MP3 player dead...now plugged into my computer to charge.
Ear buds in my ears as I listen to music on my computer.
Finally, after "eternity" my MP3 player wasn't completely charged but I couldn't wait any longer to listen to some friends' CD.
As I do almost every day and at least once during those days, I couldn't help but listen to the Nebblett Family's newest CD, I Will Go. Why? Well, for example, two reasons are because the messages in those songs help carry me through the daily small and large trials of every day, and they remind of the path that I've dedicated my life to follow.
As time passed in the still, quietness, a storm began to slowly blow in. The air was quickly becoming chilly. The song "Bow the Knee" at that very time was playing on my MP3 player. Just as the wind began to blow strong with force, the words "...the cold and lonely winds won't cease to blow..." shouted in my ears as though God was especially emphasizing this part of the message. Within seconds later the rain poured down in sheets. I wrapped myself, my computer, and MP3 player in the hammock as drops of rain and the cold wind blew on me.
Such a message was just what God has been helping me to learn every day with my sprained knee and other trials. It's no new lesson. It's just one that I'm still learning and God wanted to give to me at that moment. It's a lesson that I am determined to learn.
You see, when trials and afflictions blow and beat on us like "the cold and lonely winds" that won't stop, we can find shelter and security in the comforting and loving arms of our Father, just like I was finding in the hammock. If we let Him, He will walk with us through every storm. And really whatever heartache we face, He's the One that understands and feels the pain more than anyone else is capable of.
When we experience this and keep our minds and lives anchored on the Rock, we can be filled and overflowing with perfect, abiding peace amidst the smallest and the most raging storms in life. (Isaiah 26:3-4) In fact, in God desires us to learn to rejoice in them. And through, Him I know and am learning that this is possible. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16; 1 Peter 4:12-13 ) And, praise God, our Shepherd and Commissioner has promised to be with us at every step on these uneasy roads of life when we dedicate ourselves to fulfill the commission that He has given us to rescue perishing souls--people whom He poured out all of His life for." (Matthew 28:18-20)
"The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He dose not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines. The blacksmith puts the iron and steel into the fire that He may know what manner of metal they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of affliction to prove what temper they are of and whether they can be fashioned for His work." ~ Help in Daily Living, 9
In this trial of a sprained knee and for every trial, I am learning to say "Thank you Lord." and to see that in a sense they are roses in the journey. Now, isn't that an oxymoron? Yes, through the natural eye; but through the Blacksmith's eyes, they'er invaluable in relation to having a character and life that reflects Him--to being Christ-like/genuine Christians.
Praise God! :)
I rejoice.
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