Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.  For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.

Matthew 7:7

I was thinking about this Scripture after I drove down one of the busier streets in my town. Well, not really ‘drove down’. It was stop and go the whole way.

I’d been out doing errands all day. Almost done with my list, a building traffic tie-up was really cramping my style. Annoyance reached up and grabbed me. “What’s the holdup here? Why aren’t we moving?”

At home finally, an hour later, I wondered why I was such a victim of my emotions. In the face of the traffic, why couldn’t I calm down and listen to the radio or something?

I asked: “Lord, I pray for your help all the time. Why didn’t you give me the grace to overcome?”

After a while, it came to me. When I first read the ‘seek, ask and knock’ Scripture passage, I thought God did all the work after I knocked. But that’s not quite true. Yes, if I ask, he’ll give me the grace to overcome my annoyance.

But he can’t use the grace for me. It’s up to me to find it and use it. We have to be partners in that power.

Sitting in the car on that busy street, I reacted like I was helpless. Anger was rising in me, and I let it take over. Anger was the enemy, but I led it right past the moat and into my castle. I didn’t offer any resistance at all.

Then this prayer came to me:

My Father, please give me the grace to recognize your grace. Then give me the grace to accept your grace. And finally, please give me the grace to use the grace you give me.

I had the tools to over come. God had given me the grace to rise above my irritation. I just didn’t take the time to summon that grace, and use it.

I tell you therefore: everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours.        Mark 11:24

I can’t physically see grace to overcome, but Jesus says I have it already. And I trust Jesus’ word. When those crazy negative emotions come, I can stand firm, knowing that I have the power to keep them out.

Anger can’t mess with me. With grace in my soul, I’m in charge here. Anger isn’t.

God did his part, now it’s my turn. Time to rise above and conquer. Then, the peace of God, which no one understands, will reign in my heart.

Next time I feel that irritation growing, I know what to do. I’ll grab my grace, and tell that anger to get lost. With the Lord’s help, I’ll be the winner in this fight.

And I will be, every single time.

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“Nature abhors a vacuum.”

Nothing can prove this scientific fact better than the flat surface of my kitchen table.

Every weekend, I clear off the old mail, sales flyers, and the random items dropped there during the week. The clean space looks great! I promise myself that I’m not going to trash it during the week.

Yeah. Right.

The next Saturday, there I am, de-cluttering, while de-muttering to myself under my breath. “How did I let this happen again?”

Same thing at my daughter’s house. She donated the family computer desk, which had a home in their living room. Gazing at the new space with delight, she mulled over the options. I heard about a ‘reading corner’, a table for coloring and a shelf for art projects.

Not one or the other, mind you. All of them. Shoved into the space created by the absence of the desk.

She eventually rearranged the furniture, and now has a really fun art center and table for her daughter.

It’s a universal desire. Confronted by wide-open space, we dream of ways to fill it. And that’s ok, as long as your kitchen table doesn’t start looking like the dollar bin at Target.

There is a similar situation in my spiritual life.

I know that I have bad habits that keep me from praying as often as I would like.

I’ll promise to dedicate a half an hour twice a day. Ok. I can do this. So I carve out the time, and that’s where the trouble starts.

Confronted by a half hour of cleared time, sometimes my prayer plans get tossed out the window. Instead, “Wow!” I can read the paper, plan dinner, make a phone call, take a shower and make that grocery run.

Not one or the other, mind you. All of them. Shoved into the space created for prayer.

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man…it then goes off and brings seven other spirits…and they go in and the man ends up being worse than he was before.”  Luke 11:24-26

This passage is taking on a new clarity for me. Creating time in my day for prayer, or even quitting a bad habit, makes a place in my soul that is “swept and tidied.”

Like nature, distractions are crouching at the starting line, waiting for the race to fill the space just created. The goal is to win a spot in the tidied corner of my soul, dragging six other troublemakers with it. If I don’t fill the space with the prayer I had planned, I’m going to have some king-sized confusion.

Making a clutter-free zone is important. But the next step is crucial. It’s not enough to make the space. I’ve got to fill it with the choices that keep me on track.

If I don’t, I know about seven other distractions who want ‘in’. They think I’m going to give up without a fight?

Yeah. Right.

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I threw in a load of laundry. Then I reached over and pushed the button on the laundry soap container.

What a pitiful drip, drip, drip. As I impatiently shifted from foot to foot, the small stream of liquid detergent seeped into my plastic cup. What the heck is going on here? Then I remembered…

We buy an abnormally large jug of laundry soap at a big box store. We save some money buying in bulk. The plastic container lies on its side, with a handy spigot.

Well, it was handy until just now anyway.

But I remembered what to do. Slowly rotating the cap to the container a half turn created just enough of a difference. Back in business. The soap poured out freely.

Kind of makes me wonder. There are plenty of times in my week when I get “stopped up.” The pressures of the day, worries about finances, health, even the crazy cold weather, start to build inside. With my good will and productivity slowed to a trickle,  my temper flares. Small irritants become dinosaur-sized problems. Where do I go to get flowing again?

“Most of us don’t need a psychiatric therapist as much as a friend to be silly with.” ~Robert Brault

I had this quote on my Facebook page and it got quite a few “likes.” I think I know why. One of my precious relief valves are the wonderful friends that God has given me. I think friends are a gift the Lord gives everyone to help reset the PSI in our hearts.

I remember an experience I had with a performance review at work. Turned out to be less than glowing. I didn’t think it was a fair assessment at all. (I actually refused to sign off on it.) I still got the usual raise, but the comments made just dug at me. I began to feel resentful and unappreciated on the job.

Time to call a friend of mine. We went out for coffee.

Ever put a few mint Mentos candies into a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke? I just spewed out my complaints. Nodding her head and clucking in sympathy, she slowly gave my heart a half-turn. Now I was the one back in business.

Leaving the coffeehouse, I gave her a big bear hug. Her love for me, and her supportive ear was all I needed.

Maybe you know someone like her. If you do, God has truly blessed you.

Pressure relieved, I was able to get back to the business of living. No longer ‘stopped up’, my peace was flowing at full force.

I decided to work a little harder, and with a little more joy. The next performance review was like a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall.

So let’s take a moment today to thank our friends who love us. And who willingly step in to help us get rid of that toxic tension.

Thank you my friend. Couldn’t have done it without you.

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Oh…the weather outside was frightful.

The weatherman said the high was -10, and the low -19.  The newspapers were full with warnings:

Stay home .

Only go out if you absolutely must.

Open the water taps to a trickle to prevent pipes from freezing .

Grocery stores had lines backed up down the shopping aisles. No one wanted to be caught short. Lines at gas stations snaked to the street; drivers topping off tanks to ward off starting problems.

In other words, we all knew what to do to be prepared. I can’t control the weather, but I can be ready to meet any challenges that come. Arming myself with the right information and the right tools, I’ll be just fine.

Spiritual Weather Report

All this preparation got me thinking. It’s really a good example of how to prepare for my day-to-day life, living in a relationship with the Lord.

I never really know what the next twenty-four hours is going to bring. I make my plans and lists, but as we all know, man makes his plans and God does too. Sometimes they don’t match up.

So I’m never sure if this day will contain a breeze, or a storm. One morning might start out with a phone call asking for my help. I might walk to the car and be greeted by a flat tire.

These situations tell me that my ‘to-do list’ has some entries I didn’t expect. The day just got a little more challenging.

What’s going to keep me calm and ready to weather whatever God asks of me? And not only just endure his will, but to flourish in it?

Just as I prepared to ride out any cold weather, I can prepare myself to rise to the work that God has lovingly prepared for me to accomplish today.

Prepare with Prayer

The only thing that I need to survive and thrive is grace. Grace is the free gift of power God gives to his people to reach beyond themselves, and do his work in this world. It’s like I am a cell phone, and my power is on ‘one bar’. I need to plug in to my power source to be filled and ready.

That power source? It’s prayer.

Spending time with the Lord in prayer is the best way to repower. With the infusion of grace given in prayer, I can be ready for anything.

Finish With a Flourish

St. John quotes Jesus in his Gospel as saying “Cut off from me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Well, I don’t want to do ‘nothing.’ I want to get in there and meet the challenges and storms of today with the strength that comes from God.

And that is absolutely possible, when I am fortified with grace.

So no matter what the weather today; breezes and sunshine, or hurricanes and clouds, I can “do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

The Lord has some special plans for me today. I want to meet those plans with joy, and carry them out with all I’ve got. Then I won’t be doing ‘nothing.’

I’ll really be ‘something!’

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Four weeks ago, I said I was going on a blog-break.

I was really looking forward to the birth of my newest grandchild. I knew I’d be out of state for Christmas, and then again in January. The time away from blogging would give me some ‘me time’ too.

So let me introduce my new granddaughter! Little Elizabeth was born December 19th. Both she and my daughter did beautifully.

Elizabeth’s big sister Isabelle has been a real trooper too. Although she is not quite two, she is very tender and loving with “Baby Ellie.” Her Mom and Dad are proud and happy to have a new addition in the family. What a blessing that the pregnancy and birth were so uneventful.

It was just wonderful to be able to spend the Christmas holiday with them. I went back last week to help out again for six days. It really was great to keep the connection going with my grandchildren, and to spend some quality time with the adults too!

This break started with not only the hope of spending time with my daughter’s family, but getting a few things done around the house too.

Well, God had some other ideas.

I loved my time at Evangelize To Me on the Blogger platform. I was very comfortable with the format and gadgets. But you know, just as I was really getting comfy, I started to have technical issues. I reported my problems, but they never got fixed. The time had come. I had to move on, whether I liked it or not.

So, in this break-time, I worked on what you see now… Surrounded by the Spirit .

The switch from Blogger to this site was seamless. I owe a great debt to my son who helped me. He’s a Computer Engineer, and that was a definite plus. As I have told some people already, the boy used to crash our home computer with alarming frequency in his teens.  But now, I’m officially not mad anymore!

With his encouragement, I joined Twitter and started a Facebook Page for the blog.  You can join me on Twitter here (on the right), and connect to the Facebook page using the link in the ‘Contact Me’ or ‘About’ pages. I’d love it if you ‘liked’ the page. Both of these new ventures are really fun ways to stay connected. I hope I see you there.

Because this is a new home, I am making a clean start. It’s scary to start over, but it’s exciting too. I hope you’ll like it here enough to come back and visit again and again.

I don’t have a Google Friend Connect gadget anymore, but I hope you’ll consider ‘joining me’ by signing up for posts by email, RSS or Bloglovin’. Let’s not let a new platform keep us apart!

Let’s stay connected, ok? I’m ready for the new adventure, and I would like you to come too.

I’ll tell you this much. It just won’t be the same without you.