{"id":394,"date":"2023-09-30T13:40:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T12:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/?p=394"},"modified":"2023-09-30T13:40:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T12:40:32","slug":"everything-okay-yea-im-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/?p=394","title":{"rendered":"Everything okay? Yea. I’m fine."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Imagine you could control the weather. With but a thought, a gentle request, you could shut off the rains of heaven, and not just for a day, but for years. Then just as easily, you ask that the drops of refreshing nourishment return, and they do. You literally hold the power of life in your hands. You are amazing.  There is nothing you can\u2019t do. You have the world by a string. You control your destiny. Don\u2019t we all secretly dream of having that much power and confidence? Yet, we all know what comes next. You are asked to do more and more, which you do because that is what is asked of you. There are no accolades, only challenges and requests. There are only the next steps. It is all you know. There are expectations to be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But suddenly, for some known or unknown reason, the world comes at you. You are told you are wrong in your beliefs. You are told either silently or vocally that you are not good enough. You are called out, challenged, and ultimately, you feel cast aside by the very ones you were trying to help. The wins of yesterday, the greatness of your gifts becomes afterthoughts. There is only the cry for escape. The same mouth that spoke words which could stop the rain now cry out, \u201cI am nothing. Nobody cares, I can\u2019t do this anymore. Let me die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that sounds familiar, you are NOT ALONE! Men and women far greater than you and I have felt the same. The prophet Elijah (1st<\/sup> Kings 19) lived through those same feelings of \u201cI don\u2019t matter to anyone.\u201d  At his lowest, God came to him and asked what he was doing there.  In the South, we would ask, \u201cEverything okay?\u201d To which, the obligatory reply becomes, \u201cI\u2019m good.\u201d  But not Elijah. He actually said to God (in my imagined dialogue), \u201cLook, I did all this for you, and what do I have to show for it? Nothing. They hate me. Nobody even cares that I\u2019ve gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But rather than say, \u201cWell, that\u2019s nice.\u201d God engaged in conversation as only God could. He said, \u201cI want you to keep listening to the world\u2019s noise for just a bit longer,\u201d as the mountains shook, and the wind roared, and the fire fell from the sky.  \u201cHear that?\u201d said God. \u201cWell, I am not there, but I am here,\u201d he replied in a still, soft voice whispered on the gentle breeze against Elijah\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a powerful lesson in the Word for those of us who mindlessly reply, \u201cI\u2019m good,\u201d when asked how life is treating us.  Perhaps we would be wise to open up and speak our truth. I, for one, tend to worry more about the fire around me and the mountains crumbling than the gentle breezes. I would be well served to remember that sometimes the things the world shows us, the noise, if you will, is just that, NOISE. It is not the message of our God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just as important, maybe more so, is the lesson in the WORD for those of us who ask, \u201cEverything okay?\u201d of those souls we encounter then fail to wait for the reply. When we hear \u201cI\u2019m okay\u201d, we must LISTEN for the unspoken words of burden and loss. And when we speak, we must not speak with the noise of the WORLD because He is not there.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hug those you love a little tighter today. May your whispers of God\u2019s mercy be louder than the rolling thunder in the storms of life. Peace be with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine you could control the weather. With but a thought, a gentle request, you could shut off the rains of heaven, and not just for a day, but for years. Then just as easily, you ask that the drops of refreshing nourishment return, and they do. You literally hold the power of life in your hands. You are amazing.  There is nothing you can\u2019t do. You have the world by a string. You control your destiny. Don\u2019t we all secretly…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finishyourpraise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}