Month: November 2018

Christian

Holiday Blues

Cindy Dawson

Do the holidays trigger thoughts of what should have been instead of what is? Are you feeling lonely? The strange thing about depression is that it seems to take your mind captive. You may think you can’t stop the downward spiral.

The next thing you know, you’re driving to the grocery to buy food for the holidays and tears begin to well up in your eyes. You hate it. You don’t want to be sad!

I know all about it because I experienced this yesterday.

I prayed. I asked the Lord to help me.

Just a few minutes later, my daughter called. (You should know, she loves to cook. I mean really cook, like they do on TV Cooking Shows. I, on the other hand, look for the easiest and quickest recipe possible.)

Chris: “Mom, would you get me a butternut squash while you’re at the store?”

Me: “Do you mean like a real vegetable butternut squash?” (I’m thinking does that come in a package?)

Chris: (starts laughing hilariously) “Yes! A real vegetable butternut squash!!”

We both cracked up and had a good belly laugh! It felt so good to laugh!

Guess what? My mood completely changed right then. 

I learned a valuable, yet simple lesson yesterday about holiday blues.

  1. Always go to the Lord in prayer.
  2. Find a way to laugh!

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Mathew 6:8

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5

“A cheerful heart is good medicine.” Proverbs 17:22

A book could be written on this subject, and I know that, but this is what happened to me. Sometimes a person needs a word of encouragement, not the whole book.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving . . . Psalm 25:1-2

Merry Christmas Everyone!

(And laugh a little today!

With Love,

Cindy

This Is My Journey Unscripted.

Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?

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Christian

Why Do I Blog? To Be Followed or To Follow Him?

Cindy Dawson

Corrie ten Boom said, “If God has called you, do not spend time looking over your shoulder to see who is following you.” And she is someone whose advice I respect.

So why do we blog? Why do we write? As Christian writers, we say it’s to tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ and His love. But we must be careful that our ultimate desire is to follow Him, not to be followed. He will guide us by His Word.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light on my path.” Psalms 119:105 NIV

This is especially true for those of us who want people to follow our blog, FaceBook, or Instagram. Although we are encouraged when readers decide to follow us, that cannot be our guiding force.

What good would it be if millions followed our blog, but God wasn’t using it to speak to any of them? It would be better, by far, to reach a handful of people that God was using us to encourage and bring hope.

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” –Francis Chan

Acts 20:20 states that Paul taught “from house to house”. And in verse 24, he says, “In every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.”

The Apostle Paul risked his life to teach from house to house. I was struck by the fact that he did not consider himself too important to reach out to a small number of people.

As we fix our eyes on Jesus and follow Him, He will accomplish His purpose in our lives and in our writing.

Should we develop our skills and study our craft in order to be the best writer we can be? Absolutely!  The Bible says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord … It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 NIV

I am convinced that the more closely I follow Him, the more He will use me. We must not despise the day of small beginnings. (Zechariah 4:10) If only one person is encouraged by what you wrote, God has used you! God cares about individual people.

Jesus said, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.“ Matthew 18:10-14

Nothing thrills me more than for a reader to tell me, “I needed this!” or “This spoke to me.” Then I know that God has used me.

May we always follow Him with our whole heart and pray that He will use us to accomplish His purposes in our writing.

With Love, Cindy

This is My Journey Unscripted.

Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?

¹Corrie ten Boom is the author of The Hiding Place.

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

realchristianwomen.blog 

Bible

Our Role As God’s Ambassador

Cindy Dawson

Do you sometimes feel like you don’t fit in? You may need to remind yourself that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, this world is not your home. Your home is in heaven and you are an ambassador for Christ in a foreign land.

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” 2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV

“Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.” 1 Peter 2:11-12 The Message

An ambassador is a “diplomatic official of the highest rank sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative”.¹

We must remind ourselves that this is our role. We are ambassadors sent by God. I think it helps us to live a life a worthy of our calling when we think of ourselves as an ambassador.

“But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him]” 2 Corinthians 5:18 AMP

An ambassador is sent to a foreign land to reflect the official message of his country. God has sent us into the world with the message of reconciliation.

“… we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel [that tells the good news of salvation through faith in Christ…” 1 Thessalonians 2:4 AMP

However, actions speak louder than words. Talking about Jesus is important, but how we live speaks louder than our words. Caring about others is vital.

 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

“Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ…” Ephesians 5:2 NLT

 

With Love, 

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This is My Journey Unscripted.

Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?

¹ Dictionary.com

Photo by Bewakoof.com Official on Unsplash

realchristianwomen.blog