Good Morning All!!!
This week we will be looking at Sorrowing II and learning how to pray through Psalms 42 and 43. With Easter weekend fast approaching try to set aside some time before hand so that you do not get behind.
Hi there , I have worked through this study and meant to leave comments here sooner but where does the time go? It has been a good study for me as it has taken me back to places I have been. Sorry to say that is all I can say right now as I am out of time . I will try to comment further tomorrow .
All my good intentions did not work out over the weekend since we went away and then I had to catch up when we got back. This week I am off to Winnipeg to present a workshop to piano teachers, so will not have time for this study. Would you both mind if we keep this week 14 on the back burner for another week?
Hi Kathy, That is fine with me . I know how it goes and have been a little tight here more than once myself. I shall leave the comments I was going to make until later . Hope your workshop goes well !!
Well, I have just experienced another episode of "all in God's timing". What a great study this was for me and had I been able to do it the week I was supposed to, I do not think it would have had the impact on me that it did today. This past week I certainly had been experiencing a certain despondancy that is very uncharacteristic. A weariness had come upon my soul and all my praying for unsaved loved ones seemed futile. Then came a certain sadness because I was feeling that all my pleading with God was not being heard---until today when in this study and through Kevin's message I received the reassurance once again that all I need to do is pray my sorrows despite the "dryness" I might be feeling. So as TK pointed out so well I was given 5 solutions by the Psalmist. I was wrought with emotion in the past few days--partly due to exhaustion and partly due to concern over Heather's relationship with her boyfriend who seems to be strugglin with her faith in Christ and also partly due to me going through an intense time of missing Faith again. So, without even doing the study, Kevin preached about pouring out my soul and about meditating upon who God is and what He has done. By the time I had completed this study my despondancy had lifted. If only I had not been stubborn about it earlier on this week! Yet another growth experience occured as a result. Sometimes I feel like such an idiot for trying to accomplish a contented soul all by myself!!!
Guess I am a little mixed up as I just ended up psalm 126! These last few weeks I have done a fair bit of going down memory lane . I think that is because April has a lot of memories for me and sometimes is can be a hard time of year . I am looking at #4 , about God being the cause of spiritual dryness and allowing us to experience it as a way to strengthen us. I had a problem with this at first but he is sovereign so I began there . Most times if I see any dryness in my life I have attributed it to my unconscious separating from him because of busyness. That is when I get antsy and I have identified this as the Spirit prodding me to keep the Lord as priority #1, to rest in him and go hard after him at the same time .He will be found ~!Oh how he then refreshes me !
Then I remembered a time when I did not think he was there and maybe this is what TK is speaking of . It was the first a.m. after Mac died and as I was waking up I began to talk/pray to God and I felt as if there was this huge emptiness at the other end! It scared the daylights out of me .When I look back I wonder if in fact , that was the true beginning of my search for him . Did he do that so I would go hard after him ? I know him so much more than I did at that time and he has taken over so much more of my heart and life ! Is it because he had all this and more waiting for me that he was distant , or was I the one who was distant all along and finally had to come to the the realization of how real he is and how much I need him? I do not know the answer. It might simply be that the real , live Jesus walked into my heart and life at that time and because I had come to the end of myself, I realized the difference between him and the relationship he would have with me , and the "picture book " Jesus I had formerly recognized. Thanks be to God! He has keeps me looking forward .I have only to seek him with my whole heart and constantly "behold him" as Tozer says ! It never ceases to amaze me how much he strengthens and grows those who believe in him. John14:23 comes alive here ! I truly do prize , praise and proclaim him !
Thanks Joyce for your sharing about the "dry" times with God. I appreciate your openness because many times your comments ring home to me as well. I am so grateful that God is sovereign because if He was not, I would be in a panic all the time and would be trying to convince Him of things (which I do sometimes anyway in my sinful state)and then my faith would eventually falter completely. Perhaps this is partly the reason that some people do not come to Him---He has created a dryness in their souls besides the blindness spoken about in His word. But in this scenario unbelievers try to find satisfaction in things not of God to fill the void. In my sinfulness I do this as well----sometimes dryness can lead me off to fill myself with busy activities. But God in His mercy and love always draws me back to Him for fullness. Once again last night I lost sleep praying over Heather's friend Pat. I see her feeling so, so sad at their break-up, but we all know at this point in time it is for good and is God's will because we prayed about it. However, my soul just anguishes for his soul. Well, I will keep it up because God has a plan in all of this and I am hopeful for his salvation some day---with Heather in a relationship or not.
6 comments:
Hi there ,
I have worked through this study and meant to leave comments here sooner but where does the time go? It has been a good study for me as it has taken me back to places I have been. Sorry to say that is all I can say right now as I am out of time . I will try to comment further tomorrow .
All my good intentions did not work out over the weekend since we went away and then I had to catch up when we got back. This week I am off to Winnipeg to present a workshop to piano teachers, so will not have time for this study. Would you both mind if we keep this week 14 on the back burner for another week?
Hi Kathy,
That is fine with me . I know how it goes and have been a little tight here more than once myself.
I shall leave the comments I was going to make until later . Hope your workshop goes well !!
Well, I have just experienced another episode of "all in God's timing". What a great study this was for me and had I been able to do it the week I was supposed to, I do not think it would have had the impact on me that it did today. This past week I certainly had been experiencing a certain despondancy that is very uncharacteristic. A weariness had come upon my soul and all my praying for unsaved loved ones seemed futile. Then came a certain sadness because I was feeling that all my pleading with God was not being heard---until today when in this study and through Kevin's message I received the reassurance once again that all I need to do is pray my sorrows despite the "dryness" I might be feeling. So as TK pointed out so well I was given 5 solutions by the Psalmist. I was wrought with emotion in the past few days--partly due to exhaustion and partly due to concern over Heather's relationship with her boyfriend who seems to be strugglin with her faith in Christ and also partly due to me going through an intense time of missing Faith again. So, without even doing the study, Kevin preached about pouring out my soul and about meditating upon who God is and what He has done. By the time I had completed this study my despondancy had lifted. If only I had not been stubborn about it earlier on this week! Yet another growth experience occured as a result. Sometimes I feel like such an idiot for trying to accomplish a contented soul all by myself!!!
Guess I am a little mixed up as I just ended up psalm 126!
These last few weeks I have done a fair bit of going down memory lane . I think that is because April has a lot of memories for me and sometimes is can be a hard time of year . I am looking at #4 , about God being the cause of spiritual dryness and allowing us to experience it as a way to strengthen us. I had a problem with this at first but he is sovereign so I began there . Most times if I see any dryness in my life I have attributed it to my unconscious separating from him because of busyness. That is when I get antsy and I have identified this as the Spirit prodding me to keep the Lord as priority #1, to rest in him and go hard after him at the same time .He will be found ~!Oh how he then refreshes me !
Then I remembered a time when I did not think he was there and maybe this is what TK is speaking of . It was the first a.m. after Mac died and as I was waking up I began to talk/pray to God and I felt as if there was this huge emptiness at the other end! It scared the daylights out of me .When I look back I wonder if in fact , that was the true beginning of my search for him . Did he do that so I would go hard after him ? I know him so much more than I did at that time and he has taken over so much more of my heart and life ! Is it because he had all this and more waiting for me that he was distant , or was I the one who was distant all along and finally had to come to the the realization of how real he is and how much I need him? I do not know the answer. It might simply be that the real , live Jesus walked into my heart and life at that time and because I had come to the end of myself, I realized the difference between him and the relationship he would have with me , and the "picture book " Jesus I had formerly recognized. Thanks be to God! He has keeps me looking forward .I have only to seek him with my whole heart and constantly "behold him" as Tozer says ! It never ceases to amaze me how much he strengthens and grows those who believe in him. John14:23 comes alive here ! I truly do prize , praise and proclaim him !
Thanks Joyce for your sharing about the "dry" times with God. I appreciate your openness because many times your comments ring home to me as well. I am so grateful that God is sovereign because if He was not, I would be in a panic all the time and would be trying to convince Him of things (which I do sometimes anyway in my sinful state)and then my faith would eventually falter completely. Perhaps this is partly the reason that some people do not come to Him---He has created a dryness in their souls besides the blindness spoken about in His word. But in this scenario unbelievers try to find satisfaction in things not of God to fill the void. In my sinfulness I do this as well----sometimes dryness can lead me off to fill myself with busy activities. But God in His mercy and love always draws me back to Him for fullness.
Once again last night I lost sleep praying over Heather's friend Pat. I see her feeling so, so sad at their break-up, but we all know at this point in time it is for good and is God's will because we prayed about it. However, my soul just anguishes for his soul. Well, I will keep it up because God has a plan in all of this and I am hopeful for his salvation some day---with Heather in a relationship or not.
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