The Gift of Rainy Days

Winter said its “goodbyes” but what lasting impression it left to the drought-stricken land! It brought many days of much needed rain, even exceeding the amount needed to recover from drought. 

I have never seen our trees yield so many flowers and what a beautiful sight to gaze at! I am anticipating a greater harvest of plums and nectarines this year!

Along with this awesome result comes the down side. With many different flowers popping up on roadways, hills, valleys and mountaintops, surely people with allergy are prone to being affected by these pollens and other kinds of allergens in the air. I am one of those people and already armed myself with nasal sprays and a tablet I can take each day if I need to counter such effects.  I dread it sometimes because I don’t like the sinus pain that may come with other symptoms. Like itchy eyes or runny nose or just feeling tired sometimes. 

But I choose to concentrate on the positive side which is to take each day at a time and enjoy the gift of rainy days winter dropped in the season of my life.

nectarine tree; ©offthebeatentrek2019

 

plum tree; ©offthebeatentrek2019 

I pray Paul’s prayer for me and for you:

“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” – Ephesians 3:14-19 (NLT)

The Lion and the Lamb

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." - Ephesians 6:13 (NIV)

 

I looked at the art hanging on the wall up on the loft again. The verse spoke out loud despite the silence all around me. This particular art with God's Armor reminds me each day that as my eyes open each morning, the battle is real. Each day. From sunrise 'til sunset. I chose this particular art after going through a spiritual battle back in 2003 when I was a baby Christian. God showed me that the unseen battle was real but through that, He would help me and guide me and that, He would never leave me alone like He promised to those who trusted and believed in Him. After a lot of weird "goose-bumps" producing occurrences, He showed me the sWord. His sWORD. I would never forget the first verse as I opened the Bible and asked Him what should I do at that moment when the spiritual enemy was throwing fear and confusion, not only to me, but to my family. It was:

"Stay strong with the Lord's mighty power..." (Ephesians 6:10)

 

I was a witness with my physical eyes how the unseen enemy fled like a rocket at the utterance of the Lord Jesus' Name. I knew, it wasn't my power. It was His. But I couldn't imagine what happened in the spiritual realm. My fear though was replaced with awe and courage from God's grace.

As I went back to work after that short leave to the prison, the more I had witnessed that the Lord strengthened me through that brief battle as more unseen battles came in the prison, working as a Correctional Nurse at that time.

Sometimes, there are many moments we are involved in that don't make sense. But if we put all events under His light, that's the only time we will recognize that the Lord uses each event for our advantage, even some may not seem pleasant and some that we don't like at all to occur or be in. No matter what circumstances we are in, I just know that God gives His Armor for His church not to be put down. As a Christian, I must be on guard in all of my ways, never letting any opportunity for the spiritual enemy to gain anything in my life. It isn't easy.

So much evil around us. So much lies and spiritual deceptions. I pray that believers will wake up and draw nearer to God. To have His gift of discernment.

God has given us the power and all the weapons to deflect anything hurled unto us by the one who roars like a lion. However, I know that the victory already belongs to the true Lion and the Lamb!