The Security of God's Presence - Dinner #62

     I’m SO grateful that God has chosen to give another Little Blessing to our home! I’m rejoicing in the fact that God reached down from Heaven and is making my body ABLE to carry another baby, despite the world warning me differently!  But there are so many times, when I look around me and wonder, can I really do this?! I’m struggling right now, just dealing with an active 13-month-old who’s had runny diapers and been staining outfits left-and-right for the past week!  HOW ON EARTH will I EVER do dishes or keep up with laundry when I’m back to sitting on the couch, nursing for 8 hours out of the day? Or how will I EVER properly correct and discipline as Brooklyn moves into the 2-year-old stage? Am I really READY for two children? I think I need to re-memorize Psalm 57:7 – “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” And then there’s my special verse in Psalm 113:9 - “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children . . .” A JOYFUL mother of children!  Yes! Ok! I can do this! I just have to trust in the Lord! I’ll be joyful! It will all work out! And then I begin to question and doubt again . . .

    What other thoughts have been plaguing this expectant mother’s mind? I have no idea where this baby is going to be born!  Is the Lord suddenly going to supply the job, the house, and the money required, for us to make a long-distance move? If we stay here, can we possibly fit two cribs in that one small bedroom? How can I start planning, rearranging and decorating for this poor little one, if I don’t even know where we’re going to be in the next few months? Will I even still be here NEXT month, to find out the baby’s gender, or will we be caught in the middle of an insurance transition? My mind just wants to go CRAZY sometimes with all of the wonderings, the fears, and the “what ifs”!

     Do you know what I KNOW that I need, more than anything, right now? THE SECURITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE.  Psalm 36:7 declares, “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.”  Our daughter Brooklyn usually cries HYSTERICALLY if someone is vacuuming in the house, but if someone else is HOLDING HER during the vacuuming, she’s perfectly fine!  How often are we just like that? Completely flipping out when we’re overwhelmed and scared, unless we STOP and realize that we are being HELD by our Heavenly Father! Psalm 34:17 “The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” Psalm 34:4 “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Not just one of my fears – ALL of them! How I need to hold onto that verse, once again!

     If I feel alone with my fears, Psalm 139:7 reminds me, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Why have I chosen to write about these things, tonight, as my baby girl is sleeping and my husband is working? Perhaps, because it is during the quiet moments, that we tend to THINK and to FEAR the most.  The month of July has threatened to choke my heart with fearful discouragement, this year.  I wrote this devotional because I NEEDED to write this devotional! I NEEDED these verses, this month! Are you, too, in need of the security of God’s Holy Presence, tonight? Then may we pray the words of Psalm 61:1-2, 4: “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I . . . I will trust in the covert of thy wings.”  God Bless, Dear Sisters, and Goodnight!

A Same But Different Sea - Dinner #55

     Sometimes we’re faced with a brand new trial, we’ve never known before.  Sometimes we’re faced with a trial that is the same, yet, somehow different.   Joshua 3:4 says, “. . . that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.” My own family is facing a “fork in the road”.  We have been for several months now.  Some weeks we feel as though we have peace about a step in a certain direction, and then, all of a sudden, things change again.  As a woman, my heart desires  STABILITY!  I have the peace and the certainty that my husband wants what is best for our family, but any talk of moving ANYWHERE or changing ANYTHING has been very unsettling to me, lately.

      This past Sunday night, I had the opportunity to hear some of the Crown College “Preacher Boys” in our pulpit.  One of them preached from Matthew chapter 14.  “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go . . . But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.” (Matthew 14:22, 24-25) This young man pointed out that some of these disciples had done this before! They were fishermen, and had gone across this sea many times - but this time it was different.  That thought really stuck with me.  You see, I, too, have a “sea” before me that I’ve crossed many times – but this time, it’s different . . . My husband keeps talking about the possibility of us moving or changing jobs.  That is NOT a new sea to me!  I’ve moved SO many times in my life!  My dad was in the military! But this time, it’s different . . .  I don’t want to leave the first home of our married life! Everything from the carpeting to the cabinets has been just right for us! We’re close to grocery stores, a library, parks, church, friends . . Perhaps, God won’t have us actually move.  But, even if we don’t, a job change is frightening, too! I’ve been through job changes before, but we have a baby now! What about health coverage? What if we find out we’re having another baby, before new insurance goes into place? In many ways, we “have not passed this way heretofore.”

     The young man preaching on Sunday night, went on to say that this sailing in the boat was a journey to COME TO CHRIST!  Matthew 14:28-29 “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come . . .”  Lord, if it is YOU . . . I must be assured in my heart, that if GOD has us move or change jobs, then it will be a journey to DRAW US CLOSER TO HIM!  In Exodus 33:13, Moses begged the Lord, “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee . . .” Is this what You would have our family do, Oh Lord?  Please show us the path to KNOWING YOU MORE!  Exodus 33:15 continues Moses’ conversation: “And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” If You’re not going with us, Lord, then please don’t move us! May we only move or make a change, if YOU will be with us! That should be our prayer!

     Are you facing a familiar sea with a different type of storm than before?  Praise God, that our Lord is the OVERCOMER of storms!  “ . . . for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.” (Luke 8:25)  “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” (Psalm 107:29) Jesus may tell us to “go” out into the sea, but He will also be there to reach out His hand, and to say unto us, “Come” . . . As a lovely Wild’s song says, “Draw me close to Thyself, O Lord, And give me peace in the midst of my storm...”  If it is a sailing journey of GOD’S choosing, then it is a journey to draw us closer to Himself!

Before "Yet" - Dinner #48

     In our adult Sunday School class, we were going through a series of lessons, this past month, on the book of Habakkuk.  Due to sickness in our household, and being out of town, we unfortunately missed several of the lessons, so I recently sat down, to read through the book of Habakkuk on my own.  My favorite verse in those three short chapters was Habakkuk 3:18 - “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”  Even if this happens, or this, or this . . .YET I will rejoice! I had to ask myself the question, what can I put before “yet”?  In my own personal life, I must resolve in my heart that . . . Even if we move further away from my parents – yet I will rejoice in the Lord!  . . .  Even if we cannot afford to pay this bill or that – yet I will rejoice in the Lord! . . . Even if we are not blessed with more babies for a while – yet I will rejoice in the Lord!  . . . No matter what circumstances come my way, I must determine to REJOICE IN THE LORD MY GOD!   I can worry night and day about what “might happen” or what “could happen”, or I can choose to rejoice in Christ my Savior NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS!  Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”

     We can put our trust in God to take care of ANYTHING and EVERYTHING we place before that “yet” in our lives! In Habakkuk 1:5, the Lord tells His prophet, “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” God has plans for us that we wouldn’t even believe! Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We may not be able to see why certain things are happening in our lives, or why certain things are the way they are, but God is ever working in our lives! Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil . . .” Whatever you are going through, whatever you THINK you MIGHT have to go through, God is with you!  He is a God Who faithfully keeps His promises, and He has promised us in His Word, “ . . . I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5)

     In the New Testament, a group of women came to the tomb of the Lord Jesus, wishing to anoint His body with spices.  Mark 16:3 tells us, “And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?”  The women knew that up ahead, a problem awaited them.  How could they possibly move that large stone covering the face of the tomb?  The very next verse declares, “And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away . . . “ When the ladies arrived, they found that they had really had nothing to worry about, all along! The stone was ALREADY rolled away! In fact, we know from the rest of the story, that the Lord Jesus had actually risen from the dead! God already knows our futures, and the outcomes of all our problems.  That stone we fear, may not even BE THERE, once we arrive! We must place our worries in the Lord’s loving hands and leave them there! Psalm 94:19 says, “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.”
     Will this or that happen? Will it not happen at all? Habakkuk 3:18 “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” The future may be frightful and the way uncertain, but one thing we know for sure – we can REJOICE in God because He holds tomorrow in His hands! Psalm 61:2 “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that his higher than I.” What a loving God we serve!