Have you praised Him?
Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him
today?
Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for
you today?
1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)
1-3The first thing I want you
to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.
Yesterday was an interesting day to say the least. We were up at 3am on the road by 4. Bags were
packed. We even had a snack or two in
the back seat. Made sure all the
technology was ready to go; phones, IPADS, Nintendo games.
If one didn’t know better one would think we were headed
for a trip somewhere, maybe a SPRINGBREAK destination was on the docket.
We even were up and gone so early I missed sending a
DISPATCH for only about the 3rd or 4th time since the
publication got started.
But yesterday wasn’t a trip to a sunny spot where the
water laps up the sand or where little cartoon people sing songs and a bottle
of water is $4.00 a pop. No, rather Beth
and I were on our way to meet our oldest at the James Cancer Center in Columbus
where she was to have surgery for her cancer.
Yep. Cancer.
I never thought I would use the word cancer and my
daughter in the same sentence, but life has a way of juxtaposing prose in some unexpected
and sometimes frightening ways.
And if truth were to be told, I was wishing we were
headed to the James for me. Cancer and
my name in a sentence surely wouldn’t be too far-fetched. I am the one who has lived irresponsibly. I am
the one who has pushed my organs to the point of shutting down. Why NOT me and why my oldest; my sweetest and
most unassuming child; the one who is committing her life and occupation to
helping others; the one who always seems to be getting the short end of the genetic
stick? It wasn’t fair and it surely didn’t
make a lick of sense. It wasn’t the way
that I would write it that is for sure!
But as I drove up Route 70 I was reminded…
Isaiah 55:8
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
1 Peter 1:21
…because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God
then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you
have a future in God.
And if that was for me it is for Hillary most certainly.
And that my job yesterday was to…
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do
not trust in your own understanding.
So I resolved to do just that. Stop questioning and start trusting.
And just as GOD has a knack for doing, he sent a friend,
one of my dearest friends, the one who changed my life with just a Word and
hope for the Lord, the one who prayed by my bed side and allowed GOD to turn it
around for me. And there he was again in
the prep room with the WORD that was needed for this surgery day, this scary
day for my little Hillary.
And as Mark read, I was reminded again that all would be
just fine.
Romans 8:18-39
18 I consider that our present sufferings are
not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the
creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by
the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself
will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and
glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been
groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not
only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan
inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our
bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at
all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not
yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our
weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts
knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in
accordance with the will of God.
28 And we know that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his
purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and
sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also
justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to
these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare
his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him,
graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom
God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns?
No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the
right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we
are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]
37 No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death
nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor
any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation (NO NOT EVEN CANCER), will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
It is truly glorious when TRUTH can carve through the
fear, the questions, and the anxiety and bring peace to the chaos.
Is that a WORD for YOU today? Do you need to hear that message this
morning? Maybe you are burdened with a
question or two yourself today.
Well here is the message.
It is simply this.
GOD has got you. GOD has got “it”.
Trust Him. He isn’t going anywhere. And He never will.
My GOD bring peace and confidence to you today as He did
us yesterday.
I love you all.
Freedom Church
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