Fillyloo Follies: New Year, New Wine and Oil (Issue #2 01/11/2020)
FAITH
New Year, New Wine and Oil
We are eleven days into a new year and a new decade. Many of us are renewing our minds and spirits by participating in 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, a Meditation Challenge, or a Self-Reflection Series. For me, starting my year with 21 days of prayer and fasting centers me in my faith and helps me begin my year with hope and joy. I find God reveals more of His love to me in each day. Whatever you are doing to get yourself centered at the beginning of this new year, I pray it will bring joy, purpose, blessing, grace, and favor into your life.
With this prayer in my heart for you, I was reminded of Joel 2:23-24 “Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil”.
This scripture contains everything I believe God wants for us — not just in this new year, but always. Let’s walk through this together. This scripture opens with the words “Be glad”. God is calling us to joy, fun, and celebration! What if we began each day with a cry of celebration?! What might that change?
It then says, “rejoice IN (emphasis mine) the Lord your God.” Not beside Him or around Him or near Him. IN Him. The word “in” is a preposition used to indicate inclusion. It is also an adverb indicating position. He wants us to include Him and to be with Him. This demonstrates companionship and love. He does not want to be separated from us. What if we include Him in the small stuff? Like thanking Him as we dress for the day? Or just telling Him about our day as we drive or make dinner? He wants to hear from us. Why do we hesitate to just talk to Him?
I love the line “for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful.” This is God reminding us of His past provision. He wants us to remember all He has done for us up to this point. It is so easy to forget sometimes when we are faced with a new challenge, but He reminds us of who He is with a simple word — faithful. Faithful means to be loyal, constant, steadfast, true to the facts or the original. God’s nature doesn’t change! He loved and provided for us then, so He will do it now!
In fact, He doesn’t want to give us just what we need. He wants to give us MORE than what we need. He tells us so. The next line says, “He sends you abundant showers both autumn and spring rains as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.” There are so many nuggets to love in this line. The word “sends” is active and immediate. It indicates something He has already planned for us! The word “both” shows us God’s blessing of abundance is not limited to just one time or one way. He enjoys blessing us in multiple ways. “As before” reminds us once again He has done it and will continue to do it!
So are you ready for your threshing floor to be filled with the grains of God’s promises for you? Have you prepared for your vats to overflow with the new wine and oil of all He has for you? I am so guilty of getting stuck in what God has not done yet rather than celebrating what He has done for me and thanking Him in advance for what I know He will do. This scripture reminds of the joy, love, and blessing He wants for my life and for yours!
Folly
Big Trouble
Beauregard the Brave (one of my fur babies) got into BIG trouble recently. He ate a basketball sized hole in Mommy’s couch, and boy was she really mad at him. It seemed like fun and a good idea at the time. He didn’t realize how wrong he was until Mom caught him and made him go to time out. Now, he isn’t allowed to get on the couch whenever he wants, but Mommy did get him a special place all his own. He likes it, because he usually gets to have his snacks in his special place. Mommy still invites him on the couch to snuggle. He really loves snuggles. Also, Mommy fixed the couch, so it is like his bad choice never happened. He and Mommy both learned he needs more snuggle time. The more time he has with her the better he behaves.
How often do we get into our own big trouble like Beauregard? We think we are having fun, when it reality we are doing some pretty serious damage. Beauregard was not able to cover up and hide what he had done, but I think we often do — cover up, hide, avoid, run, lie or disguise. So often the little choices and the little hurts become the source of our big troubles. Grace, rescue, and healing are available to us all, but we often have dug ourselves in so deep we don’t really know what needs to be healed. In the yuck, we turn away from our spiritual walk. We suddenly don’t see ourselves as worthy of saving. And that, my friend, is a lie. Time to shine some light on it.
If you follow me on Instagram (@shannonbowerssmith), you have seen the Bits and Bytes series we started eleven days ago. In this series, we are exploring the feelings and thoughts which keep us for our next best step. Each day focuses on a new feeling. We answer questions in our personal journals to help us dig a bit deeper into ourselves and shine light on the yuck. If you have not checked out this series yet, I invite you to come on over and join us. It isn’t too late. You can scroll back to the beginning and work at your own pace. It often helps to have a spiritual running buddy, so invite a friend or two on the journey with you. On my Instagram, you will also find a short IGTV episode on this series. I suggest watching this before you begin. Every 5th day, we do a reflect and recap. This is an opportunity to see what you have learned. My prayer is at the end of the 30 day journey we each will have released some of our yuck and embraced more joy for ourselves and to share with the world around us.
P.S. The greatest compliment you can give me is sharing Fillyloo Follies with a friend or tagging a friend in the comments when there is something you love on my Instagram (@shannonbowerssmith) feed. You are the key to helping me spread love and joy. Thank you in advance, my friend. Stop by anytime just to say hello. It adds sunshine to the day, when people say hello!
Fillyloo
Fun Stuff Coming Up
There are great events coming up every month, y’all, so mark your calendars!
March 13, 2020 — Candescent Composition and Coffee will meet at 6:30pm at The Fort Container Park at 29001 Bass Pro Drive in Spanish Fort, Alabama for food, drinks, and community writing time! We will meet in front of Beakers Coffee. All writing levels, genres, and styles welcome! For more information and updates, visit www.facebook.com/candescentcomposition.
