“I can’t believe this is happening,” I
said out loud as I sat there with tears streaming down my face. Placing the handset into its cradle, I
just stared at the phone, as the doctor’s words played over and over in my
head.
“It is level three cancer,
and it is very aggressive.”
I
didn’t know what to do--how I would tell my family, what to think, or how to
even wrap my mind around this hand that life had just dealt me. I was paralyzed in an instant, and in
that same instant, a flood of fury and worry, capsized with fear, infiltrated
my mind. My surroundings engulfed me,
and everything I knew to be true in my life, in that single moment, dissipated
into oblivion.
But GOD [how I love those two words put
together]. But GOD reminded me to Whom
I belong. He filled my heart and
instructed me to sit still to be fully present in my surroundings. To empty my
mind of all the chaotic thoughts that were striving to take first place in a
never ending swarm of theories and ideologies. He reminded me that He is present, and for me to be present
with Him, right where I am.
“Therefore
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about
your body, what you will wear. Is
not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of
the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you
by worrying add a single hour to your life?” --Matthew 6:25-27 [NIV]
Worry, doubt, fear, anxiety,
apprehension….it all equals death. Death of the spirit, death of joy, death of
hope, death of health, all lead to death of life. This goes against everything GOD wants and intends for me.
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Even in the eye of the storm of my
surroundings, or my circumstances, He is there, waiting for me to be fully
present with Him, right where I am. In the same way that olives must be crushed to make oil, He poured out His life as a love offering for all of us. He doesn’t ever want me to doubt that He is with me, and that He wants to take me to a place of comfort, peace, and victory. Even when I cannot see Him in my situation or circumstance, He is there, working on my behalf. He desires me to give to Him the crushing weight of my circumstances, and freely go to Him in prayer. When it is time to move in or from my surroundings or circumstance, He will walk with me through the valley and straight to the cross, where my trials will be transformed into triumph, and give me beauty for my ashes.
Encounter Prayer: You, O GOD, are my strength to
strength. I yearn for the day
wherein I see You face to face in Zion. I come into Your presence, Lord. Quiet my mind, my soul and my spirit so
that I can be forever present, right where I am. May I not give way to distractions,
but continually keep my focus on You, and to always shine Christ’s light to a
dark world. Better is one day in
Your courts, Lord, than a thousand elsewhere. May today, and every day, I meet You in Your courts. In Christ’s ever present Name I pray.
Amen.
Encounter:
- What circumstance are you facing that you think GOD cannot handle? How will you remove yourself from your own thoughts and stop being subjective, in order to seek GOD and gain His objective?
- What are you holding on to that is keeping you from being completely present in GOD?
- What, or who, do you first turn to in times of worry, fear and uncertainty? What steps will you take today to becoming fully present with GOD through all life’s circumstances?
Devotional contributed by Deanna Clardy of Younger Generation Church. Posted with permission by A. Allan Martin.
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