Tag Archives: Heavenly Father

Archived, Marie

Letting Go

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Letting go is one of the most difficult things ever. You know I’m telling the truth here! It doesn’t matter what “it” is, it is hard to let go.

Letting go means you place 100% trust in whomever you are letting things go to. It means that you have confidence in that person to handle things better than you would handle them yourself.

You relinquish all control and you step away, trusting.

Letting go signifies great faith.

We have so much to let go of don’t we? I’ll list just a few that quickly come to mind:

  • Emotional baggage from the past
  • Fear of failure for the future
  • Fear of success
  • Choices we’ve made and the outcome that is sure to follow
  • Our children and their choices
  • Our health, appearance and physical features
  • Our finances, or lack thereof
  • Our dreams, desires and opportunities that await us
  • Our fear of the unknown – the what if’s, why’s and what was I thinking
  • Our yesterday, so we may enjoy today, while looking towards tomorrow

Many think that letting go is a sign of weakness, but in all actuality, it displays great strength and faith.

I want that kind of faith.

I want to easily let go and let God.

As a Christian we are “letting go” of those things to the Lord. Our Savior! Our heavenly Father! The Kind of Kings, Lord of Lords and name like no other.

We aren’t just letting go to some other person that just halfheartedly cares about us – NO, we are letting go to the ONE who gave HIS Son for us as a sacrifice. We are letting go to the ONE that cares for our desires, hopes and dreams like no other. We are letting go to the one who created us and then planned that everything would work out for us as He planned. We are letting go to the ONE who overcame death, hell and has endured anything we could ever endure.

I pray that you’ll confidently let go of whatever it is that weighs you down, knowing that the One you are trusting your eternity to is the ONE you are letting go of your problems, hopes, dreams and fears to.

Let go and Let God!

What do you need to hand over to God? Many people see this site daily and I’m sure they would be encouraged to see that they “are not alone” in handing over a few things.

Encourage someone in the comments below.

(I’ll start out by leaving mine here)

This comes from a dream that I recently had. In the dream our family is struggling with all that we are currently struggling with. I felt extremely small and overwhelmed at the things we faced. The dream was very chaotic and fear ruled my heart. (I won’t bore you with the gory details, but my daughter’s health, the finances that have hit us due to this, my son spending his first summer so far away – completely in God’s will, but still painful as I miss him much more than anyone could ever imagine and several other things)

I was walking and praying as I so often do and somehow ended up on a bridge. I have a horrid fear of heights and this was really, really high. Immediately my fear kicks in and I’m frozen. I can’t think and can barely breathe when the bridge starts to crumble. It’s foggy and I can’t see below. I’m hanging on for my life and I hear, clearly, God saying… “trust me, let go”

I’d love to say that immediately, I just let go, but I can’t.

I did what most of us do and cried out in fear and anguish, “but Lord, I’m scared just get me off here” He again, said…”trust me, let go.”

At that point, with tears flowing, my heart was thinking ok, it seems I don’t have a choice, but I woke up before I let go, so I don’t actually know if I truly trusted God enough to let go.

When I woke up, I had been crying in my sleep….that is just how fearful I had been.

So, today…right here, right now… as best as I know how, I’m letting it all go to Him.

My family – I prayed for a Christian family, HE gave me one…they belong to Him. Lord, just keep using us for YOU.

My finances – with more appointments, specialists, surgery and such looming, there is no way we can ever afford any of it without the Lord. (When the dr. left the room, the first question Megan asked was….Mom, can we afford this? I told her it is a non-issue, that God will provide.) It belongs to Him.

My dream of a larger home – we’ve lived in a tiny 1100 sq ft home since Megan was born. If I get a bigger home, I get one. If not, I’ll enjoy my mansion in Heaven one day.

Spreading Joy & Helping Others – God allowed me to start this and HE will have to fund it. I won’t borrow money to help people. If we help others, it’s because God will put it on the hearts of others to partner with us. We will do what we can with what we have. It’s His.

I’m going to just trust Him. It’s all I can do. It’s all HIS. I’m letting go.

 

{{hugs}}

 

 

 

Never Let Go – David Crowder

 

Never Once – Matt Redman

 

Overcome – Jeremy Camp

John 16:33
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

1 John 5:4
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

1 John 5:5
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Psalms 55:22
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

1 Peter 5:7
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

 

Marie Wikle the Founder and President of Spreading Joy Corporation wants to empower everyone to make a difference and give without guilt.

Here is a personal Warm Welcome to Spreading Joy. You’ll find links to interviews, no cost ways to make a difference and other things that are guaranteed to bring a smile to your heart.

We want to rise above the discouragement of high prices, the obstacle of dead ends and the disappointment of our comfort zone. We want to be the change that is so desperately needed.

Archived, Marie

Never Alone

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My heart is amazed at just how big this world is and how technology can keep us in touch with those who have moved away from us.  But sometimes, my heart is even more amazed at just how alone we can feel even though people are close to us physically as well as through technology. 

We often feel alone when:

  • The pain in the night is unbearable
  • The silence is deafening
  • Friends should rejoice with us but are envious
  • Family squabbles become bitter feuds
  • The darkness engulfs us
  • The well deserved promotion is shot down by assumptions
  • No one understands
  • Everyone says they understand but act as if they could care less
  • We’ve tried a million times but continue to feel like a failure
  • We’ve asked for forgiveness but there is no hope of receiving it
  • Good news is overshadowed by great hurt

You’ve probably been there and felt as if your prayers were going no further than the ceiling.  Let me remind you that not only does your Heavenly Father hear those cries, they matter to Him.  He hears you and cares about what your heart is feeling.

The time you feel completely alone is when you typically withdraw and close your heart off to the world.  Worse than that, you close your Bible and think; I don’t even know what to pray, so why bother and you let isolation MOVE YOU from your Father’s side.

God never moves from us.  We move from Him.  But, even when we stray, move or completely ignore Him…we are never alone.

What verses do you wrap yourself in when you feel completely alone?

Please leave them below and encourage those that are feeling completely alone.

 

I Know You’re There

2 Chronicles 13:12
And, behold, God himself is with us 

2 Chronicles 32:8
With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles.

 

 

You’re Not alone

 

 

Deut 31:6  Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

 

God With Us

 

 

Lamentations 3:24-25 

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

 

Archived, Guest, Rose

The Father Effect

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A wonderful part of being in this world as a ChristianRep, is we get to meet a lot of new people from across the globe and sometimes right in our own back yard. One recent new friend on Twitter is John Finch – @johnpfinch.

John is creating his very first full-length documentary telling his own life story of growing up without a father, the wound and the resulting incredible effect left in the wake of forgiveness. With John as narrator, his film is set to tell the story of how growing up without a father has shaped his life as a boy, a man, and a father.

His documentary, The Father Effect, is set to be a long reaching look into the lives of children who will grow to be adults one day soon, and will live out the effect of their father’s impact. Simply and directly, it is a story that needs to be told for the sake of families now and in the future.

As children of God, we have a heavenly Father always there for us and loving us. This film is for those who may still feel the wounds left from having an earthly father who may have fallen far short of God’s expectations.

Here is the short story – now on film.  TheFatherEfffect.

 

Archived, Mike

We Are Not Orphans!

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In my study of Matthew 6 in preparation for a message I came to a passage I have read hundreds of times before and always missed what Jesus was saying. Then it hit me….suddenly I began to weep as I saw it. Here’s the passage and then let’s talk,

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.…

The portion of this passage that had eluded me were these words,“For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” Then, this week for the first time, I saw it. The pagans don’t have a heavenly Father! They are orphans! Orphans have to be worried about food, clothing and a place to stay because they have no one to watch out for them. They are responsible, but the Christian has a Father. We have someone who is taking care of us. We have someone who loves us and like a child in a home with a dad we don’t even think about the house payment, the electric bill, will we have food…those are the things that Father takes care of. As his child I run into his house and take whatever I want from the fridge without a worry. Father takes cares of all those things so I can focus my attention on seeking HIM and his rule in my life. He has the rest taken care of. He cares for me. I have a father, I’m not an orphan. When I saw this the whole passage came alive for me. I wept over this amazing truth. Even as I tried to share it with my wife the next day I couldn’t get through it without tears…..we are not orphans on our own, caring for ourselves, worried about how we will get food, clothing and somewhere to stay. We have a father. He loves us and is fully able and willing to care for us.

So, today you can resign as general manager of the universe, you don’t need to worry about all the things that take up your thoughts. You are not an orphan, you have a father and he loves to care for his children who will trust him.

 

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

Archived, Marie

My Hope Is In The LORD!

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At Your Feet…   

As a Child of the King, we don’t have to face fears, failures and an uncertain future alone.  Sometimes we get so overwhelmed with the day to day living that we forget to look to our All Knowing, Always Caring Heavenly Father.  When we come to sit at HIS feet and simply adore Him, may I ask that we place some things at His feet and leave them there.
We can leave these things at the feet of our Lord and KNOW that “it’s” going to be okay.
  • Fear, finances, failure, an uncertain future, despair.
  • Our Children, parents, lost loved ones, and those closest to us that have yet to trust in Christ
  • Dreams, desires, hopes, employment (or lack thereof) health and other issues
The Bible asks us: Is anything too hard for the Lord?  Genesis 18:14  Jeremiah 32:27  Jeremiah 32:17
Come praise the hurt away.

 

My hope is in YOU Lord.  

We dream big dreams, and hope that God will bless.  We reach rock bottom and hope that God will carry us the rest of the way.  We HOPE in the Lord…the One that hung the moon and sun in place, the One that created all that we know simply by speaking.
Where is your hope?
There are 53 verses on Hope in God available at Biblegateway.com.

 

Lord, I’m amazed by you!

Everyday God is amazing.  Everyday HIS mercies are renewed. Every single day I have to say, Lord…I’m amazed by YOU.
Archived, Mike

On Being A Light

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Matthew 5: “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

You are the light of the world. Yes, YOU. It’s part of your job description as a Christian….to be light in dark places. How’s that working for you? How are you doing with the light you have? Honestly, I don’t like the questions this generates at all! If people are looking to me for a little light to find their way I wonder if I’m any help to them at all.

Most of us want illumination for ourselves, for our own lives, but we are described by Jesus as illumination for those around us, light for others. Being the light of the world is a big task. It’s the task of helping those in the dark find their way, helping them find the right path and discover the light that illuminates us. Being the light of the world is a heavy burden and for the most part we do not wear it well. Frankly, at least for me, I think I’m a master at hiding my little light under a basket. I’m not good at helping others see the way with kindness and grace. I wish I was better at this thing called being the light of the world, but I’m still working on it.

And then Jesus goes even further and says this, “let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Part of the illuminating work of the believer is how we live our lives, our good deed. Let your good deeds shine out for all to see….why? So people will praise God. Our lives are meant to direct the world in praise to God for what they see because of us. How often does that happen? I think we have missed something in this job description of being lights in the world. Something has gone horribly wrong in the church! Instead of being lights to illuminate the way we have become spotlights in the eyes to blind the lost as they seek to find their way.

I think the thing we have lost is the very grace we received when we came to Christ. As I read Matthew and see Jesus interact with the world in darkness he doesn’t turn up the wattage to blind them, he gives them just enough light to make them want more. I still have much to learn about being a light in a dark world. I sure don’t know how to do this well, but if I am a light for those around me how is that supposed to work? How should I live so that, like the proverbial moth, those around me are drawn to the light that shines from me? I’m still working on this…..

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

Archived, Marie

Frustrating God

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Galatians 2:21 – I do not frustrate the grace of God….. (KJV)

I realize there is a lot more to this verse than I’ve just written, but I want to focus on this portion of it.

“I do not frustrate the grace of God…” – ……..but  I do.

If I’m honest with myself, I probably frustrate the Lord more often than most.  He, as my heavenly Father gives me the free will to choose.  I get to choose my day, the time I spend with God, family and others.  I can’t begin to imagine how frustrating I can be as I make unwise choices, such as choosing good over best, choosing less over waiting for more and choosing to not try because fear grips my heart.

What are some ways that I’m sure I frustrate God?

  • Lack of faith – I want faith that moves mountains.  According to Matthew 17:20, all I need is as much as a grain of a mustard seed to do so.  We see simple miracles often and yet like the children of Israel; we need to see more in order to believe.  We need to be reminded more often than not.    Recently, Spreading JOY Corp was asked to help out someone that needed $1000.00 to avoid eviction in a week.  I was certain that this family would be evicted as I have tried to raise money before and knew nothing short of a miracle was needed.  I searched for that grain of faith to move mountains but felt it was nowhere to be found.  Thankfully – so many heroes stepped up and gave. Not only did they help this family, but they increased my faith.
  • Lack of time – We are so busy with family, church, work, housework, errands, dinner, softball, keeping the dog clean and visits with friends in coffee shops that we tend to not make time to build and strengthen our relationship with the Lord.  We live in a Burger King world and want to have it “our” way – quick, easy and simple.  God desires us to spend time with HIM.  If our children were obedient to every single thing we told them to do and yet NEVER spent any time with us, our hearts would break.  I imagine the Lord’s heart breaking when we get to busy with “stuff” to spend time with Him.
  • Unworthy feelings – We are joint heirs with Christ, so why on earth do we let these feelings get in the way?  We feel like we do not deserve God’s love, blessings and his power.  Because His mercy and grace is renewed each day, we get to have these wonderful things, even though we feel like we shouldn’t.  God wants to bless us, use us and empower us.  We are made in His image and even though HE knows our heart, our doubts and fears , HE still chooses to love us – UNCONDITIONALLY.    How amazing is our God?

Have you ever thought about this?

There are so many other ways that we frustrate the Lord.  Will you dare list some of the ways you frustrate Him?  What are you going to do about it?

What verses will help you, motivate you and move you away from frustrating the Lord to making His heart smile?

{{HUGS}} yall

@spreadingJOY

For more information about Spreading Joy Corporation and just how easy it is to make a difference without breaking the bank, visit Marie at http://www.spreading-joy.org

Spreading Joy on Facebook

Tell me – talk to me… or am I the only one frustrating God? hmmm?

Archived, Marie

Trust

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Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  [6]  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  [7]  Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.

Psalms 62: 7  My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Matthew 6:25  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  [26]  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  [27]  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 11:28  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  [29]  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  [30]  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


What are you trusting Him for? Is it a for the well being of a child? Is it for your next mortgage payment? Is is for a job? Is it for your health and the horrid disease that is within you? We tend to carry around our burdens, not realizing how much that affects those that are around us.  When we are not trusting, we are a potential stumbling block, a jagged dangerous rock – instead of a stepping stone.

Remember WHO you are trusting.  He calmed the raging seas with a whisper of “peace, be still.” He spoke this world into existance. He gives you life, and gives is abundantly. He gave you the greatest gift of all when he allowed His son to be our sacrifice for our sins.

You trust Him with your soul, your most prized possession.  What about everything else? Are you going to wait till you reach rock bottom before you call out and start trusting? Why go there? Reach out now. Grab ahold of the Lord daily and do not let go until He meets your need.

Your Father is asking you to come and rest in Him. You don’t have to walk around weary.

Do you trust Him? Talk to me. Tell me, what are you trusting HIM for?