Good morning Blessed Ones of Christ. January 3rd of 2022 has found us with some snow this morning and freezing temps. It finally feels like winter here in my neck of the woods. But I'm not complaining about that at all. Now, it feels like winter and I'm not complaining about that either. I was actually thinking about getting some seeds started on Saturday, so I'm happy that was just a fleeting thought. I knew winter was around the corner. I will start some seeds around the middle to the end of January. I can't wait to get my hands dirty again. And see some green life starting to grow again. I'm honestly not much of a gardener, but I do love seeing how God helps me and blesses my efforts. So, I'm looking forward to another year of trying to grow more. As usual, I plant and pray, and I pray for God to bless my efforts. He is faithful!!! I can count on that.
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The new year is here. I quit making resolutions years ago, because no sooner than I made one, I broke it. So I felt like I was lying to myself and to God. So what I have been doing is letting God show me what He wants me to focus on for the year. Sometimes I share with others what my focus word for the year is, and sometimes I don't. It just depends on how personal it is. As I was praying before going to sleep last night, God gave me the words. They kept being the words that was just coming from my mouth about Him. That's when I knew what my words for the year would be.
Power and Strength. Those are the words that kept coming over and over last night while praying. His power and strength, not mine. If you want a good Bible Study, just do a quick search on "the power and strength of God". You will find out just how awesome our God is.
As I was praying, I kept seeing my weakness in everything. But I also kept seeing how God goes before me. If I put my faith and trust in Him, then He is my power and strength. I think the last 2 years have shown me just how miserable the human race is and can be. It has shown me that not everyone who professes Christ, really know Him. It has shown me that we can fool some of the some of the time, but we can't fool God at all. A lot of people have fooled a lot of us, but they haven't fooled God. I ask God to help me keep my eyes open and stay focused on Him. And to let Him be the filter in which I view things. If someone says things and then acts differently to what they say, I want God to show me what I need to see. I need to view the world around me thru the filter of God's view. If I don't do that, I will fall victim to the wolves in sheep's clothing.
There is no power or strength in me at all. This is what God keeps showing me. All power and strength comes from Him alone. There is no other source. There are lots of self help gurus and some even claim to be preachers that tell you, you are the bees knees, you are your own strength, you have the power to overcome, you have the power to achieve, you have to power to change your life, you have the power to achieve great things, you are special, you are in charge of your destiny. It's all about you you you you you and nothing about God. When we take God out of the mix of our lives, that's when we fall for the lies of the enemy. We easily succumb to the enemy. When we live for self, we are living in dangerous territory. God has shown me thru the study of His word, that my life is not mine. It's His. I can't live this life of mine without Him at the forefront. Life has changed a lot over the last 2 years. People that I thought were life long friends, are no longer in my life. But God is there. He hasn't waivered one little bit. Scripture tells me that there is no shadow of turning in God. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He's not going anywhere.
So, while I face 2022 on what I call shaky ground, God is here. He goes before me. He opens my eyes to see and ears to hear. In my powerlessness and weakness, God is my power and strength. I can't make it one breath without Him sustaining me.
So, as I face 2022, I pray that God will show me more of His power and strength. I believe He will. And I hope He allows me to share about some the ways He does this in the year ahead. Even if He doesn't show me anything, even if He doesn't provide, even if He doesn't meet my needs, He is still great and greatly to be praised. I will praise Him. I will praise Him. I will praise Him. That is my goal for 2022. I will praise my Redeemer. I will lift His name high. Lord help me in this endeavor, to allow you to be my complete power and strength. I submit to Your power and authority over my life. I also live with great anticipation of seeing Your Hand in all that I do. I pray that each day reflects You in my life. Thank You Father for what You are doing right now and for what You are going to do in the days ahead.
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So, I just wanted to share an experiment with y'all. My husband had mentioned "banana pudding". Well, I got to thinking about that. I knew I didn't have any bananas, or did I? No fresh bananas, but I did have some dehydrated bananas. Challenge on. How do you make a banana pudding with dehydrated bananas? I set out to find out how to do it my way. I had a box of mini vanilla wafers, 4 vanilla pudding cups and a box of cool whip. I got my jar of dehydrated bananas and got about 25 or 30 slices of dehydrated bananas and broke them up in bowl and poured boiling water over them and let them set for a while, then added a little more water. I wanted them to have a little extra liquid so they would thin the pudding down some. I popped them in the fridge to cool them down. I then mixed the pudding cups with rehydrated bananas and then added some cool whip, next I added in the vanilla wafers. got it all mixed up and put it in the bowl, put the rest of the cool whip on top and crumbled a few of the vanilla wafers on top. let me just say this. No, it's not a banana pudding made from scratch, but it is VERY good. No more of the banana slices than I used, it is very banana tasting. It's good and it won't be the last time I make this. I see more dehydrated bananas in the near future. I'm always thinking about ways to use my dehydrated goodies and I hope y'all are always thinking about how to use your goodies too. Sometimes we have to think outside the box. It was better the next day, as the flavors had more time to really come out of the bananas into the rest of the mixture.
This is a jar of my dehydrated bananas. they are so good.
This is what my finished banana pudding looked like.
This is a side view of the banana pudding.
If you dehydrate produce, look for more ways of incorporating your bounty into your every day life. We need to use it. We need to look for ways to add those lovely nutrients to food and let our bodies be the benefactor of all that goodness. Granted, a banana pudding wasn't the best use of my dehydrated bananas, but it still was a way of using what I had. I don't make a lot of desserts just because we don't need them. But a little bit, every once in a while, hopefully it won't hurt too much.
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Well, that's about all I have today. I pray that your New Year will be a wonderful time to start fresh with a new commitment in living your life with God being the determining factor in all that you say and do. I hope and pray as the year rolls on that He shows me more and more about His power and strength in my life. He is faithful. I hope you seen something here that makes you think about Him a little more. I hope you seen that there are different ways of using our dehydrated goodies and that if your aren't a dehydrator yet, maybe this sparked an interest. If you seen something here that you liked, tell a friend. Also tell that friend that God loves them and would love to be in a relationship with them thru the shed blood of Christ. That is the only way to the Father, is thru the Son. Blessings of a prosperous year in the Lord. hugs and love to all, patty
