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A Letter to You…

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Child of Mine-

If only you could grasp the depths of MY love for you, MY intimate care of every detail of your life.  If only you could suffocate the shouts of worldliness for MY gentle, calm voice, you would hear all that you need.   You would truly be living as I have created you, as I have planned for you.  Your focus would be completely on ME.

THIS life, a life with ME, is not a fantasy, it is truth and it is wondrous and fruitful.  Choose ME…over your to-do list, over your friends, your phone, your workouts, your cleaning, your bucket-list, your family, your image, your work, your ministry, your house.  I AM bigger than your pain, your heart-aches, your questioning, your fears, your weaknesses.

I AM here…I AM always here.  In all these moments, in all the gladness, the struggles, the doubts, the stillness, the mourning, the routines…I AM.

      You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  (Jer 29:13)

LOVE,

Your Creator

 

Psalm 139

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 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.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

…23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

 

 

 

 

Refined in the Furnace

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“As sure as God puts His children in the furnace, He will be in the furnace with them.” Charles Spurgeon

Hmmmm…

Let me just start out by saying I could totally plagiarise my entire devotional for yesterday’s entry.  It was convicting.  And that happens almost every day (if you are looking for a good devotional – “The One Year Devotional; Walk with God”- Tiegreen).

God’s word is even better…okay, way better.  But there is something about a good devotional that brings His word down to right-here-right-now in language that totally speaks to right where you are in life.  Amazingly (and sometimes a bit annoyingly) devotionals speak the truth of what we are facing.

I digress…

The conviction?   Where is my heart yearning when I am faced with a trial?  How far do I let my mind wander into worldliness?  If God keeps His promises…if God has a plan for me…if He is my refuge, strength, stronghold…then why do I get so entrapped in making my life more comfortable, more pleasing, more like ‘everyone’ else’s?  Why am I so quick to want to jump ship when the storm is starting to brew?  Is my faith only skin-deep?

But oh, He sees it coming.  I pray (ehum…beg).  I bargain. I deny.  I am anxious and sweating now.  I start planning my escape.  Acting as if He wouldn’t see or know of my plan B, C or even D, I become consumed with looking for the nearest exit out of this uncomfortable furnace.

It’s getting hot isn’t it?  Why is God not rescuing me?  Where is He?  Doesn’t He see me searching for the…  And then it hits me.  What am I searching for?  Him?  Or the world?

Truth be told, I can see God work in the big trials of my life (and believe me there have been plenty).   When I see no other alternative and only then am I quick to passionately seek His face.  It’s when I have minor set-backs, little annoyances that I look for the quick-fix way out.  Truthfully, waiting on God’s timing is not my ideal.

And that is precisely where FAITH steps in.  Faith says:

I must be careful to not believe the lies of the Deceiver (Matt 16:23).  God speaks truth.  Furnace or no furnace, He is what I seek.  He is where my help comes from.

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Dear Father,

This life I call ‘mine’ is so far from that. Help me to remember this life is not about MY comfort, but about whatever brings You the Glory. Thank You for sticking with me in the furnace…for giving me the time I need to grow in You.  I love You.

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