Continued Stilness

The last few weeks have some of the most trying I've experienced in a very, very long time.  We lost our kitten Jasper, then our 14 month old cat Asher James.  As I sleep walked through the week leading up to Asher's death, my stress levels through the rough and my immune system in the basement I didn't realize I had been exposed to COVID19.  And sure enough, I got it.  So now the last week and a half have been spent dealing with the effects of that, which thankfully are very mild.  Still it was no fun being imprisoned in one room of the house, cleaning up after I ventured somewhere that wasn't my domain.  LOL  I am grateful that it was so mild.  We've all seen how bad it can get.  I'll take a minor inconvenience any day over a long drawn out hospital stay hooked up to machines and unable to breath.  My prayers go out to those people who are suffering so.

While on this forced sabbatical I've been reading "A Jewel in His Crown" by Priscilla Shirer.  In it she told the story of the making of a pearl, how a speck of sand or other tiny particle gets into an oyster and in response the oyster secretes a thin substance called nacre that wraps around the irritant.  Eventually the foreign object is remade into a pearl.  She went onto say how uncomfortable, difficult circumstances come into our lives, and it is our job to wrap ourselves in the Word of God.  The Word makes the changes in us that God wants to see as we go through the hard stuff in life.  

I know God was bringing me to the next step after "Be still."  It's not enough to just live in quiet peace, letting life's waves wash over and over us, but we are to rise up using the Word of God to carry us to the surface so we can walk on water, even in the storm.  We are still, because He strengthens us and buoys us and gives us faith to face our sorrows and problems head on.  He comforts us in our sadness, stays with us while we weep, carries us in our illness and loves us through all things.  I've been so blessed in this time of sadness and illness.  Honestly, would I choose, death and sickness to come into my life?  Probably not.  But can I be grateful that my Father is faithful, and I trust that He will cause all things to work together for good?  Yes I can.  And so can you.  

Lord, I don't know what others are facing, but I know You will be with them   Please let them sense You love and Presence even if everything is going wrong in their lives right now.  Let them know You will bring beauty from the ashes of their lives.  There is so much peace in knowing that.  It's so hard sometimes down here on earth.  We come against so many trials, so many desperate circumstances, yet You are faithful through them all.  Lord, help us to see You hand, to trust it even when it doesn't look the way we want.  Make us pearls to glorify You.  In Jesus' powerful Name.  Amen

Trust, be still and stay in the Bible!