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| See God in a flower. |
As I did my morning chores and struggled with the thoughts in my head of how wonderful this day could be if only I had someone to share it with, I finally relented, put on some soft instrumental music and sat down to read my daily devotional. The scripture for the day was, "He (Jesus) went on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone." A sense of His presence came over me as I softly whispered to Him, "I'm alone too Lord." As I read on it encouraged me to sit alone with Him for awhile and just let His presence soak into me. The sound of the ethereal music and the stillness of the moment covered me with peace and a feeling of abiding. I didn't feel alone anymore and I could hear His sweet Spirit speaking to my soul....Deep calling unto deep.
My mind went on a journey, seeing scenarios from my past juxtaposed to how I was feeling at the moment. It has been these times, the times of loneliness and solitude, where all choices have been denied me that I've grown the most because He allowed circumstances to force me to settle at His feet. Rather than fight these times, I have come to a place where I surrender to Him more quickly and find His peace rather than just busying myself with distractions. I saw myself as an onion with many layers and each layer was an issue in my life that God wanted to peel away. Each layer brought tears and a sense of tearing away. I had wrapped myself in layers of what I thought were blankets of protection but in actuality were layers of isolation! I had built a labyrinth of complex stratum around my soul that kept me from knowing love and life the way God wanted me to! His act of using my time of isolation was Him rescuing me from perdition!
Each event that has happened in my life, God has been intimately there to work it out for the good! If left to my own desires I would be out and about busying myself with anything except dealing with the layers that were suffocating me! God loves us so much that He will deny us our own desires at times to get us to slow down and let Him peel us one layer at a time. This process wouldn't be so miserable for us if we would just surrender to Him voluntarily but our spirits of rebellion and distrust put Him in a position that He must step in to save us from ourselves! We see the trials as times we cry out for deliverance from, but the trials are a blessed place that He takes us so that we can see His mighty love at work!
Each time my loneliness brings me to my knees is another opportunity for me to allow God to take another layer of my insulation from the pain of life off! We all fear those times because we relate them to times of pain and despair but those times can be magnificent and bounteous to our souls and lives! God wants more for us than just existing, He wants us to have freedom! Freedom to live without fear, freedom to know peace rather than anxiety and misery! I know what it's like to have the appearance of joy and happiness but inside the anguish and perplexities are so overwhelming that you feel like you're drowning! We are drowning ourselves in layers of heavy issues that we can't seem to find the courage to unravel ourselves. Most of the time we may know the gist of some of our issues but God can see the deep damage and crippling effects they have on our whole being! We have to trust Him and anything short of that, God sees as a hindrance to His longing to love and heal us!
If you dare....go and sit alone with your God and just start by being silent. Your mind will start to bring issues up and at that point you can begin to talk to God about your pain and how the layers you have wrapped around you have kept you a prisoner to your fears rather than protected you as you thought they would have. Ask Him to just love you and to help you to continue to come to Him with full knowledge of His love for you and the truth that there is no condemnation in Him. You will find that He is not a rigid and angry God but simply your Savior who longs to spend time with you and bring you freedom! Change the way you think about times of trouble, as that is exactly when God is in it with you to not only get you through but to make you stronger and more at peace because of it. He loves us so much!
This day had the potential of being a very sad and lonely day but because I made "one right choice" to go and sit with my Jesus....it turned out be be a lovely day, filled with all His goodness that He had for me! He took my loneliness and used it to work everything out for good!
Psalm 42:7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of your waterspouts. All your waves and billows have gone over me.
Romans 8:1 There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:26,27 And in the same way...by our faith...the Holy Spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how to pray as we should; but the Holy Spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God's own will. And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans.
Try using the time that you are washing the dishes or sitting at a stop light to talk to God.
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