Again today I have struggled to awaken on this grey morning.

I pray before my feet hit the floor, I am grateful for life.
To move this body of flesh.
To refresh this mind.
To rise from whatever heaviness had settled over me in the night.

And even in the fog of myself, I was grateful.

Grateful for breath.
Grateful for life.
Grateful that I could recognize I was not centered.
And even more grateful to know that my Lord, my God, my Protector still had me.
What will this day unfold.

I went to the beach on this very overcast morning not expecting a dawn of light, but expecting always a spectacle. A real show from My Lord. One way or another.

Ruby swam.
Not another soul on the beach. Reminiscent of a north east beach, say, New York or a New England... with a dramatic, wintry sea scape, brooding, wind-swept, solemn — except the air was warm and sultry, heavy with full of on-coming southern rain.

So just us on the beach with my prayers... until I saw the American flag go up.
A lone fisherman down the beach.
I clapped. We waved and laughed - these two strangers on an empty shore, somehow sharing a small Holy moment beneath this gray sky.
Why was it Holy?
How did I know to classify it as such?

I did not feel well, but I knew I had to walk down and thank him.
We never really know what our simple acts — good or bad, brave or careless — may stir in another human heart.
And today, that American flag stirred mine.

I thanked him for raising it. He noticed my shirt — Jesus Is Essential — and said he liked it.
And I asked if we could pray.

We did.
We prayed for America.
We prayed for each other.
We prayed for the calmness in our hearts to be His.
We prayed for peace, His peace.

It was simple.
It was beautiful.

It was the Body of Christ as it is meant to be — recognizing one another, stopping for one another, lifting one another before the Father without performance, without hesitation, without needing to know the whole story.

Just faith meeting faith on the shoreline.

I am home now, with the morning rain falling outside.

And I am so deeply grateful.

Grateful for the Lord.
Grateful for the awareness of Him.
Grateful that even on the mornings when I feel heavy, He is still near.
Grateful that He sends reminders — a dog in the waves, a startling red stripe in the gray, a fisherman on the shore, a prayer between strangers.

So many verses have flooded my heart since then.

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

God the Help of Those Who Seek Him

A Song of Ascents.

121 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
² My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not allow your foot to ^[a]be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your ^[b]keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord shall ^[c]preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
⁸ The Lord shall preserve^[d] your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.

God’s purpose is unchallengeable.
His love is unconditional.
There is nothing to fear.

Even when I feel like a sheep led to slaughter, Paul reminds me: we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

A conqueror defeats his enemy.
But one who is more than a conqueror makes the enemy serve a higher purpose.

A conqueror nullifies the plans of his enemy.
But one who is more than a conqueror watches God turn those very plans into instruments of refining, strengthening, and glory.

A conqueror strikes down his enemy
But one who is more than a conqueror sees even fear, sorrow, resistance, and suffering brought under the authority of Christ.

So today, I do not merely fight my thoughts.
I bring them captive.

I do not merely silence fear.
I surrender it.

I do not merely resist anxiety.
I place it before the Lord and ask Him to - again - reshape it into trust.

As a conqueror, I confront the thoughts that rise against peace.
But as one who is more than a conqueror, I surrender those thoughts to God and let Him form them according to His purpose.

As a conqueror, I reject the lies that try to rule me.
But as one who is more than a conqueror, I ask God to transform even the battle into testimony.

As a conqueror, I strike down fear.
But as one who is more than a conqueror, I watch fear become a doorway into deeper faith.

My adversities do not own me.
My anxious thoughts do not define me.
My enemies do not decide my outcome.

God does.

And because His purpose cannot be overthrown, because His love cannot be revoked, because His hand cannot be defeated—

there is nothing to fear.
there is nothing to do.
there is nothing to be.

Satan is my adversary.
Christ is my King.

John 10:27-29

²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸ And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

More Than a Conqueror

I fight the daily battles with my Mighty Father beside me.
I am never alone.

No sin of mine, no failure, no fear, no accusation, and no attempt of Satan can steal God from my life or separate me from His loving care.
His loving care for me.

That is what makes me more than a conqueror — not my strength, not my perfection, not my ability to stand without trembling — but Jesus Christ, who loves me.

Because He is with me, I am not defeated.
Because He holds me, I am not abandoned.
Because His love cannot be stolen, shaken, or revoked —
Always I am more than a conqueror through Christ.