Finishing Strong

This week I had the privilege to minister once again at the nursing home. As I prayed that God would give me just the right devotion for those dear people, I ran across a book titled Finishing Strong. The title stuck with me and God gave me a word about finishing our lives strong, no matter how often we had fallen time and time again in the past. What a wonderful thing to be reminded of--that indeed we can finish strong despite the many starts of stops in our lives.

I shared the story of the thief on the cross who certainly spent 99.9999% of his life in sin, rejecting God. But indeed at the last moment he crossed the finish line with a burst of energy given to him by Jesus himself hanging next to him on the cross. Not only is this a beautiful portrait of God's grace even in the Eleventh hour (11:59 to be exact), but also a picture of finishing strong. I enjoyed sharing this message of hope to those sweet people. I should have guessed that I might be seeing my enemy again this week--he's not too keen on Holy Spirit messages being shared in places of strongholds.

So as I've shared in other posts, I've struggled with fear off an on throughout my life. Praise God for his mercy in overcoming that fear time and time again in my life. I should have known that the enemy would try another attack in that arena....

Last night the battle took place again. When the enemy jumped in front of me, I was taken aback by the fear that welled up inside of me. I looked up at God and asked "What happened here God?", why wasn't the fear going away?. I cried out to God. At first I was even fearful that the fear wasn't going to go away--that I would be stuck again. Panic began to set in.

I started quoting scripture and the enemy began to step back, but not all the way. Again, okay God what is this all about? The Holy Spirit is always very willing to answer that question and I felt the conviction of an old sin that had resurfaced this past week, I even remembered making light of it. Then, I realized that I had given Satan a space to jump back in front of me. Well, believe me, with fear and the enemy staring me in the face, I was on my face in repentance.I was able to stop in my tracks, say "get thee behind me Satan" and start down the race path again.

Then a funny thing happened, a realized that a song had been running through the back of my mind the whole time. Now I know what you are thinking--probably a worship song. If you are thinking that you would be mistaken. In fact, believe it or not it was a song from the musical movie Mama Mia. Strange, you may be saying, how could that be? It might be because several times a week my 2 year old granddaughter visits and that just happens to be her favorite DVD so we play it over and over again--dancing and singing along with the karaoke version--I swear the first words she'll be reading are "Mama mia, here I go again". Anyway, back to the song.


The song that was going through my head was "Lay all your Love on me". Again, you may be thinking how in the world was God speaking to me through this song during an attack of the enemy? Here are the words that ran over and over again in my head:

"Don’t go sharing your devotion lay all your love on me"


Okay God, I get it. When I allowed this sin to take hold of me for even a few minutes I was sharing my devotion with the sin--I was running to it for comfort in a moment of stress. In essence I had removed myself from God's arms of love.
It was interesting when I played the song to myself this morning that there was another line that jumped out at me.

"I feel a kind of fear when I don’t have you near"

Pretty interesting stuff huh? Perhaps the fear comes from putting something between me and God.
Hmmmm.....

One word of warning--not all the lyrics are applicable--it is a song written by Abba for goodness sakes. We're not going to be singing this song in home church this week--that's for sure.

BUT, God can use anything to speak to us can't He? As I've shared in past posts, most of the time God speaks through His Word, worship music etc. But today he chose to use something else.

He also reminded me off a great tool to use in times of stress and fear, but I'll share that in another post.


Here's a great scripture:


Job 11:13-20 (The Message)

13-20 "Still, if you set your heart on God
and reach out to him,
If you scrub your hands of sin
and refuse to entertain evil in your home,
You'll be able to face the world unashamed
and keep a firm grip on life, guiltless and fearless.
You'll forget your troubles;
they'll be like old, faded photographs.
Your world will be washed in sunshine,
every shadow dispersed by dayspring.
Full of hope, you'll relax, confident again;
you'll look around, sit back, and take it easy.
Expansive, without a care in the world,
you'll be hunted out by many for your blessing.
But the wicked will see none of this.
They're headed down a dead-end road
with nothing to look forward to—nothing."

The Legacy that You Leave

I’m still reading (and loving) Tim and Darcy Kimmel’s book Extreme Grand Parenting, The Ride of Your Life.

I love their encouragement to grandparents. I love their admonition to our generation to be torchbearers, legacy builders, standard-setters for the generation and yes even generations to come. One of the best parts is, just like it’s never too late to come to Christ, it’s never too late to start afresh to be the person God has called you to be to your children and to your grandchildren. I love their straight forward and yet grace-filled instructions on how to live the Christian life.

One example in their book was about 2 different individuals in the same ICU ward. Both were parents and grandparents and yet polar opposites. She was a woman of meager circumstances; he a man of industry. But the most important way that they were polar opposites was the way they left their world when they left it. She had invested her whole life in nurturing her family, being that torchbearer for them to follow, he on the other hand had invested his life in building wealth and success. There in the ICU each of her family near and distant came to say their goodbyes, he had few to come to his bedside—most only coming after he was gone to hear the reading of the will. The world may have thought that she left nothing to her family and yet she left everything. He left much wealth but nothing of eternal value to his family.

This story touched my heart. Just this week my dear great aunt came to my mind. At 94 she still lives alone in her home in Odessa, Texas where she retired a number of years ago. But when I was growing up in Tempe, AZ she lived next door to my family most of my childhood. Aunt “Bill”, as we called her, is the sister of my departed grandmother who passed on 10 years ago. Although I dearly loved my sweet little Mamaw Jewel I only saw her once a year, so truthfully my great aunt had a bigger impact on my life.

I have beautiful memories of living next door to this wonderful woman of God. I remember running next door to see my Aunt Bill. I remember her garden of vegetables and vines of teeny lush grapes. I remember the aromatic sweet pea flowers that grew on the fence between our houses. I remember seeing her sitting on her porch quilting on the huge frame that rolled down from the ceiling of the porch to make it easy for her to quilt. I remember her taking us to church and Sunday school. I remember the neighborhood Bible Class that she taught in her home. Most importantly I remember the day that I accepted Jesus as my Savior in her driveway. What a precious gift.

A few years ago, as I was praying for my dear aunt and thinking about her going to be with God sometime in the near future, the Lord spoke clearly to me. He said that my Aunt Bill would receive the same crowns in glory as Billy Graham. Both are evangelists, both love God and the Word of God with all their hearts, both allowed God to win others to Christ through them. What a very cool thing. Billy spoke to all who came across his path about Jesus and so did Aunt Bill.

When my Aunt enters into those gates of heaven she will leave behind a legacy of truth, servant hood and evangelism. Many have been touched by her, in her neighborhood, the school where she worked for so many years and her church. She will leave behind very little wealth in worldly terms but a fortune in eternal things of God.

It reminds me that as I now have the privilege of being a grandmother, I also have an important responsibility to be the torch bearer, the legacy builder and the standard setter for my grandchildren and the generations to come. It is a sacred honor, one that I cherish and look forward to over whatever time I have here.

Lord, guide us and direct us, let us take seriously and joyously the path you have set before us. May the generations that follow, know and love you with all their hearts and minds.


Tim Kimmel's website http://www.familymatters.net