Monday, August 2, 2010

Repentance and Heartache, But Also Hope

Whoa! This past week has been a rough one. BUT, it has also been so awesome.

The Lord keeps reminding me that there is a big picture here and He is doing a much bigger work than I could imagine. There is going to be many bumps and bruises along this journey to where ever our next step is with Him. I hadn't thought of that ;-) I am good at just 'jumping off the cliff' and asking questions later.

This past week has been filled with lots of repentance and heartaches. In the natural, our hearts are hurting. But, in the spiritual, we see that the Lord is doing a major cleansing in all of us as we seek Him in a bigger way. We sense that He is bringing us to an incredible place of unity and oneness. You simply cannot achieve that if everyone is not on board. You can't have 'sin in the camp' because it affects everyone!

It was wonderful yesterday morning when certain members of the 'camp' were doing some serious confessing and our 12 year old son and myself had the same revelation. We immediately thought of Achan and how he had unrepentant sin and it caused the whole group to lose in battle. If we are going to go out there and fight battles and hope to win, there simply cannot be hidden sin in the camp! We realized that this 'forty day fast' is doing way more than we could have ever imagined.

We are learning so much. I feel like our resolve is being strengthened and we are becoming increasingly excited for what the Lord is doing and going to be doing. Victoria was reading a book called True Religion (which I highly recommend) to me and it was only stirring and fanning what the Lord has already put in our hearts.

My new motto is "Go BIG or go home"

We want to live BIG for our Lord or we might as well just go home! Serve BIG, love BIG, lay down our lives BIG, live radically sold out, BIG!

The bible reading is going pretty good for everyone. We all are where we are supposed to be or close to it. While we desire to reach our goals, we also don't want to skim or quickly read to meet a goal and miss some precious truth.

I still struggle with this dumb computer! I am drawn to check emails way to often, and nobody is even emailing me, yet I go check anyway! It is crazy what a 'habit' it is! I am about ready to just chuck it in the pond. The Lord is speaking to me greatly on time spent on the computer. This thought floated in my head all weekend.

We have enough time in our day for the things that are important to us. (priorities)
And
We show what is important to us by what we spend our time on
.

I'll share more on this later. Can I just say, "OUCH!" that whole thought really hits home!
Have a lovely week and if you think about us, please pray for us. We some other issue to deal with this week that are difficult on a Mama and Papa's heart.



7 comments:

Unknown said...

Praying for you and your family as you are on this journey! Thanks for the update and for the food for thought. :)

cooperkelly4 said...

"We have enough time in our day for the things that are important to us. (priorities)
And We show what is important to us by what we spend our time on."

So true..ouch! Praying for your family!

elaine said...

Thanks for the update. You have blessed me tremendously with your insights and updates on your journey. I look forward to hearing more...
God Bless You!!

Regan Family Farm said...

BIG hugs to you!!!
Love, Kathy

Unknown said...

Michelle, I always learn from you! You have a heart for our Lord and I thank you for sharing it.

I'm praying for you, friend!

Stacie, A Firefighter's Wife said...

I will be praying as well.

And as far as the computer thing. One thing that helps me not check my email is to...gasp...shut my computer off. I do this when I feel the pull and I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. If you have time, check out my lastest blog post. I talk about the "mental junkfood" we allow in our lives and how it affects us and our children. I think you will be able to relate.

Simple said...

Hi Michelle,
Thank you for sharing what the Lord has put on your heart. I have been struggling also with computer time. Have even been praying about keeping my blog or not.
Blessings to you and yours!