Spring is finally here.  That alone is enough to make my spirit jump with joy.  This is, no doubt, a gorgeous time of the year as nature comes alive with new birth.

With spring comes spring-cleaning.  We all seem to naturally want to clean things out, freshen things up, and make our homes sparkle after a long winter, at least to

some degree.  Making things beautiful inside and out, we want our homes to be fresh and new just like outside in nature.

Spring is a time to come alive.  To come alive is exhilarating … especially if you have not been in that state for a while whether from a long hard winter in nature or from life’s hard knocks.

Below is a facebook status update from my girlfriend that I would like for you to ponder …

Spring has come to Pennsylvania. As I was clearing away dead leaves and debris in my flowerbeds, I was reminded that now is a prefect time to do the same within ourselves. ~ BI

No matter what emotional state you might find yourself in and for whatever reason, how can this beautiful season of spring, spring you forward into a higher exhilarated state of being alive?

As you become still and ponder my girlfriend’s thought, what debris in your own life do you need to clear away?  There is fresh soil under the dead leaves and debris.  What might you find after you have cleared it out?  How alive might it make you feel once it is all gone?  What’s the first step you need to take towards making it happen?

Spring is a time to come alive … Go for it!!!

The following story was taken from Mark 5:21-43

Jairus, a synagogue ruler, fell at the feet of Jesus begging him to touch his dying daughter. At one point in the story men who had come from Jairus’s house went to Jairus to tell him that his daughter was dead. Jesus ignored what they had said and told this grieving man, “don’t be afraid, just believe.”

When they had gotten to Jairus’s home Jesus told the people there that the daughter was not dead but that she was just sleeping. They laughed at Him! Can you imagine! Obviously, they had no faith … maybe they had no idea who Jesus was.

The child’s parents, a few disciples, and Jesus went to the child where she was laying. Jesus took her by the hand and said, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” Immediately she stood up and walked around. She was healed!

How many stories do we read where Jesus, in some form or another, touched someone to heal them? Touch is obviously very powerful.

In reading and meditating on this story today it occurred to me that if Jesus can raise the dead, can He not raise what appears to be dead in our lives today? Do we not all have situations that are sick, next to death’s door, and even dead?

Finances … relationships … health … marriages … ministry hardships … children … the list could go on.

I encourage you to seek Him out, run to Jesus and throw yourselves at His feet and plead with Him to touch your situation. “Do not be afraid, just believe!” All it takes is a touch from Him. For the woman who bleed for 12 years all it took for her was to touch the hem of His cloak and she was healed.

Beloved, seek Him, run to Him with all of your being … touch Him and allow Him to touch you. He is The Great Physician in all things.

Don’t be afraid, just believe!

What would it look like for you to run to Him to receive His healing touch?

What might that healing look like?

Take heart!  God is doing something new!!

In my last article, Do You Value Yourself?, I wrote about how the hardships of life can take it’s toll on our self-value.  But, Isaiah 43:1 tells us that we belong to God and He knows our names.  God’s love and value for us is like no other and it is this knowledge that carries us through the rough points in our lives.

Today I am writing about those rough points.  Times are rough for so many right now here in our country and certainly in other parts of the world with Haiti in the forefront.  May the Lord be with them providing miracles of provisions, healings, and salvation both physically and spiritually, and much comfort.

I don’t know what you’re struggling with today, but I encourage you to stop wrestling with the issue in the sense of wanting things to go back to the way they used to be.  Don’t we do that?  I know that I will find myself in that position from time to time.

We say things like if only this didn’t happen or that didn’t happen.  If we could just get things back to the way they used to be then life would be easy.  We will even make a plan on how to get it there, but does it really ever work out?  No.  Why? …

… Because life is forever changing.  Change is a good thing.  The quicker we wrap ourselves around the change that we are in the middle of the better off we will be, along with those around us and our situation.

“This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, 
a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.See, I am doing a new thing! 
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

The wild animals honor me, 
the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”

~Isaiah 43:16-21

Take heart!  God is doing something new!!

Whatever your situation is, embrace it!  Instead of dwelling in the past, look up and out!  God is doing something new in your life!  He is making a way for you in your desert.  He is making provisions for you, His chosen, so that you can proclaim His praise!

Glory be to God!