"You are my portion, Lord; I have promised to obey your words. I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise "( Ps. 119:57-58).
In the morning grace, in each new day, You are my portion, my life is Yours, my hope is in You only and my heart You hold...You made this sinner holy...thank you Jesus.
After this past year, with each victory, I have been more convinced that God holds all things in His hands. In the waiting that often feels that its lasting forever...He gives me so many reasons to see Him. His peace He ministers over me...His comfort covers me...and with the time He desires of me to spend with Him, this precious time only allows Him to reveal Himself to me. As I gaze upon Him, silent before Him, waiting to receive through His Spirit the assurance of His presence...I come to see each time how much more glorious His presence is.
He has called me higher and deeper to go yet again where He leads me...through the promises of His Word that illuminates my path before me and along this path He continues to increase my faith and refreshes my soul for the work that each day brings.
To meet the Lord each new day is the morning grace that comes with our waking moments that declare how much we need Him. To wake and hold on to Christ as my Savior with confidence as He waits for us in our first waking moments to reveal Himself to our weary hearts...only to have the glorious privilege at our disposal, to gaze upon the Lord and experience the burdens of life fleeing in His presence...and know it is morning yet again. A new day, with His promised presence coming like glory as the rising of the sun...the promise of His presence to stay with me...through the valleys, the unknowns, through every high and every low...He is before me and behind me...He is by my side.
Through the many battles, He raises the valleys and He makes known the unknowns...He steadies us in the lows and in the highs...above and below us behind us and before us...we experience the ever loving hand of God in our life. When God finally consumes us and changes our unyielded nature, we enter into great rest and we receive insights into the Spirit of God. We learn the deepest secrets of our God from our troubled ways, from our battles....He alone brings peace and rest to our souls in the fiercest of storms when other souls are battered and destroyed in this world and in the troubles that it brings...'worldy sorrow brings destruction the Bible tells us but godly sorrow brings repentance".
I can only ask myself through the trials and battles...as I open His Word and pray...Lord, what is it that you are showing me? What is it that you have for me in this time? What do you desire to do in my life? My flesh and old nature must continually be yielded to Him as my soul cries out to God in my Gethsemane. Having scars from our death on the cross that we take up for Him daily...that our lives might display the restful, victorious, grace filled life that speaks of a testament to God....that speaks of the power of a resurrected life that is promised deliverance like a new morning that comes out of a now empty tomb.
Though tried, yet not destroyed. Though tried, yet so thankful, grateful and joyful in Him. The trials that come often are more aggressive and appear more determined and more extreme as we are more determined to know and love the God in whom we serve. Paul knew that what God had done within him was far more lasting and far more important that everything that was coming against him. God spoke to my heart as well of these things, that what God is doing within my heart is far more lasting and important than anything that could come against me. Through our twenty years in service to our God within our church...this was and is the journey...it is all about bringing God all the glory.
I hold fast to these verses from Psalm 112...“How joyful are those who fear the Lord…Such people will not be overcome by evil…They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly.”
My prayer continues to be that through all things my confidence in Christ will continue to soar as I dethrone myself from the place in my heart where God alone deserves all ownership and a prominent place --- a yielded spirit where God will be glorified. The last year has been filled with many emotions, and walking into unknown places that were always defined as very sure places as I walked them all with my beloved husband. I have had to give grace and grace has been given to me. ..hallelujah. God has a way of knowing how our pain will be used for the souls of others and in that I pray I’m glorifying God because He is changing me, always and continually. To only become more like Jesus. Our circumstances do not dictate who we are but it refines who we are. All for the captured audience we have been given....as others watch our lives that God is controlling...to witness the Deliverance He brings. You see, He trusts us, as Christians, to be His heart and His messengers even in the most difficult places.
Some have not seen it as this at times.....not understanding how God would allow such pain the last year....but the question is not why....the whys are a part of the mysteries of God and the answer is always God Himself. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know the plans I have for you…plans not to harm you, but to help you; to give you hope and a future.” …… More of God, more of His glory revealed! Our pain is doing good for the souls of others as we look at it through the eyes of God....Genesis 50:20 when Joseph said to his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God intended it for good for the saving of many lives”. God's glory....do you see that, our suffering can be a platform for the saving of many lives...Randy's was. And today God's glory continues....and it is all a beautiful encouragement to my own heart as I have shared His truths with many women over the years to continue to see their faith grow....and today....and how we must be partakers of the first fruits...experiencing continually in our own life the things we are called to give out to others. I think it is often a great lesson to always speak to our own hearts the very things we would share to another...and to believe them all...and apply them all.
God’s sovereignty strengthens the soul, it grows a deepening of faith that we could not think possible as we believe. It grows a strong and seasoned wisdom, a testimony of Him, a peace and refining of the heart...a faith that perseveres as God shows us all His faithfulness...despite our pain....this is the “good” Randy talked to me about....the "good" God would do in me, in our family, in those who we knew and loved, and in our church. He knew that with God's grace, the toughest of things ultimately will produce good in one's soul. He knew that God is always interested more in the heart than He is with our external circumstances...and he knew that this was what it meant to live his life for Christ at all costs. And God trusted him. He knew that if his sickness will be used to change him and others, to glorify God, and bring others to Him...then he could welcome it and all God would allow. And he prayed daily for all of our hearts...for strength to embrace the purposes God would have through all our afflictions.
Along with you, I cannot possess this kind of faith, courage and strength apart from God, His Holy Spirit, the Word and through prayer. "You are my portion, Lord; I have promised to obey Your words. I have sought Your face with all my heart...be gracious to me according to Your promise." Psalm 119:57-58. How sweet it is to trust in Jesus and to feed on His Words daily...and collect the bread of heaven each new day … to delight in Him. Are His words the joy of your hearts...the delight of your soul? Are His Words the peace, comfort and strength that maybe you are missing right now? We are to live “on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). As the children of Israel collected the manna from heaven every day for forty years, so we are to collect our bread from heaven on a daily basis as well—to be all we need to be for Him today....."to be in Him".
Such a captive audience for Him we have been given as we look around...and the burdens He gives us to carry are because He loves us and He trusts us...and it is only by faith that we walk into one level of our spiritual maturity to another...for without faith it is impossible to please God....through many trials and victories in Christ He has given us all the resources we need in our soul for what He has called us to be for Him....."And abundant grace was upon them all" Acts 4:33
"Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power; in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning" Psalm 110:3....and...."As your days, so shall your strength be" Deuteronomy 33:25..
Day by day, continually...thank you Father, for each new day...for each new morning's grace.
Michelle A. Guerra
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