It is not by chance that my last few posts were about asking God, in prayer, and then applying the answers that He supplies to you. Or that fact that God is in charge, but He expects us to do our part too. In fact, after writing those 2 blogs, my entire last week was one attack after another from the enemy. It was his goal to knock me off my feet, hit our family unexpectedly and cause deep pain. But instead of running in fear or trying to handle things in my own strength, I asked for wisdom and peace through it all. Then I did nothing unless He opened doors and I DID walk in peace. It was a time that I could have thrown my hands up and gave up. But I chose to fight my way through it all exactly as God would have me to. Not with words, not with actions....but by taking control over the situation in the name of Jesus and asking for His guidance...and walking in the peace that He supplied. Were things all out of sorts...yes. I missed work that I didn't want to miss. I missed writing my blogs for a few days and because my schedule was all thrown off I even missed some of my devotionals and quiet time with God. But what I didn't lose was my connection to Him. And that is the only thing that got me through. God showed me the difference last week between being shaken....and being knocked down. Yes, the enemy tried to shake my world, but He did not succeed in knocking me down. And none of that was due to anything I did in my own strength. It was because I knew where my strength comes from. I asked God to supply some things, and then I looked for and used those things God supplied. Strength, open doors, answers to problems....He even showed me what things were worth worrying about, and which things were not worth my time and energy. Again and again God came through because I kept my focus on Him and not the circumstances. As I have spoke about before, I did not let the circumstances disturb my peace and joy, instead I let God's supernatural peace and joy drive me. Do I think the enemy is done..no. He never is. Do I think I grew from this past week and became even closer to God..yes. Is that victory....absolutely!
So having said all that.....let me show you just how awesome my God is. Earlier I said that my devotions were all thrown off. But instead of letting the enemy riddle me with guilt about that, I just asked God to help get my schedule back to normal so I could get back to spending time with Him. And so today, as I opened my devotionals back up, the topic of two of them was "Thankful in the Midst of Suffering" and "David Praised God through both the good and difficult times of his life". Did God have those waiting for me when He knew I would return? I fully believe so! Does He care about us even to that level of detail? Yes He does. And I believe He is involved in our lives to that level of detail every single day. It's just that most days we walk right through the day and don't look for Him. Sad but true.....
So two of my devotionals were about praising and being thankful through the good and the bad. However, as if that is not amazing enough, my first devotional and my third one this morning (completely unrelated devotionals) were even built around the same verse. 1 Thessalonians 5:18..."Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." How amazing is that!! That is the verse that got me through last week and I didn't even know it. Then God presents it to me in 2 completely unrelated devotionals. It just goes to show that there is no guilt or condemnation in Jesus. He knows I couldn't get to my devotionals as much as I wanted to, and when I came back to them instead of me feeling guilty about it, He had something meaningful waiting for me. And He knew that they would mean even more to me reading it now than it would have last Wednesday. Again, that is how amazing my God is!
God, Thank You SO much for the love that you show us! Thank You for the care you take in every detail of our life. Thank You for not just hearing our prayers, but supplying the answers for us to apply to our situations. You are so good to us Lord....and I will CHOOSE to praise and thank You in the midst of the suffering, the confusion, the heartache...throughout life! John 16:33 says that in this world we will have trouble...BUT, it also says to take heart because You have overcome this world. And You supply our peace! Thank You for that peace, guidance, joy and love! Please today God, supply that for those who seek your face in the midst of their trouble. In Jesus name, Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment