T'is the Season...

 This Season and most highly commercialized holidays are dubbed as a time of 'Accessibility' as well as 'Fraudulence.'  We tend to sometimes get so caught up in the merriment, gift-giving, and the hype of it all until we let our guards down. We get bogged down with so much to do until we necessitate a ‘To Do List’.

 And there we go, ‘checking our lists and cheching it twice...’ Lol. We must remember that bargains are not necessarily bargains. I’ve always heard the phrase “too good to be true." Well, you’d best believe that if it seems too good to be true, then usually it’s NOT true! This doesn't mean that you need to be self-conscious, but be watchful.

Don’t let fear stop you in your tracks from enjoying this beautiful season. Have faith that what you want to do, you can still do it without being stagnated by fear of the trickery of this world. There will always be thieves who are watching and waiting for the innocent looking ones… those whom they think they can take advantage of and prey upon. Don’t be a victim of immobility… just make a move!

In my daily walk, not just busy seasons, I struggle with so many doubts as to whether I can or cannot do certain things, failure, being scammed. So I take whatever cautions I deem reliable. Putting God first in my moves, I then, ‘JUST DO IT!’ When I really look at the BIG picture, I remember what my Momma use to say- "you'll never know if you never try."

But... if you’ve ever experienced deception, you realize it can hamper the strongest of individuals…My 'go to' scripture whenever I have doubt is Luke 7:6 NIV:  And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

Definition of faith: The act of believing in or attempting something whose outcome has not been proven or is unknown; thus 'taking a chance...'

Not for just the season, but Faith should play a major role in your daily life. Faith is belief that you can, not that you just might. Faith gives you hope, when all hope is gone. Faith gives you strength to keep pressing on. Faith is that little voice that says, “Don’t give up.” Faith is the drink which overflows a cup.

Faith is the substance of hope and belief of things unseen. Faith allows you to step out on a limb, without the fear of falling. Faith takes you places your mind cannot fathom. Faith opens doors you could never imagine. Faith gives you access to do all things! Faith is the password- The key, in Jesus’ name!

T’is the Season to take a leap of Faith, knowing wherever, whenever or IF you fall, He will catch you it - it only takes a first step.

Blessings

PJ Payne

Count It All Joy

Can you truly say that in all you do and all you go through, you consider it a blessing? When you have arrived to that point in your journey - you've made it! I say that because it takes a forbearing person, a strong person, a resilient person, a forgiving person, AND a God-fearing individual all rolled up into one, to understand and know that through it all ‘it is well’.

This time of the year is quite difficult for many of us. Some are ill, have lost loved ones, in a financial straight, depressed, or even homeless. And a lot of us know and remember the havoc Hurricane Harvey played in our lives. We are still recovering. These trials and sundry times can strip us of any fragment of joy we could conjure up. But … James 1:2-7, BSB says, ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.’ So ask and believe. Don’t be the double-minded, doubting person. You may receive what you were expecting... Nothing. Even so, you are still blessed.

Count your blessings.... one by one. Over and over again, realizing the sum; the sum of what you've got minus the sum of what you've given; then you'll find that you're rich, bountifully rich, in spite of your misgivings... 

No matter what you’re going through, He’s Blessing You. So count it ALL joy!

Continued Blessings,
PJPayne