Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls … yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17–18 At times it seems that everything around you is collapsing. Endeavors you invested in may fail. People to whom you minister may disappoint you. The business or career you worked hard to build may crumble. These times, as difficult as they are, are opportunities to stop and examine what is truly important to you.
Habakkuk witnessed the collapse of most of what mattered to him. Yet through the loss, failure, and disappointment, he was able to distinguish between what was precious to him and what was transitory and empty. He came to the point where he could sincerely say that even if everything around him failed, he still would rejoice in God. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day
Oh My Soul - Casting Crowns
Oh, my soul
Oh, how you worry
Oh, how you're weary, from fearing you lost control
This was the one thing, you didn't see coming
And no one would blame you, though
If you cried in private
If you tried to hide it away, so no one knows
No one will see, if you stop believing
Oh, my soul
You are not alone
There's a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
'Cause you're not alone
Here and now
You can be honest
I won't try to promise that someday it all works out
'Cause this is the valley
And even now, He is breathing on your dry bones
And there will be dancing
There will be beauty where beauty was ash and stone
This much I know
We all know of someone, if not our own situation, whereas it seems everything is falling apart. That hope seems to have vanished. That we are on emotional life support. How they or we get through a single day is beyond baffling.
And those are just the ones or the way we are before people who notice. I used to be a very very good individual at hiding my deepest feelings and thoughts from others...and from, I thought, God as well. As foolish as that was.
For many many years I was in my own trek through the wilderness, much as Israel had been. Only Israel did it twice at 40 years at a time.
My own stubbornness and yes maybe pride in more than one case, preventing me from relief. I was very embarrassed to admit my needs before others. So the incidents in my life grew, the load got heavier.
Perhaps the same is said of you my dear reader. Oh my soul...those words used to just be a phrase that I remember hearing or reading that people used to say in reference to themselves. Today, I get it, I sometimes think those words and it's about me.
I seriously used to be one whom had to have every single t crossed and i dotted when working through things. I had to know what I was getting into in order to evaluate whether or not I could handle it or do it. When it didn't, after I had figured that I could, well it wasn't pretty. My self condemnation set in.
Jesus has said come to Him all who are weary and heavy laden and He will give you rest.
My, our, greatest failings in life surrounds our need to acknowledge we need God. It's a painful lesson, but a necessary step in my walk with God.
As its been written in Scripture of the writer saying he never would have noticed covetousness if it weren't for sin. Sin. The most ugliest of 3 letter words. It produced coveting of every kind. Sin was what got Adam and Eve to think they could do better than God. The very instant they had their eyes opened they realized too late that they fell to sin. There was no going back. We face that every day.
We, I, are and sometimes am, greatly embarrassed to ask for help. Yet we are commanded to. When we don't, it seems that the fire gets turned up a notch until we do. It's not a lesson to get us whipped into submission. It's a lesson to enable God's blessings to flow. Not only to the one in need but in the lives of those who obeyed and helped.
Habakkuk is a very interesting book. He was educated on several things by the Lord. Told of how bad things are in God's eyes and told of a nation more evil than his people were that was coming to bring judgment on them. Use someone worse to judge? Read it and understand. God explains it there.
Letting go of every single thing that we hold dear to enables God to do more with us. The Disciples of Christ left everything, read the Gospels, they left everything to follow Christ. Their only possessions were what they were wearing and what they had to write with and on. Yet Jesus blessed them. You have to let go in order to see.
The more that I let go the more God shows me. I can't take anything with me but I can show people Jesus and then they too will be in Heaven some day. Teams aren't important, celebrities aren't important. I am not important. Only Jesus is important. If people aren't saved, they are headed for Hell. An eternity apart from God. It will be no party. No celebration. It's pain and torment. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. The truth of their existence revealed. My dear reader I pray that you aren't headed there.
When we think we need to be in control we will always fail. A song comes to mind. Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in His wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
The more that I turn my eyes toward Him the less stressed that I am. The more that I find the peace that I never had. Worry is easy. It's a prayer with no direction. Give it one. If you can cry out to others you can cry out to God. If you can complain to others you can complain to God.
Oh my soul. Look up that song. It's a heart changer. We are more weary than we let on. Tired to the bone people used to say.
So look to Jesus today. Look for what you haven't asked for. Let go of what you want and ask God for what He wants to freely give you. If only we would let go...
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