Move forward

I love being old, as I have told so many, when I was little and did something wrong I got a ……… now I can be as naughty as I like and I can’t get into any trouble, but I give family and friends a laugh and they say ‘Oh Mother….’ 

I am writing this today before the funeral of a very close friend and we loved sharing life with Jesus and she daily had stories of what the Holy Spirit was saying to her.  How can I make the most of the rest of my life? I don't want to be stuck at the crisis point, the pain, the loss. I want whatever time Father has given me, and is written in my book (Psalm 139:16), to be spent with eternity in mind. I know I can't take any 'stuff' with me but I can take people as the fruit of my labour by the power of His Spirit. We sing ‘He is all I need’ but we don’t know whether we can mean it till He is all we have got. What a challenging place to be.

I can't use the time I have left the way the world does, 'eat drink and be merry for tomorrow I die'. 'Let God transform me into a new person by changing the way I think, then I will know God's will which is good and pleasing and perfect', Romans 12:2

I can put my feelings in a box and bury them as deep as possible, but I don’t want my body to react and come out with some horrible disease because I haven’t allowed God to heal me from the inside. Or when I come to another trauma situation again and all the old feelings come back to the surface and I feel completely overwhelmed. Jesus said, 'I have told you these things so that in Me you may have perfect peace.....' John 16:33. How? How?

Avoiding pain is not an option unless we want to lock our emotions up or harden our hearts, as that means we cannot love again in case we get hurt again. We can insulate ourselves from relationships but that is not Father's way. Praise Jesus and thank Him as He doesn't cut us off every time we hurt Him.

To be vulnerable in life means allowing ourselves to be hurt, but learning how to put mechanisms in place, with the help of the Holy Spirit, for healing to take place. We are the most blessed of people, as when we do go through trauma Jesus has put in place some stepping stones to allow us to choose how to navigate life on a daily basis and to prepare for future trauma with Him at the centre of our storm. 

see https://www.joyforlife.org/index.php/power-up/power-up-study-11