Blessings Realised

It goes without saying that the last week or so has been a pretty whirlwind one for me.

Having dated from afar the last two and a bit years, having the girl I love beside me permanently and pursuing such an exciting mission for God with her (and other such great people as I get to know them more and more) is obviously a huge blessing to me.

For those who are interested, Caitlin is settling in really well and really enjoying the work she is doing, loving her house, getting on great with her housemates and generally loving it so far.

My reason for writing though...

Right now life reminds me that cliches such as 'living on cloud nine' do have metaphorical, if not scientific, truth to them.

This morning at Church I dwelt on this and I realised that the feeling of completion and happiness I have at having Caitlin here with me has been felt before. Actually, it has been felt very often. It's the way I feel every time I step into God's Presence.

Throughout all the highs and lows of my Christian walk, God has been there for me and lifted me up where I needed it, supported me, been strong for me when I was weak and best of all fulfilled me and completed me in Him.

I was, we were, made to know God and be in relationship with Him. Today I was reminded of that and I know that whatever ups and downs are ahead, I can face the future with confidence and certainty that my God, our God, will be with me all the way, giving me life to the full.

My fullness is in Him and nothing else. Praise God :-)

'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me'

Jesus Christ - John 14:6, the Bible

Our Way or His Way?

I am currently reading through the entire Bible again using a Bible in a year book that I bought from Spring Harvest. I felt my reading time had become a bit stale and hoped the book would re-invigorate it and so far it gets the thumbs up.

Going through the Bible inevitably means a hard slog through the Books of the Law - Leviticus, Deuteronomy & Numbers. I am not knocking these books as I learned something from them that was reinforced in my readings today.

If worship wasn't important to God then why would so much of His Word be dedicated to how Israel should worship Him?

The overwhelming lesson I learnt was that God wants us to worship Him in a certain way. I have spoken to plenty of people in the past who say, 'I believe in God but I worship Him in my own way'. Often, it appears to  mean there are not worshipping Him at all hence the negative 'but' in the sentence.

In Judges 17, Micah and his mother decide to worship God in their own way...

³ When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. I will give it back to you.

    ⁴ So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into the image and the idol. And they were put in Micah's house.

This goes against one of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:-

⁴ You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

And a command in Exodus 34:17:-

Do not make cast idols.

In Judges 18, Micah's idols are stolen from him and the priest he hires also leaves him. I would suggest this was for his benefit.

So the challenges for us is, are we truly worshiping God? Are we truly giving over every part of our lives to His Will? Are we not going our way rather than His Way in areas of our lives? 


My experience is when we give things to God, He never lets us down in those areas of our lives. May all of us  pray about the parts of our lives that are not fully given over and give them up for Him to bless!


Amen :-)