I can't stop singing Matt Redman's 10,000 Reasons. The first time I heard it was in church two weeks ago. We had a Service of Praise because we were celebrating the miraculous return of a local three year old boy that had been kidnapped from his bed. I heard it again last Sunday, and I have been humming it since. I can not remember the last time a song has had this kind of hold on me.
Now I don't know if many of you are like this, but I am the type of person that will be really into the music of a song but have no idea what it even says. Several times I've found my self singing along to a super catchy, slightly raunchy song and then have to do a double take because I had never paid attention to the lyrics before.
What ever may pass and whatever lies before me, Let me be singing when the evening comes
I downloaded it this week and really focused on the meaning of this beautiful song of praise.
No wonder I was tangled up in it! It is amazing how God speaks to you even when you are not fully listening.
I have been in such a negative place lately. I HATE uncertainty. It makes me a nervous wreck, but that has been the status of my family's future since December. I know everyone thinks we are crazy for picking up and heading to Canada for Rusty to work, and they are right. We are insane, and I have been letting those thoughts consume me to the point that I have not been a very loving wife or patient mother...forget about dutiful servant of the Lord.
I recently regaled two of my best friends with a long ventfest/pity party about how we have no certain plans right now and how angry/scared that makes me, and they reminded me that my Worst Case Scenario for the future is that I get to be with my husband and child while we work toward a better future for our family. God has a plan for us, and He is greater than anything I can worry about.
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing, 10,000 reasons for my heart to find
I am starting to believe the Lord brought me here to pull me away from hundreds of distractions and to set my heart on fire. I think He is as tired of me being luke-warm as I am.
I hope you will hold me accountable for singing a symphony of His praises rather than the cacophony of complaints that usually roll out of my mouth. I would like to start by doing a weekly "segment", if you will, listing some of the 10,000 reasons I have to praise Him.
10,000 Reasons Week One: I praise you Lord for your wisdom in my ignorance for your strength in my weakness. I praise you for the healing power of music and good friends. I praise you for answer prayers I haven't even prayed yet.
And, I praise you for this face and the joy it brings me everyday.
And on that day when my strength is failing, The end draws near and my time has come
Soon my soul will sing your praise un-ending, 10,000 years and there forever more
10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman. Check it out.
Jess, I was interested in reading this. I'm glad to see you growing spiritually, that may be one of the reasons for this time you are living through. I wanted to tell you about a book we are studying in our ladies Sunday morning class, it is a Max Lucado book called Traveling Light. I downloaded it to my reader, it is available on other services, I'm sure you can too. It isn't a big book, but it is very good. It talks about the various things we weigh down ourselves with in our lives and how to handle those things and look at them from God's perspective. There is a study guide in the back. Just thought you may be interested.
ReplyDeleteWe've definitely had our ups and downs, a lot of downs, over the 31 years of marriage. There were a lot of times that I wasn't the supportive wife I should have been because I didn't agree with the decisions Brad made or I felt he should be doing something different. I can tell you, everything does happen for a reason. We can't see it at the time, we just have to trust God and continue to live our lives following him. When you get through something, you can often look back (sometimes it may be a long time later) and see the reason you went through it. God has a bigger plan than we do.
Your friends are right, follow it through to the worst case scenario, usually it isn't near as bad as we build it up to be. Enjoy your time out there, Izzie is in my favorite age right now. I love 18 months to about 32 months. Keep praying, God will provide for you guys.