joy

Today was a good day – God is Good!

Categories declarations, Doug Addison, faith, God is Good!, Hope, John 12:32, joy, Lana Vawser, Peace, peace in the storm, Phil 4:4-8, Psalm 91, Selah, Uncategorized4 Comments on Today was a good day – God is Good!

Today was a good day!

We had a beautiful day of sunshine.

I cleaned, did some work, encouraged some people, took a call to help a friend (a pre Christian and we talked about Christian stuff amongst the other stuff), did some loads of washing, did some pro bono work, watered my garden (I am a garden person and these last few days I have got back into the garden after 6 years of never managing to due to ballet runs), had a coffee with my husband, encouraged my children … and …

did I mention it was a beautiful warm day of sunshine here in Melbourne Australia?

In a nut shell, the good is, aside from the above:

My husband has settled into working at home. My 16 year old daughter and my 12 (nearly 13) year old son have settled into online schooling with their respective schools. I work from home anyway … so the difference for me is a full house, and no running around doing ballet runs for children :-). School term finished today, and my son has his birthday this weekend – we will bake a cake, skype family and sing happy birthday and find the joy in it all.

There is a peace, it does feel like the peace in the midst of the storm, but there is peace.

Indeed, Lana Vawser (and others) have released words that it is a time of ‘Selah’, a time to pause, reflect AND a time to lift up Jesus above all, for as we do He will lift up all mankind to Himself, and that’s where we need to be (lifted up to Jesus) (see John 12:32). Check out the Psalms where this term is used, and try stopping, pausing for a moment and think, contemplate the Word you just read …

Better still read (and declare) Psalm 91 and contemplate our beautiful God.

And so I will continue to rest upon a life scripture of mine, Phil 4:4-8, which exhorts us to:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

So I will pray.

I will petition.

And, with thanksgiving I present my requests to God … and those requests are fierce and in line with Doug Addison’s prayer  to break the covid19 virus and …

I have peace, thank God I have Peace!

And I pray you do too …

Regardless I will focus and think on all things that are:

  • true
  • noble
  • right
  • pure
  • lovely
  • admirable
  • excellent
  • praiseworthy

even if my mind wants to go else where, I will train it back, purely and simply because …

God is Good!

Interestingly, I felt God ask me to post daily (which if you are a fellow blogger you know that is quite a lot of work, especially if you are rather verbose like I can tend to be ;-). So, if these posts are a little rough and ready – apologies!

It was therefore ironic when a fellow blogger (chrissblog11) today asked me to join other Christian bloggers and post an encouraging verse every day! Chrissblog11 wants to ‘start a hope movement to stop fear in these times.’ Well this is what I am doing too – releasing over the air waves that GOD IS GOOD! Declare it to the world, the world wide web … the WWW. that GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD!

The Fragrance of Heaven … God is Good!

Categories As you go, Fragrance of Heaven, God is good, hugs, joy, Joy Indescribable, Love10 Comments on The Fragrance of Heaven … God is Good!

I was driving back from dropping my son at school.  I often take the route past my daughter’s school, and as I do I pray for the school, the teachers, those in authority, the children, the school community at large … I did so this morning, sensing to drive past and pray, to bless the staff, and as I drove there was one staff member in particular that came to mind …

As I drove closer, I felt Him, I felt his Joy Indescribable, and I had a flash back to earlier this morning of the same staff member hugging a student.  I knew I was to stop on my way, run in and give this person a hug, a big hug, and tell her she was loved, that she was doing a great job.  I had seen her, at drop off, bending down to one of the little ones coming into school, and giving them a cuddle.  At the time I had smiled to myself thinking of the love she was giving out.  I now knew I was to do the same for her, and in fact, as I write, I now recognise that I had felt the desire to run across the road and hug her earlier that morning … perhaps I had missed His first prompt!

I pulled over in the glorious autumn sunshine, ran in, saw another staff member and called out over my shoulder that I just had to give a particular staff member a hug.  I saw the person and said  …

“I need to give you a hug!”

She stood straight up, stepped over her papers, and with her arms open wide she let me hug her.  I said as we hugged:

“You are well loved!  You are doing a great job! I saw you hugging the girls this morning, loving on them, and now God wants me to give YOU a hug!”

We stood and hugged for ages.  Now I must say that hugging is not my “thing” … touch is not my “love language” but when God tells me to hug, I hug, and I know that if I do I get a Love hug too because the love I feel as He pours Himself through, over and around me is amazing … I get touched and saturated in Him as well!  Now, I must say, I loved this hug!  I genuinely love this person.  I feel safe around her, and the joy and love I feel for her is not just Heaven sent, it is genuinely me as well … and so it was His love and joy for her, but mine as well … and so the hug was equally a blessing to me as it was to her!

She stood back, covered in goose bumps and said “oooo that was good, you’re a good hugger … I felt that … look I’m covered in goose bumps”.

I smiled and said “He just wanted you to know you were loved and your doing a great job” and I went to leave saying “have a great day!” …

I went to walk past the first staff member I had seen, calling out my cheerio full of the Joy Indescribable that is Him and I felt the overwhelming desire to hug her as well, and so I offered a hug to which she replied:

“I’m always up for a hug”

And she ran over and threw her arms around me and as we hugged she said:

“Oh, you ARE a good hugger!”

I gave her a kiss on the cheek as I hugged her and the other staff member called out:

“It’s a good hug … I’ve got goose bumps all over me … up and down my legs …”

I called out grinning that I loved it too … that like a hose, when you turn it on and let water pour through, you get wet too, the hose gets wet with water too … that as I release Him, I get the His love too … and it’s GOOD … it’s SOOOO GOOD!

I ran out the door into the sunshine feeling Him flowing all around, and through me.  As I drove homewards I realised I could smell their perfume on my coat.  I smiled realising that I too had left a deposit of perfume on them … the Fragrance of Heaven, the Fragrance of Love, and that, like me with their perfume, they would carry His fragrance throughout the day … and in turn they would affect others … it was His fragrance of love, it is so infectious, and they had been imbued with it … as had I … as we had all stood and cuddled each other.

One of them had called, as I ran out the door “I needed that” and I can honestly say that “I needed it too!”

If  we are willing to release His Goodness in whatever form or shape it takes, we are doubly blessed by Him … in fact, I believe, we are more blessed than those who receive!  When we are willing to stop on our way and release His Goodness, His Kindness, in His way … we get wet, we get saturated by Him too … in fact, I think that these words describe it to a tee … and those words are … pure and simple …

God IS Good!

And Peace flooded her soul … God is Good!

Categories As you go, God is good, God's love, Hope, joy, Peace, Stopping for the one2 Comments on And Peace flooded her soul … God is Good!

We had half an hour to take a hat back, buy a pan and get to a family function.  We determinedly walked through the shopping centre, having prayed and received the perfect park … God’s favour was with us 🙂 … it always is!

We entered the store to return the hat.  The girl behind the counter recognised me, as I did her, but she looked tired and said as much saying how she felt “down”, that the recent overcast mornings had impacted her soul and reflected her overcast state of being … she looked colourless, tired and drained …

We kept chatting as she processed my return.  She finished up and as she did I knew I needed to pray for her … for her to have joy, peace, and for a sense of hope to come …

As she handed me my credit card and docket and I contemplated the offer to pray, and in my hesitation the store filled up with customers, others came to the counter for service and the phone began to ring …

“Missed it I thought … now I’ll have to wait … or go … blow!”

I looked around behind me as she talked on the phone and saw my son, daughter and husband still “cruising” the shelves … seemingly content …

She put the phone down to look for the required item, the customer waiting on the other end, I ignored the person to my right waiting for service, I ignored the phone call, and said:

“Give me your hand” … and reached out over the counter, my hand extended.

She did, and as she did I invited the Holy Spirit to come, I quickly said:

“I’m going to pray for you, I’m a Christian …”

and proceeded to command depression to leave and I released hope, joy, faith, and peace into and around her …

I finished quickly, knowing that we were all in a hurry … As I did I said “do you feel that?” feeling the anointing sweep all around me …

“I do, I do,” she said and teared up ever so slightly. 

I watched as her face lost the greyness and colour flooded her countenance … the look of stress left immediately, and peace, a quiet sense of joy, flooded her features.  I told her that her face had regained colour and told her to look in the mirror …

I leant over and kissed her hand, saying that God loved her very much and she instantly smacked a big pink kiss straight back onto my hand leaving a big kiss mark and she looked at me and kept saying …

“I felt that … I definitely felt that …. That was amazing … I felt that …I feel so much better” and she smiled.

I responded saying that God had asked me to pray for her, because He loved her, and didn’t want her feeling the way she had been, that tomorrow she would wake and feel amazing …

She quickly finished the phone call, served the other people and essentially followed us around the store smiling and saying …

“I feel so much better … I really felt that … that was amazing … thank you”

We left the store with plenty of time to find our “pan purchase”, satisfied that the hat had been returned, and that, yet another person, had experienced that, indeed … yes in deed …

God is Good!