He is so personal…to me.

****Update!  A post I read regularly, bigmamablog.net. had a great post up on 4-10-09 that was from last year.  It was just in line with God being a personal God.  He isn’t finished with me on this, and I am so glad.  

It all started last week on a rainy Thursday.  I had invited Melissa over with two of her kids to play. She brought me a coffee, and I can’t tell you how sweet that was!  Starbucks delivered…in the rain, no less.  As we talked and talked together and played Candy Land in between, one of her statements regarding what we were talking about just stuck with me.  It was like the Lord put them all in CAPITAL LETTERS for me and posted them on my mind.  She said, “GOD IS SO PERSONAL, SO PERSONAL.”  Though at first-read it may seem simple; for me and at this time in my life, this is something I needed to hear.  The Lord has continued to use this statement and has brought up the message in other various ways and through other people.  I have heard it through the life of David as I watched some videos from some Godly speakers.  David was chosen by God to be king WHILE he his job was “shepherd-boy.”  God knew where David was.  He knew David.  He knows me in my job as “house-wife, stay-at-home mom.”  Monday night I met with a friend and was greatly encouraged with how personal the Lord is being in her life.  We talked about how He is a personal God.  Then, Tuesday, my mother-in-law sent out an email.  She has cancer and the Lord is showing Himself strong in her life.  She isn’t keeping it to herself.  She is sharing what He is doing with others, and I have been blessed by it.  She wrote:

 I told my sister-in-law that I was going to buy a new Bible because the one I use was too heavy for me to carry to church.  She sent me Aunt Jean’s Bible.  Aunt Jean (not really my aunt) had recently died from cancer but in her younger years had been a missionary.  Pep, my sister-in-law, told me to use the Bible as long as I needed it and then we will pass it on to the next person who needs it.  I am adding notes to the margins right beside those of Aunt Jean.  This morning I read Hebrews.  I wanted to read this book again before Easter.  I know that you may not have as much time to read as I do, but this is a good book to read anytime, I think, especially before Easter. It reminded me of the great sacrifice Jesus made for me and told me to “strengthen [my] feeble arms and weak knees.”  Now that is good advice for me!  It also reminded me to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  I’m not to run your race but I am to run my own.  
  Hebrews is a great book to read on faith.  (Hebrews 11:1) “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  Aunt Jean didn’t know that her Bible was going to be passed on to me but as I am reading it this morning I see that she left me a message in the margin of chapter 12.  She wrote, very succinctly, “Don’t whine.”  How did she know that I sometimes have a tendency to do that? 

I was so encouraged by that email.  The Lord was confirming how personal He is through this email.  Then, this morning I read a blog about how God uses the small things, the mundane things to speak directly to us.  We sometimes think that it would be great to be USED BY GOD in some amazing way when all the while we do our everyday, boring, less than glamourous stuff, that is precisely when He wants to use us.  I tend to look at what others are doing for God, how He is speaking to them, how He is using them….forgetting that He wants to work in my life, to speak to me, to use me here while I do laundry, fix meals, clean bathrooms, play with my kids, pray with my kids, talk to Josh, serve in the area of my Sunday School Class.   He is such a personal God with specific instructions for me and my family.  I must keep on my spiritual blinders and stay focused on what He wants for ME.  Not what He wants for others.  This journey began with HIM and me.  It will end with HIM and me.  I want to find Him in all sorts of personal ways from now until then.  

Proverbs 4:25-27

“Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.  Watch the path of your feet  and all your was will be established.  Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil.”

So, today I am going to put on my spiritual blinders and focus in on Jesus.  I want to hear Him speak to me in this very regular day.  And I want to obey on this very regular day.  I am going to try and remember that unless I live in the supernatural, I am sunk.  It takes Jesus living in me to live a life of self-control, of patience, of understanding, of kindness, of selflessness.  I cannot do it alone.  I tried yesterday and failed miserably.  O, Lord, fill me with Your Spirit.  Be personal to me today.  Use me today.  I desire to live supernaturally in this very natural world.