A Time of Mourning, Once Again...

Good evening friends.    We gather here again with a heavy heart and a face stained with tears.    It is becoming all to familiar.    It is heartbreaking at best.    There are no words that can explain what has happened and is happening in the hearts of people all across this nation.    It is just absolutely heartbreaking.    I just wonder what goes thru God's mind when He sees His creation, us, behaving as badly as some are now.    I try real hard to be able see both sides of the issue.    I just wonder, does God see us, His creation as different colors?    He created all of us.    He didn't make mistakes.    Does He see us as different colors or does color matter to Him?     I have to believe that all lives matter to God.   I have a hard time believing that color matters to Him.     Scripture tells me that God looks past the surface, or color, and He looks at my heart.     What is the motive of my heart?    That's what God looks at.    I believe that with every fiber of my being.    Is the motive of my heart to hurt people?     Is the motive of my heart to be peaceful and a peacemaker?  My motives will eventually come to light.    God sees them instantly, but some times it takes a little time for my true motives to show themselves.     I have never had a hard time finding trouble.    I don't know about anyone else, but I can just stumble into it quite easily.    I try to live my life based on God's calling upon my life.     As a believer in all that Christ has done for me, I have been set apart to do the will of God.     If you are a believer, you too, have been set apart for the calling that God has on your life.    God has not set the lost apart or called them to a different life style, but He has believers.    If you are reading this, you know whether you are a believer in Christ Jesus or not.    If you are a believer, then some of this will make sense to you.    If you are not a believer, then this is just another bunch of mumbo jumbo to you.    You may even see me as being judgmental or trying to be scary, I'm not, on either account.   Christ said He didn't come for the perfect people or those who see no fault in themselves or those that don't need Him or the pharisees, but He came for those who know they need His help.    I am here to tell you that I need His help on a minute by minute basis.    I need His help with every breath I take.     I pray for more and more people to admit that they need His help.    This world is not working out for me, it just isn't.    This world is not my home.    I am an alien here.    I am a sojourner.     I am a foreigner in a strange land.    What about you?    Is this world your home or are you looking past the temporal to the eternal?    It seems with each and every passing day, I am looking more intently to the eternal.    I hope and pray that you are too.    I hope and pray that in the coming days I can get on my face before God and call on Him to give me the courage to face the uncertain days that I live in and try to be a peacemaker instead of peace breaker.     Why do I do what I do?     What are the motives behind what I do?    When I leave my home and enter the market place, am I going with the intent to hurt or harm someone or am I going with God directing my path and my heart?     My motives will be made known.    At some point and time, I have to step up and claim my own actions.    What about you my brothers and sisters in Christ, are we going to claim our actions and behavior and confess as sin whatever is not in God's will for us?    Is anything in my or your motives adding to the recent hate filled and hurt filled activities taking place all over this nation?    If it is, we need to get an attitude adjustment before more lives are snuffed out for absolutely no reason other than self centered sin.    My heart breaks for all of the ones that have lost their lives through sin related behavior.    My heart breaks for all the families that now have an empty seat at the dinner table.    My heart breaks for all the children who will not have both parents to love them and discipline them.   My heart breaks for all the hurt that is taking place.    There are a lot of places that I don't have to go.    There are a lot of things that I don't have to do.    Change.     Change.     Change.   I don't like change, I really don't.    But, I/we need to have a change of heart.    Does anyone agree?  There is only one place that we can get that change, it is from God, through the shed blood of Christ on the Cross!!!!!!    The foot of the Cross is level for all of us.    It's level for the church goer and the drug addict.    It's level for the guard and the prisoner.    It's level for this nation and every other nation.   The foot of the cross is where we find mercy, love, and grace.    I do pray that we will seek mercy, love, and grace.    When we make that initial step toward the cross, mercy comes running!!!!!    

This is just another time of journaling for me to sort my heart out and I felt led to share it with y'all.    When something is heavy on my heart, this is how God helps me deal with it.   I try to share with y'all and be as real as I possibly can.    So, this was something that God urged me to share.    If it comes off that I am being critical, I am not being critical of anyone but myself.    I'm not even trying to be critical of myself.   This is how God helps me sort thru and get some sense of what is happening in our world and I hope it helps you too.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, I pray for better days to come and for clear heads and hearts to prevail.     God is good all the time!    All the time God is good!    Amen!!!!

No matter how bad it gets, remember that God loves y'all and I do too.   Till next time, lean in just a bit closer to God and He will sustain you.    hugs and love, Patty