Ok ....so it's taken me years to overcome the paralyzing and debilitating condition of living with constant worry and fear.
And you know how? By realizing that almost everything that I worried about and feared....NEVER HAPPENED!!!...I wasted most of my young adult life scared of everything, always thinking the worse was going to happen....
OK fast forward to my life now. Free from the spirit of worry and fear, Because I know God had designed things into or lives that we cannot control nor change. So I accept things on the basis of God's wisdom. And am at peace with that!
Since I've finally learned that I basically can't control most of the things that happen in my life anyway....I just "Let Go" and really started enjoying life ...the way God always wanted me to.
The last 6 weeks I feel like I'v been in some sort of whirlwind...... and everything that has popped up since January 29th I've taken in stride and truly have not felt worried or fearful while facing them. Believing that probably the worst of what my mind could conceive probably would not ever happen anyway. Well that hasn't been the case at all.... every step I've made in the last 6 weeks has seemed to created a greater medical need than the last. Every test has resulted in even a greater medical concern than the last. WHAT IS GOING ON????
So God brought me back to look at the story Mark 6: 45–52
The disciples of Jesus went through a very difficult, frightening storm. In the midst of that storm they came to see their Savior in a whole new way. God is teaching me some important perspectives about the storms I'm going through.
Could it be that the storms that are hitting me lately - the storm that is now threatening to break up my ship - is God's tool to drive me into His arms? Not because He's mad at me, but because He loves me.
What in the world is God doing?
If i'm going to live a life of confident faith and if I'm going to help others, I've got to be able to answer that question. What in the world is God doing? And how in the world should I respond to it?
When we walk through a trial that we never asked for, it’s tempting to feel alone.... to wonder if God really cares about our situation. I've discovered that at most points in life we’re either:
In a trying situation
Coming out of one
About to head into one . . . . that’s what life is like.
That's God's call to everyone. No one is meant to just be a recipient. Everyone is meant to be an instrument
Mark 6: 45–52
45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
Now, here's the scene: the disciples find themselves in another moment of difficulty. They're trying to row their way across the Sea of Galilee; they're facing an impossible headwind, angry seas. If you look at the larger time clues in the passage, they've probably been rowing now for eight hours. It's a situation that's exhausting and discouraging and potentially dangerous. So we need to ask the question. . . .
How in the world did the disciples get themselves in this mess?
Looking closely, I find a clue in verse 45, that says, "Immediately he (Christ) commanded them to get into the boat." Ahhhhh......Jesus created this mess they found themselves in. He's got the disciples in this moment exactly where He wants them to be.
Now I know you're asking the question. . . . "Why would a God of such grace, why would a God of such tender love, why would a God who proclaims again and again that He cares for us..... ever want His children to be in this kind of difficulty? Why? . . . Millions of Christians over the years have asked this question: "Why, God, why? ....... (Reminds me of the night I lost the entire Blog, that took me 2 weeks of many hours of typing to put together, only minutes after launching it. .... all I could say was ...."Why, Lord, why?")
God knows how much we're committed more to our own little kingdoms than to His Kingdom. And He will take us where we have not intended to go in order to produce in us what we could not achieve on our own. Do you know what the Bible calls that?
. . . . Grace!
There have been many times in my life where I have cried out.
"I need Your Grace!"
And then I realized I was recieving the grace of God . . . . . But it doesn't always come as a cool drink. Or a soft pillow.
Oh, I ... just like you want the grace of relief and the grace of release, and we do get those in pieces, but largely those are to come.
Because very often, this side of eternity, the grace of God comes to us in uncomfortable forms.. That's glorious grace.
But there's something else we must observe. The minute Jesus takes that walk, we are clued-in to what this whole event is about. The minute Jesus takes that walk, His intention for this moment is being revealed to us. Because— think about this—if all Jesus wanted to do was remove the difficulty, He wouldn't have had to walk across the water.
The minute Jesus takes the walk on the water, you know that He's not after the difficulty; He's after the people in the middle of the difficulty—that's what He's after.
That's the spiritual equation for us: "You remove the difficulty Father... . . . And, I'll gladly praise You."
But God wants us to praise Him in the midst of the difficulty.
The shocking thing about this moment is these people had seen His glory. They had just recently watched Him raise a little girl from the dead. She was dead. And she lived again.
They had actually watched Him calm another storm. They had watched Him feed a large multitude with the little boy's lunch. They had seen the stunning glory of the Messiah, yet here they are in the same old panic all over again as if they had never seen anything.
We've seen God's glory again and again. What happens to us when we're in the storm?
Hummmmmmm.....what about me..... I've not only have seen God work miracles in other's lives. . . but I've been a recipient of God's miracles twice in my own life!
Yet, after a third call back from a Doctor on a recent medical test result that was not what I was hoping for..... my first words were "Why, Lord why?"
Storms come. That’s the nature of life this side of eternity. Jesus had to remind me he really does care about me as I go through these storms. And in fact, He cares enough about me to allow me to go through these storms and even stir up the storms for my ultimate good. I just need to trust Him.
Those disciples needed to take their eyes off the storm and keep their eyes on Jesus.
I don't know what God is doing. . . . I really don't....But I too need to keep my focus on Jesus no matter what the test reports say. What I do know is that I'm taking advantage of each opportunity as an "open door" to share my love for Jesus with every one I get to see and talk to. . .
It is true....Sometimes God calms the storm....and sometimes. . . He chooses to calms His child in the storm. Either way he is in the storm with us.....
Now I beginning to see that the cancer, in a sense, was really a blessing. If it weren't for the cancer...I would not have had the stress test that revealed the blockage. That one day may have given me a heart attack. And I hadn't even realized there was a problem. I certainly can't go through a major abdominal surgery with a blockage on my heart....so just as God promises us in Rmans 8:28
Now I beginning to see that the cancer, in a sense, was really a blessing. If it weren't for the cancer...I would not have had the stress test that revealed the blockage. That one day may have given me a heart attack. And I hadn't even realized there was a problem. I certainly can't go through a major abdominal surgery with a blockage on my heart....so just as God promises us in Rmans 8:28
\ ¸.✿´´¯`•.¸¸. ི♥ྀ.ƸӜƷ˜”*°•.•.¸ღ¸☆´ Shalom
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This is a great word from Anne Graham Lotz! Thank you Lord for this today!!!
Storms can be sudden and fierce, raging until they suck the life out of us. When the storm comes -- as it did in Isaiah's life in the year that King Uzziah died
(Isaiah 6:1-5)
Don't look back or around or ahead. . . . .
Look up and ask God to give you a fresh vision of His purpose, His prayers, His presence, His peace, and His power. Then reach out to comfort someone else by just giving them Jesus!
