Don't Be a Snore Loser

Psalms 30: 5b - weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Have the thoughts in your mind ever kept you awake at night? Has worry ever made you lose out on a good night's sleep? Has depression ever overtaken your joy to the point where you sleep all day and stay up all night?

This past week and for probably many weeks now I haven't been sleeping well. I've stayed awake worrying about work and thinking about my classroom. I would get up in the middle of the night to work on lesson plans then be falling asleep at my keyboard and crawl back into bed.  It used to be my constant thought, until now. I remember listening to my husband snoring and thinking HOW does he do it? How can he just "relax"and sleep?  I was so tired of being tired and drinking coke to stay alive during the daytime. I felt like a vampire but instead of sucking life out of others I was letting life suck it out of me. 

If you obsess over anything God may just take that away from you. You may not think you are obsessing over something and you may not even realize you are doing it. God wants us to think about Him not about our problems but our promises we have through Him. God doesn't want us to worry He wants us to just trust He has a plan.  For me, I know God has a plan but sometimes it's hard to just "relax" and let God deal with it all.  Thankfully He always seems to know when to grab the steering wheel and pull the car back into the right direction so my thoughts don't run me into a tree.  

My pastor has been talking about Gideon lately and talking about how God didn't call us to be losers. I thought that this was perfect for all the stress that I went through this week to just relax and realize God has already won the victory over my situation.  Then I remembered that word "loser"... I realized losers usually lose something... they usually lose faith. Most of the time they lose faith that God is going to work all things out.  I don't want to be a loser because I know that God is going to work all things out. It's definitely not worth losing sleep over.

1 Peter 5:7 - Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Shoving the Cork In It!

Luke 6:45  For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Have you ever wish you could hold your tongue? Have you ever said something too quickly and then regretted saying it for the rest of your life?

Last Saturday my pastor gave us a cork at the end of the sermon. He told us an inspiring story about how the whales would smack the cork down to the bottom of the ocean and no matter how many times that cork was smacked down it would still rise up. The moral of the story was that we are not called to be looser but to rise up in Victory and WIN the battle that God set before us. This was very inspirational at this time. I whispered to my mom what I had planned for my small cork and how special it made me feel. I felt like yes I have definitely been knocked down in life. I need to start standing up for myself and say I'm not a looser! I can do all things through Christ who gives me Strength! I have good plans that God has planned for my life and He planned them already. He mapped out my life before I was born and He didn't call me to be a failure He has a plan for success and prosperity! He wants to place me where He needs me most but He wants me to realize He placed me there. I need to not be afraid but trust that He has a reason.

The pastor's son who is also a pastor in my church recently wrote a blog about the "Disease to Please". In the blog he stated how pleasing people can sometimes form into idolatry. We all know that God doesn't like idolatry and He will do anything to destroy any idols we put up in our life.

Confession time: I've got the disease to please... recently it has become aware to me that I'm forming idols in my life with my job. It's not uncommon to want to please my employer but when it takes up about 90% of my life and I soon lack the ability to take care of myself.. then I have a problem. The truth is I can easily cure this by just saying "I'm sorry, but no, I can't right now". The thoughts that Satan puts in my mind causing me to feel like if I speak those words I'd get fired or piss my boss off. That's not God, God doesn't want us to become slaves to worry. God doesn't want us to always be afraid to say no because we are afraid we might lose the fight. That's where this little cork comes in. It's time I put a plug in it! It's time to stop saying I'll do something just to make people happy. It's time I stop trying to please people so much that it takes away from my sanity and ability to care for myself. I need to put the cork in my words of worry and those thoughts I have of failure and just let God's words speak instead. It's time I start believing that God is in control and He will carry me through every step of the way.