A Multitude of Blessings

The longer I walk with my Lord, the more I see His abundant blessings on my life and I can't help but overflow with gratitude for His goodness and faithfulness!! Especially on this journey of faith and preparation for the special ministry He is leading me to in Ukraine.

Here's just a few of the blessings I have been counting over the last few weeks...

• an opportunity to share with and witness to a new acquaintance on the bus
• financial provision for my travels and for the ministry
• wonderful and encouraging times with the family of God
• wisdom as I prepare and speak of what God has been doing in my heart and my life
• the gift of not having to rent a car for my time in Thunder Bay
• peace as I learn to trust God especially in the times when I can't see the way ahead
• safety in travels
• patience for God's perfect will in my life
• meeting new friends and making memories with good friends I already have
• discovering new spiritual insights from God's Word
• quiet time alone with the Lord

These are just a few -- I filled up a page in my prayer journal the other day with thankfulness before I even got to the requests that were on my heart! We can NEVER thank God enough for His multitude of blessings on our lives!!

THE GOOD AND THE BEST

As part of my devotional time each day, I read a portion from "MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST" by Oswald Chambers. Today's devotional spoke directly to my heart as this is exactly what God has been teaching me over the past months...

As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you...God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice. Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough [not what God wants for us]...Many of us do not grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights...we have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, "...walk before Me..." (Genesis 17:1)

As I was sharing with some other friends this week, this is what God revealed to me last summer as I was trying to decide where God was leading. I should know by now that it's not up to me to decide, but I am still learning this lesson. And I have discovered the wondrous joy of giving up my rights and allowing God to choose where I should go -- there is a supernatural peace that fills the soul and the heart when I am following God's leading and when I know that it is the best purpose for me that He is working out in my life.

Lord, please help me to remember that what I think is good may not be the best, or what You desire for me. I want to walk before You with my eyes focused on You and Your faithfulness, and I thank You for the promise that if I will give up my "rights" that You will guide me in the way that You know is best for me.

LOOKING UP...AND HOLDING ON

The title describes how I am living day-by-day as I prepare for one of the biggest changes in my life. But it is something that I have to continually remind myself of, because learning to walk by faith is a process. I am so thankful that God is patient with me and that "He knows [my] frame, He remembers that [I am] dust" -- Psalm 103:14.

Looking Up -- I have been making a decided effort to spend time in God's Word and prayer before I start every day, and I've asked my prayer partner to help keep me accountable. Without this, it is incredibly easy to start looking at my circumstances and wondering if I'm going to be able to do what I need to do and how everything is going to come together. I need to keep "looking unto Jesus."

I started this post back in April, but am now finishing it on May 25th, and I am amazed at how God continues to teach me what He wants to do in my life...

Holding On -- It is easy, being a short-sighted and finite human being, to lose sight of what God has already done and what He is going to do to fulfil the good purposes He has for me. This "holding on" is, I believe, how we keep focus in the midst of changes and uncertainties. I need to remember what the LORD, our Sovereign God, has done already and to keep holding on to the truth that He "is faithful to all His promises" (Psalm 145), and as I do that, I will be encouraged as I continue to take steps of faith and trust along the way.