Ups
Not U-P-S as in, United Parcel Service, but "ups" as in the plural form of "up". Ups and Downs, but in this case I want to write about the Ups.
Ahem. Anyway...
God is slowly but surely pulling me out of the perpetual funk I was in. I'm telling you, for a while there it was looking pretty dark. Not that what I was going through was especially challenging or monumental, just that it felt that way. Life was overwhelming me. I felt like I was suffocating, had no way to get help, and no one noticed. Every obstacle was insurmountable, every daily detail was too much. It was oppressive.
But God.
God, who promises to be faithful, IS. I'm so thankful that He loves me and that He pulls believers out of pits, even pits of their own making. I've been studying Exodus with the ladies in our church, and it is such a blessing to see God working on behalf of His people. He hears them when they sigh and when they cry out to Him. He works on their behalf, even when they can't see it. He is so good! I'm going to share one teensy little thing that stuck out to me in the study lately. I can't get it out of my mind, and that is this: Those victories that God gives, those times when He delivers us, He wants us to remember them.
You all know I'm a time person, right? I love time, I'm driven by time. It's probably one of my chief strengths AND one of my chief weaknesses. While I'm incredibly punctual, I'm incredibly inflexible. Anyway, I'm digressing... When God released Israel from Egypt, He said of the Passover night, "This month shall be a beginning of months for you; it is to be the first of the month of the year to you." In other words, Israel was to start a whole new calendar based on this one pivotal fact that God had redeemed them.
When we count time, we say something like, "It was two years ago in November; I remember because xyz happened then." When Israel counted time, it was to be always with that Passover in view, always remembering, always using that as their reference point. The beginning of months for them. When their children asked about Passover, they were to say, "It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes...With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery." (Ex 12:27, 13:14)
I want to remember like that too. I want to remember the bitter months so that the rescue from them is all the sweeter. God is so good, I am so weak, and God is still faithful. Praise the Lord!
Ahem. Anyway...
God is slowly but surely pulling me out of the perpetual funk I was in. I'm telling you, for a while there it was looking pretty dark. Not that what I was going through was especially challenging or monumental, just that it felt that way. Life was overwhelming me. I felt like I was suffocating, had no way to get help, and no one noticed. Every obstacle was insurmountable, every daily detail was too much. It was oppressive.
But God.
God, who promises to be faithful, IS. I'm so thankful that He loves me and that He pulls believers out of pits, even pits of their own making. I've been studying Exodus with the ladies in our church, and it is such a blessing to see God working on behalf of His people. He hears them when they sigh and when they cry out to Him. He works on their behalf, even when they can't see it. He is so good! I'm going to share one teensy little thing that stuck out to me in the study lately. I can't get it out of my mind, and that is this: Those victories that God gives, those times when He delivers us, He wants us to remember them.
You all know I'm a time person, right? I love time, I'm driven by time. It's probably one of my chief strengths AND one of my chief weaknesses. While I'm incredibly punctual, I'm incredibly inflexible. Anyway, I'm digressing... When God released Israel from Egypt, He said of the Passover night, "This month shall be a beginning of months for you; it is to be the first of the month of the year to you." In other words, Israel was to start a whole new calendar based on this one pivotal fact that God had redeemed them.
When we count time, we say something like, "It was two years ago in November; I remember because xyz happened then." When Israel counted time, it was to be always with that Passover in view, always remembering, always using that as their reference point. The beginning of months for them. When their children asked about Passover, they were to say, "It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes...With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery." (Ex 12:27, 13:14)
I want to remember like that too. I want to remember the bitter months so that the rescue from them is all the sweeter. God is so good, I am so weak, and God is still faithful. Praise the Lord!
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