“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalms 147:3
There was a time in my life when a mixture of salt and water was the cure to everything. My dad would often bring me a glass when I had lost a tooth, caught a stomach bug, or cut my lip. When I was little, I did not realize that, upon taking a drink, the concoction would burn at the very touch, but as I grew older, I knew when I saw that golden Tupperware cup that I was in for some hurting.
I will admit that despite the burn, it was not long after drinking dad’s remedy that the cut or sore was almost completely healed. After running from him, I would complain for an hour about how bad it tasted and how angry I was that he had made me do such a thing. I never could understand that in the moments I swallowed the salt water, I was in a process of healing, and in time the awful taste it brought would be just a memory.
Since then, I have been made to drink that “salty water” again. The Lord has passed me a cup that I never want to drink from again. The sting from this wound feels as though it will never heal, and I am forced to feel the agony of when the salt hits the scar. This is a cut that is deeper than the surface of skin: the memory of a child.
For months I have been through the injuries and scar that losing a child leaves. I have ached upon hearing of others’ pregnancies and tasted the teardrops that this memory brings, none of which have felt as if my heart is mended. In fact, I recently ran from a friend that shared my due date as I saw her growing stomach among a crowd a people. My wound is still there.
It is easy to say we are past the hurts that lie within our hearts, but the truth is that we are allowed to hurt and to grieve. There are reasons for all of these as stated in Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3-4, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” God understands our sorrow, and He Himself knows our pain. Yet I cannot understand the immensity of His hurt as He allowed His only Son to die in my place on the cross (John 17).
I do not know what hurts you are holding onto, and I cannot understand what aches within your heart. However, I do know that if you will allow Him, God can pour salt into your wounds and heal you. Mark 9:50 states, “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” If we are to be the “salt of the earth,” we must be more like Christ. When we face these circumstances, God is able to instill Christ-like characteristics in us as we draw closer to Him. Each moment is an opportunity for God to restore your injuries in a way that will glorify Him. Please do not step away from your Heavenly Father when He offers “a cup of salt and water”; He is making you new again.
Hurting yet Healing,
Jenna Johnson
Words of Encouragement Email: johnsonwordsofencouragement@gmail.com
Showing posts with label Waiting on God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waiting on God. Show all posts
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Side Roads
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Have you ever been frustrated with the path you are on in life and seemed like you were going no where? The other day while travelling from Bowling Green, Kentucky to White House, TN, my wife and I were slowed down to bumper to bumper traffic for what seemed to be miles of waiting. The interstate had been shut down and all of the traffic was redirected to a nearby highway. Immediately, we began thinking of all of the alternate routes that we could take to try to bypass the situation. Our impatience and determination to get ahead of everyone took over because we were ready to be home. It was late at night, and we really wanted to rest and relax at home. Instead of waiting with everyone else on the detour to another exit on the interstate, we decided to keep moving faster down the road. Our friends were behind us and sat through the traffic.
After some consideration on our own, we headed down the highway where there was no traffic. The only problem was that we drove about 20-25 miles out of the way. While finding ourselves in the midst of nothing but roads and farmland, I decided to call our friends who had sat through the traffic. They had made it back to the interstate and were 10 miles down the road. We would have been in front of them if we had waited in line with everyone else. With wasted gas and wasted time, we were left frustrated, tired and ready for bed.
Does this sound like your spiritual life? Are you always trying to get ahead of God instead of waiting for Him to deliver you in the right time? It is so easy for us to lose the discipline of waiting on God and try to make things happen in our own power. This sounds a lot like the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years, because they didn’t have the faith to believe that God’s way was the best way. God used the wilderness to teach them to move when He told them to move and stay put when He told them to stay put. One of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is moving forward without the blessing of God. While in the desert, the Lord led the children of Israel with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. Today, the Holy Spirit indwells and directs the believer with the Word of God into the purposes that God has planned for your life. Grow where you are planted until the Lord asks you to go somewhere else.
There are many successful people that live religious and moral lives by the world’s standards, yet are driving down side roads that lead nowhere in comparison to eternity. The attraction of fortune and fame or a better way of life can be devastating on the eternal impact we can make for the cause of Christ. God often uses circumstances to slow us down and enable us to hear the His voice. Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” It is easy for us to stray away sometimes and allow our ears to get dull of hearing God’s Word. If you find yourself in a quiet place in your heart crowded with people, listen because God wants to speak to you and prepare you for the road ahead. If you fail to listen now, your frustrations may lead you astray until you realize that time and energy has been wasted and God’s way is the best.
Prayer is the key to staying in the center of God’s will. My wife and I were tired and ready to be home. We allowed our impatience and frustration of sitting in traffic to overwhelm us and take over. We didn’t want to slow down and therefore wasted time. The world tells us, “Faster, faster, we need another master.” Jesus says in Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Let the Spirit of God navigate your life and you will always be where you need to be no matter what time it is day or night!
Have you ever been frustrated with the path you are on in life and seemed like you were going no where? The other day while travelling from Bowling Green, Kentucky to White House, TN, my wife and I were slowed down to bumper to bumper traffic for what seemed to be miles of waiting. The interstate had been shut down and all of the traffic was redirected to a nearby highway. Immediately, we began thinking of all of the alternate routes that we could take to try to bypass the situation. Our impatience and determination to get ahead of everyone took over because we were ready to be home. It was late at night, and we really wanted to rest and relax at home. Instead of waiting with everyone else on the detour to another exit on the interstate, we decided to keep moving faster down the road. Our friends were behind us and sat through the traffic.
After some consideration on our own, we headed down the highway where there was no traffic. The only problem was that we drove about 20-25 miles out of the way. While finding ourselves in the midst of nothing but roads and farmland, I decided to call our friends who had sat through the traffic. They had made it back to the interstate and were 10 miles down the road. We would have been in front of them if we had waited in line with everyone else. With wasted gas and wasted time, we were left frustrated, tired and ready for bed.
Does this sound like your spiritual life? Are you always trying to get ahead of God instead of waiting for Him to deliver you in the right time? It is so easy for us to lose the discipline of waiting on God and try to make things happen in our own power. This sounds a lot like the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years, because they didn’t have the faith to believe that God’s way was the best way. God used the wilderness to teach them to move when He told them to move and stay put when He told them to stay put. One of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is moving forward without the blessing of God. While in the desert, the Lord led the children of Israel with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. Today, the Holy Spirit indwells and directs the believer with the Word of God into the purposes that God has planned for your life. Grow where you are planted until the Lord asks you to go somewhere else.
There are many successful people that live religious and moral lives by the world’s standards, yet are driving down side roads that lead nowhere in comparison to eternity. The attraction of fortune and fame or a better way of life can be devastating on the eternal impact we can make for the cause of Christ. God often uses circumstances to slow us down and enable us to hear the His voice. Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” It is easy for us to stray away sometimes and allow our ears to get dull of hearing God’s Word. If you find yourself in a quiet place in your heart crowded with people, listen because God wants to speak to you and prepare you for the road ahead. If you fail to listen now, your frustrations may lead you astray until you realize that time and energy has been wasted and God’s way is the best.
Prayer is the key to staying in the center of God’s will. My wife and I were tired and ready to be home. We allowed our impatience and frustration of sitting in traffic to overwhelm us and take over. We didn’t want to slow down and therefore wasted time. The world tells us, “Faster, faster, we need another master.” Jesus says in Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Let the Spirit of God navigate your life and you will always be where you need to be no matter what time it is day or night!
Thursday, February 1, 2007
How to go from single to engaged in 8 days!
January 31, 2007
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalms 46:10
Silenced… This could be the best word to describe God’s grace in my life right now. Have you ever received something that you knew you didn’t deserve yet the gift was made for you and only you. To reject the gift would be an insult to the giver and reveal a heart so full of pride. Sometimes, it is hard to receive gifts from another individual. We are taught that it is better to give than receive and have lost the art of graciously accepting and embracing the gift that is yours.
Throughout my life, I have never been a very good gift giver. Often, I was afraid to reveal my heart to someone else. I had rather kept it hidden in the darkened past where it was safe and isolated from everything and everyone else. I wanted to keep my heart to myself. It was one thing that I seemed to have control over. Have you ever felt this way- being afraid of letting go?
About three and a half years ago on a long April night, I learned what it meant to give your heart away. I lay on my bed, dead in my sin, realizing that the only way for me to be saved by God’s grace was to lay my heart on the altar of eternity. I learned that you are only able to keep that which you are able to give away. That night, my heart became Jesus’ and it has been that way ever since. I often try to shrink back into the shades of gray when He wants to draw near and speak. It hurts when I find myself there away from His light, and I honestly want Him to stay away at times. When He draws near, I know that I must change. Meeting God in the silence of your soul causes you to change. Jesus can never change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. This is what it means to be a Christian- a constant surrender to the unchanging hand of God. When His hand is on your life, you must let go of your grip on everything temporal and cling to the eternal. His hand will protect, point and patiently lead in the right direction as we learn to wait on Him.
To be still in heart, mind, and soul is to be free as God’s peace fills your longing heart with a refreshing drink from above. To be still is to surrender and let someone greater control your life. To be still and patiently wait is difficult for the flesh but refreshing to the spirit. Ever since, I met Jesus the first time, I have been learning to listen to His promises and wait in prayer and expectation for His answer. Habakkuk 2:2-4 says, "Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision, And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith."
Over these past few years, I have been trying to wait and walk in faith at the same time. I can see God’s promises afar off. I have learned to focus on Him and His will in my life. Jesus promises in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Jesus is telling the truth.
All my life, I have waited for the day when I would walk into the compliment to me. For some reason, I always wanted to be married, have a family and raise children like I saw in so many other Christian homes. However, after meeting Jesus and being called to singleness, I surrendered to idea of marriage though it tarried down deep in my heart. I knew that my singleness had to be used to get to know God better. How could I ever be the husband, father, brother or friend to anyone, if I didn’t have a correct relationship with God? And so—I began reading my bible, writing in journals and learning to pray in my childlike way. An incredible romance began. A Divine romance developed between my soul and Jesus’. The love was real, sometimes convicting, comforting or challenging. Nevertheless, I was committed but not in my own strength, but the strength and faith that Jesus gave me. The reconciliation, power and magnetism of the cross captured my heart and has consumed my life. I loved being single with a single passion—Jesus Christ.
Now, everything has changed once again. You know how I told you that when Jesus draws near something has to change. It has. Over the past few weeks, the Lord has opened my eyes to see someone running right beside me at my same speed. I have been learning that everyman had a work to do, a will to obey and had forgotten about the woman to love. I was so consumed in Jesus that He had to open my eyes to the second greatest gift in my life. The one that I had waited for so long had been watching me only a few feet away every Sunday. He brought her to me, and showed me that I must die to myself once again. My singleness has been laid on the altar. It was a blessed time of learning and growing alone with God. What a joy it was, but greater joys are ahead. Whatever He does He does forever. He has altered my life in sending me a future wife. I know she is the one that God made especially for me. He brought her to me and said here is a priceless gift to my son. In receiving this incredible gift, I am humbled by His grace, overjoyed by His presence and silenced by His love.
Because God helped me to wait while He worked on my character, I have gone from a relationship status of single and not looking 8 days ago to engaged and plan to get married on March 31. My wife was right before my eyes. I had known her for two and a half years and she had become my best friend at church. The Lord spoke to our hearts and confirmed through prayer and His Word, my group of wise counselors, our parents, and our church. We knew it was right and are learning to stand on Ecclesiastes 4:12 “And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” With Jesus Christ as the lover of our souls, teacher and best friend, we will begin our new life together. The rewards of waiting on God are beyond the description of pure, holy, right and good. I stand in amazement that “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalms 46:10
Silenced… This could be the best word to describe God’s grace in my life right now. Have you ever received something that you knew you didn’t deserve yet the gift was made for you and only you. To reject the gift would be an insult to the giver and reveal a heart so full of pride. Sometimes, it is hard to receive gifts from another individual. We are taught that it is better to give than receive and have lost the art of graciously accepting and embracing the gift that is yours.
Throughout my life, I have never been a very good gift giver. Often, I was afraid to reveal my heart to someone else. I had rather kept it hidden in the darkened past where it was safe and isolated from everything and everyone else. I wanted to keep my heart to myself. It was one thing that I seemed to have control over. Have you ever felt this way- being afraid of letting go?
About three and a half years ago on a long April night, I learned what it meant to give your heart away. I lay on my bed, dead in my sin, realizing that the only way for me to be saved by God’s grace was to lay my heart on the altar of eternity. I learned that you are only able to keep that which you are able to give away. That night, my heart became Jesus’ and it has been that way ever since. I often try to shrink back into the shades of gray when He wants to draw near and speak. It hurts when I find myself there away from His light, and I honestly want Him to stay away at times. When He draws near, I know that I must change. Meeting God in the silence of your soul causes you to change. Jesus can never change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. This is what it means to be a Christian- a constant surrender to the unchanging hand of God. When His hand is on your life, you must let go of your grip on everything temporal and cling to the eternal. His hand will protect, point and patiently lead in the right direction as we learn to wait on Him.
To be still in heart, mind, and soul is to be free as God’s peace fills your longing heart with a refreshing drink from above. To be still is to surrender and let someone greater control your life. To be still and patiently wait is difficult for the flesh but refreshing to the spirit. Ever since, I met Jesus the first time, I have been learning to listen to His promises and wait in prayer and expectation for His answer. Habakkuk 2:2-4 says, "Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision, And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith."
Over these past few years, I have been trying to wait and walk in faith at the same time. I can see God’s promises afar off. I have learned to focus on Him and His will in my life. Jesus promises in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Jesus is telling the truth.
All my life, I have waited for the day when I would walk into the compliment to me. For some reason, I always wanted to be married, have a family and raise children like I saw in so many other Christian homes. However, after meeting Jesus and being called to singleness, I surrendered to idea of marriage though it tarried down deep in my heart. I knew that my singleness had to be used to get to know God better. How could I ever be the husband, father, brother or friend to anyone, if I didn’t have a correct relationship with God? And so—I began reading my bible, writing in journals and learning to pray in my childlike way. An incredible romance began. A Divine romance developed between my soul and Jesus’. The love was real, sometimes convicting, comforting or challenging. Nevertheless, I was committed but not in my own strength, but the strength and faith that Jesus gave me. The reconciliation, power and magnetism of the cross captured my heart and has consumed my life. I loved being single with a single passion—Jesus Christ.
Now, everything has changed once again. You know how I told you that when Jesus draws near something has to change. It has. Over the past few weeks, the Lord has opened my eyes to see someone running right beside me at my same speed. I have been learning that everyman had a work to do, a will to obey and had forgotten about the woman to love. I was so consumed in Jesus that He had to open my eyes to the second greatest gift in my life. The one that I had waited for so long had been watching me only a few feet away every Sunday. He brought her to me, and showed me that I must die to myself once again. My singleness has been laid on the altar. It was a blessed time of learning and growing alone with God. What a joy it was, but greater joys are ahead. Whatever He does He does forever. He has altered my life in sending me a future wife. I know she is the one that God made especially for me. He brought her to me and said here is a priceless gift to my son. In receiving this incredible gift, I am humbled by His grace, overjoyed by His presence and silenced by His love.
Because God helped me to wait while He worked on my character, I have gone from a relationship status of single and not looking 8 days ago to engaged and plan to get married on March 31. My wife was right before my eyes. I had known her for two and a half years and she had become my best friend at church. The Lord spoke to our hearts and confirmed through prayer and His Word, my group of wise counselors, our parents, and our church. We knew it was right and are learning to stand on Ecclesiastes 4:12 “And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” With Jesus Christ as the lover of our souls, teacher and best friend, we will begin our new life together. The rewards of waiting on God are beyond the description of pure, holy, right and good. I stand in amazement that “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
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