I absolutely love fall! It is truly my favorite time of the year. Last year though, fall was a bit of a blur. I was very busy but not in the manner in which I wanted to be. I was busy with appointments, surgeries and treatments.
This time of year lends itself to busyness. There really isn't a “season” of year that you ask someone how they are nowadays and their response isn’t to say.... "I'm so BUSY!" This time of year lends itself to extra busyness with activities, church, family, jobs, not to mention the holiday season coming up.
As I looked back over the past year and last fall, I realized that I was in a season of stillness. Although I was busy with appointments etched away on my day planner, my "normal life of busyness" came to a screeching halt. All of a sudden absolutely everything about this earthly world didn't seem so important when I wasn't even sure if I was going to be here to enjoy it.
Are we ever still enough in our lives to hear God speak to us? In Psalm 46:10, God says "Be still and know that I am God." I think He wants us to be still to know Him and truly hear Him in our lives. Sometimes it takes a major life changing event for us to be still enough to hear God truly speaking to us. For me, He was saying..... look up here, I have your life in the palm of My hands and everything will be ok. You should be busy listening to Me.
The 23rd Psalm is a passage most of us learned early in life. For me, it was in elementary school. It was one of those memory selections that I recited and got a prize for in Sunday School. Not until I was 51 years old and diagnosed with breast cancer did I truly sit down and hear what God was saying to me through that passage.
He's all I need and should ever yearn for in my life. He is watching over me all of the time.
Through life's trials sometimes God makes us lie down and be quiet and He even shows us his green pastures are much greener than ours. If we allow Him to lead us beside water that He has made still we will always find peace and contentment that only He can give.
He can restore me to a version of myself, a better version for His glory. Change is a good thing!
I have walked through that shadow, but God restores my soul every day in realizing He is the ultimate Healer, here on earth and in eternity. There is nothing to fear. He is right beside me comforting me daily.
God has taken care of everything for me here on earth and wants to give me nothing but goodness and mercy all of the days I have here. But what's even better is He has place for me in eternity, forever, worshipping Him for all of His greatness and goodness!
Is there a passage in the Bible that you've known your whole life that you feel has maybe lost its power to familiarity? Be still and read it again. God often speaks in a new way, but often if we listen close, He is just as likely to speak in the familiar.