O PRAISE HIM...Turn Your Gaze to Heaven, Embrace the Joyous Noise

Did you watch the music video???  

Part II:  

Psalm 27:4 "Wait for the Lord; and be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!"

I had been trying to make sense of everything in my life.  Desperately trying to put the pieces together and see what the puzzle makes.  I realized this is my place of quiet desolation.  My place to wait on the Lord.  But it's not enough that I'm still or that I'm quiet. 

 I must know that He is my God, that He is my hope, my strength, salvation.  That He keeps His promises. That He is faithful.  That He steadfast love endures forever.    The second half of Psalm 27:4 says, "And know that I am God."

As I look back through my journal to write this post, I realize that I'd recognized this place of quiet earlier on, but I was struggling so much with wanting answers.  I wanted desperately for my Lord to speak and to explain just a part of it all to me.  

He did speak.  But He didn't explain the way I wanted.  No, He didn't suddenly give me a revelation that made sense of it all and He didn't tell me what job I should look for.  But He showed me His faithfulness, and tenderly asked me to trust in Him.  Not to just say in my head that I trust Him, but to fully, completely surrender to the fact that I don't know what's going on, and I don't know what's coming, but I know who my God is.  And He will be faithful, and He will be true.  

And as I was writing in my journal in this state of desperate longing for my Savior, yearning for the Lover of my soul, I realized it wasn't direction I needed.  I just needed Him. 

The verse at the bottom of page I was writing on was Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."   

I was challenged by another day in My Utmost for His Highest that talked about how we limit God is our past experiences, to how we've seen Him work in the past.  I limit God to my understanding.

I've been reading through Isaiah, and right about this time came to Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

When I stop trying to figure it out and actually trust in the unchangeable character of I AM, I find faith in His ability and desire to fulfill his promises.  One of the pastors I listen to, Perry Noble, spoke about this in a series he just preached called "Make War."  Referencing God's command to Moses to go speak to Pharoah, Perry explain, "God didn't name himself  'I might be' or 'I used to be,' but 'I AM.'  'I AM' is greater than our 'what-ifs.' "

Pretty amazing, right?

Psalm 138:8 "The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.  Do not forsake the work of your hands."


Part III coming soon :)

~ Redeemed