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

Don't Worry About It...

photo credit: Morguefile

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" ~Matthew 6:34

Worry. Anxiousness. Fretting. Panic. Fear.

We all have those feelings. We all wonder what will happen today, or what will happen tomorrow. Will we get sick and die in the blink of an eye? We can't stop whatever's coming. So we panic.  

Why? 

We are human. And we listen to the thoughts of fear and doubt that Satan presents to us. It is so very easy to believe the lies of the Devil. He is very crafty and masks his lies with a sliver of truth. 

We must remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
By realizing this we can combat the lies with truth. The only way to fight the devil, besides resisting, is to fire Scripture back at him. It's truth and he knows it. 

I would like to share a little testimony of mine centering in on this area. 

As most of you probably know, I am graduating this spring. The question that weighs heavily on a high school senior's mind is, "What am I going to do after I graduate?" 
Every one stresses and frets about this. I had several ideas floating around in my head last year. Maybe I would take the SAT just in case I had the opportunity to go to college to study music. Maybe I would just write novels and teach piano. I really didn't have any sense of direction. I felt like a lost kid in an unknown building looking for someone to point me in the right direction to the exit. 

Most logical thing for me to do was to seek God's will and pray about it. So I spent another year in school preparing to take the SAT and praying for God to show me what I was supposed to do. 
As the time neared for me to take the SAT test I got to talking to my mom about when I would actually take it. She gave me a few reasons why it wasn't really necessary for me to take the SAT test. She thought I should take the GED test. I really didn't care which one I took, I just needed to know which test I was taking. I was prepared for both so it didn't really matter. We decided on the GED for a couple of different reasons. 

What really blew me away was when my mom told me that a couple of families were already asking when I was going to start teaching piano. I had no idea people were asking. 
I've always wanted to teach piano and I've been teaching four of my siblings for a year and a half now. 
Another door opened for a tutoring job. 

As I thought about both of these 'job' opportunities, if you will, I was amazed at how the Lord was working it all out. 
Here I was just moseying through my senior year not really worried about what I would do after I graduated; doesn't mean I didn't think about it often,
I did. And when I did I would panic. But the Lord really dropped it all in my lap. There was no need for me to worry at all. The Lord knew what was going to happen. He knows what is going to happen for the rest of my life. My life is in good hands. 

And the same goes for you. You don't need to worry about what is around the next corner. It's enough that God knows. Whatever is ahead, He will take care of it. Don't let the weight of fear and worry pull you down. Give that burden to God. He is more than capable of handling all of your problems. 

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

He even promises that He will take your burdens and give you rest. Give Him your burden and take His yoke upon you. He says that it is easy and light. 

Give your life to God, and rest easy in His wisdom