In The Quiet Place

Why is silence often so difficult to handle?

After all, we are weary of hearing all of the daily noise that rings in our ears. The headache is getting worse as we are surrounded by the chaos in this world.


And then it comes time to slow down.


We are able to run to God and hide in His arms.


To rest under His wings.


To be still and know He is God.


And then we feel like we aren't getting anywhere.

We wonder if God is really answering our calls.

Or we are scared of what He may actually be revealing to us. Something we think we can't handle. He may whisper to us something we don't want to hear.


So we try to run. We start a conversation with the desire of worldly pleasure in our hearts. We'd rather listen to the noise of our world than the whisper of God.


We look to the wrong things and even turn our backs on Him as we try to run ahead of our leader.

But the Lord determines the steps of man.

As we even take one step away from Him, He may gently guide us back to the path, showing us where to go.

He whispers, "I forgive you. It's okay. But stick with me, for I have great plans that you cannot even dream of."


And we slow down again.



Just don't speak. Be still. Live in the silence.


When you have nothing to say, maybe it's best to say nothing at all.

You can hear some of the most amazing things when you're not the one talking.


Take time to be quiet before Him. Listen for His whisper.


Just be still and know He is God.

He is sovereign.

He is holy.

He is almighty.


He is God.

And we are not.

The Meat and Potatoes of Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for!

God has not only blessed us with materialistic things in this world, relationships with others for encouragement to keep pressing on, and talents to glorify Him with. He gave us His Son. His one and only Son died on the cross for us so that we may have the hope of knowing Him more.


At Briercrest, I met a young lady who was blind. Yet she was so thankful. It was encouraging to talk with her and learn how much she loved God. She was totally on fire for Him! She praised Him even for her blindness. She thanked Him for the blessings He provided her with. That chat with her opened my eyes to see how much I have, and how much I take for granted. Even my eyesight. And I learned that maybe we're blind to some things, after all.


This Thanksgiving, I came home for the weekend to spend some sweet time with my family and friends in Regina. It was good. And our plans were foiled.

My grandma forgot her purse at Tim Horton's in Moose Jaw when she was driving me back home (my family came to pick me up at Briercrest), so I was left alone on one day as my folks made a road trip to retrieve it.

But it was okay.

A familymember wasn't feeling well the night that we were going to have our big dinner, so we post-poned that. I soon learned that my family ate our turkey meal when I was still in Briercrest. So I didn't get to eat the traditional dinner at my grandma's place.

But that was okay.

And we never actually had the BBQ planned for my birthday party at lunch on Sunday.

But I was still fine.

Because this Thanksgiving, I have only come to realize how thankful I truly am.

Satisfied

Enough - Chris Tomlin

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You are my supply
My breath of life
Still more awesome than I know
You are my reward
Worth living for
Still more awesome than I know

And all of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough


You're my sacrifice
Of greatest price
Still more awesome than I know
You're my coming King
You are everything
Still more awesome than I know

And all of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough


More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough

And all of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You

And all I have in You

And all I have in You is more than enough


More than enough


And all of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

And all I have in You is more than enough

And all I have in You is more than enough

Locking the Door

The house is not locked.

Neither is the room.

But there is a little cabinet in the corner of the room that is.


And maybe a particular section of our hearts are locked up, too.


Sometimes we forget what we have buried in our locked "cabinet" - in the depths of our hearts. We may not know that something is there. Then God reveals it to us. Before our very eyes, we see yet another sin exposed.


Is it because we fear God's wrath and judgement that we don't let Jesus walk into every single corner of our hearts? Or is our reaction to His knock on our hearts caused by something else?


Is it because we don't really trust God?


Maybe we should give Jesus the key to our locked cabinet.



But it's hard to do, isn't it? To let Him take control of your entire life.

Today in Spiritual Formation class, I found it very interesting to find several reasons as to why we are scared to give up all of ourselves to God. We naturally think that mission is the calling of God wanting us to go somewhere we don't want to. If we were to submit 100% of ourselves to Him - if we were to show how much we love Him by obeying His commands - that would mean stepping outside of our comfort zones.

And we definitely don't want to do that.


But how are we to be on fire for God if we lock the doors of our own hearts, shutting Jesus out of even one "cabinet" in our lives? How are we to teach others about trusting Him if we don't do it, ourselves? You can only teach others what you have already learned, yourself.


Today in Chapel, the idea of being on fire for God was mentioned.

We all know that if you're on fire, you stop, drop, and roll.

If we are on fire for God, we are to stop, drop, and listen in prayer.


God promised that when you seek Him, He will be found.

And sometimes we are so distracted by the "noise" surrounding us. We forget that we have to slow down.

If we want to follow Jesus, we must not run ahead of our leader.


As we go into this week and the weeks to follow, my prayer is that we would learn what it means to truly give up all of ourselves to Him. To hand Him the keys and let Him take 100% control of our lives. Or even that we may learn to stop, drop, and listen in prayer.

And still, in this busy life, noise surrounds us . . .