In Your Hands

May 9, 2022

Thank you Yahweh for another day. Thank you for your care in my life. Thank you for the patience that you have shown to me and for being you in all your goodness and your love. Thank you.

My life is in your hands, has always been in your hands, but sometimes (too many times) I’ve attempted to do life on my own. It never quite turned out as planned (as I planned). Thank you for transforming me into who you want me to be. It is a continuous process, never ending until the day that you return, but at each moment you are preparing me for what you have called me to do. 

I have to say thank you for your Spirit that allows me to approach each day with anticipation instead of dread. Each day as a new opportunity. Cleanse me Yahweh so that nothing comes between us. So that every word but I speak would be acceptable to you, would be representative of you. Thank you for your never ending, everlasting love for me. 

Yahweh, I pray for the staff at work. Help us to honour you in our choices. Help us to trust in you and to know that it all things you are good and any plans that you have for us would come into being and those plans are good. The words we speak be of you.

Today I ask that you go before me and prepare the way. As things are brought before those in charge, may they find favour in their sight by your Spirit. Harden not their hearts and let the decisions that are made be ones that improves the department. Your will Yahweh in my life. 

James 4:7-8 – So place yourselves under God’s authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters.

CONFESSION: This morning I felt very quiet. Not that Yahweh was silent, but like I wasn’t hearing. And I wondered why. And I also wondered if I should just go back to bed. But I did not feel comfortable doing that so I sat in quietness and after a moment, the thought came: Yahweh uses so many ways to speak. Don’t limit myself once more. Don’t think that because you’re drawing closer to him, that even in the mornings before I start the day that he would always use the same method of speaking to me. The truth? In these morning sessions with you, I have grown to expect you to communicate directly with me. Filling my thoughts with your words and desires for me and for the day. And I was a little bit worried and started to wonder if maybe I did something wrong after all. Last night in discussion with Steph, I felt your Spirit and when I got home I realised that she is to be on this journey with me. I have walked as far as I was supposed to go alone and the rest, until further notice we were to walk together. And then this morning, it felt like I was hearing crickets. I was struggling. But I am thankful for your Holy Spirit who is always there (you are too), but the Spirit is the one who breathes into us à la Ezekiel 37. (Which I did read not too long ago, as in five minutes ago). It whispered, this isn’t all I have for you today. So I did something that I haven’t done for a while in the mornings. I started listening to a sermon and this scripture came up. James 4:7

1. Place myself under God’s authority. 
2. Resist the devil and he will flee.
3. Come close to God and he will come close to me.
4. Clean my life.
5. Clear my mind.

This is a new season I am entering into and the devil will try harder to lull me back to sleep. But a few months ago I lamented that Jehoshaphat should have continued in prayer even more as he found opposition, instead as the Moabites sacrificed and the anger grew bitter against the Israelites, they withdrew and then went back to their usual place: their own country (2 Kings 3:27).

I can’t go back. Prayer is never wasted and there are times that we have to push past the blockage and see what Yahweh has in store in this new season. The funny part was that two days ago, I saw attacks and felt like he couldn’t get to me so he was attacking those around me. But the attacks on me were more subtle. But there is a God that I can lean on. A God who I will keep my face toward. That even when I’m being lulled into sleep, he would literally send a message in a different way to remind me to keep praying. Thank you Yahweh for who you are, for never leaving me, for keeping me every step of the way. For shoring up the walls and repairing and for opening up my eyes when they were tempted to close. 

Yahweh, I pray for Steph, cover her and help her to turn completely to you. To keep her eyes fixed on you no matter what it looks like now. You are her father and you know the plans that you have for her. Grant her the strength, your strength in her weakness to resist the thoughts that Satan would try the plant in her mind. Help her to resist and to draw closer to you. Help me to resist and to draw closer to you. You are our God and King and I am thankful for your presence in our lives. 

Sermon:

1. Who am I now?  Daughter, Bridge, Challenger, Writer, Beloved.
2. What have you called me to do now?   Pray. Even more. Spend even more time in his word. Study your word. To prepare fully for the next season. To learn the technical and the creative. Set aside time to learn each day. 
3. What is the season that I am in and what do you require of me in this season?  Transition. Preparation

Do not desire anything less than what Yahweh has called me to be. 

Do not get comfortable in the season that I am in. Yahweh will always be calling for me to move forward into a new season.

Opposition can be a sign of a coming change in the season. 

Lack of opposition can also lull me into a false sense of security and can cause complacency and attrition. 

In Solitude but…

In solitude but not alone. Yahweh, you are in my life, leading me and protecting me. Thank you for keeping me on the path that you have set before me. Father, I am thanking you for your provision, for your protection, for showing me a completely unexpected next step. Like out of nowhere next step. And I will trust you. I will trust you to move forward in what you have called us to do. In solitude but not alone. I truly wasn’t expecting this. Thank you for your revelation on the dream. Thank you for your grace and favour over our lives. Help us to keep walking in your will and to trust you in all things. I love you. I love the way you work. Thank you for being all that you are and for making me into all that you desire for me. 

It’s interesting that it wasn’t Vinny, but Steph. Well, I didn’t see any of this coming but if I had, I would have thought Vinny. But I am thankful that my thoughts are not your thoughts and I surrender my thoughts and my ways to your thoughts and your ways. You are an awesome, amazing, Incredible God and I give you all the glory. You deserve it. It belongs to you.