God is Faithful

The short of this blog is the news that Matt received a phone call yesterday, totally out of the blue, from his doctor office saying that his surgery, the one originally scheduled for May that was denied multiple times, has now been approved and is on the calendar for the beginning of December!

You might assume that is why I titled this blog “God is Faithful”… it’s not.

The better part of this entry is talking about WHY God is faithful and how it has nothing to do with this surgery.

He is faithful whether I see it, experience it, or know it.  So it is not because it looks as if Matt will be having surgery that we are saying He is faithful.  He has proved to us over and over again His faithfulness in the midst of our terrible physical circumstances.  We know that all of our prayers (that also means your prayers), our fasting, our being anointed by the elders was not for nothing.  He is ALWAYS moving.  He is ALWAYS doing something.  Most of the time it is in our primary existence of the spiritual world, with it sometimes manifesting in to our physical world.  What has been incredible is that because we have chosen to trust Him through the heartache, pain, and agony, He has given us eyes to see Him in ways that haven’t manifested in our physical world, glimpses of His glory that is currently happening.  There has been such freedom and breakthrough for our own spiritual formation and for MANY of those around us too!

If we get a phone call tomorrow saying, "well, insurance retracted their approval and no surgery can take place", we STILL say God is faithful.  We have been challenged even further to not be swayed by tides of our circumstances in this physical world, but to trust that He is always moving in our lives, He is always drawing us near, He is always furthering His perfect kingdom through us if we let Him.

How do we let Him?  By trusting Him NO MATTER WHAT!  Jesus is our rock!  If we stand on Him then we will not be shaken!

Legs Like Twigs

The last 2-3 weeks have been extremely difficult for many reasons.  Tuesday it seemed to come to a head.  The song on Bethel Music's new album Tides sums it up quite accurately:

The wind and waves surround me
And I'm tossed, feel like I'm drowning
I am tired, I am weak
I need You here with me

'Cause I can feel the rising tide
But I don't have the strength to fight
I feel clouded and confused
I need you here with me

Yesterday I made a clear choice to only let the Lord protect me.  This means not retreating in an effort to protect myself, not taking the easy road and false comfort the enemy would provide, nor numbing myself with my own false comforts as to try and control the chaos by ignoring it or pushing it away.

This morning I spent time with the Lord outside on my deck.  This is what He spoke to me:

You are strong
You are strong because I Am in you
Rise up again in your authority
Rise up again in your authority
Stand on the solid ground

This verse Psalms 40:2 came to mind: "He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire.  He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along."

I then immediately saw a little bird land on my deck railing.  It just stood there looking around trying to decide where to go next.  I noticed it's legs since the last thing spoken to me was to stand on solid ground.  It's legs looked like little twigs.  It made me think that not only can I stand with weak, twig-like legs, but that it's almost preferred...

Here's why.

If the bird's legs were heavy little masses then it would no longer have the ability to fly -- to soar so high in the clouds.  So if I'm willing to stand up on the solid ground knowing that I will feel every bit of vulnerability in my frail legs, that is faith (trust in the Lord).

And if I have faith (trust in the Lord) to stand then I will soar on wings like eagles.

Getting up now.