Have you ever felt paralyzed by your circumstances? Unable to make a single decision based on what YOU want, but what everyone else wants or society wants or your employer wants or your kids want or your family wants. Never what you want.
There are days when all I want to do is to be with Jesus. To end this life so I can be with Him, but I don't and even that is not a decision I'm making for me. Its for everyone else. Not me. If I had my way I would be dancing with Jesus and drinking PBR's with my dad in Heaven, but I endure and that too is not a decision of my own.
I think my lack of control has brought me here to this dark place and I don't like it. I miss the girl who had all the answers and embraced change and lived her life for her. I feel like I'm just hanging out waiting for the next crisis where someone will call me to fix everything so I have to be ready and not live MY life. I have to plan for everyone else's crises and that really feels unfair to me, but I don't know how to stop....
...and then I hear this song "I Am Free" and I realize that God speaks to me through songs and He spoke to me loud and clear today telling me YOU ARE FREE. This particular song says "I am free to run....I am free to dance.... I am free to live for You, but the message is clear. I am free. I am not a prisoner to my circumstances. I am free.
In this world there is very little that I am sure of, but I am sure that God speaks to us and we simply have to know what language He is using to do so. Maybe its a cool breeze on a warm day, maybe its your precious baby smiling or laughing for the first time, or maybe its a song. I encourage you to find the Lord's voice in these moments that you think are just you living your life because I would hate to see you miss out on what He is trying to say to you.
Today the Lord said to me that I Am Free and I need to start living for me and as hard as that seems to me at this moment I will listen and I will change because I know that when I do I will be myself again and I will have my joy and I will be able to fulfill every dream that He has envisioned for me!
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
God’s Comfort in Trouble
I'm sitting here feeling sorry for myself after returning from a work
trip to Atlanta when I see a post on Facebook by a 27 year old girl who
was left on the bathroom floor of a Burger King by her mother who gave
birth to her there. Can you imagine that? So many strikes against you
and you don't even know it yet. You are helpless and alone. What is even
more extraordinary is that she still wants to find the person who
abandoned her.
I think that life throws you curve balls sometimes just to see how you will react. Will you shut down? Will you end it all by putting a bullet through your skull? Or will you become stronger? Certainly these times make us weak and powerless and feeling helpless. Probably not unlike that infant child at the Burger King, but we must never forget that we are NOT alone and we are NOT powerless as long as we have Christ.
When I reach my lowest of lows I talk to Jesus a lot. I want to try and understand why I am in this situation and what is my lesson to be learned and when I don't get an answer, I know it is because I am not listening and my ego has taken over and that is really unfortunate because just like this verse says, God Answers:
Psalm 20:6
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed one;God answers his anointed one from his heavenly sanctuary, answering with mighty acts of salvation achieved by his strong hand.
I know that God answers because I have seen His handy work and yet I flail around like a bird with one wing that has been clipped off instead of just going to the Lord in prayer and collecting myself. And then something else terrible happens and something else and pretty soon I'm like an infant myself crying in the bath tub as if my entire world has fallen apart. But it hasn't. Its just a series of minor setbacks. I still have my health, I still have my job and I still have my Lord Jesus. What else do I need?
Over the years, I can say with 100% certainty that every single setback I have had has been met with a gift from God. So why on earth would I not CELEBRATE my setbacks? I guess because I'm human and my human brain is thinking of everything I now have to do in order to fix all of this and in fact I don't. I simply need to hand it over to Jesus and let Him do the work and let me just say that this is so much easier to sit here and write about than it is to actually do! I have to work on this.
In closing, I want to leave you with this amazing verse that just spoke to me today as if Christ himself whispered it into my ears....
[ God’s comfort in trouble ] May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort. He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
This note today is MY comfort to you. When life sucks you in and spits you out and you are left wondering which way is up.... take His hand and let Jesus show you!
I think that life throws you curve balls sometimes just to see how you will react. Will you shut down? Will you end it all by putting a bullet through your skull? Or will you become stronger? Certainly these times make us weak and powerless and feeling helpless. Probably not unlike that infant child at the Burger King, but we must never forget that we are NOT alone and we are NOT powerless as long as we have Christ.
When I reach my lowest of lows I talk to Jesus a lot. I want to try and understand why I am in this situation and what is my lesson to be learned and when I don't get an answer, I know it is because I am not listening and my ego has taken over and that is really unfortunate because just like this verse says, God Answers:
Psalm 20:6
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed one;God answers his anointed one from his heavenly sanctuary, answering with mighty acts of salvation achieved by his strong hand.
I know that God answers because I have seen His handy work and yet I flail around like a bird with one wing that has been clipped off instead of just going to the Lord in prayer and collecting myself. And then something else terrible happens and something else and pretty soon I'm like an infant myself crying in the bath tub as if my entire world has fallen apart. But it hasn't. Its just a series of minor setbacks. I still have my health, I still have my job and I still have my Lord Jesus. What else do I need?
Over the years, I can say with 100% certainty that every single setback I have had has been met with a gift from God. So why on earth would I not CELEBRATE my setbacks? I guess because I'm human and my human brain is thinking of everything I now have to do in order to fix all of this and in fact I don't. I simply need to hand it over to Jesus and let Him do the work and let me just say that this is so much easier to sit here and write about than it is to actually do! I have to work on this.
In closing, I want to leave you with this amazing verse that just spoke to me today as if Christ himself whispered it into my ears....
[ God’s comfort in trouble ] May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort. He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
This note today is MY comfort to you. When life sucks you in and spits you out and you are left wondering which way is up.... take His hand and let Jesus show you!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)