The Sun is Shining and There is Hope for Me Again

This title is from another Third Day song called The Sun is Shining and it perfectly describes the past month and half or so of my life. I half been walking around in a sort of darkness with a downcast spirit, crying out to the Lord and waiting for Him to answer and guide me. My trip to Missouri last weekend was like a break from my life here in Louisville. I was able to briefly escape the spiritual warfare, responsibilities and decisions that were weighing heavily upon me. The Lord was so gracious to give me such relief in this valley as He gave me rest and times of refreshing in His Word. When I returned to Louisville, however, it was all waiting for me. For the first few days of the week, I faced discouragement from the moment I opened my eyes and every day felt like a trial. Jesus Christ is abundantly gracious, however, and met me where I was. I know that phrase is used a lot and I don't want to sound cliche, but it's true. He by His Holy Spirit would bring sermons, songs and verses to my mind and when I listened to them, they were exactly what I needed to hear. The sermons were from MH's Believe series. Through them God showed me that I wasn't expecting the best, I wasn't placing my faith in Him and I wasn't fully trusting Him. I was living as if Romans 8:28 were not true and if I was in control. In essence, I had shifted my focus off of my Maker and Savior and placed it on other things. In my quiet time with the Lord, I have been reading through Psalms and Proverbs. Each morning and evening, the Scriptures I read spoke directly to my circumstances and reminded me of the hope I had in Christ. Even the verses at the bottom of my journal pages (and I have been journaling A LOT lately) were exactly what I needed. The Lord used these various things to show me my sin, call me back to Him and bring me out of my distress. He was actively teaching me, answering me and holding on to me. This is GRACE. On Wednesday, He was faithful to answer my prayer to give me a verse (Lamentations 3:21-24) to wake up with to combat the discouragement of the devil. He has renewed my hope, faith and strength and lifted me up out of the darkness. Plus...the sun is shining. :)

Today, I have been basking in the overflow of God's grace and I have been overjoyed with His goodness and faithfulness. The lessons from God these past few weeks have been many and hard, but the Lord's grace is more than sufficient to meet my every need. At Rolling Fields, we have been going through the many names of God (ways He has revealed Himself and that describe His character). Each sermon has been so applicable and I have been hanging on to every word. God truly is all that I will ever need. This morning we focused on how God is the God who sanctifies us. The focus was primarily on the Sabbath Day and how that relates to us now. The really cool thing is that this morning, while I was getting ready for church, I was thinking about how I really wanted to clean my apartment. Sunday, however, is my only day off and I wasn't sure if I should clean on my "Sabbath" or not. I wanted to honor the Lord's command to keep a day set apart for Him, but I also didn't want to fall into legalism. This is exactly what the sermon was about. As with all things, it has to do with the heart. God has us set aside a day to focus on Him because we are so apt to forget Him in all our activities and busyness. Christ, however, fulfilled the Law for us and has freed us from the demands of the Law. So after hearing this sermon and talking to the preacher, I decided that it was okay for me to clean. I enjoy cleaning for the most part anyway and I did so while listening to music so that I could praise God while I scrubbed. It was awesome.

Also today, I decided to order a new computer. Because I have all my programs from my last one, I could buy a decent base computer at a good price (especially since there was a sale this weekend). I tried to talk Dell into giving me free shipping (I was $16 short of the minimum purchase), but to no avail. :) With the funds that my boss has collected for me, I will only spend about $200 out of pocket and I will have a better computer than what I had before. The Lord continues to bless. :)

I will end with this passage of Scripture that pretty much describes my life these past few weeks. It speaks of a man that went through hard times and the discipline of the Lord and how the Lord restored his hope. The Lord has done the same for me:

Lamentations 3:1-9, 16-27, 31-33 

I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath;
  he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
  surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he has broken my bones;
  he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
  he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
  though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
  he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.

He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
  my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
  so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the LORD.”

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
  My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
        BUT this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
  they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
  It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
  It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.

For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
  but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
  for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.