Turn Upside Down & Shake

My sweet Jessica graduated from high school and I made a cork board of pictures for her graduation party. At the top I had some stick on letters spelling out her pet name from me which is Noony J It is a term of endearment my grandmother used to use.

When I was taking it back home from the party I noticed two of the letters fell off. I only walked from my car to the house so I figured they wouldn't be hard to find. I was wrong. I searched everywhere for those stupid letters. I emptied the back of the car out, which is no easy task as I collect stuff all the time. I walked up and down the driveway and retraced my steps from the car to the house. I was getting so frustrated I couldn't imagine where those letters went. I asked the Lord a few times “what the heck, where are they?”  It became an obsession for me to find them. My better judgment said forget about it, just get more letters. It’s not even her real name but I was determined to find them. I was about to lose it so I just left the board on her bed and shut the door.

The next day I went into Jessica’s room for something and there it was the object of my frustration. I picked it up and asked the Lords again, “where are those letters?”  I heard him say "turn it upside down and shake it.” So I did and sure enough they fell off of pictures they had stuck on. The thing is Gems I looked at all those pictures thinking they may have been stuck on there but I didn't see them.

As always the Holy Spirit wanted to teach me something. He said “Gena sometimes you can look at a person and it appears everything is in order BUT, if you turn things upside down and give them a good shake things can be set free that were sticking on them.” Or in my case in them.
Matthew 15:18 But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.

I will now give you a human application to the above verse……

I have been dealing with my own list of oppression's.


Oppressed: the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.

The past month or so has been one circumstance after another and it's been a huge pain in the butt! To be honest I was feeling warn down.

Of course the enemy knows exactly when to attack us; kick a man when he’s down. However, the result of the attack is on me. I will respond with what is in my heart at that moment.  My heart will speak and what comes out may not be who I am but what I’m feeling about who I am at that moment.

In this particular circumstance I was feeling rejected and hurt so when the attack hit I spoke words that reflected how I felt and I can tell ya Gems they weren't nice words. The problem wasn't the other person, or even the situation, it was how I was feeling.

It was the stuff stuck to my heart. The Lord used the situation to turn me upside down and shake me up.He wanted me to see what fell out. The Holy Spirit used it for me to see I had things in my heart that needed to be removed. Honestly Gems I was surprised at how I was reacting. I truly thought I was further along in my emotional trunk.

I thought I had conquered those emotions but I guess they can slip back in without our noticing.

It’s OK to mess up; it was good for me to see I had some shaking up to do. I needed to remind myself how much God thinks of me and that I matter to Him despite how people or situations make me feel at the moment.
I needed to remind myself that the only love language that matters is dying to self. Everything we feel is about what's in us.

So Gems if you find yourself feeling upside down and shaken, take a deep breath and ask the Holy Spirit what He's trying to shake out of you and let it go cause God loves you enough to get rid of the nonsense.