Blessings

The song blessings by Laura Story has become my anthem. I am learning to understand that life isn't about finding happiness. It isn't about having a lot of friends or having everyone like you. Life is about finding God in the small things. Its about seeking God even when He seems hard to find. It is about loving when the butterflies are gone. It is about letting God change you and mold you into His likeness. Sometimes he does that through our pain. Through our tears. Through our joys and successes. When Jason Upton was as our church he said something that really stuck with me. He said that it is easier for us to believe that God has abandoned us rather than believe He is right there with us in our pain. How true that is... Today at our saturday morning prayer, Chris Folwell encouraged us to press past the awkwardness of our "issues" with God. Sometimes when I pray I tend to ignore the "elephant in the room." The thing I don't address with God because I know that what I feel isn't true...but i feel it anyway. That he let me down... that there are certain things in my life I feel like I can't trust him with. But lets be honest. He can't let me down. He is the most trustworthy of them all... but yet i feel these things and they hinder my growth. Chris compared it to going out to dinner with our spouse and finding you have nothing to say. Or sitting down with someone we love knowing that the conversation to come is going to be really hard. I find it easier to ignore God when I am angry with him (which as said before... sometimes I am...) because I think it will get his attention and he will just "fix" everything. Maybe someday I will learn that God allows things to happen in my life that are outside of what I find acceptable so He can reveal to me a different piece of his character. My favorite line of this song says this:

What if my greatest disappointments, Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy.
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise.

What if: it is the lingering question. the great debate. But trust is a choice. God has never asked me to trust everyone. But he has asked me to trust him. "Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track." Proverbs 3:5-6 (The Message)

"what if trials in this life are his mercies in disguise"

Here are all the lyrics of this song. If you haven't heard it yet, you tube it. You won't be disappointed.

Blessings by Laura Story

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home,

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise