Good morning…
My friend shared her request, “I am praying that God will break me out of this downward spiral.” I ponder her concern, lifting it to God, and I am drawn to page 176 in The Hidden Life to deepen and widen my prayer for my friend.
Betty Skinner, my now ninety year old friend, explains: “Year after year, I sat there and pondered all that God was teaching me. I sat there in the sunshine, in the cold, or in the rain. It didn’t matter; I watched it all. I watched as the raindrops splashed off the rocks, returning to God, and got in touch with the descending and ascending way. I couldn’t possibly ascend to God unless God first descended to me. My part was just to be open enough to receive Him. I had to be humble enough to descend with Him through my pain to the ground beneath on which I could stand before I could hope to ascend with Him to the higher places. If I had been afraid to persevere to the solid ground, I would have stayed stuck in the muddy bitterness of my pain. He has descended into me. I have descended through the pain. Now I can ascend with Him.”
Our part in God’s process is to be open enough to receive, to be humble enough to descend through our pain, and to persevere, unafraid, ascending with the power of our risen LORD.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace… Isaiah 55:8-12a (NIV),
Sue
