more mad at me for storming off and not talking about it. So, what do I find to praise in all this mess. In all the yelling and tears, I prayed for God to help me and I finally just sobbed, "I'm sorry". It really was something so simple. So, in looking back, I wish I could do it all over again and that I would have just picked up my cell and called my hubbie before doing anything but most importantly I wish that I had called on God at that point before the mess rather than in desperation after the mess. So, despite all the bad, I am praising God for helping me learn from it. I am thankful to God for a husband who can forgive me.
Psalm 73:24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.