As You Will, Lord...

 

“There is always something to be happy about if we look for it:

‘Two men looked through prison bars, The one saw mud, the other stars."'

 

Amy Carmichael

 

 

The woman sat alone in the night,

weeping loudly as her hopes and dreams lay

shattered in a million tiny pieces at her feet.

 

Those dreams were godly ones.

They were full of vision and promise

for her family...

the future hopes and plans full of promise,

godly aspirations,

lay crushed and broken.

 

Her heart had always been committed to the
Father's will for her life.

She never did want anything but what He wanted.

She had surrendered her whole life in death to herself

and had risen to newness of life in Him so many years ago.

All those years, the Father had faithfully grown her,

pruning off what would not bear much fruit

and she had yielded to Him in all things.

 

The things she had wanted and hoped and prayed for

were very much God's heart for His people.

But she knew that she could not make others do

what they must in order to walk in harmony with God.

 

That night, weeping on the hearth before her Father,

she once again surrendered her life to Him who

holds the future in His hands.

Pouring out her dreams as incense on the altar of surrender,

she told the Father that she was willing to be part

of whatever He called her to.

 

And from that day forward, new mountain heights were hers.

Views so spectacular that she could scarcely contain it

became a special part of her life.

Her heart was knit with the Father's even tighter than it had been before.

 

And the Father placed beautiful moments

in her life amidst the broken dreams.
As her Savior had experienced so long ago in the desert,
angels came and ministered unto her.

She was privileged to rejoice with the angels in heaven
to see lives changed

by the transforming power of Life
 through repentant faith

in the Son of God...

she was privileged to see God confirm the promises

of Life coming to her town that He had whispered into

her bleeding heart on days when she was bowed low

in fervent prayer to the One she knew was her help.

 

And her heart was stilled and at peace.

Gone were the longings and at rest were the dreams
as she found a way to heed the call of
the Master to 'preach the gospel of the kingdom,
making disciples' of the people in her town.

Surrendered was her heart, committed to making the most

of the calling she was given.

 

In Christ alone her hope is found.

 

She knows that all along all she ever wanted

was to know that she was where she belonged.

 

She knows it...

after wilderness wanderings,

desert's burning sands

and rain-starved days,

the Pruner's sharp knife cutting

steadily and painfully so that

her vine could bear more fruit

for His glory,

she is at peace because she has

heard the Lord say

that

she

is

where

she

belongs.

 

 

 

"Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found

[claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near.

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, and mercy for him, and to our God,

for He will multiply to him His abundant pardon.

⁸ For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.

⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are

My ways higher than your ways and

My thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose,

and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² For you shall go out [from the spiritual exile caused by sin and evil into the homeland] with joy and be led forth [by your Leader, the Lord Himself, and His word] with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name of renown, for an everlasting sign [of jubilant exaltation] and memorial [to His praise], which shall not be cut off."

Isaiah 55:6-13

 

She still weeps at the staggering amount of false teaching and beliefs

many of her loved ones embrace,

her heart desiring only that they should know the true light of life,

the wellspring of hope that is hers every day

through the Way of the Cross.

She so desires that all her loved ones would know

the joy that is hers, the freedom she has found

in peace through the Cross of Jesus Christ.

 

And she has learned of greater importance this need of prayer.

 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.

Always.

 

And this woman of whom I speak wants all people to know

the One, true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

She wants all to know that surrendered hearts don't have

flowery beds of ease to rest on in this life.

She wants all to know that the upward Way is

narrow, rugged and steep, filled with rocks along the way.

But it is the safest Way.

It is the best Way.

Because Jesus is there.

It is the most restful to the soul because it is the place

where surrendered hearts belong...

being vessels of use in the Kingdom wherever they have

been placed...

with all the power they need to fill that calling.