My sacred time with the Lord on Monday past, took me through Isaiah 54:6-10 [“The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer. To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”]
and there I was reminded of God’s love for me.
Sometimes when I am going through a tempestuous time, I do feel like “a wife deserted”, as though I were truly abandoned. This period in time along my spiritual journey has filled me with doubts and fears. I know however that, “with deep compassion” God in HIS time will make all things beautiful. So as I wait for daybreak, I’ve recognised glimpses of ‘light’ along my way.
A glimpse of ‘light’ shone through last weekend when someone called to thank me for praying for the healing they received. Another glimpse of ‘light’ burst through when I got word that a promise of financial assistance was on its way, but that I needed to stay where I was. More ‘light’ came by way of the sermon preached on at the Sunday morning Eucharist. The topic was “wrestling with God” from Genesis 32:22-28. Like Jacob I am holding until I am blessed; but I needed to repair the breach between my Dad and myself and, I was led to call him and let him know he can count on me as he goes through his illness.
As daybreak is beginning to open, a ray of light came to me in the form of a young Aboriginal deaf woman seeking assistance. Admittedly, my first impulse was to say, “I’m sorry not today”, but in obedience to the Holy Spirit I gave her a bag of coins that needed to be rolled. This amounted to a little over $12.00. I must say the joy I felt when I saw her facial expression was overwhelming and I knew in my heart that I had done the right thing.
I have learned much as I journey through this period in my life; [a] before any “daybreak” I must go through the darkness and, [b] I must be obedient to the Holy Spirit. Finally as I conclude my “sacred time” another scripture verse comes to encourage me further, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” [Psa. 27:14].
If you are like me waiting for the daybreak, to you I say, "be encouraged".
