This subject has come at me in more ways than I can count over the past few days. I knew that Lord was preparing my heart for the message that He wanted to share, but I had no idea how or where to begin.
It started with a song that beat deep within heart and resonated throughout my entire being. The message was this – Come back to my heart. Come back to that intimate place with me. Come back to the basics.
The song by Matt Redman rose up in my soul – Bring me back to the heart of worship. The lyrics that are repeated over and over are ‘It’s all about You.’
When life gets overwhelming and even when it doesn’t.
When things are great or when things are tough, we need to continually remember that it is not all about us.
We need to shift our focus from us, to God who sees the bigger picture. To God, who is the author of our lives. ‘It’s all about God.”
My journey on this subject started when a friend of mine gave me a book to read by Laura Story called ‘When God doesn’t fix it’.
Because life is not perfect.
Bad things do happen to good people.
And God doesn’t always fix it or bless it or save it.
I know this from my own life, where I have experienced incredible highs and devastating lows.
During my second very difficult marriage, I experienced God’s love in the most significant way. He literally kept me protected in the eye of the storm, even when there was chaos all around. I never felt alone and I never felt hopeless. What I felt, was entirely loved by God. Even in such a bad relational space, I felt Gods peace and closeness. He never spared me from the whole ordeal but he carried me through. And it helped me grow in a way that I never would have without going through that experience.
As a result of that difficult ‘space’, I lived with a sense of God’s love and favor in every aspect of my life, until the one thing on which I had pegged all my hopes and dreams, got whisked away before my very eyes. I had believed that it was God’s promise and blessing to me and my family, so it was a devastating realization that the dream would not come to pass – at least in the way that I had expected it to. The whole ordeal left me questioning. Questioning whether I really was hearing God. Questioning whether I really could trust God with my dreams and desires. Questioning whether He really heard my prayers. And even questioning my faith in God.
I was mourning a great loss and questioning Gods great love and goodness.
I know that many believers have been in this place. Many have asked these same questions. But if I am perfectly honest with myself – I did still believe in God’s love and his goodness. I did believe and still do believe in His faithfulness.
I just didn’t understand the why’s.
Why some prayers are answered and some prayers are not.
Why some people are healed and some are not.
Why some people are blessed and others always struggle.
Why we think we hear one thing but get handed another.
But we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t ask questions – and God understands our humanity more than anyone because He created us.
His expectations of us are completely realistic whereas our expectations of Him are unmistakably unrealistic.
Gods plans are eternal and His blessing are usually for us and way beyond us.
We will never understand everything but we need to TRUST in God’s goodness. Romans 8:28 says ‘
And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.’
Most times, the journey that we are on is for more than just for ourselves. It’s also for those that are impacted and encouraged by our story.
It’s important that we be real with each other and we share our hardships and struggles with each other so that as we grow in our faith through our experiences, others can be encouraged by our stories which will lead them to grow in their faith..
Reading this testimony from Laura Story helped me to shift my focus from my story back to God’s story.
It helped me to shift my focus from me to Him.
To bring Him back to the very centre of my life.
If I am centred on Him, everything starts to make sense.
I can see things from Gods perspective.
I’m going to include a few points from Laura’s book which I hope will augment what I have shared.
‘Joy doesn’t come from our circumstances, it comes from our God. Joy is in the Lord. Brokenness is in the world. As long as we are alive, both will coexist on earth.’
We need to acknowledge and grasp the difference between momentary happiness and deep-seated, god given joy.
Most of us have an expectation of what our ‘happy life’ will look like. But it always seems just beyond our reach.
We think things like ‘If only God gave me this, I’d be happy’ or ‘If only God took this thing away, then I’d be happy.
But our joy isn’t and shouldn’t be based on ‘when things change…”
We can have joy in all circumstances – even the worst circumstances. We are children of the most high God. We are loved by the most high God. If we centre ourselves on God,the joy of the Lord will come into that very centre and then emanate out into every other aspect of our lives.
Despite our circumstances, joy does come in the morning.
Proverbs 3:6 (Living Bible)
In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.
Our Prayer …
Lord, I desire to reflect the kind of life which is wholesome and good and fun and full and sincere. My desire is that everyone that I come into contact with gets a taste or a glimps of you. I don’t want to be super spiritual so that no-one can relate but rather just so alive and so on fire and so enthusiastic that it cannot help but be caught.
The Lords heart …
My child, you can do all these things and be all these things, if you just soak yourself in me. Let me saturate you right through. In everything, think of me. Reach out to me. Reach out to others. Love me. Love others.
This song, King of my Heart, was the final prompting that I needed to write this difficult but important message.
KING OF MY HEART
John Mark McMillan
Let the King of my heart
Be the mountain where I run
The fountain I drink from
Oh-oh, He is my song
Let the King of my heart
Be the shadow where I hide
The ransom for my life
Oh-oh, He is my song
Be the mountain where I run
The fountain I drink from
Oh-oh, He is my song
Let the King of my heart
Be the shadow where I hide
The ransom for my life
Oh-oh, He is my song
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
Let the King of my heart
Be the wind inside my sails
The anchor in the waves
Oh-oh, He is my song
Let the King of my heart
Be the fire inside my veins
The echo of my days
Oh he is my song
Be the wind inside my sails
The anchor in the waves
Oh-oh, He is my song
Let the King of my heart
Be the fire inside my veins
The echo of my days
Oh he is my song
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You are good, good, oh-ohh
You’re never gonna let
Never gonna let me down
(Repeat)
Never gonna let me down
(Repeat)