Do you ever think back on certain situations in your life and wonder why they turned out the way they did?
Wonder why God didn’t answer your prayers or at least didn’t answer them the way that you had asked Him to answer them.
Sometimes you may even wonder if God is really paying attention or if He really understands how much you are hurting. If He understands how the things that are happening will impact your life. Because, we think, if He really did get it, then would He really be letting these things happen.
I don’t know if any of those thoughts resonate with you but they are very familiar to me. And, they have been familiar to me on more than one or two occasions in my life.
Of course, we tend to think that we do know how things should play out in our lives, right? Sometimes our circumstances can appear to be just so obvious and you may have the same thought that a lot of us would have… why can’t others see the same thing? Why can’t God see that if He would just do xyz then all would be fine and well and life would be easy and happy.
What if we Asked ourselves…
Is easy and happy the thing that I really NEED in the big picture of this moment of what is going on right now?
Does God have something different for me? With God not answering my prayers in a way that makes sense to me, Does God have something different for me that would ultimately be a better circumstance or have a more positive impact in my life by going in a different direction? A direction that is not easy nor happy?
I say YES!! ..Could BE!! Surely GOD has some purpose for the silliness (that is really not silliness) that we have to end up going through sometimes, right?
I recently started reading the Book of Isaiah in The Old Testament. The last couple Books I’ve read in The Old Testament have been very eye opening, to say the least! They have very much shown the side of God that some of us may not like to hear a lot about. The side that is more of the tough love side of God and really exposes how serious God is about being first in our lives, respected, obeyed, and loved with all our heart and all our souls and not allowing any person, place, or thing to take His place in our hearts.
As I have mentioned in some other posts, I absolutely LOVE to read about visions of our God and to just picture in my mind what it was like for these awesome men of God to see Him and then to put it in writing so that you and I could even try to wrap our minds around what is described to us.
Isaiah describes His throne, he describes the train of God’s robe filling the temple. He describes the seraphim, what they look like and how they are calling out in praise ” Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Army”
Yes!! That is the GOOD STUFF and always puts a literal smile on my face!! That is just some extra icing on the cake for you 😉 If you have a moment, read some of these stories, they will make your heart smile,
Getting off the rabbit trail and back on point. Sometimes I think we as Christians are very quick to declare… NOT TODAY Satan, Not today!! We want to point out that the enemy is pounding on us and the enemy is doing this and that. And, he is A LOT OF the times!!
But, in Isaiah and in many stories in the Bible we learn about God intentionally allowing circumstances and events to happen in order to bring things or people back around to Him or to help them learn something specific, to mold them and shape them into the next step of them, that God has for that person or those people.
We can go back to Moses again or the Jewish people as a whole, they were God’s chosen people and when they no longer chose Him, things got real for them, real fast. That’s part of what I have been reading about recently. How God was going to take everything away and make things so unbearable that they would not even be able to understand. They could listen carefully, watch closely, and still wouldn’t understand or learn anything, That their ears and eyes would be shut and their hearts hardened so that their only option would be to turn to the Lord for healing.
Have you ever felt like there was nothing else left but GOD?
Have you ever experienced a time in your life when nothing was going right and it just seemed like anything that could go wrong, was wrong. Nothing was being understood or in context. Nothing was making sense. To just find yourself in a circumstance that you honestly simply would have never fathomed that would even be happening? All the things, one after another and it was just worse and worse and there was just nothing that made sense at all.
The only thing left for you to do is to cry out to God and ask Him to help. You pour tears over it and just share with the Lord how broken you are. How messed up the situation is. How you need Him to fix it because you have tried and tried and nothing is getting better.
You are just heartbroken and completely undone and your prayers aren’t making a difference either. No matter what you pray or how many tears you shed over the situation, it just is how it is and you are devastatingly broken for a time. There are no other words that are appropriate except devastatingly broken.
These are the circumstances where you may feel like almost everything has been taken from you. In reality maybe they really aren’t but that sure is how we feel because so many things we thought were truth, are now in question. We are so broken and so undone and we are so abundantly grateful for those few people or things we do have still but we are so shaken by our circumstances that you may not know what to think about anything. You may not trust anyone or anything. So many truths that you knew are now untruths. Exposed and not what you thought at all.
Besides those small treasures, all you have left is God. You don’t know what to do. You don’t know what to say. You don’t know what is truth.
When we have these types of events happen in our lives, it reminds me of some of these stories that I read about in The Old Testament. God is putting them in circumstances where it is just them and God. Everyone or everything else is gone and you either are going to rely on the Lord and do some serious business with Him or you can continue to be broken to pieces.
You may feel like the only really safe place you have is God.
You may feel like He is the only one you can trust with your heart now.
When you have circumstances like these in our lives, I think it’s extremely important for us to do our best, to do the work, to understand what we need to get out of these moments in our lives.
What heart posture is God requiring of us? One in which HE is our number ONE! Where we love our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength.
What could that look like? … I think that looks different for everyone one of us. Where are we putting other things in these areas above the Lord?
Am I worried about pleasing someone else and making them happy rather than just doing what is best for me and making sure that I am doing everything unto the Lord?
Do NOT miss what I am saying …. That frees some of us up from people pleasing!!! ,… If I am doing my best unto the Lord, I do NOT have to worry about what the Jones’ have going on down the street or on the cubicle wall beside me!! I don’t have to worry about if so and so likes how I fixed my hair today!! LOL.
That is some freedom that I know I am not the only one who needs to hear that!!
I can say NO when it is best for me and not even offer an explanation.
We can have healthy boundaries that protect our peace.
Ain’t nobody coming to save you… Jesus already did His job on the cross… hopefully everyone takes Him up on that free gift… cause He’s the only Savior we have.
It is our job to take care of ourselves and if we do that unto the Lord, to please Him with a heart that is filled with good intensions to do our best unto Him… then that automatically includes our display of integrity, respect of others, and being as kind as we can to treat others how we would want to be treated while also still observing those healthy boundaries.
Like I mentioned before in a previous post, boundaries are for us. To keep us in a healthy place with ourselves but most importantly with GOD!! It doesn’t mean we are being ugly. It doesn’t mean we dislike anything or anyone. It just means we are protecting our relationship with the Lord and our peace and what we need to be in a good space.
So, you don’t have to feel guilty about having them. Especially if saying no is new for you.
You are God’s child!! You are worthy of Jesus dying for you!! The Creator of the Universe knows your very name!! He knows how many strands of hair you have on your head!!
Therefore – You my friend are worthy!!
It all goes back to … We are to love our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength.
The next time you are going through something that may be knocking you off your feet. Maybe plan some quiet time with just you and God.
Talk to Him about the thing that is going on. Tell Him all about it just like He didn’t know even though He already does. Ask Him to show you what you need to take from this circumstance in your life. Let Him know that you want to learn, that you have opened your heart to Him, and that you want to understand what He is trying to teach you during this time in your life.
Then read His Word, pray, sing worship songs to Him, listen.. which means really get alone in a quiet space and have a period of time where you don’t say any words. Be in His presence expecting those gentle heart whispers from Him.
Ask Him to teach you, mold you. Let Him know that you are willing and want to learn from Him so that you can allow Him to teach you, begin to heal your heart, your spirit, and your mind. Don’t let the opportunity of the circumstance escape you without getting an understanding of what God is trying to show you.
Hopefully we can learn from The Lord, allow Him to heal, and continue to take our next steps forward as a more positive and more healthy us.
Much Love ♥️
Michelle