December 28 2013

December 28 2013
Greetings My Friend,
The focus right now is for New Year's Eve. The older I get the less importance this
holiday is for me. Some years we are even in bed at midnight. The need to be surrounded
by friends and family and a party atmosphere are fairly much gone. We don't even care if
we see the ball drop in NY.
My focus does go towards the thought of "Am I closer to God at the end of the year than I
was at the start of the year." I tend to keep putting a lot of thought into this each year.
The more I learn to put my focus on God the more I learn to give God the glory and the more
wholeness I feel in life.
As a young person I enjoyed being involved with a church family. I loved helping out on
weddings, singing in the choir and such. As I entered high school I found myself wanting to
be liked by the kids at school as well and I did not want to be a "prude." I felt I could
walk with the world and God.
To be honest it took me a few decades to see that I truly could not walk with the world and
with God. My love for God did not really leave me but I continued to try to be all things to
all people and in the process I lost my way.
As a very young person I can look back and see those moments where I was listening to God and
doing what I was told to do. As I got older and tried to reason a dual walk I found I was not
"hearing" God.
Then I found myself at my lowest point after my divorce. I cried out to God and I began a serious
walk with Him. In Him I found peace and contentment. The road was hard at times but I found it to
ok as well. I found that the deep loneliness I had was starting to go away. I found myself being
able to make changes for the better and being content in my decisions which weren't really mine but
God's decisions.
Recently on FB I saw a comment and I believe it was directed at me although no name was on it. It stated
that when they got on they saw comment after comment mainly redirected messages about faith, God and
such. I did not want to be overbearing but the message is important to me.
I pulled back a few of my forwards in hopes of having this person come to the Lord. After that moment I
also began hearing from Christians about how helpfull these messages were for them. To be honest I often
found encouragement in the ones directed to my page and after being encouraged I sent them out as well.
I never took away all the Christian comments and messages but I scaled back thinking I was reaching out for
the Lord and in hopes of this person coming along in their journey of faith. As time went on though I began
to want to send whatever I felt led to send. The ones who were encouraged also seemed to connect with me as
well.
Sometimes I tend to think ministry is to reach out to the unbelieving world only. Lately though I tend to think
that I also minister to believers. I myself am encouraged and find courgage to go out into the world through
the family of believers. At first I thought this was found in a church building. As I enter into social media
though I find my church also to be the social media.
At times my encouragement to another believer is the piece that opens the door for a believer to reach an
unbeliever. I find ministry to be both to the unbelieving world and to other believers. Not bad.
As I try to be open in my writings I am hopefull that I am reaching the unbelieving world and these days I
also hope my "openess" helps the believers in their work as well.
As I write this I know that my "holding" back time has come to an end. I tell myself that people always have
the opportunity to "unfriend" me. I am sad but I understand as well.
May God bless you and keep you make His face to shine on you.
Love
Janet