He is Good & Does Good

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains." -C.S. Lewis


"Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.
You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction." (From Psalm 119)

Peace

In Acceptance Lieth Peace

by Amy Carmichael

He said, “I will forget the dying faces;
The empty places,
They shall be filled again.
O voices moaning deep within me, cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.

He said, “I will crowd action upon action,
The strife of faction
Shall stir me and sustain;
O tears that drown the fire of manhood, cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in endeavor lieth peace.

He said, “I will withdraw me and be quiet,
Why meddle in life’s riot?
Shut be my door to pain.
Desire, thou dost befool me, thou shalt cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in aloofness lieth peace.

He said, “I will submit; I am defeated.
God hath depleated
My life of its rich gain.
O futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in submission lieth peace.

He said, “I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow
Will to His son explain.”
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease.
Not vain the word, not vain;
For in acceptance lieth peace.


"Whatever your circumstances, and however difficult they may be, the truth is that they are ordained by God for you as part of His overall plan for your life. God does nothing, or allows nothing, without a purpose. And His purposes, however mysterious and inscrutable they may be to us, are always for His glory and our ultimate good." -Jerry Bridges

Lord, I am willing to-
Receive what You give,
Lack what You withold,
Relinquish what You take.

His Directions WILL Lead our Steps to Himself!

In my previous post, I asked some specific questions. In this particular post, I am hoping to explain how the Lord has answered these questions for me.

So to start, let's be reminded of my questions:

What am I doing with my life?

Is it what I'm supposed to be doing?

Am I where I want to be?

Or better yet, am I where God wants me to be?

Okay, now I want to look again at the verses that the Lord directed me to as I was struggling with these questions just a couple of months ago.

"The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9

"I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23 

I mentioned how I have become discontent because of where I am at in life and how I'm often questioning whether or not I'm where I'm meant to be and am I doing the things that God wants me to be doing. I admitted to my struggle with waiting on the Lord's timing for things(things I think I want or need to have in life); and how I would attempt to take matters into my own hands instead of trusting that my God is in control and simply continuing to seek Him and His leading in my life to the green pastures, beside the still waters, and in the paths of righteousness.(Psalm 23)
From experience, I know that when we become impatient with waiting on the Lord we can fall into the trap of worshiping other things- clinging to worthless idols in our lives that may temporarily make us feel happy in life but ultimately leave us feeling empty and only wanting more.

There is much to be learned in the "waiting" periods, and they are just as important to us in our walk with the Lord as other times in our lives. If we can trust God and serve Him in the "mundane" things and waiting rooms in life, we will be much more prepared and likely to be trusting Him elsewhere. (And I might add that waiting isn't doing nothing. Waiting patiently is really a beautiful way of displaying your trust in the Lord. He gives us so many verses in Scripture that admonish us to wait on Him!)

Anyway, these are some of the things I've been learning over the past weeks/months, and I've come to realize that I am currently exactly where God wants me to be for the time being. How has He shown me this? How do I know? How can I be so certain? Well, the Holy Spirit has a way of giving that peace of God that surpasses all understanding when we are offering up our requests to God with thanksgiving rather than being anxious and worried about what is going to happen next in life.(Phil. 4:6,7)

I am hopeful that my feeble attempts to explain some of the recent Spiritual growth spurts in my own life will be an encouragement to others who might read this. 
I've read in one of my many books that the best way to know God's will for your life is to know God. How do we know Him? We spend time with Him really reading and meditating upon His Word and spending quality time in prayer and in quiet communion with Him.
For me this meant temporarily abstaining from some things in my life to silence some of the noise- to clean out some of the clutter- to basically not be involved in or have access to some specific things that were a distraction to me. I found it to be very refreshing and very eye-opening to the fact that 1)I CAN live without them and 2)I can live BETTER without them or at least without so much of them in my life consuming my time and attention. 

Try it...if you take something out of your life for a short period of time, you will find out how much it controls you by your response to not having it! Many of the things that occupy our time are not even necessary in life. I am reminded of the story of Mary and Martha in Luke chapter 10 where Jesus responds to Martha's complaints about her sister saying, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." Did you catch that?? He says, "One thing is necessary." We have to realize that the one thing is Himself. The only thing necessary in life is Jesus. He is all we need! (Colossians 3:11- ..but Christ is all, and in all.)

So anyway, all that to say that I am thankful that God is patient and loving. I am so grateful that He is good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon Him (Psalm 68:5).
He has a beautiful way of teaching us the things that He wants us to learn about Himself and about our own selves. He is committed to molding us and shaping us to be more like our Savior, and in that I find much peace especially in my moments of failure(which are all too often...). I am constantly reminded of my need for Him.

I want to close in saying that no matter what you're struggling with, God is there for you and will help you if you only ask Him. I love Psalm 62:5-8 which says, "For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah"

In Jeremiah 33:3 He tells us, "Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."

 I can promise that you won't regret it if you cut out some of the "clutter" and noise in your life to seek the Lord instead. He just might direct your steps more than ever before, and I trust you'll find out that His direction is never wrong. His directions will lead you to Himself and believe me(BELIEVE HIS WORD), there is no better place to be. Call to Him! Trust in Him! Pour out your heart before Him! He is all that matters in this life. He is everything to hope for now and in the life to come.

"How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God." Psalm 84:1,2 

"One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple." Psalm 27:4

"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." Psalm 73:25-26,28

Oh Lord, Direct My Steps...

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9
"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23

What am I doing with my life? Is it what I'm supposed to be doing? Am I where I want to be? Or better yet, am I where God wants me to be?
I must say that I go through many moments of feeling discontent because of where I'm at. In these moments, I consider all the options of what else I could possibly do that might make me happy and feel more fulfilled. My mind starts to imagine all sorts of crazy things that might be where I am SUPPOSED to be. I wish I could say that I immediately run to God and ask HIM for direction, but I can't. Instead, I must admit that I tend to run in every other direction BUT to Him. I run to my friends for advice, I look at what other people are doing with their lives and wonder if that's what I should do, I hide behind facebook, music, movies, food, etc...And then I end up miserable because all of that running has gotten me nowhere but more discontent and more unsatisfied and even farther away from the One who can and will give me the comfort and answers that I am looking for.
Why do we feel like we need to take matters into our own hands and try to control things? Why do we become so impatient while waiting on the Lord for whatever it is that He has asked us to wait for?

As I am writing this, my little sister sent me a video of her precious baby. Madison was happy at the moment of pressing the record button, but she soon breaks out into tears and a little baby cry. I replied to Bethany and said it made me want to cry too...Bethany said, "Aww! It's even worse when you see the tears in her eyes. :-("...My response was, "I wonder if God feels that way with us..."

He loves us, and wants what's best for us! All He asks is for us to trust Him...to have faith and believe in what He has promised. Why then do we feel like we have to make our own plans sometimes even before seeking what He is telling us to do? Why don't we let Him take control? Get THIS: He is in control anyway whether we LET Him be or not. The only thing we control is our response to what He places in our path each day.

He is there. He is for us. He is working all things out for our good. We can trust Him to direct our steps.
Oh Lord, direct my steps...Not my will, but Yours.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

YOU Are Loved

No matter what has happened or what will happen, 

God's response to you is the same. 

You are His.

You are loved.

You are accepted.

You will never lose value in God's eyes.

Taken from Elyse M. Fitzpatrick's book, "Comforts From The Cross" 

 "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life...Fear not, for I am with you...everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made." -Isaiah 43

What Is Happy Living?

Is it not a sad proof of the alienation of our nature that though God is everywhere we have to school ourselves to perceive him anywhere? His are the beauties of nature, his the sunshine which is bringing on the harvest, his the waving grain which cheers the husbandman, his the perfume which loads the air from multitudes of flowers, his the insects which glitter around us like living gems; and yet the Creator and Sustainer of all these is far too little perceived. Everything in the temple of nature speaks of his glory, but our ears are dull of hearing. Everything, from the dewdrop to the ocean, reflects the Deity, and yet we largely fail to see the eternal brightness.

I beseech you, my brethren, to pray that you may have this text wrought into your very souls: “I have set the Lord always before me.” Refuse to see anything without seeing God in it. Regard the creatures as the mirror of the great Creator. Do not imagine that you have understood his works till you have felt the presence of the great worker himself. Do not reckon that you know anything till you know that of God which lies within it, for that is the kernel which it contains. Wake in the morning and recognize God in your chamber, for his goodness has drawn back the curtain of the night and taken from your eyelids the seal of sleep: put on your garments and perceive the divine care which provides you with raiment from the herb of the field and the sheep of the fold. Go to the breakfast room and bless the God whose bounty has again provided for you a table in the wilderness: go out to business and feel God with you in all the engagements of the day: perpetually remember that you are dwelling in his house when you are toiling for your bread or engaged in merchandise. At length, after a well-spent day, go back to your family and see the Lord in each one of the members of it; own his goodness in preserving life and health; look for his presence at the family altar, making the house to be a very palace wherein king’s children dwell. At last, fall asleep at night as in the embraces of your God or on your Savior’s breast.

This is happy living. The worldling forgets God, the sinner dishonors him, the atheist denies him, but the Christian lives in him. “In him we live and move and have our being; we are also his offspring.” Visible things we look upon as shadows; the things which we touch and taste and handle perish in the using; the elements of this solid earth shall dissolve with fervent heat, but the ever-present God whom we cannot see is the same, and of his years there is no end, and his existence is the only real and true and eternal one to us. He has been our dwelling-place in all generations, and it were evil indeed not to know our own eternal home. This is a main ingredient in the oil of joy, — to realize always that the Lord is round about us “as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, from henceforth even for evermore.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Secret Of A Happy Life," delivered July 16, 1876.

Only He is Enough

"Who I am and what I have just doesn't seem like enough."

Have you ever made such a statement? Maybe you haven't actually come right out and said it, but you have felt it inside and thought it? I know that I sure have. There are many moments in my life when I feel like I am not good enough and not doing enough and don't have enough. I might think, "If I could just be _____ I would be happy," or, "If I just had ______ I would finally be content." We can fill in those blanks with anything and everything, can't we? Did you know that whatever you fill those spaces with is what you worship? That means that, if it's not the Lord, it is an idol in your life. Did you also know that those things will never complete you or fulfill you, but they will only leave you wanting more?

Whatever it is that you think is going to make you happy is what you'll put all of your time and energy into. You will spend your life searching for whatever it is that you believe you need to be fulfilled.

We talked about this in Sunday school today as we taught the kids about Solomon and how his heart was turned away from God by the many wives that he had and by their gods. We were created to worship, and if it's not God that we're worshiping, we will find something else to worship. Everything else will disappoint us though, and we won't receive God's best for us because we aren't seeking Him. HE is His best for us. This is why He tells us in Matthew 22 that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Only through Him will we discover true and lasting contentment. We will never find fulfillment or satisfaction in life until we turn to Him.

God has given us desires for a reason. Those desires may not be bad in and of themselves, but they are bad if we're looking to those desires to fulfill us. God gives us these desires to lead us to Christ, the only One who can actually fulfill them.
"At the center of every idol we worship is an underlying God-given appetite. The problem comes when we turn to something other than God to fulfill it." -Pete Wilson
All the things that God blesses us with are to bring us back to Him! He is the real gift, the real prize, the real reward! We aren't meant to worship the gifts but the Giver of the gifts. And if He isn't giving us what we think we want it's likely because it's not what we need or what He wants for us. God knows what's best for us and can give to us what none of these earthly things could ever offer to us.

Are you trusting in something or someone to give you what only God can give? I know that I certainly have done this, and God is reminding me that He's already all that I need(check out the Christy Nockels song in my post prior to this one). He is reminding me that I need to experience Him daily in order to keep Him first in my life. If I'm not spending time in the Word and in prayer daily I am so quick to fall away and leave the God I love for things of this world that are constantly calling out to me and promising to make me happy. If I'm not living close to the truth, it's easy for the truth to be blurred and for other things to look good when really they aren't. When I am spending time with my Savior and remember His death on the cross and His love for me and grace in my life and forgiveness of my filth, everything else is meaningless compared to Him.
We've got to be in the Word daily!! We need it! Just like we need food to nourish and strengthen our physical bodies, we need our Spiritual food to nourish and strengthen us Spiritually so we are prepared to wage war against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

So what is it that you think you need in order to be happy? If it's not God, then pray that He would change your heart to desire Him. Get your face in His Word. He is what you need and what your soul longs for. Stop searching for happiness elsewhere and find it in Christ. He will never let you down or leave you feeling empty. He is all you need- all I need. He is more than enough.

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:25-26

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28