Breathe In, Breathe Out

This year has not started out so well on so many levels, yet it has.  From losing a dog that is like a member of the family to finding out that your sister/cousin has lost her grand daughter in an accident to hearing of an old school friend getting a life threatening diagnosis to your other cousin's relative passing from Pneumonia, the list goes on, to something deep and trying for your child and her family.  satan loves to rattle us on every level he can.  he digs deep into worries he knows we hold onto.  he scoops up excess sorrow and throws it at us like a child throwing a mud pie at another child.  he groups things together to make them seem absolutely enormous and overcoming.

Yes, I know I am not capitalizing his name in any sentence, I refuse to, I have always been like that where his name is concerned.  he is a liar, a cheat, a faker, a wannabe, a joker.  he stinks with the stench of decaying dreams and melancholy that can feel like a boulder on one's chest.

Picture this ~ a refrigerator box topped with a huge balloon.  Sticks protruding from each side of the box, a large dirty cloth covering it all up and an artificial light placed perfectly behind it all so that it appears to be this gigantic monster when it is silhouetted upon any flat surface.  That's the enemy.  That is satan.  Constantly trying to convince us he is bigger, stronger, more in power, controlling our every thought and outcome, shadowing us with all shades of defeat, contorting into shapes and colors of sorrow and pain, anger and division.
Now, I want you to get a running start.... RUN HARD... RUN FAST!!!  Run right straight into that faux monster and KNOCK him DOWN!!!!!!  he is a LIAR!!!! he has NO power over you if you are a child of GOD!  Look at the wall now.. the shadow is GONE!  It lays on the floor in a heap of nothing real.
Don't stop now..  Get a pin.  With all power within you, pierce that ballon!!! Bust it!! Watch it fall to the ground, now a withered up nothing.  Okay, that box.... put on your crushing boots! Stomp the dickens out of it!!! CRUSH IT!  Grab those sticks, BREAK THEM into a million pieces.
Build a fire.  Now sweep up the whole mess into a pile and scoop it up and THROW IT IN THE FIRE!!! Don't forget the dirty cloth! Throw it in!!
Ashes..... Just ashes.... Throw open the curtains. In other words, tear down that veil of lies.  No more artificial light needed.  Stand there allowing the SUN and the SON to warm you from the inside out, all shadows gone.  JOy.  Liberty.  Truth.

Sometimes it's all you can do to just Breathe in.. and Breathe out...
It is easier when we can see with the Light of Truth, each situation.

Some truth about the start of my January ~ Kingston was a huge blessing to this family, full of energy and love for ten years.  He may not even be gone, but at any rate, I believe God hears our prayers and is with him if he is somewhere else.

My cousin's grand daughter is gone from here... But she is not separated from God. She is in the presence of the KING now and My cousin and her family WILL be reunited with her one day and it will be for eternity.  Death of the flesh here is NOT final.

Getting a diagnosis with a date at the end of it is of man.. God had other plans.  Praise be to GOD!  That old School friend will indeed heal.

Just as with my cousin's grand daughter, my other cousin will see her cousin again one day.  The end of his flesh here is not final for eternity!! Again I say, Praise be to GOD.

The trial my child is enduring is temporary.  It is a part of her journey that God will Weave into beauty because that is exactly what he does with ashes.  HE is joy and peace and He shares that with His Children. She is His child first.  I need not worry.  My job is simply to be Jesus to her the best I know how and remind her of truth when the enemy tries to start drowning her with lies and shadows.

I have seen HIS power in so many situations.  He is unlimited!!! With each breath in, we grow stronger.  With each breath out we release the lies from our minds and bodies that the enemy is trying to choke us with.

Your January may not be starting out well, yet it is...
Now breath in, breath out... Breath in, Breath out... Breath in, breath out...
God bless you.