Monday, October 17, 2011

God's Perfecting Love

I'm sitting here at my desk looking out at the mountains and watching the quail feeding at my bird feeders and praising my sweet Lord for all He has done and will continue to do in my life.  I am so incredibly blessed - beyond measure - and I can see that the Lord has been working in my life with a perfecting love.  He has been forcing me to see the blessings in my life and to keep my eyes focused on Him instead of the circumstances that I have found myself in.  He has been patient with me on those days I have cried out and told Him that I can't do it anymore.  He's been patient while I've had my pity parties and tried to invite him along.  He's been patient when I sat feeling there was aboslutely nothing I could anymore.  The thing is, I have been thinking that I was serving Him and my family MY way, then I could really serve them at all.  Foolish woman! 

I'm realizing that he has been perfecting me during this past year.  He's forcing me to work on my writing, which has greatly improved and has more depth, all because of Him. He's making me focus on what I can do...not on what I'm no longer able to do.  The reality is I can do a lot more than I could do a year ago.  Just this morning, I was able to put some laundry in the washer and fold another load.  In the past, I would have done it in the laundry room, but now I just put it in a basket and my husband or son carry the basket to my chair where I fold it.  I was also able to help clean the kitchen and made my husband and I a sandwich for lunch.  Now, this isn't anything compared to what I could do before my injury, but it's more than I could do even 6 months ago! God is showing me that it's important to focus on the progress - not the loss.

I am still riding a high today as I was able to go to church Saturday night!! Oh, praise Jesus!! I can't tell you how wonderful it was to sit with my church family and worship the Lord with them and then be fed a wonderful lesson by my Pastor.  I think the Lord must have secretly told Pastor Jon that I was coming because his teaching was about God's love for us and that he does not love us with a pampering love but with a perfecting love. This spoke volumes to me and I have been studying the Scriptures we went over so that I can understand them in even a deeper way. (Jude 1:2, Romans 8:28-39, John 10:22-30)  One of the teaching notes was, "As I grow in my understanding of the Father's perfect love me, my insecurities and fears are driven away!" This is such a truth, that I can say from experience, will transform our lives if we will just grow in our understanding of the Lord! I was also so blessed because my favorite Christian singer, Jamie Slocum, was there and sang a song that always blesses me so much.  It's called "Dependence" the words are so amazing and speak for me, to the Lord, where I'm at now.

My heart is so hungry for the Lord's Word. I just can't seem to read my Bible enough, or listen to enough teachings, or work on Bible studies enough. I will admit that I have times where I am quite complacent about my studying of the Word.  Sometimes, it just becomes a routine but we are not going to really gain what we need to gain when we have that attitude. I love when I read a Scripture and a new truth pops out at me and this happens all the time when I'm really reading the Word with a hungry heart. 

My home is slowly (and I do mean slowly) being transformed into what it was before my injury.  Last year we didn't even have a Christmas tree up! Now for those of you that know me, you know how bad off I was if I didn't decorate for Christmas.  This year, my oldest son pulled all my Fall decorating items out of the cupboard and they are still sitting on the kitchen table awaiting me, but I know that, slowly but surely, these things will be put out and appreciated more than ever before.  I love to decorate for the holidays and seasons and to not be able to do that last year was so hard.  However, I believe that God allowed this in my life to give me a new appreciation for doing these things.  My husband has been holding the reins back on me because I do have the tendency to over-do on the days that I'm feeling better and them I'm really hurting for a few days after.  I am trying to really listen to his counsel on this because I want to get better and not just have a few good days here and there. 

I hope you'll come back tomorrow and join me when we Count Our Blessings.  I have so much to be thankful for...don't you?

God bless you - Julie
  

4 comments:

  1. Hugs.. Where do you get all your graphics? Are these some you have designed?

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  2. What a wonderful post. I just tweeted it.

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  3. I am so glad that you are feeling much better. God answers prayers! I will continue to lift you up in prayer. Please say a prayer for my girls. Faith has strep throat and Hope is congested. Both girls are on antibiotics.
    Blessings to you!

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  4. Praise God you are feeling back to yourself, and that you have time to post, I so enjoy your site, and love reading your scriptures too, lots of hugs, Barbara

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