That Pressing Thing

Friday, in my very random and scattered brained post, I mentioned that God had been pressing something on my heart. Over the weekend, I had confirmation that it was time to share it. So that's what I'm going to do today.

To me, one of the greatest blessings of being a Christian is KNOWING that God is always with me. His Holy Spirit is living in me and I do not have to ask Him to show up because He is already here.

Hebrews 13:5b says: God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

What a comfort that is. God also tells us in Isaiah 43:2 that

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

That is SO precious to me because we live in a world where there seems to be a LOT of trouble. That really shouldn't come as a surprise because God's word says in John 16:33b that

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."


With that little bit of background, I feel like I can move on to the pressing thing.

One of the greatest things we can do for people is pray. I'm ALWAYS honored when someone asks me to pray about something. Especially when it's one of you. Each time you e-mail a prayer requests I feel so honored that you trust me with it. Thank you.

One day last week I received a pretty lengthy prayer request (from a non-blog reader) that broke my heart. Because of the nature of it, I will not share details. The writer is obviously hurting and working through some unresolved grief, anger, hurt, unforgiveness....we have all been there. My heart just broke for this writer and I sat staring at my computer screen saying "Wow, God. Am I even supposed to respond? And if so, you have to give me some words!"

There are a lot of layers to this situation, but that e-mail was a HUGE part of the pressing thing. It was like the final point in the lesson. :) I began to pray about the circumstances and situation and asking God to move in it.

What God showed me was this:

He is peace. He is love. He is healing. He is restoration. Sometimes as we grieve, as we hurt and as we work through the trouble that God himself told us we would experience, we need to stop asking Him to BE those things. He already IS those things. He is I AM.

Instead we need to simply look up and receive the peace we are begging for. Look at John 16:33b again

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

But now, read it with the first part of the verse.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Last week when I was speechless I posted on Facebook that I didn't even know what to say. It wasn't long until a friend posted this as her status. It was for me and the situation I was praying for. I hope it encourages you today.

"I believe Christ still grieves when He sees hearts in unnecessary turmoil. You can have the peace of Christ, believer, no matter what your circumstances; but you must believe, bend the knee, and learn to receive." Beth Moore

For quite sometime, God used different situations to remind me that there are times when I choose to stay in a state of unrest because I do not choose to bend the knee and receive the peace He is ready to pour into me.

I don't know about you, but today...I'm making the choice to receive peace.