Thursday, December 31, 2009

Be still my soul

I just finished reading a book called, Be Still My Soul.

There were many gems of wisdom in this book, but what resonated with me the most was this
quote:

"Standing still, on some occasions, is the paramount duty of the Christ follower."

Most of the time I don't struggle with believing that God has a perfect plan for my life if I trust and follow Him. There is just something in me that believes this and has hope because of it. What I do struggle with is the waiting. I am a doer. I like to get things done and move on to the next. Patience is not something that comes naturally to me. I have to be very intentional about being patient and constantly have to give this up to the Lord. Part of my issue with always needing to do, is that I feel like I am being selfish with my time if I am not always doing. But when I actually do take the time to sit and be still, it is reassuring to know that this is sometimes exactly what God wants me to do.

Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God."

Psalm 37:7 - "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him..."

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Divine Moments

I have been a bad blogger lately. It has been a challenging few months. I have been really busy, but more than that, I have felt really overwhelmed - with a lot of things. Some of which I can place, others I can't put my finger on. One of the contributing factors to this was it being the Christmas season. I love Christmas. I have for as long as I can remember. But just over a year ago, my Christmas was jolted and became more of something to just get through rather than a time to relax and celebrate. So as this Christmas approached, I was hoping to be able to make up for the heaviness of last Christmas - not only for myself, but more so for the sake of my family and friends.

In the midst of the busyness, overwhelming emotions and restlessness of the past few months, I have not spent enough time with God. Somewhere along the way, I put certain expectations on myself in my relationship with Christ and in my mind, I was not meeting them. The longer I went not meeting these 'expectations', the more guilty I felt. The heavier the guilt, the more embarrassed and unworthy I felt to talk to God and ask Him to help me with my current circumstances. I know that these feelings of guilt and unworthiness are completely manufactured by myself with some assistance from the devil, but I have this problem with connecting what my head knows to what my hearts feels. I like to call this the head-to-heart disconnect. It happens more often than I would like but less often than it used to...which is nice.

But you know what is amazing about God? He is so much bigger than all of this. He is bigger than the busyness of daily routines, the distractions that I allow to consume my thoughts, the flashbacks of a heart wrenching time, the worldly guilt, and the circumstances that arise. And not only is He bigger than all of this, He is there for ALL of it.

I have experienced God in many tangible, divine ways over this past year, so to not have those moments or 'feelings' for awhile (being two months, which really is not that long) was discouraging to me and causing me to feel restless and distant from God. But a few weeks ago, in His beautiful and wonderful ways, He reminded me just how close He is. It was one of those moments where I could feel Him in the room. I knew that he was there. I could actually picture Him sitting beside me. Holding my hand. Telling me that it is okay. He's not mad at me for not spending as much time with Him as I (and He) would like. He loves me and his heart hurts because mine does. He wasn't telling me a bunch of stuff to make me feel better. He was just being there with me. Even though I was in tears and my heart was aching, there was something so divinely comforting about that moment. I left where I was that night feeling a sense of peace and ease that I had been yearning for that can only truly come from my Heavenly Father. I am so unbelievably thankful for moments like these. And I continue to be blown away by a God that is sovereign over this huge, crazy world we live, yet He is still able to have such personal and unique relationships with His children. That is something beautiful.


Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!

I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful time with family and friends! May you know and accept Grace from our Saviour and be filled with Peace that can come only from Him! Merry Christmas! Love Jamie.