Redux means to revisit, bring back, re-release. This last week of 2014, we—the bloggers here at Girlfriends Coffee Hour—are each ‘revisiting’ a blog we wrote earlier this year. We would love to share with you just a bit about how very good God has been to us! He has given us all so much grace and mercy, blessings and provision, protection and guidance! He has led us and taught us through His Holy Spirit so many incredible things! He has molded, and chastised, and encouraged us to be daughters with humble hearts who are dependent upon Him. And He has helped us to be strong, committed, and faithful women who love Him and desire to bring Him much honor and glory and majesty. We pray that our words would encourage you also…and draw You deeper into relationship with the One Who loves you so! Please listen to the words of my friend, Kim….
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This week at GCH the bloggers were asked to go back and give thoughts, insight, and growth from a previously written blog. As I was pondering which songblog to revisit…this one kept popping in my head. I wrote this blog almost a year ago; it is amazing to go back and see where you have come from and what trials have come your way and where you have grown! Growth in all things is the goal.
I have grown HUGELY since I wrote this blog and, oh boy, as I reflect on 2014 I have had MANY opportunities to practice not being moved no matter what comes my way. God wants us to be solid in our faith—not to be tossed to and fro like the sea when difficult times come. I have encountered some BIG trials this past year and many of which I was not prepared for. It was as if the rug had been pulled out from underneath me…I never saw them coming. However this I have learned and this I know: my God has been faithful in each and everyone of them! And the best part is that, after the dust cleared, I am still standing and I have been strengthened in the process. Strength comes from the journey….
What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31
God’s timing is always perfect! To be able to go back to this blog now and have the reminder of how God wants us to be—”steadfast, constant and consistent, keeping on in the faith walk, not wavering to the left or to the right, keeping on the love line“—is exactly what I needed to remember! (Maybe you do, too….)
Father, thank You for our growth opportunities. May we do them well as we focus on you. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.
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The man I buried had a heart of stone
Left him there in the bright light, out on a dirty road
The day You saved me from shadow and shame
Old things gone, got a new song, got a new name
Burnin’ like the wildfire, kickin’ up flames
A brand new band in the wasteland singing about Grace
Gonna jump the fences ’til the world is free
But I won’t make a move ’til You move in me
I’m knocking on doors, You’re keeping the keys
Maybe they’ll open, maybe they’re not for me
I’m setting the sails, You ready the seas
But I won’t make a move ’til You move in me
Gonna sing a little louder, gonna rattle these chains
Locked up tight ’round midnight, won’t stay that way
Gonna bless this dirt floor, gonna kiss these walls
Singing Your praise ’til the earth shakes and watching them fall
~ performed by: Jeremy Camp; written by: Nichole Nordeman/Bernie Herms ~
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But this morning the Lord has given me a new perspective. “I don’t want to make a move until you move in me….” How many times I have been impatient with things and have taken control of my circumstances and tried to work them out myself. Instead of waiting for God’s leading and direction in making a move. How many times have I taken control only to exhaust myself and end up in the same place that I started. When I have made a choice to do this and ended up at the foot of the Cross weary, worn, and completely depleted.
God gave me a visual of Jesus standing there, waiting, as I run myself ragged trying to fix things instead of resting and trusting in Him. Then as I fall to His feet, exhausted and defeated, He gently extends His hand and helps me up and says, “Are you ready to trust Me and let Me handle things???”
We want a quick fix, don’t we? We want answers now. But it is all in God’s timing and not ours! Steadfast, constant and consistent, keeping on in the faith walk, not wavering to the left or to the right, keeping on the love line.
Listen to this: “We are to consider it wholly joyful when we encounter trials (temptations to get off faith), because the trial OF OUR FAITH (it’s our faith being tried not us) produces patience, constant consistency, resolute steadfastness. As we let patience have its work (we yield to constant consistency, not looking to the left or to the right), so that we may be perfect (complete) lacking nothing.” Isn’t that a wonderful viewpoint on James 1:2-4. Love that!
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Oh, Father, forgive me for when I have made the choice to move instead of trusting You to move in me. May I make the choice today to not make a move until I know that I know You are moving in me. Father, won’t You move in me…. In Jesus’ Name, I pray. Amen.
