The Gift...God's Gift

I started this blog in 2010 excited about what God was doing in my life and how He was using the gift He entrusted me with. Then life happened. Since then, I have noticed a few "businesses", pop up with this same name. I'm not upset. Writefully Speaking is a name that God gave me after fasting and praying...it's ministry for me. Why? It was just 7 years ago that I was told that I would never speak again. This is when I realized the gift that I really had. I've never been a "speaker" per se, because every attempt at me speaking either has been shut down by someone talking over me, cutting me off or plain telling me to shut up (saying "be quiet" would have been MUCH nicer). I use to write letters to family members, friends and boyfriends whenever an issue arose because I couldn't "talk" about it. So, I'm not going to let the enemy take away what God has given me a clear vision for. Writefully Speaking will go about full force and will operate as the mandate God has set. In the meantime, I'll share this:

Using What’s Lost and Focusing on What’s Gained      
   
            As I’m sitting here recovering from surgery, God has really dealt with me on using what I thought I lost and focusing on what I’ve gained. It’s like a blind man that has lost his sight, but not his vision. It’s like a deaf woman losing her hearing, but can listen to God. It’s like me losing my voice, but having so much to say (as usual right?). It’s all about using what we thought we lost. The key word here is “thought”. Not using what IS lost, or what WAS lost, but what we THOUGHT we lost. There are times when relationships end in our lives and we feel like we’ve lost so much…we feel like we’ve lost love, hope and understanding. But seems like those things magnify themselves 10-fold in other areas of our lives when we really allow ourselves to sit back and reflect. Or in essence, we have actually gained more in turn from losing something. There are many of us that lost our jobs, but we have gained more quiet time with God. There are many of us that have lost loved ones, but we have gained an appreciation for true family time. There are many of us that have lost the relationship battle, but we’ve gained a deeper self-love. It’s not so easy to celebrate a loss when we’re in “mourning”. But “many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21 ).

            It’s hard for us to understand that God could have orchestrated a loss for us to gain so much more. Especially when we try to preserve what was lost. But He told me that some things aren’t worth preserving. We try to hold on to the person, when we really should be cherishing the love. We try to hold on to the relationship, when we really should be holding on to the experience. We try to hold on to the materialistic things we have gained, when we really need to hold on to the knowledge of God’s blessings. Let go and let God sounds easy, but it really isn’t. We try to recapture the feeling we had when a certain person or situation was present in our lives. Not realizing that we to let some things go in order to receive others. The Bible clearly tells us that in Isaiah 42:9a, “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare”. And also Isaiah 43:18, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” Though it’s in the Word, it’s still hard for us. As we open up our hearts and souls to God in prayer, let us not to forget to ask Him to help us move on from the former, using what was lost and focus on what we have gained.     

    
Your Humble Servant,
Raushanah N. Butler

 © Copyright 2005 by Raushanah N. Butler

Broken Glass

BROKEN GLASS

(Psalm 34:18)

Ever seen a broken mirror and how there are many cracks in the glass? Ever mistakenly dropped a drinking glass on the floor and saw how it broke into many pieces? Sometimes our lives mimic the broken glass. There are bombs that were dropped on us in the form of an unwanted baby, ending relationships or the loss of a job that we become broken. Sometimes they are in the form of needs not being met like out mental, emotional and spiritual needs. And in turn we become broken. It may be a child that’s broken because of the separation of the parents. It may be a parent that’s broken because of the relationship they had with their parents (now that's a cycle that NEEDS to be broken). It may be that nothing in someone’s life seems to go right, no matter how much right they do. And let me say this, just because someone is going through, doesn’t always mean they did something wrong…remember Job???

But how do you mend broken glass? Glue is an option. There’s nothing like something that can glue your life back together right? Sometimes glue can be messy though. Sometimes glue can be sticky. But sometimes it takes a messy or sticky situation for us to focus our hearts and minds on God to begin in the path of healing from this brokenness. Another option that mends broken glass is burnishing. What is burnishing you ask? Burnishing is rubbing the glass to make it luster or polished. Sometimes we have to be rubbed the wrong or the right way in order to stand as a polished piece of glass once again. And the last option is to melt the glass by fire and to reshape it and mold it. That’s the most powerful. Why? Because whatever caused us to break could have hardened us, and there’s nothing like a little fire to bring us back to God. But the heat will soften us and melt us so that we can be molded and reshaped again.

I know this devotional isn’t filled with bible scriptures and sayings, but the message goes forth. Many of us are broken in some way, shape or form. Yes, we stand with our chests poked out and our heads held high, but truth be told, we’re dealing and coping. God is the glue to mend the brokenness. God is the one to perform the burnishing. And His love melts, while His grace and mercy reshapes us. If a broken glass can mended, so can your heart, your soul and your LIFE!!!

REMEMBER: "We cannot be whole until we have first been broken." Mark Brown

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