How the Lord Teaches

Or maybe that should say, "How the Lord Teaches Me."

When I started spending dedicated time studying His Word is when the Lord really started working in my life. I can trace His hand so clearly. 

It was when I started sacrificing my time in the beginning. I was reminded of this talking with a friend the other day. When the kids were little, I couldn't get up early because as soon as my foot hit the floor, their little eyes flew open. It was a disaster.

I confessed to the Lord my desperation to spend time with Him, but asked Him to have grace to cover the tired mom and the sleepy children that somehow seemed to help defy the Scripture's suggestion that one rise early in the morning to spend time with God. 

I actually offered up something ever more precious than sleep. 

The first moments that everyone was deeply asleep at night. 

The kids went to bed early, thankfully, since they didn't nap. As soon as the house sank into quiet and stillness, with ringing ears, a tired body and a spinning head, I would climb into bed (why? I have no idea) and dedicate that time to studying God's Word. 

I'm not going to lie. It was hard. I wanted to shower. Or sleep. 

But I didn't. I obeyed. I studied. 

And He blessed.

Immeasurably.

As the kids got a little older, I was able to sneak out of bed and with a fresh mind, and body, study in the early quiet of the morning. 

This slowly, and do I mean slowly, became such a precious, precious time. I remember thinking though, "Oh good, tomorrow is Saturday. I can sleep in."

I wondered when it would stop being a duty, even though I was learning and growing, and become a passion. A desire. A longing.

That was probably when this time became a necessity. When I couldn't function without spending that time with Him. When the anxiety or the unrest or the tension or the doubt filled me without the time spent with Him. 

Or when I realized that I missed Him. Like you miss a spouse or child or friend. When I didn't meet with Him, I missed Him.

How strange.

When the weather warmed, I started hauling my coffee, Bible, legal pad, pen and whatever book I was using as a study guide outside to sit at the table on the patio. Bella would follow me out and either bark at birds or lie at my feet. It was harder not to be distracted by the outside world, but I came to enjoy being out there. 

Fine. It also allowed me some quiet away from my early bird children who think 6 am is a perfectly normal time to get out of bed. 

Stinkers. 

{{{I'm told at some point they become teenagers and sleep all day. This seems to be an urban legend, but I'll anxiously wait to see if it's true or not.}}}

The Lord somehow seems to always direct what I'm to study, and I never cease to be amazed at how He uses it in my life. I can't recount how many times I've been able to use something I read that morning during the day. Or I'll read something later in the day what I studied in another seemingly random place. Or that will pop up in a sermon, either at church or online. 

Oh, He is so faithful with His Word!

This week was so beautiful. As I plod through Isaiah, I long for more time to study it fully. There is so much history, so much complexity, and I know I'm not really studying it to the fullest. Nonetheless, God has blessed me so much with this book. I finally made it through the first half of the book and was so happy to get to the "comfort" part - the second half.

The title of the chapter in the commentary was "How Great Thou Art." This made me laugh out loud when I opened to this page, since I had belted this song out in my kitchen washing dishes just a few days before, for the first time in ages. And it was also a song on one of my current musical obsession albums:

I guess you could sum all this up to coincidence, but I know better.

The three main points of this chapter of the book that I was using to study Isaiah were this:

1. God is greater than our circumstances

2. God is greater than our fears

3. God is greater than our enemies

Amazing truths. That I don't always act like I know, much less believe, but there I was, studying them out. 

Verses from this chapter leapt off the page and pierced my heart:

Isaiah 26:3-4 "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock."

Isaiah 30:15, 18 "This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength...' Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him." 

I heard God challenging me: 

"Do you trust me?"

I felt the fear and uneasiness well up in me. Trust. Here we were again. 

Suddenly... a breeze caught the pages of my Bible, and out fluttered a paper. 

I set all the books/papers/Bible on the table and heaved my self out of the comfortable chair to chase down the offending paper that had flown out of my Bible. 

I didn't recognize it as mine, and I quickly identified it as one that our church gives the school-aged kids as they leave their classes. I flipped it over and my heart skipped a beat. 

"Oh, Lord. Okay. ALRIGHT..."

At the bottom of this sheet of paper was this verse:

"Those who know your name will trust in you,

for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you..."

Psalm 9:10a

Really? Those kid sheets never find their way into my Bible. Ever. I'm sort of weird about my Bible. I won't write in it, no one else is allowed to use it or touch it, really. It's just mine. They have theirs. I have mine. 

But I hear you, Lord. 

I do. 

I just sat, in my chair, and let that verse flow over me. I looked over to the left and saw a bird.

Again. 

It occurred to me, in that moment, that there was a bird at that same spot every single morning. 

Now I know it's summer and birds are everywhere. I realize that birds are probably in everyone's yard. I really do.

But here's the thing. I do try to get up at the same time every morning, but I don't. Especially in the summer. I do get out there most every day, but at different times. And I promise you this. At what ever time I'm out there, studying and reading and praying, there is a bird at the exact same spot in the yard. Not always the same kind of bird. I'm no bird expert, by any means. In fact, I know approximately three types of birds. And one of these birds is a robin. But there are others-other types of birds that I can't identify. Always in this same spot every day. In my yard.

Finally I was like, "Okay, God. What's the deal with the birds?"

Is it just a coincidence, or am I just finally going a little nuts? Or are you trying to teach me something?

I mean I sort of got addicted to birds back a while ago.

 

I got this necklace because it reminded me that if His eye was on the sparrow, then His eye was one me.

Ohhh....

Wait. 

Are there birds in my yard to remind me that if you are caring for their every single need, then surely you are caring for every single need of mine?

Oh, wow...

As I absorbed this bit of information, my eye fell on a verse in my book:

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

make music to our God on the harp.

He covers the sky with clouds;

he supplies the earth with rain

and makes grass grow on the hills.

He provides food for the cattle

and for the young ravens when they call.

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his delight in the legs of a man;

the Lord delights in those who fear him,

who put their hope in his unfailing love.

~Psalm 147~

That was it. I packed up my things, took them inside, shoved on my running shoes, jammed on my ear phones and headed out the front door. I needed to process and pray and worship.

Because that's how God does it. When I dedicate my time and seek him diligently with everything I have, He comes to where I am. He sends stinking birds. He orchestrates everything to bring about His desired purpose.

He teaches those who seek Him.

I do not take that lightly. The God, the Creator and Sustainer of the entire Universe meets me in my back yard to teach me? Are you kidding me?

It's too much for me to comprehend. I mean, really. It's too much.

Fast forward to today, when I just so happened to take my son to a particular store to meet a mom who will have him for a spend the night party.

We wait in a store that I would have never gone in had we not been waiting. And as we wait, this came in my field of vision.

I may or may not have said out loud, "Are you kidding me?"

It was this:

Let me just tell you that it's a journal, and along with those blasted birds, birds I said,  is the title that nearly yelled at me from the rack:

"Lord, I cherish your Promises Journal."

Oh, so don't think that I didn't fork over the few bucks for that journal. 

It's full of Scripture that quote God's promises to us.

It was too good not too.

My poor yellow legal pads have taken a beating out there on the patio these mornings. It will be nice to have a hard back journal to write in, although now I have a sentimental attachment to those silly legal pads. 

But here's the other thing. When I opened the journal to the page where the ribbon was bookmarking a page that had this verse:

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. 

Oh yeah, it's from ISAIAH. Of course it is. 

Isaiah 54:10

You know, I could just dismiss all of this with a brush of the hand. 

"It's just coincidence..."

It would be easy to do that. But I can't. I feel the Spirit's tug at my heart. I feel Him whispering that He is the grand conductor in an orchestra that is playing just to me. Not for my own benefit, mind you. The orchestra that is using all of God's Word and creation and members of the body of Christ to sanctify me and mold me and teach me and ready me for whatever He has coming.

To say it's humbling would be a grand understatement. 

I am thankful, though. How paltry those words those feel in my mouth. 

Thank you.  

How do you thank Him, really? For salvation? For the gift of His Word? For all He's doing and bestowing?

All I have is my life. I reckon I'm just going to thank Him with that. Spend this life showing Him how thankful I am.  

Thankful for those birds. I hope they keep coming to my yard. They really do encourage me.