Over the past few months I have found myself drawn into a pool of swirling dark waters. Waters that at times have raged around my head threatening to drown me. Water so deep I didn’t think I would ever resurface and draw another life sustaining breath. Yet, somehow in the undertow I felt a calm deep within my spirit that I knew I would be okay. That calmer waters would prevail and I would once again float above the now tidal pools of foaming wrath beneath me.

Clinging to the hope that comes from reading God’s word I knew:

 This too shall pass!

It’s a life preserver in a world gone insane, a safety net of refuge in storm tossed seas. Often we forget that God calms storms but it is also His prerogative to let you go through them as well. Not because He is a sadist but because there is something He is desiring to show us and this is His way of doing just that.

The details of why I was going through the storm are irrelevant, everyone has storms and mine aren’t any more or any less significant than yours. I am writing this because of what happened to me in this storm and I wanted to share it with you in hopes that it might encourage you.

It all happened on a Sunday in church. I wasn’t really “feeling” church that day. Honestly, I was tired. My body, my soul, my spirit were tired. Everything about me was bone achingly tired. I’m sure you know what I mean. We all reach places in our lives when one more word, one more look, one more list, one more thing will be the tipping point that will shatter us like pieces of fine china in the hands of a toddler. Well, that was me. Yet, here I was with all the other faithful people, standing in worship and doing my very best to enter in.

Some of you know exactly what I am talking about. It’s not that we don’t want to worship or that we aren’t enjoying worship or that God forbid we are in sin. We are just tired and we just want to rest. Rather than look unspiritual or God forbid lost we enter in with everyone else so we don’t stand out like a sore thumb and have the entire church gossiping about the moral state of our supposed spiritual decline.

Anyway, we were singing a song about God showing us His glory or something along those lines and I was praying as I was singing. Worship was really good that day, you could feel the presence of God really strong. God begin to speak to my heart. I love it when He does that. It is almost always when I am at the “I’m about to drop dead from exhaustion moment” when He does, but it is always powerful and life altering for me.

He said to me:

If you will Praise Me regardless of anything in your life going on, even if the battle is spiritual or not, I not only will show you my Glory I will begin to reveal in it You”

For a minute I was stunned. I knew it was His voice because the battle I was in had nothing to do with anything spiritual whatsoever, it wasn’t about family or anything like that. From that moment forward I was lost in conversation with Abba Father as He begin to show me things that I had gone through over the past few weeks and years and how He was and had been using it to reveal His Glory in me.

Leaning over, I whispered in my husbands ear what God had said and he smiled and said I know.

God is so awesome.

I Thessalonians 5:18

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

You might be thinking I am nuts, so be it. Right then and there I begin to praise Him for every single thing that had gone wrong over the past few weeks and I didn’t stop there I went all the way back as far as I could remember. You see, the plan isn’t so I can have a rosy life and never have any struggles. The plan is that His Glory, God’s Holy, Awesome Glory be revealed in me. God has no interest in making me walk through life suffering. He is interested in seeing me victorious. He is interested in me being His hands and feet on the earth.  I can push through the circumstances and give Him praise, well then guess who gets the Glory? He does and satans get a black eye.

Now I’m not going to lie to you and tell you my life has suddenly jumped up on cloud nine and everything is ice cream and roses. Nope, not by a long shot, it’s actually gotten worse to be honest, Praise God. But I will tell you this, I’m changing on the inside and isn’t that the whole point? Isn’t that where it counts? Isn’t the whole point of the Christian life to be a replica of Christ on earth?

Since that momentous day my heart has changed so much. Instead of screaming when something goes wrong, I stop and give God praise and thank Him for allowing me to be tried and tested so that His Glory may be revealed in me. When I feel the urge to lash out I stop and give Him praise that He is revealing hidden anger in me so it can be dealt with and His Glory revealed in me. When my head hurts so bad I curl up in the bed to keep from being sick I Praise Him that He is allowing my body a time to rest and satan gets a black eye for trying to put sickness on me. Do you see where this is going? There is a reason to Praise God for everything in your life. When you do, it will change you from the inside out and that translates out to every person you meet and to everything you do~

So what passes you might be thinking? The things that once held you back from experiencing Gods fullness no longer hold you. The old man passes away and all things become new again. Joy fills you as you begin to see with eyes from Gods perspective. That peace that passes understanding becomes more of a reality and less of a dream.

Prove all things, hold fast that which is good~ I Thessalonians 5:21

The Psalmist said: O Taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him Psalms 34:8

It is really a matter of perspective.

You can choose to Praise God for everything now or wait to repent to God for everything later~

Choose wisely~

 

I’m hid with Christ~

Shawn