Thursday, September 26, 2019

The Lord is at hand - Vlog #1

1 comment:

Jessica Renshaw said...

Diana, I like being able to see your face as I read--or in this case hear--your thoughts!

Thought-provoking: Seek His face instead of His hand.

He is at hand: I get a daily devotional from Open Doors called "Standing Through the Storm," sharing what we can learn from the persecuted church. An American pastor was telling a group of persecuted believers about Jesus stilling the storm. He said, "Jesus will calm the storms in your life." But a persecuted pastor said, "That is not Jesus' point here. His point is that in your storms, He is in the boat with you!" Just as you pointed out, "He is at hand--He is here!"

And your thoughts on Philippians 4...I went through a long hard patch where I was waking with night terrors and lay there by the hour trying to focus on the passage starting "Be anxious for nothing..." I figured if God commands it, it must be possible. I'd work it through phrase by phrase, saying each of my parts over and over, doing it--praying, asking, thanking about each thing I was concerned about-- trying to break through to His part: giving me His peace to rule in my heart. I'd remind me, "Ok, I've met the conditions, now You have to give me what You've promised! I receive it!"

I have been blogging about our recent trip to Uganda at hiddeninjesus.wordpress.com. In a few days I am going to post about how God completely delivered me from fear (primarily of flying). Fighting fear does not work, crying out to God for deliverance did not work for me, gritting my teeth and trying to tough it out pretending that "by faith" I wasn't afraid--does not work. Being passive and hoping it will go away does not work. But resisting fear worked, commanding it to leave and actively surrendering it to God worked. If it's not from God, I don';t have to put up with it.

I'm still in progress, sometimes relearning lessons I thought I already had down. Thank you for what you gave me to think about. Love you.