I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I have had opportunity to write. It seems that busyness has crept in and taken most of my quiet time - thankfully today I had a few quiet moments with the Lord and I was so overjoyed about it! As I was getting ready today I could feel my excitement growing as I got closer and closer to my time with Him - almost like I feel getting ready for a date with Kraig and sometimes the way I feel over getting ready to go to bed and get a full 8 hours of sleep. Is there anyone out there over the age of 30 with kids that doesn't get excited about a good night's sleep? There aren't too many things that I look forward to more than sleep these days!
Anyway, I was almost giddy about being able to write again today and then it hit me - Lord what do you want to say? This season has been threatening to be a dry season for me spiritually and I have been fighting over the last month or so to keep from going there. There has been so much going on around me - not necessarily with me - but around me. Do you know the feeling? When it seems that things are peaceful within your own life yet the lives of those around you are in turmoil. That affects me. That affects my walk and my faith. I hurt for those people and ponder what it is that God is doing in their lives just like I do in my own trials.
I have sensed a season of weariness among the people of God. We are OVERWHELMED with trouble, suffering and responsibility and we desperately want to break free. Beloved, Jesus came to free us, to heal us and to give us peace. But He works in the trouble, suffering and responsibility in order that He may be our Victor through freedom, healing and peace. If there were no crisis there would be no need for refreshing. At times when we are overwhelmed there is nothing sweeter than the peace of God that passes all understanding. Rest in that - rest in the overwhelming flood because as Shadrach, Meshach and Abedego so firmly stated, "Our God is able to deliver us!" Without the fiery trials of life there is no deliverance. The glory of our Lord shines brightest in the deliverance, in the suffering, in the blood-stained cross. No death, no Savior....
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. 2 Cor. 4:7-9
