This devotion began
with our Prayer and Praise service at church about two years ago, which
we hold the first Wednesday of every month. As people are led by the
Lord, they get up and share testimony before the congregation. It is
a real blessing to hear how the Lord is working in each of our lives as
we share our struggles and victories with one another. I want to share
with the rest of you what I shared with my church family that night.... Before
I begin though, I've got a little project I want each of you ladies to
do that won't take but a moment. Get yourself a pencil and a regular
sized piece of paper and fold it in half like a greeting card. Now open
that paper up, and on the inside write down all the issues in your life
right now that you are struggling with, unsure about, anxious over, mad
at, hurt by etc. - no matter what size they are. Then close the paper
and set it aside for a bit and begin reading below what I have filled
my page with....
As some of you may remember, our home was hit by a tornado that came through
our area and caused quite a bit of damage to the rear of our home and
the kitchen. At the time, my husband told the congregation that I was
handling the situation very well and that he was proud of me because these
types of circumstances are difficult for me. The initial impact of what
happened that stormy night did not bother me, but the mess afterwards
is what I struggled with daily, as each morning at 6 am reconstruction
began, and our schedule and lives were totally out of order for several
weeks. God had blessed us with wonderful workers for which I was thankful,
but the biggest struggle of all for me was that our privacy had been interrupted.
We had been trying for about a year and a half to get our home and land
to a stable and settled condition and were almost at that point when the
storm hit and put us back. This was a great discouragement to me because
I am both a very routine and very private person. I had little of both
for a good while back then!
A dear friend of mine, who I consider to be my spiritual mother, had been
in the hospital that initial week, and so I called her one day to check
up on her. We chatted and she shared with me the circumstances surrounding
her admittance to the hospital. She told me that her husband had intended
to request a private room for her during her hospital stay. Being the
soul-conscious person that she is, Patty was not the slightest bit interested
in a private room and said politely to her husband, "I didn't get saved
to be in a private room!" Well, as my special friend shared that little
story with me, little did she know the Lord would use those words of hers
to smote my heart... For that is all I had been wanting in my life!
A private room - all to myself! No visitors, no problems, no pressure, nothing
but my privacy....
The week following the final reconstruction of our home, we were facing
my husband's parents, my sister in-law, and her three children coming
for a visit, so that would have delayed further any routine from returning,
as well as any opportunity for the privacy I longed for! You see ladies,
I am not what you would call a "public" person. Being in the center of
things, or being in the public eye is not what I personally gravitate
towards at all. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that it is not
easy for me. And yet the Lord has made me a pastor's wife to boot! Not
a very private position at all....
I was reflecting on all of these circumstances going on in my life at
the time, along with my question for the Lord, "Why can't I just have
a private room?" Through my Bible study time, His reply came quietly,
"For you."
Now, take your piece of paper with all of your struggles written down
inside of it, and on the outside write, "For you". Ladies, whatever struggles
God has filled the pages of your life with are for you too, just as mine
are and were for me!
1 Samuel 12:24 says, "Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with
all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done FOR YOU."
You know, we could exchange sheets of paper and read one another's struggles
and think to ourselves, "What's so hard about that, I could handle that."
But God knows each one of us and what it is He needs to bring into our
lives to cause us to fear Him and serve Him in truth. There are many
areas in our lives where we are serving Him, but are we serving Him in
TRUTH? Are our whole hearts in all that we are doing for God? Or are
the circumstances that He is bringing into your life revealing some areas
to you that the truth has not reached yet? Have you considered these
things that the Lord is doing in your life "great things"? They are FOR
YOU.... Just realizing this has helped me a great deal in my trials!
Ladies, these things I shared that were going on in my life were in fact
"great things". They were great because they were designed specifically
FOR ME by a great God who loves me! He is ever mindful of me... Hence,
I need to consider them great things and be glad for them...
Psalm 126:3, "The Lord hath done great things FOR US; whereof we are glad."
Luke 1:49, "For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy
is his name."
What helps you to serve the Lord when it is inconvenient, awkward, or
painful for you? Perhaps considering your difficulties great things from
God will help you to get through them victoriously! My problem was that
I had chosen my own idea of a great thing for myself - privacy was a great
thing to me! But it was greater to me than God wanted it to be....
Jeremiah 45:5 says, "And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek
them not...."
As you take the time to read 2 Corinthians 11: 23-29, you'll find the
apostle Paul demonstrates the depth of his commitment to Christ in his
sufferings. Each trial left it's mark on Paul's life, and yet, he kept
moving on, kept serving the Lord. Each trial and suffering that comes
into our lives may well leave it's mark on us too, but we can keep moving
and serving the Lord like Paul did when we consider that these trials
are FOR US. My friend Patty understood this truth when she declined a
private room, for she led her roommate to the Lord that week! She willingly
accepted the trial that came into her life and out of it came the purpose,
as well as the beauty of it, as she yielded to the Lord.... She left her
public room with a private blessing to take home!
Luke 8:39, "Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath
done unto thee..."
Did YOU get saved to be in a private room?
God Bless,
Pam
Isaiah 60:1&2
Copyright 2000 Pamela A. Iannello
