Unmasked Blessings

To be honest, I just love blessings in disguise … well when I can unmask them that is. Today the co-worker I usually go eat with couldn’t do lunch as usual so I went to lunch alone. But the great thing was I spent some unexpected time with God. Something that was much needed seeing as how I didn’t get a chance to spend time with Him this morning. Anyway, done rambling about that, when I was eating I started to read the Proverb of the day and was blessed by that and brought light to some things in my own life. Then I wanted to read a Psalm, so I went to Psalm 100. When I was there I saw that I had made a note in my Bible that sent me to Ezekiel 34. It was like a little treasure map, but a treasure that I didn’t know I was looking for. It turned out to be exactly what I needed to read. As soon as I read it I wanted to share it with anyone reading this.

“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I Myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I Myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I Myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.”
- Ezekiel 34:11-16

One thing I used to do when I would send encouraging notes to my friends was take a section of scripture and just use it as a guide to encourage them. I want to do that because it is such a sweet passage of scripture.

For thus says the Lord God:
How often do we just stop and realize that these are the words of God? We recognize the red letters in the New Testament as coming from the mouth of Christ, but here… here it says “Thus says the Lord God.” Wow, how I miss that far too often. It makes me think of earlier in Ezekiel 33:30 “Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord”. We are invited to hear and examine the words of the Lord. How precious!

Behold, I, I Myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
God has sought us out. If we are His He searched for us. He pursued us and sought us out as a shepherd searches for one of his sheep when they wander out. It says that He will rescue us from the places we have been scattered. The day of clouds and thick darkness… that is a scary place to be, but He is there to rescue us. Ezekiel 33:30 sounds a whole lot better now, does it not. The Lord Himself has just told us that when we are scattered about, in the midst of a trial or a hard time, He is there. “I, I Myself…” The Lord Himself seeks us out. That excites me to no end and just makes me want to jump for joy. But there is more.

And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I Myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I Myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.
Our God, the God of the universe is going to bring His people out of other countries and into His land (our land). God promises to feed us. He promises to take care of us. More than any man could even take care of us. He is the ultimate provider. We, as girls, desire to have a man take care of us and provide for our needs. God promises to do that. Philippians 4:19 says “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Oh my gosh, that makes me excited! God. The God of the universe, you know, the One who created all things … He WANTS to take care of us and provide for us. In Ezekiel He tells us that He will provide food for us by the ravines and the mountains. He will give us a place to lie down. So we get to eat and sleep at peace with Him. He does not go back on His promises. Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” That says it all. He is our Shepherd, the good Shepherd. The more you read in Psalm 23 the more encouraging it gets. He tells us that we get to rest, He leads us, He restores us, we have no fear with Him, He comforts us, He provides for us, He anoints us, He overflows what we need; He is such a good Shepherd. He again reminds us in vs 15 of Ezekiel 34 that He will make us lie down. He will make us rest in Him. Sometimes we run ourselves ragged, He didn’t tell us to do that, we did that on our own. But He makes us lie down and rest in Him. He wants good things for His children. Just like we read in Matthew 7 and Luke 11 we are reminded that our own fathers give us good things, but our heavenly Father gives us so much more and such better gifts than even our earthly fathers do. Our heavenly Father knows what we need before we ever ask, He just wants us to ask for it. He provides in times we do not know what we need. He is such a good God!

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.
He seeks out the lost. People come to Christ all the time, but our Lord and Savior is seeking out the lost and He is drawing them into Himself. It is nothing we could have ever done. Our salvation is not merely based on what we do, it is Him working in us and through us and through our brothers and sisters. We can do nothing without Him. He is going to bring the strayed back to himself. He is going to bind up the wounded. Psalm 34:18 says “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” He wants to bind up the injured. He wants to heal us when our hearts are broken. He wants to draw us into Himself. He says He is going to strengthen the weak. II Corinthians 12:9 says, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’” Ok, so there is so much to unpack in that verse but I want to just look at the last half, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” He is our strength. There are a ton of verses that tell us how powerful our God is and a ton of verses that tell us He uses the weak to do crazy awesome things. But here is the thing, Moses didn’t think he was doing anything crazy awesome at the time. Neither did Noah or Paul or Abraham. Even the women that we look at as being great women of the faith: Ruth, Ester, Abigail, Mary … These women knew they were working for the King, yet they did not know that in their state of imperfection and weakness God was making them into strong women that we would be looking up to. His power is made perfect in our weakness. It is ok to be weak, God is the biggest, badest, strongest being ever! He cannot be defeated and cannot be shaken. He is the supreme ruler of the universe. He formed you in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). He chose you before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). He loves the weak and comforts them and gives them strength but the fat and the strong He will destroy. They do not seek Him for provisions or for strength. God wants us to rely on Him. He wants us to look to Him for all of our needs, wants, and desires. He is the greatest thing since sliced bread (well, He is way better)!

Our God loves us and wants us to find our satisfaction in Him. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost,” (Luke 19:10). He wants to bring us to Himself, He is drawing us closer and asking us to let Him be everything we want and need. He can fill us up to overflowing; “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5b). We cannot fill ourselves up with love, He pours His love into our hearts using the Holy Spirit whom He gave to us. It is not about us at all. It is all about Him, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the unglodly.” (Romans 5:6) … “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). Did you catch that? We were sought out by God because we were lost. If we are saved we were once sought out. But here is the kicker, Ezekiel 34:11-16 tells us He continues to seek us out when we mess up or when we stray or when we lose our way. He at the right time sent Christ to die for our sin. Not just your sin but mine and everyone you know and don’t know and everyone in between … yes, even the person you cannot stand to be in the same room with, Christ died for their sin because they have just as much importance and value as you do in His eyes. Christ loves us so much He died for us and then rose again to prove to the world that nothing is too much for God to deal with. Our God is a powerful God.

Sand Paper People

Everyone of us have our "sandpaper" people. You know what I mean, the kind of person that no matter how nice they are or what they do they rub you the wrong way. To be honest, and I hate to admit it, but I have a sandpaper person and come to think of it, I am probably someone's sandpaper person. There is this girl who is super sweet but she just rubs me the wrong way. I hear her name and cringe at the thought of a conversation with her. But the thing is God's word tells me to love people. That is it, that is the command: to love.

For if you love those who love you what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

- Matthew 5:46

God's command to love has no criteria. Wait, I take that back. He says, "love your neighbor as yourself." That is a pretty hefty command. Sadly, I love myself alot. I would do anything to keep myself safe and comfortable. But then I read how I am called to love people. And then I read how if I am only loving those who love me I am doing nothing. It matters not if I love those who love me. That is easy. Since when is walking with God known as easy.

For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

-James 2:2-7

Basically God's word tells me that if I love those that look good on the outside and who are easy to love, I am just sticking to what is easy. Seriously, since when is following Christ a breeze? He makes claims that He was hated first so we know that if we are following Him, we will be hated too. That doesn't sound like puppies and rainbows to me. We are called to live at peace with others.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

-Romans 12:18

What does it look like to live that out? It may look different for everyone. For me, with my sand paper girl it was a little different than what even I expected. This particular person is planning to do a summer mission. She sent out letters for support and I was one of the ones who received her letter. When I received the letter I wasn't quite sure what to do. My first thought was sadly, "oh crap, this means I have to meet with her." Then it was as if God Himself spoke to me and said, "Yes, yes you will have to meet with her. Not just that but I want you to financially and prayerfully supoort her. It is not about you or your comfort, it is about Me and getting My name to the nations. Did I not say that others will know you are My disciple by your love for one another? Why do you not love her?" Talk about instant conviction. I need to buy a can of that and carry it around with me every where I go. (Bad joke, I know!) God laid it on my heart to support her financially. He laid it on my heart to pray for her. He even laid it on my heart to meet with her. So I met with, gave to, and am still praying for her. To be honest, it didn't even give me the warm fuzzies. It just reminded me that this world will try to convince me that doing what I want and living how I want will make everything better. But that is such a lie! Living for myself will utterly destroy me. Loving my sand paper people is one of the many ways I can show Christ my true love for Him.

When I love people that are not well put together and people that are dirty and smell bad or people that just plain rub me the wrong way I am showing them, Christ, myself, everyone around me that it doesn't matter a person's outward or even their inward appearance. Christ has called us to know Him and make Him known. How did He call us to do that? Through love. If I loved my sand paper the way I loved myself... wow. Could you imagine that? Seriously, just once show your sand paper person the same amount of love that you show your most beloved best friend who you would do absolutely anything for.
I dare you.



Please do not think I am boasting about supporting others or even suggesting that this is the way everyone should do things. This is one particular case in my life. This honestly only reflects how God has delt with me in this particular way.

A Heart Like Hannah

A couple of months ago I read "Twelve Extraordinary Women" by John MacArthur. It really made me think about who I am as a woman in God's eyes and who I want to be before Him. One of the women that really impacted me and whom I desire to be like is Hannah.

Hannah's backstory:
She was married to Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. He married Hannah first and loved her more than Peninnah, yet Hannah could not have children so he married Peninnah. It was evident that he loved Hanah more. He gave her double portions when it came time to sacrifice and feast. Peninnah would constantly remind Hannah that she could not have children and that she wasn't worth anything. She treated her awful as if she was insignificant. Elkanah tried to comfort her but Hannah wanted to bare children. She wanted to use everything she had to raise a son in the name of the Lord.

This is what makes her stick out to me, when the family went up to the house of the Lord Hannah went and prayed to the Lord. She wept bitterly and begged God for a son. She laid everything at His feet. But as I read about her and pick up on things from her life I noticed that not only did she lay everything at the feet of the Lord but she left it there. She walked away and had a burden no more. She trusted that God would be faithful to answer her prayer. Eli, the priest, mis-took her for a drunk. As she prayed her mouth moved but she prayed in her heart. When she told him what she was doing he said to her, "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him." Although Eli had no idea what he was telling her, God was still faithful. She had the faith to lay it before the throne of God and leave it there. She walked away at peace with the situation.

God has been showing me what it means to take things to the foot of the cross. He is also teaching me what it means to leave it there. One of the hardest things to do is to leave things with God. Which is silly, because God is constantly showing me that He is the ultimate caretaker. I keep praying that God will give me a heart like Hannah. Even when Peninnah was being rude and crude and had an attitude (yes it rhymes on purpose) Hannah did not react in the same way. She acted gracefully. She was still respectful and laid it all at the feet of Jesus. It really makes me think about child-like faith. She trusted that God would take care of her, all her needs and wants and desires. She made an oath (or promise) to God. She would commit her son to the Lord if she was allowed to have a son. God heard her prayer and answered it. He not only answered it, but He continued to answer it. Hannah had other sons and daughters. She had unwaivering faith.

As a woman, I read stories like Hannah's and want to be a woman like her. She truly displays Christ-likeness, even though Christ was not yet made manifest in the flesh. She was a woman of faith, humility, prayer, peace, patience, worship, sacrifice, devotion, and she trusted God completely. Often I pray about becoming Christ-like and exhibiting the characteristics of Hannah. God poured Himself into her and made her like Himself in so many ways. That is my desire, to be made like Him.

Hannah sacrificially gave her first born son to the Lord. She bore him, nurtered him, and placed him in the hands of the Lord. She visited him and loved him. God blessed her for her devotion to Him. She was incredibly feminine and displayed a heart for God. Our purpose being here is to know God and make Him known. Hannah did this, she got to know God and she made Him known to her son. Often as I pray I ask God to give me a heart like Hannah.