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Reasons to Celebrate

Reasons to Celebrate

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We celebrated my pastor for giving 33 years in service to our church today. Everyone in the room could feel the excitement. 

He invited a guest preacher to speak, and you could tell that he had a lot of respect for this man of God. Past preachers, musicians, family, and friends all came to help him celebrate. Even our ministry partners from George, South Africa were there. It was a joyous occasion.  

It made me think about my life, and the things that I sometimes celebrate. 

My husband, and I made it a point to do something to acknowledge our anniversary every year. Sometimes, it was dinner with friends. Mostly though, it was just the two of us being grateful for one more year. I also made my birthday my own personal holiday every year. I take off from work, and do whatever I want for the whole day (I really look forward to it every year). 

But short of waking up every morning, that is pretty much it. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’t take that for granted, I just think there should be more to life than just waking up, right?

As I contemplated celebrations, those things seemed to pale in comparison to celebrating 33 years in ministry. Then I realized what I was doing. Why was I comparing my life to someone else’s? Why did I think that what my pastor had done was so much better than anything I had done?

God had to remind me what Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” He helped me see that life itself is reason enough to celebrate. Every day is reason enough to celebrate. Every breath is reason enough to celebrate. And waking up is a big deal, and it should be celebrated. 

So, I learned my lesson. From now on, I won’t look at others as my benchmark for reasons to celebrate. I will keep my eyes fixed firmly on the Lord, Jesus Christ who gives me life. He is the real reason any of us have to celebrate anyway.

Until next time…

Be blessed

God, You are Amazing!

God, You are Amazing!

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I am so utterly and profoundly grateful for how God watches over us. He blesses us in ways that still amaze me…

Before the pandemic, every first Sunday we would meet at one of the local rehab facilities to minister to the patients there. We know that we are there to pray and sing and love on them, but every single time that I was there…I felt like I was the one being ministered to.

Once while we were there, the young man who was preaching that day became so overwhelmed while reading the scripture that he could hardly read it. The Spirit of the Lord was so heavy on him that the word of God came to life right before our eyes. The other thing that made it so amazing was that four of the five patients that day were men. 

That may not seem like much, but typically the services would always have mostly women. God is so intentional. He knew in advance who would be there, and He sent the one that the people could identify with.

The one that they would open their hearts and minds to hear.

When a man loves the Lord it is so powerful. It’s awesome when anyone loves the Lord, but women typically won’t have a problem expressing how they feel. Men, on the other hand very seldom let their emotions show. To them, it feels like they are showing weakness…when in fact, it’s the other way around. It shows a confidence in Christ that wherever I am…Christ is with me, and I am not ashamed of how I feel about Him.

God wants all of us to open up to Him just like that. 

He wants us to not be so concerned with others that it affects our worship to Him. Don’t let anything come between you and your praise to the Father. We want the kind of relationship with Him that even when we don’t have the words to say…we know with confidence that God hears our heart. And if we put our relationship with God first…the Bible says EVERYTHING else will be added unto us.

How amazing is that?

Until next time…

Be blessed!