Morning church

I attended church with my daughter's family today. She attends a large modern church, with guitars instead of an organ and many, many members. It's very different from the form of worship I'm accustomed to, but not something I'm opposed to - it's just different. I loved the messages that I came away with and was spiritually blessed during my worship there. And here are the things I brought home with me:

We sang mostly contemporary music with guitars and drums and worship leaders. Most of the songs I was not familiar with, but at the end of the music portion of worship we did an old familiar hymn (which is one of my favorites) and it spoke to me in new ways today. As I sang the words I've sung many times before, I was touched anew at God's compasion toward me during this particularly difficult year:

When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul!

Though Satan should buffet
though trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, It is well
It is well, it is well with my soul.

The words which especially touched me this morning were from the second verse: That Christ has regarded my helpless estate and hath shed His own blood for my soul

Have I ever felt as helpless as I have this year? Thank you God for regarding my helpless estate! And thank you that I can sing with assurance that "it is well with my soul"!

The other truth I'm committing to memory is something the pastor spoke:

When we are impotent, God is omnipotent!

I thank God for seeing my impotence...and for His omnipotence.

What a glorious morning of worship it's been. God has spoken to me and I'm so grateful for His clear, strong voice.

Joy

Sometimes, Lord, my heart is so full of joy I can barely contain it. I want to shout from the rooftops and run through the streets praising your name. I hold myself back for fear of being thought a fool - but I know I'm not. In fact, I think I'm less a fool than I've ever been. Because I know that my joy is in you. I know you are the author of all that is wonderful and precious in life. And I know that without you I would be lost.

Thank you God for the joy you fill my life with. Thank you for the joy of being in your will. And thank you for life and all its many travails and twists and turns. Mostly Lord, thank you for the joy. Thank you for allowing me to know the joy.

Confusion

God, sometimes in the night hours I cannot sleep. I'm so confused about things in my life and I'm searching so hard for answers that sleep will not come. Peace is elusive. My mind is in turmoil. God, help me find answers to my questions. Help me find the peace you promise. Help me to quiet my anxious mind and totally rest in you.

Life is such a puzzle sometimes. We live with people we don't always understand. We work with people that are sometimes difficult. We worship with people we don't always like very much. There is so much to be confused about when the people you think you know the best are total enigmas to you. And when the people you are told to love can be so unlovable. Life is just hard sometimes. We search for answers that don't always come. And we look for things it might not be possible to have.

But I know you are there for me Lord. I know you love me and I know you want me to have life in all its fullness. Thank you Lord for giving me your promises. I can rest in them until sleep returns.

Challenges

Sometimes life is such a challenge,Lord. Sometimes things just don't go the way we want them to, or we are stymied by the place we find ourselves, or we just can't seem to move forward the way we want to. Sometimes it's our family members who are suffering and we don't know how to help them. Sometimes our friends need help and we are unable to give them what they need. Sometimes life is just so hard God.

We need you so much. We need your wisdom, your guidance, and your helping hand. We need to know you are with us and we need to feel you walking beside us. We need you God. We need you.

Thank you for promising to be with us when we need you. Help us to reach out to you and to always, always seek your will. Help us not to depend on our own strength, but to covet yours. Help us to live like your children, triumphant and content. Help us, Lord.

Feeling good

Dear God what a blessing it is to wake in the morning to a new day, feeling good enough to get out of bed and clean my house or bake a cake - whatever the day holds is OK, I'm ready for it! After going through months of medical issues, including surgery and chemotherapy, I am more and more appreciative of the blessing of feeling good.

So many people suffer every day. So many people fight to get up out of bed and get through their morning. God thank you for my health and for my many, many blessings. May I never take them for granted. May WE never take the blessing of feeling good and being productive and active for granted.

Thank you God for such wonderful days.

Praise and thanksgiving

Dear God how full of gratitude and humility I am at your gracious faithfulness. I stand in awe of the fact that I have completed my treatments, my health is good, my prognosis is excellent - and I feel so good. Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God.

I know how unworthy I am to be the recipient of your grace. I know I can never be the kind of person I want to be. I am imperfect and sinful and I long for your perfection. And yet you have given me a new chance to experience life in its fullness. I am your grateful servant.

And regardless of the outcome of my own medical nightmare, I would feel the same way. Because you have been so close to me these past seven months that I have felt your touch, your spirit, and your constant presence with me every single day, throughout the long and lonely nights, and during those times when I felt there was no one else who really cared. You were always there. I always knew it. And I will never forget it.

Thank you for this time of spiritual and physical transformation. Thank you for your love. And thank you for your abiding grace to me, your undeserving child.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Amen

Independence

I'm so grateful every year to celebrate the independence of this country and remember how blessed I am to have been born here. It also reminds me every year that through you I have independence of another sort to be grateful for. I'm free from the bondage of this world and enjoy the glorious freedom of a life lived in your favor. Freedom - such a beautiful thing.

In the Psalms I read "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts" and in II Corinthians "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" and I know that the concept of "freedom" is one that comes from you, for only through you do we find true freedom. In church this morning we sang "America the Beautiful" wich includes a salutation to you as "author of liberty" and I nodded in acclimation!

Thank you Lord, on this weekend when we in this country celebrate our freedom, I can also celebrate the freedom that you have given me.