Little lessons. Little God visits with big impacts. If I keep my eyes, ears and heart open I can see them all around. Our Father giving little insights, glimpses into His heart, instructions for growth, bits of encouragement....His touches us, interacts with us, giving us His attention and keeping our relationship vital and alive.
Over the last few days there were quite a few. I think one of the benefits to spending more time with the Lord is we become more sensitive to His Presence in our day. I love it!!! I'm going to go with the last one first because it's caressing my heart right now when I really need the Lord's comfort. It's twofold in application, admonishment and encouragement all wrapped up in one beautiful present from my Savior.
Last night was an extremely trying night at work. We are short handed, short spaced, short equipment...on and on and on. And on top of that my body is still healing from knee surgery, and just getting used to being back at work. And it seemed everything was going wrong. The equipment wasn't working right, the mail that came in was difficult to work with, things were falling all over....UGH!!! It was quite east to start down that "Don't You love me? Don't You care? Don't You want to help me? road. Some times I got a bit farther than I would have liked down that road. But the Lord reminded me of a verse He gave me a couple of days earlier (and then repeated the same verse when I was on lunch last night. Godincidence!!) Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And it kept pulling me back to faith.
Add to that verse the second He gave me at lunch last night. Romans 15:13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is in believing that I have joy and peace, not in having perfect circumstances, not in everything going right or the way I want it to go. Our Father is so good. I am learning more and more He is quite the encourager even when He is admonishing me to step up my faith walk!
Now to the comfort part of that last verse. I have a kitten. He was a foster kitten, but I have formally adopted him. His name is Jasper and he is just the sweetest little boy. Loves laps and cuddles, purrs like a motor boat. Jasper is very sick and will not be getting better. And even though he has only been with us about a month, he has taken up a very large place in our hearts. God used the same verse, Romans 15:13 to comfort me and remind me that He is my hope, and He has Jasper in His hands as well. We have the hope of heaven, as does Jasper. Losing someone we love, be it animal or person...we have that hope. Life doesn't cease to exist just because we no longer live on the earth.
And yes, I firmly believe there are animals in heaven. First off, God created them in the beginning with us. He thought there were good then. Why would that change in heaven? Secondly, Jesus comes back to do battle with Satan's armies on a horse. Where did He get the horse if there weren't animals in heaven? Thirdly, and this one is subject to belief, there have been cases of people who died and visited heaven before being revived and they saw animals there.
God is so good.. He is our greatest teacher and our biggest comforter. His Word and Spirit lead us higher and soothe our hearts. I am so glad to be His child.
Our Savior, our sustainer, You walk with us throughout our days reaching into our moments to make Your Presence and will known. Keep us alert! We are forever grateful to be Your children. The blessing in that is beyond comprehension, so undeserved, but oh so wonderful and amazing. Thank You a million times!!
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