October 11, 2008
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Submitting to God’s daily will for my life..
I’m beginning to teach myself that my full days are the new norm in my life. I keep looking forward to the day when things will ‘settle down’ but I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘those kind of days’ are a thing of the past… a previous season of life. This is where God has me today and I need to accept His will for me each day and not complain but be thankful.
Our renters moved out and left the house in bad shape so I have been painting and cleaning for the past 2 weeks. I’m thinking I may have another week to finish up and then hopefully I can get back home to finish organizing my garage from the move. I grumbled and complained a lot the first day after I learned how much work was ahead. This was NOT the way I had planned on spending my days. We were in our new home and I had so much that I had planned on doing. I had waited two years to move and my nest was needing more fluffing.
But, I determined after a full day of complaining (a.k.a. sinning) that I would die to my will and submit myself to the Lord’s plan for my days AGAIN. Such a hard lesson for a ‘control freak’ to learn.
We don’t always get a glimpse into God’s plan for our lives or why He has allowed certain things to take place in our days. But, last week I was actually able to see the ‘good’ coming out of the financial mess we’ve incurred from the damages done to our rental. Because I was working on the rental I was able to have a long talk with a family member about Jesus Christ and give him the gospel, give a gospel tract to a sales clerk at Sears and many opportunities to give strong exhortations to another Christian who is planning on doing something that would not glorify God. Most likely none of these things would have been done if I had been given MY WILL to do what “I” wanted to do.
I pray I am making progress in this road of sanctification but oftentimes I wonder. If it were not for His Word promising that He is working in me I would despair that I was not!
…. for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil 2:13
These lessons have been confirmed to me as I’m nearing the end of Stepping Heavenward. What a blessing it has been for this season of my life. I’ve gleaned so many wonderful instructive gems on submitting to God’s will in the daily, common place things. Here is one of my recent favorites…
“Katy?” Helen suddenly asked, “Do you always submit to God’s will thus?”
“In great things I do,” I said. “What grieves me is that I am constantly forgetting to recognize God’s hand in the little, everyday trials of life, and instead of receiving them as from Him, find fault with the instruments by which He sends them. I can give up my child, my only brother, my darling Mother without a word, but to receive every tiresome visitor as sent expressly and directly to weary me by the Master Himself; to meet every negligence on the part of the servants as His choice for me at the moment; to be satisfied and patient when Ernest gets particularly absorbed in his books, because my Father sees that little discipline suitable for me at the time; all this I have not full learned.”
Comments (2)
That is a great quote from that book. I know what you mean about full days. God will have to give us strength, because we often do not have nearly enough. And He does if we are obeying Him.
Oh, dear Georgene, I have two favorite fictitious books–HINDS FEET ON HIGH PLACES and STEPPING HEAVENWARD. I led our ladies through Stepping Heavenward and the study by Kistner a couple of years ago. WHat an awesome study!! It is a book I will undoubtedly read often. About 7 or 8 years ago, the ladies had heard me speak of how much God had taught me through HINDS FEET. And so, they challenged me to write a study to go with the book. With God’s guidance I did and we met weekly to discuss it. Since my husband’s death, I continue to pray that God will reveal His plan for me. It has long been my desire to teach the lessons I have learned from HINDS FEET (which are straight from HIS Word) to other ladies in mini conferences. We shall see if this is His plan. At any rate, I was so blessed when I saw you referencing Stepping Heavenward. I love these classics! Love you, dear sister, and am lifting you and your family up to our gracious Lord—paula