How It's Going to Be

I have felt a bit of hope creep back into my being today...hope and peace. Let me tell you why, and how I've been feeling lately...

I have had an overwhelming sense of looming sadness in my heart this past week, and some of it I know could be pregnancy hormones, along with other elements of my life, but for the most part, I'm thrilled with my life, and all that God has given me. ( I am learning to be more thankful for what I have) But why the doom and gloom feeling? As I've mentioned before, I've been reading through Isaiah and hearing all that was happening in his time in the land of Judah, the heartache the people were causing the Lord because of their rebellion, and of course, how our world today is mimicking those things..

I never like to focus too much on what wrong with society, others and myself, because honestly, there is SO much that's wrong...but that is not what I want to focus on today as I write.

Have you ever thought of this: there is going to be a day where Christ reigns, where good is more prevalent than evil and there truly will be peace in the hearts of all? I'm talking about some the things that Isaiah shares with us as he writes his book, and how it's a foretaste of things to come. Want to hear more? I thought so.

What I am speaking of is something that Isaiah calls the "day of the Lord" and it's depicted to be the time when Christ returns for His 1000 year reign. And I do mean, "literal" reign. In Isaiah 4:6 it speaks of how He will be present in our daily lives as "cloud of smoke by day and glow of flaming fir by night" much like how it was as He led the Israelites out of the desert...

He will be visible, and what we now know as "normal" is going to change, (for the better) Peace will overcome, fear will be demolished, and He will be the most important thing to all of us.

Although I do not fully understand how this will play out, what it's going to look like, and when it will be, I know that He promises this time of peace, and it's available to all who call on His name with a genuine and sincere heart. This is where I want to spend some time, because friends, the state my heart was in even two years ago, was not a place of genuine faith. And the pride that still continues to grow in my heart in ways that I am only beginning to see, I recognize the importance of examination of heart, and an understanding of the sin in the pride of man.

Let me explain something, most of my life, I considered God to be an glory hungry person, simply because He's God, and I guess, He wanted what He wanted. (selfishly) This is just not the case, God's desire for glory is one in the same as His desire for and love for us...Because He created us to love Him and we are most content and satisfied in life when we are living our lives as He created us to, things just work best. For we were created to love Him! Do you see the full circle? SO what happens when we love ourselves more than Him? Or when we love something else more than Him? Life becomes less satisfying, we become discontent and so we dive in deeper and deeper into the things of this world to fill what we are empty in. Love.

A love wrongly placed, is called idolatry. And idolatry in itself is a way we all sin against the Lord in, when we say in our hearts, and with our actions, "this is something I can't live with-out." I do not mean to be extreme here friends, but there is nothing in THIS world that we should say, "I can't live without it." Let me be honest when I say, there were many many things I could identify in my own life that I would border on saying, "I can't live with out it." Or life would be pretty stinky without it/them.

Mostly now, it's family that has the temptation to steal my affections for "1st place," but I SEE so clearly how my first passion much be for HIM...and not my children or husband...or any other person who is so important to me in my life.

I am not great. He is great. My life is not great because of outside sources, it's great because He is in it. And there was a day, not very long ago, that this was just not the case. I am learning so much about myself, and I see my name in the chapters of Isaiah as he depicts the sin of the prideful women in that day, how they held their heads high because of outside sources, rather than the Lord Almighty.

We take pride in many things these days, and we parade them around like we are God. And it's scary. Do you think that God would let us get away with things He punished the nation of Judah for? No. There woman were prideful, full of themselves, basically they paraded themselves around in their physical beauty and took much pride in this. There are many ways I have done this, and it saddens my heart. So in the days of "women's rights," "gay pride" and "tolerance" we have lost much of what we were created to be...( I am no exception) and so it was with the people of Judah.

Let me bring this home my friends...

It's not about us. When we get that, peace floods in. The other thing that happens when we put God first, and live our lives as we ought for Him, fear disappears, because we know, bottom line, we are held safe in His promise of hope for us...we have an eternity with Christ that awaits us.

I do not need to live in fear when God has been rightly placed on His throne in my heart, and I trust that He who created me, knows whats best for me. This is a hard concept for many, (me too) and for many years, I've fought that. But I see now, that one cannot live a life of satisfaction when someone/or something is more important than God. It just does not work.

My heart was heavy this morning as I went into my study, but when I emerged having learned what I learned today that there will be a day when "every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess, that God is love, and love has come, for us all..." (when we confess, and place Him first)

Let me leave you with a verse of peace, that depicts the joy of what we will see on that day when He returns, and He takes over...

"The wolf and lamb will feed together and the lion will eat straw like the Ox, but dust will be the serpents food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountains, Says the Lord!"

Isaiah 65:25

I want that day to be today. I want our world to be a world of peace. Only the Lord knows when this day will be, but friends, if you are out there, and you are wavering in any sense, wondering if a life with God is worth it...let me tell you...it is. And although I know there is still much ugly in my heart, I have HOPE and HIS PEACE in my heart for today, tomorrow and every day after that because He's got my life in His hold, and that is right where I want to be. Are you....?