unshackled

Truly, our God is one who answers prayers. He found me today. And He finds me now. My heart is so lifted!!! Everything can be so awful, but just one word from God, just one touch, just His presence, and you're fully refreshed. He is so good!!!

Today I learnt that...overdwelling on the details of your problems will get you nowhere. We should pray about them but even if it seems like God isn't doing anything to help, sometimes it's just because we're missing the point completely. And the point is: the very lives we live are only because of His grace. I love this song:

When I think about the Lord
how He saved me
how He raised me
how He filled me with the Holy Ghost
yeah He filled me to the utmost!

When I think about the Lord
how He picked me up
turned me around
how He set my feet on solid ground
It makes me want to sing -

Hallelujah! Thank You Jesus!
Lord You're worthy of all the glory
and all the honour and all the praise!!

I heard it today and I realised that my heart was too weighed down to praise Him. He filled me? So why do I feel empty? Solid ground? What solid ground? And then I realised I'd departed from living in His grace. I was out at...I-don't-know-where, trying to make things happen for myself. The beautiful truth, though, is that I will always fail at that. And because He loves me, He gave Himself for me, to cover me. I am engulfed by His grace.

Sometimes, no in fact, all the time, we try and take back the burdens. Jesus' yoke is light but we somehow prefer our own and insist on trying to run away with it. Some lessons we have to learn again and again...and I think this is one of them. Today I decided again that I really needed to just drop all the stuff I was carrying and go back to living, simply, in His grace. I want to live everyday like I've just been saved, like He's just picked me up and filled me. I want to go back to the cross, where His love and forgiveness poured out. I want my heart to be there always, overflowing with gratitude, and joy, and awe. Because in joy or in suffering, He is our portion. We can give Him thanks and praise in all circumstances, not without reason!

God is our refuge and strength
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

Selah*

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells,
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at the break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
He lifts His voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46:1-7