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 Taking a walk through journalsWhat is a journal; to alot of people it is thoughts, ideas and dreams. To me it is much more! I started writing in a journal along time ago, the events of the day and such..oh how boring it was to me. I was having such difficulty praying. I started a prayer journal, which turned into long letters to our Heavenly Father. I was very excited to learn that I was now concentrating on my prayers, rather then what happened during the day or the other day! The other thing I learned about a prayer journal was on the Oprah show...I know, you are thinking "what?" well, let me explain...we are suppose to pray with Thanksgiving right? Ok, now when we start our journal, with lets write 4 things that you are thankful for each day....can you imagine what you would come up with? I did, soon after my Mom died I began to read her journals and compared to mine how selfish I had been in some areas in my life. Do you know what happens when you compare the two journals? What you find is how important and how wonderful it is waking up each day. How often we take that for granted! Our Heavenly Father had the plan of our lives already mapped out, we are called by Him:
 Peter writes, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who are called out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
We are "called" by God to join the family, to spread the gospel, to encourage one another , and to lift up Praise unto the King! Ok now that you know you are called by God....lets look at prayer!
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says; "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Do you know what could happen if you start doing all 3 of these things? Your life begins to change, you look at circumstances & people that have come against you in a different light. For you will be doing the WILL of God! How exciting! Now back to the journals, sometimes when we pray we get side tracked. We can't keep all of our thoughts together, we tend to fall asleep if we wait till bed time. It all depends how much effort you are putting into praying right? I have found that keeping these journals keep my mind so clear, I feel the Holy Spirit writing for me. So what I wanted to share with you is how much your life can change, if you just start being consistent in prayer and doing all these other things I have given you in 1 Thessalonians you will be on your way! You don't have to have a journal! Just a little food for thought :0) Now lets have our first look inside these journals... The journals I am looking through are that of myself and my Mom's. The reason I am sharing them with you are because I really believe the Lord is leading me to. I don't question why....well sometimes I do but :)...now I some what see why.. A look inside the heart of someone dying is very difficult. But I know there are some of you who are going through a hard times right now. This is a look at two Christian women going through the same thing at the same time. One is going Home to Glory and the other is being left behind. The woman who is leaving is going through all sorts of emotions...just finding out she has cancer and now she has to tell the family. This is very difficult and is tearing her apart. How do you tell your family that you are leaving forever? For me to hear the words, it was one of mixed emotions. I was so hurt and crushed at the fact my best friend was leaving, that I was terrified. But on the other hand, I felt such high emotion that she was going to see the Lord, but yet it was going to be without me! As I compared these two journals I found us to be in accord. Her world came to a stand still at the same moment mine did. And yet the world spun out of control. You see when you have Jesus in your heart He makes things so much more clear. And to stay in touch with Him through all this was a no brainier as far as I could see. I praised through the hard times and I shared lots of tears with Him. But to tell you the truth, I never once looked at it from a selfish stand point. That is the ultimate to be with Him and all the Glory! Some findings in that journal: I cried out to Him "God I want to see your face and hear your voice". Did He
reply," My child you will see my face". I knew the day I heard the word "cancer" that it would be fast, and that no miracle would take place in healing. This was how it was going to be. I feel it is over-I am not giving up. He's calling me Home for whatever reason He may have, I trust and believe that my death will be more of blessings and maybe even miracles, then if I lived. I don't believe that is giving up - I believe its His will!
If you take a look at Mark 4:35-41&l; the story of the storm. Listen the disciples say to Jesus , as the storm came upon them, in verse 38; "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" Jesus looked out at the rushing wind and roaring water and said, "Quiet! Be still!" All was quiet and calm. And He said to the disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
Why is it so difficult for us to put complete trust in a man that can do that? As I sit and look at all the time, I think I have wasted in not trusting Him in some areas of my life, I realized that it built me up to who I am today! Praise God then right! In every situation Praise God for what He is going to do! Pray consistently on these things and then lets show His light through us. That to me is what Joyful means. She often wrote how it tore her apart to see the fear and hurt in our eyes. I bet it did! Now as I read this, I am sorry for that I wish I could show her the excitement I now feel . I did then too, but it was way too hard to keep focused on that then. She praised God for the littlest accomplishments after surgery. The smallest of smallest...how often do we in our daily lives forget to do that? I know I do, Lord I am sorry for not thanking you for the littlest things. Like my kids waking up in the morning. The look in their eyes at the first snow fall. What joy it is to see snow through the eyes of a child! Don't forget to thank Him for those things each day! I know sometimes it is hard but just take a look around right now....what can you thank Him for? You could thank Him for life that has been given to you. The fact that you are called by God to serve HIM. This will be continued but I wanted to get this out to you. Please join me as I continue to walk through the journals of these two women!
Home If you need someone to share your grief with we are here. Thank you for coming by, and I hope that I will see you soon God Bless you richly
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