Waiting in Advent #2

Hello everyone!  

I'd like to welcome you to PWOC this morning, as we wrap up our first semester with our final week of studies before the holiday and then next week we will have our wonderful Christmas program,
before we break until January 10.  

I hope you have all enjoyed your studies and your groups, and most of all I pray that you have grown in the Lord and that you feel closer to Him than ever before.  I hope that we are being a support to you in your spiritual life and relationship with Jesus.  Please come talk to me if you have any comments, concerns, questions, or just want to talk.  

I am so thankful that I can be your Spiritual Life VP this year, and I pray that if you have any feedback for me, that you feel comfortable to come tell me.  

I take this position super seriously and I love every minute I spend with you guys.  God is my greatest passion, and I love sharing my desire for a closer walk and love for Him with you.


So last week we read about Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary.  We talked about the importance of patient and expectant waiting in this life, and how we want to be "not of this world" by trusting God in our waiting.

In case you missed it, this year's theme here at PWOC is "not of this world", and our theme verse is Romans 12:2 "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.".  

When we think about what it means to be a Christian, and by that I mean a real Christian, one who knows that she has been saved by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, one who has decided to forsake all in pursuit of Jesus, those of us who call ourselves Christians, should really be weighing this in all aspects of our lives.  Are we choosing the world’s ways or God’s ways? 

So, if you have your Bible, please get it out and turn to the book of Luke.  We are going to pick up where we left off last week.  Luke is one of the four gospels, and I always remember what order they are in by singing, “Matthew, Mark, Luke & John went to bed with their trousers on”.  I don’t know where I learned that, but it definitely comes in handy. 

So we are picking up in Luke 1, and we are starting today with verse 39.  Please follow along.  Luke 1:39-55

There are a couple things that strike me in these verses.  First, is what Elizabeth says to Mary.  She says, “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said.” 

One of the reasons I fell in love with the Bible, and reading and studying God’s word is because when you read God’s word, you see that God always does what He says He is going to do.  God keeps His promises.  I think this is something that is very difficult for us humans to understand because we have been let down by other humans so many times and we have seen so many broken promises that we hardly trust anyone to keep their word anymore.  We have become so used to people breaking their promises, that we start to forget that God NEVER breaks a promise.  We forget that God ALWAYS keeps His word.  When you think about that, like really let it sink in for a moment… God in Heaven, our creator and our father and the one we call Lord and king ALWAYS does what He says He’s going to do.  He NEVER breaks a promise.  He ALWAYS follows through.

God’s word illustrates this point from the very beginning.  From the very first story of creation and the perfect world that God had made for Adam and Eve, God is keeping His word.  What is the first thing God says in Genesis?  “Let there be light”.  And before the sentence is over, there is light.  Literally, Genesis 1:3 says, “Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light”.  He spoke and immediately the word was fulfilled.  It wasn’t like “Let there be light”.  Oh shoot, wrong switch, hold on…”  It was like, “Let there be light”.  Boom.  Word spoken and fulfilled.

This is my most favorite part about God’s word though.  Every single part points to Jesus.  The simple fact of God speaking points to Jesus. 

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
² He existed in the beginning with God.
³ God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created,^[a]
    and his life brought light to everyone.
⁵ The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.^[b]”

This word was Jesus.  When I think about words, they really are a product of what we are thinking, feeling, understanding.  Words are how we communicate who we are and how we relate to everything around us.  When we think about God’s word, and how God relates to us, His word is Jesus.  And God ALWAYS keeps His word.  Even when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God told the evil snake Satan in Genesis 3:14-15, “Because you have done this (deceived God’s beloved humans), you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild.  You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.  And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.  He will strike your head and you will strike His heel.”  This sounds pretty straightforward.  Obviously there are a lot of people who don’t like snakes, and although the snake may get a bite of the heel, humans will destroy them.  But this is actually a promise God was making to Satan that He would defeat Him through Jesus Christ.  Although Satan tries to defeat Jesus while He was on Earth, it is but a strike on the heel.  But when Jesus rises from the dead, He has struck the snake on the head and defeated evil once and for all.  God keeps His promises.

The book of Isaiah (which is in the Old Testament) speaks of Jesus’ coming many times, but this is one of my favorites Isaiah 9:6-7:

For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,^[d] Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ His government and its peace
    will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
    for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    will make this happen!”  God keeps His promises.

All throughout the Old Testament, you will find imagery such as this.  Example after example of stories that seem so obvious, but when examined closer, reveal promises of Jesus’ miraculous life, death, and resurrection, and the Love that God has always had and will always have for us, His children.  Again and again, God’s word proves God’s truthfulness. 

This is taken from Dawning: “Here is the way Paul put it in Romans 15:8 – “For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews^[a] on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs (Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham) might be confirmed.”  So there it is, stated crystal clear: Christ came to prove that God tells the truth, that God keeps His promises.  Christmas means that God can be trusted.”

And this is why, as we look back at Luke 1:47-55 and we read Mary’s response to Elizabeth, we see the immense humility and faith that Mary had.  She knew God kept His promises.  She believed Him with all of her heart.  She did not question, or whine – her situation would have been viewed as less than positive at the time – a young unwed girl, pregnant?  She never once doubted the plan God had for her.  Let’s read her response again:

Luke 1:47-55

Lord, bless us.  Help us to be like Mary Lord.  Let her words echo in our hearts.  Help us to remember that your ways are nothing like our ways.  Help us to remember that we are not to look at our circumstances and think that we are doomed.  As followers of Jesus, we are to look at our circumstances and believe that you keep your promises!  Whatever you have said, you WILL do!  Lord, thank you for coming to us in our need.  Thank you for answering our cries.  Thank you that you are good and that you love us perfectly, and that you ALWAYS keep your word and NEVER break your promises.  Thank you for the example we have in Mary, and help us to be humble servants as she was, trusting you for all we need and not relying on what the world has to offer.  Help us to draw nearer to you so you will draw nearer to us.  Help us to hear your still, small voice, and help us to celebrate this Christmas season in authentic faith that your word is being fulfilled.  Lord, help us to fall more and more in love with you and your word, and help us to not conform to the ways of this world, but Lord transform us from the inside out so that we will know your good, pleasing, and perfect will.  Lord, we know that you came Jesus not to be served, but to serve, and we thank you with all that we are.  Help us to serve you and those around us.  Thank you for this wonderful Christmas season.  Amen.

Waiting in Advent

Good morning Ladies!  I hope you all are well!  Welcome to the Advent season!  What a fun time it is, with the Christmas music, lights, and gifts!

If you have your Bible, please open to the book of Luke.

As we enter this season, we can reflect on many things.  We can remember the generosity of God in our lives – the blessings He has given us already and the blessings that are to come.  We can rest in God’s promises – the ones that He has fulfilled and the ones yet to be fulfilled.  We can stand in awe of the mystery of God – how He is omnipresent – everywhere at all times - and omniscient – knows all all the time – and we can be humbled by this.  Humility helps us to be still and rest in God’s sovereignty – His ability to rule over us and this world – and it allows us to trust in His ways, His plans, and His timing.  Because when I realize I am small, then I can truly believe God is big.  When I realize I am weak, then I can truly believe God is strong.

The word advent actually means “coming”.  That is, Jesus is coming.  Somewhere between 6 and 4 B.C. – so four to six years before Christ was born, the Jewish people were waiting.  They were waiting for a Messiah – a promised deliverer.   The Roman government had taken over Israel, and they were oppressed by this powerful government.  They anticipated that a messiah would free them as a people.  They knew their savior was coming, but they didn’t know when.  So they waited in anticipation.

And then, as Galatians 4:4 says, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law”.  When the fullness of time had come.  Other versions says, “When the right time came”, “When the set time had fully come”.  Looking back now, historians and scholars can see that many things had taken place in that time, prophecy had been fulfilled, and the time was perfect for Jesus to arrive.  But for the Jews at the time, they did not know what hour He would come, or how he would a appear.  They just had to wait patiently.  And, maybe even more importantly, they had to wait expectantly.

Read Luke 1:5 – 25

In this reading we meet Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were “righteous in God’s eyes”.  They like their Jewish brethren were waiting for the messiah, but they also had no children.  I’m sure they had waited for a child many times in their lives.  Trying, expecting, waiting, only to be left waiting again.  What strikes me here is that even in their waiting, and surely in their disappointment, they did not stray from God or His ways.  They did not let their impatience and their sadness embitter them toward the Lord – instead they remained steadfast and endured in their righteousness, until they saw a miracle.  How many times in our lives are we set into a season of waiting, and instead of being like Zechariah and Elizabeth, we let our own wants and our impatience get in the way of the path God has laid out for us?  Why do we so easily forget that God is in control and that He has perfect timing?  Why do we instead try to takes matters into our own hands?  We forget that patience is a fruit of the spirit – a product of a life deeply intertwined with faith in Jesus – and instead of letting God come when the time is perfect, we tell God that we are done waiting.

Psalm 27:13 & 14 says, “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. 14Wait for the LORD; Be strongand let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”

Read Luke 1:26 – 37

And so, like the Israelites, like Zechariah and Elizabeth, and like Mary waited, we now celebrate their waiting in this Advent season, but we also celebrate that their waiting had come to an end, and when God saw that His time was perfect, He brought them (and us) a savior.  Although the Israelites thought this savior would bring them out of bondage in the political sense, we realize that God’s deliverance was much more than that for them, for us, and for all people.  We celebrate that nothing is impossible with God.  That when we trust Him with our lives, when we trust Him enough to wait on Him and not grow impatient and try to take matters into our own hands, His way will prove to be better than ours and we will be blessed because of it.  And, we also celebrate the season of waiting that we are in now, waiting for Jesus to return a second time and take us home to Heaven to live with Him forever.

So as we celebrate Christmas with all its trimmings, don’t let the busyness of the season or any of its shining distractions take your eyes off the prize.  Keep patiently and expectantly waiting for our savior to come.  And remember that what we do while we are waiting is also important.  Part of expectant waiting is to keep moving forward.  Keep being a light, keep spreading the Gospel, keep loving your neighbor.

Remember this:

Ephesians 5:15-16English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

And, if you are in a season of personal waiting, let God strengthen you in your faith as you wait.  As James 1:2 says:

² Count it all joy, my brothers,^[b] when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

  And remember, that nothing is impossible with God.

Thankfulness that is Not of This World

This is a tough subject for me to give a devotion on because I have this nagging feeling that I don't really know what it means to be thankful.  I'm not always sure that I am thankful.  I mean, I grew up in a middle class household, had everything I wanted or needed all my life, never missed a meal, went to bed warm and dry every night.  I try to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness.  I try to remember how privileged I am compared to the rest of the world, but sometimes I think my lack of need makes me ungrateful.

So I started thinking about what true thankfulness really looks like and how you find it.  I have been praying about how to talk to you guys about thankfulness and I am totally unqualified so here is what I feel God put on my heart:  Part of being a thankful person is practicing thankfulness.  It is a good discipline to look at the world around us and find all of our blessings in the seemingly mundane.  Realizing the abundant blessings we have is a huge part of being thankful.  But there is a deeper thankfulness, a soul and a heart of thankfulness that springs out of being needy.  Because here's what struck me: I know for a fact I am thankful for the cross.  I know without a doubt I am thankful to my Lord for sending His only son Jesus to die for my sins because I am so needy in this area.  I have been made painfully aware of my need for a savior because without Jesus I would not be standing here today.  I used to walk in darkness, trying to find any way I could fill that God shaped hole inside my heart.  I have always believed in God but the truth of the Gospel - that Jesus Christ came to Earth and died for MY sins - had never reached my heart.  You know, you were bought at a price.  I was bought at a price.  That price was paid for the sins of all mankind - then, now, and forever.  When I finally let this gospel message pierce my heart, I realized how needy I was for a savior and I have been ever thankful to Him for forgiving me.  The sins in my life were ugly sins that many would find unforgivable.  Many are sins I found unforgivable.  But the only perfect man to walk this Earth - God in the flesh - took these sins on Himself at the cross at Calvary.  I didn't deserve that.  But I needed that.  So for this I am ever thankful.

But as my day goes on and the kids are whining or the dishwasher breaks or there are piles of laundry, sometimes my thankfulness wanes.  And instead of being thankful I become annoyed that I do not have a quiet moment or that I still have to figure out what to make for dinner.  What a sad state it is for us Americans, never knowing need and never learning to live thankful lives.  

I think how we show thankfulness also proves a lot about what we believe about God.  The same way knowing our need for God makes us fall to our knees in prayer, our need of God makes us demonstrate thankfulness in different ways.  One is how we love our neighbor.  If I know I have been given this great gift of grace, then I will not act as though I have become great on my own.  If I truly believe that I am nothing without God then I will treat others as though they are more important than myself.  This attitude of thankfulness bleeds into everything we do.  We are different in our workplaces because we know our jobs are given by Him.  We are different when we are driving bcecause we don't have to get ahead and go faster bc God is getting us where we need to go.  An attitude of thankfulness is what helps us submit to God's ways and grow.

Some verses to meditate on this Thanksgiving:

Ephesians 5:15-20

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 5:1-6, 8-20 NLT

http://bible.com/116/eph.5.1-6,8-20.nlt

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Matthew 6:33-34 NLT

http://bible.com/116/mat.6.33-34.nlt

Isaiah 55

“Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. These events will bring great honor to the LORD’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.””

Isaiah 55:6-13 NLT

http://bible.com/116/isa.55.6-13.nlt

Thankfulness not of this world

Hebrews 12:1

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.”

Hebrews 12:1-3 NLT

http://bible.com/116/heb.12.1-3.nlt

God bless & Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful Ever After - Our Thanksgiving Program - Speaker: Melissa McKellen

Thankful Ever After by Melissa McKellen

“We can be thankful for the fairytale God has written for us”

Introduction:

In March 2015, Disney released a live action movie version of the fairytale Cinderella.  This was a beautiful movie version of this story.  Cinderella is an amazing character who displays courage and kindness in the midst of sorrow and pain.  In a moment during the story when Cinderella was ready to give up hope, she was visited by a fairy Godmother, which through magic enabled her to spend an enchanted evening with her prince.  Sometimes, do you ever wish that your life were like a fairytale?

Disney movies or the versions of fairytales we may have grown up reading or watching are usually very beautiful and magical.  We are drawn to them and we want our lives to look like them.  And sometimes they do, we get glimpses of them like weddings, or holding a sweet, “sleeping” newborn baby, or walking on a beach with a loved one, or exploring a new place with our family or friends.  But what happens when our stories don’t look like the fairytales we grew up with? Do we abandon the thought of our life as a fairytale?

Lets think about some hard things we all know can be true, for instance sometimes we might not be married to someone with the last name of “charming” or maybe we don’t have a prince for a son or a princess for a daughter, or maybe we don’t have anyone to call a prince or a princess and maybe we don’t live in a castle or even near one for that matter.  And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have birds and forest animals helping me clean my house.

So how is our life a fairytale if it doesn’t look fun and happy all the time?  We must remember fairytales have darkness too. But how can we be thankful ever after if there is darkness?  

We must change the way we think. We must change the way we see our life, or better yet the way we expect to see our life.

Our theme verse this year in PWOC, is Romans 12:2 which says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” I want us to look at some of the elements of what makes up a fairytale today.  I want us to look at our stories as different from what the world thinks our stories should be.  

A fairytale provides a different perspective in life to see the good in the midst of the bad.  We need to realize that a fairytale is a different kind of story.  Our story is a different kind of story because God wrote it.  Lets begin together by looking at some of the elements of a fairytale…

I. The beginning

All fairytales have a beginning. The opening of a fairytale differentiates a fairytale from any other story.  For example, the phrase, “Once upon a time” begins a fairytale.  This is a unique phrase and a signal to the reader the story is beginning.  In the story of Cinderella we see in the movie version she is born to a wonderful mother who loves her very much and cares deeply for her.  We are given a glimpse at how her mother values Cinderella.  She is uniquely loved and thought of.  

We have a beginning to our fairytales too. We have someone who uniquely loved us and thought of us too, in a way described in Psalm 139:13-14. It says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”   The Psalmist writes that our stories begin in the womb.  God has uniquely designed each one of us. It is here where our fairytale begins.  The beginning of our thankfulness is where God chose to form us.  We can be thankful for the beginning of our fairytales.  

II. The Setting

Our second element is setting.  The setting of a fairytale is defined by when and where the story takes place. It is a physical time and place where the action takes place.  There are many times when setting changes in a fairytale.  Sometimes a setting can be wonderful and inspirational.  

**When we were living overseas we took a trip to England to see a castle.  It is a real castle known for a famous setting to a popular TV show called, Downton Abbey.  When we arrived at the castle I expected to see more about the show I loved, but the people were so much more interested in telling us all about the real history of the castle.  They didn’t want to talk about the show.

Of course I wanted to know the real history, but I was so distracted by the beautiful setting I knew from the TV show.  I couldn’t help half listening to one of the ladies talking when we reached the bottom of the stairs in the grand entryway because I was thinking the whole time, “I just walked down the stairs where, Lady Mary walked,”- one of my favorite characters from the show.  And while the tour lady continued to talk to us at the bottom of the stairs, right in front of the fireplace in that room about the real earl who lived there during that time and what he had accomplished, I was thinking “but that’s where two of my favorite characters danced.”  I was so distracted by the romantic version of the setting in that castle.  And it was a gorgeous castle with a rich history, but the reality of it was not as fascinating as the show.  I fell in love with a setting that wasn’t real.  

How much do we do this in our lives?  How much do we expect from our settings?  We expect that something is beautiful, so it must make us happy and if it is not beautiful we might not be happy. Our expectations of our settings can sometimes cloud our ability to see the reality of where we are, especially if we are expecting our settings to fill our hearts and comfort us and give us security. That is something sometimes a setting is not meant to do.  

Sometimes the setting is not a place that is desired, but a place no one wants to be or maybe a new place that you don’t want to go or live.

And while for me, it wasn’t bad being in that castle the day I went on my tour.  It was bad 3 years before that when I heard we had orders to move to Germany from Texas.  That was not expected and certainly not desired.   In fact I never wanted to travel overseas, which is interesting when you are in the military. My setting and what I was holding onto for stability was about to drastically change back then.

This can be the same for all of us.  Our settings often change and even more so for those of us in the military due to our constant moves. We can’t rely on our setting to be a source of stability for us.  We must find something else.

In the movie, Cinderella, her setting changes during the story.  She is first seen to be living in a beautiful home, sleeping in a nice room.  Later, we see that while she stays in her nice home she changes rooms in the story to the attic, a cold dark place where no one would want to go.  She finds stability however in her mother.  Her mother’s words to her before she died were, “be kind and have courage.”  These words served as a constant strength to Cinderella.  They became a refuge for her, a safe place, when her setting changed.  We have this kind of safe place too.  

Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my rock and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”  God is our refuge.  He is our safe place when our physical setting changes.   

We can be thankful because while our settings may change, He remains the same, He is our constant, our rock, our strong fortress.  What did we say earlier about not living in a castle like we see in some fairytales?  I think this is the best castle we could ever find ourselves living in and we can give thanks to God for this amazing setting, our safe place in Him!

III.  The Plot

Our third element to look at is the plot of a fairytale and it is defined as the sequence of events within the story.   The events in a story help to move the story along.  We have a sequence of events in our fairytales too.  The Bible calls them circumstances.  In I Thess. 5:16-18, it says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all your circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  

Let’s insert in this verse for the word “circumstances,” the phrase “sequence of events.”  That is our plot.  According to the Bible we are to give thanks for our plot, our sequence of events.   Being thankful for our plot does not mean that we will feel thankful for each event.  That is not possible, we are created with emotions that God gave us to experience all seasons, we may have an event that causes grief or pain, or we may have an event that causes joy and relief.  

We will have moments or events that we do not “feel” thankful for.  That is okay, we can still trust God’s plan. He is the author of our fairytale and He is moving our stories along.  There is always a reason for the sequence of events in our fairytales.  

In Cinderella’s story her events are very sad, she loses her mother, then she loses her father.  But this was not the end of her story.  When we experience a sad event it doesn’t mean our stories our over. Living a fairytale doesn’t mean you won’t experience grief, sorrow, and pain.  When you do experience these things, you will feel sad or angry especially at a trial or loss in your life.  

However, you can give thanks in your circumstances because you have an author who is writing your story with a purpose and a plan.  

The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”   

We also have an amazing author who reveals things we need to know in His timing.  He knows the best time to reveal things to us.  Sometimes it’s like a special secret He reveals to us at just the right moment.  

**When we moved here to New Jersey, a little over a year ago, there were no available houses on base for us to move in.  We moved here from overseas and it was very overwhelming.  I hadn’t expected to have to adjust to being back in America, but it was a huge adjustment.  We were staying in the TLF on base and we started looking for homes. We had prayed with our children about God providing a house for us even when we first heard we would be moving here.  

We knew God had a plan, but it was not easy house hunting and we were becoming weary at no prospects.  After 2 weeks of looking at homes, some of them being places I was surprised they were legal to rent; I just started praying for a safe, affordable home.  I remember telling my husband that we prayed about this, why is this so hard?  

Finally the day came for us to look at what we decided was our last house, we were just done and felt we needed make a decision.  The house was almost 40 minutes from the base, but it seemed a good choice so we thought this is it.  We only had one vehicle at the time as we were still waiting on the other to be shipped from overseas, so I had to pick my husband, Mark from a meeting.  I left the kids at the TLF and when Mark got in the car he said, “guess what?”  I just looked at him because when you are in those kinds of sequence of events that make you just feel angry and stressed out you don’t feel like guessing, but my husband started telling me that housing had called and they had a house for us.  I could feel the tears coming; we were so relieved at the chance to live on base and couldn’t wait to tell our kids.  

When we finally told them, my youngest daughter said, “Wait, if God knew this whole time we were going to live on base, then why did we spend all that time looking at houses off base?”  I remember thinking good question!  I wondered that too.  Why did God make us look at all of those other houses?  

Deut. 29:29, says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”  

Maybe it was because He knew the best timing to reveal His surprise to us. Maybe He knew that because we had prayed with our children, He took an ordinary event like house hunting and made it special so our children could witness His care for us.  

How much more did we appreciate His provision because we had to wait for His perfect timing in His perfect plan?  We can be thankful for a creative and all knowing author who is writing the plot of our fairytales. We can be thankful for our “sequence of events!”

IV. The Conflict

The fourth element is the conflict of a fairytale and it is defined as a struggle within the plot.  This can be an internal struggle, which is where a character in the story struggles on the inside with emotions or feelings.  Conflict can also be an external struggle, when a character struggles with events, other people or things on the outside.  Every fairytale has conflict.  Sometimes the external conflicts cause the internal conflicts as well.   We see this again in the story of Cinderella.  She has an external conflict with her stepmother and her stepsisters who treat her in a cruel way, speaking harsh words to her and commanding her to do chores for them around the house.  These external conflicts begin to cause internal conflict for Cinderella.  She is starting to waver in this part of the story.  She feels her strength and courage and even her kindness beginning to leave her.  She is weary and ready to give up.  

This happens in our stories too. These struggles are often when our stories seem the most in the dark. We may have both kinds of conflict occurring at the same time.  Often this happens.  How can we be thankful for these struggles?  

We can be thankful in these times of struggle because we can turn to Him for His strength.  Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

**When my grandfather died, it triggered an internal conflict for me.  Before I got married I was living at home with my parents and my grandparents came for a visit with us for the weekend and had even been telling me a story from their honeymoon.  My grandfather died suddenly in our home during that weekend visit and it was troubling for me to witness.  It was hard for me to see how his life with my grandmother was over.  I was about to get married, and I became afraid.  I was afraid of death, the suddenness and finality of it.  I saw how I couldn’t control it.  And my heart failed me.  I started doubting everything I had learned, and I became depressed and withdrawn.  I did not know how to get out of it.  I felt ashamed and alone and without hope.   One night, my dad came to me and talked to me about my feelings. I confessed to him my fears of death.  He reminded me that night of God’s grace.  He said, “Sweetheart you can’t borrow grace, you only get the grace you need for the day.  God can give you grace to die when it’s time, but right now you need to take the grace He has given you for today.  You need to accept His grace to live and come back to the land of the living.”

Our flesh is weary during our struggles, our hearts our weak during our struggles but His grace is sufficient for our struggles and He renews our strength!  2 Cor. 12:9 says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…” We can be thankful for His grace to endure the conflict in our fairytales!

V.  The Magic

The fifth element in fairytales for us to look at today is magic.   Magic is a power that influences the sequence of events in the story.  In Cinderella, the story seems dark until the magic that is performed by Cinderella’s fairy Godmother.  It intervenes in Cinderella’s sequence of events and you see magical solutions.  Cinderella is transformed from a sad girl in rags to a joyful girl in a beautiful gown.  She is given a magical carriage made from a pumpkin and its all such a magical moment.  

Doesn’t that make us wish we had a fairy Godmother too or maybe at least if we could just borrow her wand!

Do we ever see magical things happen in our stories?  What about magical moments?

Of course we do!  We have magic in our fairytales too.  It may not look like dressed up mice and glass slippers, but we have it!  

We have a power that is at work in us, through the very author of our stories!

The Bible says in Ephesians 3:19-20, “ And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”  

This is a power that we can’t measure and it’s a power we have access to through prayer! All we have to do is ask. Matt. 7:7, states, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

In Cinderella, she has a magical fairy Godmother who listens to her concerns and helps her. She knew exactly what Cinderella needed.  Cinderella didn’t even have to be specific in her troubles.  

We have the same thing in our amazing Father, He listens to our concerns and He helps us before we can even express it properly, He knows exactly what we need.  

**Recently my mom had surgery and I could not be there during that time.  Her surgery ended up going well, but she was struggling a bit with pain and had to stay in the hospital longer than she had planned for.  I wanted so desperately to be there for her; to hold her hand and sit by her bed and pray with her.  I couldn’t, I could only pray.  

She told me later when she was able to go home that a lady had come to her room that she did not know and sat down by her bed.  She told me the lady prayed the most sincere prayer and that she held her hand.  

I was so moved that what I had not spoken in prayer to the Lord was accomplished, it had only been on my heart. I had been praying for my mom of course, but my wishes to be there were the cry of my heart and God knew that.  

He knows the cry of our hearts today too!  He has the power to answer each request we have and to show us His power.   Isaiah 65:24 says, “ Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.”

We can be thankful for an author who hears and sees us!  We can be thankful for the magic that is more than we can imagine in our fairytales!

VI. The Theme

A sixth element in a fairytale is theme.  The theme is the main idea of a story, a main lesson or moral that the author wants us to learn. The theme of our fairytales can teach us something about ourselves and about our stories.  

What is the theme of our fairytale that God has written for us? The theme of our fairytale is that each one of us would be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.  In Romans 8:29-30, it states, “ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he has also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified.” God is using our stories to do this.  We see this again in our verse from this year, Rom. 12:2, we need to remember that we are not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and thru testing we may discern what is the will of God in our lives and what is good and acceptable and perfect. We need to allow God to change us thru our stories to be more like Him.  

In the story of Cinderella, when the fairy Godmother appears to her and uses her magic to help her, Cinderella is transformed into a beautiful princess and looking ready to go to a ball, however she is still a little apprehensive and is concerned about being discovered for who she really is.  In the movie version of this story her fairy Godmother gives her a special spell to make her appear as someone else but it only lasts until midnight. She gives her the beauty of a magical night with a prince who she falls in love with.  

This transformation for Cinderella doesn’t last, the spell is over at midnight and she is left with only one glass shoe as she lost the other running away from the prince.  She must face the reality of her circumstances again but something has transformed her that isn’t on the outside it’s happened on the inside.  Cinderella is beginning to feel loved again after such cruel treatment from her stepmother and stepsisters and while the physical beauty is gone from the magic the night before she has gained the love of a prince, she is being transformed by this love.  She has hope again and is able to show love to others.

We can be thankful for our transformations too!  We can be thankful we have an author who reveals His theme to us and is in love with us and purposeful in writing our stories to transform us to be more like Christ!  

VII. The Characters

Another element in fairytales is the characters. Within any fairytale there are different characters.  It’s who the story is about and they are the people in the story who carry out the actions.  There are main characters, good characters and bad characters and as we have seen in the example of Cinderella, there are even magical characters.

In our fairytales, we are the characters who move the action along.   However, Jesus is the main character, not us. He sustains us and promises not to leave us.

**When our children were little and would throw tantrums about something they could not have, we would say to them. “Life is not all about you, life is about who? “ They would answer sometimes while rolling their eyes that life was about God, not them.  It was simple but affective for us as parents to get their focus off of them, off of what they thought their story was about.   

We can do this too.  The Bible tells us in I Cor. 10:31, “so whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  That means all of our actions as characters in our story can be done for God.   When those magical forest characters from the fairytales we remember don’t show up to clean our homes for us, even that can be done by us and still be about God.  We can do it all for him.  

He sees us at all times and He promises our works and labors of love are not in vain and that He is with us. Hebrews 6:10 says, “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints.”

Also in Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst , a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”  

**I love the last part of that verse from Zephaniah, about the singing.  Have you ever found that you have a sweet song on your mind about God, maybe one you have learned in your past? This verse makes me think God just whispers it to us when He knows we need a song and it enters our hearts and fills our minds and before we know it we are singing!

We can be thankful that we are characters in our fairytales, we can be thankful that the author of our story is the main character and He is not only writing the story, He is right beside us through out it.

VIII.  The Ending

Our final element is the ending of the fairytale.  The ending of most fairytales is again a unique ending just as the beginning was.  The phrase is this, “And they lived happily ever after till the end of their days.”  

In Cinderella’s story she has the love of a prince who pursues her even when she runs away.  He never stopped looking for her until he found her in the end.  He promised to marry her and give her a home.  

We have that prince in our stories too.  His name is Jesus Christ and He never stops pursuing us.  He will search for us until He finds us and He has promised us a home with him.  He tells us in His Word in the book of John that we should not let our hearts be troubled, and that He has gone to prepare a place for us.

In John 14:3 Jesus says, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” And that is where we have our ending.  We have an eternal home with Him that is not of this world.  

That is again why he reminds us in Romans 12:2, to not be conformed to this world, we do not belong here. One day He will take us to our forever home and we will live with him forever.  

We can be thankful that our hope is not of this world.  We can be thankful ever after because God is bringing us through this life, conforming us to the image of His Son, and into our happily ever after.  We can be thankful for our ending!  We can be thankful ever after!