Family Alive

I’ve written several posts in my head in the last few days.  A couple were triumphantly announcing that I’d "caught up" on life.  A couple other posts were downers in various states of overwhelmed-ness.  This will be somewhere in between, some late night ramblings, and some good thoughts from my pre-bedtime bible study.

It has been an overwhelming week.  Not in any way particularly, just that Brian is working very hard on no less than 5 major things and trying to train for an Ironman Triathlon (which culminates in just over a week!).  He’s stressed, but doing his best.  I, on the other hand, just have been managing daily life around our house.  Nothing’s particularly hard… we’re all healthy – at least for the moment, Analise has been on pretty good behaviour lately, we haven’t had too much going on.  I have been battling laundry since we came back from South Carolina.  Just when I get "caught up", the basket in my room threatens to overflow, and it starts all over again.  It doesn’t help that we’re doing diaper laundry 3 times a week.  (Yes, I do believe at this moment I’m crazy to be cloth-diapering, but I’m also too cheap to start buying more disposables, so that’s all I’ll complain about that.)  Josiah is not sleeping well at night, so it’s made me a bit grumpy in the mornings.  He’s also been grumpy off and on during the day, really needing to be held when he’s sleepy.  Today was the usual Wednesday flurry of getting my house pulled back into order for our home church gathering.  I’m always worn out from it, but it is so wonderful to be able to share our home this way, besides the fact that its easier to have the kids in my own home.  The kitchen needs 30-60 minutes of attention after the little ones are in bed each night, so it seems that my life going keeps going in the same circles.  It’s just been a bit discouraging lately.  But such is this season of life. 

I did find a great Word in my bible study tonight, though.  I’m working on a Beth Moore study, called Daniel   It’s TREMENDOUS.  The first half of the study is about having integrity in a world that parallels the Babylon that Daniel lived in.  We’ve just started the second half which explores prophecies from the time of Daniel through the second coming of Christ.  I’ve never studied anything like it, and it’s very interesting.  My women’s study is on Thursday mornings, and of course, I’m always struggling to get my 5-days worth of homework done on Wednesday night.  Here’s what I read tonight:

**(from Daniel 7:25: "He [Satan] will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws.")

Oppress literally means "’to wear away’ or ‘to wear out’, as one would wear out a garmet." Though Satan’s persecutions of God’s people will reach full measure in the last days, he certainly oppresses Christians today.  

One of Satan’s most effective schemes is simply to wear God’s people out.  Satan uses exhaustion and profound discouragement to persuade us to give up opposing him.  We must not give up!  As believers in Christ in whom the Spirit of God dwells, Satan may be able to wear out our human strength, but he cannot wear out the Holy Spirit’s.  We can call upon God’s supernatural strength to fight the good fight of faith and persist in our proclamation of Christ, the son of the Most High God.

The Apostle Paul said in Colossians 1:29, "To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me".  We who are Christians have God’s "all-surpassing power" in our "jars of clay" (2 Corinthians 4:7).  Let’s not wait until we’re at the end of our strength to utilize it!  Let’s call on God to fill us with His all-surpassing power day in and day out.  His "incomparably great power" is accessible daily for those who believe!  This power is the same power He used to raise Jesus from the dead (see Ephesians 1:18-20).  What more could we need?

Enough said.  What more could I need to hear tonight?  Hope it encourages someone else tonight!  I’m saying a prayer for you as I tumble into bed:)