It’s month four in my new to me city, and while I am still finding my way – my direction continues to be reaffirmed in my moments of communion with God. I still haven’t made any deep connections yet but I have made connections and I believe that there are no chance encounters in life. I believe strongly that God gives us free will, and I also believe that He, whose ways are not our ways, can use any circumstance or any choice we make to serve His higher purpose.
I look at this season as a time to connect deeper with my Father, where the distractions are less in the day to day, and sometimes more than I can bear when seeing what is going on in the world around me. And yet, in my season of a slower pace, I also have found that in my opportunity to connect more deeply with my Father, it is truly a gift in that He can grow my roots more deeply in the promise that the JOY of the Lord is my strength.
I have begun attending a bible study (Experiencing God, Blackaby and King) at my church recently, and so far, it’s been such a great re-affirmation of the importance of time spent with Him who loves us unconditionally. One of the actions of the lesson this week is to take a walk with God, to spend time purposefully seeking Him and listening for His voice. It’s purpose is to encourage us in the importance of taking time every day to HEAR what God wants us to know. In this day and age, I see so many lost and lonely people yearning for a deep and committed connection, an acceptance for who they are and to feel cherished and loved. I feel the sadness of God’s heart in that so many of these lost and lonely people chose to seek to fill their need for connection in the worldly instead of the Godly. I feel the pain of God’s heart in that, if only they would seek Him, they would find Him and find Him abundantly. This doesn’t mean that because I seek Him that my life will be perfect. As a matter of fact, the bible tells us we will have troubles – it is an imperfect world, but He WILL be with us in our troubles and He WILL NEVER LEAVE OUR SIDE AND HE WILL BLESS US!
I feel so blessed that this lesson of daily connection with God is not new to me, that I have experienced more times than I can count, the amazing and wonderful ways that He speaks to me. As I further this blog, I will share some of those moments in hopes that He can use my moments to speak to you!
As I took my walk with God today, my heart was troubled by the great loss of life yesterday in the Las Vegas massacre and I had a hard time focusing. My mind wandered to a recent conversation with neighbors about a break in down the street, and then to the people of Puerto Rico and the chaos that is our country and our world today. I think most of us struggle with the crazy that is our world today, and biblically speaking, it’s only going to get worse – not a comforting thought. I had my praise music blaring and here I was troubled. I was supposed to be drawing near and it was a struggle and then..
God spoke.
It was a stirring in my heart that I have come to recognize as His voice and I looked up to see the wind blowing in the trees, the Spanish moss gently waving too and fro. and I stopped and I watched it for a moment and the next song came on on my Pandora playlist, not a programmed list, but random and I knew it was for me, He loves to speak to me though music- and I love that too – that He wants such an intimate moment with his daughter that He loves. I attached it below with lyrics. It was just what I needed this morning, a reassurance that He has me here for a purpose and that He will guide my steps. Once again I was blessed by time spent with Him.
Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.
New Mercies 