Count on God and Count Your Blessings

Sharon Paavola is one of those trophies of God's grace; I've seen the Lord work powerfully in her life and in the lives of those she loves. In this special Thanksgiving UPGRACE—which is also a spiritual UPLIFT—she encourages us to be joyful on "two counts."

"My husband accepted Christ later in life," Sharon says.

I (Dawn) think it's always special when people receive the Lord, but there can be challenges when that choice comes later rather than sooner. But Sharon experienced an unexpected blessing in a lesson from the Lord after her husband came to Christ.

Sharon continues . . .

My husband accepted Christ later in life seven years after we married. 

He had not grown up in a Christian home and attended church seldom as a child. His first prayers were precious and at mealtimes he thanked God for simple things like our home, our dogs and for always having abundant food to eat.

Most of his prayers ended and still do with thankfulness for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins and the gift of eternal life. 

I grew up in a pastor’s home where mealtime thanks could become routine, but not rote.

Eric’s petitions were fresh. They were not tainted by years of hearing the same words.

I realized I had accepted a pattern of praying.

Listening to Eric brought me up short. I realized how rarely before eating I truly thanked God with my heart. 

Now our pre-meal petitions contain random praise for all kinds of daily mercy and blessings. As a result of this practice, I have incorporated thankfulness into my communication to God in new ways. Throughout my day, I find small and large situations and events to be grateful to God. 

I have also learned that:

• Thanking Him before He has answered my prayers for how He will work brings hope and expectation, releasing the worry or anxiousness of the need.
• Praising Him for glorifying His name leads to more faith. What joy comes then when He does answer even if it is not what I had anticipated. 

During the years I taught a Bible Study at my church, I told my leaders when a "mountain" came against us, "God knew this was going to happen. He is not surprised. He has already gone ahead of us to work out the details, smooth the path, and solve this situation. We only need to thank Him.”

I saw their shoulders drop and heard big sighs.

God remains faithful! We can count on him as Psalm 40:5 says:

“O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.”

I have often sung the hymn, "Count Your Blessings" at Thanksgiving time. It is quite appropriate in our spiritual lives daily and at mealtimes to count our blessings.

Thank the Lord even for the heartaches, the losses and the unexpected—anticipating how He will work.

We can thank God for many ways He has blessed us.

In my life today:

• I thank God for my contacts and my glasses that allow me to see as well as I do. I started wearing glasses for nearsightedness at age ten. Now I am considered legally blind and have glaucoma and cataracts. I also need glasses for reading. I want God to know how grateful I feel to see as well as I do. I sometimes whine about my eyesight, but as I put my contacts away at bedtime, I realize what an amazing invention they are for me and am grateful again.
• I thank Him for a comfortable bed to sleep in every night, for a mind that thinks as well as it does, and for the gift of my sweet puppy dogs.
• I thank the Lord for my darling 10-month-old grandson. He is a miracle! Years of tears went before him, and through in vitro fertilization he was born to my daughter and her husband. That is a big thank you!
• We thank God every night at dinner for our salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

In summary:

1. Thank God for all things—and always for His salvation plan.
2. Daily run a constant praise to Him for what He has done throughout those twenty-four hours.
3. Give Him gratefulness for how He will answer our prayers, no matter how difficult or impossible.
4. Appreciate the unexpected and how God paves the way before we even knew it would happen.

Are you joyful on two counts? Are you counting on God today? How will you count your blessings? (Can you name them one by one?)

Sharon Paavola writes a blog on book reviews and her thoughts for assisting women to find peace and healing from depression, pain and loss. She loves being a new grandmother, has been married for twenty-three years, and has three grown children. When not reading books, she sews, walks, and gardens. She helps lead a post abortion recovery Bible Study and assists at her Precepts study at her church. Learn more about Sharon on her blog.

Love Your Prodigal ... From a Former Prodigal

What I love about Sharon Paavola is her desire to give hurting women a soft place to land for comfort, encouragement and restoration. This once-wounded woman understands the power of the enemy to keep us shackled. In this Relationships UPGRADE, she offers counsel and encouragement to those with prodigals.

As a Baptist minister’s daughter, I veered from God," Sharon said. "I was drawn to teenage friends who partied. My heart walked the prodigal road and crashed, and landed in ditches along the way."

I (Dawn) watched and prayed for a prodigal for many years and then rejoiced in that prodigal's return. I know the pain that comes during the waiting process. But there are God-honoring things we can do while our heart aches.

Sharon continues . . .

I ignored the warning light on the dashboard until I didn’t see it at all.

I wanted my life my way.

I didn’t know God had a better plan for me. I didn’t trust him. What might be down His road?

My desperate need to be loved, accepted and understood brought heartache, pain and depression.

I depended on bonds with one man after another, alcohol and therapy in search of intimacy, fulfillment and belonging.

My parents prayed daily—aching on the sidelines—wondering what had happened to their third child.

One day I landed so deep in a crater I couldn’t get back out.

I was studying the Bible again (friends had persuaded me), and in a flood of tears I told God He had to take over.

I begged Him to be the Lord of my life.

Twenty years later I can testify His plan is better. His way brings the deep love, understanding, and acceptance through the power of the Holy Spirit my soul wanted.

Do you have a prodigal in your life? Your heart aches. In your despair take hope from the disciples' situation the day after Jesus' death. They had lost their vision, but God had His plan in place. On Easter Sunday, His power raised Jesus.

That same power and hope is yours!

Are you desperate to know what to do? My counsel for you lies in these ABC’s.

A - Abide in Christ yourself moment by moment.

• Listen to His voice in the Bible to believe God is working.
• Be wary of devising your own schemes. That’s what the one you are praying for is doing.
• Ask your prodigal for forgiveness for any past wrongs.

B – Be on your knees in prayer.

• Discover scriptures to pray over your loved one. Speaking God’s Word out loud brings power and destroys Satan’s deceptions.
• Join or start a prodigal prayer group.
• Ask the Lord to send an influential friend to them as He did with me. God is faithful!

"True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful?" (Romans 3:3)

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results" (James 5:16).

"The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent" (2 Peter 3:9).

C – Cast your love upon the one gone away.

• When I married a non-Christian, my relatives conveyed their displeasure. One aunt, despite her feelings, came to my wedding. She brought her family and her love.
• My dad agreed to perform the ceremony. Love came through to my heart!
• Keep those invitations to family and church events sent!

You may never see your beloved live for God. I surrendered to the Lord in my forties.

Relinquish your desire into God’s capable hands. He is the Shepherd who leaves His flock to seek the one who is lost.

Will you trust God to bring your prodigal back to himself?

Sharon Paavola's passion to release people from their past, depression and pain so they can move on to hope, freedom and living in the present drives her to speak, write and encourage whenever possible. She and her husband Eric live in the San Diego, California, area. They have three grown children and a newborn grandson. Sharon blogs about life and book reviews on her website.

Graphic adapted: Image courtesy of Antranias, Pixabay.com.

Party Girl Finds Her True Identity

I’ve watched Sharon Paavola grow in recent years. God has transformed her and made her spirit beautiful. In this UPGRADE Uplift, she shares what the Lord did in her life and how He can do the same for each of us.

The words “party girl” crept into my mind with a cloud of regret and depression,” Sharon said.

We all have regrets. I (Dawn) do. The enemy likes to beat us up with them. But God has a word for Christians … actually, two … and they make all the difference. 

In Christ!

Sharon continues . . .

Party Girl. That's how I described most of my life to my psychiatrist. I told him how much I used to drink and date, even after my divorce and on into my forties. I caroused after I married my current husband.

Bad. That's what I thought about myself. Bad.

My coping mechanism, he said, during my immature stage. Where did that come from? Who did I model? I didn’t know anyone in my life that behaved that way. Christians surrounded me. Weren’t these bizarre actions from an innocent girl who knew God, who supposedly knew how to live rightly?

But I didn’t even bat an eye. It seemed natural to me … like I grew up in that environment. I lived a dual life. I acted as a Christian and then as the party girl wherever it suited me.

The chaos created in my mind and soul was so loud I had to keep partying to not hear it.

Then, 20 years ago as I sat in my closet, I finally surrendered all of my life to Christ. I wanted Him to be more than my Savior; I wanted Him to be my Lord. I realized my way had failed me. I wanted to walk His way.

Once I merged into one person, leaving the party girl behind, I found God loved me and wanted to have a relationship with me in spite of who I had been. I grew tired of my poor decisions and changed my life for the better. 

Yet with my new surrender, I was surprised by the agonizing depression that came as I thought about the past and things I couldn't change.

I was so susceptible to spiraling down the trail of old baggage. I felt despair and regret about all the time wasted—the shameful things I did. There had been two of me.

I ached inside thinking about the party girl, completely adrift with no anchor to hold her in place.

I cried for her. I cried over my past.

Abruptly, my doctor said our time had to end. But I wasn’t ready. When I turned my car on, the radio announcer said,

“You are not defined by who you used to be.”

That was the message I needed to hear! Oh, thank you, God!

I felt light again. The burden was gone along with the weighty regret. No longer the Party Girl! I am a “New Creature” in Christ. 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I could stop beating myself up. My spirit was free to listen to the transforming truth of God’s gospel and live His plan for my life. 

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

I am no longer defined by who I used to be. Now my identity is in Christ alone.

Are you the same person everywhere you go—the same at church and the same at home? How are you holding onto old concepts of yourself and not accepting the new you in Christ?

Sharon Paavola’s passion to speak, write and encourage women is to release them from their past—from depression and pain—so they can move on to hope, freedom and living in the present. Sharon writes a blog that includes book reviews, and she leads a Post Abortion Recovery Ministry. She and her husband, Eric, and two Bichons live in the San Diego, California, area and they have three grown children. Follow Sharon on herblog.

Graphic adapted, StockSnap, created by Luis Llerena.