Promise and Provision by Cheryl Wyatt

Hello all! Sorry this is a little late going up today. It's been a busy (but fun!) weekend with kids and sports tournaments. I love watching them play! 

This morning, I was scrolling through Facebook, as I often do in the morning, to see if there were any prayer needs I could bring to God. I kept running into memes with the above verse. I heard it 4 or 5 times this morning, and several times last week. 

Any time I hear or see a verse more than once in a short amount of time, I know God is speaking that verse to me as a promise. Sometimes the promises apply to something I've just been through. Sometimes the promise speaks to a current situation or struggle in my life or faith. 

But often, God gives me a promise from scripture to prepare me for something in the future. 

I made this meme today, for me, as well as for you. There was a point in my Christian walk when I'd hear a verse like this and freak out and immediately become fearful of whatever was coming down the pike to warrant this promise. Today, by the grace of God, as I received this promise of God, I felt peace and joy, and even a giddy anticipation, over this promise. 

I'm not worried about the days to come. I'll be with God. I'm safe! 

I. Will. Be. With. You. 

WOW! The living God-the Everlasting King, The Creator of all creation, the Ruler of Nations-will be with me. 

Guys, my heart leaps because NOTHING trumps that. Nothing! The nearness of God is my good and, even if aspects of the future are terrifying or unpleasant or whatever negative connotation my prone-to-worrying mind can conceive, nothing that happens to me can diminish the joy of the promise of God's presence. That he wants to be with us is amazing. That he longs to be with us is amazing. That he pursues to be with us is amazing. That he died to be with us-amazing. 

I thank the Lord that He has helped me not to fear what is ahead. If you knew me and my propensity toward worry/anxiety/fear, you'd know what a miracle that is. My heart and my mind are focused on the fact that HE WILL BE WITH ME. The Living God-with me! Whatever it is-he will take care of it. He knows my future. He is in control. He is GOOD. He's a good God who delights in drawing near to his people, his beloved children. 

I don't have to go looking for him. He promises to BE RIGHT THERE WITH ME. Not on the sidelines looking on or cheering me on. He will literally be with me. Literally. My mind can scarcely fathom that. Knowing and being close to God-there is nothing better, nothing I'd want more-and I thank God for that. 

And, whatever it is, whatever I'm facing, this promise is proof that he will protect me. I'm safe no matter what. How wonderful that God himself will see to my (your!) wellbeing. What a wonderful God we have! There is no one greater,  no one kinder, no one more powerful or compassionate or loving. He deals with us in mercy-and grace-and lovingkindness or minds can't comprehend. 

So glad! Thank you, Lord! I'm so eternally grateful that he is a God of provision and promise. 

He never breaks his promises. We can be sure. 

What verse have you been hearing or seeing a lot lately? Hold on to the promise. He's faithful! 

Love you all! 

Thanks for stopping by...and for bearing with my lateness in getting this post up. 

Blessings,

Cheryl Wyatt

Construction Disarray by Cheryl Wyatt

So, this week my husband and I had birthdays. His was on February 15th and mine February 14th-Valentines Day :-) ).


We'd been planning to get rid of our carpet since we have a plethora of allergy and asthma sufferers in our house. What better time than our birthdays to rip the carpet out and put vinyl flooring down? LOL!

As my husband and our helpers were cutting, sawing, ripping, dragging old layers out, my house fell into construction chaos and all kinds of disarray. We had to misplace all of the furniture to get to the floor, and of course with construction comes tons of tools and gadgets and pieces and parts.

So the living room looked like this:




And this:

And this: 

And this: 

It occurred to me as I stepped around various scattered piles of disarray that with construction it seems like things have to get really messy before they get really glossy. I wondered why I, being slightly OCD that I am, wasn't getting more upset about the disorder littering my home.

This is when it hit me: the mess usually comes before the masterpiece and deconstruction sometimes precedes construction. This is true in home construction and renovation, and it's true in the building of our character.

Sometimes when we look our messiest, God is at work on the most important parts of us. Perfection came at a cost, and the cross, smudged with His blood, is a beautiful messy reminder that even when it looks and feels like we're finished, he's not finished with us, and yet he proclaimed, "It is finished."

Jesus spoke both in retrospect and in the future and those words will manifest in all believers one day. He won the victory for us on a dirty road where his aching feet walked and his abraded shoulders bore the mess and shame of our sin.

There, in the mess, I see images of what the floor will look like when finished. In the meantime it isn't so beautiful, until I learned to look past the mess and see it as the process to perfection instead. We'd do well to offer ourselves and one another the same courtesy of grace as we grow.

I hope you are encouraged today that God is capable of changing us. If you feel stripped or laid bare or rearranged or broken to pieces, surrender. Let him do his magnificent work. You are the masterpiece that Jesus died for. You are worth it, for it was at our messiest that Love came in.

Often things look worse before they get better, but God is always working behind the scenes. For everyone who feels broken or in pieces or torn apart or alone, I pray that you feel his loving, renovating, restoring presence in such a profound way that it overpowers your pain.

Blessings,
Cheryl Wyatt

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When Holidays are Hard by Cheryl Wyatt

Good morning everyone. I hope all of you had a wonderful time with your loved ones at Christmas. This year was a little easier on our family than the past two years, because we'd just lost my grandmother one year, then the other the next year right before Christmas. Moods were definitely dampened, and yet we were all keenly more aware of the gift of having one another as opposed to things.

This year it felt easier to get into the Christmas spirit and we found ourselves laughing more than crying as we told stories of my grandmothers from Christmases past. How about you? Have you faced a loss or are you enduring a hardship that makes the holidays hard on you?

I hope you will let us know so we can lift you up. Prayer is a gift that I'm enormously grateful to both have and receive. If you don't feel comfortable sharing your struggle in the comment section, please feel free to request prayer at cheryl@cherylwyatt.com.

Jesus is the best gift of all, and I love that he left us examples of how and what to pray. Not just The Lord's Prayer, but also prayers like his prayer in John Chapter 17. That prayer was meant for not only his immediate disciples, but also for his future disciples...which is us...me and you if you believe.

Having a hard time with Christianity? I pray a special touch from God this season that will last forever. God isn't finished with your story. He wrote himself into it and I pray you open your heart to all he is and all he has for you, including hope that will never fade or die. His love for you is not dependent on what you do or don't do and his peace is life-changing and his hope everlasting.

I pray for you this year the gift of knowing Him. Of knowing Jesus as Lord, Savior, Friend, Spouse, Confidant, Provider, Healer, Wisdom-giver, Lavish Mercy-maker, Loving Father, Comforter, Hope-giver, Peacemaker, Powerful King, Joy-infuser, Victory-maker, Hurt-taker, Burden-carrier, Chin-lifter, Heart-healer, Lie-dissolver, Encourager and the million other things he is and does.

May you go into the new year knowing him more intimately and more accurately than ever. He loves you. My gift is to tell you that and to pray with all my heart that you know it, share it, show it.

Love you all,
Cheryl Wyatt

STRADDLING THE PICKET FENCE OF FRIENDSHIP

While our youngest son was home from college for the weekend, he asked me how many true friends I have. When one’s eighteen-year-old, who is exploring his new world away from home, asks something like that, the writer puts down her pen and settles into a verbal, son-initiated (gasp!) conversation. I treasured every minute of our hour-long exchange. It took me back years to a ladies Sunday school class where I found myself straddling the fence—of the picket variety, with spear-like points that make one intensely uncomfortable. On one side of the fence was my reaction to the topic of “friendship,” as introduced by the story of Ruth and Naomi: Friends are all good and well, I thought, but one must be cautious. On the other side of that fence was the thought: How wonderful to have a “to the ends of the earth friend” like Ruth. It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends and wasn’t a friend. It’s that my introverted personality, combined with painful experiences as a teenager, made me cautious with the depth of friendship. And so I continued to straddle the fence until our leader, a beautiful, God-breathing woman, demonstrated what the Lord intended when he commanded us to love one another.

She asked if one of our ladies would read a passage from the book of Ruth and pause after each sentence. Then she knelt before a surprised lady and, with each pause between sentences, put Ruth’s words into her own words while holding the woman’s gaze with an intensity that made me duck my head behind my Bible (I do not do drama).

Ruth 1:16-17: Don’t force me to leave you. Don’t make me turn back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and I will be buried there with you. May the Lord strike me down if anything but death separates you and me!” (God’s Word Translation)

After the second sentence, I peeked at the scene. Back to my Bible. Deep breath. Another peek. A glance at the floor. My, I mused, I really ought to repaint my toenails. Maybe one more peek. That last time, I made it through the end of our leader’s demonstration without looking away. And when she rose before the speechless, visibly moved recipient, it was obvious we were all affected. I was awed…and touched…and needy. At the risk of vulnerability, I had to get off the fence on the side of Ruth. Not that I was ready to toss out the teabag tag I had been holding onto for years that quotes sixteenth-century Diane de Poitiers: To have a good enemy, choose a friend; he knows where to strike. But the reminder to never allow a friend too near didn’t belong on my refrigerator door. Baby steps…

That was years ago, and I continue to take baby steps with friendship, but what joy to look back and see all those steps have added up to strides. We’re commanded to love one another, and so I continue to work toward gaining friends—and being a friend—like Ruth. We should all be so blessed and a blessing to others.