"MondayReflection
27th November 2023
Lori Thomason shares
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I have reached the age of full circle.
Isaiah 55:10-11 (AMP)
"For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, making it bear and sprout, and providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will My word be which goes out of My mouth; it will not return to Me void (useless, without result), without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
I am embarrassed to admit that I have reached the age of full circle.
If you say that you have come "full circle", you have probably experienced a series of events or changes that have led you back to the original place, source or state.
Life is full of cycles or circles.
For example, addiction is a cycle.
It is tough to break. It is definitely a disease.
The circular mindset of choices that lead us back to a dangerous or debilitating source.
Faith is a process. It is a cycle all its own.
It is a healthy circle that takes something from God sowing it carefully into a fertile (broken) heart and over time it grows, develops and matures into that which is hoped for, coming full circle back to God after accomplishing what He set it forth to do.
I have lived long enough to see circles in my life.
I have also felt as though I am wandering aimlessly in the wilderness making zero progress along the way.
I believe the problem is that many abort the faith process before the cycle is complete.
Untrusting of the Source of Life - it is easier to compromise than to wait out God's timing which is nothing like our own.
God's Word is His Promise to us.
God's Word (every single one that He wrote to us and speaks to us) is completely credible.
God doesn't lie or change His Mind.
He doesn't revoke your gifts or calling because you are a deplorable wretch like me.
God knew exactly how much grace was needed to sufficiently cover our sin. Our weakness doesn't challenge Him.
Our mistakes do not surprise Him.
Our lack of faith in the present doesn't change His Plan for our future.
He intentionally created you to be you, calling His Work fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvellous are His Works...He's talking about you, friend.
He recorded every single day of your life from the beginning.
You are not powerful enough to disrupt His Plan set in motion or stop His Word from making its way back to Him.
Those too lazy to plough in the right season will have no food at the harvest.
When our son was diagnosed with cancer, the Lord gave me His Word that
"he would live and not die to declare His Good Works."
I looked it up and found it in Psalm 118:17.
The Word held up pretty good through the first round of chemotherapy and radiation.
In about six months, our son was declared in remission and life was normal again... or so I thought.
It took three years of sowing faith in God's Word, speaking this promise to our wandering minds and wavering hearts.
It took entrance into the realm of hope because medicine couldn't cut it.
Rejection upon rejection by insurance companies threatening to end any resources for additional treatment.
Relapses coming just weeks at a time. It was a matter of 'life or death'.
I was calling on the God of Abraham who brings the dead back to life.
Friend, my Jericho was looming but the cost too great to give up.
God's Word came full circle.
Our son is alive and well.
He is a warrior with battle scars whose every breath is a testimony of our Miraculous God.
He is a living, breathing, walking miracle.
There is no other explanation.
God's Word came to pass in three years.
This is an edited version. The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
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This is just one example.
There are promises God made us that our easily discarded by impatience.
After all, we live in a world of instant gratification.
But what if tomorrow holds a trial too great for you to bear and what if you will need the Word of the Lord to save you or a loved one.
Is there a harvest in your heart?
My love affair with Jesus started at age 11.
I went for a long walk in the wilderness.
Upon my return, I found Him waiting with every promise I thought was forfeited.
The enemy stands beside King Jesus offering me lies and half-truths that seem so much more plausible.
He steadily shoves substitutions for God's Best in my face and counterfeits for compromise.
God's Word will not fail me.
I know that now - when I came full circle - I found Jesus face-to-face.
Psalm 37:34 (TLB)
Don't be impatient for the Lord to act!
Keep traveling steadily along his pathway and in due season he will honour you with every blessing, and you will see the wicked destroyed.
Oh how I love this particular verse in this translation.
Don't be impatient for the Lord to act. He has a due season.
The Lord makes all things beautiful in their own time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
I am quite certain that about the sixth time walking around the walls of Jericho the people were mumbling on the inside.
Yet they kept "traveling steadily along His Pathway".
The Children of Israel decided to follow God's Instructions in full obedience regardless of how they felt, what they saw, or just how hopeless it seemed.
Yet they went full circle and the walls of Jericho fell flat.
They didn't even have to climb through broken rubble but God made a way for them to just walk right in.
Oh friend! God is faithful. His Word is absolutely true.
Faith is a process. It must come full circle to produce that what you hope for.
It will always lead you right back to God.
Faith is not just for 'life or death' situations.
God has given us promises for every area of our life that belong to us.
Faith takes hold of those promises making them the reality of our life.
Have you given up?
Impatience tripping you up - it gets us all sometimes.
Have you left your field unattended?
Is your heart growing hard?
Compromise, convenience, counterfeits and substitutions are all settlements and God wants no part of it.
He has a perfect plan with a future and hope for us.
He only needs a mustard seed of faith -
someone willing to take Him at His Word and go full circle!
Galatians 6:9 (TLB)
And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up.
I am Lori Thomason
I am not a pastor, apostle, teacher or speaker.
I am just a disciple of Jesus Christ who leads Women's Ministry, teaches and speaks for Him.
I am a believer who has devoted the rest of my life to discovering who the Lord is and what He would have me to do.
I am just like you working full-time, managing a family and trying to hold it all together.
