The Key

 
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I had a full blown anxiety attack the last ten minutes of my therapy session 8-3-15. I was trying to process the strong possibility of my daughter and her family moving a significant distance from Brunswick. Before my meltdown, my therapist spotted a key on the floor. She knows I do a lot of processing through symbols so she suggested I take it with me. I thought it might serve as a reminder of God’s power to unlock the chains of fear that gripped me presently. My Prayer Room key fob has engraved Isaiah 41:13 For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. I stopped by Office Depot on the way home and ran into my son-in-law. He made a point to speak to me and share with me that he felt God had been encouraging him for a while now to resign, but fear kept him from obeying earlier. He believes this move will be good in the long run for his family. He shared with me that he reads one scripture a day. The one for 8-3-15 was Isaiah  55:12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace the mountains and hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Scripture always reassures me (God’s breath). In talking to my sister later in the evening, I confessed I was in a funk of anxiety. She reassured me she would hold her own shield of faith over me until I could find the strength to hold up my own. What a blessing our connection is! 

I began today, 8-4-15 walking the labyrinth singing my “sword.”  As I sang John 7:37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink (Key)I recalled the favorite song of our pastor during my teenage years, Rev. Daniel Lott, “For Those Tears I Died.”

 
 


The lyrics that touched my heart were: Your love loosed my chains and in You I’m free”……….free to embrace the move without fear because it is all part of God’s plan (Key)! In speaking with my daughter later in the afternoon, she shared with me that her preacher had based his sermon Sunday on Isaiah 55 including the same scripture her husband shared with me yesterday. I find the synchronicity so reassuring! I reflected on the thought that Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life. No one comes the the Father except through Him…..THE KEY to being in God’s Presence. 

In the prayer room, I read the following from Jesus Calling:

Hold My hand (Key) and walk joyously with Me through this day. Together (Key) we will savor the pleasures and endure the difficulties it brings. Be on the lookout for everything I have prepared for you: stunning scenery, bracing winds of adventure(Sherry thought; sounds a bit intense), cozy nooks for resting when you are weary (Sherry thought; that could be more often than not), and much more. I am your Guide (Key), as well as your constant Companion. I know every step of the journey ahead of you, all the way to heaven. You don’t have to choose between staying close to Me and staying on course. Since  I am the Way (THE KEY), staying close to Me is staying on course. As you focus your thoughts on Me (Key), I will guide you carefully along today’s journey.. Don’t worry about what is around the next bend. Just concentrate on enjoying My presence and staying in step with Me (Key).


Scripture References:

1) John 14:6 (Sherry’s translation) Sherry said to Jesus, “Lord, I don’t know where You are going with this talk of my daughter’s family moving a SIGNIFICANT  distance away from me. How can I know the way to survive this change?” Jesus answered, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE (THE KEY).

My therapist tried to assure me yesterday that I would not respond in the same way I have responded to physical distance between my daughter and I in the past (The therapist slipped the thought in just as I was beginning to emotionally turn her a deaf ear). The second scripture reference speaks to this fear of mine and gently rebukes my deaf ear response to my therapist.

2) Colossians 3: 9 & 10 Do not lie to each other (or turn a deaf ear) since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Key).

God wasn’t finished speaking, yet! As I looked up the above scripture in my dad’s bible, I discovered a wealth of more “BREATH” that he had personally highlighted and commented on in the margins.

Dr. Whitman Fraser Highlights:

1) Colossians 3:12-14 (Sherry’s translation) Therefore, Sherry, having been chosen by God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience as you share with your daughter the process involved as her family prepares to make this move. Bear with each other in the awareness you are both perfectly imperfect, but doing the best you can with the knowledge and experience you have in this season of your lives. Forgive  (Key) whatever grievances you may still hold against each other from moves in the past. Forgive as the Lord forgave each of you. And over all these virtues put on love (Key) which binds them all together in perfect unity.Margin comment of my dad: Christian speech must be 1) kind 2) pure  and 3) true. Before we say ANYTHING about ANYONE we must ask: 1) Is it true? 2) Is it necessary? and  3) Is it kind? (Key)

2) Colossians 3: 15 (Sherry’s translation)   Sherry, let the peace of Christ rule in your heart (Key), since you are part of the Body of Christ and you are called to peace. and be thankful (Key). Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly  (Key) as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songswith gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Key).

3) Colossians 4:2 Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful (Key).

4) Colossians 4:12 (Sherry’s Translation) My sister , who is so much a part of my life, and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends encouragement. She is always wrestling in prayer for me; that I may stand firm in all the will of God mature and fully assured. It is my prayer, Abba, that I might follow the example of my dear sister and do the same for my daughter and her family as they begin the process of moving.

I will close this blog with thoughts from Oswald Chambers for August 4 entitled “The Brave Comradeship of God” (I inserted myself in the thoughts expressed):

The bravery of God in trusting (Sherry)! (I) say, “But He has been unwise to choose me, because there is nothing in me; I am not of any value.” That is why He chose you, (Sherry). As long as you think there is something in you, He cannot choose you because you have ends of your own to serve; but if you have let Him bring you to the end of your self-sufficiency then He can choose you to go with Him to “Jerusalem” and that will mean the fulfillment of purposes He does not discuss with you. (You might be) apt to say that because (a person) has natural ability, therefore (they) will make a good Christian. It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not what we bring with us, but what God puts into us; not a question of natural virtues of strength of character, knowledge,and experience-all that is to no avail in this matter. The only thing that avails is that we are taken up into the big compelling of God and made  His comrades. I Corinthians 1:26-30 (Sherry’s Translation) “ Sherry, think of what you were when you were called. You were not wise by human standards, you were not influential; you were not of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak  things of the world, (like yourself), to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world  and  the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.” The comradeship of God is made up of (people) who know their poverty. He can do nothing with (people) who think that (they) are of use to God. As Christians we are not out for our own cause at all, we are out for the cause of God, which can never be our cause. We do not know what God is after, but we have to maintain our relationship with Him whatever happense (Key). We must never allow anything to injure our relationship with God; if it does get injured we must take the time and get it put right. The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship (Key). That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is being continually  assailed.

 
 
John Stetzer