How to experience God in everyday life

How to experience God in everyday life.

It is easy to compartmentalize God. To think that God is for times of trouble, for Sunday, baptisms, marriages and death. However God is not a distant relative that we visit occasionally. He is, if we allow it, our friend and constant companion. 

This intimacy is written about in How to Make Victoria Sponge, where everyday life is intricately linked with God through funny and tragic situations.

If you don't know how God is involved in your life then reading this book will help you understand where God is, in all the messiness that life produces.

We can all feel lost at times.

Maybe Victoria Sponge can help you find your way again.

Many blessings Margaret xx

www.margaretk.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/writerandblogger/

Where to buy:

Amazon.com-https://www.amazon.com/Make-Victoria-Sponge-Margaret-Kazmierczak-ebook/dp/B01LZFFOLR/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8#nav-subnav

Amazon.co.uk-https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Victoria-Sponge-Margaret-Kazmierczak-ebook/dp/B01LZFFOLR

When we get it wrong God uses our mistake

Looking back at my life I think it has been an incredible journey. Is that because I chose the exciting route over God’s path or that God chose to make good my mistakes? I suspect it was God’s hand sewing his golden thread through the tapestry of my life. On the right side the picture looks perfect, but underneath there are knots and twists that look worse than a  doll’s matted hair which has been left to the elements.

I love hindsight, because if I look at my life I can see how God brought me back in alignment with his will for my life. Not only that, the experiences of travelling a varied life has allowed me to empathise with those around me, who fall into the same holes that I have done. Without God intervening so many times, disaster would have been the norm. Instead of anger, compassion has become part of my life. And no matter where I walked or often ran, God was there at my side waiting for me to catch hold of his hand. He did not insist that I take His help, instead He quietly whispered in the wind, “I am here.” Did I hear that gentle voice? Sometimes, if I was listening. So often I was in the thrill of the moment. Then other times, down in the depths of a very long and dark tunnel thinking how do I fix this? The more I  tried to untangle that matted hair the worse it got.

I was the fix-it girl. Ever since I was young I would find solutions, often very imaginative ones. Most created through necessity. I relied on me and occasionally God, if I thought about Him.

Now looking back, most of the ‘fix-its’ were actually God correcting my solutions in a very unobtrusive way. Through a  thought or an idea. I was not alone, even if I believed I was. My mistakes were easy to correct for a God who created the universe and indeed they became the starting point for other more important work that God had for me. So He let me think I was in charge! Only a great Manager can do that. Then He guided me to where He wanted me to go. Oh how well my Father knows me.

When you look at your life through God’s eyes an amazing transformation follows. Where you see hopelessness, God sees opportunities for us to grow. Where we see the ‘no exit’ sign, God sees an open road and longs to show us the route to Freedom.

As an exercise write down or think of some of your experiences and see how they concluded. Can you see that golden thread travelling through the matted journey of your life? If so, give God the glory, for it is He that has been sewing His Kingdom into your life.

Advent Day Twenty-three

My heart awaits for your coming. Never have I needed you more in my life. Saturate me with your presence. Fill me with your love. Wrap me in your arms and present me to those that need to know your embrace. 

Come, Lord Jesus come.

Advent - Day Four

I am he; I am the first; I am also the last.

Father God, help me to keep you always first in my life so that I may see you at the last. 

Come Lord Jesus come. 

Don't give up

God first, God always - Don't give up.

Yes life throws troubles our way and at times we have to climb out of a deep pit but we must try not to give up. 

Your breakthrough may be just around the corner, it might literally be moments away from your grip. If in that moment you turn your head and walk away the answer will pass you by and your journey will be longer. That is the hardest call you will ever make. To stay just a little while longer in Trust believing that God is sorting out the mess.

'Even though you may feel that you are at the end of your rope, God has the resolution for your pain, a motive for your struggle and a gift for your faithfulness.' (quote from Christian Associates Network)

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind. 

It is human to be concerned about things but the fears start to take over when we dwell on the implications of those worries. 

God has not given us a spirit of fear. Fear comes when we feel out of control. That is why we need to take those concerns and hand them over to God. He knows the outcome of our struggles and will gift us for our faithfulness. 

God is the golden thread that winds its way through the material of our life. 

God will never give up on us.

When we struggle it is useful to think or write down the things God has done for us, the things we can be thankful for. Prayer and praise for these gifts will bring greater rewards than listing to the negative depressing areas of our lives. That just reinforces the laughter of the evil one. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7mEZtzWFuA



God is the rewarder of those who seek Him. 

Don't give up. God is the answer.

God's blessings on all of you who are struggling and need encouragement, you are not alone. Stretch out your arms to God and He will embrace you. His shoulders are very large and He will carry all your concerns. He is the greatest Father of all time. What wouldn't a Father do for His children? He cares so much.





God bless

Margaret

(www.margaretk.co.uk)

Hope today

Each day I wake up,I know that I can not cope with the day's challenges, unless God is in my life. I know that all the stresses and worries that dog my footsteps will take away my peace and cause me to doubt. 

Why?

Because I have inherited the doubting gene, the gene that chips away at my confidence, my self esteem, my peace.

When I am insulted, rejected, shunned, verbally abused or disrespected I take it personally.

Then I start to doubt my worth and listen to the lies instead of remembering that God has made me worthy through His Hope.

With God in my life I can challenge the lies and because the doubt is inherited it needs to be challenged by daily prayer. 

Father you give me worth

You are my Hope.

My deliverer from the words

And actions

Of the enemy who slithers

In under the radar.

Your cross destroys all lies.

Penetrate my life 

With your Love and Truth.

Place Hope where doubt 

Seeks to destroy

My peace.

And deliver me from

The source of all evil

Today.

God first, God always.

I praise God that He uses my weakness to strengthen me. If I were not who I am my dependence would not be on God but on myself. Recognizing my areas of need gives God the chance to empower me. Therefore my song can be:

Thank you Almighty God for Your Hope in my life today. With You everything is possible. 

God bless

Margaret

(www.margaretk.co.uk)

Pain and Hope

Pain can sometimes lead us away from Hope as we battle with experiences such as heart break, physical and mental ailments, rejection and other painful encounters that life showers upon us. It can be very hard to keep up appearances as we stumble through life and its challenges. How often have you responded "I'm okay" when asked how we are, even though our hearts are breaking, or our bodies are in pain. Sometimes we don't feel able to answer the question with a truthful response.

Maybe we feel our pain is too much for others to hear. Or perhaps we feel we ought to put on a brave face to save the other person from hearing about our woes once again. 

In fact pain can actually distance us from our family and best friends when we wear a mask. 

Trying to cope with our pain on our own is exhausting. That is why Jesus brought together a band of men and women to support one another in their ministry. He knew that they would need close friends who they could be themselves with. Whom they could share their victories and difficulties with.  

Pain is a tool by which the seeds of doubt are sown. 

Why does God allow me to suffer this pain? 

When will God take away this pain?

What have I done to deserve this treatment, it has broken my heart? Why would God allow it?

I have been good all my life, followed all the rules, given to the poor, regularly gone to church and I am rewarded with this, unemployment, debt and my house being repossessed. This is just too much. What is God doing?

If we continue to walk this path of painful thinking it will lead downwards. If we walk away from those people who will support and help us because life is too painful to share, we will further sink into hopelessness.

Pain is a means to connect with Jesus rather than disconnect with Him. 

Romans 5:3-5

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Hope does not disappoint us. Jesus is our greatest Hope and He will not desert nor disappoint us. He will bring us through our pain so that we can help others with theirs.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

So when we say "Oh I am okay" when we are not, we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us in our recovery. If we deny our pain we deny the healing of Hope to enter into our hearts. Those seeds of hopeless will not be watered with words of Truth that others can share with us when we most need them. 

It is important to combat those Why's, When's and What's that we ask. Why did God... Why has He allowed... When will this end... What have I done... 

With the truth that is stated in: 

2 Corinthians 4:17

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   

And the knowledge that God has everything covered with His Hope and Grace.

John 3:16 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

If you are in pain now, embed it in the Heart of God. Allow His Hope and Healing to cover and embrace you. Let Him have your tears of pain.

Psalm 56:8 

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

God is and always will be our Hope.

God bless

Margaret x

(Margaret Kazmierczak - author of 'How to make Victoria Sponge - a journey of faith' available on amazon in paperback and kindle)