Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Delighting to do Thy will...

Our family tends to draw attention. Either positive attention, negative attention, or just plain confused attention (when people try to figure out how Bryan and I made all these colorful children). People often look at us like we are crazy, or just plain called.

Our family also tends to draw a lot of questions like, "Are you done yet? or, How in the world do you do it?

Well today was a good reminder of "How in the world I do it." It is only by the strength of Jesus, that I even make it through the morning half the time. It is not me who does it, it is Jesus that does it all.

I was talking to a friend today about adoption. Adoption is a wonderful blessing, but it is not free from struggles. We tend to think of blessings in this light; smooth, fruitful, paved, or an opened door.

When we struggle, we often think of things in this light; this must be from Satan, the enemy is hitting us hard, or this isn't from God.

When Paul went from town to town, lead by the Spirit, Paul often encountered things like; stoning, beating, prison, and torture. Would we dare to say that Paul must not have been in Gods will if all things happened to him? Or would we say, Paul must have been ahead of God? No, we know that Paul's journeys were absolutely what the Lord wanted and allowed, even though most of the time Paul suffered a lot. However, through his sufferings Paul brought glory to the Name of the Lord.

Adoption is a wonderful blessing, one filled with pure joy and one that is filled challenges. Some days, I have sweet, beautiful, blissful days. Some days I don't. Some days, I am just tired. Not tired of being a Mom to my nine beautiful children, but mostly tired of talking (yes it is true). Some days, I just want to be...not that I don't want to be nurse, teacher, chef, etc.... but some days, I want to go to the bathroom with out talking through the door or breaking up another argument of who stole who's french fry, some days, I want to just be.

I bet that some days Paul would have loved to go into a town that didn't try and kill him. I bet some days he cried out to the Lord, "Lord, for real??"

The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. "I delight to do Thy will." Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same as His. The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God's word.

Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a center for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. ~ Oswald Chambers

Not that I can compare my life to Paul's life. I have never been stoned, or even almost stoned. But the journey I am on, is one that is not free from trials and full of blessings. Honestly, I don't want a life free of trials. The more the Lord teaches me, the more I have come to understand that the best place to be is completely sacrificed and dependant on Him. In my trials, and fears, I am just that. We can't do what the Word of God tells us to do independent of Jesus Christ. We must have Christ and trust Christ living through us.

Because we are dead to self and realize, it is not I who live but Christ, then we are able to do the things he has laid out for us to do. We will face trials, struggles, doubts, we will have fears, and second thoughts, but we DO have Christ. And for that reason, it is all worth it!

Christ is what makes our life possible. Christ is the reason we can do this thing called adoption. Christ is what gives us the strength to carry on. Christ enables us to do the things we are commanded to do. Christ, Christ, Christ! May we bring glory to His name!

~ If you keep My commandments you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy remain in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:11
















1 comments:

Elissa Hill said...

what great pictures!

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