Hey, do you have a minute to sit with me? I just have a few things I need to get off my chest!
I can remember as a kid growing up in Bay Port… my cousins, friends, sister, and I would play outdoors for hours in the evening after supper. We had some games we just loved to play… Salt & Pepper, Statue, Green Light/Red Light, of course Tag, Your It!
What about “Mother May I”? Do you remember that one? One person was “Mother” while the rest of us would line up and take directions from Mother… always asking for permission before you fulfill your task. Baby-steps, giant-steps, scissor-steps, backwards-steps.
Anyone??? Does anyone remember playing those silly, childhood games?
Lately, I feel like I am playing “Mother May I” all by myself, but in the reformed adult version of “Father May I”. I keep praying for direction, but many days I feel like I am getting nothing… no response or maybe just teeny-tiny baby-steps!
A few years back, I came across this scripture that I know Holy Spirit gave me as a promise… a hopeful vision… something to cling to in times like these.
“I will open rivers on the bare hills and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land into fountains of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the olive tree. I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine together with the box tree— so they may see and know, consider and understand together, that the hand of Adonai has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” ~ Isaiah 41:18-20 (TLV)
In these times of drought… I have got to cling to this! No matter what this life throws at me or you… Adonai, the Lord Almighty, is working behind the scenes to produce something out of nothing in the life of His child.
I get tired! I live in exhaustion when I keep trying to figure it all out!
As I was baking cookies yesterday… here alone in the house, just me and the cat… I was having an out loud conversation with the Lord. Stuff was weighing so heavy on my heart! “Ok, Lord… what is it You want from me? What am I not seeing? I’m willing to do whatever you ask of me! I just need to know what that is!” Baby-step, giant-step, scissor-step? Cuz I feel like I am only doing backward-steps right now!
As I rolled out the cookie dough... rolling pin in hand, flour everywhere… the word that I clearly felt impressed on my heart was, “SURRENDER.”
Oooooh… I thought I had surrendered it. Hmmm… running around like a chicken with its head cutoff… you mean that is not surrender??? 😉
And something else… striving never happens in surrender!
Oh OUCH! Now that was a real blow! Conviction not condemnation!
You know what? I can’t figure it all out! If I could then why would I even need God???
Checking my heart… who does, or will the glory go to when the miracle happens? When the Lord takes this dried-up, drought ridden situation and turns it into a luscious, succulent, oasis… everyone will know it’s ALL because of HIM!
I have these verses highlighted in my Bible in Isaiah 30… verse 18, “Therefore Adonai is longing to be gracious to you. Thus He will be exalted, so He may have mercy on you. For Adonai is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him.” And the last part of verse 19, “He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears you, He will answer.”
Though Adonai gives you the bread of adversity and the water of oppression… Your ears will hear a word behind you saying: “This is the way, walk in it. When you turn to the right, or when you turn to the left.” ~ Isaiah 30:20a-21 (NLV)
Constantly abiding with God keeps us alive in the bad times as well as the good!
Blessed is the one who trusts in Adonai, whose confidence is in Adonai. For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, spreading out its roots by a stream. It has no fear when heat comes, but its leaves will be green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor depart from yielding fruit. ~ Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLV)
Lord, help me not to worry in this “year of drought.” Yield fruit through me… however You want it to be. In Jesus’ name.
In His Grace, Carin
#seasonofdrought #trustinHim https://www.instagram.com/carinorth/