11 March 2020

Part way through the Lenten Season I stopped to take stock of where I am. I reflected upon all that God has done for me, in me and through me. I realised I could be more grateful and acknowledge God more in my life, especially after the week that I have had.

I have been cleaning, painting, clearing out rubbish because we are moving to a new house. Oh, at night as I climb into bed some muscles ache that I did not know I had. I find it hard to sleep because I keep going over the long list of jobs that still need to be done and wonder if I’m going to get it all done on time. As I prepare for the ‘home opens,’ I feel grateful that I don’t have to worry about keeping the rooms clean because I don’t have little ones at home messing them up. (Like I have had in the past).

As one room gets done, I can move on to the next, grateful for the memories in each room.

The list gets smaller and more achievable as the day of the ‘for sale’ looms. The work is nearly done.

After all this work, the result was out of my hands. 

I have been learning to not stress about stuff because it is just stuff and handing it all to God.

So, while selling our house we were looking at buying another. What did we want, how much did we want to spend, where did we want to move to? The questions we all ask when in this position.

It also depended upon how much we could sell our house for.

I found the place. I really like it. It was in the price range we wanted to spend. So I asked God if He wanted us to have this then He needed to help us with the time frame of selling and buying. This is so often out of our hands. I had given it into the most capable hands ever.

God was so wonderful. 

The house I liked did not need to be bought for three months and the owners would keep it for us, while our house was being sold. Our house sold just three days after the first home open, at a good price.

I thanked God for the blessings He had sent us.

It was not till I was reading a story on the life of George Whitefield (the founder of the Methodists) that I realised it was not my ‘work’ that had sold the house so easily etc, it was the hand of God. His Grace.

George Whitefield was striving to find God. He realised in his life that he had been doing the ‘THINGS’ of a Christian but not really being a Christian – a follower of Christ.

So, he fasted, he prayed, he strove to WORK HARD at it. For six months, he diligently chased God. Passion Week of Easter was upon him, so he fasted on bread and water to the point he was so feeble they had to get the doctor in.

The doctor confined him to bed and he lay there for seven weeks. He wrote a list of his sins and confessed them before God morning and evening every day. HE was WORKING on himself.

The next few lines made me laugh. I chuckled hard. It said this, “But with all his efforts he obtained no ‘life of God’ within his soul.

When there was nothing else that Whitfield could do, God revealed Himself in grace and granted Whitfield that which he had learned could never be earned.”

We can’t work for God’s grace- it is a FREE GIFT.

We can ask for His Grace, cast ourselves upon His mercy, and be grateful when HE works.

So where am I at in Lent, I am casting myself upon the mercy of God, asking for His grace to work on me, in me and then being grateful for all that He is doing, even if I don’t see it.

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Where do you need to stop ‘working’ and ask for God’s Grace?

Or do you need to ‘work’ a bit to show God you are sincere. Do you need to chase Him more? Try and seek Him?

Where can you ask God for His perfect timing? Where do you need to trust?