LaWanda – O Jesus, Precious Lord, I love you so.  When I think of all you’ve done and how your hand has been on my life, how even though I left you, you never left me, what a beautiful picture of mercy and grace it is.  In the natural without you, I would deserve nothing.  O but with you, Lord, such grace abounds.  It’s almost like GRACE  should be your middle name.  But then there’s mercy and faithfulness and goodness, so I guess that wouldn’t work.  It’s just so profound, Lord, so life-changing to experience your grace.  Thank you, Jesus, my precious Jesus.

I see you today walking along the beach.  I don’t know if it’s the Sea of Galilee or somewhere else.  It is so peaceful with the sound of the wind and the waves.  You stop and are looking out onto the water.  There’s a boat coming in and I am on it.  You walk into the water, but then somehow you are walking ON it.  You bid us come to you, to leave the safety of the boat and come to you.  When we recognize your voice, I am like Peter and jump over the edge of the boat, walking on the water toward you.  O Lord, how magnificent to experience doing something that can’t be done, thinking that somehow, I am doing it.  And that is when it happens.  I begin to sink.  I thought I had my eyes on you, Lord, but as soon as I began thinking about me, they obviously were not on you.  And then…somehow…you are right there in front of me.  You lift me up and we walk on the water to the shore together.  O Lord, thank you for this beautiful picture.  When we keep our eyes on you and acknowledge that whatever we are doing is YOU in us, we CAN do the impossible!  It’s only when we take our eyes off of you and try to do it in our own strength that we fail.  And without you, Lord, we WILL fail.  Thank you for this great picture of that.

Jesus –  LaWanda, my dear one, my precious, precious one.  It really is simple, don’t you think?  Eyes on me, heart on me… SUCCESS.  Do the impossible.  Live the supernatural  in your natural world.  Simple, but not always easy.  The enemy especially targets those with their eyes on Me, for they are the ones doing the will of the Father and bringing people to Me.  So he continually, relentlessly, targets, pokes and prods to try to get your eyes off of Me so that you will sink.  So that you will fail.  For when you think you are drowning, you are only thinking about how to survive, not how to bring someone to Me.

This is the importance of sowing into the Kingdom.  When your eyes get distracted, your gift is still working for Me.  And the blessing you received from the seed being sown in obedience may very well be what gets your eyes back on Me again.  Keeping an “Ebenezer,” a list of all I’ve done for you, is a great tool to get your eyes back on Me again when they drift away.  When the children of Israel took their eyes off of Me and did not remember what I had done for them, a whole generation suffered for it.  When you thank Me, you get the blessing of remembering what I have done, and I get to receive the honor due Me.

You can never give thanks too much, LaWanda.  Gratitude/thanksgiving should be your middle name.  Precious one, know that every offering of thanksgiving makes heaven rejoice.  Thanksgiving implies ME in the midst of whatever you are giving thanks for.  It implies the transcendence of God, something bigger than you, LaWanda.  And as you humble yourself before Me to give thanks, we are both blessed again and again.  Every single time, LaWanda.  So, do it often, dear one.  Do it often.