Skip to main content

Reaching for Paradise


I’m so glad that we are focusing on eternal life this week at Grace Alone. Chances are I won’t get to meet Iris and all my blog sisters in this life, but oh, what a great bloggers meeting we will have in our heavenly home.

All week I’ve been hearing a repetitive theme and it shoots like an arrow right to my heart. “Give thanks for your enemies; adversity is the tool God uses to promote and bless you.”

First, I heard a speaker on Christian television that admonished us to come up a step higher thanking God for our enemies for it is our enemies, not our gifts that make us overcomers. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Rev. 2:7. Secondly, in her Total Transformation series, Joyce Meyer blows kisses to her enemies from the early days of her ministry. She says that their rejection of her made her who she is today, an overcomer. Lastly, the great maverick in history, Theodore Roosevelt, publicly stated that he would never have been president if it had not been for his experience in the Badlands of North Dakota.

Today I’m thanking God for my enemies and putting it in writing to hold myself accountable! That’s all I’ve got to say about it.

Comments

  1. Great post! Loved the quote in the second paragraph. Speaks volumes! Happy Thankful Thursday to you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Being thankful for your enemies...wow! That's a hard one!lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. What an amazing thought - what a tough one to live out! Thank you for the reminder and the great quote. Blessings.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh wow, you are amazing! I have to admit I've yet to be thankful for this one...I'll pray harder. Thank you for sharing this and it's a great reminder.

    Have a blessed weekend!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abba's Lap

I noticed a behavior pattern in little Amy, twenty months old, that I want to imitate.  She moves fast engaging in one toddler activity after another spinning like a whirlwind from one room to another.  Yet, she pauses,  intermittently , long enough to get refreshed.   I want to be like this grandchild of mine because she knows where to go and how to get comforted. Amy moves at record speed, putting more miles on a pedometer in one hour than my accumulated weekly workouts at the gym.  She can build a skyscraper so tall, I wonder why those bright pink Lego’s don’t topple to the ground as she continues to stack just one more piece on top. I learned never to leave the room to get another cup of coffee.  Once, when I returned, I found her climbing past the couch with hands and feet reaching for the living room drapes. She has a consistent habit that I admire.  In the midst of her activities, as she moves robustly from one play...

A Memorial Day Reflection

  Memorial Day is always noteworthy for me and my girls.  Next Thursday marks the third year of missing their father, my husband. So many thoughts  run through my mind.  The journey of loss takes on various emotions.  The strongest feeling, at first, was emptiness.  In a split second, I would forget he departed forever.  I imagined things I needed to talk to him about when he got back home.  My mind is realistic now.  He's not coming back.  There will be no more times of sitting on the porch swing together on the front deck staring at the moon and the stars.  He would tell me all he knew about the majestic night sky. I have so much I wish I could tell him, like the excitement of seeing our oldest grandchild make a decision to follow Jesus and get baptized on Mother's Day!  And our little Amy, 11 years old, I wish he could have seen her on stage receiving her induction to the National Honor Society. Our daughters have their own ...

Black Sand of Bitterness

Tom and I shared a leisure breakfast with friends at the outdoor café in Hawaii one Sunday morning.  We stayed in a resort on the beautiful ocean shore.   On the stroll back to our rooms after breakfast, my girlfriend, whom I nicknamed Sherona, mentioned she wanted to go to a church service.  The guys declined but I took her up on it and changed into my skirt.  We got into her rented convertible acting like Thelma and Louise, two liberated women on a mission. But things turned sour. Sherona and I talked too much on that highway and missed our turn off to the Catholic Church just down the road. “Keep driving east about 25 miles, Sherona, and we’ll come to a park in the next town over with a bunch of churches on one block,” I said. I knew it well since I took a tour of the island a day before. We arrived and parked the car.  Sherona insisted that we choose a new experience and attend the Hawaiian service.  I tried to persuade ...