A Lizard not a Zebra!

This is going to send goosebumps up your spine...or maybe lizards... depending upon where you are standing. If it is on my front porch, probably lizards.


We have numerous lizards on our front porch. I used to love my front porch. I have two chairs and a small table and I used to sit and drink coffee and eat a muffin in the mornings while waiting for my daughter's bus to come by and pick her up for school. The key word I am using is the word "used to". I don't sit and relax anymore on the porch because of the lizards. They annoy me when I am trying to relax. How do you relax when you know there is some little green, brown sometimes white little critter lurking around your plate. I'm afraid one of those lizards is going to slip into my coffee and I am going to be slurping down its' tail. The thought makes me not want to drink any fluid other than very clear water so I can see to the bottom of the glass.


I keep my umbrellas and rain boots on the front porch. Have you ever slipped your foot in your rain boots and felt lizards roaming around on your feet or have you opened up your umbrella to discover lizards raining on your head? I have done this and it is not very comforting. I'm sure the neighbors are used to this sight and sound by now. Imagine an umbrella going airborne across the yard followed by blood curteling screams. I've taken notice lately that my neighbors do not have their rainboots or umbrellas on their front porch. Hummmm.......


There is a point here........... lizards are lizards not zebras or elephants. They don't change into dogs nor do dogs into cats. We are constant as are they. It doesn't mean that our bodies don't change or our minds don't grow because they do change, that part is not constant. However, that fact that we are human and they are "critters" is how God planned it all when he created us, but God is Constant and he is ever welcoming us into His care.


So I have been thinking about trials that we encounter everyday of our lives. Some trials seem to never cease or we become inundated by new ones. I think Satan's goal is to harrass and torment us so that we will loose hope and become torn and weak. So you ask, what does this have to do about lizards. Well, I got to thinking the other day that I really love my front porch and I was not going to let those lizards bother me anymore. I was going to stand strong, be firm and embrace (yuck) those critters or the front porch is a waste. Sometimes facing the fear or the trial is tough. Tough enough that sometimes we don't face our trials with God at our side because we don't invite Him only because we feel we can navigate through them on our own. When we do this on our own we can become weak in faith and persistent in doubt and loose hope in our God.

So back to Satan and trials..... He is persistant and stubborn and and he consistently tries out every avenue to be a nagging presence in our lives. He wants us to loose hope and to be slaves to sin. But in our trials we must not loose hope, but to navigate through them and allow God to help us.

Romans 5:3 "affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been givento us. "


Think about Abraham and Sarah for a moment. Their trial was in the fact that their bodies were old, very old and they wanted to bare children. "He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become "the father of many nations," Romans 4:18 "He did not doubt God's promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God..." Romans 4:20 He became the father of many by just having faith and allowing God's grace to flow.


God can do anything and He can help us in our trials if we let Him. HE is CONSTANT! HE is GOD!! God may not be able to make a square round and still call it a square, but He can walk with us in our trials.


"in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39


It's raining outside and I need to get my umbrella.........