DO YOU BELIEVE ME?

I have a bible that has a resource guide in the back to help with life’s challenges and in this guide it told the story of how when a wild elephant is captured in this certain country, an iron band connected to a heavy chain is placed around the elephant’s foot. The other end of the chain is placed around a large tree. Day after day the elephant will lift his leg and try with all his strength to uproot the tree and break free, but nothing happens. Finally it gives up. After this whenever this powerful animal lifted its leg and feels the slightest tension it will drop its foot down in total submission. They can then control this huge animal with just a little stake in the ground. He could easily pull up the small stake and break free. But the elephant is trapped because it believes it can never break free. The creature is imprisoned simply because it perceives freedom to be impossible. I was sad after reading this story. The only thing that needed to be done to take the power away from this majestic animal, meant to rule his environment was present the right set of circumstances to make him feel he was defeated.

What keeps us from making the necessary changes in our lives that will bring back our joy? What keeps us stuck in a place of discontent? Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, lack of confidence? The reasons are endless but the solution is clear. I believe in Jesus. It is not necessary that you have confidence in yourself the important thing is that you have confidence in Him. If you don’t believe in Him this may not resonate with you but please keep reading. And if you do then we all need a reminder sometimes to lay down our burdens. Laying down your burden is a decision you have to make sometimes daily. A lot of us have crutches that help us cope with stresses in life. The ones we hear most often are those that deal with alcohol and drug abuse (they help numb our pain). Some use anger as a crutch (people leave us alone), some use judgement or an aire of superiority (to feel better about ourselves), some use defensiveness (this keeps us from having to look at ourselves), some use material possessions (this gives us a false sense of worth), some use a person or the need of a person as a crutch (this puts the burden or responsibility for our joy in someone else’s hands), some use food (this brings comfort) and this list can go on and on also. What the Lord wants us to do is answer this question: Do we really want to be healed? Now it may sound like the answer is fairly obvious but that is a question that each individual has to answer for themselves. Even though we may be miserable our misery may be all we have ever known and we really don’t believe it can get any better.

In John 5:1-6 the bible tells the account of a man who laid by the healing pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years. He laid there unable to walk. And unable or unwilling to roll over into the pool for healing. Jesus came by and asked him do you want to be healed? He told Jesus he didn’t have anyone to put him in the pool. Jesus didn’t address this He just told him to pick up his bed and walk. After thirty-eight years of watching others being healed he picked up his bed and walked away. Simple, huh?

The Lord once said to me “When you don’t move in the direction of your dreams, you don’t believe me. When you don’t move in the direction you know you need to, you don’t believe me.” Whew! That was hard to hear because I do believe in Jesus. But what he showed me was my actions are in direct correlation to my belief in God’s capability and intentions in my life. Little belief, little action. There will be times when you are confused and don’t know what to do. That’s when you wait for God’s guidance he will show you what you need to do and sometimes you are to do nothing and watch Him move. Your level of peace or lack thereof about a decision, no matter how hard, is a great indicator of whether you are doing the right thing at the right time.

Just a little funny story about food! I was extremely frustrated because I couldn’t find anything that I “wanted” to eat. So I was just going to settle for something that would take away my hunger. The Lord said ” Now you get it. That is the correct way to look at food. Food should not be something that makes you feel better and relieve your frustration. Food was always just supposed to be something that nourishes your body and takes away your hunger.” Simple, huh?

Tired of being a spectator? Watching others live out their dreams and their purpose? Join me in this journey toward wholeness, fulfillment and joy!

With Love,

Ms. Wanda GAC