GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
Well, I have done the unthinkable! I have decided to go off social media…for now. Here’s why: First of all, nothing is wrong. I’m doing great! I just felt it would be a little weird for those who have received encouragement through my posts if I simply dissapeared without any explanation. Secondly, I am not […]
The post Why I’m Kissing Social Media Goodbye…For Now appeared first on Sandra McCollom.
Have you ever thought about the idea of blessings and curses? These words are seldom used these days, except as polite and impolite words we sometimes interject in our conversations with each other. The Bible takes the idea much further than that, telling us that people may live under a curse or a blessing. But what might that mean?
Some people think of witches and potions when they think of curses; and as for blessings, that's mostly about thinking nice thoughts. That's not what they're about, though, and the difference is important.
Paul, the author of much of the New Testament penned this to the sophisticated people of Ephesus in the first century.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3)
Jesus Christ, our representative before the Father, has been blessed fully and eternally. All available blessings have been conferred upon Him. Jesus followers are "in Christ," so God's forecast for them is bright and sunny. It is full of blessings.
Should we then be concerned about living under a curse? Alan Wright says, "a curse is not so much a magical spell whipped up in a witch's pot, as it is the voice of fear forecasting [things that are] opposite from the word of God."
Though we who are in Christ are not cursed, we can live as those who are by believing something contrary to God's word concerning us. When we make conclusions based on fear instead of trust, we will be inclined to forecast a future that features calamity and conspiracy.
For instance, when the people of Israel confronted the promised land, they were told by God through Moses that it was theirs for the taking. They sent out spies to see what was there and how they would go about taking what God had given. Most of the spies came back with fear; they concluded that they would fail if they tried. When the people believed that fearful report, they chose the curse of its fulfillment. When Joshua and Caleb believed the promise of God in the face of daunting circumstances, they moved ahead under blessing.
What then is God's forecast for His people in Christ?
Your faith is evidence of God's election and His eternal love being expressed to you. His mercy has been bestowed upon you. Jesus "became sin" so that you could be His righteousness. He set you apart as His chosen vessel to display His glory through you. He has given you His life so that you could enjoy Him as He enjoys you. He sees you as His child and delights in your success in fulfilling your calling. He has made you an heir to His entire estate. He has already gone into the heavens to establish your place there. He has conquered death to free you to live now with trusting abandon. He has allotted necessary grace for each stage of your life and every circumstance on your journey.Thanksgiving was just a couple days ago, but the time to embrace your blessing with thanks is still now. Refuse the report that comes from fear. Keep your external and internal conversation consistent with His proclamation.
In Christ we are blessed, because He took the curse. The giants may appear imposing, but the forecast is sunny.
People can’t read your mind and they don’t know what’s in your heart. That means you have to communicate what you’re thinking and feeling, especially to those you love and work with and definitely with your family.
Often when we attempt to communicate we do it through frustration, fear and pain from the past. We can learn to put people first and learn to value people. If we seek to preserve relationship first we will express what’s on our our hearts and minds in love and respect.
This series will give you a solid method for communication to leave people feeling valued and loved for the purpose of maintaining healthy relationships.
Message Titles
The post Do people feel valued and respected after communicating with you? appeared first on Forward Ministries.
When you face seemingly impossible situations you can trust the God of the impossible to see you through…it’s a promise!
I hope this short video blog brings you encouragement!
If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!
Sandra McCollom
First thing I want to say is Thank You All For Your Prayers in regards to my health situation that I talked about in my last post, Going Through A Trial? Here’s Some Encouragement!
Since that post was published on February 18th, I have received a major breakthrough!
If you have not had a chance to read that post I encourage you to do so before you read this one. I linked it above for your convenience.
As I mentioned in that blog post, I have been dealing with paresthesia for probably the past 6 weeks. In addition to this, I’ve had neck pain, jaw pain, ringing in my left ear that seems to be getting louder, bouts of nausea with the neck pain, periods of disorientation, headaches (which I almost never get) and so, so, so much trouble focusing and concentrating.
As I have continued to do the things I recommended to you in that blog post I have received a breakthrough in regards to my health!
I’ve had a history on and off with iron deficiency, but several years ago my doctor recommended a supplement called Iron Complex from Integrative Therapeutics. I wasn’t currently taking this supplement, but as my symptoms became worse and worse I began taking it again one week ago. The difference in the way I felt within just 24 hours was so significant.
The first thing I noticed is that I could think again. Wow, was that nice!
I’m thrilled to say that at this point almost all of the symptoms I was experiencing have been greatly reduced.
Oh, and I didn’t even tell you that whatever was going on with my health seemed to be attacking my nervous system. Especially over the past couple of weeks, before I started taking the Iron Complex, I had felt an increasing amount of nervousness, to the point where, on several occasions, I basically flipped out. Not that I haven’t flipped out before in my lifetime because I certainly have, but this was different. I knew something was really wrong. I was getting overwhelmed so easily from feeling like there was too much information coming at my brain. Believe me, I was NOT myself. It was a horrible feeling.
In fact, 2 weeks ago while driving my girls to Friday night church I was having one of my flip out sessions. I was having a super hard time feeling overwhelmed and even screamed out on the way, I don’t want to go to church. I don’t want to do this. Those of you who know me know how much I love my church and actually count down the hours until church every week, so this was not normal behavior.
It’s funny now, looking back on it and remembering how I was acting, but it sure wasn’t funny at the time. In fact, I even threatened to not go into church and just sit in my car in the church parking lot while my girls were in their middle school class. I knew I wasn’t really going to do that, but I came close.
Right in the middle of my meltdown I asked my girls (who were sitting in the back seat hearing all of this) to pray for me. My daughter Angel prayed the most beautiful prayer over me. I’m getting choked up right now as I type this, recalling her prayer.
CeCe Winans was at our church that night leading worship and oh my goodness, that’s exactly what I needed. I needed to worship God right in the middle of my storm. Indeed, God answered Angel’s prayer that night as well as my own. The only thing I could manage to get out of my mouth before I walked into the church was, God, please help me. Please give me a breakthrough tonight!
It was not an immediate breakthrough, but only one week after that awesome night of worship I’m thankful to be able to sit here and type that the nervousness and feeling of being overwhelmed is now completely gone. I am so relieved to be feeling like myself again.
This coming Monday I am scheduled to get an MRI of my c-spine. After my symptoms started decreasing I prayed about if I should cancel my MRI or not, but I did not feel led to cancel it. I am still having some symptoms and I feel it’s wisdom to go ahead and get the test done as I probably needed this test several years ago.
And the good news is, I’ve already had an MRI and an MRA of my brain to check for tumors and aneurysm’s in conjunction with the ringing in my left ear and both tests came out perfectly fine. Praise Jesus!
I also went to my regular doctor last week and explained everything to him, including how much the Iron Complex seemed to be helping me. I had only been seeing my chiropractor for this issue up to that point. In fact, he is the one sending me for the MRI. But my regular doctor sent me for a blood test and I am waiting for those results. He also wrote a prescription out for me to get a type of physical therapy called Myofacial Release which I start in a couple of weeks.
So, I’m not all the way there yet, but as you can see, God is bringing me through and God is Who I give all the glory to! God may have used an iron supplement to help me and I believe He is leading me to get this Physical Therapy, but, no matter who or what He chooses to use, it is God who gives the breakthrough!
Someone may say, Sandra, since you still have some symptoms, how can you title this blog post Major Breakthrough? Believe me, if you knew how bad off I was, you would know why I feel like I have received a major breakthrough…and besides, my total breakthrough is on it’s way!
As I said in my post last week, when we continue to trust God in the midst of our trials, He will work everything together for our good. It’s a Biblical promise.
I have actually had issues with my neck and jaw for years now, although the pain was greatly elevated recently. I have also had ringing in my left ear for a little over a year. So some of the symptoms I am experiencing have been around for a while, BUT you better believe this girl is not giving up for anything. Healing is mine. Jesus already paid for it and He said It Is Finished.
I told my Mom the other day, wouldn’t it be cool if I got this physical therapy and it not only took care of my current set of health issues, but also resolved the longstanding problem with my neck pain, jaw pain and the ringing in my ear?
That’s what I’m believing for. In fact, I’m convinced that God will once again take what the devil intends for my harm and turn it around and work it all together for my good!
My trust in God has really grown over the past 4 years, since I have come into a revelation of His grace. I’ve begun to play a little game when I have trials. When I do, I immediately think, Oh my goodness, I cannot wait to see what good God is going to work out of this situation. And guess what? GOD NEVER FAILS. Every single solitary time I go through a trial I am able to look back and clearly see all the ways in which God has worked on my behalf. I’ve already seen it over this past week and know that I will continue to watch God bring me through to a complete breakthrough and actually to a place of being better off than I was before!
I invite you to play this game along with me. What shall we call it? The Believing God Game? The Trusting in Jesus Game?
Regardless of what we name it, let’s determine that no matter what the devil tries to attack us with, we will never stop believing in God’s goodness, love and grace toward us!
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13 (NASB)
Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. – Hebrews 11:1 (AMP)
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
– Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)
Overhearing what was being said, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; only keep on believing [in Me and my power].” – Mark 5:36 (AMP)
No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.
– Isaiah 54:17 (NKJV)
For when we believe we enter God’s rest. (see Hebrews 4)
If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!
Sandra McCollom
I was singing the song Jesus Loves Me by Anna B. Warner the other day. As I was singing in first person, this one line really stood out to me: We Are Weak, But He Is Strong. I’ve been singing this all week long and loving it!
Recently, after watching one of my TV interviews, a Christian woman asked me why I get to live in peace and wanted to know where her peace was. I love being asked these types of questions because it forces me to think through my answers and I learn a lot in the process. Questions from other people about my grace journey have actually been a major help to me.
Here is a portion of my answer to her question:
I believe God created each person with a free will because He loved us so much that He didn’t want to have robots that served Him and loved Him because they were forced to. With free choice came the option to choose good or evil. Even though I was a Christian, I chose the wrong path for many, many years by choosing to rely on myself and my own effort and by trying to solve my problems without God’s help. This approach to life left me very anxious and frustrated – almost constantly. I believe the reason I now live in the peace that passes understanding that the Bible talks about is because I chose to give up on my own self effort and I told God that I was done trying to live this life in my own strength. When I made the choice to receive His Great Grace and came to the understanding that only through Him was I going to be able to successfully live the Christian life, His peace came over me and it has never left. Just like me, the way you’ll know if you’re trusting in God instead of trying to figure things out on your own and working everything out in your own strength is that you will have peace, even when all of your circumstances are not lining up correctly. You’ll have peace in the midst of the storm. You’ll find yourself relying on God’s ability instead of your own to solve your problems. Now, this doesn’t mean there will be nothing for you to do in regards to your specific circumstances and situations, but whatever actions you take, they need to be Spirit-led actions and not self-led actions.
I’m happy to say that my reply to her question encouraged her. Thank God!
I’ve posted it here with the hope that it will encourage many others as well.
Let me make one clarification to my response: Of course, what I said to her doesn’t mean I’m living in perfect peace 100% of the time because there are still times when I choose to trust in myself and my own ability to solve my problems instead of trusting in God and receiving His grace for the situation at hand. But life has become pretty simple now for my family and I because when things begin to get chaotic, we simply stop and ask ourselves several questions:
1.) In what area are we not trusting God that is causing this anxiety and frustration?
2.) In what area are we doing our own thing instead of following the leadership of the Holy Spirit?
We’re convinced that the Holy Spirit would never lead us into chaos so if our lives begin to get chaotic, that’s a sign to us that we haven’t taken the time needed to hear God’s heart in one area or another.
There’s an extreme amount of safety in remembering:
WE ARE WEAK…BUT HE IS STRONG
There’s also an extreme amount of danger in us putting confidence in our own flesh.
I love these scriptures that remind me of this truth.
In Philippians 3:3-4 Paul says,
3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! (NLT)
Have you ever heard someone say “Jesus is just a crutch?”
Ha! No way: Jesus isn’t just my crutch. For me, He’s the entire hospital AND everything in between!
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says,
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” (MSG)
So let’s sing it out my friend. Let’s sing it loud and clear:
We Are Weak, But He Is Strong!
If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!
Sandra McCollom
We believe we encountered a miracle yesterday!
Our twin girls had our two Maltese puppies, Bella and Sophie, out in the backyard. We recently had a fence put in for a number of reasons, one of them being so the puppies could enjoy running freely outside. They absolutely love it and get extremely excited when we say, “Do you want to go outside?” They run around the house from room to room until we open the door. When we do, they bolt outside and run as fast as they can to get to the main part of the yard! They run as if it was the race of the century!
One of the things people love to do around here in Missouri and Illinois is visit Eckert’s Orchard and pick peaches, strawberries, apples or pumpkins, depending on which time of the year you go. They have lots of other family-friendly activities there as well, including pig races. Those little pigs are so stinkin’ cute. The way Bella and Sophie bolt out the door reminds me of those pigs bolting out of the starting gate as they race each other to the finish line. Ha – I bet Bella and Sophie could give them a run for their money too!
When installing the type of fence we purchased the company has to install them a little bit off the ground, but not enough for a puppy to get out… in most cases. We just happen to have a few places under the fence where we have extra deep dips in our yard. We knew we needed to do something about this potential problem so Bella and Sophie wouldn’t try to get out, but we hadn’t got to that project yet. Our girls always stay out in the yard with Bella and Sophie anyway because our Veterinarian said they are small enough that there is a chance they could be picked up by a hawk. NOT HAPPENING!
Even though we have had our puppies out in the back yard quite a bit over this past month and they hadn’t even attempted to escape underneath the fence, yesterday they decided to be extra adventurous during a very short period of time when our girls, Angel and Starr, were looking in the other direction. They got out.
I heard the girls yelling their names over and over again and quickly ran outside to see what was going on. Clearly the puppies were not in the yard, but we didn’t know exactly where they got out; therefore, we didn’t have a clue where to start searching. Our house backs up to woods on two sides which can make finding two 7 pound puppies even more complicated.
Even though the situation was serious and we needed to get out there and start searching, instead of just launching out in our own efforts I said to the girls, let’s stop right now, pray and ask God for help. We have an opportunity here to trust in Him.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says,
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek His will in all you do,
and He will show you which path to take. (NLT)
Can you believe it says that? He will show you which path to take! Wow. I got so excited when I looked up this verse tonight and saw that phrase. That’s exactly what we needed God to do for us yesterday and that’s exactly what we all need God to do for us every single day. And He will when we trust in Him, depend on Him, refuse to lean on our own understanding and seek His will instead of our own.
The emotional part of us three girls wanted to run out there and find our puppies and we wanted to do it immediately, but I’m so thankful to the Holy Spirit for prompting me to stop, pray and believe God.
We headed out the side gate and walked back into the woods and started searching all around that area. We called “Bella”…”Sophie” over and over again. Nothing. We were each looking in different areas because we had no idea where they could be.
The possibilities were so numerous: By this time they could be lost in the woods either behind our house or lost in the even larger area of woods (one acre) on the left side of our home. For all we knew they could have made their way to the front yard and been close to the road that runs in front of our house. They could have made their way to our neighbors property on our right or the large neighborhood that is close by.
While searching, I walked by a sewer and knew I couldn’t entertain the lie the devil tried to convince me of right then. What if they fell down that sewer? If they did, they’ll be dead for sure. I purposely ignored him and kept walking.
I’ll never forget what my pastor, Jeff Perry, said at Friday night church several years ago. He said, “Faith is just reliance on how good God is.” This is what was going through my mind during the search and what I was encouraging my girls to remember as well. Instead of imagining the worst case scenario, especially after 10 minutes had gone by and we still hadn’t found Bella and Sophie, I just kept praying in the Spirit and saying, God, You know where they’re at. Thank you for helping us. Thank you for watching over our puppies.
I was screaming from across several yards to the girls every so often and reminding them, “I know this doesn’t look good at this point, but keep believing. Don’t worry. Trust God. He will help us find them!”
Thankfully, Starr finally found Bella at the entrance of the woods and then about 5 minutes later Angel found Sophie down this hill in the woods laying right next to another sewer.
Had she had just a little bit more time to be a little more curious Sophie could have fallen into that sewer, but she didn’t.
Either puppy could have been picked up by a hawk, but they weren’t.
Any number of animals could have attacked them, but they didn’t.
They could have been bitten by a snake, but that wasn’t the case.
They could have made their way to the front yard, ran out into the road and been hit by a car and killed, but that didn’t happen.
We definitely don’t credit ourselves for rescuing our puppies. We credit God for showing us which path to take and for keeping them safe in the meantime! Needless to say, Bella and Sophie will not be going back out into the yard without their harnesses on until we get the problem solved.
Here’s the most recent picture we took of our Sophie Bear and Bella Cakes, as Starr and Angel have so lovingly nicknamed them!
If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!
Sandra McCollom