What stirs in you? Rise and go south, says an angel to Philip. And Philip finds a Royal Official sitting in a carriage, reading Isaiah, needing guidance to understand what the words really mean. Is God prompting me to do something? Do I move on it? If there is any good thing that stirs within, it is authored by a Sovereign God.
The Queen of Sheba is stirred to pursue Solomon. With great "retinue," she leads an entourage to the holy city of Jerusalem to test this king with hard questions. She ends up telling him all that is on her mind. Who stirred Sheba?
The stirrings are for the Glory of God not comfort on earth. This weekend, a friends sat next to me to explain a little deeper that God is not only preventing my cancer but He is saving me from myself in the midst of tumor markers and present tumors. I have a white-hot desire that I have never had before in the midst of pain to beseech my God to detach me from what brings me joy more than Him. The words of Oswald Chambers go like this: "My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is not to ask that they may be prevented, but to ask that I may preserve the self God created me to be through every fire of sorrow." My pain is overwhelming right now and that's a difficult statement to hear if you are going through a fire. God give us all the grace to ask from broken humbled hearts that You would draw out of us the men and women you created us to be.
The sins of the father fall upon the next generation, and Rehoboam is left with a fractured Israel. And the curtain closes.
ReplyDeleteSolomon, in all his wisdom, still didn't seek God with his heart. Even though God appeared twice to him with warning, Solomon's wives worshipping other gods caused Solomon to turn away from the Lord. The kingdom was divided. A warning today for us. Just like our mamas told us-your friends can bring you up or bring you down. How much more so with 700 wives and 300 concubines! For a smart man, Solomon had quite the weakness. And it diverted his attention from his First Love. What distracts? What raises itself in our lives higher than the love of the Lord?
Lord Jesus,
Help us to examine our souls and rightfully place You alone on the Throne of our lives. Continue to heal Bev and each of the Pearls in ways that draw us nearer to you, to transform our lives from glory to glory, ever nearer to Your very Presence.
Amen.
We're off to Dallas for the funeral today. Please remember in prayer this broken family in their loss of a precious 12 year old girl with the face of an angel so fittingly named Angela.
Annette, prayed for Angela's family after I read what you wrote this morning.
ReplyDeleteEvery one's words, along with the scripture move me deep in my being and I oh, so agree with what you all share. yet NO words come to mind to express what I am feeling/thinking. You all bless me greatly and He uses your words to stir and shake things within me, I just can not express them. This is very frustrating to someone who has oh, so many words to use up every day. I ask myself, what do I want more than Him.....I know that I must seek Him for Himself and not for what He can give me or keep me comfortable with, but simply just Him. He is our great reward...He alone and nothing that He can give or will give. Just Him.
Father, You know those areas that are weakest, that threaten to distract me from following hard after you. Open my eyes and ears to them, that with Your strength I may avoid those pitfalls. Stir in our hearts a desire for You alone.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful words, Annette. You are such an unbelievable writer.
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