Walking on Water

What am I doing?
I’m living so completely contradictory to what man says. Mine is not a traditional life but only life as I’ve come to know it. A series of leaps of faith, walks on water, climbs to mountaintops, exiles to deserts, dodging shadows in valleys and refusing to be a Jesus cliché. Everyday I awake expecting miracles, favor and success. My bank account says “it ain’t happening.” The bills say, “You’ve got to be kiddin’. Debt-free? We ain’t having it.” The mortgage company says, “Just half-step one time…” But the Holy Spirit empowers me call what is not as if it already is and believe that the impossible is highly probable and that the possible is just too easy for God--anyway.

What am I doing?
Calling what is not as if it already is. With a child’s heart, I’m choosing to believe and take God at His Word as poured on in Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 11 through 12. “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”

What am I doing?
Trusting God!

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Letting Go

Perhaps like me, God has been teaching you the art of Letting Go. Letting go of the old in order to embrace the new. Letting go of what is not working so that He can bring to me what is. Letting go of trying to fix it or work it out on my own...and letting Him bring His perfect will and plans into my life.

Letting go of the old ideas that are not based on the THE living WORD of God but soul-draining stuff grafted on my mind over years of listening to what the world has to say...simply because what God has to say is contrary to the lies I've been bombarded with all my life. Lies and misconceptions like from the poem, Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, which I had to learn in high school, "I am the master of my fate the captain of my soul."

Then ushered in by the Madison Avenue ad agencies was the "me generation.” The world instructed me to look into the mirror and repeat affirmations like, "it all about me and my inner child." And let's forget the golden-arched message "you deserve a break today." What I deserved was death by inverted crucifixion but what I got was God's unmerited favor! He sent his only son, Christ Jesus to die on the cross for me and my sins; so that I could have life and that more abundantly. I'll be honest with you. It would be extremely difficult for you to pry my "only" cup of coffee out of my grasp--even at the expense of 3rd degree burns on my hands. Give up my only son? Any son? Any child? For anybody? Unthinkable! No way, ever!

Yes, letting go of the hype and replacing it with God's truths. Letting go of the bitterness so He can replace it with His Love. Letting go of the anger so He can replace it with His peace that surpasses all human understanding--especially mine. (Philippians 4:7)

Letting go of the plans and dreams I have for myself or allowed others to force-feed me so that He can orchestrate into my life His perfect plans prepared long before I was born. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Letting go of the fear-based procrastination and embracing the life and reality of God's words, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2nd Timothy 1:5) Letting go of all that's broken in my life--relationships--emotions--ideas--concepts--beliefs about myself and others.

LETTING IT ALLLLLLLLL GOOOOOOOOOOO. The burdens, the frustrations, the hopelessness, trying to understand the profundity of life when His ways are so far and above our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts could ever hope to be. (Isaiah 55:9) The most viable and empowering solution eludes me like my own shadow in the blazing afternoon sun -- Free-Falling back into the all-powerful and loving arms of God and RESTING. Resting like David who in Psalm 131 wrote, "I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." (Psalm 131:2)

A group of us discussed such things in the last Feast on THE WORD Gathering. The Lord brought to my remembrance this poem which I printed, distributed and now, I feel led to share with you.

"Broken Dreams"

As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God,
Because He was my friend.
But then instead of leaving Him,
In peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help,
With ways that were my own.
At last, I snatched them back and cried,
"How can you be so slow?"
"My child," He said, "What could I do?
"You never did let go.

Author Unknown

© 2005 Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com

I am

I am but a miniscule fragment
of God’s imagination
A grain of sand
on the Seashore of Life
And still I matter.
I am because HE IS.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com

Stanice On Writing

I’ve been writing since I learned how to construct a sentence. One of my poems was published in school magazine when I was nine years old. It seemed like, in the millisecond, my happy childhood ended, as the verbal and physical abuse at home escalated. Coupled with being raped at 14 years old, I was emotionally silenced and sequestered by the secrets. I remember making a vow to myself—“No one must ever know.” Therefore, the written word became my saving-grace.

As I grew older, I attempted to show the world a well-adjusted, funny, and extraverted woman. It was only in my writing that my real voice could be heard. It dared to whisper a different story. Words befriended me, flowed from my soul, and spilled onto thousands of pages over the years. However, as if by tried by a jury with my warped sense of self as foreman, most of my pieces were sentenced to life in file folders neatly stacked in corrugated boxes and exiled to the backside of closets.

Resurrected Dreams, one of the stories in my memoir, I Say a Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, best describes my relationship with the written word.

“Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. In my forties, writing found me again. It helped shatter the chains of my painful and shameful past. Words fed my starving spirit and soothed my aching life. In spite of the fact that I abandoned the words and left them to die by the side of the road, they waited for me at the crossroads of life to point the way, ‘Just believe!’ they insisted that we and you are one.’ The itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.”

As an exercise of my belief, I send my words out into the world.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson, Author and Inspirational Speaker, www.stanice.com

4 Candles

Be Still

Recently, my ex-husband called me to wish me a Happy Birthday. As we talked I shared with him what was going on in my life. He listened and then offered these simple words. “Be Still.” As soon as he said it, the fullness of God’s Word sprung up from my heart like a child’s abruptly opened jack-in-the-box. “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10). It confirmed for me that God was using my ex-husband to speak His Divine wisdom into my life.

That wisdom was carried upon the wings of forgiveness—set up long before the Lord put on this man’s heart to call me with the Word. It was God’s love poured into our hearts that enabled us to ask and receive forgiveness from each other and to also forgive ourselves—long ago—which opened the doors wide enough for moments like these.

The next day, during the Feast on THE WORD Gathering in my home, as I shared my testimony of my ex-husband’s call, and others present shared their testimonies, the Holy Spirit led us to a prophetic Word. It was like Part II of an already awesome Word. The promise that results once we each determine to ““Be still, and know that I am God." in whatever situation we find ourselves.

"You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.' " 2 Chronicles 20:17 (New International Version)--Personalize it by saying your name.

I believe that this blog entry is like a rock thrown by the Holy Spirit into a still, clear lake. It is producing a rippling effect of clarity and promise into our lives today. Receive, Partake, Feast on THE WORD and be encouraged.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear but going forward in spite of the fear. Whenever, I’m fearful, the Word I’ve hidden in my heart--so I can call it up whenever the need arises is 2 Timothy 1:7. “God has not given me a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

Also, check out the two new slide shows complete with me singing original music in the background. Links are posted on www.stanice.com.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Birth-days

It's my birthday...so today I celebrate God's gift to me--LIFE. And the icing on the cake is ETERNAL LIFE as freely given to me when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and thus was BORN AGAIN. ("In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." -- John 3:3)

As I read what has become embraced by me as the "Birthday Psalm 139," I'm reminded of God's love, favor and purposes so inventively built into our lives. "...For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be..."

My prayer today is that the Holy Spirit empowers us to continue to believe, walk and breath in God's promises, plans, and purposes for our lives. In Jesus' Name I pray this. Amen. So be it!

© 2005, Stanice Anderson, Inspirational Speaker & Author of I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, www.stanice.com

Self-Inflicted

Let us take a moment to briefly look at what a mutated and degenerative web we weave when we duck, dodge, and deceive. We know what the right thing to do is and yet we try to get around doing it. We try to find an easier or softer way—but that way always results in unnecessary and self-inflicted pain. We don’t have to surrender to living that way. We can look up and call on God to help us do what we, in and of ourselves, lack the power to do—the right thing!

© 2002, Stanice Anderson – excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me

Unconditionally

Photo: My Son & Granddaughter
Many of us have done things in our past that we are not proud of, are embarrassed about, or even feel a residue of shame when we think about the selfishness and self-centeredness of some of the bad choices we made. However, some of us have also experienced the unconditional love of a child, whether our own or someone else’s, and as a result of looking into these forgiving faces our cooled hearts are warmed and we get a glimpse of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness.
© 2002, Stanice Anderson – excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me