Confessions of an Infomercial Junkie

I am a sucker for infomercials. I don't know why I get sucked into these things. Is it the bubbly "fake" audience affirming the product with "oohhhs" and "aaahhhs," the passionate (and loud) salespeople, or is it the lingering promise of "But wait! There's more?" Who knows, but I can get sucked in faster than Jack LeLane could juice an apple!

My favorites are when it is some exercise machine or weight loss product and each testimonial comes to the set weilding a powerful weapon...their before & after pictures. Some of these pictures are unbelievable! The skeptic in me always wonders about airbrushing and photoshop, but it's different when I see the before an after of someone I know.

I can think of several people who I know have lost dramatic amounts of weight and my before memory is very different from their present reality. I also know of a beautiful young girl who I went to school with. She always had acne, but who didn't back then? I mean, come on! Anyway, she didn't like her acne so she bought a popular skin care line (no doubt about her infomercial watching habits, LOL) and it worked! She had such a great before & after that she was actually asked to be IN one of their infomercials! She now looks completely different. She's all grown up with radiant skin and has actually done some modeling.

Before and afters are amazing. That's all there is to it.

As much as I love infomercials and success stories, though, there is one that stands out among all the others.

Job was a man in scripture who knew a thing or two about pain and suffering. He also knew a thing or two about God and it was his knowledge of God that helped him survive an ordeal that included what would be most people's worst nightmares. He lost pretty much everything and everyone he loved. He got to keep his life and his wife and she was no help at all!

What was it that Job knew that helped him through all of this? He knew El-Shaddai, which means, "God Almighty." He knew that giving God your heart made all the difference in a person's life. He describes the before and after below.

Take a look:

Job 11:7-20

7 "Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything there is to know about the Almighty? 8 Such knowledge is higher than the heavens -- but who are you? It is deeper than the underworld -- what can you know in comparison to him? 9 It is broader than the earth and wider than the sea. 10 If God comes along and puts a person in prison, or if he calls the court to order, who is going to stop him? 11 For he knows those who are false, and he takes note of all their sins. 12 An empty-headed person won't become wise any more than a wild donkey can bear human offspring ! 13 "If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! 14 Get rid of your sins and leave all iniquity behind you. 15 Then your face will brighten in innocence. You will be strong and free of fear. 16 You will forget your misery. It will all be gone like water under the bridge. 17 Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Any darkness will be as bright as morning. 18 You will have courage because you will have hope. You will be protected and will rest in safety. 19 You will lie down unafraid, and many will look to you for help. 20 But the wicked will lose hope. They have no escape. Their hope becomes despair."  

What a difference El-Shaddai makes! From misery to hope, fear to courage, darkness to light, sin to forgiveness, and despair to safety, God Almighty is the way! It never ceases to amaze me that all I have to offer Him is my dark, dead, sinful heart and He has all of these blessings just waiting for me! I'm so glad that El-Shaddai is also infinite because that only means that I can't exhaust these blessings. There is no end to His abundance and love. What peace that brings to my heart! 

A Little Peace of Heaven

Have you ever lost a loved one to death and felt that deep feeling of pain and loss that was almost unbearable? Then when you went to the viewing, you didn't think you'd have the strength to face all of those people during one of your darkest times. You breathe a simple, silent prayer, "God please help me" and you walk into to the funeral home. At the moment when you feel like you may run out of the room sobbing, you are immediately filled with a peace that you can't understand. It floods your entire being and you are able to face the people and the situation that you were previously dreading.

I have experienced it and it is mind-boggling. The peace doesn't make sense because you are in the middle of an emotionally challenging period of life. It's almost like the times when you have held your breath for a bit too long under water and you rush to the surface and gasp for that first breath of air. It feels so good to reinflate your lungs and relief immediately floods your veins.

Those moments of peace and relief came from somewhere. More accurately, they came from someONE. Today, my meditation was on another name of God, Jehovah-shalom, which means, "the God of peace."

Phillipians 4:6-7

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Often times when we think of having peace, we equate that to the end of our struggles. We have times of war and times of peace. We have times of need and times of abundance. Times of peace with no struggles is nice, but short-lived. It is rare that you will come across a person who isn't struggling with something at all at that time in their life.

God's peace is different. You don't have to wait until the problem is resolved in order to feel His peace. You don't have to wait until you have finished grieving before you can feel His peace. You don't have to wait until you are safely through the trials of life before you can feel His peace. God's peace is not limited to our situations.

That is what makes God's peace different. You can be right smack dab in the middle of one of the hardest things you've ever faced and feel peace.....peace IN THE MIDDLE of the storm. There is a strength that comes along with God's peace that helps you to get through the tough times.

So how can we get this peace (I mean, really....after a sales pitch like that, who wouldn't want it, right)?

The scripture above tells us that instead of worrying we should pray and tell God what we need. Then of course, we must thank God for what He has already done. He will supply the peace that you need and it will totally blow your mind. You won't be able to understand it.  Not only that, but He will then proceed to protect your heart and mind.

That is quite the package, if you ask me. God's peace is one of the many blessings that comes from living in Christ Jesus. I have been so thankful for those times when God gave me peace in the middle of my struggle. I have experienced the peace of God during seasons of loss, public harassment and humiliation, betrayal, and even times when I had to face fears. I'm so glad that I don't have to wait for peace to come after the bad stuff is over with. We all have an endless supply of peace ready and available at a moment's notice. And we know Jehovah-shalom, the ONE who gives the peace.