Enjoy the season you are in today - God has a purpose

I live in Canada, in case you wondered.  So we have been going through the season of winter.  I can also tell you that I am not a fan of this season.  I am not a lover of the snow or the cold or the cold or the cold.  I am sure you get the drift of what I am trying to say right now.  I don't like winter  - but I really am trying to be thankful for it.

I have been talking to God about it - telling Him that I don't often see what is happening behind the scenes of this seasons wintery winds and multiple precipitation.  We go from snowing to freezing rain to stormy wind blasts to snowing and frigid temperatures that literally bring tears to my eyes.  I have been trying to look beyond all this and be as excited as a skier on a cool slope.

God makes no mistakes.  He made this season for a reason and me whining and complaining will not make it disappear.  God, who made all things good, has declared that this season is good.  It is good and you know what?  I am not going to miss out on anything that God says is good.

So after the wintery storm we had recently, I took pictures.  I saw this beautiful picture of white snow and ice on the try. I saw the skies that displayed their best blue ever!  It was a sight for me that took my breath away in gasps.  Wow.  God is good.

I am still waiting for spring, and I can see that it is closer now than it was yesterday.  However, in the mean time I pray that my eyes will be open to the beauty and wonder of winter. 

Amazing Grace

Did you ever realize that the apostle Paul in all his letters to the church began with grace and peace?  He spoke it over their lives and after hearing it preached I am really intrigued.  The pastor said he not only said grace and peace but he told them from who it came.  May grace and peace be with you from God the Father and Jesus the Son.  No one else gives us this kind of grace or this kind of peace.  Only God. Only Jesus.

I can't imagine my life without God's grace.  I mean really, where would I be? Who would I be?  Oh God, thank you for grace.  Now, perhaps you are perplexed as to why I am so overcome with gratitude.  Maybe your life was not like mine. 

You see I know who I was and who I struggle not to be sometimes today.  Grace has been the Avenue for forgiveness of my  many, many sins (double word intended).  I love what Justin Holcomb wrote "Grace is the love of God shown to the unlovely; the peace of God given to the restless; the unmerited favor of God." 

That was me, unlovely and restless.  I was deserving of the judgment and penalty of sin but grace.  God's grace.  God's amazing grace.  Oh, I could sing that hymn with lungs bursting. 

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. 

I once was lost, but now I am found.

I was blind but now I see.

Praise God for His amazing grace!

Help

I live in Canada. I live in a place where it gets cold in the winter months and so it is not unusual to see cars not working or be caught behind one that didn’t make it off the road way. On one morning, the traffic was stalled because of such an occurrence. A car was not working. Everyone was pulling out from behind it to zoom past as this man with the help of another man tried to push it into a gas station.

I was able to pass it and before I got too far pulled into the gas station lot. I was dressed in my jean and boots so it wouldn’t hurt me to add some muscle to the effort. To say the guys were shocked to see me as their help is an understatement. Yet I was the one God sent. It was then another man stopped his car and jumped in. Between the three of us, we pushed the car off the road and up to a pump. His car really just needed some fuel to be alright again. The owner was over joyed and hugged all of us saying “I love Canada!”. To be honest right in that minute I loved it too. I loved the kindness of strangers in a land where cold sometimes is the temperature of the people around us.

However as I am telling this story it affirms something else. God sends us help in ways we do not often expect. He sends us help and sometimes we miss it. That guy did not expect a woman to stop and help him push a car. He didn’t think I was strong enough to do that. However even as the other guys patted me on the shoulder saying after “You are strong!” I realize how they wouldn’t know that to look at me prior.

I cry out to God for help and I wonder if I have not missed His hands  extended becaue I was too preoccupied looking at the package it came in. I have said to God my expectation is from You however I trip over my own expectations of things. So today I record thi for me. Today I am asking God to see His Help clearly so that I may accept it readily and quickly. He is my present help in times of trouble. I pray that for me and for you in Jesus name amen.