I love how God speaks through what seems to be the little things. This photo today was a perfect instance of this happening. As I was editing the portrait, I kept being reminded of the scripture I read last night, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light within you is darkness how great is that darkness?" Matthew 8:22-23
Our lives are but shadows cast only for a days time.
How is there hope in such grim truth?
There is life that gives light with no shadows who's days will never end.
And this Light is for the world.
God's presence within our lives is the only thing that truly matters. His presence is so evident in the world around us, that I can't fathom how everyone doesn't see it. When I think of His presence, I think of Him speaking through the little things.
God has always used the unexpected and most humble little things... Like Moses, a man who could not speak yet spoke through God to save his nation. Like the humble shepard David that took out the giant and became king. And of course, like baby Jesus, who was born in a stable. He was not the mighty king everyone was expecting to march in and save the world. And they most certainly didn't expect him to die on a cross, the most horrid and lowly death imaginable. But God unveils the meaning of His ways with time. He always has done the unexpected- ever since the Old Testament until today.
And just as God has used the unexpected to show His glory, He speaks to us through the little things and unexpected ways throughout each of our days. I'm reminded of prayer when I think of how it often seems we don't need to talk to Him about the 'little stuff'. God knows them all already. Why would He care? But He does care. He cares about every detail. An all-knowing, ever-lasting God wants to know every detail of my day. I'm smiling as I think of having this great God that never tires of my thoughts. For a girl that likes to talk a lot, I am so grateful for what an awesome God we have!
A lot of my thoughts are of my future- the adventures and the near-impossible that somehow seems possible to me. When I think about time and how quickly it passes, I begin to wonder where I'll be in just over a years time when I graduate. It humbles me when I'm reminded that my time on earth is short. Though time seems of such great value to us humans here, it is of nothing to God! To Him one day is like a thousand years. Our lives are, as I said, but a shadow cast only for a days time. How are we to find hope in this when thinking of our future if it truly is so short? Our hope is found in knowing that our life is not here! We are but passing through this world. The passage I read from Matthew 8 last night says, that we are "...not to store up treasures on earth. Where our treasure is our heart will be also." It is good to think of the future but only as God's gift to us, not our own. We are on God's time.
We do not know what the future holds, and never will. I catch myself thinking selfishly of what I want to do at times. When I found myself there tonight, I prayed that God would have his will with me. I have to remind myself that all I've done has been through the abilities that God gave me, not my own. The near-impossible only seems possible because I have seen what God has done in my life before and I'm confident in His abilties to do His will again in the future.
I can't say that I've ever truly 'heard from God', but after reading His Word last night and these thoughts and prayer, there was a moment when I truly felt Him put my fears to rest about my future. Though I've felt direction from God before, this encounter was something much more invigorating and instantaneous. I truly feel at peace with whatever is ahead after sincerly going to God with my plans for the future. I've been working lately on some personal struggles I've always had with getting down and deep into His Word. Though I've never had trouble with prayer or worshiping Him constantly in song, reading the Bible on my own has always been much more difficult to do.
Today's experience was something I felt I was much more intentional on my part than I have been in the past. For those that feel that want God's direction on something in your life, simply setting aside time to surround yourself in His presence is the solution. It doesn't happen overnight, making yourself more present in His Word and ways will put your heart at peace as you hear from him. I've always known that there's power in The Word. It took me getting into The Word to truly hear a word from Him.
With love,
Madeline