Never Alone: Life Lesson 101

So crumbling walls aside there is a lesson admits all the turmoil. A lesson I quickly forget. During the times of crisis and crying, stumbling around like a chicken with her head cut off, and putting out fires, I found myself wondering Where Is GOD? I mean come on, haven’t I done everything right? Even in these crisis I am still in my Word, I am still praying. I am trying to “Be Still and know He is God” (Psalm 46:10)

I am listening and looking waiting for that “Still quiet voice” (1 Kings 19:12) 

and yet NOTHING IS COMING? It’s hard not to get frustrated. It’s even more difficult to not wonder where God is when all of this is happening. Here you are suffering and fighting an enemy unseen, if you can even figure out that you are fighting the enemy it may take you a few minutes, days, even weeks to realize that this is not only a physical battle but a spiritual one. Yet there is no partner in the chaos or at least there doesn’t appear to be one. It feels as if you are fighting these fires, reassembling your crumbling wall, wiping your blood, sweat and tears all alone. But are you?

The lesson that I forget and have forgotten amongst this last bout of chaos was this

“

When you pass through the waters (not if but when this is very important to remember), I WILL BE WITH YOU;

               And when you pass through the rivers (again not if but when),

They will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire (again not if but when and the whole fire metaphor we talked about in the last blog post plays a role here)

You will not be burned; (Remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego if not go back to Daniel 9 because their story comes up here);

                              The flames will not set you ablaze.

               For I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD,

                              The HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL Your SAVIOR

What a beautiful reminder that Isaiah 43:2-3 gives us. A reminder that I have never been alone. And let me tell you when He wants to teach this lovely wayward child a lesson boy does He. Sometimes I think I go through these stages and God doesn’t speak or answer my cries because He already has. This is nothing new for me. I have already done this panic, this lesson, this crisis. I have done this stage where I have been attacked on this sort of level numerous times before. The difference this time is God was silent and I was scared. I was scared and felt alone and instead of relying on my faith, trust and knowledge of him I panicked and didn’t know what to do so I allowed the enemy to play, for only a moment. But oh what a moment it was. And when we allow the enemy a second, a moment, a millisecond to play he will and when he gets a pinky toe in to our minds or our lives to play the damage he can do with that millisecond and pinky toe brings us to our knees.

God never left me. He never forsake me, He was never far from me. HE WAS ALWAYS WITH ME right there beside me waiting. The whole time I was running around in a whirlwind trying to put out fires he was right beside me waiting on me to notice him and take peace in His calm. To take those moments I was “attempting” to be still and actually be still while basking in his presences. And yes though He may have needed that moment for me to be refined in the fires or drowned to be washed cleaned he still was right beside me ready and willing to listen, talk, and share in my fears, tears, and anger. All I had to do was look around and see not just with my eyes but with my heart. The one thing that this child forgets to use a lot.  For as the apostle Paul likes to remind us in Titus (a lovely book that I think we overlook a lot) “God, who does not lie” – Titus 1:2 And if God does not lie then when he told me in Isaiah that he is with me through the waters and the fire you had better believe that He was there the whole time. And when I felt that I was alone through the crisis and journey and He was silent He was STILL RIGHT THERE BESIDE ME RUNNING AROUND WITH ME JUST WAITING FOR ME TO TAKE NOTICE. 

The picture below reminds me so much of what I got through on a daily bases. 

Take heart precious one and know that God has never left you or forsaken you He has never left. He is still there amidst the turmoil waiting on you to notice him. Waiting on you to be still in the fire and the storm to hear his still small voice. For he was not in the fire that he spoke it was in the whisper of the gentle wind. (1 King 19:12)