Month: March 2009

My Daughter’s Blog

Carolyn

My daughter started her own blog to share her poetry. She is quite funny and clever for 8 years old!

I had high hopes of keeping up better with my blog this month, but I have been remiss once again.

We had a fun family trip this week to Utica, Illinois. We spent the night at a resort with an indoor water park, an amusement park, and a miniature golf course. We had a good time being away as a family, and the children especially enjoyed themselves and bringing home souvenirs. Starved Rock State Park is also there with a neat little lodge where we had a country meal, buffet style. There are some great walking trails there, so it will be fun to go again in the future. It’s amazing how just 24 hours away can refresh you from the daily demands of life.

We had dinner with 4 other couples last night. I was thinking today about different conversations I had with those friends and others this week and a common thread that has been running through them — things that keep people awake at night. It might be politics, the economy, irritation with a friend or neighbor, jealousy, a health issue, or a work problem.

As I recounted each of my friends’ situations, and thought about the things that can keep me awake at night, there was another common thread — these thoughts that stir in our minds and control our emotions don’t seem to necessarily be based on truth, but are rather things that could almost be categorized as a person’s besetting sin. The things that keep me awake are not the things that keep other people awake; we all have our different issue that threatens to steal our joy and rob us of peace. I have been wrestling with mine for some time and so want to get to the point of just letting it go and not letting it matter to me.

What is the answer for them and for me? I think somehow, it must have to do with fixing our eyes on Jesus and speaking truth to the situation and not allowing ourselves to be controlled by anything other than His Spirit. Perhaps it means believing God that He can truly set us free from anxious thoughts and create in us a peace and confidence in Him.

I have a friend who is very sick with cancer. Her faith has amazed me. Her husband continually points to our extraordinary God who is helping her, noting that she is merely an ordinary woman. God has made her extraordinary though. She has sought Him for years, so that now, she is able to stand and believe in a time of such deep pain. She is ministering to so many through this. I have thought of her every day this week. When I am challenged by my besetting sin, I have remembered her example of faith and let it go.

This is truly a rambling post; perhaps I shouldn’t publish it. Just some random thoughts this week. I do praise the Lord for His sovereignty, His purposes for His people that are good even when we can’t understand. And I praise Him that we don’t have to fear things because we have hope in Him. And I praise Him that He can set us free from things that cause us to stumble and fall and that He is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His throne.

To Him be all glory both now and forever!

Answered Prayer

Carolyn

I love clearly answered prayer! God is so good!

My friend’s husband was going to be traveling on business all month long. There was one trip in particular that was going to be a great distance away and a long time. When I talked to my friend last week, we decided we would pray that trip would be canceled, even though it wasn’t likely. We prayed that morning. As I left a prayer time with her, I walked to my car and drove away praying, “Lord, You can do this. I ask You to. I know You have the power to do this. So I ask you to.” It was one of those prayers of confident hope and expectation that just felt like “Why would I not ask this” and felt such certainty He could and would and that He would grow our faith in the process.

I saw my friend a couple of days ago and asked her if the trip was canceled. “No,” she said. Well, I do admit, now that it had been a week since we prayed, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be at this point. But God has His timing and ways. Today, my friend called me. “I just hung up with [husband]… the trip is canceled!” They were excited; we were excited. Just rejoicing that God could and God did and He made it so visible to all of us that He did it!

This may sound small, but it showed me God is big. Oh, for faith to trust Him more, believe Him more, and not hesitate to ask Him big things, because quite simply, He can do anything!

Praise You, Lord!

Be Dressed in Readiness

Carolyn

A couple of blogs back, I wrote about being caught in a Texas hailstorm back in 1995. I shared about how a song on the radio was comforting to me in that moment as the car was being crushed and I was afraid. I felt like the Lord was speaking to me in my moment of fear and panic through the song: “God is in control…. there is no power above or beside Him, we know….”

I always felt like God so clearly spoke to me that day in a way that I had never experienced before. (By the way, for those who read my blog and know how God uses music in my life, this was the first time — and the only time for many years — I had ever felt like God spoke to me in a song!) But there was also a part of me deep down that questioned that — was it just a “coincidence”? Does God really speak that way? Somehow in my growing up years, either I had missed it or it wasn’t talked about that God does speak to us. I tended to be very skeptical of anything like this. So I don’t think I shared it with anyone — but somewhere deep inside me, I knew it was the Lord that day comforting me through that song.

Fast forward to the summer of 2004. I was doing my first Beth Moore Bible study with some friends. It was called Jesus, the One and Only, and was a study on the book of Luke. To my surprise, I had been thoroughly enjoying this study and loving Beth Moore! I had heard about her for quite some time and been reluctant to do a Bible study that everyone else was doing — what is that rebellion in me all about?! I had all kinds of pre-conceived, yet so misguided, notions!

Anyway, each day had been showing me something new — isn’t that amazing about God’s Word — it does that. And He has given Beth Moore a gift of insights that seem to apply to anyone at any time, no matter the situation.

So it was late one evening and I was not in the mood to do my Bible study. This was a time in my life when I was still addicted to TV in the evening after I got my kids down. I would watch one show to the next, frittering my life away, not doing anything meaningful. I reasoned that I really didn’t need to do my Bible study that day… I had already learned so much the 2 prior days, how could there be anything else God had to show me?! Yes, I know, the arrogance I had is staggering!

So I started into another typical evening, Law & Order, followed by the news and on into Oprah was the plan… just mind-numbing activity. Well, when the news came on, my family was all in bed asleep already, and suddenly, a violent storm came up out of nowhere. The lights flashed and the TV blinked and the storm came. Given my fear of storms that still lingered now, I jumped up and debated, “Do I wake up the kids and bring them into the hallway for safety?” I rushed to wake up my husband who kept on sleeping after urging me that everyone was fine.

I then quickly decided I must be prepared, so I ran and put on my pajamas, lit a bunch of candles in case we lost power, and got everything ready for the worst. I then decided maybe it wasn’t such a bad time to do Bible study. I sat down at the kitchen table with my Bible, study book, candles lit all around, and me in my pajamas, ready for anything!

I could not believe it when I opened the study to that day’s lesson. It was titled “Keep Your Lamps Burning.” The verse was taken from Luke 12:35-36: “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.”

Do you see the picture? Be dressed in readiness with your candles burning basically. And there I sat, now dressed in readiness with my candles lit, a literal example of what my spiritual life should look like.

God showed me He can and does have other things to show me in His Word. It made me wonder whether watching TV each night was the best way for me to be spiritually prepared and ready for His return. I am to be a faithful servant, awaiting my Master’s return.

Well, needless to say, this was the second time in my life where I felt like God had just used some circumstances to speak to me. It’s interesting that both times were in the midst of real life thunderstorms. But He does that, doesn’t He? He enters into the “storms” of our lives to show us Himself and give us hope, to teach us and use those hardships to help us know Him.

I praise Him for that, that He is a personal God, so ready to speak, willing to use any of life’s circumstances to reveal Himself to us. I didn’t even ask Him to in these instances, but He graciously opened my eyes to Himself. I praise Him for that. I don’t think I’d ever asked Him before that time to reveal things to me, but I’ve found He does when I ask. I praise Him for that, too.

Praise You, Lord, for using the storms of life to reveal Yourself to us. I want to be Your servant, dressed in readiness, with my candles burning, expectant, responsive, alert, faithful, sensible, obedient, serving you as I await Your return. Not for me, but for You. Help me to go forward in Your strength and by Your power, to hear Your voice and see with Your eyes, and to obey You as I live in these days and wait for the certain hope of Your return. Praise You, Lord!