Praise

I will sing to the Lord, and give Him praise. His love is greater than we know.

With every day, I see His face. More and more it shows.

His love is beauty; it’s grace and truth. It’s more precious than gold.

The Lord is Good; He is Just; His Love endures, forevermore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on Acceleration

I was reflecting the other day on a personality ‘trap’, I should say, that would manifest itself from time to time as an impatient spirit. A desire to have things accelerated.

“QUICK!” “Boom!” “Go!!” – I loved (and to a certain extent, still do love) it when I saw things happening rapidly.

Sometimes there are moves in your life that happen very swiftly; but The Lord always has perfect timing. A perfect pace. And that is what I recognized I wanted my soul to come into submission to because only God knows fully what is to come, and only He knows it with perfect understanding. It’s His Love and Understanding that give me peace.

As I thought about why I seemed to ‘think’ that way at times, “watching movies” came to mind.

Before college, and especially before developing a relationship with Jesus Christ, Father God, and Holy Spirit, I was a huge movie buff. I watched movies all the time. It was probably my favorite past-time. And I especially loved scary movies. Of course later, I saw the repercussions of that, having to deal with fear and renewing my mind with the realities of Christ and not the realities portrayed in modern media; but before that, I really loved movies. And TV. (I’m not saying after you’re saved you should stop watching movies or TV – I’m just saying it’s not a huge part of my life anymore.)

We all know how movies and TV go. Snap-shots of life. Accelerated. Scenes. We don’t have to always wade through the waiting; the thought processes; the times spent just ‘being’.

In my life, there had been many times ‘spent being’, where I was very depressed. Deep, deep sadness lived on the inside of me. Grief from loss, rejection, and the spiritual grief that comes before the Lord makes His home in you. At one point, when I was thinking that perhaps I didn’t really want to have to live that long, I would imagine, “What if this moment was the last scene of my life?” Sometimes I would even see the credits rolling in my mind’s eye. It was, in a perverted way, an attempt to bring me peace when I had none about the future. It was a quieting mechanism, but it wasn’t from God. It was an attempt from the enemy of our soul to subvert my ability to think promising thoughts about my future. And it was that thought pattern that made me want to rush ahead, get it over with; and it surely did not acknowledge the work or sovereignty of God in my life.

But I realized the other day, that perhaps that’s why Jeremiah 29:11 literally leaped off the page at me when I first read it. The moment I read it was also the first time I really recognized that the Word of God was God speaking to me, today, and not just to who it was spoken to 1,000s of years ago. It was like my heart-beat skipped when I read,

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.”

I did not realize it then (when I first read it), but I realized just recently, that before that, I had never really thought of God that way. Or rather, even, I had never really thought that He thought of me that way before. I had not realized, truly, before last year, that God cared so much about me that He actually had taken the time to individually script a story, a plan, for me, meant for my joy, my good, and the good of others. How many of us have had a full revelation of that in our hearts? It’s a powerful and life changing revelation to have. Faith always comes by hearing (or reading – i.e. receiving as truth) the Word of God in the Bible.

One thing the Lord has graciously taught me during my walk with Him is that the plans He has aren’t always going to happen immediatly. He doesn’t unfold all the details all at once, and He doesn’t unload on us the multitude of all He has planned for us at once – because honestly, it would be too much. His plans call for a daily walk with Him. A walk spent in love, connection, and unity with God. Proverbs says,

It is the Glory (honor, praise, radiance, right, essence) of God to conceal a matter; but it is the Glory of kings to search it out.

We who have been called or are in the process of being called to the Lord have been called a royal priesthood. We are the kings the Spirit of God is talking about in that scipture 🙂 And it has been a divine honor and pleasure for me to see each day the Lord has planned for me unfold – both the challenging and joyful days. There is much joy in endurance. Blessed are those who will endure for the joy set before them. Jesus did this very thing on the cross, and He is now eternally glorified!

God always has joy set before you. God’s love is never-ending. To trust God is really to understand that He LOVES you, and we know that from His Word, and the acts He has done for us. Don’t give up on the work of the Lord in your life!

Blessings and peace to you in Our Lord Jesus Christ ❤