Blessings

Sometimes blessings come through raindrops...

I love to walk or run for exercise, but running has been my choice as of late.  Running or walking is "my" time with the LORD, I can talk openly with Him (by openly I mean that no one else is around or if they are I don't care if they hear me) and I can think about things without interruption. I do have music that I play to help me keep pace, most of the time I don't even realize what song is on because I am so busy thinking.
 But, one morning I was out running and was thinking about life and the cares and questions I had, things like why had my Mama died so young? Why was I not the kind of Woman that she was? Was I a disappointment to her? Why was I so selfish all the time? Why was I not as "good" as ______? Why am I not married? Is there something wrong with me? Why has my business not worked out the way I had wanted it to?  (Just several thoughts that weren't of the LORD and were bound to get me nowhere good). In the background of these thoughts I heard my music playing and the words just put my thoughts to rest..."what if blessings come through rain drops, what if healing comes through tears, what if a thousand sleepless nights is what it takes to know You're near, what if the trials of this life are your mercies in disguise.". Again my thoughts resumed..."WHAT IF? THEY DO, there is no what if about it." and it was like right there I did a face palm "DUH Elisha, this is what God has been teaching you all along" If things had gone the way that I had desired them to go then it would all be for the glory of ME, but it isn't about me, it's all about My LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST.
 Our pastor has been preaching on this very thing, the trials of this life are for God's glory (it took long enough to get through my thick skull)...anything that we do that does not give glory to God is sin. It is hard at first to think in these terms, it is like trying to form a habit.  The way I like to describe it is this way (and my sister would call this the "health freak" way of describing something spiritual):

When all you drink is water all you want is water and you know what true thirst is, but then we are introduced to sodas and other "sweetened" drinks...it is sweet and tastes good while it lasts, but we soon desire more and more but it never quenches our actual thirst. When we drink water we feel like we are being duped because it isn't making us "feel" good, but it is nourishing our body...it takes awhile for us to get back into the habit of drinking water and drinking enough to sustain our bodies and actually like it and rid ourselves of the damage the soda has done not only to our body, but to the brian (in that it made us think that it was better than water).
  The Bible is water, if we continually read it and desire it we will be nourished in it, but also desire more and more of it. But then, we are introduced to music, sermons, inspirational speakers, inspirational devotions, movies, and so much more that make us "feel good", it draws our attention away from the word and onto ourselves and the way we "feel". It takes a long time to get back into the word all the time and desire it more and more because these things have falsely made us think that they are a substitute for the LORD JESUS CHRIST, in reality they are the devils ploy to get our eyes off the LORD and onto something else...and usually it works. These things usually become idols in our life and many times we don't even realize that these "sodas" have taken the place of the "water" in our lives. Jesus is the Living Water.

So, you see even though that is a corny health freak way of explaining it, it still works. We have so much "soda" in our life that we don't remember how good the "Water" really is.

Back to the blessing part of this...lol...I chase rabbits so many times on here, thank you all for reading my posts anyway ;)

Many times we go through life wondering why "bad" things happen to us, when in all reality it is God's way of blessing, as well as humbling us. I feel that to often we we glorify ourselves and one another instead of deflecting glory to God, I know I do. I love praise and I will take it at anytime, but the hardest thing I have found to do is find a way to deflect that praise from others that is directed at myself towards the LORD, should it really be that hard? I think not.

The LORD has blessed me in so many ways and many times the only things that I can think about are the things that I am discontented about. I am going to try (with the LORDs help) to make sure that everything that I do and say is glorifying to the LORD. I also want make it a priority in my life to bless others so that they can see Christ in me. Christ should be my first priority and if He is first in my life does it matter how I feel? Does it really matter?



Here is the song that helped me reflect on what I was really thinking: