Monday, July 27, 2015

Dry



I have had the same words up on the wall all summer long.

The Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning;
Great is thy faithfulness. 
Lamentations 3

It's been a dry season with the Lord. Dry in the sense that I do not often feel close to Him.

But there is one thing that has sunk in deep as I've walked through these past months__ He remains faithful, even when I am faithless.

He has never asked me to constantly feel Him.
He has asked me to continue to choose Him, even when I don't feel Him.

His steadfast love never ceases, even when my love flounders.
His Word never changes, no matter what's changing in my little world.






I've listened to this sermon series often this past year. {John Piper's, When I Don't Desire God series}

He talks often of reminding yourself of what's true, even when everything in you is doubting everything about God.

So even though He seems far away, I've continued to preach to myself the very things that I know are true, in spite of the way I feel.

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable__ if anything is excellent or praiseworthy__ think about such things." Philippians 4:8

"All things work together for my good.." Romans 8:28

"No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly..." psalm 84:11

"Nothing can separate us from the love of God..." Romans 8:38\\/

Several years ago I bought a journal with some birthday money someone had given me. And as I have read through the Bible I have filled this journal with scriptures about all kinds of things.

Last month I pulled the journal out from under my bed and started reading though it, and before I knew it I had read it from cover to cover and not without tears streaming down my face.

Sometimes we do things not knowing how the Lord might use them at just the right season in our lives. I didn't know that filling up that journal with all the beautiful truths of my glorious God, would be the very thing that would water my soul in the driest of spiritual seasons.

We're about to start school in a few short weeks and I've been trying to remind this finicky heart of mine of the things that the Lord has promised me as we move forward in home schooling these treasures of ours...

"And my God will meet ALL your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

"I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Psalm 16:5-8

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him." Jeremiah 17:7

Even in the dry seasons He pursues us with mercy and love...

"His love was not cautious but extravagant! He did not love in order to get something from us, but TO GIVE EVERYTHING OF HIMSELF TO US." Ephesians 5

How I lose sight of this as I walk through my days, I have no idea. I'm just so grateful that He is faithful, always. His love is steadfast and fabulous. May my forgetful self choose to remember this, all the days of my life.