Are you feeling down, lifeless and weary?

A new perspective can change that. New sight and understanding will emerge naturally as you mature in your faith and evolve in your Stand!

We grow weary, sad, and struggle with hopelessness when we start to get boxed in with our problems and see no other side to the situation we are dealt with. When the impossible of the situation, lack of change and new direction block out the light of hope, and we start to feel the weight of time and being stuck, not being able to move forward, right or left. We become frustrated when our eyes are not seeing what they desire to see.

 

We can become blind to changes that are going on within us because we are looking for changes going on around us.

 

This storm that has come upon us, this call we have entered into has a meaning that escapes the new Stander. The revelation of the Stand comes through time, as you evolve and go through it, you will come to see something. What God is really truely after.

When my storm started, I was not interested in the things that meant the most to God. What meant the most was my happiness, my security (which was misplaced within my husband and marriage) and scriptures like James 1:2, which said I was to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,” went right over my head. I wasn’t interested in being like Jesus, being transformed, renewed, maturing, picking up my cross and following Him, and I certainly didn’t want to be a disciple. I was comfortable being a lukewarm Christian and I wanted to go back to that. This discomfort of suffering was not for me.

 

Lukewarm is a dangerous place to be. Standers are often very blind to the state and condition of their very own heart, relationship, and salvation status. I am convinced when my storm arrived I was going to be one Jesus said: “depart from Me I never knew you.” Because I was living for myself. I had no love for Him, I was secure that the sinner’s prayer was all I needed and it was all I was willing to give of myself.  I was asleep, dead.

I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead. 2 Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God. 3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you. Revelation 3:1-3 BSB

and

15 I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! 16 So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. Revelation 3:15-17 BSB

Standing will save your soul. It will change your life and help you to WANT Jesus in a way you never dreamed. We know we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind. We know we are to want to lay down our life, pick up our cross, entering the suffering of Christ. But that is not a desire that comes naturally to most people. The flesh and soul are wicked, selfish, carnal and tend to love the world and it’s ways more.

But God knows how to wake up a slumbering lukewarm person who is sleepwalking through life.

I absolutely love watching Standers go through the evolution of the Stand, where they go from thinking the storm is happening to them, to understanding the storm happening FOR THEM.

I love seeing a Stander start to fall in love deeply with Who Jesus is, and not just what Jesus can do for them. When they start to love Him with their mind, heart, and soul. When they realize what suffering does and they no longer abore it, but desire the results it produces. And then, thanksgiving becomes real.

Once you come into this understanding that the storm is here for your benefit, you will learn that thanking Him for it becomes a great benefit too.

THANK HIM!

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may overflow in THANKSGIVING, to the glory of God. 2 Cor 4:15

Lift your hands and thank Him for your storm, your suffering, your trials, and tribulations. There is POWER in thanksgiving. The power to transport you from one place to another.

Thanking Him changes our perspective and view of the situation. It has the power to help us see and understand things we never considered. It takes past being personal and devastating, and opens up our understanding and introduces us to potential.

3 Not only that, but we also REJOICE in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:3-5 BSB

Thank Him that those things are maturing you, drawing you closer to dependency upon Him and killing the flesh. Thank Him that as you chose each day to lay your life down for your spouse, you are entering the sufferings of Christ and learning to be humble and not selfish. Thank Him that as you chose to let go, you are learning to be confident in Him and trusting Him and not trying to control things yourself. Thank Him that your suffering is producing a godly character and is pleasing to the Lord.

We cannot reach our fullest potential as a Christian until we enter into suffering. Experience laying down our life for another. And we won’t get the fullest benefit from it until we learn to count it all joy and rejoice over over sufferings.

All this is the beautiful evolution of the Stand……….God will get you through the process, just keep going. Do not allow your weariness to keep you from continuing to do good.

Standing with you,
Sheila Hollinger

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