Confusing "Separation" and Feeling "Spiritually Drained"

There was a young woman who loved the Lord who recently spent some time away from home. She was able to spend time with friends she had not spent time with for a long while, a couple whom she had not even seen for two years! After hearing some of the struggles they were facing, and knowing what it was to face struggles herself, she shared with them some of the magnificent things that her wonderful Savior was teaching her at the time. She also shared with them Biblical teachings and knowledge she had gained in the past, and some of the ways the Lord had blessed and sustained her through past trials. She related with exuberance that the Lord loved those girls and that if they found their worth and fulfillment in Him, they would not need to be searching for it elsewhere, and continually meet with disappointment and pain. Her worldview was strengthened, and although she encountered a bit of culture shock, she had poured encouragement into her friends by the grace of God and the Power of His Spirit.

The Lord blessed her with phenomenal things from His Word during this time, as well, which kept her going—fed her fuel with fire and kept it blazing—gave her a reason to share that hope within her!

But when she returned home, and expected that fire to continue, she was discouraged to find it quite the opposite! :-( In fact, she felt as though the Lord had put up a wall between Himself and she and she was very disheartened. Was there something wrong with her house that hindered her from intimacy with her Lord, even though she did her best to irradiate what might? She hadn’t changed at all since she had come home—in fact, she tried to spend time with the Lord in a more similar way then she had during her vacation, but to no avail. It even came to the point where she subconsciously thought, “What’s the use?” and battled with depression. There was a sudden weight on her heart—
 
And she didn’t know why
:-(

She wondered if perhaps the Lord had been giving her a taste of His magnificence while she was away, in blessing her time with Him, only to remove those blessings when she arrived back home as if to say, “Here—you know how wonderful fellowship with me can be. Now that you are back home, in your own native environment, where everything is so much harder to practice and live out, how bad do you want it?”

But she knew better. That seemed like something her earthly father would say is against the nature of God. God doesn’t tease or taunt.

But she also remembered, that after His great victory on Mount Caramel, the prophet Elijah also suffered with depression and discouragement. Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him and he ran off into the desert and asked the Lord to take his life, he was in such despair!
Even though he’d just come out of a major spiritual victory, a mountaintop, if you will, he suddenly felt plunged into darkness! :-( It was as though, after this hard and wonderful work, Elijah was spiritually drained.

This young woman also remembered that it was after a forty-day fast in the wilderness—another spiritual victory—that the Lord Jesus Himself was intensely tempted and attacked by the devil.

Perhaps, she reasoned, this is what was happening to her. Or perhaps, yet another plausible explanation, the devil saw the damage she was doing to his kingdom, the joy she was finding in his greatest Enemy, and was all over finding a way to prevent ‘anymore of that’ at all costs!

Is this you today, dear sister?!?!?!? 

If it is, please! Do NOT loose heart! Pray that God would bind satan and his demons in the name of Jesus and keep them away from you! Persevere! Get into the Word one more time, and even if it doesn’t feel as if you glean anything, you still spent time with Jesus and tried your best.

“…Nothing ‘jumps’ out. Is it then unprofitable? No, because it does help even if we can not feel it. It is like taking potatoes and holding them under running water. Even though a lot of dirt may not come off, they still are cleansed to a degree. So I should just continue reading. It was cleanse my heart and make it good soil for growing fruit.”
{Taken from The Family Daughter, page 103 Emphasis mine }

I love that illustration and find encouragement from it! :-) Also, get alone with Jesus, and even if you do not feel like putting forth the effort to pray, even if it doesn’t seem worth it, or if you don’t feel as if you have anything to say to Him—talk to Him anyway!! Be brutally honest. He can handle it. (read that once as well LOL- here is the link to where: Lessons Learned in the Valley MOHL

And please, dear sister!
TAKE HEART!!!!!
Omisoul—Jesus totally and completely LOVES YOU!!!

Be ENCOURAGED

by how God handled the situation with Jesus and Elijah. The Bible says that angels ministered unto them! (Mark 1:13) (1 Kings 19:5-8) And before you say, “yeah, well Jesus was perfect! Of course God would send angels to minister unto Him in His moment of need,” remember that while Jesus was sinless—Elijah was not!! :-D (James 5:17-18) I know the context isn’t quite the same, but God is not going to leave you comfortless! (Psalm 23:4) (Isaiah 43:1) (Isaiah 51:12) (Hebrews 2:18)

Remember, you are a Daughter of the King of Kings, and you are enlisted in His army! You are a Princess Warrior! You are of infinite value and worth to Christ and His kingdom! If you are simply trying to live for Him and keep Christ at the center of your life, guess what?! Satan does not like you! If you are on fire for Christ- if you are living for Him—satan is going to do all he can to make sure that fire is stamped out! >=(

So, by the mighty, all-powerful grace of GOD DO NOT LET satan DO THIS!!!!! Persevere! Fight the good fight of faith! The King has adorned you with perfect armor—put it to use in a way that glorifies Him and defeats the enemy! (Ephesians 6:10-18) Pray for the help of the angels!

“Prayer is often a contest between demons who hinder, and angels who minister.” ~~Evangelist/Preacher Tom Harmon

(And I can almost promise you, taking time to seriously just pray will probably eliminate that “separating wall” feeling you have in your heart!♥)
Walk by God’s grace and finally, rest in His comprehension-surpassing peace! (2 Corinthians 1:2) (Philippians 4:6-7)

If you want, I will pray for you!
Press on, dear sisters! I know you may feel as though you are, but take heart, because, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

~~Love Katie

PS. I actually felt the Lord lay this on my heart today. Often when I do a blogpost, it is because God has given me something that thrills and excites me, but today, it was different. I didn’t really desire to write this, but I felt I should. So I began.
And guess what?
I was adding the finishing lines on it, when suddenly, Microsoft Word decided to glitch. A blip popped up on my screen informing me that “Microsoft Word has stopped working”, and before I realized what I’d done, I clicked the only button—“close”—on the blip and lost the entire, basically finished blogpost.
Yep. Can anyone say “confirmation”? :-D :-D :-D
By God’s grace, I immediately reopened the program to find that 3/4th of it was “recovered”, but I still had to rewrite the last few paragraphs.
If you needed this today, if you feel like the young woman in the story, BE ENCOURAGED, sweet sister! God made sure you got this today!!!!! He loves you!

{Pictures via Rachel and Google Images! :-) }

"As Ointmet Poured Forth..."


 
"Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee."
Song of Solomon 1:3

This morning as I read this verse, I was in a quandary as to the significance of the "good ointments"  and so forth, and studied that out.
While there are certainly good parallels in Scripture and comparisons to be made with the holy anointing oil for the tabernacle and the Lord Jesus Christ, that wasn't how God chose to blow me away, yet again, this morning; nor is it what I'd like to share with you. :-)
This morning, as I was studying this verse out and cross referencing it with corresponding Scriptures (that help explain the context or add to it-- God's Word fits together brilliantly, btw!!), the very first cross-reference is for Song of Solomon 4:10-11. This is because, as in Song of Solomon 1:3, the Bride compares the Bridegroom('s Name) to 'ointment poured forth', the BrideGroom reciprocates it in similar terms.
At first, I was hesitant to skip ahead all the way to chapter 4. But when I did, I literally said "wow" out loud.

  "How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!"
Song of Solomon 4:10

Yesterday, I {we} saw how this is true of Jesus-- He, His love, and a relationship with HIM is far greater than anything else in the world!! But then, three chapters later, He turns around and says the same of us?!?
Whoa...
wow.

{excerpts from my thoughts this morning}
"...but it reciprocated exactly what is stated in Song 1:3~~ only in this Passage, Christ, my Beloved, is saying it BACK TO ME! MY love is precious to Him! It is "far better", worth more "than anything" {'than wine'}, just as His is to me!!!!!
<3 Wow <3
As Spurgeon's Morning/Evening Devotional (for 2?15PM~Psalms 45:8) ...says, He makes us happy-"but how can we make Him glad? BY OUR LOVE!!!"
{emphasis mine lol}
WOW! Just as God's awesomeness thrills my heart and I can (and should) rejoice in His love, He {actually} REJOICES IN MINE!!! WOW!
How... humbling...
He condescends to my level and rejoices in my imperfect love, while I am able to revel in the perfection of His COMPLETE and PERFECT love!
WOW"


I had a friend share with me Monday evening over dinner how she wanted to feel as though her boyfriend enjoyed being with her, that he realized he had something special in her. 
Well...
I am NOTHING.
I have no right to expect this from my Heavenly Bridegroom~~ no grounds upon which to claim it. I am a vile, base, lowly sinner as compared to His glorious perfection.
And yet-
He TAKES JOY--delight-- in my incomplete, imperfect, unpolished, and unfocused love!!!
W
   O
      W
When we find our joy and fulfilment in Jesus and His love for us~ when we love Him, as He first loved us~ this actually makes Jesus happy! Just like it makes you feel good to have someone show you that you are special to them- that they care for you- it is the same way with Jesus!
WOW

So...
Are you bringing joy to the heart of your Beloved today??
Am I?
<3<3<3<3<3

{pictures obtained through Google Images}

Love that is Far Better than ANYTHING You Can Imagine!!

I had a very interesting and overwhelming evening yesterday. Culture shock. Confusion and spinning around in my head my Christian worldview-- a view I still, if not more adamantly believe to be right, founded on the Truth, btw! :-) But I was grieved by what I realized last night.
I came to the Word this morning, stretched out on the floor of my grandma's spare bedroom, and begged God to "open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of His Law"-- to open His Word unto me as He did to the men on the road to Emmaus-- to transform my thoughts and my way of thinking and retrain and renew my mind according to what I would read (Romans 12:2)-- to increase my knowledge of Him (that knowledge that enables us to walk in and by His grace and dwell in His comprehension-surpassing peace!!!) (Colossians 3:10).
And I opened up to where I left off yesterday in Song of Solomon and read the next portion of that one verse and felt stuck.
*sigh*
"For (T)hy love is better than wine." (Song of Solomon 1:2b)
Why couldn't I get past that? lol (Answer: the Lord wouldn't let me! lol) What is the significance of that? Of course Jesus is better than all else, but I don't drink wine! Lol How did this apply to me? How does it apply to me, to you?!
So I looked the passage on my Bible/concordance program on my computer which happens to contain Surgeon's Morning/Evening Devotional on it. I came upon an evening devotional for the very verse- indeed, the very portion of the verse!!-- that had me "stuck", as it were.
So I read it.
Aloud and in first person. Made it mine, you know?
Blew me away.
Jesus, and an intimate, loving relationship with Him, is far better  than ANYTHING in this world or of it!
I read it-- this devotional thought-- to my childhood friend who was over at my grandma's this afternoon (which is where I am staying :D) and it really seemed to inspire her as well.
I realize that it's a lot to read, but I'm going to 'copy & paste' it below and I encourage you, dear sister, to read it!! Read it ALL! Personalize it for yourself- even read it aloud! It is wonderful!

"Thy love is better than wine."
--Song of Solomon 1:2
Nothing gives the believer so much joy as fellowship with Christ. He has enjoyment as others have in the common mercies of life, he can be glad both in God's gifts and God's works; but in all these separately, yea, and in all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as in the matchless person of his Lord Jesus. He has wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; he has bread which all the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring forth. Where can such sweetness be found as we have tasted in communion with our Beloved? In our esteem, the joys of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with Jesus, the heavenly manna. We would rather have one mouthful of Christ's love, and a sip of his fellowship, than a whole world full of carnal delights. What is the chaff to the wheat? What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a dream to the glorious reality? What is time's mirth, in its best trim, compared to our Lord Jesus in His most despised estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must be the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged with the soldier's spear. All earthly bliss is of the earth earthy, but the comforts of Christ's presence are like Himself, heavenly. We can review our communion with Jesus, and find no regrets of emptiness therein; there are no dregs in this wine, no dead flies in this ointment. The joy of the Lord is solid and enduring. Vanity hath not looked upon it, but discretion and prudence testify that it abideth the test of years, and is in time and in eternity worthy to be called "the only true delight." For nourishment, consolation, exhilaration, and refreshment, no wine can rival the love of Jesus. Let us drink to the full this evening.
{taken from Surgeon's Morning/Evening Devotional}

You see, Sunday night, I watched the 1949 Little Women with my grandma-- and suddenly felt hopelessly alone and single. :( :( :( :( I wanted a Professor Bhear to be there for me and love me and say sweet things to me. I wanted to feel that tug on my heart. I thought about it early the next morning as well; I realized though, that I needed to fall in love with Jesus. So i set about yesterday morning wanting to draw close to Him-- wanting to know how to view Him as my "Husband", the Lover of my Soul, my Heavenly Bridegroom.
He showed me yesterday that if I want to draw close to Him in this way and have an intimate relationship with Him that I must make time for it. It's not just going to "come about". Like all good, normal, and/or romantic relationships, it must be cultivated!!!
Okay.
So I understood that.
But there was that lazy, rebellious little voice/ niggling feeling that whispered, "But do I really want to put forth that effort? Is it really worth it?"
Well, the Lord showed me today that YES!!!!!!!!!!!! When I have such a LOVING, WONDERFUL GOD-----
HOW COULD/CAN I NOT!????!!?
He is SO worth it!!!!!
Pursue Him tonight! His love is FAR BETTER than ANYTHING else! Even an earthly romance!

Desiring Nothing & NoOne Else


"Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."
Psalms 73:25
NONE
Not even an earthly husband.
(umm...ouch!?!? =-( )
This is what the Lord, my Heavenly Bridegroom gave me this morning.
I encourage you to desire a loving, intimate relationship with the Lover of your soul more than anything else today! (for this is certainly something the majority of us will have to take one day at a time! *winks*)
Let us find our fulfilment in Him, for He satisfieth the longing soul (Psalms 107:9)
And don't we all (or at least most of us lol) long for an earthly romance?
Let us find that fulfilment in HIM!
  "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine."
(Song of Solomon 1:2)

Thoughts on Being a{n} {Older} Sister...


This morning, before I even got out of bed, before I even read my Bible, I lay there, reflecting on how not nice, on how selfish as a sister I had been to my youngest brother last night.

Oh sure, he had fun. I wasn’t that bad he told me when I had apologized. After all, I wasn’t being “mean” to him in his eyes, because this is the way he is used to me acting.

But I know better. L

Even if he does not, I do. L

Lately, I’ve been behaving like that. Not being Christ’s hands and feet to my younger brothers and sisters; not “investing” in their lives; not taking an interest in the things that interest them. I thought of my little brother Nathan (yesterday was his birthdayJ) and of how unwilling I have been to do anything with him lately. How long I made him wait to play the computer with me last night. L

Why?

Because I simply did not want to! I simply did not feel like it at the time! I often have “more important things to do”, or the things that he wants to do are not as important in my mind as what I want or legitimately need (such as dishes, ironing, Sunday school lesson, etc.) to do!

 I thought of Bethie, my little sister too.

How happy would it make them—how surprised they would be! —If when they asked to do something with me or asked to use my computer if I simply smiled at them and enthusiastically said, “Sure!!” J

I then thought of Hebrews 4:15 which says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

I thought of how Jesus has experienced everything (every temptation) that I have had. Every temptation. Like the temptation to brush aside as unimportant—or not as important—the desires of my younger brothers and sisters.

I wonder, did Jesus ever not want to play with His younger brothers or sisters?

I wonder if Jesus was ever tempted to deem as unimportant, to see as annoying and frustrating, the desires of His young siblings. The desires they had to play with their older Brother. I wonder if He was tempted to think “aw… I’m too busy right now”—even legitimately, perhaps when He was assisting Joseph in carpentry or something of that nature. I wonder if He ever ‘suffered’ with the knowledge that He needed to be selfless and acquiesce to the pleas of His younger brothers and sisters to “play with me!”, to invest in their lives by stooping “to their level” (wow; how pompous does that sound!!? L) and spend time with them—whether or not He WANTED TO!?!?!?!?!?

The Bible tells me

The Bible tells you

That He did.

…{and} yet without sin

I realize that back in Bible times and even currently in the Middle East the customs and culture was TOTALLY different from what it is today or here in the West. I realize that this would have fallen more/mostly under that category of “keeper at home” and as a woman’s job and domain.

Yet…

How many times do you think Jesus got down on His knees anyway, even as a young masculine man of His later teen and early adult years, and played with, loved on, and cuddled those messy toddlers; Those rambunctious nine-year-olds? I wonder how often He played “Roman soldier”, “prophet”, “warrior”, or “King of Jerusalem” with his little brother, even if it seemed (and was for all practical purposes) ‘pointless’ at the time.

The Bible tells us Jesus loved the children later in life—during the public years of His ministry. So why not before hand? Before the Scripture indicates that He did?

Since we miss out on a written portion of His life from about age twelve to age thirty, we tend not to think about these things, but it only seems natural that if He loved them so much then—enough to publicly rebuke His disciples for trying to send them away—enough to publicly take them in His arms and speak with them and bless them, something many people probably thought did not enhance His “Prophetic image”—if He loved them so much during this public time of His ministry, does it not only stand to reason that He would have cuddled and played with children during the years of which the Bible is silent? Would not He have been lavishing love on children during His ‘formative’ years?

And has not Christ left you and I an example that we should “follow in His steps”? (1 Peter 2:21)

If Jesus face the temptations of this sort, and yet, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, He overcame them and invested in the precious lives of His younger brothers and sisters, SHOULD I NOT DO SO IN THE LIVES OF MINE?

SHOULD WE as older sisters NOT DO THE SAME IN THE LIVES OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS???

We have unspeakable and unrealized influence in their lives and great opportunity to take advantage of it (in a Godly way, of course! J) Let us seek to influence them for Christ, by His enabling power, and with pure and Godly motives!!!
Press on, Sisters! J

How to Trust God



About a week ago, God revealed to me (in a mightily personal way) that I need to trust Him. (Now, I've had a head knowledge of this most of my life, and of course I trust God, in theory and in part, but the realization that prompted that last blogpost "Trusting God" was one of those personal lessons!)

We need to trust Him. Completely. With no reservations. Let go and let God. We need to simply take Him at His Word. Only trust Him. Actually believe that He is going to make good on His promises.

Okay. We got that. But how?

Well, praise the Lord, He doesn't simply say “hey you’ve got this problem; you need to work on” and then leave us hanging. He doesn’t help us realize where we fail and offer no steps to improve and excel. No! This morning He continued the process by teaching me what kind of trust I must have and how to trust Him!

I am still in reading in 2nd Corinthians, and this morning, I went back over what I had read last night, and the Lord brought to my attention something I didn't get last night! (I know there's a verse for that but I'm drawing a blank-- about how God's Word is a living Word-- if any of you think of it, could you please leave it in the comment box? :-P Thanks!!!)

This morning I read through 2 Corinthians 3:1-6. (Take a moment to read these 6 verses!!! :-D)

  And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
2 Corinthians 3:4-5

What kind of trust should we as young ladies have toward God?


1.) First of all, we need to realize that we can't have trust in God (or at least a complete trust) apart from "Christ in us"! We cannot  have complete trust on God, cannot rely on Him completely, without the divine aid of His Holy Spirit enabling power in us. "THROUGH CHRIST TO GOD-WARD"

2.) Secondly, the type of TRUST we need to have has to do with that GRACE of God that He disires (commands) us to walk in and by!! :-) (see 2 Corinthians 1:1-2) We are to have TOTAL/COMPLETE TRUST in GOD (through Christ) and ZERO /ZILCH TRUST in OURSELVES!!! We are to have the trust that realizes and knows, on an everyday, practical level, that we are not suffiecient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; BUT" that "our sufficiency IS OF GOD"!!!!! (2 Corinthians 3:5) (also see 2 Corinthians 2:16-- HE is our sufficiency! Or He should be!! He is suffiecient! He is enough! His WORD is enough!) "He has also made us able ministers" (GIVERS, not pastors lol) "of the new testament-- of the Gospel!! Of the Spirit that giveth life!" (2 Corinthians 3:6) (also see 2 Corinthians 1:1-- it is the will of God that we are examples of and encouragemments to our families, church families, and the lost!!)

So, we must TRUST the Lord by first of all having Christ in us through salvation and then, by His grace, walking in His grace and by His Spirit in us. I encourage you, sweet sisters, to ask the Lord to strengthen your faith in Him. Help you to realize you cannot have sufficient trust in Him on your own, but that you can through the power of Christ in you; and then ask Him to enable you to walk in His "daily suffiecient grace"!!

Trusting God

Okay...
So I have a story for y'all this evening! Grab some tea, coffee... (or for Pete's Sake a lemonade! It's SO HOT!!!) and get comfy! This one is rather long... ;-)

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Dad, I only have a few days left of airtime on my phone,” Katie reminded her father. She had asked him earlier that day if they could do order some new minutes and service for her ‘pay-as-you-go’ cell phone, but for one reason or another, he had decided to put it off until later.
It was later. J
Dad was going to watch Courageous with his friend and her siblings, but he told Katie to go grab his work-issued Iphone so they could order her new minutes.
“Bring me your debit card, too,” Dad said, “so from now on when we do this, the company will just bill you directly, and you won’t have to worry about paying me back.”
So Katie grabbed her card and the other phone and brought them to her father, who had already settled into his easy chair.
Katie squatted down to sit on the floor next to her dad’s chair and watched they film play out on the large TV screen as her dad conducted business with his fingers. Some parts of the movie made Katie recall how she had cried the first time she had watched them, but other scenes caused her to laugh along with her little brother and sisters. After a while, Dad handed down the phone.
“There’s a list of several service options—” he informed her. “Click on the one you want.”
“I want the one you did last time.”
Dad looked rather annoyed. “Then choose that one.”
So Katie took his phone and after reading the synopsizes of all the other options, she chose the deal that gave her 30 days more of service and 750 minutes—more ability to text and send pictures J
{picture courtesy of Google Images}
After working out a kink or two, the transaction was complete—except for one seemingly minor detail… After the transaction had been completed, Dad read the ‘electronic receipt’ aloud to Katie. “Thank you for your purchase. 750 minutes and 30 days of airtime will be added to your phone on your phone’s refill date. Service has been paid for 7/28/12 through 8/28/12…”
What!?” It was a very petty thing to be worried about, Katie knew, yet she didn’t want to be concerned with that now. It wasn’t even July yet! She didn’t want to go nearly an entire month without being able to use her phone! She knew—and even disliked—how pathetic that was, but oh well. It was what it was. “But Dad! That’s almost a month away! I can’t- I don’t want to wait that long for new minutes!”
Dad stared down at the screen in consternation. “That can’t be right…” After a moment of what appeared to be serious, deep thinking, his normal, laid back expression returned. Katie didn’t like that. He didn’t think it was that important… or at least not as important as she did. But she knew better than to verbalize her feelings. Her father continued. “I don’t think you’ll have to. Your phone should receive those minutes once it runs out of the other ones.”
“But Dad! That’s not what that blip you just read said!” Katie insisted.
Dad was looking annoyed again. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Sometimes those things mess up anyway.”
Katie was not convinced. “But it said—”
A stony element of warning crossed her father’s features. “I said ‘don’t worry about it’, Katie. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Get that fret off of your face. It should be fine—I shouldn’t have even read you that; I just was skimming it quickly anyway—but even if it doesn’t work out the way we want it to, it’ll be fine and we’ll worry about it then—alright?”
But it wasn’t all right. Katie hated how much of a brat she felt like, but she simply knew that her dad was wrong and that that email he had read was right. She would be without service for almost all of July.
“Lord,” Katie confided later that evening when she was alone, “I know I’ve been struggling with this ‘I’m-right-and-my-parents-have-no-idea-what-they’re-talking-about-thing’ a lot lately… I didn’t realize I had such a problem with it… and I know it is such a petty thing to worry about… and I know he told me not to worry about it, but even though I don’t “know”—even though I could be wrong—I still “know” I’m right!” She sighed. “Lord, please help me not to worry about this.”
It wasn’t important in the grand scheme of eternity anyway…

(Fast forward a week to a hotel lobby where a young lady is curled up in a fancy chair, writing feverishly in her devotional/prayer journal… Excerpts from that journal):
{Picture Courtesy of Google Images}
June 30th 2012, Saturday, Philippians 4:1-13 and 2 Corinthians 1:1-7, especially verse 5

This morning I received new airtime on my phone, unlike my “my-dad-has-no-idea-what-he’s-talking-about”/ “maybe-he-does-but-this-time-he’s-wrong”/ “I’m-right”/ “I-know-what-I’m-talking-about” mind and attitude displayed and manifested itself within me. I said, “Dad, you were right” and showed him my phone. He said it was good to hear me say he was right J lol and I told him that I {really} struggle with having that (know-it-all) (my-parents-don’t-know-what-they’re-talking-about) attitude, and he said I should’ve felt better when he told me not to worry about it… which is true—I should’ve simply trusted Him—ALL THE WAY!! If I would’ve, I would’ve felt better—it would’ve saved me a bunch of grief and worry. (Well, , not an exorbitant amount,, J, but you know) but no! I didn’t!! L Why? Because I thought I was right! I thought I knew better…
I DIDN’T.

Whoops!

Daddy doesn’t know my perspective of the last {paragraph or so} but he said …it was like simply trusting God. (“Taking Him at face value”, as it were.) {He} said something about trusting Him and how if I don’t really do it, like I didn’t trust/ believe him {my dad—my earthly father} (and thereby allow it and his wisdom to bring me relief!) {basically, the same thing will be mirrored in my walk with the Lord!} (“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts…” {Colossians 3:10} “… And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep my heart and mind through Christ Jesus”{Philippians 4:7}!!!)… … …

Umm, hello? J The {last paragraph or so} is how it is with {God and me}!!!!! My walk with Jesus! I told Daddy there was …a great parallel there, but even I didn’t realize how great the parallel truly was and is {of a daughter and her father and that same young lady and her Heavenly Father}!!!!!

If I don’t fully trust Him/believe Him/ take Him at His total Word, “only trust Him”, I’m going to cause myself stress and worry that I DON’T NEED to waste my time on because He’s already got it handled, taken care of, and UNDER CONTROL!!!!!
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And the same is true for you, Dear sister. Precious Princess Warrior of the King of kings. The same way it is for me, or you, or anyone of us in our relationship with our earthly fathers, greatly mirrors the way we walk with our Heavenly Father, and reflects the relationship we have with Him!
If I would have simply trusted my father, who (duh) knew what he was talking about, had years of computer/technology wisdom to back it up, had told me to not worry about it (oh and guess what? By worrying about it after he told me not to, guess what I was doing???? Disobeying him!!! YIKES!!!)—if I would have simply TRUSTED him, simply OBEYED him, simply LET GO of my “but I want to fix it because I know how it should work out” reasoning, I could have saved myself so much effort, time, and mental energy that was tied up with the stress, worry, fretting that I accomplished instead! If I would have simply TRUSTED my father, and TAKEN HIM AT HIS WORDS OF WISDOM, I would have been much better off, and much more at ease!
(Is ANYONE besides me drawing the parallel here!? JJJJ)
Now obviously this is over a silly petty thing such as cell phone service and airtime, but God very much can and did use something as trivial as cell phone minutes to rock a girls world and alter her perspective!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trust me.
He did. J
If I would simply TRUST the one I say I trust, if I simply LET GO of all my ‘but I can fix it’ and ‘but I know how it should all work out’ reasoning (basically, the fleshly desire to be IN CONTROL of the circumstances and outcomeL), if I simply TOOK MY SAVIOR AT HIS WORD, how much useless, painful, time-consuming, stress-causing, and COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY worry could I totally skip! How many more blessing could I bask in and enjoy if I simply ‘let go and let God’?!?!?!?!
I’m not saying that I have this all figured out. I’m not saying that now because I have realized this principle that I’ve suddenly learned it and will walk in it from now on. But By God’s good grace a light has begun burning in my soul, and He is continuing to add to it. He wants me to enjoy the peace that passes all understanding by simply trusting Him!
And, did you know, dear sister, that HE WANTS THAT FOR YOU AS WELL?!?!? What about you, dear sister? Do you say that you trust Him, yet cling subconsciously to human reasoning to make you feel more secure with that theoretical trust (so totally preaching to the choir here!)? Do you truly ‘take Him at His Word’? Do you believe every promise and statement He makes? Or do you simply know, like I (thought I) did, that “you’re right”, that “just this time, He doesn’t know what He’s talking about”, that “sure He’s always right, but I don’t think He can handle this instance”???
DON’T!!! O don’t cling to those lies! ‘Tis SO SWEET to trust in Jesus, for only in that place of complete trust is that place of comprehension-surpassing peace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, dear sisters, the Lord gave you your earthly father for a reason—whether he’s walking in the light of the Spirit or whether he is not L– but your relationship and/or how you interact with your earthly father truly does bare a parallel with your relationship with your heavenly Father—if only to show the perfection and unparalleled loving kindness of the latter!!!
So don’t miss this dear sister! Respect and obey your earthly fathers! Trust them! (Believe it or not, they know what they’re talking about! J Even when the odds are seemingly not in their favor. Again, take it from someone who knows! Lol) But most importantly, TRUST your Heavenly Father—pray and ask for more faith and trust! Believe him and simply let go and let Him.
The results can and will be far greater than either one of us (you or I J) could ever imagine!!! (Ephesians 3:20)
(PS: I love you Daddy! ♥)