My Melody

"The Lord is my Strength and my Song and He has become my Salvation." Exodus 15:2

Music is definitely a favorite way for God’s spirit to speak to my heart.  He can lift my spirits or speak to whatever I am needing in that moment.  Growing up as a pastor’s kid I spent a lot of time at church and a lot of time with my face in a hymnal.  All the songs I would follow along to with pure apathy or giggle through with my best friend wondering what kind of crazy words these were!  Today the most amazing things happen with those hymns.  If I hear these songs I find myself singing along and knowing all of the words that I didn’t even realize I knew.  And what’s better, they hold such new life and meaning for me that many times they stop me dead in my tracks and the tears flow with thankfulness for what God has done in my life. 

The other day this song just popped into my head from nowhere, but to me it is not nowhere!  To me it is a message from God’s heart to mine and He is speaking to me.  This happens often and I do not even consciously choose to remember and sing a song, but will spontaneously bust out in a song that to some may seem hokey, but I can’t tell you how many times fits exactly what I need to hear. 

The words to this song were-

“Singing I go along life’s road, praising the Lord, praising the Lord.

  Singing I go along life’s road, for Jesus has lifted my load.”

For some reason this song centered me again in truth.  My spirit was reminded of my load that was lifted.  And what load is that?  Certainly not my list of trials that I would hope He would fix yesterday, but the load of trying to do it alone without Him for a decent chunk of my life and all the shame and emptiness and grief that comes along with that!  This perspective makes me switch gears and enter into a spirit of thankfulness regardless of my circumstance because the load He has lifted and what He has given me in His friendship and love, nothing and no one can take from me.

“Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.  Oh praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead. “

And He does this not just in hymns, but in many songs, and not just in songs, but with verses, and not just with verses but through nature……Left and right He is belting out His love for us.  God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear this Love.

Beyond Limit

“Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm.  There is nothing too hard for you.” Jeremiah 32:17

“But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Matthew 19:26

If we look closely, I think we will find that many of our thoughts and therefore actions limit God.  From big to small things it is easy in our humanness to only see our circumstances and quickly resign to the fact that there is only one option, when with God’s limitless resources there are very well many options and ways that He could work and wants to work in our lives.  We think we are limited by our lack of this and that- our time, our resources, the people in our life, our addictions or repeated failures…What limits do you put on yourself and your circumstances?  Where is our cynicism and where have we given up?

When my kids and I spent some time in Costa Rica 2 years ago, God really used it to reveal the ways I limit God and that WE easily limit God here in America.  One of my favorite memories was the opportunity to go into different neighborhoods in the slums in Costa Rica where no one else would go.  Our fearless leader, Ronald, who lived in Costa Rica led the way and maybe he wasn’t so “fearless”, but rather choosing to walk in faith and follow the God who had freed him and restored his life in miraculous ways.  In stepping out of his comfort zone and his lack of resources, God has used him to provide care for hundreds of people in Costa Rica.  We went to these neighborhoods with coolers full of food- one cooler full of spaghetti noodles, one full of rice and beans….and so on.  The food was abundant and did not run out.  After the gift of being able to feed these people on the streets we were then on our way to the home of the woman who had prepared this food.  I was not prepared for what I was about to see.  At the door a humble kind woman, Jeanette, greeted us with all graciousness and joy beaming from her face.  We proceeded to enter the TINY little wooden shack hoisted up on stilts, with 2 tiny plug- in burners in the back of her small little kitchen.  I thought it was a wonder that the whole house didn’t immediately slide down the hill and into the ravine when we entered it, but it was in that same house that Jeanette alone had prepared the food to feed the 600 people that day!  And not only did she prepare food there, but that place had ALL the makings of a true home.  Indeed she did not need any place large, spacious, comfortable, but what she had she gave- her time, the gift of opening her doors to us and her gracious loving spirit.

I was extremely humbled and God used this to make me aware of all the ways I limit Him!   So what is it today for us?  What area can God bring life to that has been dead for years?  Or what doors could He possibly open that we have deemed shut for good?  What healing can He bring to areas of our life that seem destroyed, ruined, damaged goods?   What are we waiting for?

May we come to Him today and each day on our journey.  What is door #3 that He might have for us?  Regardless of the outcome our encounter with Him and the intimacy we enjoy is what makes us truly rich.

“And now, Lord, what do I wait for?  My hope is in You.” Psalm 39:7

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory…throughout all ages…Amen.”  Ephesians 3:20

Aware of Our Thirst

“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongues fail for thirst, I the LORD, WILL HEAR THEM; I, the God of Israel WILL NOT FORSAKE THEM.  I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.”  Isaiah 41:17,18

It has become a very important thing to me to be aware of my thirst and need.  The sooner I can spot any restlessness or any slight obsessiveness of going to food or facebook ;) or people for my needs, the sooner I can go to the Source that I am truly desiring and be honest and look deeply at what is really going on.  Our days present so many different story lines don’t they?  So many activites, decisions, joys and concerns that take up our mindshare.  I can go to the One who will help shine light, hope and truth on my situation.  It is easy to just stay in our own human thoughts, going over and over them, when we are really sitting in fear, hopelessness, pride…  Very often these feelings creep in subtly in small ways- I realize that my ugly responses, bad attitude with my kids’ bad attitude stems from a lack of hope or faith that God really IS at work here!  I have resigned to believe that it’s been years of the same thing and nothing has changed or will change.  Going to Jesus I am reminded of the truth that nothing is impossible with Him and He will be faithful to complete the work that He has started and immediately I am filled with the hope and love I need to be a Mom full of love and hope and joy. I can take on His strength in place of my human weakness. 

I guess I am talking here about being sensitive to walking with Him at any moment of our days.  With all my heart I feel it is vital to make quiet space for ourselves with the Lover of our Soul, but also, this communication and intimacy with Him in the MIDST of our full, crazy, and sometimes monotonous days.

And yes, there are days when I am reeling with sadness and grief and it is very obvious my need- then, too, you will be sure to find me down by the river with my whole face plunged in, drinking for dear life!  He is faithful and has never once failed to meet me in any of these moments I come to Him.

Lord Jesus, Help us to relate more often to the “poor and needy” in ourselves and thank you for your promises to bring water and life to all of these places. Amen.

Broken

We are all human and with our humanness comes a brokenness.  Whether we are are walking in a truly broken season in life or whether life is moving along a lot like we would hope, there is still a deeper gnawing and sense for something more.  Something intimate and hope-filled and real.  What we do with that feeling is the question.  Listen to what the Lover of our souls says to us out of His grief over our choices many times…."For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken ME, the FOUNTAIN of LIVING WATERS, and hewn themselves cisterns- broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13.  The Message version of this passage says “They’ve walked out on Me, the fountain of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—    cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.”  In my life I have made these cisterns out of many things, boys, food, exercise, my husband at times.  Satan steals this life from us subtly at first (these are all good things, right?!).  Maybe for years, we don’t even notice the leak, and all this time we are missing out.  Sometimes days turn into years and here we are, completely dehydrated and parched.  So what is it today that is keeping us from taking God up on His desire for intimacy with us and His offer of life, hope, freedom, adibing peace?  Here is His passionate call,  “If you knew the GIFT of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink’, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water…..Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”  John 4:10, 14

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to the cisterns we have built that are completely leaking and leaving us dry.   Plug up these holes with Your presence, truth, and grace that we might know You intimately, walk in wholeness, and be truly filled.  Amen.

COME!

“COME! Everyone who thirsts, COME to the waters; And you who have no money, COME, buy and eat.  Yes, COME, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  WHY do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?  LISTEN diligently to ME and eat what is good, and let your soul DELIGHT itself in ABUNDANCE.  Incline your ear, and COME to ME.  HEAR, and your soul shall live….”

                                                                                                           Isaiah 55:1-3

My Bible titles this passage in Isaiah as “The Messiah’s Invitation to the World” and what an invitation from a passionate God!  This very week marks the 20 year date of when Jesus shone His light on my heart and awakened my thirst for Him.  In a quiet dark dorm room, the God of the universe cared enough to pursue and reach down to this young hurting girl and pour out His extravagant love and grace and invited me to join Him on this walk through life.  He had been there all along, watching, caring, reaching out to me, but this time I listened and reached back to Him and my life has never been the same. Every day since that day, I am truly rich because of my time spent with Him.  His voice calling us to come to Him and His promise of giving us abundance is very real.  He has proven this to me time and time again, and now 20 years later, I am quicker to respond to His call in heart wrenching grief, or in the monotony of life, or in immense joy- He is what I am thirsting for and He fills me up with His love and strength for the moment.

My hearts desire is for this to be a place where we share our hearts- maybe a verse that spoke to us, or a quote, a song, a story of God showing up in our days in the big or small things, questions we have…..to encourage one another to go to the source of Living Water, to be reminded of truth, given strength to fight our battles toward freedom, to be filled to overflowing with God’s life and not just life- ABUNDANT LIFE!  “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10  So PLEASE post and share your brief or long thoughts!  I desire for this to be about community and not just me.  I am new to blogging and this technology and you may have to post your thoughts under mine until I find a way to make all of our thoughts or things to share bolded! 

Come, Lord Jesus, dwell with each of us.  Open eyes, hearts, ears to your gentle yet powerful and loving voice.  Amen.