… REJOICE! Throw a party! Ask all your friends, rabbits and relations to come. Running out of the ability to try harder to be a good Christian is a good thing. CELEBRATE! 🎉🥳Father God loves it when we run out of self-effort, and we rely solely upon His goodness to get us through. I was struggling with my health this morning and I heard Him say: “Let’s do these things together. I’ll take the load, you just walk with Me.”  So today I want to talk about the things that can go unnoticed when we don’t have His eyes to see Him working behind the scenes, and let’s ask for eyes to see each other too.

I take some pretty fierce kinds of medicine. That means I don’t sort of – kind of, have to go to the toilet… I need to go now! As I am making my mad dash – which consists of something that looks more like Doctor Nefario in ‘Despicable Me,’ than Gout Gout on an athletic track setting yet another record … my dear hubby always helps and comforts me. This is a big deal at our house, he’s the poor sod that gets to clean up after me, so he’s definitely using his faith … right?? The Lord spoke to me about that: “Your husband is showing you what I am like. I will walk beside you teaching and comforting you, encouraging you, as well as urging you forward.”

The Lord never gives someone else the best, and you the left-overs. He is so BIG there is plenty to go around for everyone. Like I’ve said before – if we don’t got it, then we don’t need it. The bible reminds us over and over again: “His mercy endures forever.” He won’t withhold His mercy and grace from us, no matter what dumb thing we just did. We can always turn around and go back, and know that He will receive and help us. Trying to be what He already given us, for free, is a waste of the time we have been given. It is best to ask for His help early, rather than later, otherwise we can get frustrated. We also need to learn how to receive His help through others.

I am no longer able to do my own hair so it has become yet another thing my hubby has picked up to care for me … simply because I can’t. We need to take the time to notice these graces other people give us. This morning when I asked how my hair looked – hubby replied. “This side looks great, but the other side looks just like Doctor Emmet Brown’s hair from ‘Back to the Future.’ I laughed so hard. Get rid of suspicion, it ruins marriages.

My husband has arthritis in both of his thumbs. The thing is, thumbs are very useful things, so it is a big sacrifice for him to do my hair. Yet he does not resent helping me. On the other hand, because of that arthritis, every morning at our house is peppered by: ‘Crash! Bang!’ And then a disembodied voice echoes from the kitchen saying: “I’m ok, its alright! I haven’t broken anything.”  He can no longer hold things in his hands easily. This could be a negative thing, but God has helped us turn it into a point of laughter and identification.. Ask the Lord to help you focus on what’s good about things – because what we focus on gets bigger.

Sometimes we accidentally judge people by their negative traits – and focus on those things. “What’s good about it?” Is something I say a lot. There can also be times when we get a bit unhappy with the Lord, because He did not answer some important prayer we prayed, and now we are struggling with disappointment. That’s the time to remember that our God loves the greater good. Ask Him! “Please can You show me what the greater good is in this?” He will!

Because of ordinary times like this, I’ve learnt that this is what spouses do for spouses – I didn’t have parental examples. Meanwhile, we should not wait until our partner is tearing out their hair to help them. In our own immediate family, one family provider has taken every birthday, every special occasion, every illness — off from work, so they can be there for their loved ones. This person is also our standby carer if hubby has to do something he can’t avoid. It is no small thing. This person saves up their leave so they can be available to help us. That’s grace.

Lastly, the other day our grandson did the teenage thing and decided that hanging out with grandma and grandpa was not cool anymore. So hubby took himself off to the young man’s house, because we want him to know we love him … whether he wants to see us or not! Kids don’t always know what’s good for them, and we do things like this to demonstrate love. However, we don’t believe in only giving the little darlings whatever they think they want – we also give them what they need.

God is far more like that, than we are. Sometimes His people need to be chastised, the bible says He also does that for the people He loves. We need to stop deciding we know what’s best for me — and let Him oversee our lives. That’s what surrender means! When we run out of the ability to try, the Lord is always there, patiently waiting for us to turn to Him. Let’s start with Him and continue with Him, as we learn how to do things His Way. Bye 👋

Colossians 2:1-15: “Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, DESTROYING the power of sin,“