“It’s Time To Climb Up….Into His Lap” COMPASS THINKING

COMPASS THINKING…….

Compass thinking is what I introduced to my blog ten months ago.  Call it a new season of thinking…. but my reasoning behind this “new route” of communicating is that I’d like to just share with you some of what the Lord has teaching me in my journey down here.

I’ve found that we “need each other” to encourage, challenge, correct and uphold one another.  One thing we all have in common is that we aren’t perfect, nor do we have our “act” together as we see it appear on many social media posts.  I rarely walk the pages of Facebook; my time is precious: and I’m not into what people had for lunch or how they appear “air-brushed” and “all together.”  Sometimes perusing our cell phone information can be not only addicting, but very harmful, not to mention “distracting” from the important things in life.

So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to imagine that you are on the other side of my computer screen – and – we’re having “tea” or a “latte” together.  I’m a people-person, so I’d love your feedback or input anytime you’d like to share that with me.  Feel free to email me personally, and if you have “signed on” to receive my blog, your email address will be kept confidential.

These posts will be transparent and honest.  They won’t appear as perfect, so if there’s a typographical error, please grant me grace and mercy.  We’re walking this life down here in the grace and mercy of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  What a journey we’re on … but we’re not alone.

Since we’re all human, we experience similar challenges, fears, doubts and anxieties in our individual walk of faith as we continue to experience God’s faithfulness and direction in our lives.

When I think of a compass, I think of “direction.”

We often think we know what a particular word means – that is, until we use the dictionary.  I’ve often been surprised at my “Webster findings,” have you? 

A compass is an instrument for finding direction!

Well, that sure made my day, how about you?  I looked further.  Since ancient times when the compass was first created, it has been viewed as a symbol of safety and protection.  It can always guide you home safely and protect you from getting lost.

Let’s be honest here – whether you’re a follower of Jesus Christ (a Christian) or not…. God is always right…on any subject… regardless of your findings.  

All through the Bible we find that our “truth North” for our lives is Jesus Christ (Who is God…. with skin on).   He knows the route for each of us.  No two routes are the same, because each of us is different, so no comparison is allowed on this “earth trail.”  None of us can or should presume to give specific directions for another…. but we encourage each other and point to God’s Word and allow God to orchestrate the direction from there.

So, it’s right here that I’d like to begin sharing a sequence of events that took place this morning.  You might wish to grab a cuppa tea or coffee and lean into the “transparency of my morning quiet time.”  It felt anything but quiet, because it felt as though I was “screaming from my heart.”  Have “you” ever felt like that??  

It’s those times when, if someone were next to me and asked me the question: “How are you.”  I can feel afraid and very hesitant to be blatantly honest with them.

Honesty prevailing…. welcome inside my home, my mind and my heart.

IT’S TIME TO CLIMB UP……

INTO HIS LAP

My Mom has been in heaven for fifteen years, and I still miss her!  She wasn’t a “mushy Mom” with words and touches, but I knew she loved me.  She adopted me when I was two years of age and she was 38.  Most women of that age wouldn’t think of embracing and adopting a “two- year-old.”  Perhaps they’d want to begin with a new-born and go from there.  When I was young and needed a “tender touch,” all I needed to do was snuggle up close to my mom, so I could just “feel her arm” next to mine.  

Well, this morning I needed a full-blown hug from my heavenly Father.  It was time to climb up…. into His lap.  I began blurting out loud all my anxiety and worry.

I was hurting inside and didn’t know how to help myself out of the slump I felt I was drowning in.  The one thing I know I needed to do was “open my Bible” and continue reading slowly from where I left off the previous day.

Yes, you can call it depression!  Just because we’re followers of Jesus doesn’t negate the fact that we are also human and can get depressed.  He knows our frame…. He remembers that we are dust….and aren’t we appreciative about that fact. 

Psalm 103: 13-14 As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.  For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

We are in the throws of another “life transition.”  Most of us don’t “like change, do we?!  We’d rather stay in the comfortable here and now than move to the possibilities of there and upcoming. 

My husband and I are in the “waiting room.”  Most of us are waiting for something.  It may be a small thing or a HUGE thing.  When the wait goes on for months or years, it can enlarge itself to giant proportions and begin the conquest of taking over any hope in our hearts. 

Well, this was where I was at this morning.  I felt like God moved to South America and forgot to leave a forwarding address.  Yes, I know, it sounds ridiculous and of course, it’s not so, but nonetheless, my emotional level was off the charts the last week or so.

This morning, I woke up feeling “down.”  There, I’ve said it!  Gosh, I feel better already having shared it in print.  From time to time, I’ve shared with others that I wish, in the family of God, others would be a little more transparent, rather than be “just wonderful” all the time.  We know that’s not reality, don’t we.   Perhaps there’s a pound or two of pride in us that won’t allow ourselves or others to be “human.”

None of us have it all together, even on our best day, because we are human and we can succumb to the “blues” of our emotions.  We might as well be who we are…. HUMAN before our Creator/Father who reads us like a book…. fine print and all.

Again, in all honesty, I didn’t “feel” like opening my Bible; but I was desperate to not only hear from God and I was desperate to realize and experience that “He heard from me.”

I’ve been reading through my Bible for the ______th time.  I had recently read through the book of Job.  In my “not on the top” mood, that was a difficult book to ponder through, but at the end, I realized I have so much to be grateful for.

A few weeks ago, I began touring through Psalms.  This morning, I was reading Psalm 37.  For the last number of years, I’ve altered my reading pattern to not just reading through the Bible, but reading slower, meditating on what I’ve read, and asking questions on what I’m reading, rather than just reading chapters and moving on.

We can say we’re reading the Bible………but a slower approach I’ve found helpful is allowing “my Bible to read me.”  God isn’t impressed that we’ve read the Bible or done Bible studies.  He’s passionate about “the Bible reading us” and is “the Bible Study doing us…. changing us to be more like Jesus.”

I’ve seldom shared from my journal, but this morning, I’m allowing you a peek inside.

My prayer……

“Father, the extreme restlessness and feeling of dangling in mid-air, not belonging to any where and lack of motivation or passion…. all these emotions are intensifying within me.  I feel I’m lacking in hope and trust in You.  I know these are my feelings and emotions, but I need to bring them to You.

Feelings are just that – with no intellect – but they are real nonetheless, and I’m here pouring them out to you.  All this waiting in ‘mid-air’ seems pointless, but the truth of the matter is that they are not pointless; but more than likely part of the curriculum class in ‘patiently waiting on Your’ plan to unfold.

Lord, please give me inner strength and grace for today that I can function and have some motivation and encouragement too.”

I began to open my Bible to the next chapter of Psalms for this day.  It was Psalm 37.  I wasn’t long in the read until I came to the following two verses:

Psalm 37: 3 “TRUST in the Lord, and do good; DWELL in the LAND and FEED ON HIS FAITHFULNESS.”

The Lord’s response…..

“Trust me Dianne, do the next thing you need to do today.  Right where you live now, in Arizona, nourish yourself in my faithfulness to you in the past.” 

Psalm 37:4 “DELIGHT YOURSELF also in the Lord, and He shall give you the DESIRES OF YOUR HEART.”

Well, after this second verse, I looked up the word “delight.”

Delighting in God:  Righteous desires (not selfish desires).  To enjoy all the blessings that we find in God.  This delight is found in the “secret quiet time” that we spend in God’s presence.

Hebrew meaning of delight:  To gain great pleasure and satisfaction.  To be soft, tender, teachable and pliable in His hands. 

I read on-line these quotes: “

“Do my desires and intentions (what I’ve been praying about) fit Your (God’s) plan for my life?  Rest in God & trust Him.  The One Who would not spare His only Son will certainly provide all that His children need.”  Romans 8:32

“A believer must REST IN GOD.  When we fret about an issue or something that we consider necessary, we are neither committing ourselves to the Lord nor trusting in Him.” 

“Because our human viewpoint is extremely limited, waiting patiently rarely proves easy.  God, however, has infinite wisdom and knows when circumstances and timing are perfectly aligned for His will to be done.”

Then I read the Proverbs for today, Proverbs 14:26 “In the fear (reverence) of the Lord there is strong CONFIDENCE.”

Again, I needed help with the Hebrew meaning for confidence.  The chief Hebrew word translated “confidence” means to:  be open, trust, assurance, good courage, reliance.

Confidence in God means:  I can trust Him in all situations.  He is more than able. 

Ephesians 3:20

Seasons change…and our “PERSONAL SOIL” of location changes too.

The Silence of God

“Does God ever seem silent in your life?  What prayers do you think He has not answered for you?  

Ann Graham Lotz said: “At a time of unanswered prayer in my life years ago, my mother, Ruth Graham, taught me the verse to a hymn that I still quote when I am totally baffled by events that seem to careen out of the orbit of what I have asked:

Trust Him when dark doubts assail thee,

Trust Him when thy strength is small,

Trust Him when to simply trust Him,

Seems the hardest thing of all.

Is your focus on your immediate need blinding you to a greater purpose that God is working out?  Would you choose to be patient and simply trust Him?  Sometimes God does not answer our immediate prayer because He has something greater in store for us.” 

Anne Graham Lotz

Within the hour I went outside to attach a sign stating the hours of an upcoming “open house” per the instructions from our realtor.   As I was doing this, a man and his team of workers that were working across the street at our neighbor’s home, came across to where I was hanging up the sign.

He immediately began telling me how impossible it was to sell a house at this time….and proceeded further in giving me all the reasons he felt our house would not sell.  Might this be the enemy on attack to what God might have in mind.  I certainly heard “his roar.”

I allowed him to finish his discourse on the negatives of selling homes at this time.  When my lips began to open, and the outflow of God’s Spirit moved though my words, I told him of other times the Lord opened up a way…. where there was no way.  Yes, I was very specific.

The man was stunned and began to change his comments to the positive!  After hearing just a small portion of what I shared on how, when we belong to Jesus, He can intervene and meet our needs…whatever they are.

I then ran into our home and pulled out a copy of my book (Looking Through the Lens of:  God’s Word, God’s Will and God’s Ways) and my written testimony of my “Unexpected Journey.”  I gave those to him for which he thanked me for the book and sharing with him. 

I came back into our home thrilled at the opportunity God extended to me to share how Jesus can make a difference in our lives.

Moments later, I began to think about the events of my morning…from rock bottom to ascending on the elevator to joy unspeakable.  God made Himself known to my hurting heart through spending time in His Word; and then, He flooded me to overflowing as I shared some “practical truth” to this manager of a plumbing company that was helping a neighbor across the street.

I have no idea of God’s plans for selling our home, but if God can orchestrate a plumbing company to arrive at our neighbor’s home to meet her needs, and then further orchestrate the manager to walk across to where I was standing to hear about Jesus Christ…. HE CAN DO ANYTHING.

Thank you for reading my morning events….and my prayer for you is, that whatever you’re waiting on and anxious about, that God will meet you there and give you the direction and encouragement you need! 

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off.  You sit still and trust the ENGINEER.”  Corrie ten Boom

“Be still, and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10

Each day, our lives are a page in the story that God is composing.

Allow Him the privilege of  directing how He writes.

Proverbs 4:26 “Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.”