Do You Need a Fixer Upper?

Do You Need a Fixer Upper?

One of my all time favorite reality shows is HGTV's "Fixer Upper", not just because I love the hosts and the hands-on builder and interior designers, Chip & Joanna Gaines, a delightful couple with their four young kids, who live their personal lives in a raw, oftentimes hilarious, and authentic way, but also because I love seeing them transform a dilapidated, hopeless house and property into a gorgeous family home. Yes, I'm an endorser of that show, because it is so inspiring.

We too can have become a "fixer upper" by allowing the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us. We can be renewed and restored with a "before" and "after" story that will encourage others that they, too, can be transformed. Once Chip and Joanna help people find their "before-the-dream-come-true" fixer upper, the people have to let Chip and Joanna perform their "magic" on the home. In the same way, we have to give ourselves up, relinquish control, and submit to God's transforming power in our lives.

Sometimes, the houses that Chip and Joanna help select for their clients are so pathetic, that they have to completely demolish the existing structure, and then they are able to start fresh and clean as though the old house was never there. They'll start from the ground up and build a spectacular home for the family. From Isaiah 43:18-19we hear “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” When we are ready to demolish that old life of regrets, mistakes, failures, tragedies, self-pity, defeat and sorrow, to living the glorious and abundant life that Crhist came to bring us, we will be God's "fixer upper" show-off of what a "Brand New Life" can look like and be.

Do you want to be a "fixer upper"? Do you want a life filled with peace, joy, abundance, healing and victory? Do you want your tired, weary and stagnant life to be transformed into life brand new? We can be because the One Who created us is ready to transform us from the inside out! The makeover we receive is all new and perfect in His sight.

What must we do? Give it up for Him. We must let go and put our lives in the hands of the Master Transformer. The choice is ours. We can submit ourselves to be fixed up, or we can hang on to the shabby house, the tattered clothes and the old way of life. The Lord won't force Himself onus. On the other hand, He will never turn us down . . . we merely need to say, "I'm ready, Lord. Have your way with me!" Now get out that bulldozer, crane and wrecking ball and take down that old house! Are you ready to be a FIXER UPPER?

What is Your Ultimate Protection Guarantee?

While Staci called Poison Control, Larry called me to pray for Payton (10 years old at the time) who had been stung by a scorpion four times and each of the places was turning red and swelling up. Immediately, I remembered our son, Ryan, was stung by a scorpion on his foot. I gave Larry the remedy that God gave us. Without even a second thought, my husband and I begin to pray and speak scripture verses over Ryan that applied to this very situation. “Behold! I have given you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in any way harm you’ (Luke 10:19). Those are words that Jesus spoke to His disciples when He was speaking about the authority He was giving them. And they were words that we had lodged in our hearts. And, I also remembered hearing – “apply ammonia immediately to the sting”! Within just a few minutes the pain that Ryan was experiencing ceased.

Taking the advice of Poison Control (“apply ice compresses to the sting, and keep a watch over him for a while) and Nana’s advice, within just a short while, Payton had calmed down and the pain had subsided. As you can imagine, his activist Mama Staci, was on the phone the next morning getting an extermination company to come out and rid their home of the enemy that had invaded their home.

Immediately, I began to think about getting my house exterminated – literally -- and spiritually. Spiritually, in the sense that perhaps little creatures of doubt, unbelief, offenses, fear, concern, worry may have found their way inside my heart. We have a responsibility to keep our spirits free of the enemy’s attacks. Remember how Jesus handled the enemy’s attacks during His 40-day fast? He spoke God’s Word of truth to him. That’s how Jesus conquered……and that’s how we conquer.

God knows exactly where the enemy’s traps are located. And when we study, memorize and cultivate God’s Word into our hearts, we will also know. Proverbs 4:20-24 says: “My son, attend to My words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart, for they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”

I was reading one of the extermination companies’ on-line guarantees. It said, “THE ULTIMATE PROTECTION® GUARANTEE -- Protect yourself with the strongest guarantee in the business!!” And, when it comes to God and His Word, that is truly THE ULTIMATE PROTECTION GUARANTEE!’ It’s time to take advantage of these guarantees -- to get busy with good common sense ways of exterminating the little creatures from our homes with bug spray, traps and deterrents…..and even more importantly, rid our lives of the enemy that wants to steal our peace and joy….with the infallible, sharper-than-any-two-edged sword -- Word of God!