I love when the Lord leaves you small messages throughout your day. The past couple of weeks, the words to this song have kept playing in my mind. As I sing these words in my heart, I am reminded of two of many things we can find in the Lord; Patience and Strength. I may have mentioned it in my previous post, but lately I have been feeling sloppy, and I am not just referring to my eating habits... actually I am. But what I am trying to say is that I have become extremely lazy and sloppy in all areas of my life, including the spiritual needs. That is really hard for me to say out loud especially since I am in ministry, but I need to be completely honest.
As I was sitting in my small group last week, I was so inspired about moving forward with our weight loss journey and with moving forward and doing better with everything else in my life. It was as if God had removed the over sized blinders covering my life and revealing in full detail just what was happening. I guess that is why I have not blogged in a while or even completed some journal entries. But the questions remain, how was I going to do this? How was I going to move forward and not go or look back? How was I going to dig through the slop and get back to where God wants me to be? Then Brown's song and those words came back to my mind....Patience and strength.
As I was studying the word, two passages of scripture held my attention. The first was found in James 5:8-12 and it states:
"Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the LORD. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts for the coming of the LORD is near.
When I read that passage, God was reminding me that all good things take time. And of course we always say that God's timing is better then our own. So in my desire for healthy living, and all that it involves, I am having to remind myself that this is in no way a quick fix. Plus, I have to remember that this is so much bigger then what I am eating and how I exercise. For me it was trusting and obeying. It is trusting that God will indeed see me and my friends through this journey! In turn we need to be obedient to His voice and be prepared to head down the road he may take us. Which brings me to the next word: strength. Isaiah 40:28-31 says it all
"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall run and not faint. "
Yes this process will be hard. There will be challenges along the way. But I rejoice because I know my strength is coming from Him. Everyday and everything of my life has to begin with him. During these past few weeks I have found myself becoming weary. Like most people, our responsibilities and our schedules can leave us feel depleted, exhausted, and well, weary. No matter our positions and responsibilities in life, we can all agree that there are times that we can grow tired in our day to day tasks. If you are reading this blog, I pray that you are encouraged and reminded that no matter where you are in your life, we take comfort in knowing that our God is faithful, and as the scriptures says "never grows weary." He is the God that gives us the patience to endure and that he is indeed our strength!
RG
