Be Still and Know...Then and Now

I had never had a hip injection before so I was a bit apprehensive going into the procedure. Unless you have nerves of steel, I think most normal folks would experience moments of apprehension at the prospect of any medical procedure that involves long needles. During major surgery you have the benefit of being unconscious, however for this very minor procedure a small local anesthetic was all that was required. I was patient #7. It was like a human cattle call, we were all lined up in a medical assembly line, each partitioned off in our separate little curtained waiting areas with our warmed blankets, hospital gowns, matching disposable shower caps and fuzzy socks with the skid proof tread on the feet. The doctor actually had to help me put on my fuzzy socks as I could not bend over to put them on myself. She had come in to introduce herself. She took pity on me when she noticed that I had only managed to get one sock on. She bent down retrieved the lone sock and put it on for me. ...

We are in the book of Romans this week in our bible study. Chapters 6 through 11 to be exact. As I read and studied there was just so much to chew on in just a few short chapters. RO 7:14 – 19 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. This happens to me all the time. How bout y’all? The very thing I do not want to do is the thing I end up doing. I will s...

This small sentence from today’s “Streams in the Desert” really spoke to me. “We must not overlook the fact that faith on our part helps God to carry out His plans.” I have to ask myself how many times does my doubt or my fear of a situation or possible my unwillingness to be obedient hinder God’s plan? The truth is that God never needs my help, but He always wants me to yield to His plan. He always wants me to be molded into a more Christ like person. I am the clay and He is the Heavenly potter. I must be willing to submit to His molding, I must be pliable and allow myself to be shaped into whatever vessel He would have me be. It is my faith in Him that gives me the strength to proceed with a difficult task I may be asked to do. It is my faith in God that gives me the perseverance to continue to pray over a seemingly hopeless situation. It is my faith that will eventually turn my perception of hopelessness into an eternal truth that God’s promises never fail ( JER 21:44). It is that...