Seasons Greetings

Storms tend to create seasons in our lives at times. Have you heard the forecast?

Many times I have heard it said, “You are either about to go into a storm; you are in a storm; or are coming out of a storm.” Can you relate? Had any bad weather in your life recently? Been praying the storm would finally pass, anyone? Feeling your life looks more like hurricane season?

I can relate. Most of you are aware of our current season of healing following Mike’s car accident on April 24^th of this year. Reviewing my past blog posts it seems I may have invited a storm.

From Life Changing Heat: “Heavenly Father, thank You for Your promise to see Your children through every trial. Help us endure them as a testimony to Your faithfulness.”

From God of the Wind: “Thank You, Father, for gentle breezes and for winds of change.”

From The Whirlwind of His Storm: “Heavenly Father, thank you for the whirlwind of Your storm. Send me out through the storm, Lord, and keep me planted until you do.”

“Send me out through the storm” I say? Be careful what you ask God to do for you. The answers might come in forms that make you uncomfortable; that stretch you; that drive you closer and closer and closer to Him and His infinite love, grace and mercy. How else are we going to get there?

Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

2 Thessalonians 3:5 NKJV

When I read this scripture in my quiet time one recent morning I immediately thought of the wind that directs the sails. Then I recalled my post, Adjust the Sails. The word “direct” in this scripture jumped right off the page and into my heart. I mentally pictured someone shoving another person, as if pushing them out of the way of danger and into a safe place. I think that’s the kind of driving and directing God does for us in these storms.

I am hoping that God will allow me to once again share through my blog things that encourage me and are revealed to me through life’s storms and through life’s fair weather. I pray it will be something to encourage others on their journey.

Thank you all for your prayers over the past few months for Mike and all of us as he’s been recovering from his accident. Friends and family have rallied around us and helped us in so many ways and we are so thankful for all of you. Mike’s continuing physical therapy continues to improve in his mobility.

(image courtesy of www.heartlight.org)

The Whirlwind of His Storm

From today’s reading (March 11^th, 2009) in My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes:

Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storm. …. Let God send you out through the whirlwind of His storm and don’t go until He does.

What a picture this paints! “The whirlwind of His storm……” – I think of the tornado and how it displaces everything in its path, apparently without any sense of order or purpose but pure, deadly destruction, yet the whirlwind of God’s storms is such the opposite.

God’s storms prepare us and then direct us onto the paths He has planned for us; the places He has gone ahead of us and made clear. His storms do not mangle us or break us down as we may perceive with our earthly vision; they build us up and shape us with His heavenly vision for His heavenly purposes.

Isn’t life all about perspective? Doesn’t our vision get clouded and distorted by the things of this world? Oh that we may obtain the vision to find the beauty in the storm!

Heavenly Father, thank you for the whirlwind of Your storm. Send me out through the storm, Lord, and keep me planted until you do. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Image from www.heartlight.org

Seek & Find

Many times we go through seasons in life feeling that God is far away from us. We have gradually, over time, moved away from God, too busy to involve Him in the details of our lives; too busy to look for Him, to seek Him, to talk to Him. It is not God, though, who has moved. God does not play hide and seek. His offer is much greater; it is seek and find.

God’s Word promises that when we pursue God we will not be disappointed. When we look for Him, we will find Him. When we open our eyes to the creation around us, we will see His hand. When we open our hearts to those around us, we will feel His love. When we give to a hurting world from our hearts of our resources, time and talents, we will offer Him to others who are in need of His grace and mercy.

God does not play games with us, but is always available to us. He patiently waits for us to come to Him and delights with us when we find Him.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your promises and your faithfulness. Help me keep my eyes and my heart open to your loving presence.

Where do you see God’s hand in your life today?

image courtesy of www.heartlight.org

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Give Me Your Eyes

I've been contemplating the New Year and my goals for it, praying that God would give me His direction and a focus that is hard for me to obtain without Him.

Stuck in my thoughts, playing again and again, is Brandon Heath's song "Give Me Your Eyes".

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

[Click Here to Watch Video]

In part, there's my prayer for the New Year--that I may see my life and the hearts of others with His eyes and not my own.

One step beyond that is my prayer for wisdom and revelation from Ephesians 1:15-19, paraphrased in The Message:

"....I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!"

Ah, there's the prayer! Doesn't that sum it all up, tie it all together-endless energy and boundless strength?

And the source of the endless energy and boundless strength?

"All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence." (vs 20-23 Msg)

When His people see with His eyes lives are changed, beginning with our own. Lord, give me your eyes!

(image from www. heartlight.org)

Chasing the Wind

Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 4:6 NIV)

I had lost something and it bothered me. In a time of a recessed economy, I’d treated myself to a new decorative Christmas flag. My heart smiled each time I saw it as I looked out the window or as I pulled into the garage.

But at our house on the little hill the flag must battle its archenemy, the wind. No matter how creative I’ve gotten in my attempts to secure my flag, the wind has won most of the battles. So I was not surprised to drive up to an empty flag pole last week, but I was disappointed all the same. As the days passed without finding the flag, my mind’s eye pictured a twenty dollar bill flapping in the breeze where the flag used to be, and I chastised myself for spending money on such a frivolous thing. But as I fussed at myself I also prayed, and I launched a search party; my husband and daughter joined me in the search around our property for my lost treasure.

I walked in the freezing cold temperatures, stepped around mud, searching as I went for any signs of the blue flag to no avail, but I refused to call off the search. I prayed God would forgive me for throwing money (that He provided) to the wind on such a thing, and I prayed He would help me find it.

As I had searched the last spots and headed back to the house discouraged I looked under our deck, almost as an afterthought, and to what did my wandering eyes appear but a blue Christmas flag that my heart held so dear!

Like my flag, I was blown away; blown away by the realization that God cares about me so much that He would answer my prayers for little things like lost flags. And if I can trust Him and see Him in these little things, why is it sometimes so hard to believe Him for the big things? I believe that God understands how we feel about the little things because Jesus became flesh and felt the little things with a heart like ours.

God loves me even when my life is wrinkled and muddy like my lost flag. Perpetual grace (John 1:16) is poured out over my life and your life from a Heavenly Father who knows us and loves us and wants to bless us. Thank you, Lord, for perpetual grace!

Heavenly Father, thank you for answered prayer, big and small. Thank You for allowing us the privilege of trusting all things in our life to your care. In Jesus’ name. Amen.