Whew! What a week! I hope that yours has been a little less as eventful as mine has. Sunday started with the a/c not quite working right, then ants invaded my kitchen and on top of that our fridge was acting a little funny! All that combined to make for a chaotic, what in the world is going to happen next kind of week. Last night as we ate dinner, Terry and I silently fretted over the fridge. After some stewing over his spaghetti he loudly exclaimed "This living by faith just never gets easier!" He is right. We have been on this road for a while now and still every time something comes up that is beyond our control we have to make a conscious decision to trust Him again! He has never, ever once let us down. Never. That is what I want to say to all of you right now. Alot of you are really going through some trials. Be it strained family relationships, lack of finances, etc. Any one of your situations is enough to make any one person throw their hands up and quit. But as a fellow desert walker I want to really urge you to hold on to Him!
The latest cd playing among the Smiths is the Passion 2011 album. Can you still call them albums?? Anyway, from beginning to end the songs are one anthem after another of praising our God! A friend gave it to me and I am convinced it was God-ordained. The songs have taken me back through my journey and I have recounted just where I have come from and where I am headed. One song that we sing, rather shout is "All My Fountains" by Chris Tomlin. "This dry and desert land I tell myself keep walking on. Hear something up ahead, water sounding like a song." Then it goes on to say "A fountain for my soul a well that never will run dry. I rambled on my own, never believing I would find an everlasting stream your river carries me home!" Now for those of you still in the desert and you feel alone I am here to sing, rather shout "keep walking on". If your lips are dry and chapped from the heat of your circumstances I am offering to you His word as a balm to soothe them. Psalm 119 is a great one to pray when you feel too parched to utter your own prayer. "May your unfaliling love come to me O Lord" the Psalmist begs. "My comfort in my suffering is this; Your promise preserves my life."
Another song, David Crowder tears it up with the rapper La Crae. He says "when the shadows fall on us, we will not fear, we will remember." The shadows fall at night in the desert. It can get cold. But then is the time to recount all the Lord has done for you. This should be done out loud, I think, so your kids will know who the one in control of all things and from where your help comes. Psalm 121, "I lift my eyes to the hills from where does my help come? My help it comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth". I have learned so much from my round trips in the desert. The desert is an important part of our journey. There we really see God. We see Him move on our behalf, on the behalf of our children and future generations. Is it not crazy that just as Moses saw God we too can see Him? Girls, He is real. So real you can depend your very life on it. I have learned He delights in those who live at the very end of themselves. That way He gets all the glory. Now living this way can be a little scary. O.k. alot scary at times. But I am sure Moses trembled when He saw the burning bush or when God hid him in the cleft of the rock as He walked by! Kind of like that huge roller coaster at Six Flags. I got strapped in next to Caleb and we both looked at each other like oh no what have we done. Up up up the hill we climbed then down down down we went screaming the whole time. But when we got off we were exhilarated and wanted to do it again and again! Now I know there are no roller coasters in the desert but work with me here.
I am pleading with you to get in the word, every day! As he convicts of those sins don't turn away push into it and let Him have them. Then and only then can we proclaim what the Psalmist said in 119. "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts!" Please join me as "I run in the path of His commands, for He have set me free"
Love you,
Carrie
