Freezing Rain

My morning yesterday was met with freezing rain and sleet, like most everyone on the east coast.  Precipitation in one form or another!  So my day that I had planned began to unravel.  No church, no play practice-which we desperately need-no evening church either.  So I was feeling pretty bummed.  Because without those services, I don’t see people.  It also means I don’t get my spiritual meal for the week.  If I get that meal, that one meal, I am pretty good all week with that little snack we get on Wednesday night.  So I began to dread the day which lay ahead of me; Stuck in my own home, with no people.  Well don’t you know God always has a plan?  My neighbor Tina Forren calls and says Randy is out getting gas at Sam Black for the generator, he will stop and pick you up for a cup of coffee.  So I jump at that!  After all Jacob is snuggled in front of the TV with the latest Xbox game, Call of Duty!  His idea of being snowed in and mine are totally different.  So I visit for a while.  Enjoy good company and good coffee.  Tina is putting up her Christmas tree.  I like that!  Not quite in the mood to put mine up.  But it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling just for a few minutes.  We even talk about Jesus and the Bible.  What God has planned for our lives.  Not as good as the spiritual meal I would get at church but a close second.  After I came home, Jacob of course is hungry.  He is always hungry!  Tanner is stuck on the road trying to get home from Wheeling.  I fix lunch and the mound of dishes in the kitchen is calling my name!  So I start all those little chores I had hoped to avoid today.  I don’t get a lot accomplished but I make a dent.  Then the power goes out.  As I set in the dark I thought about the day and how Gods plans interfered with mine.  But at the end of the day, it wasn’t what I had planned, but it was good.  I got to visit with friends, did a little cleaning I had put off for way too long.  I even enjoyed my kids, although brief.  God is like that with every aspect of my life.  I make plans and what I call interference is actually THE PLAN for my days.  It’s just I don’t check with Him first.  I try to remember to ask Him, what are we doing today?  Instead of saying this is what we are doing!  But sometimes I forget.  I start getting bogged down with life and I realize I am trying to do things my way, my time without asking God for direction.    And yes, sometimes it takes a freezing rain storm and a power outage for me to get it!

Are you like this?  Is life getting you down?  Or maybe things just aren’t going the way you planned them?  Or maybe you just don’t know which direction you are supposed to take?  Well I can tell you, I have been or actually I am at these very cross roads.  Things aren’t going the way I planned them because I planned them!  I don’t know which way to go, but God knows!  So yesterday I had plenty quiet time.  I asked!  And oh boy, He just doesn’t hesitate to tell me!  Just like the freezing rain came down all day on Sunday, so did Jesus!  He rained down on me all day long.

Hosea 6:3

He will come to us like the rain.

Sometimes in life we don’t slow down long enough to hear what He has to tell us.  We may pause long enough to pray, but do we wait around for the answer?  So yes, He sends us a storm to get the answer across to us!  And sometimes the storm is accompanied by a power outage.  He takes everything away from us so that we have no other choice but to hear.  So here I am in the dark with no distractions and I hear Him say this way!

 

Jeremiah 29:13

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart

So for those of you today who have prayed and haven’t heard back?  You haven’t received your answer?  Chances are He is trying to tell you but you are distracted or you are busy with work or even church.  Sometimes you schedule so much “stuff” that you can’t even enjoy the real true meaning of Christmas!  So here is what I suggest.  First of all slow down, life will still go on no matter what!  Even if you don’t get to that sale at the mall before Christmas!  Slow down and listen with all your senses, even your heart.  Most of all your heart!  You may have to power “down” not necessarily “power out” as I had to do!  I am a tough nut to crack sometimes, so He has to use drastic measures!   Just listen and you will hear Him!

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.