IT'S EASY TO MISS WHAT WE'RE NOT LOOKING FOR

IT’S EASY TO MISS WHAT WE’RE NOT LOOKING FOR

I prayed daily to get rid of the gangs and the tagging in the neighborhood. I was seeing more graffiti and reading about the different crimes committed around us. I was only focusing on the negatives and praying against them. This week something happened to change my focus.

Just today, Jane my roommate, said, “Someone bought that Christian store that was closing and it’s already open. Let’s take a ride down there and see it. Did you notice the rehab place down the street is now a church? Have you seen the other new church down there too?” 

I replied, “Oh yea, and there’s that other big one around the corner. The parking lot is always full.” I remembered that we just saw two Black American men this past weekend in the neighborhood coming around to invite people to the Baptist church a block away.  

And Jane said, “The synagogue just built a brand new Jewish school down there too.”

All kinds of new believers were infiltrating my neighborhood and I didn’t even know it.

I started off praying AGAINST the negatives, but I ended up LOOKING FOR THEM!  Since I wasn’t looking for the good things, I was missing all of what was happening around me. John 1:5 says: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” Just one flashlight in a room and all the darkness can’t make it go away. The entrance of God’s light in my neighborhood is what is beginning to dispel the darkness.

Now I’m no longer looking at the negatives, but at the light, focusing and praying for all the good I see. God tagged our neighborhood!

Speaking of looking at the good, that’s exactly what Jesus did and continues to do with us. I love this remark from T.L. Osborn:

“Jesus did enough! He did enough to even cover the worst thing we can do. He did enough for ALL mankind, FOREVER. There's nothing we can do to shock Him, scare Him away, disgust Him so much He'd ignore us. He got tempted by whatever tempts us. And when He was crucified for all the results of giving in to those temptations, He took it to the devil and shook it in his face and dumped it off at the devil's feet: ‘There, finished for all time!’”

Jesus looks at the good in us and the end result, which is to be perfect with Him forever!

Love, Carolyn

Link to new WINGS 2: Journey with Jesus book

  \https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-Journey-Workbook-Christian-Living-ebook/dp/B01HLPCQPS?ie=UTF8&creativeASIN=B01HLPCQPS&linkCode=w00&linkId=3db11d66c6a14979d479d0f7f9e3359b&ref_=as_sl_pc_as_ss_li_til&tag=jmbcsds-20#navbar