Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Day 100 - Praise Him in All Things

Wow 100 days! It is hard to believe I have been bloging for 100 days. If you are reading this, thank you for your love, support, and comments or just being there praying for me when you felt led. When I started this venture, I knew two things. First I really felt that the Holy Spirit told me that through this I would receive healing quicker. I really know that so far this is true. There have been many nights when writing has taken a weight off of my shoulders, or released pent up grief that I didn’t even know I had. The second thing that Holy Spirit told me was that many others would receive healing by reading this and experiencing it with me. My prayer is that this is true also. I believe that it is. I have had emails along with the comments on the blog that seem to indicate this, but I will probably never know for sure. So I pray for all of you out there who are walking through this journey with me. I pray that whatever area it is that you need healing in that God will touch during this process and that you will have complete healing. I know that He is faithful, and prophetically right now I speak a release of the Kingdom of God over you. May His Kingdom come in your situation, and healing be released.

I finished my last book report for school today. It’s due next week, so I am early. I have all my homework except for a little Bible reading that I will complete this week. I was counting the books we have read this school year. I think I counted 9 plus all the Bble reading and Bible study. It has really been a busy year. Anyway, as I said the other night; the last book was Bill Johnson’s “Strengthen yourself in the Lord.” I have read it before, and I was surprised at how much of what he said in the book I was already doing. One of the last questions on the book report was to pick what you thought was one of the most meaningful tools that Bill wrote about and then write a letter to a friend telling them how important it was and what it meant to you. Here is a modified version of my answer. I am really writing this to anyone going through any type of loss or time when they need God to move in their life.

Dear , (fill in a name)
At Julia’s death I had a choice. The choice was to look only at the circumstance or loss and grieve, or to strengthen myself in the Lord. As you know I chose the latter. I did this by immediately choosing to praise God in the situation. At Julia’s death after we had asked God and prayed for her resurrection we stood around her bed and I led us in singing praise to Him. At that moment His presence filled the room and even in the midst of intense grief, we were able to feel His goodness, love and peace. This is a tool you can use at anytime to strengthen yourself in the Lord. In the midst of any situation, if you choose to praise Him and focus in on His love and mercy, He will release His love and presence into that situation. The situation might not change, but you will change in the middle of it because you will gain His strength and His perspective. He will be with you in your grief or in you joy. His grace will be released to deal with any situation. So if you can learn to not stay focused on the situation, but begin to focus on His love and goodness, you can praise Him and release His strength in you to deal with anything. I hope this helps.

We only have this opportunity while we are here on earth. In heaven there will be no pain or loss. If I have learned anything over the past few months it is this. It blesses Him so much when we choose to honor and praise Him when we don’t feel like it. When it is just an act of our will. The good news is that when He is so honored, He releases so much of His love and blessing that we cannot help to receive it. We wind up receiving more than we give. He designed it that way. We can’t out give Him, but trying to is what we should do.
I guess 100 days is a milestone of sorts. If I were president the media would be weighing my effectiveness in office and things like that. But I’m not, thank God, so I can let the Father evaluate where I am after 100 days. I asked Him and He says He is pleased. It’s time for bed. Once again 3AM comes early. Tomorrow starts a new 100 days. I wonder what they will look like?

1 comment:

  1. your blog has certainly blessed me, Tom...I have found myself praying for your daughters and granddaughters many times. I too lost my mama suddenly 7 years ago...I have prayed for you too since I went through a divorce and the pain is similar but not the same..your words have helped me and I look forward to reading everyday. I even started to write my own blog..thanks for your inspiration..many blessings on you.

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