My heart has been pondering since last night about the last line of my prayer post...that I want to be free falling into God's arms...
And then before I went to sleep I read the mentioned verses from my Jesus Calling devotional, it was as if He (God Almighty) wrote me a love letter to confirm that He is ready if I am...
Deuteronomy 33:27 (paraphrased by me, personalized for me or you if you replace my name with yours)
"I am the eternal God and I am your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Speechless?!
This is the one and only God.
And so I have been feeding on His words to me today in my daily struggles and joys. As I carry Malachi, my 9 month old baby around, shifting from hip to hip to rest my tired arms. As I snuggle with my daughter before bed and her lil' whisper, "tighter mom, hold me tighter" and I squeeze my wrapped around arms a lil' tighter...
God's words hit me in a new way. He wants to hold me. He wants to catch me when I risk the free fall for more of Him. And His arms are EVERLASTING. His strength never runs out. There is no readjusting from side to side or setting me down for a much needed break. His arms will hold me and lift me out of pits and catch me as I risk it and allow my disappointments of this earthly life to free fall me back to Him.
His Arms Will Uphold Me...and my family.
Amen!
I love this blog! What an awesome picture of God love and everlasting arms. DeAnn
ReplyDeleteI hear you about wanting to get up to have that time alone with God and his word... yet wanting/needing sleep. i'm just trying to establish a family devo time during breakfast... that's a miracle on it's own most days... but oh so good... even though they don't get it. :) laying the foundation now. we should get together soon. we installed our window AC now and have the pool up and running. email or call someday if you feel up to getting together!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your beautiful revelation of God's ability to catch, hold, carry, rescue... He truly is amazingly able. I love the picture of arms that don't loose their strength, because mine so often do. I love that even in your trials, especially in your trials, you draw near to God.
ReplyDelete-Shannon C-
I LOVE IT when God speaks so clearly and personally like that! Timing is interesting for me too because I had a vision the other day of being swept up in God's hug and spun around like a little kid who is treasured.
ReplyDeleteI resonate so much with the frustrations you experience both as the mom I am today and in my previous seasons of mothering when my kids were younger like yours are now. I am coming to understand that, on this side of eternity, we live in an ongoing TENSION — always wanting more, never quite satisfied. I think it's natural to get really frustrated with that tension but the fact that it's there is also an awesome reminder that God is continually present and wooing us. We can be THANKFUL for that hunger for more of God! But here's another perspective to consider: the enemy would want us to confuse that hunger with feelings of shame, anger, resentment, bitterness — the same enemy that comes to steal, kill, destroy and DISTRACT us from honorable things (like mothering) that bring us JOY and display God in us to others (our kids and husbands most of all). In every season of mothering, I want to be able to celebrate God's creative expressions of His presence IN and THROUGH me and my family (Philippians 4:8) and appreciate that the tension is, in large part, just evidence of a godly hunger that is precious and good — but will not be fully satisfied until eternity. With that perspective, I can be more content moment by moment and relationship to relationship because I am no longer striving or living in guilt. Instead I am learning more and more about what it means to rest — rest because I have my Constant in any chaos.
It's a gift that you can give voice to these things — helps a lot of us!