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My Home, My Sanctuary…

Birdnest on CrossI remember the days of chaos in my home. Screaming kids and stuff everywhere. Discontentment does that to our homes! I was not happy with anything, complained about everything and joy was superficial. This is not a happy home!

This is what chaos means according to Merriam Webster:

Complete confusion and disorder; a state in which behavior and events are not controlled by anything

So sadly, my heart and home were a real disaster area where one would rather depart from than be welcomed into!

If you want to put stress on your family, drive away your spouse, wonder why your kids are hanging from the chandelier, this may give you a clue. I truly understand because I was there once upon a time.

I did not have peace in my heart. God was not even welcomed in my dysfunctional  environment and there wouldn’t have been room for Him anyway. For years I existed in this disarray becoming more and more miserable.

Then at age thirty I was introduced to Jesus Christ. God used Christian media to show me what it could look like on the other side of my whirlwind. In my desperate state, getting ready to flee, unable to take many more days of utter confusion, I said yes to Jesus because of the testimony of a couple who were living much like I had been. When they received Christ, they found the Prince of Peace! You see, I was desperate and I wanted that peace!

Over the next 20 years the Lord began to redirect my life and turn it right-side up to where home looks completely different than it once did. His perfect peace filled my heart gave me a resting place within instead of that heart of discontentment.

As God’s peace infused my being I realized that my environment was beginning to be more orderly and complete. Dare I say that our environments reflect our souls? My home has become a sanctuary and a place of welcoming. I know God is here because of the peace I feel when I walk through the door. No, I don’t have altars set up but the environment is for the most part a welcoming place.

I am still working on my minimalizing to help me with clutter tendencies but it is coming along. This place is where my husband desires to be and on those hectic days out and about I long to retreat into because God’s peace is present!

So do you struggle with finding peace in your home?

Is it sometimes difficult to return to when there is disorder awaiting you as you open the door?

The most important element can be the state of your heart. Be willing to look inside and see what it is that may be out of sorts and begin to purge and rebuild from the Father’s perspective so that your heart and your home will exude His peace that passes all understanding.

Take a moment and visit Philippians 4 to help you in your pursuit of a “peace that surpasses all understanding…”

Father, I am going to refuse to succumb to chaos any longer and I ask for Your perfect peace to fill me and guide me as I learn to walk in it. I want to lay down all areas that bring confusion and chaos and I’m asking You to replace the messes inside of my heart and home in exchange for Your peace. I am trusting You to rebuild me as I hand over to You my surrendered heart…in Jesus’ Name.

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One of the Best Tips I Have Received!

Let it goOne of the best practical tips I ever received…

Visiting over at #TheLoft today and thrilled to be with some excellent women of God!

Has anyone ever said to you “Oh just let it go!” I heard it today and shared it as well. There are times when an issue needs to be resolved, a theft or a murder, absolutely! But what about the seemingly little things that come and go throughout our day that can drive us crazy to no end! This girl has had to receive and heed her own advice, to just let it go.

The ‘some ones’ in my life seem to be part of my most difficult choice to abide by that rule of thumb. In and of myself, I cannot make someone respond by what I would call ‘correctly’ whether it is to own up, or apologize for an offense or wrong doing. In my mind I play that game of ‘justice’ and the harder I play at it the more convoluted things begin to look.

Now I know what Matthew 18 says about those who ‘may’ have an issue with you and by gum, somehow I am suddenly carrying the thing I am trying to get rid of! What??? And I know about the 7 x 70 rule that Jesus expects us to live by but I always get in the way of it!

So intentionality has to come in to play here where I look at what I am able to control…that would be me and my emotions! Maybe I am making more out of a scenario than I need to? And my assessment wants to scream ‘but they did…’ and then I hear those words, just let it go. Yup sometimes it really is the best choice to make instead of allowing myself to get bent out of shape over something hardly worth picking at. Like a scab you know!

Seems like a cop-out but friend, a lot of the time it can spare a lot of bickering and wrong thinking toward another. Rather let’s just choose to just “Let it go!”

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This Process of Pruning Really Hurts!

pruned posiesThere is one thing I especially enjoy in summer and that is the color it brings. Thus far we haven’t had a frost yet to halt the growth of summer. So…that means that the flowers I have blooming are really at their peak in growth and fullness all for us to enjoy, ahhh. Although I am not a ‘master gardener’ I do enjoy messing around and planting and seeing what colors look lovely together. This year I choose soft butter yellow marigolds and a soft purple ageratum for my annuals. They are full lovely and full of blooms. But it was only a good month or so ago that I had to hack them down to nothing, leaving not a bloom to be seen. I also do that when I plant them. I trim off all the flower buds so that they only get concerned about their root system growth and to encourage more bud growth. It works every time! Fuller blooms and fuller foliage.

I have found that there are many lessons learned from observation and as I was walking past admiring my posies it once again came to me that growth hurts. But it has to be that way for our persona to become who God created us to be. The tough stuff that happens in our life will either make us grow closer to Him (allowing that sanctified change in us) or it will cause us to remain stagnant. Remaining stagnant could even cause us to shrivel up inside.

In the book of John there are some practical lessons for the branch (that would be us!)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit”  John 15:1-2

Ask a rose grower if a blossom becomes a beautiful rose without the harsh pruning shear taken to its stem at the right time in the season. They will definitely say NO! And so it is with us. We need the harsh realities of living in this world to help us represent Him! This truth doesn’t make me overjoyed because of sorrow but when it comes I try not to push it away and pretend it hasn’t happened. You may have heard at some time that God loves us too much to leave us as we are. We are here, to show others who He is. So when the trials come that he uses to shape and mold us into that Christ-like image it can be a bit painful!

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”  Romans 6:22

Let’s just say that I want to bear fruit and glorify God with my life. But unless we are willing to allow ourselves to be shown that which is useless and unlovely in our hearts we won’t move forward…

Lord, there are days I am frustrated with my ignorance of the work You are wanting to do in my life and in my heart. You just can’t imagine how I really do want to be all You desire for me for Your sake and to bring You glory. Right now I give myself to You to have and do as You please whatever it takes to bear the fruit of being Your disciple. Not to make me perfect or special or anything that would seem puffed up and prideful. No, just so those who don’t know You would see You in me and be drawn to have a desire to know the King of my heart. I love you Jesus!

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Can God Speak through a Fortune Cookie?

Fortune CookieMany years ago while in a spiritual growth spurt I remember being extremely frustrated that in my dreams it seemed as if I wasn’t a christian.  There is probably a doctor of something who has studied this kind of stuff and would be able to tell me why this happens…but that being said, I almost felt like only part of me was saved but not my subconscious.  It really began to bother me in the dreams I remembered.  (I typically don’t remember many of my dreams.)  If I belong to the Lord then I am His conscious and unconscious!  No split personality going on here!  So I began to pray and ask the Lord to please let me know that I am 100% his, through and through without wavering, asleep and awake!

It was but a few weeks from my intense request of the Lord when I had a dream that was incredibly vivid and even in color!  I think most of my dreams are black and white but the few real God-dreams I have had have been in technicolor–vivid and very intense.  I don’t remember who it was that I was with but that we were running and hiding out as if we were being pursued by someone.  I remember scenes of running up and down back outside staircases like on  apartment buildings and then suddenly I was with many others who were being ushered on a train.  I then realized that I had been taken captive.

Suddenly, soldiers were one-by-one taking people like me and executed us with machine guns.  It was soon to be my turn and I remember being grabbed roughly and as the gun was placed to my head and told I was next that I started to sing the chorus to “I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel”. I am not ashamed of the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, I am not afraid to be counted, but I’m willing to give my life…”

And suddenly I woke up, completely amazed at what had just taken place in my dream.  You might enjoy listening to this powerful song yourself at the end of this post.

So what about the fortune cookie you are thinking?  About two weeks after this vivid dream that I believe was an answer to my request of the Lord, I found a fortune cookie placed on my desk at work.  We had a youth radio station and it was manned by young adults and they were such a blast to work with and have around and I was pretty certain that one of them had put it there.  so I opened it up and read it and was in total amazement as to what it said (I have to print it out because it is too faded to read from the picture above)…

You begin to appreciate how important it is to share your personal beliefs.

Okay, you may say whatever you want but have you ever seen a fortune with a message like that?  Not me!  And that was a confirmation for me that God not only heard my prayer but he answered it in a very dramatic way!  For some reason I needed to experience what He allowed me to live out in my dream and then it was as if He was said to me that I was His through and through!  Whew, the content of my dreams began to change after that and I no longer doubted whose I was!  And that old, yellowed and faded fortune remains taped to my computer screen at work!

Enjoy and older Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir presentation with Damaris Carbough…

I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel

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I’ll Do It Myself!

When my heart says ‘I can do this on my own’, that old spirit of independence rises once again inside of me insisting that I don’t need anyone, because I am able to do this on my own. Maybe you have dealt with that little song in your head that the enemy likes to play so you won’t ask for help!

Matthew 1129I don’t know about you but I have a couple of generations of strong-minded, independent spirits in my family line and I have to say the line continues (much to my dismay.) Therefore, I now see that this isn’t where God desires for me would be. And to top it all off I see it as a huge stumbling block in coming to Christ. God must be amused when He sees us travailing in our own strength or frustrated because we have taken matters in our own hands instead of placing our situations into His. Paul gives us this wonderful Scripture in Philippians 4:13…

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

And this should be a reminder that we weren’t created to go it alone!

Think of a yoke and the purpose it serves…for two animals to be able to work as one. But an independent spirit rises up and says I don’t want to be yoked to anyone else. Then Jesus comes along and says to us…

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…” Matthew 11:29

Seems to me that Jesus encourages us to be yoked to Himself and by doing so we learn to not only be dependent upon Him but we also learn His character in the process! Click To Tweet And isn’t that where we should be on the ‘life journey’ we are traveling?

What is it that prevents you from asking for help whether from others or God?

So today, I am going to resist thinking I can do it myself and trust that God will provide a way in each situation that will accomplish not just getting the job done but also getting it done in His timing and His way. Today, I am going to lay down my pride, admitting that I do need help and that I can’t always do it on my own! As I have seen the freedom that comes in being conjoined to Jesus and allowing Him to work in and through me, I have asked why, why did I try doing this alone? And even, wow, I couldn’t do this on my own! We were meant to be dependent upon Him!

Lord, I can sure get in the way of all You desire to accomplish. Today I pray for those I know who are struggling to admit they need Your help. Thank You for the sweet freedom and peace that comes from letting go and allowing You to take the reins of my life. Let the outflow be a picture of peace as I willingly lean upon You in all things, in Jesus Name.

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Crying Out to God…

Psalm 18-6Have you ever been to a place either relationally, emotionally or physically where you have literally cried out to God?  I would suffice it to say that most of us have been in the throws of pain from either of the three mentioned catalysts where we hurt to the point that there is no other way but to cry out! We may not even know God intimately but use His name while really letting it fly…aloud, in hopes that relief will come, from somewhere!

This is not something new to me and every now and again I have to just let it out because there is no other way to get relief.  Not long ago I was in tremendous physical pain. I was uncomfortable standing, walking, sitting and laying down and I finally ‘cried out’ to my Father imploring relief from my pain.  I know that there were some friends out there praying for me and for that I was so grateful.  It was about fifteen minutes after I ‘cried out’ that the pain began to lessen and soon I could at least lie motionless without being in a constant state of misery. I was dealing with some sort of bulging disc issue that came about from doing something stupid. I knew the minute I made the motion that I was going to pay the price! Many of you  know how debilitating that can be!  I am not one who likes to use drugs but I was definitely using the Aleve that night but at one point even they seemed useless.

I woke up the next day feeling much better and hoped that this would somehow relieve itself.  But, all that to say that I am so grateful that God hears and responds to our cries of pain.  Look at these words from David in Psalm 18:6

In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help;

He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.

After looking up the many verses where the men of old ‘cried out’ to the Lord I was convinced that they knew where their source of help came from!  David however, topped them all for he was finding himself in predicaments all the time!  And in his quandary, he often turned to his God.  Remember, he learned this early on–being known as a young man who was after God’s own heart!

When we find ourselves in “dire straights”, you have some options, you can run to a friend (or friends,) try to fix the situation on your own, visit the doctor (don’t get me wrong, they have their place!) or you can cry out to the One who knows you inside and out.  He actually inclines His ear toward you that He might be the One you visit first!  As His children we are blessed to know the Father intimately so that in times of distress we can always turn to Him knowing that He hears our cries for help!

Abba Father, You are so good to Your children and I am sorry when I put You last on my list to ask for help. Thank You for showing me that I can run to You first because You care for my well being like none other.  Thank You for healing my pain and working in all situations for my good and to bring You glory!

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It’s All About Me…Really?

Words of affirmationClose your eyes, stop and think…random now…where does your mind drift off to? Honestly, I sure think most about me, my world, my home, family, problems and agendas and more ME! It kind of bugs ME to have a Me mindset. After all I share my home with others and thoughts of them tend to bring ME back around to ME. I rather think that this is a natural inclination, to be ME focused. However, as a woman of God, I am learning that this journey here on earth is NOT about ME!

I may have mentioned before that when I read Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love”, it totally rocked my world…forcing me to see outside of me, myself and I. That was a good thing! But I still struggle with myself and my little world rising to the surface. There are so many needs in this world that I become very overwhelmed when thinking about my part in helping others. And what I have found is to practice looking beyond self really starts right in my own home!

As a wife, I need to build into my husband the very elements that I myself desire. What wife doesn’t want a husband who is kind to them? So it is my responsibility to respond to him with kindness. But even when he can be unkind to me? Absolutely! Ask yourself when the last time you were genuinely kind to your spouse and remember how he reacted. Especially those times when you made the choice to respond to him with kindness and inside you were wanting to do likewise!

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. Proverbs 15:1,2

I love the verses above! What is on the tip of the tongue can sway a response every time! And making the choice to respond in kindness will always have an impact. You may not always see the response immediately but believe me it will percolate inside the recipients heart and soften instead of hardening that person’s response.

Do you find yourself sometimes wishing your spouse were gentler and kinder with his words? I have and do with my guy! He loves to be right and he loves to get me to react (and believe me, most times I do!) But I have tested this response thing and nine times out of ten, what I have found is that my gentle, kind response, diffuses his ire!

So here’s the challenge…purpose to respond differently than you would normally, put on that kindness and give it a try…see what happens and let me know how it has worked for you!

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Got Prayer?

Nyborg 0011I can think of too many times when I have thrown my hands up in the air and said,  “I just don’t know what to do!” My goodness, what a sorry statement that we all make at the times when God is right there waiting to help us in our predicament (no matter how small or large it may be.) It is all about retraining our thought process. We are not so, hopeless, helpless, defeated, whatever you want to call your situation that you cannot call out to God.

Do you need prayer? Right now is a perfect time to let God know what is going on in your heart. Stop your fretting and cry out to him and let Him hear your situation…nothing fancy, no special words or as simple as “help me Lord, I’m…”

One of the elements on this website is to be able to provide prayer support for you. Please know that it is okay to pray with a stranger who believes in the power of God to intervene in your circumstance. You can check out my prayer page and if there is anything you would like prayer for, I am here to pray for you and your situation.  So give it a shot and really, what do you have to lose? We are meant to pray for one another and share each other’s burdens. This is not a flashy ‘hear this’ kind of thing but a sincere and honest place to talk to the Father. God speaks pretty clearly about making prayer a big showy deal:

“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” the Message paraphrase

So how can I pray for you today?

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A Tested Faith

Do you have impossible situations in your life? I have had many! Why I have even come to the conclusion that some of my circumstances will never change.

I’ll be some of you know exactly what I’m talking about here! I pray for a situation but nothing ever seems to happen. When I ask I seldom see change. This is just feels like banging my head against the wall.

Am I not asking correctly? Is there a right and wrong way to ask for His help?

Have you heard the quip that says “Faith is like a muscle, and it has to be exercised regularly to become strong.” Since I work out I get that!

However, when my world is falling apart around me, my faith feels like those times you have been on the treadmill forever and you become very ‘weak in the knees’…a bit on the whimpy side. You see, it isn’t that I’m not asking but maybe I’m not believing that He hears me.

James, that leader of the church in Jerusalem and former disbeliever in Jesus as the Son of God, who may have even been his brother, sure had a turn around. And when it happened he even had the audacity to write this straight-forward book. And let me tell you, his words of truth have a bit of a bite to them.

Let’s just look at chapter 1:5-8 ESV

“ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Especially verse 6 which tells us that if we are going to ask we need to ask in faith and to ask without doubting which you too may have found happens when you ask of the Lord. That thread of doubt begins to weave itself in and out of your thoughts giving cause to be double-minded.

How Do I Strengthen My Faith?

So…how can I turn that around? I want to utilize what God has given me in the most difficult, and doubtful situations!

If my circumstance is a difficult husband (and I have had one!) How do I pray and believe that we can get through when butting heads? It seems so foolish to think just pray and watch God change him. However, when I pray, “God, I can’t change him, but I know You can. In the mean time please work on my heart.” I will began to see things loosen up.

We must be determined to see the situation with God’s eyes. God never deviates and He wants what is best for us and our situation. Things will change if we don’t get in the way of what He is doing, in His perfect timing.

I Want the Results Now…

Hold on with all your might to the truth above so that when you pray, those subtle and unsubtle threads of doubt will be cut off.

  • Continuing to pray it through, (and don’t stop) you will see things begin to change.
  • Don’t stop…
  • continue to thank God for the ‘impossible’ as you believe for change in the impossible!

Lord, I am blessed, blessed that you have my best interest always in mind. Let me see when I am like that man tossed to and fro, here and there without standing on the fact that You do hear and You are answering. Help me to get out of the way and teach me to patiently wait for Your answers to my impossibilities, in Jesus Name! 

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The Best Dad, Father, Pappa, Ever!

Father wounds are very painful and they can take a very long time to heal. We have been airing a program on our radio station that has naturally–because of upcoming Father’s Day–made father the focus. Rightfully so!

One day a year we can honor the man (in some of our lives) that served to be that marvelous example of love, provision, admiration and respect. As I said, in some of our lives. I think it is truly wonderful when people speak of their fathers with the utmost of respect and admiration. But on the other hand, there have been too many poor examples of that fatherhood role exhibited by those who claim the title of Father, Dad, Pop, Papa, etc.

I don’t mean to sound sarcastic about this, I really don’t, I am however standing in for those of us who either had poor examples of fatherhood inflicted upon them or didn’t have a father at all such as myself.

  • Did you have a father who was in the house but didn’t show his love for you?
  • Was your home dysfunctional where your father was missing or maybe you were afraid of him?
  • Maybe you were like me, no father in the picture at all that you can remember?

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Now listening to the gentleman on our program give the most illustrious talk about the man he looked up to and admired with the utmost of respect, his father, made me long for that missing link in my life. I get pretty teary-eyed to think that there can be an earthly man that fills that mold of ‘father’ so wonderfully as the speaker’s father did. Wow! The respect and admiration was more than evident as he shared of losing his father and spending those last days with his hero.

Okay, you are thinking what is this girl’s problem? Can’t she just be thrilled for a shining example of an earthly father. Really, I do think it is wonderful but my heart has been empty for the father that I longed for and never had. I always heard what a wonderful man he was but funny, that wonderful man couldn’t take care of my mother and me. I am repeatedly told I would have loved him as he was such a pioneer type, rugged and fun-loving…but I have only seen pictures of me with him as a baby and as a one-year-old.

I understand he came from a family of good fortune but mom went to work to support us because that great guy of a father couldn’t hold a job.When I wrote an aunt to find out some information about my father she told me he was a “disgrace to the family and poor excuse for a human being.” Wow, there was no love lost there! Needless to say, my image of this “wonderful” man was somewhat skewed and the whole scenario of fatherhood seemed quite a mystery to a little girl who remained curious and longing for what she thought others had and she did not.Line BreakIt took many years of very difficult circumstances for me to realize that I was looking for ‘love’ (father’s love) but that I was going at it all backwards. In my early 40’s my life took a ‘right’ turn by realizing that I had a root of bitterness that I wasn’t even aware of. And this thing had wrapped all around my heart. If unforgiveness is a stumbling block you might want to read this post on the Toxic Root of Bitterness.

It was 12 years earlier that I had opened myself to the gift of salvation and received Jesus Christ into my heart. But even that didn’t fill my empty heart (or so I thought.) A series of circumstances brought about by my pride, dysfunction and strong will found me miserable and ready to give it all up.

A father and his daughter!

It is remarkable to think that God had a different plan. And part of this journey was acknowledging that the pain in my heart was–for the most part–due to anger toward a man I never even knew. It is hard to fathom how someone you never knew could have such an impact on your life! It was in large part because of the “Freedom in Christ” ministry of Dr. Neil Anderson, that I was able to release that bitterness and begin to see that I really do have a perfect Father now. I still have twinges of longing for “God with skin” like when you want a great big hug from arms that can just pull you in and hold you. So you can snuggle your head into his chest and feel the comfort of all comforts only a daddy can provide. For now, that can’t be, but someday, I am going to run to my Abba Father, my Daddy and He is going to embrace me and never let me go.

“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” Psalm 68:5

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Friend, if you have that emptiness in your heart, a hole that just runs on empty because there was no father love to fill it up, I have an answer for you. Will you let the Father of all fathers begin to fill that hole with love that will begin to heal as a balm does on a wound? He is the Father to the fatherless, and He will never let you down, leave or forsake you! Cry out to Him right now, something just like this:

Father in heaven, I am longing to have this hole in my heart be healed. I have looked for love in all the wrong places and have paid dearly for my poor choices. I am so tired of running from one thing to another as I look for whatever it takes to keep the pain from overwhelming me. There are times when I just want to kill myself and be done with this life. As I look up to You, will you receive me just as I am and forgive me for doing my own thing as I searched for something to bring me happiness? Forgive me for the mess I have made of my life and help me to have a clean, new beginning with You. Thank you that by Your Son Jesus, I can come to You and You will hear me and answer and You won’t turn away from but will welcome me into Your family. I look forward to the plan that You have had for me since I was being formed in my mother’s womb and I am going to trust You to be my guide as I learn to love and live for You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

You will never regret making this new beginning. Welcome to the family of God, you are now a child of the Most High God! If you made the decision to receive the free gift of salvation will you let someone know? You can even let me know and I will do my best to send you something to help you on your new journey just email your response to kimberly@kimberlynyborg.com. You can read more about knowing Jesus over at Knowing the Father.

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