The Lord is Good, His Faithfulness Endures Forever

This year I was invited to sing a couple of Christmas songs at "Curries by Candlelight", a fundraiser held at Pennant Hills Community Centre. The MC for the evening gave a brief message, with the main point being: whatever situation you're in, read the Bible. If you're sad, lonely, confused, afraid... however you're feeling, read the Bible.

So this afternoon I was feeling kind of overwhelmed by life and I picked up a few of my devotionals in the hope that one of them would have something encouraging - oftentimes God does use these devotionals to encourage and challenge me. But today, God knew I needed reminding that the most important source of encouragement is His Word. It was time to pick up my Bible. So I opened it to Jeremiah 33.

I know lots of people are skeptical about doing this and joke that when you just open the Bible to any old page you might turn to the verse that says, "He put his house in order and then hanged himself." But I still believe that God can work in whatever way He chooses to work, and it's far better to open a page of the Bible and ask God to speak to us, than to open some other book in the hope that we'll be encouraged... I guess the important part is seeking His Wisdom, not just wanting to find something that will make us feel good.

What did I find? God reminded me that He is my God (Jeremiah 32:38). That He is Sovereign (33:42) and in control of everything that happens, even though we may not understand why it has happened. That God is the great Healer (33:6), though this again may not be in the way or timing we expect. That God's purpose in all the messiness in my life is to bring Him joy, glory and honour (33:9). That as I experience God's goodness I should be singing, "Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good, His faithful love endures forever" (33:10-11). That even when life feels 'beyond repair', I can look to Almighty God, my Healer and Redeemer to be my Hope, my Refuge, my Rock and my Peace.

In some ways the passage didn't make me feel good as it's clear that God sent all these calamities upon them (32:42). It also made me remember back to the verse I blogged about yesterday that not even a sparrow falls to the ground unless it's God's will, which made me think about the tough stuff I've been through recently, and think again, "Why?". But then as I saw God's promise of restoration, and His promise of peace, I caught a glimpse of the purpose in this pain... a glimpse of God being glorified amidst the heartache and the hurt, and I cried tears of desire to keep trusting God, to let Him use my story for His glory... May He do just that. One day soon I may even be bold enough to share some of my story.

Recognising emotions

Last week I realised that I value the ability to express emotion quite highly. I realised that as a Mum, something I really want to encourage my little girls to do is to express their emotions rather than pretending they don't exist and bottling them up. I think perhaps because of this I tend to be more open and share more than some people are probably comfortable with and/or sooner than they are ready for me to share it with them.

I'm not even sure what the link with the following verses was in my thinking before I started blogging, but for some reason I was thinking about this particular thought, and these verses (Matthew 10:29-31):

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

Maybe God's wanting me to see that it's important to recognise my emotions - my feelings of fear and sadness at a significant "loss" in my life - and to hold those in one hand, but at the same time in the other hand I need to hold the hope that He offers me in Jesus... the hope that Christmas should be about, remembering that God has blessed me richly eternally, that I have hope of new life in Him, that right now He is holding me in His Mighty hand, protecting, comforting and guiding... oh to sit at His feet and let Him comfort me, to let Him reassure me that is Sovereign, that He is in control, and to hear His voice, "You are worth more than many sparrows... keep trusting me."

What a great God we have. How often I forget this and instead get caught up in my emotions.

Parties & Ikea

I'm excited about the next week or so now, though it'll no doubt be tough in some ways. Sarah's at the age where she's really looking forward to her birthday, which will be on Monday. We took a cake to her school this week and we're having a party tomorrow which is also a house-warming, and we'll have another party next week with her little friends for her birthday, Lucy's and a little friend's, and Christmas... wow, we'll soon be partied out!

Normally I'm not that fussed about parties, but this year I think it'll be fun because Sarah's so excited. We made her birthday cake today - she iced it with three different colours and put three of each kind of lolly we'd bought. Even though there was a huge mess to clean up afterwards, it was fun to watch her enjoying it so much, and being creative - she did a better job than I would have done myself, I'm not good at creative stuff, I'm too slap-dash.

Yesterday we made some ice-cream cakes for the girls' birthdays and Christmas. Lucy can't have dairy so we had to make a soy one too. They absolutely loved making them - I've never made them before so am hoping they'll turn out OK on the day. Even if they don't, the girls thought it was great... especially Lucy who was completely covered in ice-cream and lollies by the end of it!

Then last night Mum and I went to Ikea to get a cheap dining set for the girls and I, without realising just how painful Ikea flat-packs are! The chairs looked like they'd just fold out and wouldn't require assembly... but of course not, they were from Ikea!! I stupidly thought I'd see if I could do a chair myself... as if! I don't even have a screw-driver which of course I soon discovered you need. So then we asked Dad for a screw-driver, which then meant he had to continue helping... which ultimately meant that he ended up assembling it himself. He's a very good Dad. I watched and felt pretty useless. All I could do to help was bring him a glass of water (after all it was around 35 degrees), make a few jokes about the "Herman" chairs, and take the plastic wrapping off and put it in the bin. By 11.30pm it was fully assembled and we were happy with it. What would I do without Dad?!

Thanks Ikea. I'm sure many people would like to thank you for the opportunities they've had to improve their stress management skills because of your flat-packs.

Joy

"Stop thinking your lives are all wrong if you do not feel [joy]."

From God Calling by A J Russell, December 16 "What Joy Is"


Need to ponder some more on this one and look again at what God says in His Word about joy.

Blogging and Changing Focus

Realised that taking a break doesn't mean I need to completely stop blogging. I think another part of my reason for not continuing to blog was that it seems like such a one-sided process, at this point anyway... and I think sometimes it encourages my over-analytical mind and this can be unhelpful sometimes!

I guess some people may read and not leave a comment, I don't always write comments about the blogs I read... I'm still not sure I understand the whole blogging thing, it's like another world - I'm still unsure of the etiquette, of what's acceptable and what's not. But here I am blogging anyway...

It never ceases to amaze me how God's timing is so perfect in giving us the right message at just the right time. Tonight, I needed to hear that I should stop worrying about what people think of me and why they might not want me to be their friend, and instead start thinking about other people who might need a friend and trying to be a friend to them by just being the me God created me to be. I read this in my Chuck Swindoll daily devotion.

My focus should be God first, then others, not self first! Why is this so hard to get through my head?! It seems we're sent so many subtle messages that encourage us to put self first (as if we're not good enough at doing this already anyway!). So much wasted energy worrying about what others think of me!!!

Time for a break

So I've decided it's time to give blogging a break. After reading Jean's post this morning, I've decided it's time to stop rushing, or as another friend emailed this morning, it's time to breathe. I'm not good at either. I constantly feel the urge to do, do, do, to be efficient. But where does this urge come from?

I think I often believe it's what God wants of me, but as I read His Word, I'm not convinced that it actually is. I'm not saying I shouldn't do anything, but that I should do what glorifies God. When I'm rushing I'm generally not glorifying God (or at least not seeking to), I'm often trying to do too much, perhaps for the sake of doing, and doing the right thing - it's my motive that's the issue. I think I need to learn to slow down.

Psalm 1 says, that as we delight in and reflect on God's Word, day and night, we will be like a tree planted by streams of water and bear fruit in season. I want to be like that... I don't want to end up like the beautiful trees in our backyard that I blogged about last week that are dead. I need to resist the urge to constantly do, and to let God do in me all the things He needs to do in me to help me bear fruit in season.

Somewhere out there

Saw the Bucket List again last night, great movie. "Somewhere out their some lucky guy's having a heart attack."