Deliver me O God

I am learning to press in and on and find beauty in the difficult lessons of real, mundane, frustrating life. The gain is Christ always and let me be found ever decreasing. Yesterday I heard a song I've heard dozens of times and my faithful Father highlighted it deep in my Spirit. These words echoed inside of me and the past year and a half of my life replayed beautifully as the Lord revealed some purpose for the frustration and the struggle.

Excerpt from Audrey Assad's I Shall not Want

From the love of my own comfort
From the fear of having nothing
From a life of worldly passions
Deliver me O God

From the need to be understood
From the need to be accepted
From the fear of being lonely
Deliver me O God

Like each line represented some thing in my life that the Lord had called me to surrender, and I must confess it has been difficult and frustrating particularly when my focus is on myself.

There is a death that must come in marriage.
Someone trusted and older and wiser told me this once and I can never forget it because I know she was right and it's not a sad thing. This is a part of the mystery and the beauty of marriage to make us more like the Son who gave His life for us all. Let us not forget that after death there comes resurrection to the Glory of God.

John 21:9
Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"

I will follow the lamb, wherever He leads me. Thank you Lord for blessing me with the gift of marriage and with the gain of Christ as you teach me to surrender for your good purpose.

Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

This piece of a famous speech made by a King before His Glory was revealed forever changed the hearts of those with ears to hear. Had they not heard it said, an eye for an eye? A tooth for a tooth. An animal for an animal. , ,

I can't help but understand the words in the pages to mean that in this life we experience the goodness of God. But we must wait on the Lord. We taste and see the goodness of God in the land of the living. Alive. That is who we are. Dancing before our King, bowing low in honor and rising only when He is exalted. 

In this life.

Why wait for Heaven to dance before my King? Why. Wasn't it what I was created for? I was born for? Isn't it where my heart finds rest and peace, and purpose and joy. Joy. This word has been abused. That place in me that meets with God, will produce joy in spite of earth and evil and now.

 I will be still before my God..

Now, back to now. I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. These hands baked cookies when the sun went down on Saturday. Flour and sugar and eggs and extract. Don't forget the chocolate chips. I scooped the brown sugar into my measuring cup. I wanted to be sure it was enough. Let me be sure. The tips of my fingers pushed it down and added more, until it spilled onto the counter. That was an accident. No, I didn't lick it up though it crossed my mind. That was a good measure.

No yeast. Don't mix in the yeast. Those pharisees are a long way from here. Just the sugar and the Truth and we will win them.

And we get to reap (eat) the benefit.

Teach us, oh Lord, to measure our hearts' goodness to others. To truly do to others as we would have them do to us. To love our neighbors as ourselves.

Clarity

I have, at a moment of discontentment and fog, believed that perhaps the God of this world and my heart would have little to do with the beautiful details of my life. Like perhaps what clothes I put on in the morning had little to do with God who calls the waves forth by the rising of the moon day after day. As if my God had more important things to do (lives to save) than count day after day the choices I make for His glory. 

How wrong I was. And the moon rises still, night after night, faithful as her Creator.

Every choice I make goes toward His glory. Isn't that the meaning of a set apart life? I will honor God with the details of my clothes, as the lilies of the field honor Him with their beauty. Does He not delight in His creation?

I will be anxious for nothing, and in all things honor Him. Oh help me Lord.

Ready to worship the King of Kings! There is no better way to spend a Tuesday evening. So blessed and thankful for my life and those in it!

The Cathy Family

Why should Dan Cathy's expressed belief in traditional marriage come as a shock? The Cathy family and Chic-Fila have proven time and time again to be representative of Christ, and for the Truth of Biblical teaching. Even in an ever-changing, fast paced culture that deviates further from the Truth each day, the Cathy family has held firmly to the belief in resting on the Sabbath. What makes this any different? The Cathy family was and are for the Bible. The whole Bible. Not just the chapters that may or may not be deemed "politically correct". This is not and never was, to the believer, a hate issue. This is a sin issue.

Thank you Lord for 27 years.

My dear friend Hannah and I would read this book to each other in a garden of roses in the spring of 2010. Or perhaps I'm remembering wrong and mostly, she'd read it to me. It aided in beginning in me a purging process of worldly entertainment which had taken my time and attention from my King for 20 years.

Finally, two years later, I've bought the book for myself and those 2 year old seeds grow in to beautiful flowers each day I turn the pages. Every young or older single woman should read Set Apart Femininity by Leslie Ludy. Ask the Lord to prepare your heart with good soil. It shouts of radical yet realistic abandonment to Jesus Christ, though culture would try to drown the truth every moment of every day.

It stirs a love and passion for devotion to the King of Kings. Learn God's sacred intent for every woman.