This past month was my birthday month. My husband asked me, “What do you want to do for your birthday?” Oh, I savored that question! Hmmm. Let me see…. what wonderful experience could I relish….imagining the pampering…? Oh it felt good!
When your birthday comes up, what would you like to do on your birthday?
Well, I decided I wanted a spa experience. I wanted to go to Carson Hot Springs mineral bath and wrap, in Carson, WA. Then I wanted to go out for lunch or dinner at my favorite restaurant in Stevenson, called Clark and Lewie’s Travelers Rest Grill. There I can watch the wind surfers and be right by the Columbia River. (These are my secret places, so don’t tell anybody.) Yes, yes, Jackie will be pampered on her birthday!!
We have lots of expectations for our birthday, don’t we?
We expect a day of attention, pampering, texts, cards, greetings, gifts and blessings. It’s OUR day!
Mexico has an unusual celebration ritual. The birthday girl/boy/man/woman has their face put into the middle of the cake!! 🙃 🤪 😱
I agree that every person should have a birthday celebration. I gave my each of my three kids a party, with their own friends, every birthday. We lived in rural Alaska, far from a bakery. I had to make that cake and decorate it myself. It was a creation that could only be loved by a child!
But this birthday, Lord had a little conversation with me.
I needed a little correction in my thinking.
I was forgetting who I was, and whose I was.
Here are some of the main things I sensed He was saying:
- It is so important that we pause and listen to the Holy Spirit because we Jesus followers don’t do our own will. We are to always do God’s will. Even on our birthdays!
- The will of God does not change just because we have a birthday. Like on other days we do God’s will but on our birthday it’s our day and we get to do what we want and not consult God. No!
- How much more our birthday is a day of gratefulness to God! It is a day to celebrate that GOD made us. He thought us up! He created our blueprint in His mind before the foundation of the world!
- Our birthday is especially a day of thankfulness of being. We commit our path and day to Jesus out of gratitude for salvation, with honor to Him!
- The world’s way and God’s way rarely intersect. Often the world’s way, the world’s view of birthdays is self-promotion and selfishness. God’s view is a day of awesome surrender and worship of Creator God. Physical gifts vs spiritual gifts.
It is a type of idolatry to be discontent with ourselves and our family of origin; to lift up another family higher than ours; a family that perhaps is more beautiful, more peaceful, has more money or status.
God carefully chose and deliberately put each person in the family that He selected for us. We were born when we were supposed to be born. We have the specific attributes and talents He gave us.
God expects us to work with the family He put us in and love them and forgive them. It’s an assignment for each of us to accept despite the trouble.
And this is another reason why generational cleansing is so important. It helps us forgive and love our family of origin. We gain freedom to focus on the generational blessings given.
I’m learning more and more how important it is to know who I am and know Whose I am.
When I know my Identity in Jesus the enemy can’t mess with me so easily.
It is interesting that our identity thinking is often revealed on our birthday. I’m grateful for the correction the Lord gave me.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:13-18
If you connect with this blog episode, and desire a freedom in the area of finances, we encourage you to go to Amazon and purchase our book with personal activations and engagements to help you heal and deal with these issues. Financial Healing: A Spiritual Journey by Richard and Jackie Nalos is available in soft cover or Kindle on Amazon.
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