Meditation/Memory verse: I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. ~ Isaiah 45:3 (NIV)
Life interruptions. They seem to be everywhere. When one wakes up and plans out her day, often an interruption sets a different course to her plans. The godly woman is not immune to life's interruptions. After posting last weeks "alarmed" post, I remembered a bible study I did not to long ago by Priscilla Shirer on the book of Jonah- "Life's Interrupted: Navigating the Unexpected".
My mind felt 
called to pick up this book again. As I mentioned in that post last week, people in the Old Testament lived by the stories passed down to them through the generations. They didn't have a bookstore on every corner, or the internet where they could go and buy their own set of biblical scrolls.
Did Jonah's story fall upon our Proverbs 31 Woman we have been studying this year? When she would travel to the synagogue, would her ears hear Jonahs story and her heart ponder his life interruptions and God's provisions?
I re-read the last chapter in this book again and find it to be another step in a Godly Woman's Journey worthy of exploring as we look at life's interruptions. Everything in brown will be from Priscilla's book. In my personal story of my "alarm" with my cherished daughter, I spoke of the release I learned from the story of Jehoshaphat, son of king David, in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.
Re-reading the last chapter of Priscilla's book was just a reminder, another confirmation of this: "Interruptions call for surrender."Yes, surrender to someone greater and more powerful than I or the circumstance. Surrender of my plan to His plan, accepting it as a greater good...somehow.
Faith.
Trust.
Surrender.
Loving God more with a surrendered heart and mind. Living in His embrace.
Living to...
"...face the divine interventions in his future with a different perspective, with a willingness to surrender to God's plan."
Life interruptions may be just the beginning of something even greater than I could have hoped for. In what feels like a lost may be a molding and changing crafted by the Experts hands. This pain, frustration and fear may actually break away the control that is preventing the spiritual vision of His view of the situation. I have to believe and to trust His perspective.
"All you need is the perspective that knows your God is at the wheel, setting you up to be the key player in an enormously supernatural outcome that is beyond what you's ever expect."
In four short chapters we read of a time in Jonahs life where his life hit some major interruptions. He choose to run from God's appointment. God followed Him, followed him until He got his attention and got the reaction He wanted and needed from him. God showed His persistence with his stubborn chosen one. Isn't God still like that today? Have you had some life interruptions that resulted in some actions much like Jonah and the persistence of God?Here, from this study of Jonah by Priscilla Shirer, are some valuable steps for the godly woman to take when her plans are interrupted with God's plans:
- recognize that your life interruptions are actually divine interventions, treat these interventions differently
- yield to God's instructions instead of running off in the opposite direction
- surrender your plans and purposes into the greater known of God's unknown design for your life
- listen for His call to relationship even when the path to deeper intimacy feels frightening, risky, boring, or even unpleasant.
- be willing to seek out the "Ninevites" around you, offering them the same mercy your God has extended to you
- discontinue clinging to comforts and entitlements even when you know they are hindering you more than helping you
- Follow...trust...obey Him anyway.
"...there's one thing we can know for certain: yielded, obedient surrender will keep us right where God wants us. It will enable us to see our lives and futures the way God see's them, approaching each day with His contented, confident, comforting sense of perspective. Choosing to yield in obedience to His wise direction and calling is how a lot of our unfinished spiritual business becomes constructed into a legacy of faith. More each day. Each time we trust and obey."
Life's interruptions and surrender. Surrender that reveals to us more of God's plans, more of His spiritual richness and blessings. Spiritual discernment for the secrets of God.
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. ~ Deut. 29:29 (NIV)
In my personal case of a life plan interruption with my daughter, I am called to bend my knees and cry out to God asking that any generational curse be broken and that my children would pursue a way of life that honors him. If it means my daughter has to experience brokenness then I embrace it. I know the value of being broken.
"We just don't know what God is brewing. We just need to follow Him while fully trusting Him."
You have heard [these things foretold], now you see this fulfillment. And will you not bear witness to it? I show you specified new things from this time forth, even hidden things [kept in reserve] which you have not known.
~ Isaiah 48:6 (Amplified)This week's assignment is hard. It requires commitment. This week I call us to surrender. Surrender your first waking minutes to God. Before you crawl out of bed, surrender you day to Him. Continue to surrender each hour of your living to Him. Purposefully examine each and every word or action in its relation to your desired surrender to God. Place the word "surrender" in every room of your house, in your car, on your desk so that you will be called to act upon it. Then when the week is over, examine your heart and note where this Godly Woman's Journey has taken you and be humbled and amazed!
Father, my Holy and Sovereign God, I praise you that I can live chosen by you. I praise you for your interruptions because you love me and care about the plans you have for me, for my calling, and for my family. Lord, I commit to surrender this week in a whole and new way. I commit to surrender my heart and mind, my life interruptions, to your purpose and will. Your plans are far greater than anything I can imagine and I fully release any misconceptions I may have in my own life that are not in alinement with you. Be my everything. May I be pliable enough to embrace your will, willing enough to accept your outcomes, worthy enough to embrace your presence. I love you lord and I trust you in all things...especially your work in my daughters life.
Living in His Embrace ~ Pamela
Memory/Meditation verse: “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ~ Zechariah 8:23 (NLT)
I wish I had a better picture of this old house sitting in the country surrounded by corn fields and old barns. I drove by this old worn out house one day while visiting a patient. It captured my attention. I wondered what its story was in its beginning days. What was life like in her rooms? Who walked on her floors and what pictures hung on her walls? How many people crowded in during the holidays and who ran barefoot in the grass around this once magnificent home? Then I imagined how its story would eventually end...
