Where God has My Life

This picture of a sunrise perfectly illustrates where God has my life; emerging from the sea of illness and bursting through the clouds of uncertainty, ready for a new day. 

The post series began over a year ago with the original title being: Where My Life Is.

I have since changed the title because the Lord is graciously showing me over and over again that my life is not mine at all. It’s a constant process of dying to my self again and again. Since practicing this much needed act of dying daily the Lord is opening my eyes to how selfish I am. (Not something I like to readily admit.)

Nevertheless He is guiding me through each day. That’s one (of many) nuggets of truth He is teaching me; to focus on the day ahead, not the next day, week, or even month. Sure I can prepare for the days ahead, but I don’t need to worry about them. The Lord has all that under control and I need not worry. Whatever happens in a day is allowed by Him.

In recent weeks the Lord has been steadily restoring my energy. 

It started with Him healing my voice back in December. From there it turned into a snowball effect of building my body back up. I continue to sing; turns out that the Lord completely healed my voice. 

I am now able to attend church weekly, instead of once a month!

I get up early!! (Insert squeal of excitement here) 

In the past year I've barely been able to manage to get up before seven a.m. I required lots of sleep, especially when I was dealing with Insomnia issues. Before the Lyme I was an early bird and greatly missed being one.

That’s all been eradicated, and I am now able to pop out of bed at five o’clock, when my alarm clock beeps like a monotone bird. And there is no exaggeration on the popping out of bed. Yes, there are a few days when I get up, set the alarm to go off in maybe fifteen more minutes, or even an hour, but almost always I bounce out of bed. It’s exhilarating to have the energy to start my day so early. This is a delight as I am able to literally spend hours immersed in God’s word and presence.

Just this week, well more like yesterday, I resumed exercising. 

Walking in the elements is a favorite activity of mine. I go after I’m finished with my Bible time; the crisp winter morning air heightens my senses and oftentimes keeps my head cleared. Not to mention the fact that I get to see the sun rise! While I’m walking I discuss with God the insights I've learned that morning, or different things I’m struggling with.

 Today I was able to do my assigned house chores. 

This may seem like no big deal, but I haven’t been able to do chores, or even clean, make dinner, or do dishes, for almost a year straight. It wore me out so quickly; very frustrating, yes, but patience won out. It was hilarious to see the shocked expressions on my family’s faces as they saw me sweeping the living room.

In two weeks I will be teaching piano once again! 

This has all of my amazingly patient piano students all excited. I’m not sure who is excited more, me or them. I pray I’ll be able to teach them longer then just months at a time. We’ll see what the Lord has in store for all of us.

This is basically where the Lord has my life! I look back to where I was a year ago and am stricken with awe at the vast difference. Our God is great! Beyond that, He is marvelous and amazing!

If you are discouraged, depressed, or frightened concerning the circumstances in your life, take heart, the Lord has you there for a reason. Whatever that reason(s) may be, you might not ever know until you reach heaven, but as Romans 8:28 says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

Everything works together for good, including the bad things. There is a season for everything; this too shall pass.
 Please don’t give up, rely on the Lord for grace and strength to carry you through the day, and if it happens, through the hour. God will supply all your needs. 

All you need to do is ask.

Here are the previous posts following my journey through Lyme disease:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8
Part 9

Rewarding Hard Work

I have been teaching four of my younger siblings for two years now. I will admit that teaching my siblings is harder than teaching someone else's child. The natural tendency to get impatient often arises when I'm teaching them.

After two years of teaching them I finally figured out how to get them to practice regularly. You would think that I would have already discovered that, but alas I had not.

I told them that starting in June we would begin a rewards system. Each of them will get their own calendar for the month. They have to practice ten minutes a day, four days a week. At the end of the month they bring me their calendar and if it meets the requirements that I set, then they get a prize.

Each child I explained that to, their eyes lit up when I got to the end of my explanation.

I remember when my older sister's best friend, Elizabeth was teaching me. She did something similar, and it made me want to practice even more because I knew I was going to get a prize for it.

When lessons were over and I was fixing dinner I got to thinking about my whole rewards system. I realized that God does the same thing with us in His own way.

(Don't you just love it when you have an epiphany?)

In Psalm 37:3-5 it says, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass."

In every one of those verses there is a reward for doing something for the Lord. Trust in the Lord, and do good and you shall be fed. Delight in Him and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto Him, trust in Him, and He shall make your desires happen!

There are many other references in Scripture that illustrate this. God made us and He knows how we work. He offers rewards to His children when they obey Him.

He rewards us with eternal life if we will only repent of our sins and ask Him into our hearts.

This principle of rewarding works for personal goals as well. I find that when I have a daunting task, such as cleaning my disaster of a room, I don't have the motivation to do so. But if I set a reward for myself when the job is finished I have a lot more energy. Usually.

Maybe there is something that you need to get done that isn't happening because of a lack of motivation? Try setting a good reward at the end of the task.

God uses it so it has to work. :)